Its taken days to come back here to post something new. There has been an internal battle over writing about one subject, and it’s been fought for days. Why? No one is listening.

There is no shame in being Conservative or Liberal. As noted in past columns, neither ideology makes up 60 percent (or more) of our population. Sixty Percent would represent a real, understandable “majority” of American people. So why are both parties claiming they represent “All America”, and the other party will ruin the country?

F$#% (sic) if I know.

Liberalism has the better argument, since Democrats have won the Presidential Popular Vote in seven of the last eight national elections. (For the sake of space we will not discuss Stop The Steal). But all these election victories only prove there are more Democrats voting than Republicans. It does NOT prove Liberalism is the dominant ideology of our country. Most of the Conservative Angst stems from the Conservatives THINKING they represent the majority of Americans, and yet, they keep getting proved wrong at election time. A normal human response would be to WONDER if something nefarious was going on: they can’t accept they are not the majority.

But why, then, do normal, rational people, normal Liberal and normal Conservatives, hate each other so much, these days?

It is a complicated issue because the origins of political hate did not just appear suddenly. And all the people I get the chance to talk to say: it’s the other guy’s fault. So…

Give it a rest. All of you, ass%$&%#. If you are one of those political, mensa geniuses who knows everything and hates the other side you are an idiot, no matter who you are and who you support. It should be obvious to any thinking human being how easily the right and the left have been manipulated by…who?

Yeah, who? Lets try the NRA and the gun lobby. Sales go up when Democrats win control of the Government. Why? Any of you know anyone who has ever had their guns taken away? No? Well the NRA says buy a gun, now, before they’re banned. Yes, the Liberals may WANT to ban some guns, but they do not have the majority, the juice to vote the bans because we are a Democracy.

Immigration? Who makes the money? For fun, track how many frauds involving The Border Wall were prosecuted (Of note, those frauds were not political frauds, just evidence of human nature and what happens when limitless pools of money are available). And for conservatives who worry about future votes, I personally know many Central American immigrants who have become conservatives. (See GMGA, from past column.)

There isn’t enough space to list them all but most of the problems we have would be solved if invested, entrenched private interests were willing to act in the nation’s best interest and let go of the Golden Goose.

And you all know why: money. But if you don’t know that, it’s because you’re too busy making fun of Harris’ laugh, or Trumps’ flubs. We were warned in President Eisenhower’s Farewell address about the Military Industrial Complex in 1961. Google it, but here is his last sentence: “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

We fight and argue over names and truth, while others make huge profits. Who’s fault is that?

One last fact: no politician ever leaves office poor.

Say you believe in Law and Order yet blow by the cars in the right lane already driving 5 miles over the speed limit.

Pay a professional athlete 200 times more per year than a teacher/policeman/fireman.

Watch individual initiative invent medical cures and processes the average American will not be able to obtain.

Let a man assault women and still be called a man. And even nominate him for elected office.

Celebrate your Independent, small-government, Libertarian spirit by passing laws to ban books and punish people not like you.

Be wary of a government trying to take away one of your 15 guns.

Know for sure, you’re smarter about a subject than educated, experienced professionals.

Say you worship Jesus while bending His teachings to your needs.

Can you worship and idolize flash over substance, the influencer over the doer, the greedy over the giver, the “truthful” chameleon over principles.

Live without thinking about things like the above.

Write things like the above and not be censored…or jailed.

I had a wonderfully exhilarating talk with a young person, this morning. Not younger, but actually young. Well, over 5 and NOT a family member!

For most old people young people are a distant memory and when old and young get together, there never seems to be much to talk about. Of, course there is a lot, but most young people do not want to hear about how much fun it is getting old, which is about all we know to talk about, anymore. You can see young eyes glaze over as they fight to stay awake after hearing of our lack of hearing, et. al. (Sic)

And of course, what can a young person say to an old person which doesn’t make the old person hijack the conversation to one-up the young person’s adventures? Old people have an “already-been-there-done-that” attitude towards most of what young people talk about even if some of us have sense enough to bite our tongue. Just ask us. “Why, when I was in college…”

Here’s the second best part of the whole day: Mark Cuban was on The Daily Show and talking about the AI (Artificial Intelligence for you boomers) and what AI’s going to do to the world. It was a dark, dark prognostication. But then Jon asked (with much comedic hand wringing) if there any hope for the future? Mark’s answer: “Gen Z. They know what’s going and will keep an eye on things.” What?

Mark Cuban is 66 years old. Gen Z people are aged 12-27.

If you haven’t figured it out for yourself, my conversation partner this morning is (was?) a Gen Zer. Probably right smack dab in the middle of the range. (“Smack dab”? Ugh.)

I am a realistically optimistic observer of the world who survived the end-of-the-world 1960’s, but AI scares the crap out of me. As noted on the show, major changes to the way the world works (The Industrial Revolution, The Communications Revolution, for examples) all took as long as 40 to 100 years to effectively change the world. AI may have the world changed by–as Jon Stewart put it–Thursday. Of this week.

My talk with GenZ was in the morning before The Cuban Interview and made me feel better about worldy things: the Zer was intellectually curious, cautious about what education to pursue, and never said “Like” the entire time.

Imagine how satisfying it was when Mark Cuban (He owns the NBA Mavericks!!) felt the same thing I did.

It was a good day for faith in America, and realistic optimism. I hope there’s more.

A very nice lady, Barbara McQuade, a professor from The University of Michigan Law School, turned a phrase in an interview about her new book: “Attacks from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America”. The phrase is “Tribe Over Truth”.

I’ve heard of “Truth over Tribe”, google it for it’s religious elements.

The Tribe over Truth phrase sums up modern American discourse: we believe what our tribe, our party, says over the realities, the truths confronting us. I do see it in some of the Democratic Party conversations, like when there is no real, honest rendering of Joe Biden’s age and condition. But those instances of Tribe Over Truth (TOT) are unique to political conversations and consistent to the story-telling aspects of all political debate, including hyperbole, obfuscation, misdirection, and omission. Perfectly acceptable, right?

But TOT on the right/far-right has gone beyond reason. In personal conversations with Trump supporters, there is often a “shut down” evident in the face of my conversational partners when discussing the cult-like power of–and the adoration for–Donald J Trump. Please note it is not Trump’s fault. As I opined in an earlier essay, he is doing a masterful job as a political candidate.

But his supporters are not equipped to consider “alternate facts” which are contrary to the Trump Tribe narrative. Again, not policy issues, just plain facts. Most Trump supporters, for example, still think he won the popular vote in the two elections Trump lost, one by 3 million votes and the second by 7 million votes. It is an astounding, baffling conversation to hear arguments and statements completely the opposite of those accepted facts. See how the MyPillow guy and the rest still cling to them. And some others: Obama was not an American citizen. Joe Biden is a puppet, Nancy Pelosi is head of a pedophile ring in DC.

To non-Trump supporters it makes rational discussion impossible, and even causes some on the Left/Far left to adopt the same ploy: just ignore truth and repeat lies. And political discourse is sent swirling down the shitter.

Tribe over Truth hasn’t just become an assault on facts, but a true method of “support group” activity. Almost as puzzling as watching truth get sidelined is how tightly the Trump Tribe circles the wagons and has each other’s backs. Attack a Trumper and watch what happens.

It is a truly remarkable societal/political phenomenon. One thing comes to mind: is there any way we could harness the TOT energy to actually solve problems? Imagine Donald Trump telling the tribe to love everyone, black, gay, democrat, immigrant…do you think the Tribe would turn on him?

An enlightened and well-read reader from the Seattle, Washington area (Yes, they can read out there) has answered the question and about an alternative to burial and cremation for the disposal of our earthly remains: put the body in your compost bin with your food scraps, lawn clippings, and garden debris. But remember one part green to one part brown for layering.

First of all, do you have a compost bin? Explaining composting as a method of corpse disposal is going to be hard for those who don’t compost. For those who do, imagine a big compost “bin” the size of a average warehouse. Put the body in there, and with proper ventilation, and tending you’ll have compost material in 8 to 12 weeks. As composters know, there are many variables which speed up or slow down the process. For reference: a body buried–without a coffin–will take 5 years to “skeletonize”, but takes up to a decade to fully decompose. That’s ten years underground without a coffin.

For those who don’t compost: google it. Not enough room here to explain.

Body composting has been happening for many years, already. There are, now, several companies offering to help with climate controlled warehouses to speed things up and guarantee results

I’ve lost myself in this research so here are some fun facts to end this column for today:

1. The body will compost into about one cubic yard of material to be used in any garden, legally, if you do all your paperwork.
2. Teeth and bones DO NOT compost and they must be screened out of the material or ground up and added back in to the material. Unless you want them for something else. Necklace?
3. The Catholic Church is against composting, calling it “dehumanizing”. Hm. Kettle/pot thing comes to mind. Wonder what Catholic cavemen did with their dead…

Composting food waste, garden clippings, and organic waste is great for the environment. Your garbage turns into gardening material, not a methane-producing lump buried underground. And its energy efficient. No gas fired furnace for cremation, or diesel grave digging machines. (Does any cemetery still dig graves by hand?) Also, maybe in the future there will be DIY Body Composting areas? Or kits available at Lowes?

I’m all for composting my (currently) producing methane lump, when my methane producing is halted and it’s time to sail off to heaven, or someplace similar.

Take my organs and put the rest in the bin.

To paraphrase a famously observationalist comic: What’s the deal with death?

We all know what the deal is: it happens and nothing we can do about it. But what about the business of death? The times after the event?

I once applied for a job with a cemetery/funeral home. During training, their primary instruction was to stay near the family and up-sell. They gave me a sheet not only with the prices but comments to make to the family. The one stuck in my brain: “Doesn’t your (loved one of any status) deserve this bigger headstone?”

My most agonizing issue is the disposal of the body. Anybody reading this claustrophobic? If, so, do you cringe, mightily, at the thought of being sealed in a coffin, lowered into the ground, and covered with dirt? If you’re not claustrophobic let me explain: burial is the worst case scenario for any of us afraid of small spaces we can’t get out of. (sic, for ending with the preposition. See what death does?)

So, cremation? Sounds like the best of a bad choices game, especially if the burning pain ends. But imagine if you feel that pain for eternity? That’s a really, really bad choice.

So that is the “deal with death”. What will it be like, after you know what? Speculation is all we can do until someone comes back and posts a trip advisor or rating on yelp. Personally, I hope the energy that is our lives, the electric energy which (maybe) contains the soul, is freed from the bony, fleshy mass the soul has been trapped in, and the soul flies up to the sky, free, free, free at last. (More on where it might go, later.) Then, whoever has the money can pay whatever they want to do whatever they want to that bony, fleshy mass of a carcass. It’s no longer my concern. (Yes, I am an organ donor, so…)

But…but…if only there was a way to know… Right now, all I know for sure is no burial, and no fire. Find a better, less painful way. Just in case. Ideas, anyone?

PS Might be record use of ellipses, at least honorable mention for the the last three (now six) lines. Wonder if they will be part of the decision on where my soul goes…anyone using the ellipsis too much goes to…? And thank you for not counting parenthetical expressions.