Big House (song)

 

Trump vs. Nature

Empty marshes sit
Waiting for humans to fill 
The pit with buildings. 

In response to Trump's State of the Union Address when he said that great Americans "filled the empty marshes". 

A Bold Willingness to Knock it all Down

 

Trump’s state of the union address was full of lies and vitriol. Though he stuck to the script more than usual, his anger and divisiveness came through, almost as much as his obsession with gore and death. He gave as many awards as he did misleading statistics. He congratulated himself for unsubstantiated victories. He framed Democrats and undocumented immigrants for everything that is wrong in the world.

After watching, I experienced an exaggerated feeling of what I feel every day since Trump took power: a sense that our country has been taken hostage by a madman. Nobody seems to be able to stop him as he steers us abruptly towards a future determined less by democratic principles and more by authoritarianism and unrestrained crony capitalism.  Everything I value is under attack and losing big.

Though I should have just gone to bed after it was over, I instead decided to listen to Abigail Spanberger’s  Democratic response. I told myself that this might soothe me. I didn’t know much about her. Perhaps, I thought, she was a Democrat who could effectively slay the mean ugly king. I wanted her to assure me, convincingly, that the things I love are not going away.

But as the speech unfolded, it soon became clear that neither my tall order for her, nor the giant pit in my stomach, were going to be filled. This was the best Democrats had to offer? A wooden, unrelatable bureaucrat? Where was the passion? The fighting spirit? The vision? Her words were like the icicles hanging over my front door, sharp, perhaps, but ultimately cold, and due to melt away as soon as the weather warms.

After it was over, I had to watch an episode of Star Trek, the Original Series, just so I could get off this forsaken planet for a little while. 

I’m not a campaign strategist, but what are the Democrats thinking?. Trump is creating a gaping, pus-filled wound, yet somehow the suggested remedy seems to be expired paste.  It is centrism, masquerading as pragmatism, which means that after all that has happened, the Democrats are still allowing their identity to be molded by the republican agenda. Instead of grabbing the wheel, they offer us no more than a soft steer back to business as usual and sell us false economic promises that they will not be able to deliver upon. 

And when they don’t deliver? The old reliable American pendulum will swing back right again. The price of eggs will go up and down and so will the stock market. There will be no houses, then there will be too many houses. The rich will do whatever they want and the poor will endure whatever they must. Inflation will keep going up, and we’ll argue over who is to blame. The GDP will keep climbing and well argue over who should take credit.

I’ve lived in America all my life, though I’m not sure if I can find my social security card and two forms of original identification to prove it. I am one of those people who could go broke after one major emergency. For what my opinion is worth, the economy is not very different than it has ever been. It’s not great, but it’s not that bad, either. I have my basic needs met, for which I am grateful. But, as much as politicians try to take credit or deal out blame, the economy has a life of its own that is not affected much by the policies in Washington D.C.

Meanwhile, there are a few things happening right now that our politicians can address. Our planet is in deep trouble, nature is in steep decline, and chemical pollution is killing us. Habitat destruction from unsustainable farming and development continues unabated. Trash from our ultra-consumer society keeps piling up. If we continue to burn fossil fuels, many places on the planet will become uninhabitable. If we don’t do something, we will soon face resource scarcity, unprecedented migration and conflict. These are urgent matters that require bold leadership, good policy, and powerful, visionary messaging.

What the Democrats need, I think, is their own Trump. I’m  not referring to the lies, corruption, lawbreaking and nastiness. I’m referring to the unwillingness to accept defeat and the courage to buck the status quo. They need someone who can deliver the simple message that we can’t keep wrecking our earth, and we can live better. The left needs somebody who will unapologetically move us forward to a nature positive, green energy future.

Trump has already torn everything apart and is building it back in his image. Let’s seize the opportunity to build it back in ours.

The Hole

There is a hole where now you see the sky
But a tree was once there, a giant tree that knew and grew
So sturdy and giving and sprawling, shaping, 
And now it's a hole that's gaping
The capricious air flows 
And leaves no ghosts. 

Christmas 2025

 The machine has big tires, the poem, the page. 

The machine is a riot, the poem is quiet. 

The machine roars, "It's either progress or rot." 

The poem says, "yes", if the mind is a lot and the brush the thoughts unseamed, 

The machine rules the world

The poem resists, and sighs and dreams. 

A Modest Disposal

Step right up, folks, it is time for our program on Adversity, Inequity, and Exclusion. The purpose of this program is to weed out any living thing that is in the way of progress, a burden, or a threat to our new social order. The notion that living things have “intrinsic value” is no longer an acceptable defense. Each individual must prove to be essential to the economy. If you are not essential, you will be sent down the chute.

First up? The chronically ill. By being chronically ill, you understand, you are a net drain on the economy. You can’t really contribute anything so why should perfectly healthy people, complete strangers in fact, care anything about you? If you have the means to care for yourself, you can stay. Otherwise, down the chute!

Next? The working person. While it is true that you were worth something in the past, when you offered you blood, sweat and tears to make deserving people wealthier, in the new economy you have become obsolete. Pretty much anything you did in the past can be accomplished by machines.  The new economy is for entrepreneurs only, not for dummies who work for a paycheck. Thank you for your service, but we don’t need you now. Down the chute!

Oh, yes, and here we have the artist. Don’t even bother. We now have artificial intelligence that can crank out hundreds of units per minute and provide us with decorations for our giant homes and music to pump us up. That is what art and music are for, after all. Why should we wait for you to feel “inspired” or the need to “express yourself”. That can take months! Who needs you? Rejected!

Next up: Nature. This is an easy one! Nature, you can eke out an existence if you want to, but only in places where we can’t build resorts. The new economy will require lots of these places, you see, because our entrepreneurizens will need plenty of rest and relaxation and they get bored easily. They’ll need places to go. They also need palaces and yachts, because the bigger your stuff, the more powerful you are. You do understand, don’t  you? I mean, once you have reached the point of being so scarce that you are in demand, we’ll set up some zoos, how does that sound? That could be profitable. Watch your wings on the way down.

Women, come on down. You know what the story is here. A few of you may have what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur, but it will be very competitive out there! And, as you know, your tendency for compassion and nurturing makes you unsuitable for such pursuits. However, we do like to have you around for two reasons. First, to bear children (at least until we can develop a robot that does that) and second, as entertainment. As long as you are ripe and fertile you can stay. Otherwise, what purpose do you really serve? You know where to go. Watch your step, ladies.

Educators. Oh, now you are preapproved for rejection. Don’t even bother pleading your case. All the basic skills one will need in the new economy are easily learned through AI.  Beyond that, if you are not teaching a useful skill like marketing or the art of deception, what is really the purpose of anything else? History? Please. Philosophy? There is only one philosophy: the unaffluent life is not worth living. Any other ideas might lead to critical thinking: a threat to the new social order.

Journalists. Oh, good heavens. This entire field rests on the backwards assumption that there is objective truth.  All our entrepreneur-izens need to know is where the best resorts are and how the stocks are doing. People may want to know what their opponents are up to. In that case, they can hire a spy. Now that’s a job that is in demand! You know where to go. Don’t try anything sneaky.   

Oh, here we go, this is just sort of the catch-all category: anyone “different”. What do we mean by different? Well, that could be a lot of things, but conformity is essential to efficiency.  If you can somehow make your “difference” profitable, then you can stay. If you have any other ideas like insisting on having rights, fighting for justice, having compassion for others, being your authentic selves, sharing, creating community, or any nonsense like that, we can’t use you. So, some of you can stick around if you follow the rules. But because you are “different’, you are suspect. We’ll be watching you to make sure you don’t step out of line.   

Alright, and last on our list: the failed entrepreneur. You know, of course, that in the casino economy there will always be some losers. It’s just the nature of the beast. However, if you’ve lost, it is necessary to also remember that this is entirely your fault. Maybe you weren’t manipulative enough. Maybe you didn’t tell your lies convincingly. Maybe you didn’t schmooze enough with people above you. Maybe you are too much of a slob. Whatever the reason, failure is a fault of the failed. Second chances are for snowflakes. Take a ride.

Here’s the deal, folks. We, the super wealthy, have decided that life would run much more efficiently if robots and artificial intelligence produced all the goods and services that we need to live. That way, our brave entrepreneurs can focus on what really matters: gambling and acquiring as much stuff and status as possible! Adapt or die.

Wait, That's Not an Arc...

I used to believe that the arc of the universe was long, but that it bent towards justice. Now, following the election of Donald Trump and the chaos that has followed, I have stopped believing that. I now believe that without some major catastrophe, real progress is not possible. The arc has been exposed as a sine wave.

After the brutal murder of Charlie Kirk, many people are calling for calm. Bernie Sanders and others point out that the foundation of democracy is ability to disagree in a civil fashion. I hear very sensible voices speak of finding common ground and shared values. We are neighbors, after all, and ultimately we all want the same thing.

In my arc of the universe phase, I, too, would have made similar proclamations. But with my new sine wave mindset something keeps needling me: we’ve been talking for a long time, now, and there really hasn’t been any meaningful progress. So, what’s the point?

I see this play out especially when it comes to the environment. I remember, just a few years ago, feeling hopeful that society was waking up to the fact that our current oil-fueled over consumptive lifestyle is unsustainable: the massive loss of nature, the pollution, the endless trucks of trash, the warming of the planet. But now, after decades of careful hard work by environmentalists, scientists and activists, the modicum of progress that was made is being rapidly undone. Like constructing a sand mandala and watching it disappear in a hurricane, and then a flood.

In a rational world we would be well on our way to a better world. We would have eliminated poisons, adopted local organic farming as the primary infrastructure of our food system, found ways to make nature flourish, changed our development practices, and implemented a clean energy economy. Instead, we are moving backwards with fresh new battles to fight. Meanwhile, the trees keep coming down, the pesticides keep flowing, the earth keeps warming, the trash keeps burning, the species counts keep going down.

I want to live in a place where leaders are serious people working for the public interest, not a bunch of performative sociopaths backslapping their way to the next big development project. I want to live in a place where wealth makes concessions to nature and human health, not the other way around.

What is going to spark real change? Sitting down and having conversations with people who either don’t think the destruction of the planet is an issue, or don’t care as long as they can buy plenty of mansions and jet skis? Personally, I’m tired of trying to persuade them and we are running out of time.

I don’t hate the opposition and I don’t want violence. However, I do know this: when it comes to the environment no common ground path seems possible. I’m tired of compromise and I’m tired of talking. Only something drastic will truly knock us out of the sine wave and into the arc.