“John Roberts has now driven over the cliff with the rest of the conservatives.” History repeats itself. . . not exactly, of course, but it does seem, sometimes, that people make mistakes that others before them also made. . . or criminals commit crimes that duplicate previous crimes by others. I am noticing now that two presidents in my lifetime committed illegal acts and then tried to talk their way out of it. In 1973, Richard Nixon and his white house lawyers tried to coverup an illegal break-in that they had instigated. In 2021, donald trump and his cronies tried to cover up an illegal attempt to steal the election. In ’73, some carefully executed investigative journalism produced evidence that ultimately convinced Nixon to resign rather than face the public humiliation of being prosecuted while he was trying to function as a president. In 2001, a large groundswell of American citizens, assisted by media and Congressional investigators, gathered evidence of a vast trump-initiated plot to steal the election. History repeats itself. This similarity between Nixon’s coverup of the Watergate break-in and trump’s denials about the January6 insurrection is turning into an eerie deja vu moment for many of us who remember Watergate. In 1973, Senator Sam Ervin was chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee. He was a classic good ole southern boy with a drawl, but a razor-sharp legal mind. His home district, Morganton NC, is a two-hour drive from where I sit writing this remembrance. Summer of ’73, I was within one fall semester of graduating LSU. A part-time job and an almost-complete political science degree afforded me time enough to watch the Senate Watergate hearings. I was fascinated with Senator Sam. One vivid memory of those hearings was the testimony of White House Counsel John Dean, speaking to the Committee.

Today, a Sunday afternoon in summer of ’24, I watched and heard that same John Dean as he was interviewed by trump’s former counsel, Michael Cohen.

History repeats itself, or it rhymes, like signs of the times. Mr. Dean talked about a few similarities—and the differences—between the Nixon’s cover-up and and trump’s attempts to allude responsibility for the insurrection that he instigated. Here a two parallel circumstances, with differences, that John Dean brought to our attention: ~ a) In ’73, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon was responsible for his crime and coverup. He had to turn over the audio tapes that he himself had recorded. Those tapes revealed that he knew about the criminal actions that his committee and his lawyers had enabled and paid for. ~ b) In 2023-24, Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the president cannot be forced to do anything. ~ a) During Watergate, the district court judge was enabling the special counsel, even after Archibald Cox was fired and then replaced by Leon Jaworski. ~b)In 2023-24, Special Counsel Jack Smith is being undercut by a district court judge. “John Roberts has now driven over the cliff with the rest of the conservatives.” In 2024, we are slowly coming to realize that "conservative" ain't what it used to be. Glass half-Full

Death Perception

Funny thing—death. It could go either way. Either there’s something on the other side of it,  or there is not. Only one person I’ve ever heard of who survived it, on this earth. I’m going with Him! Even so, there’s a lot to be considered. People have been wondering about this for a very long time. Consider a few of the currents of human discourse that have swirled around throughout history, speculating on this thing called Death. One that I can think of: my own father’s death. He was a hard-working southern man from a large Baptist family, eleven souls. He was the oldest; he had seen some things in war and work and religion and life that provoked him toward a rejection of the Faith in which his parents had raised him.  Even though he was not a believer, some thread of the Christian bailiwick had stuck in his conscious mind. He told me one time that man was appointed “three score and ten” years to live. That’s King James Bible language. Curiously enough, at the age of 70, he passed from this life. Funny thing: death. That lifespan number that he remembered from the Bible was precisely correct in his case. Go figure. At his funeral, his Baptist brothers and sisters who arranged the funeral chose an old Baptist song; it started out like this:  "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses." . . . because he was a gardener. I guess the brothers and sisters—my uncles and aunts—wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though he was thought to have rejected the faith, because, you know, we never really know about a person. I’ll get the full story about my father when I’m in heaven.  But let’s consider another case study on death: President John F. Kennedy. I remember it like it was yesterday. We were sitting in a 7th grade classroom, when our Principal, a nun, Sister Georgia, walked in unexpectedly and told us that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. She offered a brief eulogy, mentioning that “he (JFK) had ‘em backed up against the wall”, meaning the Russians during the Cuban missile crisis, 1962. It is profound that I remember that moment so vividly. Tragic thing, death. Maybe I was pondering death because of it’s preliminary effects, before the actual passing away. Just now, all the speculation and griping about President Biden’s apparent losing a few neurons along the path, as he approaches, at age 82, that fatal moment which we will all endure at some point in time. But you never know when. Funny thing, death. . . you never know when. Our President did what he had to by eliminating another election from his to-do list. He made the best possible choice by advocating for Vice President Harris, who will, I am sure, effectively prosecute trump in public discussion and debate. She will hold trump to account for his crimes, especially the insurrection that he drummed up--a rebellion against our Congress and our Constitution-- January 6, 2021. Oh, but, speaking of presidents in the context of death. . . brings to my mind President Abraham Lincoln, commemorating those fallen Union soldiers who had “given their last full measure of devotion” so that our nation could remain a United States, and so that black folk would no longer be enslaved.  But I need to wind this death preponderance down by saying: When I get to the other side, after being greeted by Christ and being given a pass, I look forward. to seeing President Lincoln in heaven, and shaking his hand. I will tell him:  “Job well done. We still need all the Union when can get in our United States of America.

Ancient Wisdom

Words of Wisdom from and old book:

“Make no friendship with an angry man.” “ What God hates: a proud look, a lying tongue, a heart that devises wicked plans, and feet that swiftly run to riot.” “ Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; strife and reproach shall cease.” “Proud and haughty scorner is his name, the one who deals in proud wrath.” “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro by them that seek death.” “A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him into a way that is not good.” “An ungodly man digs up evil; in his lips there is a burning fire.” “There is a way that seems right, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” “Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly people, than divide the spoil with the proud people.” “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit, before a fall. “It is an abomination for leaders to commit wicked acts. Authority is established by right behaviour.” “When a man’s ways please the Creator: when he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” “By mercy and truth (not the social media) and by fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” “The heart of righteous people studies for answers; but the mouth of the wicked spews out bad stuff.” “ A wrathful man (or mob) stirs up strife, but whoever is slow to anger appeases strife.” “Whoever despises neighbors messes up, but whoever has mercy on the poor is happy.” “A wise man fears, and departs from, evil; but the fool rages, and is boastful.” “The wisdom of a prudent person is to understand his way; but the folly of fools is deceit.” “Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive knowledge in him.” “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; but whoever gathers by labor shall increase.” “ What God hates: a proud look, a lying tongue, a heart that devises wicked plans, and feet that swiftly run to riot.” Wisdom taps out. . . on the Web: How long will you persist in this present magamunitious foolishness? The maganaminous insurrectioninsts delight in their scorning cuz magamaniacs despise knowledge.   In other old news: Blessed are the meek; they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful people, who shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the Peacemakers. Do for other people what you would do for yourself. Glass half-Full

Old Man and the Shore

73 years ago when I was born in Mississippi, Ernest Hemingway was writing a story about an old man and the sea. As I sit here, seaside, on a beach of the Caribbean island St. John, reading that story, I am also writing a story which may be called Old Man and the Shore. Since I am not out on the open sea hauling in a great fish, as Hemingway was when he was actually the old man experiencing the sea, I am just a guy reading that book on a beach. Before sitting to read, I did summon up the energy to walk the length of the beach, from one great rocky outcropping to the other. (pic) My activity here, rather lazy compared to Ernest’s life long escapades driving an ambulance in Italy in World War 1, fighting royalists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and ultimately contending with the great marlin off the coast of Cuba. As I read through Old Man and the Sea, the old fisherman’s rambling thoughts serve as prelude before he hooks the great fish and becomes entangled in a three-day, life-threatening contest with the great fish, such as his explanation of how to detect an approaching hurricane, using signs from the sky and the sea. And there’s his statement that a marlin, such as the one he has been attempting in for over 24 hours, is less intelligent that the man, but more noble. Sitting here on the beach, it is easy to affirm that the great fighting marlin is more noble than a man. In that grand, ancient struggle—man against nature, the fisherman is just an old man with a cramped hand, no thanks to the fish. “I wish I could show him (the fish) what sort of man I am. But then he would see the cramped hand. Let him think I am more man than I am, and I will be so.” And after a while, “I wish I were the fish. . . with everything he has against only my will and my intelligence.” Such is the macho man of the early 20th-century, after we had driven the krauts back into minding their own business in Germany . . . except they were summoned back out of their Armistice-enforced peace by hitler’s self-destructive third reich. But after a while, the tough old man, weary to the bone, lacerated and slipping toward self-defeat, retreats into his lapsed Catholicism—or perhaps his actual faith in God, when he prays the Hail Mary prayer and promises the Lord that he will perform further religious duties . . . “if I catch him”, the fish. Such is the relapse of collapsed Catholicism, such as Ernest apparently was, and I was, before I turned born again—i.e. “evangelical”, when I was 27. But that was long ago. Now I’m just an old man on the shore.

 Crack in the rock 

crack in the Union  

kraken sidney’s mind

crack in the Liberty Bell 

Ring the bell of Liberty: Liberty and Justice for all, in America!

Let us not allow the maga cracks, nor the kraken, nor the trump rantings, to crack our United States of America! We are One Nation Under God with Liberty and Justice for All!

Glass half-Full

I Stand Correcting

 On the point of so-called “christian nationalism” being sucked into the current trump-fascist attempt to take over America, I stand correcting.

In the classic Parliamentary Procedure procedures, “I stand corrected” was a polite way of a member admitting that he was wrong about something that he/she had said earlier, perhaps in a debate, or whatever discussion my be taking place. 

In our current American discussion, this centrist Constitutionalist takes issue with an irksome tendency of left-leaning critics to lump the teachings of Jesus Christ in with the current pandemic of trumpian fascism by which former “conservatives”, “Republicans” and “christians” are erroneously lumped in with donald trump and his proud brutes who attepted to mount an insurrection against the people of the United States and our government. 

Read now, the actual principles brought forth by Jesus Christ:

“Blessed are the Peacemakers.” “Blessed are the  meek (people), for they shall inherit the earth.” “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” “A good tree brings forth good fruit.”

“I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in. . . naked, and you clothed me . . .sick, and you visited me . . . in prison, and you came to see me. . .  and inasmuch as you have done these things to one of the least of of my people, you have done it  unto me.”

Now, considering those historic words of Jesus Christ, we can evaluate the credibility of politically-minded people who are, in their efforts to entrap our people into the abuses of trumpian “chris***n nationalism” have attempted to appropriate for themselves the mantle of religion, we can repeat Christ’s warning as stated in above, in the third paragraph of this point of correction. 

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Bottom line: this Christian, Carey Rowland, who happens to be an American, is not willing to stand by and allow the ravening maga wolves to usurp the message of mercy and peace that Jesus Christ presented to the world. 

All you trumpian magas can take your bull***t misappropriations of Christian faith and toss them in a port-o-potty somewhere. 

Jesus was prescient when he said: “ The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, for the violent do take it by force.”

The contemporary manifestation of that dynamic would be: The government of our United States suffers violence, because the trumpy insurrectionists do attempt to take it by force.

                    Glass half-Full

Windows in Time

 When you achieve 72 years, as I have, you find yourself gathering old memories that enrich, or inform, your exparience of this life. 

I can remember a moment in time when I was on a plane and I caught a glimpse, for the first time, the Microsoft logo. Pretty clever, I thought—that little, colorful, waving window. 

Today, on a Caribbean island, I caught a glimpse through a different kind of window .  . . (pic)

 . . . overlooking a beach on the island of St. John. This framed view presents a very different picture than the view through the Microsoft window. 

The American territories of the 1600’s constituted the new frontier of an advancing world civilisation. 

Centuries later,  international explorers and sojourners had traipsed their way from Europe to America and westward to the Pacific coast, civilizing everything and everyone along the way.

In the 1950’s, inventors and innovators discovered, and developed, a way to digitize the world, so to speak. 

Developing silicon semiconductors, transistors, and soldered, solid-state circuits, enterprising engineers, with a little help from their enterprising friends, presented new technologies through which the windows of this world could be viewed and manipulated and utilized. 

As the new universe of tech evolved, Bill adopted the windows image to  

promote Microsoft’s new presentation of this modernizing world. 

Down the coast a ways, Steve and Steve in Silicon valley settled on a different image for their revolutionary work. Remembering, perhaps, all the way back to earliest days of human culture, when it had long ago been reported that a certain woman had suggested that her hubbie take a bit of the apple. 

But getting back to the window thing, I saw this 400-year-old window today and it prompted all these musings about viewing the world through the windows of time. 

I mean, if you think about it . . . looking through this old window presents a view of an island that is, I suppose, millions of years old. 

So we notice that whatever is happening on this planet—has been going on for a long time. 

Now sitting on the sand of this island, St. John, USVirginIslands, a fe minutes later,   I am reminded of the historical person, St. John, companion of Jesus in Palestine/Israel, long ago. 

And that John wrote about visions that he witnessed through the windows of prophetic awareness and revelations. And that window presents the most amazing view of all. 

Revelation 5:9

Contemplating Rocks

Contemplating these rocks. . . these ancient boulders

those millions of years. . . those multi-layered strata of time.

I notice, as magasphere. . . tumbles down onto mini-island . . .

and many islands . . . as Magaspection crumbles. . . to minispection:

here. . . now, in my own space. . . my own time. . . me her now in

Time. . . whatever that is. . . as this civilized mind time-travels . . .

there he is on an island . . . methinks it is on Malta faraway, far back

in Time. . . whatever time is. . . on some Mediterranean shore

shaking off snakes. . . Paul of Tarsus. No. . . wait. . . not that Paul.

Methinks its the only-living-boy-in-New York-Paul. . . when the

New York Times said: God is dead. . . but (but it was only for

a couple of days, y’all) . . . anyway I was thinking of that other Paul:

“a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries” Paul (I remember, as

I sit in the water of this island). . . but the island speaks its mind

in sounds of silence. . . and the lapping of the cosmos . . .

on the shores of Time. . . these shores of rocks broken and cast down

from the peaks of planetary history. . . the heights of planetary

accumulation tumbling to the waters below. . . as rocks tumbled

down long ago onto this shore, long ago. . . and yet still . . .

they tumble down to. . . where ocean defeats rock . . .in the

Sands of Time: rock, rock and more rock. . . long before Bo and

Chuck and Buddy and Elvis rocked around the clock.

Clock? Oh what’s a clock? a clock, by any other name,

or any orb by another name, would tick as neat-ly . . .

would click and trickle time, as forlornly as a weeping planet

falling apart in Eternity. . . whatever that is. . . Selah.

Glass half-Full 

'38 Floor and '24 Door

This giant sucking sound of 2024 

summons echoes of past events that we abhor.

As putin plunges soldiers into Donbas region

History recalls hitler’s Sudetan german legion.

Now orban winks at Ukraine lesions,

Like mussolini saluted third reich legions.

Now ruskie missiles blow up Ukraine sands

Scorching Donbas lands as putin commands

As orban sucks up to vlad’s mad demands

Like Chamberlain fell for hitler’s Munich lies;

Let not Zelenskyy fall for orban’s vlad/mad ties.

Oh what a f***d up web they weave

as fascists twist peace talks to deceive!

Furthermore here on the farther shore

that unstable genius the magas adore

calls vlad the mad a nice guy

Not discerning putin’s hissing, sly

yes, the joker who likes kim jung un

got waylaid by un’s korean stun fun.

joker said kim jung un was nice;

as vlad and jungun fooled joker twice

Same As hitler booz’ld neville in 1938

vlad the mad slides toward Kyiv gate

as the snake slivers toward Euro grass

he intend to bite the Euros in their ass.

But we in the US have a great tradition

of turning back the floods of fascist sedition.

Meanwhile, back in the good ole USA, a little update:

But Smith has argued that even if the court were to rule for Fischer, the charges against Trump could still go forward because they rested, in part, on efforts to use false electoral certificates at the joint session of Congress.

Glass half-Full 

July 4 '24

         with a nod to WB Yeats . . .

Spinning and spinning in the widening web

The spiders cannot seize their prey;

The nation falls apart; the Constitution cannot hold;

civil war raises his magazombie rumble.

The rage-raised tide rises, and everywhere

  this ceremony of Independence Day is dimmed.

The best lack common sense, while the worst

  are full of insurrection intensity.

Don’t tell me some revolution is in the cards;

A second civil war’s not in our yards.

Civil War! hardly are those words out 

when a dreaded sound of Sumter shots

troubles my mind; somewhere in the silence of Gettysburg

a shape with stars and bars and carnage’d fields

a rage as ragged as stars ’n stripes are torn

is cranking up its maga madness, snorting insurrection

while talking heads strive to stem the raging tide.

The darkness slithers in, but now I know

that a century and a half of stony sleep 

are vexed to nightmare by a mocking maga

and what rough beast, its hour come round at last

slouches toward Sumter to be reborn?

Glass half-Full

The Sound of Time

Memory is a funny thing. It bounces around in the brain like a ping-pong ball (remember ping-pong?). After a while it lands on the floor. 

Time is a floor, a very long floor, like a mall, or an airport concourse, or a walk in the park. 

Just now I  happen to be thinking about John and Yoko walking in Central Park. . . more about that later. 

As I was saying, time is a floor. But it ends somewhere, at the edge of the building, at the edge of ? a lifetime. . . your lifetime, my lifetime.

In this electronic age, the lives of famous people are inextricably linked into our brains. The floor of my lifetime stretches from 1951 to . . . ? We shall see how far . . . 

Then there’s the floor below the one that I happen to be on; that’s the level on which my parents’ generation walked. . . Roaring ’20’s, Depression, Wold War II, the bomb, Eisenhower. 

Every now and then some amazing person will enter into this time mystery and somehow get a glimpse into those lower levels, unveiling historical truth and profundity. 

And sometimes, now and then, some gifted, inspired person enters into the time frame and gets a glimpse into the upper floors, the ones that don’t even exist yet. (I don’t know how else to say it).  The prophets of old, most notably, Daniel, Ezekiel, John the Apostle, Jesus himself the author of it all. 

Or let’s say, in earlier centuries, such as the 1500's, a specially-equipperd person, Nostradamus, with his mysterious quatrains.  So what’s up with that?  I mean, how could he see up on the floors above that didn't exist yet . . . uh, but never mind. I digress. 

Anyway, I was noticing that in my particular “baby-boomer” view of time, music has a lot to do with it, “it” being. . . whatever it is. 

Perhaps because I am a musician, the music of my youth is closely connected to the memory tags of my lifetime, especially so in these late-life (72) years. And. . . well, long story short. . .I was remembering, on this particular day,  the Beatles. 

What is presently so fascinating is that the two remaining members of that fab four, Paul and Ringo, have managed to, with a little help from their (techie sound engineering) friends. . . to use an old home recording that John had made, to produce an incredibly meaningful song, “Now and Then” that brings to memory, post mortem, the rich heritage that those fab four guys were able to present to our g-generation. 

Thanks to John’s wife, Yoko, who volunteered the tape for Paul and Ringo to use as a basis for their last project together. 

You may want to hear it, maybe listen to it, as I do, every now and then: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APJAQoSCwuA 

King of Soul

Deepstate Debate

 I know how to get things done! said the Chief exec to the people.*

Oh yeah? said the rabble to the babble. That’s just deepstate stuff.

Yeah, I hear ya bro. I mean, I woke up and I was in a bad dream.*

It’s like, you just woke up in the deepstate. Yeah, it’s a bad dream.

Um, it wasn’t the deepstate bro. The bad dream is the maga king.*

Nah, man, the deepstate cooked all those bogus charges in newyawk.

Trial by jury of twelve citizens, paying a porn star with campaign funds*

Uh, deepstate BS. That’s all that is. People can spend their own money.

Whatever. But he called his gang out to trash our Capitol and Congress.*

Those patriots were trashing the deepstate, not the Capitol.

Our Senators and Representatives are not deepstate. They’re elected.*

The elections are rigged. You know that, don’t you?  deepstate scam. 

Who told you that? *

President trump, January 6. the deepstate stole election for sleepy joe. 

Who told you that? *

The supreme court. president trump is immune to the depstate charges.

Who told you that? *

A little bird. president trump is immune to the deepstate bullshit.

What little bird? *

Uh, tweether. i saw it on tweether. It’s all over the internet, max and oan. 

And what did the little bird say? *

He said that the court said the prezdent’s immune.

President Biden is immune? *

Uh, no, the real prezdent. His debate proved it. He takes charge, y’know. 

So is he gonna take charge of the deepstate? *

He’ll get rid of it. 

He’ll get rid of the government of the United States? *

Just the deepstate. 

What about the rest of it? *

He’ll rework the whole dam thing. No more deepstate. 

What about our elected leaders? Representatives, Senators? *

He’ll fire them, just like he did on TV. 

He can do that? *

Yeah, like I said. Hell get rid of the deepstate. 

I see. Then we’ll be in deepsh*t. *

Uh no. America will be great again. 

Uh, yeah. Be careful where you step. *

Smoke