A Christmas/Hanukkah Meditation on me and her

The person best defined as "Her" chatted her Christmas/Hanukkah greeting tonight just as I was sitting down to redo the graphics of my latest Kindle book. She mentioned a possible trip to India (she is currently on retreat in Myanmar). I said I would join her if the nook got good sales. She reminded me that she wants adventure, not romance. I did not reopen our continuing argument about this. It does not ever end well.

Her relationship ideal is to fall in love. We all like that feeling, but it can lead to bad relationships and codependency. I am more a believer in building a relationship with a friend, although that is more an ideal than a practice.

As a practitioner of Astrology, I instead look for compatibility in that realm (which is effective in arranged marriages and includes sexual chemistry).

The sad reality is that these approaches are exactly opposite (emotional v. logical) and both are objectification rather than love.

The key factor in building love is mutual respect. I had that with the previous "Her" and it was wonderful until we felt mutually disrespected. When respect is lost, relationship and lust go away. Been there, done that, have the divorce decree to prove it.

So, do I respect the current Her? Good question. Definitely enough to give her space. The entire width of the planet is a lot of space. There are issues we won't agree on, but respect each other enough to argue. We enjoy it and it is an essential part of a vibrant relationship (as I found out - see above)
 Still, we have basic disagreements. A big one being her extreme view of animal rights. I am a bit of a carnivore, which on the face of it is not a good match for a Buddhist.

I thought I had written an essay about animal souls last summer, but I did not find it here, so I will restate what I thought I had written. At the time, I was considering whether we could ever find common ground on this issue.

Her position is not unreasonable. Animal means animated, the definition of having a soul. Dogs raised with humans retain an adolescence because the need to kill has been bred out. Mediums describe departed dogs continuing to attend their humans like or as guardian angels. Of course, they also like meat.

When cloned protein (with cloned fat, blood and bone tissue knit together) are available, I will never eat another animal again. Until then, I have a Ribeye in the fridge.

As I was reminded once on a retreat, all things have souls, not just animals. This comes from the Platonic ideal where the reality is the ideal, not the physical manifestation of it.

I am more of a materialist on this. My atheist friends (if I understand them correctly) consider such ideals to be memes, not realities.

My personal belief is that the soul is a bio electric phenomenon from Gastrulation until decomposition when the organized energy gives way to entropy and rot.

We have no way of proving what comes next. Stories of an afterlife are faith based, not experiential. Near death experiences cannot be real memories, because memories are stored in the brain. A dead or near dead brain cannot store them.

The search for meaning has met the microcosm in the idea that, because the smallest particles seem like datum rather than matter, our very existence may be a simulation in someone else's reality. God as computer nerd. We create God in our image yet again. Recent physics has shown this mot to be the case.

Some hold to a multiverse, where every possible decision becomes a different dimension. This is actually very egocentric, because variation occurs at the quantum level. The implication is that there are multiple similar universes which are exactly the same but for one subatomic particle zigging instead of zagging. Nonsense. Chaos theory takes care of that requirement (which is a straw man).

We do not and can not have any way of actually proving such things. They are as much an abstraction as God is. The inability to experience the ultimate reality of God is impossible in the physical universe. It is why we have both free will and why evil exists. Pure good is out of reach, although there is no such thing as pure evil, as this would be non-existence if there is such a thing as good.

The Christian belief (at least the neoplatonic one) is that God is pure Being, Perfect Knowledge of Pure Being (In the beginning was the Word from the Gospel of John, which is read on Christmas Day Mass) and Love of the Being of the Word (or between them). All three must exist for any to exist, or so goes the belief. What is as real as that they are as truly the ways humans experience God or God as meme. This is a distinction without a difference.

The point is that Love is the closest thing to God and reality that we can experience if we chose to do so. It is a choice we must make for ourselves. Our bloody history as animals shows that we cannot make it for another.

Buy my book on the National Debt so that I can test the adventure. The graphics in the print version are fine and the cover will be finished tomorrow so that I can finish publishing it. The Kindle version will automatically update any change, so you need not wait until the graphics are fixed. If you buy the print book the Kindle version will be free.

Why mention this? The human animal is wired to respect material success. It is a precursor for falling in lust. Any purchase you make furthers the debate on lust v. logic.

Do we need witnesses or good questions?

Chuck Schumer is trying one of his usual stunts.  We need results, not attempts at electoral grandstanding by Democratic leadership. This tactic is why it took two extra years to raise taxes on the rich. They saved the vote until October 2010 for maximum impact. It never happened. It should have been job one in 2009, forcing money from savings to consumption.  This is also why Kavanaugh is on the Court. Trying to get an FBI investigation rather than having minority staff join with the majority questioning.  We need to get the President out, not oust Moscow Mitch at all cost - he is gone anyway. Trust the voters.

We have heard from the essential witnesses already. We can have them testify again on camera, giving the Trump side their turn to ask questions. Bolton could be added, but his comments related by Fiona Hill calling the Ukraine affair a drug deal are adequate. He can saved for the Trump criminal trial.

Ambassador Gary Sondland, Dr. Hill and Mark Sandy are the obvious first witnesses. Even better would be someone from SDNY to testify about the Firtash-Parnas-Giuliani money trail and whether Rudy was Trump's lawyer or his handler. The question of funding Trump's Super PAC (and who was funded) should also be part of the record. The Intelligence Committee needs to cancel Christmas and hear these folks (this is likely the plan already).

The Senate need not hear from Mulvaney. He is a target, not a witness. So are Blair and Duffy.

We need more on why Trump may have thought that he had done a "perfect" phone call. The truth is, it was perfect. Trump was looking for an excuse to not fund Ukraine at all. As it was, it took until the last day to free the aid. Without the whistleblower, Putin would have gotten the result Russia really wanted. Trump did not count on being impeached for the cover story.

That is the question for impeachment. As President, Trump has latitude to base U.S. foreign policy on what Putin wants. The question for Republican Senators and voters is whether having a President who has those allegiances (and likely still wants his Trump Moscow Tower) is working for himself or the nation.

If the GOP Senators likes Putin more than the Deep State (the House GOP seems to), they can certainly give Trump a pass. But it needs to be made clear that this is the question that is at stake, not whether Trump wanted Zelensky to validate his views for Fox News.

Not Election Meddling, Treason

Literally most Americans want Trump to be impeached and probably removed, but election meddling does not cut it. Trying to get Zalensky to confirm the Fox News meme about Hunter Biden would have ZERO effect on the election.

Election meddling is the Trump cover story for what he really wanted to do, which was, as Rachel Maddow noted in September, to not send Ukraine any military aid at all.

Most people feel, with good reason, that their votes are safe. Their neighbors volunteer a few days each election cycle to help them vote and they are absolutely certain that the count is fair and accurate. As long as that is the case, election meddling is a non-issue. The GOP wins that fight in the Senate and Trump is reelected

Maddow has also reported on SDNY and the story of Lev and Igor's money. That Moscow funded Lev is now documented. That Lev paid Rudy is also documented. That Rudy is in control of Ukraine policy is now well known. Anonymous (likely the recently resigned WH DCS for Ops) has shown that there is no way Trump could have possibly put together the scheme.

Connect the dots. Rudy does not work for Trump. Trump works for Rudy. Say it loud and often. Have Chairman Schiff get staff from the FBI and SDNY on TV before his committee. Lay it out clearly so that GOP opponents have to defend Trump on treason, not a Fox News publicity stunt.

This is what Mueller should have been chasing down instead of shutting it elsewhere. We needed him to be a cop, not a lawyer. That Trump was beholden to Russia should have had Trump and Pence under arrest a year ago.

Elections are not in danger for most of the country. A Russian Agent being paid by Moscow through Lev and Igor to handle the President and draft a pro Putin foreign policy is. Unless that is the theory of the case on impeachment, don't even bother.

If Treason is the theory if the case, no one will be defending Trump in the Senate. Making Zelensky say things on Fox News is not impeachable. Trying to not pay him at all (and the money was literally released on the last day possible before expiring, thanks to the whistleblower) is what he should be removed for (not the cover story).

Have Schiff and Joyce Vance on and discuss this. Raskin too.

Being too cute turned the Dr. Ford allegations unto political theater rather than a bar to office. It had the Bush cuts on the wealthy not be revoked until 2013 instead of 2009 because the party wanted to make the GOP look bad.

The same idiocy funded Obama care by taxing the rich instead of a broad based tax which would have gotten criticism but not 80 some votes in Congress to repeal the whole thing.

Turn off the stupid, forget the election meddling (no one cares - the people want Trump out, but not enough yet to move to get 67 votes) and hit him with a very provable treason charge rather than trying to drag down the Senate GOP for clearing Trump for electoral reasons. That would be election meddling. Go for a unanimous Senate. The GOP will not acquit Trump for treason.