Wait... What?

This episode explores why Santa Clause deserves to die and why I will never be able to hit a 300-yard drive. None of which has much to do with why you should immediately go to my website www.howardsiegel.com or Amazon and buy my new book Everything that Lives and Moves but I decided that this was a good place to plug it. The podcast, as you know, is free. The book is almost free ($.99 for the e-book) and will change your life. Mine too if enough of you buy it. EVERYTHING THAT LIVES AND MOVES: A Confrontation with the Origin of Natural Evil - Kindle edition by Siegel, Howard. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

My ongoing preoccupation with what makes a moron a moron has led me to explore the great lemming fraud perpetrated by Walt Disney, the Catholic preoccupation with personal pronouns and why the wrong one will land you in hell, the idea of clean coal, and how to get Trumpers to demand vaccinations en mass. 

You are just going to have to listen if you want to know "what's in that" (podcast) which happens to be the unanswered question going through every MAGA antivaxxer's mind when they reach the conclusion that they are part of an elite "in the know" group of Facebook and YouTube warriors who know "what's in that" and conclude that it ain't good. These people are definitely not sheeple. They are morons. 

Welcome to part 2 of a journey into the minds of the dumbest people in America. The anti-vaxxers (ANTIVA) and the anti-maskers (ANTIMA). In this episode, I will attempt to abandon my immature use of the ad hominem "stupid" and show you that I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion. "They got rights." I will fail miserably. 

Welcome to the world of hardcore Trumpers where mysterious disappearing bamboo fiber remnants are the accepted explanation for why Trump-supporting investigators cannot find any Chinese bamboo in the Maricopa County Biden ballots. If you want to understand how any thinking human could believe the utter nonsense put out there by Trump regarding a stolen election and his legions who claim that we have nothing to fear from COVID 19 and that the vaccines are part of a plot by the government to insert chips into us for mind control... all you have to do is go to a professional wrestling match, ignore the wrestlers and watch the crowd. Once you grasp the attraction and success of the wrestling concept of "kayfabe" you understand exactly what makes masses of idiots believe in imaginary bad guys, conspiracies, and satanic pedophile cannibals.

A person who claims that something happened has the burden of proving that it actually happened. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The absence of any evidence is as far from extraordinary as one can get. People who believe claims that are unsupported by evidence should not be allowed near power tools or carving knives. The statement that "everybody knows it" is not evidence. It is what idiots say when they have no evidence. Donald Trump is an idiot. And so are you if you nod in agreement when he says it.

It could never happen here? Think again. It already has. Today the Republican Party formally blocked the investigation into the mob violence that Donald Trump inspired on January 6, 2021. But there was a reason for their opposition. You see, the mob violence and treason were perpetrated by white people. It is that simple and if you doubt it for a moment, ask yourself how Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan would have voted if the mob had been Black Lives Matter supporters, Mexicans, Asians, or Muslims. But for most of us, this reprehensible vote will be quickly forgotten. It is what the party of Donald Trump does. It embraces any kind of evil sanctioned by Donald Trump no matter how unthinkable. It is now the party of Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Gaetz called for a Second Amendment response to the people in  Silicon Valley who are interfering with Trump's spreading of the stolen election delusion. Greene has called for the murder of Nancy Pelosi and the execution of Democrats. Trump called her, “somebody that I just think is fantastic.” Public pronouncements by members of congress advocating "Second Amendment solutions" were unthinkable five years ago. Today they seem to be Republican mainstream political positions. We started down this path when Trump's people began to tolerate, shrug their shoulders, and nod when he suggested that his followers might want to "take care" of Hillary Clinton by exercising their (sic) Second Amendment rights. It all began when he correctly calculated that he could gain a foothold with racists and closet racists by fostering the rumor that a black American president was really a Kenyan Muslim. We became numb to indecency when people began to excuse Trump-style cruelty by saying, "Oh... that's just Trump being Trump." Years before he ran for president, he showed us exactly what he was. The problem wasn't that he hid the evidence or that he fooled us. The problem was that Donald Trump-style unapologetic cruelty was exactly what almost half of America wanted. 

Do you remember the cute little lion cubs in The Lion King? Well, the male lion -- The King -- practices infanticide every chance he gets so the females will be receptive to mating. He kills the cubs for the pleasure of ten seconds of mating. So, occasionally, do crystal meth dealers.  Are these the parts of life you would rather not explain to your children? You aren't alone. Everyone avoids explaining them and most of us even avoid thinking about them. Would you rescue the lion cubs and interrupt the natural circle of life if you could do it without getting killed? Of course, you would. But why would you? It is simply mother nature operating at her most elemental level. Would you rescue the adorable lamb who had been separated from her mother and is being stalked by wolves? Yes, you would. You would hold her in your lap on the way back to the farm and stroke her. But you wouldn't think twice about ordering lamb shishkabob at that trendy new Lebanese restaurant in The Village.  Same lamb, different carnivore. Can you explain that one to your children? I don't think you can. If you really believe that there is nothing wrong with eating animals can you articulate why you would never have the courage to kill one yourself and you would never even think about letting your child go on a field trip to a Tyson's slaughterhouse? If you really believe that there is nothing morally wrong going on, why are you repulsed by the thought of participating in or viewing the slaughter?  In this podcast, I examine the moral precept that I have come to accept as a cornerstone of humane living: The infliction or support and participation in the infliction of unnecessary suffering on innocent sentient living things is wrong.  I invite you to listen and tell me where I may have gone wrong. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene gave a thumbs up to a bullet in the head for Nancy Pelosi and wrote about hanging President Obama and Hillary Clinton. She embraced murder as a political tool. Republican leaders appointed her to the Education Committee. Donald Trump called her a future star of the Republican party. He welcomed, endorsed, and applauded a person who approves of murder to the ranks of the Republican leadership. And 87% of Republicans still embrace Donald Trump as their hero. Explain that one to your children.

The answer to the rhetorical question, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" is that sometimes none of us know. We no longer need to fear Donald Trump. But we always needed to fear the people we never imagined would admire and support him.

You are not allowed to yell, "Rudy!" in a courtroom because it will cause a panic about the impossibly low level of legal discourse that is about to take place... and no Donald, your rights have not been violated.

I don't care why they joined the zombie mob of imbeciles that killed a Capitol Police Officer. I don't care what motivates people to support men like Donald Trump, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, El Chapo, or Carlo Gambino. I only care that they supported them. I'm finished trying to understand them. I'm unsure if that makes me a kind of bigot. Hear me out and decide for yourself.

What kind of a man would deliberately stop COVID 19 testing to hide the actual number of people infected? What kind of a man would let the carriers roam the streets infecting and potentially killing innocent people? What kind of a man would sacrifice hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens to increase his chances of winning an election? And what kind of person would support such a man?

What is it that makes people believe stories that would make lemmings walk away from the cliffs and belly laugh? How is it possible for so many people to become infected with the disease of willful stupidity? Henry David Thoreau may have given us an explanation.

Should we feel empathy and compassion for a man who delights in cruelty and indecency? I don't think so.

How Donald Trump turned honesty and reason into culturally defunct concepts and ushered in the American Dark Ages.

If Donald Trump believed in anything aside from his own instant gratification -- he does not... But if he did, it would be Herbert Spencer's idea of Social Darwinism. In nature, the strongest and fittest survive, and in human nature, only the strongest and fittest deserve to rule over the weak and survive in luxury at the top. The weak are here to feed the strong. They are like a sub-species to be taken advantage of because they are weak. In Trump's world, gullible evangelicals were put here for him to use in the exact same way that they are used by the predatory prosperity preachers he so admires. William Jennings Bryan feared men like Trump and warned us they were coming. And for that bit of wisdom, he deserves some credit. 

How two circa 1968 brainless, left-wing, white kids could swing the election back to Donald Trump.

The 12 Apostles are described in Acts 4:13 as ignorant and unlearned so god knows, it is understandable why the Evangelical Christians welcome Donald Trump -- who is a moron -- as something akin to the 13th Apostle. And he may have done more to explain what happened on the third day after Jesus died than the other 12 combined.

Perhaps we have been reading Genesis from the wrong angle. It can make much more sense if you identify the real beast and the real hero in the Garden of Eden. Perhaps it's a story about how man evolved from Homo Erectus -- Man who walks erect -- to Homo Sapien... Man the Wise. If so, it's a story worth redeeming.

In the Heart of Darkness, Kurtz says hauntingly, "The horror." What exactly was he talking about? This episode explores the mind of the Creator as set forth in Genesis. What was He thinking when he decided to terrorize the innocent for the sins of Adam and Eve? The first century Gnostics came up with an answer that made sense. For which they were declared to be heretics.

Genesis is seen as a story about us and our responsibility for the predicament of the human cycle of life, suffering, and death. It is the story about our choices and where they led us. But what exactly did the animals have to do with Original Sin? Why were they punished? How is it possible to make sense of a deity that inflicts the worst kind of suffering upon sentient creatures that are incapable of doing anything wrong, yet prohibits them from being part of the redemption scheme? Is theodicy an inquiry that can ever make sense?

How is it that Rhesus monkeys outperformed humans in empathy experiments? What causes that?

John Wayne ducked service in World War II because he said "I never got around to it." He let other men fight and die so he could stay home and pretend to fight and die in war movies. John Wayne said “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.” Yet he is revered, and almost worshiped, as a true American hero because of the image he created. Understand that one and you understand the Trump worshiper.

How is it possible for one man to desecrate an entire culture? Will our children grow up to be Arthur Ash or Tyrell Owens? Manuel Orantes or Jimmy Connors? Who will we let define us as a people? 

Was the infallible Pope still infallible if he lost his mind or his faith or both? The Vatican had seen its share of scandals and aberrant Papal behavior in its two thousand year history. There have been popes who engaged in every kind of sexual promiscuity and deviancy, popes who squandered the Churches’ fortunes on lavish and garish excesses that would have made Donald Trump gasp, almost bankrupting the Church of Jesus Christ, popes who have ruthlessly ordered their political enemies murdered, popes who had sanctioned the torture of those who voiced any criticism of institution or its’ occasional excesses, popes who had started holy wars where millions were slaughtered and popes who had covered up the rampant sexual abuse of children by priests that stretched back to the first century.Papal infallibility is a doctrine that appears nowhere in the New Testament. The 19th century doctrine states that when it comes to formal beliefs of the Catholic Church, the pope is preserved from the possibility of ever committing a mistake. The pope’s word on matters of scripture is, in effect, the word of God and Jesus. The doctrine of papal infallibility was formally adopted as official Catholic dogma at the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870 and was, therefore, a very recent formal creation. The only caveat to this doctrine is that the infallible teachings of the pope must be based on, or at least not contradict, sacred tradition or sacred scripture.It had pretty much always been assumed that the Pope was the alpha interpreter of the New Testament. But the First Vatican Council left no doubt and literally no room for argument. “Because he said so!” became the be-all and end all for inquiring Catholic minds. He is always right and that’s the end of that. So, for example, if the pope were to interpret what has always been accepted as a clear biblical admonition against homosexuality which states, “a man who lies with another man shall be stoned” to mean that gays should smoke pot before engaging in sexual relations, that would be the correct interpretation ipso facto and a billion Catholics would just have to learn to live with it.Infallible, is a novel in which I ask the question of what would happen if the pope hit his head and woke up from the injury suddenly reinterpreting everything? What would happen if (God forbid?) the pope started to sound alarmingly like a secular humanist? If he is infallible, the Church is stuck with him. There is no 25th Amendment for popes. Infallibility would be a Donald Trump wet dream. This episode is a preview of the book, Infallible, and will hopefully get you to think about the unthinkable.

This episode focuses on the reasoning process that goes on inside the minds of the MAGA anti-mask commandos. These are the fearless, often hysterical and heavily armed, angry warriors who are making the country safe for those Americans who still believe in the constitutional right to cough in the faces of struggling restaurant owners who ask them nicely to please wear masks. This is the face of the new American exceptionalism demonstrating exceptional selfishness in combination with exceptional stupidity. As one sign proudly proclaimed: MY FREEDOM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR SAFTEY!

A vegan is starving on a desert island. He is there with a pig and Stephen Miller. Who should he eat first?

What are "American values" and who really supports them? Not Donald Trump and certainly not his hardcore base. Trump believes that the First Amendment only allows polls that support the idea that the vast majority of Americans adore and support him. Trump believes in an America where he could shut down media outlets that say unkind things about him or point out that he is not telling the truth. Trump wants an America that treats its leader like North Korea treats Kim. That's not hyperbole. Here is what he said: "He (Kim) speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same." He actually said that. But much more frightening is the fact that 45 million Americans want the same thing. They want an America that is decidedly un-American. And they don't even realize it.

Are all opinions worth our time and respect? Is it ever justified to abandon lines of communication where there are differences of opinion? Are there issues that are so clear that there is only one side? Is there any purpose served by going on The Alex Jones's Infowars Show, arguing with White Nationalists, or presenting evidence to Holocaust deniers? Has Trumpism finally proved that reasoning should be reserved for men of reason?

How a vile, hateful, and avaricious man managed to single handedly usher in the age of American indecency and make racism mainstream. 

What makes us human? It must be more than our body type and our ability to make lots of shit that nobody needs. Is it a fact that what makes us human is, ironically, our inhumanity? And is it possible that I can make it through an entire podcast without referencing Donald Trump and calling him an asshole? Tune in and find out.

What does it mean to be a higher life form and how should we plead our case when one day an even higher life form comes here to kill us for fun or for lunch?

What to do when God's plan includes genocide and raping virgins and why the white-man's-overbite is the correct dance when celebrating at the End of Days and the Great Jew Barbecue.

This episode explores the philosophy of "that's impossible" beginning with Jimmy Johnson's claim that EXTENZE helped him attain phallic adequacy. Figurative impossibility, conditional impossibility, and intrinsic impossibility are distinguished. Finally, the idea of mutually exclusive moral concepts is explored by an examination of theodicy and the Canaanite genocide.

A how-to primer on the proper use of the term "stupid" with a special directions for proper usage when writing or speaking about the President of the United States. Why do people embrace stupidity as the preferred way to look at the world and how did Donald Trump normalize and the veneration of cultural stupidity?

Satanic pregnancies, cowboy hero myths, nonsensical Bible stories, American gun idolatry, heathens, heretics, and the rise of the "nones." How do we explain to an alien visitor from a culturally and morally advanced civilization that we have the right to self-identify as Homo Sapiens: man the wise. The short answer is that it can't be done.

An examination of where, in his famous Inferno, Dante would have placed Donald Trump if he had the results of a psychopath test.