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 So, Big Truth vs. Big Lie "Big Lies" are the bread and butter, the hard currency, the soul of propaganda. They so deviate from the truth that they elicit this response: "Man, that wouldn't say something that crazy unless it was true." Then to augment the outrageousness comes REPETITION, repetition, repetition... "Man, I hear that all the time. It must be true." Everybody - EVERYBODY - is capable of being propagandized. Some of us more, some less; our susceptibility distributed along a normal curve, like everything else. So a really good Big Lie propaganda campaign can convince a very large portion of the population it targets. For instance, one whole side of the normal curve. Or even  almost everybody . Whenever I hear of a substantial number of folks who share a specific belief that defies logic or scientific findings, I suspect propaganda has worked. The anti-vaxers are a current example. Childhood jabs actually don't cause autism, but there is

America Must Restore the Value of TRUTH Currently it seems: We don't need have no stinkin' truth*  My eight million vote win! My landslide win, STOLEN! * We have "Freedom of Speech." We are free to lie, misrepresent, twist, spin, slant, and propagandize to our heart's content. The Constitution says so.  IT'S KILLING US!  We are split into "tribes" with our own truths, our own facts. It is ripping us apart, making us distrustful of fellow citizens, stabbing our democracy in the heart.  I've got a secret plan!                                            We need a CRUSADE FOR TRUTH              The Plan We Need Two (2) Freedoms of Speech Freedom of Truthful Speech   All current Constitutional protections apply only when verifiable   truth is spoken. and Freedom of Opinion Speech   No truth requirement All current protections apply when opinion is clearly labeled.  Opinion, not labeled , has no protections. SOME (TRUTHFUL) FACTS & AN OPINION The

 Three Standard Deviations Off "Normal" Describing our lame duck Prez with distribution curves "Bell" Curves, "Clappers," get it? Ding dong? Oh, forget it. Lame Duck President Trump is on the far ends of these distributions. Way weirder than most humans, and in ways that make him dangerous. I left out the killer curve, "Charismatic Cult Leader". He's clear to the right, "very high" on that one. Maybe that's why he's so interesting to watch.   So I suggest we watch the heck out of him through this lame duck period. And after!

... And More Doubles and Triples GREATEST POLITICAL CARTOONIST OF OUR TIMES* *My "times" are long enough to remember Bill Mauldin, Herblock and a ton of others.  Toles still gets my vote.  So very sorry to see him fading into the eraser crumbs. ...Oh, and I felt a throb of brotherhood with Toles at:                                  ...Since I wrote a book about exactly that. https://amzn.to/2ZRzqPo  

Is Roger Stone Trump's Heinrich Himmler? Or Just His Joseph Goebbels? OK, this is terrifying. But at least it answers the question of why the President commuted Stone's sentence. One good story on this madness.

The Daily Pandemic Report always has an unexplained Number. And it's always BIG. Here's a typical daily report from a small state (NM)  TOTAL  NUMBER OF CASES       26,268 TOTAL RECOVERED                    -13,928                           12,340 (47%)   NOT Totally Recovered Only 77 people are currently hospitalized (and 813 poor souls died). SO what about those NTR (not totally recovered) folks? It's starting to come out. An awful truth is emerging. It's not just about how many die, it's about Covid-19 being a terrible ailment that has many really rotten long term effects. Italy is calling back coronavirus survivors.  About half say they haven’t fully recovered. Washington Post headline 9/8/2020 Other than that, I feel fine. That's about half.  And it sounds pretty bad: "(Some)   recoveries are proving incomplete and sometimes excruciating."  Stuff like... - lung scarring and breathing trouble.  -  hea

Imagine the Blue Ribbons Since the flower shows are canceled - even the NM State Fair - we are blessed with a new crop of prize dahlias every day. They soften the pain of isolation. We coulda been contendahs. Wife Dorothy has so many blue ribbons already we won't notice, but I sure notice this rampant beauty.  (And we have a house full of orchids to boot!) Upbeat, I am. 

Cheered Up, I Am Two bits of good news in one day in these times will do it. 1. Our garden is lush this year and the daily harvest is big - and beautiful . Thank you stored rainwater . 2. NPR is kicking arse ! I'm a happy man.

I wrote a book about her,  (She's a dead ringer for) a cave lion cub named Cubby. The poor baby is long dead. 38,000 years long. My fictional Cubby lived 125,000 years ago, and I lived in her cave with her and her mom. Time travel, of course. Now there's a bit of sci-fi fer ye.   "I" was my character Daryl Streeter, and I lived his adventure vicariously as I wrote the book, MIZ, Time Tripping With Amazing Females. It's a thrill to read about  this  DNA discovery, because in 2017 I made the assumption that the girls were unique, which allowed me to give them unique talents. We sci-fi guys love it when one of our predictions pans out in real life. Here are some highlights of the book. If you like audiobooks, here's the address for a YouTube "playlist" to listen to free. Just click "Play All," or click any chapter that looks interesting. Here's the Gizmodo story  about the amazing paleontology discovery.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas: (R) "The founders said 'Slavery was the necessary evil ' upon which the union was built.”                                            Campaign Pix                             Senatorial Pix                                                            This Senate work is exhausting . Senator Cotton, in an interview he gave to the  Arkansas Democratic-Gazette , in which he criticized the New York Times’ proposed school curriculum linked to its  1619 Project  that would reframe the national historical narrative to highlight slavery in U.S. history lessons. He tweeted the quotes were "fake news." Ex-Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts (D) " The idea that slavery was a necessary part of America’s founding implies that for some to flourish in our country others must be hurt."                                           Campaign Pix                             Gubernatorial Pix     Feeling better the

And there are things we can do about it. It's complicated, but what else are you doing these days? I got behind in my reading Science Magazine s from cover to cover. Then I caught up last night. And wowie, zowie! In the 17 July edition, page 256, is: PERSPECTIVE VIEWPOINT: COVID-19 Aging immunity may exacerbate COVID-19 Arne N. Akbar ,  Derek W. Gilroy   See all  authors and affiliations Science   17 Jul 2020: Vol. 369, Issue 6501, pp. 256-257 DOI: 10.1126/science.abb0762  It's kind of a heavy read, lotsa medical and pharmacology, like:  " A key hallmark of severe disease is exuberant inflammation in the respiratory tract of patients ( 1 ). Older healthy individuals (60 years and above) exhibit chronic low-grade sterile inflammation (not caused by a pathogen) characterized by high baseline serum concentrations of C reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines." Got that? We oldies - lots but not all - have "INFLAMMAGING&