This is where the extreme divide in our resources is working against us. Most every request is listed as urgent. ActBlue claims to have not received any money on their most recent appeal because Trump is after them. (They do make some money if people making donations leave a tip.)

But most of us combined do not have the resources to keep up with the oligarchs, our billionaire club. According to a post on Reddit r/economy, there are 1,135 billionaires in the US with a total of 5.7 trillion dollars (that averages more than 5 billion each). This compares disproportionally with the bottom 170 million with a total of 4 trillion dollars (which averages to $23,529.41).

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It is clear that in a true democracy, where everyone’s vote was counted, we would tax the top wealth holders significantly. This is why Trump and his associates are attempting to block millions of voters. It has just been announced, he’s appealing to the Supreme Court to be able to have Federal oversight of all voters so he can disqualify Democratic voters. I hope SCOTUS simply turns the request down but we can expect four “justices” to support him; hopefully, five will prevail. Otherwise, our Democracy will end.

So, in keeping with my opening paragraph, I have to inhibit the impulse to support financially and let my support be signing petitions, using the emails to send letters, and writing posts. This divide did not exist for 95% of our 300,000 year existence, when we lived in small nests and were hunter-gatherers. (See the post I wrote explaining this issue in more depth.) But we are now at the one of the most extreme since the Gilded Age (which led to the Great Depression in 1929).

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As a result of his success in being elected President for the second time, Trump has become a Blackhole for fawning approval. The problem is that once the adulation has gone past the Event Horizon, he’s empty and needs more. The MAGA movement has become the Accretion Disk, feeding the black hole.

Those of us in opposition are further out in the Innermost Stable Orbit, not pulled into the Black Hole, but still having our lives in an orbit that challenges our independence.

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Understanding Trump

While there are now many references to Trump as a Malignant Narcissist, there are also many who say Trump has no shame. These two judgments cannot both be true. When someone is shamed, typically there are one of two initial reactions (sometimes both). One is to hide and the other is to lash out with rage, aiming to destroy the shamer. Trump chooses revengeful rage when he feels belittled, something that seems to happen on a daily basis. Our entire government is being bent in that direction: flattery for Trump and Trump’s effort at vicious revenge for perceived slights.

What confuses the picture is that Trump early on built his reputation by making outrageous, shaming, shameful comments. Nonetheless, a lot of people could identify with his shrill “screw you” to those arrogant elites. These people responded positively when he said these elites were the enemies of the many who felt judged to be inferior by the trends of society. They felt that he understood them in direct contrast to the sense of being looked down upon by mainstream society.

While many people thought his remarks would bring shame down on him, it actually gave him a huge platform of support that he used to create MAGA. Trump’s promises of lowering the cost of food, to have better health care, and to keep America out of foreign wars worked. This foundation was helped by a huge infusion of money from Musk, and the other billionaire oligarchs who stood to be enriched by Trump. Unfortunately, Trump has not kept those promises and has turned a majority of Americans against him.

His hunger for adulation in the face of all this opposition has turned him into a Black Hole for adulation that now impacts all of us, here and around the world

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Preface

For some time, I have been unable to start any topic to post since the morning of Jan. 7, 2026, and the murder of Renée Nicole Good. I weep as I type her name. I believe my reaction is in part because of her softness and kindness I could see in her face. My rage at the cruelty combined with my realistic helplessness to have done anything for her at that moment left me in an emotional in a knot.

Less than three weeks later, ICU Nurse Alex Jeffery Pretti, was murdered lying face down after his legal gun in its holster had already been removed. These two are among hundreds or thousands of killings and other deaths due to ICE. Each one to be grieved the fullest extent possible.

Trump in the most casual of manners said that this shouldn’t have happened. But then he had to take it all away by saying that Renée and Alex “weren’t angels, you know.”

Trump is a master of shame:

Anything that is demeaning in any fashion is shame, and his output of the putdown is overwhelming. The New York Times (5/24/26) analyzed his contemptuous labels since his first election. They showed he made harsh putdowns against 598 people, locations and things.

I printed out the entire list: 102 pages, most with 45-57 lines and an average of about 8-10 words per line. Taking 50 lines as a midpoint and 8 words per line, that would total 400 words/page or about 40,800 words total.

Hillary was negatively noted over three full pages plus eight lines on a fourth. The total number of slams for Hillary is about 1264, with “crooked” dominating consistently (I did not try to count.)

Trump’s approach is almost entirely ad hominin attacks; make the speaker look weak, stupid, unlawful and stay away from true policy debates.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s mother pointedly said, “She doth protest too much, methinks” Freud called it a “reaction formation” when someone is so concerned about how they feel, that they go to the opposite. I once met a priest who could not stop smiling.

While knocking down Hillary, Trump is revealing his deepest nature. In comments, list a few traits that you see him wanting to hide.

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The interpretation in this segment was framed as a familiar situation where the dog at first didn’t recognize his owner. That’s not what I saw: Here was a puppy, bonded with his owner but then was lost, on his own for weeks. It seems likely to me that he might have felt there was something wrong with him and that his abandonment was the outcome. The bond between a dog and its owner is a lifetime deal. Genetically, dogs have been shaped to bond with their human companions and it can be an extremely strong bond.

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The first time the returning puppy sniffed her hand, he would have identified her. Dogs have an acute sense of smell. Often, when meeting a new dog (or cat), they want to smell you (fingers and you hand will do.) Sight and sounds are important too, but for dogs especially, your smell is all-important

Our sense of smell is not as powerful as dogs, but we know from experience that we’d recognize a perfume or a bar of soap from decades ago. So, when the owner did not initially reach out, the puppy backed off. Then, when she initiated contact, the puppy felt reassured he was loved and at home; and he reacted with great puppy enthusiasm.

He felt love at home, something we all want and need.

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To prepare for this, it is important to set the context by explaining the work of a highly-regarded psychological researcher, the late Sylvan Tompkins. In his groundbreaking work, he concluded that Modern Humans are born with nine affects or emotions.^[1] This conclusion was based upon cross-cultural studies. The list includes the range of intensity for all but two.

Silvan Tompkins’ Nine Innate Emotions

• Positive

  • Interest-excitement

  • Enjoyment-joy

• Neutral

  • Surprise-startle

• Negative

  • Distress-anguish

  • Fear-terror

  • Anger-rage

  • Disgust

  • Dissmell (Stinky)

  • Shame-humiliation

For more on Tompkins:

· Click here for the Home Page of the website devoted to his work,

· Click here for the page detailing seven of the nine inborn affects or emotions.

· Click here for an independent overview of his work

You may have noticed that the two without ranges are bodily responses to something like bad food. But when directed at a person, they trigger shame. For example, dissmell plus anger forms contempt which can be intensely shaming. Shame at the level of humiliation can trigger either or both terror and rage.

The problem with the topic of shame is that it often is avoided. Even in my field of psychotherapy, let alone for the general public. In the original movie, Inside Out, Riley’s embarrassment in the new class made her run away, but it was not named as shame. In Inside Out 2, they’ve introduced Embarrassment who covers at least the desire to hide.

The reason shame is such a difficult topic is that, at its root one finds the fear of dying. There are two factors I have considered to reach this perhaps surprising conclusion:

Number one is that our evolved nature, as Darcia Narvaez frames it, means our DNA guides us to tightly bond with each other for survival. Shame says you are unacceptable and if it is intense and perpetuated, it means you are no longer in the group. Even as an adult living with a group, exclusion can feel like a death threat. Feeling left out is something most of us have experienced. I feel it in my body, heavy with sadness and questions about why.

Number two is the impact of neglect or undercare, especially in the first three years of life, (the Attachment Period). The right hemisphere is dominant during this period, shaping how the attachment is experienced while we are still very dependent upon support. Socially enforced separations and things like feeding schedules vs. need-based connections create gaps in care that can feel life-threatening. Until birth, hunger would not be an issue. But once born, it can be a huge issue. Imagine being an newborn and you are starving and but getting no response to your cries. In addition to the social pressures to push a child to independence before the child has the ability, work and other social stresses also can produce gaps in care.

As our evolved nature is to bond together, shame plays a major role in this by setting limits as to how far someone can go before being subjected to shame. Shame activated in a group setting is one of the ways the group’s values are passed along. Ideally, these are positive values, but obviously negative ones can also be reinforced.

Shame is interpersonal. In life, it starts with how one is treated from the moment of birth and beyond: Being loved, actively abused, ignored, or, as with most of us, some varying combination of all three.

When the need to be loved (reassured, fed) is ignored or met with active abuse (verbal and/or physical), this can leave a mark for a lifetime.

The mark is the fear of not being acceptable.

This fear leads to efforts to make oneself special and important by making others unspecial and unimportant. This covers all forms of diminishment, including but not limited to racism, sexism. No matter what, the goal is to win, to beat or eliminate the opposition.

I’ve come to see conspiracy theories as a less obvious but definite way of feeling special and important. Why? Because you have unique information that the “uninformed” do not.

Like all emotions, shame has a range of intensity. Intense shaming is toxic. Shaming at this intense level can lead to feeling or actually being rejected by your group. This is an existential threat: To be ousted as unworthy ultimately can lead to emotional and even physical death. This is why sometimes people stay in damaging relationships.

Fear of intense shame can be crippling. Tompkins, in Shame and Its Sisters (1995), compairs the reaction to shame in contrast to the reactions to other emotions:

If distress is the affect of suffering, shame is the affect of indignity, of defeat, of transgression, and of alienation. Though terror speaks to life and death and distress makes of the world a vale of tears, yet shame strikes deepest into the heart of man. While terror and distress hurt, they are wounds inflicted from the outside which penetrate the smooth surface of the ego; but shame is felt as an inner torment, a sickness of the soul. It does not matter whether the humiliated one has been shamed by derisive laughter or whether he mocks himself. In either event he feels himself naked, defeated, alienated, lacking in dignity or worth. (p. 133, Shame and Its Sisters: A Silvan Tompkins Reader, Eds. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Adam Frank, Duke University Press, 1995)

This string of adjectives amounts to being rejected by others because of being unacceptable to them. Whether the rejection is real or imagined makes no difference at the moment of feeling shamed.

In our current situation, the shaming that is happening is massive, nonstop, and extraordinarily cruel and inhumane. Whole populations are being shamed as they are being viciously treated, not just by ICE, but by the multitude of our government’s departments joining in the effort to cut away virtually all the support for food and healthcare.

We’ve all had our shame button pushed and have done the same to others. We have to be mindful of how we respond. The true common ground is the desire to be loved, to matter and be important to others. To actually get there, we have to have true and therefore radical equality. In the meantime, we can practice persistently proclaiming our values which will make plain the emptiness of Trump and MAGA world.

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^[1] Tomkin’s theory posits several steps starting with affect as the biological source of motivation. Awareness of the affect is called a feeling. When a feeling is paired with a memory of past such feelings, it is called an emotion. There are variable bodily and facial responses unique to each affect & emotion, listed on this page on the Tomkin’s website.

Until recently, I actually lived with 10 cats but one died a sad death (Suzie). Since then, two were recently adopted out. As a result, I now have only seven cats, but I’m keeping track of how the two adoptees are doing. So, I’m really nine cats strong for now.

To be clear about these two names, short-haired, all-black Mr. Z was named in 2018, long before I learned of President Zelinskyy. It remains an accidental honor. Fluffy, all-black, and gorgeous Mr. Bi’Lu was named for the neighbors (Bill and Lu) who helped us rescue him from the hollow porch column. (More on that later.)

Also, to be clear, all cats are neutered, spayed, given initial shots, and they are all indoor cats. That saves me the grief of a missing or dead cat. It keeps them healthy since if one get something and then all will suffer. It also saves many birds. So far, only aging has taken its toll. It takes much more work than have indoor-outdoor cats, but it has been worth it.

Cats Are Naturally Affectionate with Each Other: In general, watching them interact with each other and with me has revealed how affectionate they can be with each other with their grooming which can last from just a few seconds to five minutes or more. I’ve also noted a lack of a hierarchy with grooming; frequently, it ends up being reciprocal. (Not in all cases or all the time, however.) And I believe I have figured out why slow-blinking works with cats to calm them in some cases.

In the picture, Mr. Bi’Lu is actually being hugged by Mr. Z who has his paws on either side of Mr. Bi’Lu’s neck. They often end up together in their movements around the house.

Mr. Bi’Lu and his brother (Mr. Gray) both fell into the hollow column from the attic in the spring of 2017. Mom was never spotted. Bi’Lu was in at least one or two days, and was showered with individual care. Mr. Gray fell when someone came to the door so was rescued within minutes (more on him another time).

Mr. Bi’Lu is quite a character. He will come to me and gently paw at my knee for some affection. He takes a little bit and that’s enough most of the time, but not always. Plus, he will wait patiently in the kitchen, hoping for something tasty. If I let him smell it, usually it’s a no-go and he walks away.

He’s probably best buddy with Mr. Z. He loves to sit on top of a box that has multiple openings for cats to find treats. When he does, Z will wander by and lie close. Meantime, if another cat comes up wanting Mr. Bi’Lu’s affirmation, sometimes he just raises his paw and they deflect. No hissing, just a diversion.

Mr. Z is a pleasant friend and the only one of the bunch who will occasionally lie on my chest if I’m resting. He and Bi’Lu often follow me to the bathroom and occasionally jump on the toilet cover to be petted. (Yes, I clean my hands.).

One side note for the two adoptees. One is Mr. JJ, who is a very demanding cat. He and Mr. Gray ended up bonding before they left but now Mr. JJ has become BFF with a rabbit. They hang together. (Hopefully, no action will be taken despite the DEI nature of this strange friendship.)

The Slow Blink: It’s been noted in cat circles that sometimes cats respond positively to slow blinks by a human. Well, they do this with each other as well. What I realized is that cats also do a hostile, fixed aggressive stare at each other when their backs literally go up. So, the slow blink is the off switch for the aggression and the on-switch for, “Be nice to me, I won’t be aggressive.”

There will be more from my world of cats, but I hope you notice the uniqueness of some of the behaviors described. Let me know if this confirms your experience or you’ve had contrary events. Thank you for reading!

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In a recent post, Lisa Gonzalez, of Eleanor’s Squad, shared her pain of losing life-time friends as she began to openly express her negative views about Trump and his tsunami of bad actions.

This made me recall a similar loss for totally different reasons in a volunteer group project. What was at stake was direction for the group and I had asked for time to prepare something. But the group moved forward without waiting for that. I felt disrespected and hurt.

I had thought that one of the men and I were best friends and that several others qualified as friends as well. I know not what went through my friends’ minds. Not knowing means making up reasons for someone crossing a line you had no way of knowing was there.

I feel the same way about the Democrats who have abandoned the effort to put a halt to Trump’s anti-personnel approach to democracy. This makes the Democrats in Congress look weak; which is because some are acting as though they are weak. Their defection shows clear we need younger and stronger leadership.

I want to trust that the upswing we felt last Tuesday and Wednesday, though seriously dampened by this betrayal, will find ways to return to visibility. I’ll be glad when it does.

Today, Hope needs frequent feedings to sustain itself in our souls. Hope is a firefly at dusk, soft, subtle, beautiful, drawing us into the subliminal background of living. May we emerge with more wisdom.

This made me recall a similar loss for totally different reasons in a volunteer group project. What was at stake was direction for the group and I had asked for time to prepare something. But the group moved forward without waiting for that. I felt disrespected and hurt.

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I had thought that one of the men and I were best friends and that several others qualified as friends as well. I know not what went through my friends’ minds. Not knowing means making up reasons for someone crossing a line you had no way of knowing was there.

I feel the same way about the Democrats who have abandoned the effort to put a halt to Trump’s anti-personnel approach to democracy. This makes the Democrats in Congress look weak; which is because some are acting as though they are weak. Their defection clearly shows we need younger and stronger leadership.

I want to trust that the upswing we felt last Tuesday and Wednesday, though seriously dampened by this betrayal, will find ways to return to visibility. I’ll be glad when it does.

Today, Hope needs frequent feedings to sustain itself in our souls. Hope is a firefly at dusk, soft, subtle, beautiful, drawing us into the subliminal background of living. May we emerge with more wisdom.

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Andi took the book to her kindergarten class to share. She knows about my clowder of cats (7 – don’t tell the authorities!). She told the class, “Did you know that men have cats, too, not just women? My friend, David, has a lot of cats. It’s not just cat ladies, it’s cat men, too!”

When Andi can visit, I become instantly aware of the grandparent gene. My whole psyche shifts into a delightful mode of being alive, to relate to a budding person, a person who is a girl on the rise!

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I discovered this is from her 1986 book, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes: An Autobiography, p. 196. The book, a delightfully nurturing read, is about her search for a sense of home by returning to Africa, in this case, Ghana.

Instead of a hoped-for warm welcome, she and other America-born immigrants felt ignored. Native Ghanaians had their own lives, their own patterns, and these Americans were really out of place. So, they formed their own groups as they gradually became part of the stream of life in Gahana.

I did a word search for “home” in the digital version of her book and found more than 90 references scattered over roughly 200 pages. Out of 42 (short) chapters, 29 (70%) have one to more than 10 references.

The reasons why home is both so important and so lacking in our modern world is because, from birth to age 3, is when we learn what our home is like. For nearly 90-95% of our 300,000-year existence, home was the nest formed by our ancestors, who were small band hunter-gatherers.

In that setting, children were cared for by all the members of the band. Jared Diamond, in his book, The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?, 2012 (Viking), pp. 187-88, shared the following:

“In hunter-gatherer bands, the allo-parenting [a non-parent acting in the manner of a parent] begins within the first hour after birth. Newborn Aka and Efe infants are passed from hand to hand around the campfire, from one adult or older child to another, to be kissed, bounced, and sung to and spoken to in words that they cannot possibly understand. Anthropologists have even measured the average frequency with which infants are passed around: it averages eight times per hour for Efe and Aka Pygmy infants. Hunter-gatherer mothers share care of infants with fathers and allo-parents, including grandparents, aunts, great-aunts, other adults, and older siblings. Again, this has been quantified by anthropologists, who have measured the average number of care-givers: 14 for a four-month-old Efe infant, 7 or 8 for an Aka infant, over the course of an observation period of several hours.”

What is crucial is that this is our evolved nature. We need the ongoing reassurance from a whole group of related people, especially in the Attachment period (birth to three). Reassurance of the kind described by Diamond is the norm for us. Once internalized through repeated experience, the child can grow into a confident adult. Without that, we can be made fearful that we do not count, that we do not matter. We also cannot publicly admit our insecurity.

The bottom line is that the newborn children’s need for reassurance (touch, nursing, and the like), if met early and consistently, eventually will be diminished. As they grow, children can and want to do much more for themselves. But learning that they are important to the others, and vice versa, is crucial.

The bad advice many of us in my generation received – that reassurance was creating dependency – was 100% wrong. If we can find ways to provide the necessary care, we can move forward with the best of our various cultures.

Yes, that is a big challenge.

Please let me know what you think in the comments. Thank you.

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In case that doesn’t work, here is the link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377265358_Returning_to_Evolved_Nestedness_Wellbeing_and_Mature_Human_Nature_an_Ecological_Imperative

Purpose of Soulfulpsy: The primary purpose of my account is to argue for and illustrate the fact that modern societies are dynamically structured to perpetuate the split between the haves and the have-nots. This is what leads to violence: the push to get to the top and the counter-push by those on top to suppress everyone else. We know this latter as greed, driven by massive insecurity.

This was not the case for us until we changed from living as small band hunter-gatherers to living as farmers, for the last 5-10% of our 300,000-year history.

Darcia Narvaez’s paper expands on the implications of all of this, as well as laying out how to reorient to a healthy human-nature way of life. The goal is to thrive in a manner that is emotionally far more secure than what we have today. Today, winning is everything, and losing is the kiss of shame. Few can win and many can lose. Yet our DNA (and the better Angels of our nature) pull us toward caring and cooperation while being literally in touch.

Rewilding? In a real, practical sense, all of this is about the “rewilding” trend: We need to rewild ourselves so we can orient our efforts to more fully rejoin and participate in the ways and rhythms of the entire, complex ecosystem of the planet. This does NOT mean abandoning the creative, positive energies of our cultural developments. We can find ways to keep the best and let go of or unhook from the efforts to control and suppress.

Another thing to pay attention to is all the ways we find or make ourselves more important than others. One major one today is the flourishing of conspiracy theories. It means you have special knowledge that others do not. I cannot imagine there are many organizations that are hierarchy-free.

What aspects of our world’s cultures should be included, and what excluded? If we no longer spent $2 trillion annually on “defense,” to what would our money and brain power be devoted?

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Subscriptions: For a long time, regular paid subscriptions did not work, but that problem has been resolved. Those who want to support my work now can subscribe for $5/month or $50/year. My work remains open to all; any funds I earn will go to hire help with research.

“Better angels” could only exist if there were worse angels. Lincoln also centered the angelic nature to be as much a part of us as our flesh and blood.

I was once in an organization whose youngest hire was a young lady named Angel. When one first met Angel, just shy of 21, she could be as sweet, kind, and thoughtful as possible. As time when on, however, there were moments when she would instantly switch to cold, aloof, and in-your-face rude. In the aftermath of one of these unnerving encounters, I got a chuckle when I mentioned to another staff member that Angel had not decided which kind of angel she was going to be.

The Thesis:

The proposition is that when we follow our DNA’s bias, we seek support from each other in a cooperative manner (see initial post for background). This is the better angel of our nature.

The worse angel is based upon fear of not being worthy; the solution to the fear is to make others appear to be the unworthy ones. I’m talking about all the countless ways of discriminating based upon superficial characteristics (gender, race, ethnicity, and on and on). We are seeing a lot of this today.

I’ve been wanting to tell this tale for a long time, but I’ve stopped myself by wanting to feel it flow and soar, instead of allowing it to grow on its own into connection with a larger nexus^[iii] I sense forming in the surrounding background. This is a natural unfolding, purposeful. I sense the possibility of guidance.

“Patience,” I tell my ADHD Facet, who is kicking up dust in the corner. “Facet” is French for Little Face. We are all multi-faceted creatures, which is not the same as what was called Multiple Personality Disorder, now Dissociative Identity Disorder.

In my mind’s eye, I imagine bringing forth a short staff brimming and humming with transformative energy. It has a tip to which I can summon and share the energies of my finest teachers, guides, and nurturers. The best of them was poured into me, and enough of it has stayed long enough for me to work through to a level of greater clarity. Once I have made sense of a complex idea, I like to share what I’ve learned. And then add, subtract, and modify based upon feedback.

Analyzing the Notion of Angels, Better or Not:

The following analysis is based upon, “Returning to Evolved Nestedness, Wellbeing, and Mature Human Nature, an Ecological Imperative,” by Darcia Narvaez, Review of General Psychology, 2024, 1-23, Sage Publisher.) Narvaez emphasizes that our species, 300,000 years old, followed the millions of years of nestedness for at least 90-95% of our existence. The “nest” is Home in the full sense of that notion. (See my post on Words of Wonder.)

As detailed in my original post, the history of our species started 300,000 years ago when we were small band hunter-gatherers (SBHG). For 90-95% of that time, we existed as SBHG. We were primarily peaceful internally and between bands; we were generous with resources; we were egalitarian – there were no leaders, no hierarchy. We also practiced highly attuned child care called alloparenting, which is when a non-parent acts as a parent would. The adult nearest to a child in distress would immediately move to sooth the child. The children become the children of the band with copious, on-going nurture.

But once we shifted to farming, we eventually lost the social structure that we had as SBHG. The larger communities eventually meant one could not know everyone in the group.

Worse, I believe, we lost the full capacity for adequate childcare in the Attachment period (birth to 3). The picture we see today is that we have become insecure about whether we are important enough to matter.

Our unconscious solution for the last 5-10% of our existence has been to grab the label of “important” and simultaneously make ourselves more important based upon superficial characteristics: gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preferences, wealth, education, religion, and so on. This is the real source of the hierarchy with which we are burdened.

The struggles to move up and to push others down can be subtle or, as today, blatant. All of this amounts to the worst type of inner angel.

Winning is Everything:

Think for a moment about how we treat winning vs. losing in our nation. The Super Bowl is a perfect example. Fans spend maybe $15-20 billion but the cost of protection has to be much higher.

Fighting wars to win today is costing the world about two trillion a year or $2,000,000,000,000. If only 10% ($200 billion) were used for good we’d be in a much different world. Imagine if all that money and talent was dedicated to the betterment of human kind.

Our Need to Nurture:

One of the most basic sources of our acute stresses remains the same. We are sidestepping our most fundamental natural responsibility: The inborn drive to nurture the young to the full extent of their needs. Our adult-need corresponds with the needs of a multi-faceted new human-on-board for interactive nurture. The interactive, nurturing bond starts well before birth and is not limited to the mother. As Narvaez points out, if you want adults who desire to function in a democracy, you have to start with infants and toddlers and how they are treated.

Our Need to Help and Belong:

The weather this past year has caused serious damage to many areas of the nation and many of the news stories show people eager to help with cleanup, repair, restoring, and even improving communities. When it is beyond the capacity of a community or other jurisdiction, then levels of government that are designed to help are called upon. These are the accounts we’ve heard our whole lives. This comes from the goodness of our heart, from the “better angels” of our own nature.

To Revise Dickens for Today:

It was the most peaceful of times, it was the most violent of times.

It was the age of cooperation, it was the age of opposition.

It was the epoch of generosity, it was the epoch of greed.

It was the season of receptivity to Nature’s gifts, it was the season of demanding Nature’s “gifts.”

It was the spring hope of attuned childcare, it was the winter despair of misattuned childcare.

Our future begins with a Home, our future begins without a Home

Our aim is an ongoing sense of Home, Our aim is a fragile, elusive or nonexistent sense of Home

The Contrast:

When anger and fear drive our responses, we are heeding the worse angels of our nature.

When we help others in need, we are heeding the better angels of our nature. This can yield positive feelings in both parties, especially if it is an act between equals vs “pity”.

These are our choices.

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^[i] A TALE OF TWO CITIES

By Charles Dickens

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief , it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before.us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

^[ii] The last paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address: “I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Today, when we read this, we have to keep in mind that to cite the “Union” pre-Civil War was the call to mind our recent history, where we had just joined together to fight successfully to birth the United States. But those bonds were not nearly as powerful as the status achieved by slave owners, the business owners in related fields, the financial industry, and those elected to make the rules to protect the wealth.

^[iii] The word nexus is a noun derived from Latin, and it can mean a binding together of elements or processes. I argue to make it a verb and an adjective as well. Verb: To nexus is to bring elements together to create a (dazzling) contrast of previously clashing dynamics. Adjective: “The nexus-seeking algorithm revealed 21 new possibilities!”

In 1969, the school had a number of students who were glad to be free of the draft (Vietnam was a brutal killing field at the time). When the draft ended, some of the more interesting students parted ways. The Claremont School of Theology has been a first-rate academic school. It had been the department of religion at USC for decades. Any idea I might have had about leaving once the draft was over vanished as I really liked what I was learning theologically and biblically.

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Now, to the Beatitudes:

What are called the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew (5:1-12) are the guidelines to overcome the enormous gap between those with the most vs. the rest of us. I call these “guidelines” because the expectation is that we will always have to struggle to meet the criteria that Jesus laid out so precisely and compactly: Caring for the poor, for those who mourn, for the meek, for those seeking righteousness, for those who are merciful, for those pure in heart, for peacemakers, and for those reviled and persecuted on Jesus account.

Later, in the same chapter (Matt 5:43-48), comes one of the biggest and most important corrections Jesus makes: Instead of loving neighbors and hating enemies, we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Whew. That’s a lot of praying these days.

As far as I can tell, nothing of the Beatitudes is to be found in any of the GOP-initiated legislation and Trump’s tsunami of executive orders. What I see is meanness stacked atop meanness, here and abroad. Cutting off food, water, and medicine to the starving and the ill is as anti-Christian as possible.

The heart of Christian attitudes and actions is in the Beatitudes. This is why it is important to understand that this is the foundation for the decisions about how our resources should be prioritized.

Years ago, I organized a program for local clergy where we invited leaders from the following traditions to speak about their traditions’ concern for the common good: a Hindu leader, a Buddhist priest, a Jewish Rabbi, a Christian minister, a Muslim leader, and a Sikh leader. What we discovered was how much the same sentiments of care for those without existed across all these traditions.

I personally am intrigued by people’s deepest needs and concerns, regardless of religion, ethnicity, culture, education, or language. It amounts to feeling at home where it matters the most, with a strong heart-to-heart connection.

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Today, it comes down to Beatitude Christians vs. the Blue Red Meanies.

Generally speaking, there are two types of meanings for many words. The first is the denotative meaning, which refers to its specific or dictionary definition. Connotative meanings are implied and free to become metaphors to cover a wide range of experiences.

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For example, the word journey, borrowed from French, actually has two denotative meanings. One is taking an actual trip. The second, more specific meaning, is the distance traveled in a day. The connotative meaning of journey can refer to a transformative set of experiences that may or may not involve a physical trip from point A to point B.

I have been fascinated by words since before I can recall. I am lured by their sounds as well as their meanings, particularly if their meaning burns brightly.

I’m in good company. I remember a one-woman performance by an actress playing the role of reclusive poet Emily Dickinson in The Belle of Amherst.^[1] “Words are my life,” she exclaims. “I look at words as if they were entities, sacred beings.”^[2] At one point, as she was talking, she pronounced the word, “phosphorescence,” following which she said, “Now, there is a word to lift your hat to!”

She knows well the wordsmith’s challenge, which is to find and use the “chief word” for the message. Though I am alone (except for my cats), I still read the words out loud as well as silently in my head to make sure they sound and feel right. That’s what any wordsmith would do.

The unspooling of the connotative elaborations of these seven words can help clarify personal goals and suggest the steps to reach those objectives. These words help define who we are in relationship with others, namely, other people as well as the rest of this amazing planet.

Words for the Wonder-Full Life

Home implies a sense of a space filled with warm, accepting relationships, a nexus where one is emotionally and physically safe. It’s a place to shelter, to rest, to heal, to simply live one’s life.

The notion of home is a central theme in countless songs, poems, short stories and novels, television and theatrical productions, and paintings. Home is the beginning and the end of many journeys, including the Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung). Home also forms the background of countless ads that feature a loving couple with absolutely darling, well-mannered, happy children. Everyone has a radiant smile.

Looking at just song titles, I came across an analysis of a huge database of song titles^[3] that found nearly 600,000 song titles that included the word “home.”

One of my favorites is Glee’s mashup of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” (“I wish I was homeward bound”) and “Home” as sung by Phillip Phillips (“Just know you’re not alone /‘Cause I’m going to make this place your home.”) Here is a link to Glee’s version of the song:

Cyndi Lauper’s most popular song (out of many) is “Time After Time,” and while it doesn’t include the word “home” in either the title or lyrics, what she describes is the essence of the DNA-rooted childcare as practiced for nearly 300,000 years by our Modern Human forebearers:

If you're lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time

Why is the whole idea of home so powerful? Because we are yearning for something we need but do not have, not in the full sense of what is sought. By contrast, no one is pining for the return of gravity (except possibly those remarkable astronauts).^[4]

We idealize the notion of home because we have not had a thoroughly real home for millennia, since before recorded history, when we lived as small band hunter-gatherers and practiced alloparenting. Under those conditions, no child was left unresponded to when stressed because the closest adult – parent or not – immediately went to sooth the child.

The only reason we have a large brain is because our infants are born developmentally premature. This allows 75% of the brain to grow as it develops after birth. This also means our infants and early toddlers are more dependent compared to many other species.

As you can see, home is fundamentally an attitude plus the behavior that is in keeping with the attitude. In the SBHG groups, the attitude is an expectation of active acceptance … defined by an embrace that reassures as it enfolds, fulfills, celebrates, consoles, understands, lovingly accepts. Home is the de facto nest and the nest-in-kind is home.

It is widely accepted today that birth to age three is the Attachment. Phase in human development. The right hemisphere is dominant until age three. The hemisphere specializes in bringing the experience of the surrounding world to us – really, into us.

Precious denotes something of high value, or even beyond value as “priceless.” While this is often a term of endearment, a term that is clear and simple in its meaning. As a term of endearment, it is best understood as an unqualified evaluation: Purely precious. It is what we want our children to feel and, really, it is what all of us want to feel when we are with family and friends. It is crucial to understand that one person’s preciousness does not take away anyone else’s preciousness. Everyone can be – and should be – seen as precious.

Unique: This means one of a kind. Every human being is unique … even identical twins. It is a bit of a paradox to say everyone is the same in being unique, but it is true. Uniqueness is universal. The positive spin on this is that each of us has a contribution that only we can make … even if it is to do the same thing as others. The uniqueness remains preserved.

Important: The OED defines the word as “Having much import or significance; … weighty, momentous, grave, significant.” The Latin word (importāre) means “to be of consequence.” For SBHG life, importance would have been a background experience, meaning everyone was mutually important to everyone in the group. Our species’ method of survival was to be closely bonded with the others, literally in touch much of the time, especially the youngest.

But, with the adoption of farming, our species stopped being able to provide consistent nest-centered care during the Attachment Period. The inconsistency meant that an infant or a toddler could not count on being fed or held when hungry or afraid. The inconsistency can lead to overwhelming fear for one’s life.

Over time, this inconsistency became normalized with the result that we became afraid we might not be important enough to be part of the group. Because of that, we’ve learned to make ourselves MORE IMPORTANT than others by making sure they are suppressed and dominated. All acts of diminishment are fear-based. Of course, the fear has to be denied and hidden, so we pretend to be bold and confident (psychologically, that is called a reaction formation).

One issue that is making the rounds among artists and performers now is the fear of being outed as a pretender, as someone who is not as good as the hype. That is one of the results of our inconsistent care during the Attachment Period.

We will come back to relevance of all of this in the conclusions.

Special, on the other hand, means someone who stands above or apart from those who are not special. Special is a relative term in a different fashion than precious. Yes, the opposite of precious is worthless, yet since preciousness can be universal, there are no limitations to how it is assigned. But if everyone is special, then special ends up to be meaningless. To be special means to stand out and above others who are less special. And therein lies the difficulty. We must keep in mind that for SBHG, their society was egalitarian and without a chief or leader. One of the ways they managed the difference in results was to do things like tease the most successful hunter with how small his catch was until he could join in with them.

Shame is the emotional experience of feeling diminished by the words, actions, and attitudes of others (and self-shaming as well).

My dad used to say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Alas, I have discovered that is far from the truth. Words that hurt tend to mean that you are being seen by someone (or multiple someones) as unacceptable. The degree of unacceptableness can vary from minor to catastrophic, but even a quick frown or a half-second delay in a response can be read as a rejection; add in the tone of voice, and the putdown will vibrate with negativity.

Shame in many ways is potentially our most problematic emotion, particularly our anticipatory fear of being degraded in some fashion. Shaming isolates the shamed, and that raises the specter of dying because our DNA aims us to be in touch with others, literally as well as metaphorically. To be alone is like an untethered astronaut twisting away in the darkness. Of course, at 1 month old, not being fed or soothed can trigger fears of not being important enough to have one’s need met. Repeated gaps during the Attachment Phase only make this more likely to be a serious problem later in life.

Support and care that is over the top can be a manipulation and can feel like a smothering trap to the object of the flattery. Another negative possibility is that it somehow makes the one showering another with glad tidings look special.

On the other hand, genuine heart-felt words of support, care, understanding, acceptance, enjoyment, and even celebration can help move us forward, help us feel creative and expansive.

Thank you for reading. Your comments are invited!

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^[1] Luce, William, The Belle of Amherst: A Play Based on the life of Emily Dickinson, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1978.

^[2] Ibid., p. 7.

^[3] https://sundry.jerryorr.com/2024/02/22/song-title-analysis

^[4] I grew up on Science Fiction during the 1950s & early 1960s, which was largely what is today called “hard” SF in that it was rooted in the science of the day while it extrapolated the possibilities for the future. Without realizing it, I ended up assuming I’d travel in space as an adult. It wasn’t until I was 19 or 20 when I realized that I was not going to end up in a spaceship of some sort on the way to find life elsewhere. So, as the Moody Blues said, “Thinking is the best way to travel,” as long as thinking extends to heavy use of one’s imagination.

What we are witnessing makes it painfully clear that it is far easier to smash and destroy things quickly than to carefully improve the status quo, let alone to pull things together and create something new. This is the difference between impulsive actions and thoughtful planning with future-focused goals.

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It is time for the grown-ups to take over. We need to reach out to persuade a huge swath of our citizens that we are on their side, that what is most meaningful to them is something we all share. I am convinced that there is a genuine need that drives everyone's actions. This is the need to belong, to know you are important to the well-being of others, and they are likewise equally important to you. This is another way to understand the idea of the Common Good.

To help bring people together in order to create that community requires exposure, experience, patience, and the desire and capacity to listen to the other as deeply as possible. Our interest has to be genuine. We need to aim for "and" instead of "or". We are best off seeing this as a struggle among equals instead of seeing ourselves as superior to the unenlightened (superior based on our considered opposition). Neither pity nor scorn will help our cause. What this requires is compassion; compassion is the adult integration of attunement (like a sympathetic vibration) and empathy (which is imagining being in someone else's shoes).

The challenges to reaching this healthy, dynamic state include overidentification with a particular means of reaching the desired goal. As long as there is measurable progress, it does not matter how one reaches the ideal goal, as long as the means do not depend upon mistreating or subordinating any particular individual or an entire group. If a group is insisting on inhumane means, we must do our best to stop them.

Let me know what you think in the comments section. I am starting a contest: The best comment at the end of the month will receive two Harmony mugs. (Two, so you can harmonize with someone else.) These cups are named for the tiny community just south of Cambria, CA.

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But when announced, each of these mean actions and reactions by Trump, Bondi, Hegseth, Noem, and the many others, has sent a jolt through my body as intense as any 110 volt shock. So far, I’ve been able to allow the bursts of hatred to pass away.

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Mean and Cruel Actions:
The most recent at the time of writing this post is the crude, mean, extraordinarily horrifying images of US Senator Alex Padilla being physically manhandled, thrown to the floor, and handcuffed when he tried to ask Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, a question when she announced:

“We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

This followed Trump’s sending hundreds of Marines into Los Angeles on top of calling up California’s National Guard troops without an okay from the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom. The invasion by the military was clearly designed to frighten and intimidate the public. Trump is attempting to start a riot in California. What a stupid, cruel, dangerous action.

Another terrorist action on the part of Trump’s mob is the horrible game being played by Pam Bondi and the DOJ’s treatment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead of being unable to return him (as they claimed), they brought him back and created a new charge to cover up their mistake. I would not be surprised if this action by Bondi constitutes a war crime and should be prosecutable. She’s not the only one in this regime guilty of war and other crimes, either.

Our Evolved Nature:
We know that humans can be mean and cruel to each other, as well as other forms of life, and even the earth itself. But we also know, now, that this is not our inborn nature but the outcome of losing the conditions that allowed our forebears to provide highly attentive and responsive care to the youngest. (For a more detailed explanation on these points, see my initial post.)

Initial Post

Responding to others with kindness, care, warmth, support, respect, encouragement are part of our DNA. For a personal example, I have a clowder of nine cats, all originally feral. The problem I’m running into as I age is that I cannot manage this responsibility without extra help. And yet, yesterday and today I watched a delightful cat, maybe nine months old, hang out at the back glass door, wanting food and company. She did get a lot of attention from three or four of the indoor cats (who are only indoor).

I feel terrible not rescuing her because I know what challenges she is certain to have. Despite my lack of resources, my heart is pulled – I yearn to help another creature whom I feel to be worthy (she’s alive) and because she will need help to survive. The impulse is rooted in who I am.

Aiming for Wholeness:
It is possible that when we emerge from this long journey through the equivalent of Tolkien’s Mirkwood Forest^[1] we will have discovered how to strengthen the ties to our actual inherited nature and will have been moved to create unshakeable accountability. (How to organize for accountability is a future topic.)

Another part of this analysis, to come shortly, will be to look at how the attack on diversity runs in opposition to the fundamental thrust of the Universe and its evolution. Simply put, without diversity, the Universe we know would not exist. Trump and the MAGAites are making a major misstep when they crudely and cruelly attack diversity.

A clear example is one of the earliest features of the known universe, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The image, 375,000 years after the Big Bang, shows the subtle variations of temperature and density. The tension resulting from these differences drove the evolution of the physical universe and of all life on this planet

Human Insecurity:
Until or unless we can find a way to shape a world-society that is radially egalitarian, we are going to continue to have these intense and dangerous struggles.

In my initial post I explained that with the advent of agriculture, we lost the “nest” that kept our infants, toddlers, and young children feeling safe and cared for – at home. The assumption is that this sense of “home” is internalized, meaning it is a consistent experience and understanding of being important and of value to others. Without that, we become insecure, something we have to deny.

Because of our insecurity, we depend upon others to make us feel of value. If we fall out of favor, this is a huge deal because it means we are being rejected by our species and that amounts to a death threat.

We offset that by doing all sorts of things to make ourselves “special” in the eyes of others. But specialness is a contrast to unspecial, so we make others inferior so that we look special by contrast.

How many of our conflicts reflect a struggle of big vs. small? The opposite approach is to seek a consensus, even crowd sourcing. This honors the fact that complex decisions take time to unfold. It takes far less intelligent planning and effort to destroy trust relationships across a whole globe than to create the wholeness that will embrace the full normal curve of reality. All of us!

If you like this post, please hit the “like” icon. And I would love comments posted here as its helps build readership.

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^[1] In JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga, dark and dangerous Mirkwood forest is the result of being pulled to the dark side by Sauron. Originally, the forest was called Greenwood and it was populated with the elves.

Secretary Noem, as you can hear and see in this short clip, is 100% wrong in her definition. The principle is designed to limit the potentially overwhelming power that the government can use against individuals. But in her mind, it is the opposite. She says that it is a Constitutional principle that the President can use to get rid of people.

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My father, who worked in law enforcement, used to mention another principle, namely that ignorance of the law is not a protection from prosecution.

The following is a summary created (I assume) by the AI for Google:

“Due process, as a fundamental right guaranteed by the US Constitution, ensures fairness and prevents arbitrary government actions that deprive individuals of life, liberty, or property. It's a crucial safeguard in legal proceedings, particularly in criminal and civil cases. Due process requires that individuals are treated fairly and have an opportunity to be heard before the government can take action against them.”

I think it would be a wonderful idea to flood her office with definitions of Habeas Corpus.

Kristi Noem
Office of the Secretary
MS 0525 Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE
Washington, DC 20528-0525

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My cat, Suzie (whom I featured along with her half-sister, Queenlet Marcie, a few months ago) suddenly fell ill at 10 pm one day last week. She was lying on the kitchen floor but her hind legs were not working and she was in pain. I’d been in the ER the day before due to having a bad reaction to an antibiotic, so I felt easily spent and frantic.

I finally found an on-line vet who knew likely what had happened to Susie. The vet had that wonderful combination of clinical clarity and emotional care. She said Suzie probably had an undiagnosed heart condition and a clot had knocked out her control of her legs and was causing tremendous pain. I was able to reach one of my caregivers and we hunted for 24-hour emergency vet service. One place was full but the second was available.

They were able to diagnose her condition, ease her pain, and euthanize her. My caregiver, who is a serious animal lover, was impressed with the local emergency clinic. (If you’re in the Fresno area, contact me).

Suzie was a simple, sweet soul. I called her my love sponge since she’d be loping along and suddenly plop to the ground, belly up for a rub. Every time I would go around to the sink off the bedroom, Suzie would zoom in front and chirp until I picked her up to sip from the faucet. Every time. So, now that she is gone, I think of her each time I start toward the sink.

She and seven others were born mid-March of 2018 (two feral moms). Two were born a year earlier (they were rescued when they fell into the hollow column on our porch). So, I’ve known and loved Suzie and the others for 7-8 years. I have developed strong emotional bonds with them, as they have with me as with each other. The often groom each other even if they occasionally have brief hissing spats.

I was wrenched every time I heard Suzie’s cries and saw her struggle with her pain and immobility, all the time being unable to do more than hold her. (I’ve personally had experiences of extreme pain for hours without knowing when or if I was going to get any relief.^[1])

The on-line vet put it beautifully: “I know the heartbreak of this loss all too well myself. It is truly stunning, the piece of your heart they take with them when they go.”

This was Suzie’s message, a physical and emotional reminder that as a Homo sapien, my natural response to her was to bond with her, to care for her wellbeing and to feel deep concern to act on her behalf if something was not right.

For the human population, the first three years of life are understood to be the Attachment Period. While this is more fully explained in my initial post, it is important to keep in mind that the right hemisphere (RH) is dominant until age 3. (For details, see the Original Post.)

Original Post

The RH is able to provide an intimate sense of connection with the world around us as well as how external elements are related to each other. The nature of the connection is sympathetic in the strict sense of the word: To feel with, in the same sense as a sympathetic vibration. (Important: (The RH also provides the meaning of our experience; what over-arching story emerges when all the individual pieces combined. (See 1997’s The Right Mind: Making Sense of the Hemispheres by Robert Ornstein; and 2009’s The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist).

This means that we feel someone else’s joy or sadness as they felt it. The experience of the other is a portion of our internal experience (let yourself feel and explore the full meaning of that). Whether we consciously embrace that awareness or work to inhibit its impact is a separate issue, but the information remains available and impactful.

The left hemisphere (LH) by contrast provides us with the capacity to abstract, analyze, and effect change. The nature of LH enables us to imagine the situation that others are experiencing without feeling it directly. This is empathy: to use one’s imagination and prior experience to feel into. The integration of the two distinct modes hemispheres is the foundation for compassion.

Suzie joins Pablo, Petey, and a host of other can and dog friends whom I miss and mourn. Caring attachment binds us together unless we allow our unconscious fears to push us apart and make us enemies of each other.

Thank you, Susie, for your gifts to your feline-human family.

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^[1] The first at age 21 in 1967 was horrible pain in my right flank when I was in graduate school in Tucson. The university doc thought I was faking and left me alone for an hour. I had no idea what was wrong until he sent me to a urologist for my first kidney stone.

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The mystery of who is making these decisions and why has stirred investigative journalists around the globe but the White House has managed to keep these question unanswered until this afternoon when a reporter for Blue Whale Deep Investigative Reporting discovered the actual source.

The reporter, an old friend (yes, he’s old), was reviewing photos from the Executive Order signing events and saw a strange box on the Resolute Desk with a round black object that had what looked like a white dot on the top. When he got some help to enlarge and sharpen the object, here is what he discovered:

Donald’s trading policy is being guided by a Magic Black Eight-Ball!

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Share Calling Forth (Our Evolved Nature)

His constant need for attention is disruptive, making it hard to think of anything other than his immediate needs. Any chance of making long range plans by thinking through something complex is impossible.

I feel a parallel with the flood of horrible news from our nation’s capital, news that is being driven by Trump’s extraordinary insecurity. I am working on a post that will document and explain how the notion of diversity is not just a nice approach but is actually a necessity for health and evolutionary progress. This is an important and in-depth consideration. But the constant buzzing of Trump’s Executive Order drones coupled with the illegal, crude, and cruel institution- and agency-killing firings by Musk’s DOGE makes it difficult to keep an eye focused on the long term needs.

What’s ironical is that what I am considering “long-term” is indistinguishable from my short-term if the cosmic time scale is the context. But on a subjective basis, one can feel the difference. The longer-term perspective requires an extended phase of receptivity prior to activity. It is a sense of settling in with the experience until the deeper patterns and needs become clear.

Likely there is no system devised by humans that cannot be improved following a careful analysis. This means that if Trump, Musk, and the others were serious about reducing the size of our national government, they would engage in protracted analysis, planning, conversations, and negotiations before acting. It could be a serious and positive move.

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But that is not what is happening. There is zero detailed planning and they are attempting to rush the crude & cruel demolition of the institutions that help hold our society together. They know they have to rush because they are already facing serious pushback that is only going to grow.

The beauty of the ugliness they are creating is that it is now obvious that the goal is to strip billions that help the vast majority of citizens in order to give this money to those who need it the least. This makes it clear that we cannot afford to have the 3,000 thousand billionaires on our planet, of which nearly 1,000 are in the US.

And then there are the 15 ”centimillionaires,” three of whom had front row seats at the inauguration and one of whom is busy inflicting crude and cruel damage to our fundamental integrity as a nation.

Unless he and Trump are stopped, at some point the systems that we depend upon will start to collapse and when that happens, things will turn ugly. Jared Diamond, in his book, Collapse, noted that when civilizations fall apart they do so unexpectedly and rapidly. Ultimately, no one is spared.

This is why we need to push back as smartly and as forcefully as possible, as long as it is non-violent. And, as I pointed out in the founding post, we will need to be vigilant indefinitely until we find a way to establish radical equality.

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