May 20, 2020: Perchance to Dream

Rona said, "If you want to sleep through the night, don't talk about COVID-19 after 8:00."

I hadn't been sleeping well. That is not new.  It is not unusual for me to wake up with a jolt at 4:00 a.m. and though I try to get back to sleep frequently it is to no avail.

With ear buds, seeking distraction, on the radio, I listen to late night talk shows but for the most part they rant about the pandemic and how it was caused by a conspiracy that somehow involves Barack Obama and Bill Gates with one or the other of them also the Antichrist. 

Some distraction!

Rona said, "The other night one of your ear buds popped out and I could hear what you were listening to--a doctor of some sort who was talking about doing radiosurgery on someone's prostate."

I remembered that. Dr. Lederman. He's on the radio frequently during the middle of the night.

"With that blasting in your ears it's a wonder you can sleep at all."

I knew she was right, but I've been doing this for decades and am addicted to middle-of-the-night radio. Sometimes there's a baseball game to listen to, but not this year.

"I know that . . ."

"You need to try to stop this. With everything going on in the world, you don't need more aggravation. You're making yourself crazy and soon you'll be making yourself sick."

"I know . . ." 

"One thing you can do immediately is stop talking about COVID after 8:00. Maybe that would help. You're already taking Zoloft and I'm not comfortable adding a sleeping pill to the mix of your meds." I shrugged, beginning to feel hopeless. 

Rona said, "It's nearly eight o'clock now so why don't we start tonight? I won't let you draw me into a discussion about Trump and the pandemic. That also should help you sleep through the night."

I agreed and less than an hour later we went upstairs to watch some mindless TV before letting ourselves fall asleep. 

That night I woke up for good at 3 a.m., a little better than my usual, but still I knew it would lead to an agitated day.

The next night over dinner, we talked about Rona's city garden, not a word passed between us about the virus. And thus I expected to have some uninterrupted sleep. 

That was not to be.

Though I fell asleep a little past midnight, and that should have launched me into at least a decent night's sleep, by four I was wide awake, waiting for "Morning Joe" to go on the air. I was slipping backwards and losing my motivation to keep experimenting.

The next night, breaking all the rules that just a few days had me feeling optimistic, at about 9:30, as if out of the blue, I asked Rona to summarize for me the two types of tests they give people who they suspect might have COVID.

"The first one is the swab test," Rona said. "It can tell if you actively have the virus, the other one is a blood test and it . . ."

She broke off and punched the mattress. "I can't believe this. After talking about this an hour ago and agreeing we would not allow ourselves to talk about the virus after 8:00, here I am," she smacked the bed again, "here I am doing just that. Talking about it. You've turned me into your enabler. I'm sure Dr. Lederman and his prostate machine are waiting for you."

Rona was right in everything she felt and said.

Weakly I said, "But everything you've been saying about it tonight has been very interesting. I learned a lot. And . . . "

"I give up." Rona said, and with that she turned out her light and rolled onto her side, facing away from me.

At 7:30 am we got out of bed and hugged each other. I tried to apologize. 

Rona said, "Forget about it. I know you're struggling with this."

"I am. I really am. I don't want to be this way. Please, one more time, forgive me. I am trying. I really am."

I knew Rona had heard all this before.

"But one crazy thing," I said with a smile.

"What's that?"

"Like last night when out of nowhere I asked you about the tests, well past eight o'clock, and you began to respond, I assumed I would be lucky to sleep at all. My head would be filled with COVID anxieties. But, maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. Amazingly, I slept very well. No antichrist. No conspiracies. Just beautiful sleep."

"And what are you taking from that?"

"Maybe a little medical talk is not a bad but a good thing?"

"I think I've heard this one previously," Rona said. "But let's give it a try. We don't have much to lose."

And we have for the past few days. And, in spite of myself and my sleep history, I'm feeling optimistic. I'm sleeping quite well.

November 26, 2018--National Climate Assessment

I for one want to thank the Trump administration for the sensitivity they showed by not publishing the latest "National Climate Assessment" until the day after Thanksgiving. 

By then at least half the turkey and stuffing I consumed had been digested and reading the report on only a half-full stomach kept me from you-know-what.

The work of 13 governmental entities, now Trump-led science and environmental entities, it is about as pessimistic and depressing as anything on the subject that I have encountered.

There is nothing to feel good about, almost nothing hopeful, and with Trump president for at least another two years, since, catering to his base, he will not agree to do anything that can slow down the doomsday climate clock, truly scary.

Half joking, when there has been a dire UN report or others by groups of concerned scientists, learning more about the unrelenting cataclysmic consequences of climate change, I have quipped, "Well, at least I'm old enough to be dead by then." 

In fact I will be, but now saying this is no longer just a quip.

Evidence of the potential political power of last Friday's release of the National Assessment is the fact that Trump attempted to bury it by having it published on the quietest news day of the year. When everyone is sleeping late, fighting off gastritis, watching football, or shopping  So there was nothing "sensitive" about circulating the report right after Thanksgiving. 

The administration's hope was that by today when things get ginned up again, along with Ivanka's emails, the results of the midterm elections, and Trump's spat with Chief Justice Roberts, it will already be old news. Which to Trump is almost as useful as labelling something threatening as fake news.

But the report about the climate got Rona and me talking more broadly about science. Particularly wondering why so many Americans, including pandering conservative political leaders, do not, as the press puts it, believe in science. "Believe" as if science is something theological. By this it is meant that these people, among other things, do not believe, as opposed to mobilizing actual facts, in evolution, cosmology, or any imputation that humans are contributing to global warming and the resulting storms and massive forest fires.

Some of this lack of belief is in fact theological. Many who do not believe in science believe that we are moving rapidly to Armageddon. A time when the world and all humans will come to the End. 

A striking number do not see these cataclysms to be undesirable but in fact, via highly-selective and distorted interpretations of the Bible, they welcome the eventual Second Coming of Christ and the ultimate Last Judgement when these folks expect they will be ushered into Heaven. 

Thus, the last thing they want is any interference in this divine plan. Particularly by governments or the "deep state," which to many is the work of the Antichrist.

Then there are others who reject science because of their lack of science literacy. They feel excluded from its methods and lessons because, sadly, they know almost nothing about science. Baffled and frustrated by relativity and quantum mechanics, which is understandable, they are even essentially untutored when it comes to knowing anything about Newton's more approachable universe.

Science, then, also contributes to the great educational and cultural divide that separates Americans by educational attainment, culture, and socioeconomics. To passionately reject science is one response by those who have been labeled deplorables or, in fear and ignorance, some claim, cling to guns and God.

And then, ever suspicious of liberals' alleged push to have big government intrude more and more in people's lives, limiting their freedom, many conservative extremists see environmental science as conspiring to tell Americans how to live. From what kind of cars to drive to forcing people to give up incandescent light bulbs. It gets that specific.

And so here we are with many of us feeling fortunate that we will have passed on well before an actual, non-millennialist End. 

But what then about our children and grandchildren? 

Put pushing back against these anti-science forces at the top of your political to-do list. I know it's a long list but . . .

July 19, 2018--One-World Government & the Antichrist

I continue to struggle to understand all the reasons why Donald Trump so consistently takes seeming pleasure bashing and undermining global alliances such as the European Union (EU) and NATO. It's not just that he doesn't do "group" very well, preferring bilateral relationships. The reasons are more sinister.

The most obvious reason of course is because by doing Vladimir Putin's bidding Trump contributes to fulfilling Putin's desire to weaken and ultimately dominate the West. Putin has the goods on him and thus Trump is in effect a Putin operative.

Trump is doing a pretty good job of this. Just ask Angela Merkel. Europe's longest standing and most powerful leader is, thanks in significant part to Trump, now hanging by a political thread. Thus expect her to be pushed out of office in the next 6 to 12 months.

Trump is also taking on the EU because by doing so he is pandering to the core of his base--the millennialist-minded evangelicals who, while waiting for the Rapture, support him so fervently that they have little problem overlooking the fact that he has had three wives, has sexually assaulted women, and cavorted with porn stars such as Stormy Daniels.

Part of the End-Time scenario calls for the emergence of the prophesied One-World government and the appearance of the Antichrist, who will preside over it for three-and-a-half years. All will feel oppressed by this government because ultimate power as a result will be concentrated in the hands of the Devil. 

Next, though, will be the Second Coming of Jesus who will establish his own world government, which in time will result in the cataclysmic death of us all and the resurrection for some during the Last Judgement. (See, for example, endtimes.com.)

According to the Christian fringe (which in fact is quite large, variously estimated to be up to a third of Americans--again Trump's base) there have already been a number of organizations that might qualify as this End-Time government as well as who might be the Antichrist.

First, since the early 1970s there is the Trilateral Commission. Founded and funded by David Rockefeller, it is a non-partisan discussion group whose agenda is to foster closer cooperation among Japan, Western Europe, and North America. Millennialists see the Commission quite differently--as an organization that wants to overthrow the current world order.

As might be imagined, David Rockefeller himself was an Antichrist candidate as was Commission member Henry Kissinger.

Then there was the United Nations. An obvious choice with various of its secretary generals suspected to be the Antichrist.

And currently the most likely New-World Order government is the EU. Among other things that make this suspicion persuasive is the belief that its euro is the kind of universal currency prophesied in the Bible as evidence that the time is approaching when the Antichrist will appear.

The list of possible Antichrists is lengthy and diverse. It includes--

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of ISIS (I vote for him)
Alexis Tsipras, prime minister of Greece
Emmanuel Macron, president of France
Barack Obama (not much of a surprise)
Jared Kushner (he does need a real job)
Hillary Clinton (the only woman on the list)
And Canadian prime minister Justine Trudeau, who qualifies because he is anti-Zionist, pro-global government, promotes lawlessness and immorality, and is the leader of the northernmost country on earth--some scholars argue that the "king of the North" is the Antichrist. 

This is what is swirling around in the heads of a majority of Trump's people. It also helps explain why Trump is so motivated to destroy NATO and the European Union.

January 8, 2018--666 Fifth

How did I miss this one?

Not able to stop myself from thinking about Trump, his family of co-conspirators, and Robert Mueller, it slipped right by me that son-in-law Jared Kushner is involved in a mega-real estate deal at Fifth Avenue and 52 Street in New York City. A building, in a small way, I helped construct back in the late 50s when I was a sheetmetal worker.

Sheetmetal workers were responsible for installing the heating and air-conditioning systems, the HVAC, mainly through a complex network of ducts mainly fabricated off site from sheetmetal and suspended from the ceilings and through risers that paralleled the elevator shafts. 

I was not that skilled a mechanic and so I spend little time on the installation and more on the bull gang, unloading trucks that brought the factory-built ducts to the site and then getting them to the floors where they were needed by using the outside hoist, or work elevator, affixed to the exterior of the rising building.

I made a lot of money doing this--enough to help pay for college--and through the manual work got myself into the best physical shape of my life. I also made longterm friends and witnessed some horrific events--including a number of fellow workers injured and killed in construction accidents. One of which decapitated Joe Murey who was a member of my work gang. Still, as I look back on my work life it was the best job I ever had.

One bonus was hanging out on the 52nd Street side of the building site during lunch hour where we woofed down huge hero sandwiches and knocked down a few quick cans of beer. The job was adjacent to the 21 Club (Donald Trump's favorite New York place for dinner) and one treat was to see who showed up each day for lunch. My favorite sighting was Mike Todd and his then wife, Elizabeth Taylor. In true construction-worker form we whistled at her and not only did she turn our way to flash us a glamorous smile but walked over to shake our work-soiled hands. 

So how did I miss knowing that the Kushner family, led by Jared, back in 2007 bought the building for $1.8 billion and that they have been struggling ever since to carry out an ambitious $7.5 billion project that includes tearing it down (it's 41 stories tall) and building a new place of twice that height that would include a hotel, luxury apartments, and high-end retail shops. Very Trumpian. 

They have not been able to secure financing and have thus had difficultly meeting debt payments. It seems possible that the Kushners could lose up to a billion on this fiasco.

But here's where it gets more interesting--

To secure financing for additional debt and to carry out the ultimate plan, Jared Kushner has apparently sought the help of business interests in China, Qatar, and Russia. Including likely borrowing laundered Russian money through Deutsche Bank.

No wonder the Kushner and Trumps are in a panic and running scared.

In the meantime, there is my little Tishman Building Zelig experience.

One more thing--unnoticed by me at the time and I assume by the Kushners is the building's street address--666 Fifth Avenue.

The number 666 itself has quite a curious history.

Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelations reads--

Let one with understanding reckon the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of the man. His number is 666.

The "beast" is the antichrist who rises from the sea which represents the nations of the world and thus 666 is the number associated with the antichrist. 

The conjunction between Kushner and Trump and the antichrist, ironically, requires little elaboration. 

August 5, 2016--Area 51 and the New World Order

And here I thought that Area 51 conspiracy theories were just about alien invasions and psychic phenomena. Little did I know until the night before last that the military's ultra-top-secret weapons development facility hidden away in the Nevada desert is also where the New World Order is taking shape.

The U.S. government will only fess up to using Area 51 to develop and test aircraft such as the U-2 spy plane and the F-117 stealth fighter.

They deny dabbling in ESP experiments or consorting with aliens who conspiracy theorists claim have been arriving in the area for years, decades, centuries, even millennia.

(The latter limited, of course, to those who believe in Evolution and the earth being more than 6,000 years old.)

I've learned about this by listening to late night talk radio. In recent years especially to George Noory, host of Coast to Coast AM, which for four hours every overnight is devote to things paranormal. I am not alone among insomniacs. His show is carried by over 600 radio stations and listened to by at least 2.75 million.

The other night, needing a break from listeners calling in to report about being abducted by aliens, I switched over to my other favorite late night show--Red Eye Radio, pitched to interstate truckers, shift workers, and fitful sleepers. I of the latter category.

It is broadcast over 38 stations and attracts a nightly audience of perhaps a million. It is political in nature, no flying-saucer people, and hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara, two reasonably intelligent and well informed conservatives who are sane and smart enough to be troubled by Donald Trump's candidacy.

In the midst of their angst about Trump, a caller, perhaps like me straying from Coast to Coast, brought up Area 51. Harley and McNamara moaned, sensing where this was headed--they've heard it all--but, gentlemen that they are, didn't hang up on her. It was as if they were saying--"OK, bring it on. You just got back from Mars and . . ."

She surprised them. She didn't want to report about being teleported from Cleveland to Roswell, New Mexico--she wanted to talk about the quasi-governmental New World Order.

This I knew something about from my interest in Millennialism. The belief that the world is nearing the end and when that is signaled by the Rapture, after a millennium of Tribulation, Christ will reappear and during this Second Coming will sort out who are going to heaven and who are going in the other direction.

Symptoms of the End Times include the emergence of a New World Order (some say the UN or the current American government is its progenitor) and the appearance of the antichrist (some say this is Obama, others that it is Hillary).

The caller had a different spin to share--it was right there in the Nevada Desert that the New World Order is being assembled. And here's the extraterrestrial connection--

It begins with the claim that aliens have been among us for at least centuries. The government knows this and through the deployment of "men in black" has been covering it up since they are collaborating with the aliens, who are manipulating developments in human society so as to be able to better control and exploit earthlings.

According to the caller, these aliens have shapeshifted into human form so they can move among us undetected. They are now close to taking control of our government and corporate and religious institutions and are as a result in the final stages of their plan to take over the world and impose a new order.

In return for the coverup, the U.S. government gets help from the aliens in the development and testing of flying-saucer weapons systems.

Quite a Faustian bargain, I thought.

Finally cutting her off, Harley and McNamara chimed in, "Compared to this, Donald Trump doesn't sound so bad."

August 11, 2015--Michele, Ma Belle

Knowing my obsession with Michele Bachmann and her pray-away-the-gay husband, knowing how disappointed I am that she is not running for president this time around, knowing that with the exception of Donald TRUMP the current candidates are not that funny (I only made it through an hour-and-a-half of last week's two-hour debate), my Virginia brother and sister-in-law sent me a piece from Salon about how Michele is gleeful about the nuclear deal the Obama administration recently struck with Iran because it foretells the beginning of End Times.

As Salon reported, in an interview on the evangelical radio show, Understanding the Times (get it--the Times), Michele Bachmann gushed that we should all feel very "privileged to live" in the End Times which are rapidly approaching "now that Obama's negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran."

She claimed that this accord fulfills the biblical prophecy from Zechariah 12:3--"On that day, when all the nations of the earth are against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves."

The End Times are upon us, Michele revealed and "heaven's armies" are now advancing the cause. "The prophets longed to live this day. You and I are privileged to live in it."

The host of the show, Jan Markell, agreed. There "are consequences to doing things like this against God's covenant land [Israel], there are horrible consequences. You throw in other things such as the Supreme Court decision back in late June [about same-sex marriage] and a lot of other things--judgement is not just coming, judgment is already here."

It is only senators like Chuck Schumer," Bachmann sighed, who can forestall "God's wrath."

Here's where I get confused--

She cites Schumer (my mother used to call him Chuck Schmoozer) as the only one standing in the way of God's wrath, but aren't evangelicals looking forward to the End Times? Isn't that an essential step toward the emergence of the Antichrist (I know, he's already here in the person of Barack Obama), his reign, the Millennium, and ultimately the desired Last Judgement? So what's her problem? She should be ecstatic (etymologically literally) rather than bent out of political shape.

There's a solution--Michele, ma belle, it's not too late. The race is not over. In fact, no one is all that happy with the current field. The poll-topper, Donald TRUMP, has his theology all mixed up. When asked about his church going he admitted he doesn't attend that often. "When I go," he said, "I eat the little cracker." And though he's not impressed with the sacramental wine, he did admit he drinks "my little wine."

Think about how you could take him on. The discourse you two could engage in. For the rest of us, the two of you debating is almost too much to hope for.

Sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble
Tres bien ensemble.