SDGs best for measuring progress. Not GDPs.

 Another Letter to the Editor to the Washington Post that will never be printed. 

Dear Editor,

Megan Mcardle did profound service to Americans and humanity (Washington Post.  “The looming disasters we don’t prepare for”.  Feb. 25, 2021) by advocating we invest now in inevitable (but likely rare) disasters.  Few give thought to the multitude of inevitable disasters capable of disrupting earthly life in more damaging ways the Covid19.   Mcardle won’t be the only Cassandra history will note (assuming civilization survives).  Richard Clarke’s 2017 book “Warnings” detailed eight events experts were warning about and yet policy makers ignored.  Clarke offered eight more we should be preparing for (spoiler alert - #2 was “pandemics”).  His middle chapter offered 3 reasons why we don’t listen.  But it’s worse than that.

We don’t even do the things we know we should!  Never have we had more information regarding our need to eat healthy, exercise regularly, don’t smoke, or abuse drugs.  Yet obesity, suicides, and drug overdoses were increasing before the pandemic.  And nearly as many Americans died in 2020 from smoking as from Covid19.

Add to these factors the human mind’s creative capacity to believe ANYTHING.  Then kill or die for defending an erroneous belief.  

To best prepare for increasing global chaos absent any rare threats it would be best investing urgently in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  These SDGs are a comprehensive global approach to preventing most of today’s crisis.  Achieving them would be a wise insurance policy to enable humanity to recover from any disaster as well for preparing every nation for unlikely threats the future will bring. 

As Hazel Henderson keeps warning humanity, the SDGs are infinitely more useful as a score card for measuring human progress - and our species capacity to thrive.  The SDGs need to replace the GDP as our measure of real progress. 

Peace is the wrong goal.

 

WorldBeyondWar.org is one of the largest so called ‘peace’ organizations in the US.

And regardless of the human costs WBW continues its focus on targeting the immediate elements of war instead of any serious effort to transform the profoundly flawed ‘international law’ system that sustains it. 

WBW’s current campaign is urging citizens to ‘sign’ a petition.  They believe (or want others to believe) that this is an ‘action’ capable of creating peace in Afghanistan.  This would be laughable if it were not so simple minded - and if successful - wouldn’t end in such horrific and inevitable consequences.

WBW implies that “demanding” that “all Governments with Troops Occupying Afghanistan” be withdrawn, will lead to an acceptable ‘peace’ there. 

No where in or around their petition is there a mention of the lethal consequences that will follow the inevitable collapse of the corrupt Afghan government.  The corrupt government that currently exists and barely undeserving of any support.  

WBW’s leadership only eyes a victory notch that will aid their seeking additional members and funding for their flawed peace approach.  Peace at any price should never be an option.

For decades WBW actions have ignored the fundamental principle that “peace is not a function of disarmament.  This typical liberal approach has been as foolish as the typical conservative belief of “peace through strength”.  It violates the fundamental principle that ‘peace is also not a function of armaments.’

Peace is a function of justice!  No exceptions…only additions. 

The first addition is grasping the fact that the two most valued universal human desires are freedom and security.  And sustainable justice is a function of ‘liberty and justice for all’ within a governing system engineered on the fundamental principle that protecting both human freedom and security is the highest priority.  And non-negotiable.  

Who believes the protection of inalienable human rights (see Universal Declaration of Human Rights and US Declaration of Independence) and humanities vital life support systems (nature) are NOT as important as the protection of national sovereignty, unregulated capitalism, or global corporations?  Who would claim that holding every individual accountable for any violation of these two fundamental elements of nature - is a bad thing?  These are the most basic elements that are almost always abused by the unrestricted power of nation states, capitalism, and/or corporations that are now prioritized in our global governance system.    

No change. No peace.   Peace should never be the highest priority.  Sustainably maximizing human freedom and security should be.

So what will be the costs of all foreign troops leaving Afghanistan.

#1. Say goodbye to Women’s rights there.

#2. Anticipate the detention, torture, and execution of any individuals (and maybe their families) of people in or attached to the exiting Kabul government.

#3. Expect Pakistan’s government (and likely other bordering nations), that have extensive self-interest in Afghanistan stability - and wealth of vital minerals, to act to protect those interests.  It is impossible to know what those consequences will be but they are unlikely to be peaceful.

#4. How long will it be, before Al Qaeda, ISIS, or the next mutation of these killer memes use Afghanistan’s ungovernable chaos to reorganize and develop plans to disrupt the West.  Or acquire biological weapons from other sources that are hateful due to the injustices of US military invasions/ occupations and their associated atrocities?  Only a fool would fail to grasp the enormous disruption capacity that even a weak biological attack could create.  Bioweapons relative ease of creation, access, distribution, and lack of attribution - increases every day.   IMPORTANT NOTE:  Both the US military and WBW fail to grasp that ‘Deterrence’ is no longer a reliable defense strategy.  And rapidly creating and fielding effective defenses against the rapidly evolving offensive weaponry is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to fund.  

Within this context it seems self-evident, that creating the conditions for a sustainable peace is far more important than demanding the removal of just one aspect of war, as important as that removal is eventually.

Advocating (at the very least) for a United Nations effort to protect the freedoms and security of all Afghans instead of abandoning them to the extremist whims of the Taliban or the other self-interested parties, bordering governments, or their military powers.

At most WBW should be advocating for the transformation of the increasingly obvious catastrophic failings of the current global governance systems.  Addressing the current pandemic, preventing others (including the inevitable use of biological weapons), and quickly addressing global warming and other existential environmental threats must become the highest priority of each progressive movement - and all organizations within each movement (Peace, Environment, Social/Economic Justice).

At the very least, a plan to sufficiently fund the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a comprehensive solution (which they are) as a movement unifying goal. 

 

Wikipedia Leftist bias?

 

Here is my ‘Letter to the Editor’ submitted to the Washington Times in response to today’s article claiming Wikipedia leftist bias.   Co-founder says Wikipedia's neutrality 'long gone,' cites leftist bias - Washington Times

Below my letter is my comment on their website linked to this article.  Note that their comments section holds responses ‘under consideration’ before being published on their website.   

***************************

Dear Editor,

To conservative eyes Wikipedia is bias. To realist’s eyes, it is bias in both directions.

Wikipedia entries for "Capitalism" do not cover the profoundly damaging and deadly aspects of unregulated/unenforceable rules of global capitalism - such as 'free trade' or the greatest flaws of democracy and the US Constitution.

China's theft of US intellectual property …and free access to other dual use technologies increasingly threatens US national security.  There are no ‘rule of law’ enforceable controls.  Only war, sanctions that can be more deadly than war – or start one, and diplomacy are existing options.  Our 'democratic republic' and other democracy 'systems' (using all three) have allowed centuries of slavery, genocide of native populations, expensive undeclared wars, sanctions more deadly than wars, and unenforceable violations of human rights within -and outside of their borders. Not to mention failing to defend against infectious diseases within their own borders. Disease that were inevitable and preventable with a 'universal health care system'. The largest democracy in the world - India -still has more people (mostly children) dying daily of easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases...as it did - before this global pandemic. Neither capitalism or democracy has put the protection of human health, freedom, and security as the highest priority. Profit and popular desires remain the primary driver within these two inherently flawed systems - regardless of all the good things they have delivered. And you won't read any of that in Wikipedia. The current crisis in Texas is the best example of the capitalist and democratic system ignoring this fundamental need.

Chuck

Chuck Woolery, Former Chair
United Nations Association, Council of Organizations
315 Dean Dr., Rockville, MD 20851
Cell:240-997-2209   chuck@igc.org

“Co-founder says Wikipedia's neutrality 'long gone,' cites leftist bias”

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Sunday, February 21, 2021

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is criticizing the site’s left-wing bias, saying the popular online encyclopedia has become an irretrievably broken platform for socialism.

“The days of Wikipedia’s robust commitment to neutrality are long gone,” Mr. Sanger told Fox News in a new interview. “Wikipedia’s ideological and religious bias is real and troubling, particularly in a resource that continues to be treated by many as an unbiased reference work.”

Mr. Sanger, 52, co-founded the site with Jimmy Wales in January 2001. He said Wikipedia’s turn away from neutrality is “disheartening.”

Wikipedia, which says “anyone can edit” its entries, is one of the most-used websites in the world. Google prioritizes its placement in search results.

But Mr. Sanger tweeted that leftist activists gradually move in “to take control of any influential institution not explicitly conservative … and they just work harder, and in more subtle ways, on the ones that are explicitly conservative.”

“And then when the rest of the media and tech became insanely far left, Wikipedia naturally went along with the trend,” he tweeted.

The Fox analysis cited the two main pages for “Socialism” and “Communism” that span 28,000 words but lack any discussion of the genocides committed by socialist and communist regimes, in which tens of millions of people were murdered and starved.

“The omission of large-scale mass murder, slave labor, and man-made famines is negligent and deeply misleading,” economics professor Bryan Caplan, who has studied the history of communism, told Fox News.

In a blog post, Mr. Sanger said examples of bias on Wikipedia “have become embarrassingly easy to find,” pointing to the entries for former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

The Barack Obama article completely fails to mention many well-known scandals: Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the AP phone records scandal, and Fast and Furious, to say nothing of Solyndra or the Hillary Clinton email server scandal — or, of course, the developing ‘Obamagate’ story in which Obama was personally involved in surveilling Donald Trump,” Mr. Sanger posted in May 2020. “A fair article about a major political figure certainly must include the bad with the good.”

He said the entry about Mr. Trump shows that Wikipedia’s neutrality “is a joke.”

“Just for example, there are 5,224 none-too-flattering words in the ‘Presidency’ section,” he wrote. “By contrast, the following ‘Public Profile’ (which the Obama article entirely lacks), ‘Investigations,’ and ‘Impeachment’ sections are unrelentingly negative, and together add up to some 4,545 words — in other words, the controversy sections are almost as long as the sections about his presidency.”

He said Wikipedia frequently asserts “in its own voice, that many of Trump’s statements are ‘false.’ Well, perhaps they are. But even if they are, it is not

exactly neutral for an encyclopedia article to say so, especially without attribution.”

The Wikimedia Foundation said in a statement that Wikipedia “is a living, breathing project, and is always evolving just as our shared understanding of a topic does.” It said the foundation does not directly control the content on the site, which is written by volunteer editors.

The spokesperson also pointed to a Harvard study that “shows how the more people edit an article, the more neutral it becomes,” Fox News reported.

My comment on this online… waiting for approval as of 11:30 am.

I'm guessing the Wikipedia entries for "Capitalism" do not cover the profoundly damaging and deadly aspects of unregulated/unenforceable rules of global capitalism such as 'free trade' or the greatest flaws of democracy and the US Constitution. China's theft of US intellectual property …and free access to other dual use technologies increasingly threatens US national security without any enforceable controls. Our 'democratic republic' and other democracy 'systems' have allowed centuries of slavery, genocide of native populations, expensive undeclared wars, sanctions more deadly than wars, and unenforceable violations of human rights within -and outside of their borders. Not to mention failing to defend against infectious diseases within their own borders. Disease that were inevitable and preventable with a 'universal health care system'. The largest democracy in the world - India -still has more people (mostly children) dying daily of easily preventable malnutrition and infectious diseases...as it did - before this global pandemic. Neither capitalism or democracy has put the protection of human health, freedom, and security as the highest priority. Profit and popular desires remain the primary driver within these two inherently flawed systems - regardless of all the good things they have delivered. And you won't read any of that in Wikipedia. The current crisis in Texas is the best example of the capitalist and democratic system ignoring this fundamental need.

Cancel the Cancel Culture!

 

Conservatives have created yet another phrase to smash liberals.  It’s a classic trick of using the very tactic one is trying to defeat.  Most sane people are now aware of the obvious and lethal dangers of ‘free speech’ considering the events on Jan 6, 2021.   But liberals fail to understand the value of allowing any potentially dangerous speech to be expressed.  And the greater risks associated with efforts trying to prohibit it.

Any rational thinker clearly understands that the violence, destruction, crimes, and murder on Jan 6^th would NOT have happened had former President Trump accepted reality.  Instead, he persisted in pushing the “big lie”.  That he’d won the election by “a landslide”.  Then stressed it repeatedly up to, during, and even after the violent storming of the capital.  His unyielding assertion that massive ballot irregularities were the result of a criminal conspiracy, and his re-election was derailed by an evil Democratic party - are still believed by him and others involved in the insurrection.   Attackers were led to believe they needed to stop the traitorous and faithless actions that Trump insisted threatened the existence of their country.  

Ironically, this is essentially the same claim that liberals often use in waging their cancel campaign on the President’s free speech.  Luckily, most liberals are not armed to the teeth or committed to killing perceived traitors.

The Senate trial was important, but also a waste of time.  There was always zero chance the GOP would convict Trump of incitement, regardless of any convincing evidence, predictable consequences, or pleas for courage to do the right thing for country instead of party.  If they did vote to convict, they would have admitted to being accomplices guilty of enabling him and the insurrection.  The courage deficit of 43 Senators will mark them historically as cooperating conspirators in their President’s lethal dereliction of duty (and this may include the hundreds of thousands of American deaths resulting from his Administration’s failure to follow 90% of the GAO’s recommendations in addressing the pandemic).  These Senators culpability in refusing to admit that the fundamental driver of those who broke into the Capital (to do exactly what their President had been demanding for weeks – to stop the vote) was the direct consequence of the Big Lie!

If that isn’t proof of a conservative ‘cancel culture’ movement (a movement against ‘truth’) perhaps further evidence won’t either.  But here it is.

Conservative’s insistence on prohibiting flag burning as a legitimate means of protesting our government’s malfeasance.  Or canceling football players right to kneel in protest of murderous police brutality.

Canceling people’s equal access to basic health care, a livable wage, affordable housing, or justice in our legal system.

Canceling the biological desires of children who feel they were born with the wrong genitalia…  thus canceling the genetic fact that DNA is not as pure as they believe - or their God had planned.

Canceling voting rights whenever they can Block the Vote: Voter Suppression in 2020 (aclu.org)  According to Sierra Club research “There were over 165 voter suppression laws in 33 states on the table at last count!”  Then there is gerrymandering of Congressional Districts to maintain the power of their own cancel culture (Maryland democrats finally learned how to do it.)

Canceling the rights of women or transgender Americans to serve in the US military - or the marriage of two Americans who truly and faithfully love each other…but are the same sex.

Canceling environmental programs because they might hurt the economy, or cut liberal good Samaritans programs or shaming criminal US military of foreign policy efforts that displaces non-Americans from their own nation - or cancels the families of those in fear (or great need) who come to our nation for an honest job.

Canceling humanitarian efforts to address the loss of life and property resulting from increasing extreme weather conditions -- or in need of vaccines to protect them and their loved ones from this pandemic.

Canceling every women’s right to choose the termination of an unwanted pregnancy…with understandable reasons on both sides…but only condemned as murder by one side.  Then insisting that this murder violates their God’s plan while ignoring our nation’s death penalty.

Or, canceling the fact that our nation represents both the freedom of religion – and freedom from it.  And then accuse those who don’t believe the US is a Christian nation as un-American or unpatriotic.

Conservatives are genius at framing issues to boost their self-image.  Liberal suck at reframing such nonsense with a fundamental patriotic narrative.  A narrative inherent in our Declaration of Independence framed within “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”, not Christianity.  While Christianity is the world’s largest major religion it consists of tens of thousands of unique variations.  With each sect believing theirs is the only true representation of God, Jesus Christ, history, and science.  And occasionally going to war over their differences.

Hypocracy is rife on all sides.

FACT:  There will always be consequences to what people say or don’t say, believe or don’t believe, do or don’t do.  Example: Any policy makers who continue to support the free speech of former President Donald Trump who persistently repeated ‘the big lie’ and said nothing while it fomented violent lethal action to stop the certification of a valid election - will rightfully be submitted to ridicule, social rejection, economic consequences, and histories punishment.  And rightfully so, until they recant their irresponsible freedom.  

And, we will all be at the effect of consequences if we continue to accept the inherent flaws recognized by faithful members of every political party in our government and Constitution.  And unless we urgently transform it in fundamental ways those consequences will be increasingly catastrophic.  January 6, like the pandemic, was a wake-up call for all Americans.

Silencing speech or unpopular actions won’t prevent it.  Only ‘liberty and justice for all’ will. It is what we have all pledged before our flag, dozens if not thousands of times.

Both liberals and conservatives have effectively canceled the culture now needed by “We the People”.   A culture that holds the Declaration of Independence as the “Apple of Gold” as President Abraham Lincoln framed it.  Instead of worshiping our Constitution, which he considered its ‘frame of “Silver. 

What needs to be canceled is any sides efforts to outlaw the profound inalienable human rights and freedom expressed in our Declaration of Independence.  Rights that if canceled will only create increasing and inevitable divisions.  Divisions that will inevitably lead to uncontrollable violence and the use of increasingly powerful, available, affordable, ubiquitous, and anonymous technologies.  Multiple use technologies with the increasing capacity to murder and mass murder opponents, genetically target specific groups, or cause unprecedented local, national, and global chaos.  Chaos, where even suspected opponents are targeted without any concern for collateral damage.

We all must make the choice.  Are we going to live under the ‘rule of law’?  (Enforceable laws created by ‘we the people, enforced equally on all, and protective of universal inalienable human rights globally).   Or be perpetually fearful of the lethal and even genocidal law of force that now rules the planet due to our worship of national sovereignty and capitalism- instead of maximizing the global sustainability of human freedom and security for all.

There’s a saying…if you keep heading the direct you are going…you are doing to end up where you are heading.  Right now?  We are heading toward Armageddon.  Fast and furious.

If you are not part of the solution.  You are part of the problem.

 

Viruses change. Can we?

 

Dear Editor,

The Washington Post’s lengthy editorial “We’re still missing the origin story of this pandemic” (Feb 7, 2021) is interesting but non-essential. 

Opinion | China is sitting on the answers to the pandemic’s origins - The Washington Post

What is essential is combatting the flawed personal and government responses to what we do know about this virus and the inevitability of future viruses that can and will be worse.  Especially the human engineered kind. 

More of nature's viruses and virus variants will come to.  We know with enough certainty that this one DID originate in China.  Knowing exactly how it originated will take valuable time and resources that we should now apply to preventing the spread and mutation of this one, and the emergence of another. 

I’m certain that if there was an accidental lab release in China, it’s government will enforce more effective standards to prevent a similar release in the future.  

The front-page story regarding the new B1.1.7 variant deserved that editorial space instead.  

Why the Mutated Coronavirus Variants Are So Worrisome - The Washington Post

These little viral killers change persistently and quickly.  We don’t appear to change at all.   Prevention seems to be an unAmerican word.