Nov 30: My Wife’s Birthday

Some days are just more important than others.  Birthdays are important because it is the day you started directly breathing air on planet earth.  It is the very same air molecules that billions of other life forms inhaled on their first exposure to earth’s atmosphere…something all us animals have in common.

But Nov 30 is special in my world because if I didn’t make it that way, I would suffer guilt as well as more disenchantment from my wife whom I’ve been sharing air with for over 42 years.

But keeping track of how many laps around the sun we have completed since drawing our first breath isn’t really that important.  One of my favorite ‘Momisms’ that my birthing mother offered me since I’ve been on mother earth is “how old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”.   For the past 40 years I’ve LOVED that.  But now that I’m starting to feel my actual earth age, I’m becoming more thankful for every single day, and more aware of every single ache and impending limitation.  The greatest limitation being the last day I or my wife will inhale earth’s increasingly polluted and warming air.

In most cultures it is the man who decides which female he will pursue.  But in our American culture it is the female who determines which male she will choose to put up with -- for as long as drawing air in is easier than drawing up divorce papers.

I love my wife, more than she will ever know given my shortcomings at expressing it.  And I’m almost convinced that she loves me.  But, love is one of those words that has multiple meanings even within the same mind defining it. 

But it’s safe to say ‘love’ is far more than a feeling.  Perhaps viewing it as a commitment to another person’s needs as more important than your own is a male way of looking at it.  What’s a human male who wouldn’t sacrifice his own life to protect his female and her offspring?  The same as a male who would.  Expendable.  Just more so.

So being needed in this culture of excessive wealth is far less important than it used to be in our early years of evolution. Not to say we have evolved very far, but women today simply don’t need men.  But I need my wife.   Wanting to make her happy on her birthday is mandatory.  Doing so?  That’s more complicated.  And best explained with a joke.  

A man finds a Genie who is exhausted with giving three wishes and instead offers the man only one wish.  The man says I’ve always wanted to end world hunger but have never had the power to make it happen.  The Genie rolled his eyes and says “common man!  Do you know how many people are hungry, how many have been trying to feed them for decades?  Do you know far mankind’s view of the world and the future would need to change to end hunger?  What else do you have?”  The man says “Well, I’ve always wanted the environment to be pristine and sustainable for all future generations.”  The Genie moans.  “oh G-d!  Do you really think humans can worship God’s creation more than their own greed and selfishness?  Do you have any idea what it would take to change their frivolous wants short of a world war?  What else you got?”  The man thinks for a few seconds and says “Well, I’ve always wanted to know how to make my wife happy?”  The Genie is speechless as he ponders the question.  Then he ask, “What were those other two things you asked for?”

Another joke…  Men were trying to figure out what women really wanted to be satisfied. So a survey was conducted.  Turns out what they wanted most was to be able to eat anything they wanted and not get fat.  

Actually, that may actually be a true story.

Happy Birthday sweetheart!  Dinner and a movie with a side of liquorish tonight?

Nov 29: International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People:

This day 71 years ago the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state despite strong Arab opposition.  For a more detailed history of events leading up to this partition go to:  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-n-votes-for-partition-of-palestine?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2018-1129-11292018&om_rid=06f7f5f642fa25807d7ee262023dca231bfd1e37110f1e7c86d6b1f45db91d8f&om_mid=500180825&kx_EmailCampaignID=25664&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2018-1129-11292018&kx_EmailRecipientID=06f7f5f642fa25807d7ee262023dca231bfd1e37110f1e7c86d6b1f45db91d8f

This day is intended to affirm that Palestinians lives matter too.  But at least two things must happen before this fundamental truth can be actualized in today’s world.

First, the majority of the Palestinian people need a decent quality of life and the courage to demand of their own leaders that the Jewish people need a dependable sense of security.   Everyone needs these things, but ideologies and conflicting fact and faith based historic narratives prevent it.

Second, the government of Israel, the US, and any other nation that holds national sovereignty dominant to the protection of the most fundamental human rights (Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) must change their violence triggering perspective.   

There have been many proposals on how to resolve this seemingly endless middle-east conflict that contains within it the seeds of Armageddon.   The genius and insanity of some of the proposals below should be obvious. They are listed in no logical order except for the last which appears to be the only non-violent path that world leaders have agreed upon.

The Two State Solution:  Giving Palestinians their own ‘independent’ state only perpetuates the same insanity that exists between all nation states today, the illusion of security through the concept of national sovereignty.  It appears to be a step forward but instead it is a side step away from achieving maximum freedom and security for Jews, Palestinians, and all of humanity.

Genocide:  The possibility of a second holocaust is real given three factors.  First the persistent injustices suffered by millions of Palestinian people that are largely the result of the lethal consequences of national sovereignty policies and the powerful weaponry of two nation states most interested in maintaining the status quo of injustice.  Last, and most terrifying, is the possibility of some anti-Semite biologist developing a biological weapon that could target a specific genetic variant within the Jewish genome. Predictably, Jewish biologists working with other.

Land for peace:  The idea that negotiations between leaders arriving at an agreement on clear border lines delineating which lands will belong to whom sounds logical.  But that’s not a principle nation states are known for.   If this agreement could be reached by some miracle without a war, it might include an enforceable means of motivating people on either side to refrain from killing anyone on the other side.  It would require an entirely reliable neutral party to enforce this law with any conviction of a first-degree murder by one side would result in the forfeiture of certain sized piece of land from the other side.  And the side that lost a life would get to choose where the parcel of land would be taken from on the other side.    

Demographic transition/war:  The unequal population growth rate of both factions will inevitably become lopsided to the extent that any democratic attempt to politically resolve their differences will likely spark a civil war or genocide.  The use of force will likely remain the deciding factor in stead of the force of just laws.

Nuke Jerusalem.  If the dispute over ownership of ancient holy lands is unresolvable, then eliminating the disputed land, or a credible threat to do so, may be the only other option for avoiding Armageddon or perpetual violence by competing sides.

Make Israel the 51^st State of the US:  http://washingtonnote.com/make_israel_a_s/

World Federation:  This form of world government could outlaw war by holding nation state leaders accountable for acts of war, genocide, or crimes against humanity.  But it would have start by putting the protection of human rights ahead of the rights of nation states (national sovereignty) or cause a global civil war like the US experienced because its original version of the Constitution because it allowed states’ rights dominion over the most fundamental human right of freedom.  It appears humanity is not wise enough to take this preventive measure to war but might attempt it again if humanity survives another world war…or Armageddon.  

The Second Coming of Jesus:  Lacking God’s protection this time around Jesus would probably be considered a terrorist and dealt with accordingly.  The mindset of nation states and leaders of other religions just wouldn’t allow such a loving transformation of humankind’s treatment of others.

Achieving the SDGs by the year 2030:  At the cost of trillions of dollars this would be wisest money ever spent.  If all the world’s people could not fear for their most basic needs or the loss of their most basic freedoms, the world would have a non-violent chance at building heaven on earth. 

Nov 28 WMD Appreciation Day?

Exactly 60 years ago today our [great?] nation launched is first full range Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).  It was an interesting way to connect the rest of the world with our firepower, but concepts and technology are rarely controlled or limited by national borders or the worship of national sovereignty. 

The singular purpose of the ICBM was to deliver mass death and destruction to any other nation that had the economic and technological power to threaten our view of the world and our lead in developing nuclear weapons.  These new weapons contained an unprecedented capacity for destroying not just your enemy, but its cities and civilians inhabiting them.  Civilians who are probably no more deserving of death than we were.

Today, thanks to the exponential growth, affordability, and accessibility of virtually every technology the world is awash in the means of mass death and destruction.  And there is less and less capacity for governments to defend against them given the technological advances in speed, stealth, number, and their anonymous nature.   This last factor and the willingness of attackers to die for their cause even reduces the effectiveness of deterrence as a means of insuring security.

Some experts would argue that the acronym WMD be reserved only for nuclear weapons as it was originally intended.  But understanding the killing capacity of biological weapons one can make an indisputable argument that one well-designed bioweapon can kill more people (billions) than one nuclear weapon (a few million at most).  And drone delivery of a bioweapon is infinitely easier, cheaper and less likely to be detected than an ICBM delivered nuke.  A Nuclear ICBM can destroy a city.  A bioweapon can destroy civilization.

Twenty years ago, I toured US campuses and civic institutions speaking about the growing variety and volume of national security threats we face. My introduction to the topic was a simple graph with three simple lines.  The first line represented the exponential growth of all technologies bending steadily upward and out the top of the chart.  The second line represented our linear thinking process that rose upward and extended off the right side of the chart.  The last line represented our governments history of change. A flat line extending across the bottom of the chart with a spike after September 11, 2001.  A single attack by 19 men using razor blades and our own passenger planes instead of ICBMs.  Since then that flat line has been heading downward…resisting any chance of the transformational change needed to prevent or better recover from the coming threats.   

People today might debate calling those commercial jets WMD. But failing to recognize that a drone used to deliver a biological weapon is a WMD is clear evidence of the dangers of linear thinking and the suicidal nature of our government’s resistance to any change. 

Combine linear thinking with our government’s addiction to national sovereignty and its unswerving worship of our Constitution (a document specifically designed to resist rapid and significant change) and the transformational changes needed to avoid catastrophic consequences becomes unthinkable.

So now, in addition to super power nations with official forms of WMD the world is increasingly populated by super powered individuals.  Some are inspired to create technologies capable of connecting everyone in the world with communication, commerce, and community spirit.  Other’s however, are inspired to use that same technology to infect the world with distrust, divisiveness and/or infectious diseases.

Security has always been difficult.  The human bodies systems and structures contain so many vulnerabilities - and the human mind such creativity in finding ways to disrupt them, that security is essentially an illusion.  And unachievable if someone is committed to the opposite.

Real security:  Based on expert interviews at the 2018 Stockholm Security Conference, SIPRI has produced a new film series—‘Exploring security risks posed by newly emerged technologies’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLii5OJZmss&list=PLhYE8cjKxVOMJwEqgPoSVkA2YT1uUxCql

Security is not a function of armament or disarmament. It is a function of justice. Injustices drive violence. And technologies only increase our killing capacity as well as our dependence on it for the illusion of security. The best we can do is create a social, political and economic environment where the willingness to go to war or commit mass murder is virtually non-existent. Technology is not the answer. The golden rule is...think Universal Declaration of Human Rights or achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Holding people accountable for injustices by the rule of law or people will turn to the law of force to seek justice. 

The evolution of weaponry will end only when we decide that justice and human survival is more important than any other political, economic, or religious priority.

Time and technology are not on our side.  But we do have the resources and the know how to make a more just, sustainable, and fulfilling future for all.  It all depends on what we are committed to.    America First?, Or, liberty and justice for all?

You might wonder why today was introduced as 'WMD Appreciation Day' instead of WMD Awareness Day.   Fact is, we've always been aware of WMD.  But we've never really appreciated the value of WMD in making us rethink our worship of national sovereignty and our faith in technology to protect us.  They can't.  Only a global justice system has that possibility.  

"Love for others and respect for their rights and their human dignity, irrespective of who or what they are, no matter what religion - or none - that they choose to follow, will bring about real change and set in motion proper relationships.  With such relationships built on equality and trust, we can work together on so many of the threats to our common humanity."  - Mairead Maguire

Nov 27 Giving Tuesday

Compassion and empathy are feelings that remind us we are not psychopaths.  We care enough about others reminding us that there are others in the world less fortunate than us.  Some in desperate need.

From there we can go several different directions.

1.       Give something;  Money, time, valued resources, a prayer.  Or, feel completely overwhelmed by all the need and rationalize not doing anything or just feel guilty.

There’s a third option offered in both a short story and a quote.

Short story:  A man is walking along a river and sees a baby floating by.  He jumps in and saves it…but sees a few more floating by and starts to scream for help.  Others join him in pulling babies from the slow flowing water.  A woman walks up and see’s what’s going, gets angry and starts walking away briskly.  Some one in the water yells at her “these babies need your help!  where are you going?”.  She yells back, I’m going up stream. I’m going to find out who’s throwing the babies in the water. 

Quote:  “When I feed the hungry, they call me a saint. When I ask why they have no food, they call me a Communist.” Archbishop Helder Camara

Sometimes people in need do require immediate attention. Other times in this abundant world too many people’s needs are not met because of barriers put in their way by governments, unjust economic systems, abnormal weather conditions, or flawed banking or health care systems and structures.

In my world view more important than giving money is giving a significant shit about injustices AND doing something to change the manmade systems and structures that fail to invest in the human capital that would enable all people to be free from the barriers now blocking their life, liberty and their pursuit of happiness.  

If money does that great!  If it’s just taking babies out of the river…we need to seriously up our game.

Nov 26: Nullification of National Sovereignty day?

National Sovereignty may be the greatest conceptual evil that mankind (women were not in political or religious power then) has ever created.   Pope Innocent X (“the Tenth”) declared the Peace of Westphalia (which established this disastrous concept) null and void 370 years ago today. 

Unfortunately, nation-states ignored him.  They still do today.

The Pope’s concerns were unacceptable back then because the whole purpose of the Treaty of Westphalia was to stop the perpetual slaughter from 30 years of religious wars with zero regard for national borders, like ISIS, Al Qaeda and Christian White Supremacists today.

Before the Westphalia ‘peace treaty’ each religion essentially assumed the right to kill whomever they wanted, whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted.  The treaty essentially ended that chaos so mass murders were only allowed by governments within their own national boundaries.  Or, if another nation interfered with or annoyed another government for any reason, the treaty was null and void.  Mass murder could resume…but only against another nationality.    

That government right still exists today.  The right to kill anyone, anytime, for whatever reason it wants, as long as they are within its own borders.  There is an exception to this “murder” rule.  If one nation has an extraordinary military and thinks it can safely murder or mass murder people in another nation, it’s OK to do so on any scale they believe they can get away with.

This national sovereignty “peace” concept has lasted 370 years.  Oddly, even after suffering two world wars, and the invention of weapons that could vaporize a hundred thousand people in seconds the world reinforced this ‘peace’ code of conduct with the UN Charter.  The Charter’s Preamble laughingly begins “We the peoples of the United Nations” but gave zero power to this international law system and its various structures to protect inalienable rights of ‘we the peoples’. 

Nothing represents this reality more than the recent murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia’s henchmen in Turkey, done with the approval or acquiescence of the Saudi Prince.  Or consider the continued bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its acceleration of the starvation of up to 9 million innocent Yemeni men, women, and children.  This is in addition to the tens of thousands that have already been murdered with the assistance (weapons sales, bomber refueling, and precise targeting) funded by US tax payers.  And then there was the US shock and awe invasion of Iraq and it's lengthy and bloody occupation just on a suspicion they might want to hurt us...in the land of the brave. 

For nations that want to retain the supremacy of national sovereignty over the protection of human rights I wish they would really think through their worship of this insane concept.  They may want to consider a few of the things that have changed over the last three and a half centuries.  Border walls, rivers, oceans and castles that used to provide relatively good security don't hold up well against a variety of new technologies.  Technologies that give far more advantage to the attacker. 

For the life of me (literally) I’m trying to figure out how this 370 year old national sovereignty concept is going to protect me (and others) from bio-security threats (pandemics, bioterrorism…), a collapse of the global economy, WMD proliferation, terrorism, global warming, international cyber criminals, or space weapons.

Many things have changed since 1648.  Perhaps we should too.

Nov 25 International Day on Violence Against Women

I thought this was going to be the easiest of the 30 blogs I committed to writing between Nov 11 (100^th anniversary of the end of WW I) and Dec 10^th (70^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights book marking the end of WW II with the intention of preventing WW III).  

But, so far it has proved to be the most difficult.  

My mother (in my mind eligible for sainthood) was physically and verbally abused by my father for years.  Black eyes and bruises were public proof.  But now, trying to imagine what she really went through mentally -- has ended my capacity to think and write about her experience.  So, I will write about mine.

This day is moves me personally and profoundly.  My desire to make more of a difference than just bringing this issue to people’s attention is limited and frustrating.   I feel more hopeless about this issue than in stopping my Mom’s beatings.  So, if you or anyone you know is physically abused by a man (or anyone) -- and you’ve been threatened if you report it to the police, please contact me.   I will do whatever I can to help.    

Here’s my experience.   Please feel free to share these next few paragraphs with anyone who is being physically harmful with their power. 

WARNING to Abusers:  As a child I was physically abused by my father many times.  I often deserved to be disciplined but I never deserved to be kicked or whipped with wire, rope, or leather horse reigns. Or, slapped so hard I saw stars.  Worse than this I witnessed the physical abuse of my mother.  The black eyes and bruises were the last straw.  Most of my nights of terror were mixed with righteous anger and ended only after vividly imagining all the ways I could kill my father while he slept.  WARNING!  A motivated young boys mind can be quite creative.

I always wondered why my mother didn’t do something lethal while he slept.  She was a skilled woman who knew how to use a hammer, carving knife, rifle, and shotgun.  She was also smart enough to know how to poison rats and coyotes.  But she was a strong Catholic woman who was committed to God and forgiveness.

Back then, I wasn’t.  She was the one who talked me out of murdering my father.

And any man who abuses a women or children in any way shape or form…should not sleep well at night.   The human body is vulnerable in so many ways that it’s hard for one man to imagine them all -- and avoid each.  What goes around comes around. 

Violence against American women still exists in in multiple forms.  But American laws and law enforcement are now far more skilled and officially warranted to protecting innocent people from abusive.  More needs to be done, but globally, the protection of women is woefully scarce.   According to the UN “Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it.

In general terms, it manifests itself in physical, sexual and psychological forms, encompassing:

• intimate partner violence (battering, psychological abuse, marital rape, femicide);
• sexual violence and harassment (rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, street harassment, stalking, cyber- harassment);
• human trafficking (slavery, sexual exploitation);
• female genital mutilation; and
• child marriage.

To further clarify, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women issued by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

The adverse psychological, sexual and reproductive health consequences of VAWG affect women at all stages of their life. For example, early-set educational disadvantages not only represent the primary obstacle to universal schooling and the right to education for girls; down the line they are also to blame for restricting access to higher education and even translate into limited opportunities for women in the labor market.

While gender-based violence can happen to anyone, anywhere, some women and girls are particularly vulnerable - for instance, young girls and older women, women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex, migrants and refugees, indigenous women and ethnic minorities, or women and girls living with HIV and disabilities, and those living through humanitarian crises.

Violence against women continues to be an obstacle to achieving equality, development, peace as well as to the fulfillment of women and girls’ human rights. All in all, the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - to leave no one behind - cannot be fulfilled without putting an end to violence against women and girls.

"“Not until the half of our population represented by women and girls can live free from fear, violence and everyday insecurity, can we truly say we live in a fair and equal world." — UN Secretary-General António Guterres 

Nov 24: World Money Day?

Not really. It’s only a web site.  But humanity needs such a day to examine our assumptions about money and its proper role in maximizing human freedom and security on this increasingly troubled planet.

Supposedly money makes the world go around!   But really, it’s natural forces.  Money is a human made concept and supposedly the source of all evil when greed becomes more valued than human needs or the environment.  What say you?

Other souls have attempted and succeeded at examining money and its changing value.   Here are some of their observations and recommendations.

The most current?  Money Day should replace Black Friday. This annual Friday physical consumption spending celebration should immediately follow the greatest American food consumption day, Thanksgiving.  

The most depressing?  If you make more than $30,000 a year you are in the top 1% of humanity in economic wealth.

One of the oldest:    I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ  (if he said it twice maybe he really meant it?)

Wisest and open to interpretation:   “Time is money”. Benjamin Franklin. 

Best thing about money!  Time is life and money saves both.    If we are lucky, we may survive about 70 to 100 laps around the sun.  Each and every day of that 365-day lap approximately 11,000 children under the age of five will die from easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases.  UNICEF once estimated that for every $100 invested in effective development programs one child’s life is saved and ten others avoid the lifelong suffering from a mental or physical disability.   

In 2016 UNICEF predicted that without increased funding for effective health related development programs “Almost 70 million children may die before reaching their fifth birthdays – 3.6 million in 2030 alone, the deadline year for the Sustainable Development Goals.”    And, “six core investment packages for 74 high-mortality countries would cost about US$30 billion in additional annual spending (2 per cent above current levels) to cover maternal and newborn health, child health, immunization, family planning, HIV/AIDS and malaria, with nutrition as a crosscutting theme.   Between 2013 and 2035, this investment would avert an estimated 147 million child deaths, 32 million stillborn deaths and 5 million maternal deaths.   Some cost comparisons:  Last year NIH invested nearly $37 billion annually in medical research for the American people.  Illegal Immigration Costs California $30.3 Billion A Year. A 2016 Fact Check estimated that $30 billion is spent annually on 500,000 Indigenous people in Australia; and Gallup estimated that millennial turnover costs the U.S. economy at $30.5 billion annually (millennials show less willingness to stay in their current jobs); and Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year Out-of-Pocket on Complementary Health Approaches.  This year illegal Immigration’s ‘Hidden Tax,’ Cost America about $30 Billion. 

Wise investments:   “Obesity in children is growing out of control. A big part of this is economic. Fake foods are more affordable. It's enticing people to eat more because they think they're saving money when they're really just buying heart disease.” Jillian Michaels

Monetary Policy: The impossible trinity or trilemma is a simple money rule with deep global implications. 

...never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. " - Arundhati Roy

People want the free flow of currency., currency stability, and independent currency policy.  But they can only have two.  (Hint: Stability and independence are illusions.  Pick wisely!).  Profound insight:  This trilemma applies to everything!  If we want to maximize our freedom and security, we need to abandon the government concept of independence.  All of the world’s natural and human made systems and structures are interdependent.  If one insists on independence in any system or structure they must be prepared to sacrifice either freedom or security, or both.

“There is no risk-free path for monetary policy.” Jerome Powell

“When monetary policy destroys the currency, it always destroys the middle class.” Ron Paul

“Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.”  Kinky Friedman

What can money buy?  Life!  But it can’t buy love.

“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.” Bob Hope

MicroCredit:  Is lending very small loans to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, or a verifiable credit history.  It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled US$38 billion.  Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. 

The best money investments for the future of humanity:

First:  Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  Why? It will give us the best chance of making it through the next 15 years without us destroying ourselves or AI doing it for us.

Second:  Continue investing resources to actually achieve sustainable liberty and justice for all globally, and sustainable technologies that will enable us to relocate our species to other planets indefinitely.   “In the long run a single planet species will not survive. ” Director of NASA, Feb 23, 2006. 

The most interesting insights: (these are not exact quotes but instead represent general concepts as best that my mind can recall from hearing them speak.)

Bucky Fuller:  Money was created as a convenient means of exchange for goods and services.  And profit was originally an indicator that you were providing what was needed.  Somewhere along the line the value of profit became more important than providing what was needed.  And advertising was invented create wants.  Today profit it the end game of economics.  Not providing what is needed.  That would require a value system that put a high sustainable quality of human life above the human wants to immediately look good and feel good.  Then being good and/or doing good had little if any immediate monetary value.

"We may now care for each Earthian individual at a sustainable billionaire's level of affluence while living exclusively on less than 1 percent of our planet's daily energy income from our cosmically designed nuclear reactor, the Sun, optimally located 92 million safe miles away from us."   Buckminster Fuller

Lynn Twist:   ‘Spending money like voting.  Your money votes for more of whatever you buy.’  

Joan Holmes:  ‘If you want to know what your values are, look at your check book.’

Free money:  Kleptocrat's thefts, laundered drug money, and millionaire tax free deposit total approximated $32 trillion of illicit money that they've stashed for themselves in offshore accounts.  Freezing and seizing this money for investment in human capital where most needed should be the highest priority of every government and white hat hacker in the world.  AI could be most helpful in finding, securing, and most effectively distributing these ill gotten gains if corrupt governments stand in the way.

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.  –  William Somerset Maugham, Strictly Personal [1941]

Nov 23 Loony Liberals and Crazy Conservatives Day?

Bill McKibben’s rant on CBS ( 11-20-18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdlinI4q3aY&feature=youtu.be) on how extreme weather is shrinking the planet may sound extremist but that’s only because the common narrative of middle America and the extremely insane partisanship, hypocrisy…and short term thinking on both sides of the moderate political divide is dysfunctional.  Even the extremes of both parties ignore the fundamental principles that serve all people.

The liberal base and its leadership rarely advocate for freedom - the most fundamental principle of nature -- the freedom to move away from dangers or toward essential elements to survive.  The base word of ‘liberal’ is liberty.  Yet most liberal mission statement won’t list freedom as a priority.   The trajectory of local and global events is escalating security concerns from multiple arenas (global warming, pandemics, poverty, war, terrorism, crime, WMD proliferation…).  Each of which will eventually diminish almost everyone’s freedoms equally.  Liberals fear of fear inhibits an enlightened view of national security that could forward their sublimated primary agenda -- to maximize freedom and security for all.  They fear using fear to motivate rational urgent actions to address even the most inevitable non-military threat.  That’s just loony.

The Conservative base and party leadership rarely advocates for justice.  It is the most fundamental principle that every major world religion preaches as the Gold Rule.   Conservatives champion another golden rule.  Those with the gold make the rules.   They champion freedom.  American’s are free to be as rich as we want and ignore any of the other fundamental God given human rights (except the right to own a gun to defend yourself and family).  Most would acknowledge that the protection of human rights is the primary purpose of government.  Even justice, applied equally to all, being the primary tool essential to building the foundation of any lasting government.  They advocate however weaponry and walls to deliver on their view of national security virtually ignored the other inevitable threats, some more lethal than war.   That’s crazy!

Both sides persistently ignore the increasing velocity, variety and volume of threats to all Americans and our nation.   Advances in technology are increasing our global interdependence while increasingly our nation’s dependence on technology.  That’s just loony and crazy.

Extremists on both sides of our toxic political divide have spoken words of wisdom.  Ron Paul has said ““The condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life. This is one of the core principles…”   Naomi Klein (a progressive movement guru) preached at the 2014 Climate March in NYC, “What we need a movement of movements” to overcome war, environmental degradation, economic injustices, and other human rights abuses.

But putting words into effective action however, is something that we all struggle with.  Regardless of our commitment to maximizing human freedom and security after we frequently pledge to our flag ‘liberty and justice for all’.

President Trump excites a sizable number of Americans who rightfully feel they have been unjustly treated by the status quo partisan middle – which they see as a mass of swamp creatures sustained more by campaign financing than eligible voters or sensible party leaders.

“There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.” H.L. Mencken

Both sides of the middle mass and even each side’s extremes suffer from what George Lakoff considers “direct causation” thinking.   This shallow thinking leads to actions that fail to address the root cause(s) of problems.  If people are killed by a gun.  Liberals focus on taking the gun away.  If dark skinned people break a law.  Conservatives demand ‘Build the wall!”   Neither seriously considers the systemic failures of our government and culture that fuels their often-legitimate concerns/grievances.  Instead, Mr. Lakoff suggests deeper brain functions of more critical analysis or “systemic causation” to find effective solutions to common problems.     

Naomi Klein’s wisdom urged progressives to build a “Movement of Movements” (MoM) as the only sound means for making sustainable progress within each of the three major progressive movements (peace, environment, and social/economic justice). To this day liberal leaders have not created one.  I blame too much freedom, arrogant thinking, and not enough coordination/cooperation.   As former Chair of the United Nations Association Council of Organizations (over 100 US based progressive NGO’s working on virtually every progressive issue with a combined membership of over 25 million Americans) getting consensus to act collectively on a single priority was impossible.  Growing US debt and budget deficits ensured they would be pitted against each other in a zero-sum game. Even competition for memberships, grants, media attention, and access to policy makers on the hill blocked their coming together as one MoM.   One group’s success unintentionally undermined the others.  Making matters worse, the same factors applied with each movement.

In the early 1990s as Advocacy Director the Alliance for Child Survival we lobbied for increased appropriation of tax payer dollar within USAID and the World Bank for extremely successful and cost effective child survival technologies like immunizations and micro-nutrients.  When we succeeded Maternal health programs would be cut to fund them.  When we combined maternal and child health advocacy efforts we competed with the family planning groups who saw “over population” as the top priority.   If they won, funding would come from specific or general global public health projects.  The fundamental principle that improving an impoverished population’s primary health care delivery system would accomplish all three priorities (reducing infant and maternal mortality, and inevitably leads to reducing birth rates) was rarely acted on.

Today, it should be painfully clear with nearly 9 million Yemenis on the verge of starvation in their civil war that stopping war should be a primarily measure to protect public health.  War related deaths from malnutrition and infectious diseases are multiple times higher than combat itself.   But also true -- protecting public health can prevent conflicts.  The war in Syria which has killed approximately half a million people and displaced millions more was sparked by a three-year drought (that may have been exacerbated by global warming) pushing thousands of farming families off their lands and into the cities.  Eventually their suffering created a significant demand for critical services that the Syrian government was unwilling to meet and people protests were violently crushed.   Even US military security experts agree that if we don’t address the causes of global warming, we will see the consequences of more refugees, wars, malnutrition and infectious diseases.  And if we don’t fund more development aid we will need to “buy more bullets.”   Each of these issues are interconnected and require a holistic, comprehensive, and whole of government systemic approach.

Our existing government systems and structures are not protecting the natural systems and structures that communities and nations rely on for their general health and wealth.   Too often US policies undermine or exacerbate their problems (like providing refueling, targeting information, and explosive ordinance to the Saudi government to use against their enemies in Yemen).  Our bodily systems require essentials that nature, funding and/or governments must ensure.  Without which civilized life on this planet for anyone will be unsustainable.

Conservatives champion the fundamental principle of freedom.  But then preach that our freedom is best protected by our national sovereignty, military power, and defending our borders.   They refuse to acknowledge that their freedom trifecta will fail in protecting the health, wealth, and lives of Americans from climate change, WMD proliferation, terrorism, economic instability, pandemics or other environmental insults. 

Bill McKibben’s unnervingly gloomy picture of our future is certainly possible.  But his singular focus on preserving and restoring the mostly favorable environmental living conditions is insufficient.  Lethal global economic inequity for half the world’s people attempting to survive on less than two dollars a day, or billions of others suffering under repressive regimes or lethal injustices drive any sane souls to consider fighting with armed force.  Environmental sustainability is simply unachievable or sustainable without progress in the protection of human rights (liberty and justice for all) which are also essential to peace. 

Fortunately, there is a globally approved campaign to do this.  The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a comprehensive and globally agreed upon effort to be achieved by the year 2030.  We are not on target to meet them. Past liberal failures included their inability to mobilize a hundreds of millions of dollars to achieve the 1990 World Summit for Children’s’ affordable and achievable goals for the year 2000.  Then came the failure to adequately fund the billions needed to achieve the eight 2015 Millennium Development Goals the world unanimously agreed to in 2001.

Now we have the SDGs which will cost trillions of dollars. The amazing news is that this volume of economic resources can be devoted to meeting the 17 SDGs without raising any taxes on the general public.  According to one reliable study there is over $32 trillion ill-gotten dollars stashed in offshore accounts by kleptocrats and their cronies, drug cartels, and immorally wealthy capitalist avoiding taxes. Freezing and then seizing large amounts of this money and applying much of it to achieving the SDGs would be the wisest investment of money governments could make.   Prevention of the threats and rapid effective responses to those we cannot prevent will save millions of lives and trillions of government dollars that will be needed to if we fail to meet the SDGs.   

Without adapting government systems and structures to improve the lives of all human and natural systems and structures, do not count on a future of freedom and security.

According to our nation’s top intelligence agencies directors, “civilizations is a thin veneer”. It needs nurturing.  https://www.c-span.org/search/?searchtype=All&query=Hayden  

Our government institutions are currently doing the opposite.

Connect the dots. See the web of life. Achieve global justice for all. Or, prepare for the catastrophic consequences. 

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OCTOBER 31, 2018.     LAST AIRED NOVEMBER 24, 2018

Threats to Democratic Institutions, James Clapper and Michael Hayden  James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and Michael Hayden, the former CIA director, were the keynote speakers at a discussion on threats to U.S. democratic institutions hosted by the National Security Institute at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.

https://www.c-span.org/search/?searchtype=All&query=Hayden