Rule of Law vs Law of the Jungle (chapter notes & quotes)

 The phrase “Rule of Law” is our global solution.  Not Democracy (tyranny of the majority) or Peace (at any price - like the loss of freedoms).  But the Rule of Law.  And it must be clearly defined!  

If we are to engineer an effective government system capable of sustainably maximizing human freedom, security, and prosperity globally for the next thousand generations it must apply globally.  Not in just a few aligned nations.  An injustice anywhere can threaten people everywhere. The Russia/Ukraine dilemma is evidence of this. A repressed freedom anywhere (often during war) can lead to repressing freedoms everywhere. A democracy anywhere can be used to dominate others anywhere. 

What follows is an AI response to the question “What elements are needed for the Rule of Law to work most effectively? 12-16-22: 

The rule of law is a principle that holds that all people, including those in positions of power and authority, are subject to the law and must follow it. In order for the rule of law to work most effectively, several key elements are typically necessary. These elements include:

Clarity and consistency of the law: The law should be clear, concise, and consistent, and it should be applied in a predictable and unbiased manner.

Independence of the judiciary: The judiciary should be independent from political influence and should be able to impartially interpret and apply the law.

Access to justice: All individuals should have the right to seek legal remedies and have their cases heard by an impartial tribunal.

Equal treatment under the law: The law should be applied equally to all people, regardless of their status or position.

Transparency and accountability: The decision-making processes of the government and legal system should be transparent and accountable to the public.

Respect for human rights: The rule of law should be used to protect and promote fundamental human rights.

By upholding these principles, the rule of law can help to ensure that individuals are treated fairly and that the government and other authorities are held accountable for their actions.

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Our resistance to abandoning ‘democracy’ as our highest aspiration will not end well.  Or using the word ‘terrorism’ in describing any human act. These will inevitably lead to the loss of all freedoms and security. And the first freedom to go will be privacy.  Privacy enables corruption and accumulation/control of resources (financial, material, and information)that can be used for any intended violence on any level, anywhere world, by anyone.  

A comment by Senator Dick Durban in a C-Span hearing on Jan 11, 2022, highlighted the need for this definition.  We must make a distinction between what most people call ‘democracy’ and the phrase “the rule of law”. It was a hearing on Domestic Terrorism 10 years after Senator Durban’s first hearing on the issue in 2012.   This hearing was the first Judiciary hearing of this year.  In those ten years, Domestic Terrorism has only gotten worse.  

1-11-22:  C-Span Dick Durban, said “This committee should be unequivocal.  No more violence!   Time to take a stand.” “The only way to prevent...is joining together to defend our constitution and the Rule of Law.”   

“The world no longer has a choice between force and law.  If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.” Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Both ‘pre’ and ‘post’ Trump impeachment debate was peppered with the phrase “Rule of Law” and the need to protect it and our ‘democracy’. We all grasp the basic value of preserving civility and the fundamental result will either be “It’s either the ‘rule of law’ or the ‘law of the jungle’.” 

But what does ‘rule of law’ really mean? And how is it related to the democracy we hope to preserve?  

The two important questions are: Can we precisely define the ‘Rule of Law’ for functional global approval?  And, if we can, then will we universally adopt the definition with the intention of sustaining our freedoms, security, and eventually our very existence?  Are there any other options except to prepare for the accelerating deterioration of individual, national, and global security?  

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy once offered what may be the best working definition of this often-used phrase “rule of law”.  During a C-Span interview with an international audience in the late 1990s, he was asked ‘What makes the “rule of law” most effective?’   He said he believed ‘it required “three essential” elements to work best’.  He might now say sustainably. 

“First” the “laws need to be made and enforced by a democratic process”.  People want to participate in the rules they live under.  But, he warned that this was “not enough!”   

“Second”, he said “the laws” have to be “applied equally to everyone”.  The principle of justice is universal (as the Golden Rule).   But even that isn’t enough if everyone is mistreated equally.   

Last he said, “the laws must be protective of a certain set of inalienable rights”.  Rights that we have just because we’re born.  Not because of any characteristics we are born with (skin color, sex…) or into (ethnic group, economic group, nationality, religion…).

Think of the ‘Rule of Law’ as using concrete to engineer a solid government.   Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate (rock, sand, or gravel), and Portland cement.  

Portland cement is like justice. It is the binding agent.  Water is the ‘protection of inalienable human rights.  And democracy is the various aggregates that can be strongly bound together.  You can try to leave one of these elements out…but don’t expect a reliably solid and sustainable outcome.  

"Politics must be the battle of the principles... the principle of liberty against the principle of force."  -- Auberon Herbert  (1838-1906) English writer, theorist, philosopher, 19th-century individualist, and member of the Parliament of the U.K.

"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do."  -- Edmund Burke   (1729-1797) Irish-born British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker    Source: Second Speech on Conciliation, 1775

“The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.”   John Locke  (additional reading: Locke, The Second Treatise of Civil Government [1690]

"Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him; every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of the society; and this is all the laws should enforce on him; and, no man having a natural right to be the judge between himself and another, it is his natural duty to submit to the umpirage of an impartial third. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions, and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right."   -- Thomas Jefferson.  Source: Letter to Francis W. Gilmer (27 June 1816); The Writings of Thomas Jefferson edited by Ford, vol. 10, p. 32.

"I began to understand the important divisions in the world are not on the basis of race or nationality or country or where you live. They are really between people who believe in a rule of law as a way of deciding significant issues and those who do not believe in a rule of law — who believe in force." Supreme Court Justice Breyer, NPR Interview regarding his book "The Court and The World: American Law and The New Global Realities." 

"The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power and make deliberative and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world  untouched."Justice Robert Jackson  - Nuremberg address

The philosophical framework of the capitalist society requires a system of laws—a government—to assure that the life and property of individuals are safeguarded. The role of government in a capitalist society is to establish and execute laws designed to keep the peace. As Mill observed, attempts by any to deprive others of their freedom must be prevented, and the force of law is essential to this end. Government in the capitalist society is symbolized by the blindfolded goddess of justice. The rule of law equally protecting life and property is fundamental to the development of a capitalist society. – Robert G. Anderson, The Freeman [October 1979]

“Law” as Dr. Paul Craig Roberts states “is supposed to protect the innocent from the power of government.  Law was intended to be a “shield of the people not a weapon in the hands of the State.”  “When you lose the law, you lose your civil liberties.”   Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was a columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West and How America Was Lost

"For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all; since armed injustice is the more dangerous, and he is equipped at birth with the arms of intelligence and with moral qualities which he may use for the worst ends."

-- Aristotle   (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher.  Source: Politics, 300 B.C.

We now have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order, a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations.    George H. W. Bush,  Presidential State of the Nation address, 1979\

Our ideal is a world community of States which are based on the rule of law and which subordinates their foreign policy activities to law.  Mikhael Gorbachev Address to UN, 7 December 1988

Bad laws?   "One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust ... is in reality expressing the highest respect for law ... We will not obey your evil laws."

-- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  (1929-1968), US civil rights leader

"If citizens cannot trust that laws will be enforced in an evenhanded and honest fashion, they cannot be said to live under the rule of law. Instead, they live under the rule of men corrupted by the law." - Dale Carpenter, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas 

"Our whole political system rests on the distinction between constitutional and other laws. The former are the solemn principles laid down by the people in its ultimate sovereignty; the latter are regulations made by its representatives within the limits of their authority, and the courts can hold unauthorized and void any act which exceeds those limits. The courts can do this because they are maintaining against the legislature the fundamental principles which the people themselves have determined to support, and they can do it only so long as the people feel that the constitution is something more sacred and enduring than ordinary laws, something that derives its force from a higher authority."   -- Walter F. Dodd.  (1880-1960) Author, professor of     political science

Source: The Revision and Amendment of State Constitutions, P. 253 (1910).

"Today is a sad day for the rule of law and for those who believe that the courts should protect American citizens from torture by their own government,"     -     "By dismissing this lawsuit, the appeals court handed the government a blank check to commit any abuse in the name of national security, even the brutal torture of a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil. "   Ben Wizner - ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director 01/23/2012   

The United States was created by men using a set of principles that they had gleaned from studying other nations, governments, peoples, and human behavior. It started with a series of writings we now know as the Federalist Papers which led to a constitutional convention.  But it was really the continued grievances, governing problems, and the realization that the existing confederation of states that they already had and tried earnestly to live by -- simply did not work. 

Those wise and brave founders gave us: 

1. A “Declaration of Independence” articulating the general and specific reasoning (Fundamental principle) for seeking profound change.

2. A “Constitution” offering a structure and a process for achieving peaceful change.

3. And, a “Bill of Rights” devoted solely to protecting a few individual freedoms of ‘we the people’ from abusive powers.

Ultimately, they gave us an experimental process for self-rule.  A framework for electing representatives for working out differences between people, corporations, and states by relying solely on the use of laws they create and enforce. They have not always protected basic individual rights.  And to the degree they have failed is the degree to which this experimental system of government will continue to fail.  The founding father’s intent was to collectively create a nation that would abandon the law of force as the primary governing tool prior to becoming a federation.  They abandoned the whimsical forced will of Kings, dictators, clergy, or bandits but failed to ensure ‘liberty and justice for all’. That ended up in a catastrophic American civil war, with scars that remain today. Our failure to abide by this ‘rule of law’ principle on the global level will inevitably end in even greater catastrophic consequences.     

The US had a fragile beginning — with no guarantee of success.  It has the means to modify it and it urgently needed to fulfill its seven original intentions and be worthy of the pledge to protect and defend.

To form a more perfect Union, 

establish Justice

insure domestic Tranquility

provide for the common defence, 

promote the general Welfare, and 

secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves

and our Posterity,    

Our Constitution remains problematic today because it is based on interpretation and trust. But it offers no justice and no fundamental principles offered in the Declaration of Independence.  The Constitution’s interpretation by those in power needs the trust of citizens and those periodically elected. The public is losing its trust.  From its beginning, there have been strong disagreements in interpretation. But lately, many citizens have lost trust in it and those who are elected and pass laws.  Yet, nearly all Americans strongly believe in and favor the seven preamble ideals. Many believe (and I’m one of them) that the Second Amendment in our constitution was an acknowledgment that powerful leaders couldn’t always be trusted.  Our nation once veered into widespread violence. It may not be our last. Unless our collapse is forced by some catastrophic event that sparks a cascade of systemic infrastructure failures. Such a fuse could be lit by a nuclear war, bio-terrorist event, an asteroid, AI, or an Electro Magnetic Pulse from a solar flare frying our nation’s electrical grids.  

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Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz believes that  “[E]very orderly society is based on three foundations:   1. Laws to define minimum standards of behavior;  2. Courts to serve as a forum for the peaceful settlement of disputes and to determine if the agreed laws have been violated; 3. A system of effective law enforcement.

The U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (USCNS/21), also known as the Hart-Rudman Commission, was chartered toward the end of President Clinton’s Administration in 1998 to provide a comprehensive review of US national security requirements in the 21st century.  The commission was tasked "to analyze the emerging international security environment; to develop a US national security strategy appropriate to that environment; and to assess the various security institutions for their current relevance to the effective and efficient implementation of that strategy, and to recommend adjustments as necessary".  Released 31 January 2001, USCNS/21 was the most exhaustive review of US national security strategy since the National Security Act of 1947. It was released in three distinct phases. The first phase, New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century tried to anticipate the emerging security environment within the first 25 years of the 21st century. The second phase, Seeking a National Strategy: A Concert for Preserving Security and Promoting Freedom proposed a new US national security strategy based on the anticipated threats and conditions outlined in the first report. The third phase, Roadmap for National Security: Imperative for Change recommended changes to the US government's structure, legislation, and policy to reflect a new national security strategy based on the other report’s findings.

In the second report Seeking a National Strategy: A Concert for Preserving Security and Promoting Freedom  released April 15, 2000, in its “strategic considerations” the Commission suggested a number of strategic considerations including “America must never forget that it stands for certain principles, most importantly freedom under the rule of law.”

It gave specific warnings regarding a terrorist event killing large numbers of Americans on US soil as our greatest threat. Second, was the lack of education in our schools enabling our defense needs, engineers generating wealth to afford new weapon systems and vital US infrastructure, or organize and effectively manage our own government systems. With three other threat categories after these two. 

The commission’s findings and recommendations were ignored.  After the attacks on 9-11 months later a few were looked at again. But education never became a priority. 

In 2022 US student debt was approaching two trillion dollars while unconstitutional laws still prevent those in debt from filing for bankruptcy or being forgiven for their debt. 

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Supreme Court Justice Steven Brier:  (Author, “Making our Democracy Work”) Speaking at the Bookings Institute. 11-28-12

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Justice-Breyer-Discusses-Constitutionalism-in-China/10737436108-1/

The “rule of law” is only effective IF the people accept it as a means to solve problems.  When a judge makes a ruling that the majority of people disagrees with, that just seems wrong, but the people accept it without resorting to guns and violence.   Informed public opinion does matter.  But an Independent judiciary (for life, without pay cuts) is the key.  The independent media and the public can certainly criticize judgments…but hopefully will damper future decisions if some earlier decision are so poorly decided. 

Ten…

1. If it isn’t public…its not a law!  

2.

3. Every legal procedure will be conducted in public.  Not the deliberations!  X party communications!  All the basis, proof, evidence have to be public…not the deliberations.  Nothing goes into the decision maker’s mind except 

4.

5. Habeas Corpus:  Don’t affect a person’s liberty without a law. 

6. A public defender corps.  A professional interest in keeping the process fair.  They rarely succeed.

7..

It’s not a Chinese problem or American problem.  It’s a human problem.  Where laws and courts are a means of solving problems.  With small groups it’s easier done under a tree.  But with larger groups you need a system of rules and laws.  And people have to agree with them.  It works better if people have a say in the rules.  But people are ganging up on me!  Then set some basic rights…to make sure you are not unfairly picked on.  (Not a US notion.  The Bible says justice you shall pursue!  A universal value.  Having a say may also be one.  Not being picked on is one… We need solutions when tens of millions of people are living together.

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Nixon’s name is usually associated with Watergate, but Nixon favored international treaties and a way to assure that they be enforced.  This still has merit today.  In a letter to a constituent in June, l959, in reply to a letter to him agreeing with his proposals made in a speech to the American Academy of Political Science he wrote: "As you know, proposals designed to substitute the rule of law for the rule of force as a means of settling disputes between nations are usually subjected to the criticism that they are too idealistic and impractical.  We often hear it said that "everybody agrees this would be a good idea but it just won't work.  This is why I thought the most constructive approach I might follow in this speech was to advance two practical attainable objectives--the modification of the Connally Amendment and the proposal that future treaties include a clause providing for the submission of disputes with regard to the interpretation of those treaties to the International Court.  I, of course, realize that these proposals do not provide solutions for a number of other areas of potential conflicts between nations.  But it seems to me that if we could take even these two steps forward in recognizing the supremacy of the rule of law between nations, the way would be open for further progress of the rule of law between nations, progress toward realization of this great goal in the future. …You can be sure that I shall devote every effort toward implementing by action the proposals I have made." Nixon was Vice President in June '59.

Connelly Amendment. http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1743&context=dlj

The central idea of the law in the nineteenth century was the importance and, derivatively, the inviolability of the free individual will. But the law has come increasingly to involve itself not only in protecting human life but in assuring to the individual a productive and satisfying life.  – Donald M. Dozer

"Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves."  -- Thomas Jefferson

(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

8 Billion a problem because of consumption patterns.

 Dear  Editor, (submitted to WTimes 12-7-22)

Anthony J. Sadar’s math and people’s polar perspectives on “World Population at 8 billion and counting” (Dec 7, 2022) is good. But incomplete.    

Assuming all humans are party animals but are not limited to two-dimensional space, eight billion people could occupy the square milage of three New York Cities. And assuming most people wouldn’t party over 8 hours straight, everyone frocking could mathematically be accommodated in just one New York City.  

Mr. Sadar’s math on sufficient food for eight billion is also correct.  But the singular reason about 15,000 infants still die daily from easily preventable malnutrition and related infectious diseases is due to just one thing.  A lack of “political will” among each world government.   And, as Mr. Sadar states “if world leaders regarded their constituents not as the great unwashed but...as precious souls worthy of dignity, respect and compassion” they could “be...raising everyone’s standard of comfortable living.” 

Long forgotten is the summary conclusion of the 1980 bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger.  It clearly warned that by failing to achieve that goal by the year 2000 humanity would experience even more wars, terrorism, disease, and environmental problems.  And unless it was framed in the context of “national security" it probably wouldn’t happen.   Now world leaders must decide to keep their 2015 pledge to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development goals by the year 2030.  This wise accomplishment could kick start a sustainable world that would be increasingly free of hunger, war, terrorism, and infectious diseases.   This will take more than hope and prayers. 

Chuck Woolery

Rockville, MD

Biology Trumps Government

 Biology Trumps Government 101:  Live can be sustainable. Existing governments are not:  (Draft 11-10-22)

Even before Trump’s election, a survey of US national security experts listed the “dysfunction” of the US Government as the second greatest threat to national security. Terrorism was first.  Pandemics were not listed.  Since then, disturbing trends (weather events, energy and food security, cyber and biosecurity, declining trust in government, truth decay, populism, loss of freedoms, illegal immigration, national debt, mass shootings, drug overdoses, obesity, wealth concentration, economic uncertainty, species extinction, hate speech, the evolution of weapons, political polarization, hypocrisy domestically and globally...) have increased.  And they are all connected.

We need a global reality check. And about a year after President Trump left office Jen Easterly, Director of CISA (Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency) our nation’s newest federal agency that he created, summarized it.    “Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.... And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort....”  Cybersecurity and biosecurity are oxymorons, making security itself is an illusion.  Freedom is real! And we are free to do whatever we want, but nothing, and nobody will be free of the consequences. 

The primary source of these trends is the result of our primary governance institutional systems are based on the illusion of independence.  Consider the US Constitution and the United Nations.  Both remain founded on a faulty ‘core’ principle of independence - a mental concept that exists nowhere in the known universe.  This flawed concept has yielded other delusional concepts like “peace through strength”, “democracy”, and “national sovereignty”).  Under these non-natural human invented creations the global priority has been the protection of governments and corporations while the protection of human rights and the environment get mostly lip service.

Skeptical? Read the Constitution’s preamble.  Then grade each of its seven objectives.  Read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and grade the UN’s success.

It’s obvious that neither of these flawed ‘independence’ based governing systems will change anytime soon.  This means making urgent investments in halting, reversing, and preventing the symptomatic trends above essential to every aspect of health globally.  Fortunately, rapid progress in preventing mass human deaths, diseases, disabilities, and suffering is achievable with humanity's existing resources and technologies.  But ONLY if ‘we the people’ generate sufficient political will with a genuine patriotic commitment to ‘liberty and justice for all’.   What?

Reread the first paragraph of America’s “Declaration of Independence”.  It holds these profound yet mostly ignored words, “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.  Our nation’s founding ideals have been applied.  Fortuitously nature’s bountiful systems freely provided all of humanity's basic life support infrastructure and our modern life.  And now securing “the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” will depend entirely on how well we treat nature and each another globally.

Thomas Paine in his pamphlet Common Sense stated "Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.”

He asserted “It is the duty of everyman, so far as his ability allows, to detect and expose delusion and error.” And, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." 

Abraham Lincoln later wrote that ‘our Declaration of Independence is our “Apple of Gold” and our Constitution its “Frame of Silver”’.  

Why do we ignore fundamental principles?  Gravity?  Biology?  Sustainability?  If we refuse to re-engineer our political systems to codify the “truths” that we hold to be “self-evident” the next best path is funding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  These are the best health plans for the three most complicated systems in the known universe that have enabled us to survive and thrive for thousands of generations.  Nature, our immune system, and our mind's problem-solving ability.  For 3 billion years microbes have always been the higher life form's greatest threat.  Pathogens change rapidly yet immune systems kept up with them.  Now our mind’s concepts are failing to grasp the survival value of maintaining healthy immune systems and the environment. Genetic diversity and adaptation of our minds to this reality are our best survival values.  Hostility to diversity and ridge beliefs will not survive.

Human experiences and perceptions originate via three sources.   First, our five senses (yet plants, other animals, and scientific instruments offer vastly superior sensory powers). Second, our emotions/feelings (internal experiences) - often depend on our limited senses or experiences with religious, political, or cultural values we adopted.  Last, via mental concepts and our minds many profoundly powerful capabilities.  Problem-solving, creativity. capacity to believe ANYTHING!, defending flawed ideas that damage relationships or lead to violence, mass murdering others who look different or believe in alternative concepts, ignoring wisdom and what we know needs to be done, codifying women as lesser citizens, understanding root causes...

"We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man ... far too little. His psyche should be studied -- because we are the origin of all coming evil." - C.G. Jung

Our linear thinking mind struggles to grasp the power of technology’s exponential growth. Combined with its affordability, speed, and spread of the distribution. anonymity, plus its multi-use nature persistently dependent on the will of the users. And how the pace of change in our government systems is glacial if not flatlined or going backward.  Static constitutions cannot meet all three underlying human expectations: Freedom, Security, and Independence.  We can only have two.   Nearly every human problem is a freedom/security dilemma.  Because we believe we are independent. 

And, we have only two fundamental means of resolving disputes.  Fight or talk (the law of force vs the Rule of Law.)   Majority rules never last.  For the Rule of Law to function best the laws must be made and enforced by a democratic process, applied equally to everyone, and focused solely on protecting fundamental human rights and the environment.

"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse." Thomas Jefferson.

The evolution of weapons and war should make the creation of the global rule of law a non-negotiable if governments refuse to fund and achieve the 17 SDGs by the year 2030.

"When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am friend of its happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government." Thomas Paine.

Thus humanity is left with just two types of laws.  The “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” and Human laws.  If not in harmony expect global catastrophic consequences.

There’s only one Truth that will set humanity free.  Our personal religious truth and ad nauseum political truth are incompatible.  The practical truth is self-evident to all rational minds.

In a 1789 letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson said “The earth belongs always to the living generation… Every constitution and then every law, naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right.”  

 Dr. Benjamin Rush (a signer of the Declaration) suggested Jefferson edit its best-known phrase “Life, Liberty and the pursuit...” suggesting “Happiness” be changed to “Health”.  Imagine how different we and the world might be today if Jefferson had listened. And our constitution prioritized it.

Could the thousands of organizations and billions of people in the world unite to build a ‘movement of movements (environment, peace, and social/economic justice movements) that Naomi Klein called for in 2014 Climate March?   A MoM so powerful it could create the political will to globally freeze and seize the trillions of dollars stashed in offshore accounts by kleptocrats, oligarchs, violent extremists, criminal cartels, and obscenely wealthy capitalists avoiding taxes?   

Woody Allen once said humanity stands at a crossroads.  One leads to utter hopelessness and despair.  The other, is to complete annihilation.  He hoped we would choose the right path.  He didn’t understand that every crossroad offers three other choices.

 

Democracy failing! As it always has - and should.

Four words should dissuade anyone from believing in elections.  Herschel Walker Donald Trump.  In every election citizens hope that their political tribe will succeed in gaining enough power to halt the other tribe’s priorities.  Meanwhile disturbing trends in extreme weather events, species extinctions, refugee flows, food insecurity, energy prices, border control, health, economics, crime, corruption, misinformation, political polarization, truth decay, trust in government, conspiracy theories, loss of privacy, sanctions, and the endless evolution of weapons and pathogens –continue to worsen.

This cascade of connected troubles is simply unsustainable!  Just the perpetual and accelerating evolution of weaponry and pathogens combined – should crush hope for ‘democracy ‘and defending our national security with our existing political system.   Democracy is delusional. Security is an illusion.  We fail to grasp humanity's reality.  Everything is connected, interdependent and vulnerable.  And ‘everything’ means everything!  Until civilization inevitably collapses only individuals investing in weaponized technology (which is every technology), vaccines, building seawalls, rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, running elections, or creating partisan campaign ads will prosper.  And, use dark money, cryptocurrency, and offshore accounts (crime cartels, oligarchs, kleptocrats, violent extremists, and obscenely rich capitalists) to hide their profits globally -- hoping their wealth will protect them.  It won’t.  Friedrich Nietzsche  "Hope, in reality, is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man." 

The best that most citizens within any nation can hope for is mutually assured deficits or destruction.  This is inevitable given our current global governance system protecting 'national sovereignty' with the illusion of independence.  It is impotent at stopping global forces from upsetting every nation’s ‘special interests’ (economic, security, world standing, culture, or religious majority) or their borders.  Meanwhile, the protection of fundamental human rights and the environment vital to all things globally, goes virtually ignored.   

It should now be self-evident that multiple ungoverned global factors give rise to populist movements within independent democratic nations.  Interdependent global problems cannot be resolved with independent national governments using independent agencies.   And any nation, with political parties more committed to winning elections than resolving global problems, is simply delusional, unjust, and unsustainable.

It's not elections that matter.  The years between them could be used wisely by educating those elected to abide by our nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, and insisting on all laws they vote on to conform with the most forgotten phrase in the first paragraph of the Declaration - “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.  Tribal alliances make it impossible to agree on the golden rule.  The foundation of every religion.  And don’t mess with mama nature!  She and our immune systems got us here after 3 billion years of evolution.  But now, our super intelligent minds are literally killing us with creative principles and a sworn an oath to protect the Constitution.  A 260+ year old legal system with no real justice or the protection of God’s creation.

Abraham Lincoln wrote that our Declaration is our “Apple of Gold” and the Constitution its “Frame of Silver.” Thomas Jefferson wrote that ‘every law and constitution’ should be rewritten “every 19 years”.  Because “the future belongs to the living, not the dead.”

The persistent exponential global growth of technology is almost incomprehensible by the average voter or policy makers’ linear and reactionary thinking.  What’s vital is understanding reality.  Then operating on its fundamental principles.  No political party does this.  Not even the Green party.  Democracy simply doesn’t work.  Dozens of political, historic, and philosophic pundits over millennia have asserted and documented this.  ‘Democracy’ is a nebulous word.  Like ‘peace’ or ‘terrorism’, it can mean almost anything to motivate anyone.  

Politics was originally intended as a tool to keep us from killing one another.  We have two basic means of resolving differences.  Agreements or aggression.  Reliable agreements require reliable communications and a fair and nonviolent means of enforcement.  Democracy yields neither. Engineering a sustainable system will require using words/phrases with well-defined meanings.  In this context, the well-worn phrase “Rule of Law” (vs ‘law of the jungle’) holds potential if defined as Supreme Court Judge Anthony Kennedy once did when asked the question “What makes the rule of law most effective?”.  He said it required three essential elements.  Laws made and enforced by a democratic process, applied equally to all, and intended to protect basic human rights.

Thomas Jefferson defined democracy as “two wolves and a sheep, voting on what to eat for dinner; Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.” Democracies have persistently abused majorities.  With voting majorities grossly ignorant of issues or candidates and about half even voting.  It’s luck if any referendum yields progress.

Even without misinformation and conspiracy theories, electing a wise candidate would be an accident.  Dean Acheson once said, “We need pragmatic idealists more concerned about the future of humanity than the outcome of the next election.”  

A wise voter would understand there are basically 3 kinds of truth.  Our personal truth (what religion we follow, or not), our political truth (which party we like), and last, the “Truths” that are “self-evident”.  Like a child should not die before their parents.  Or maintaining our freedoms and security requires virtue and responsibility.  

There could be no greater human virtue and responsibility than achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ASAP. They are the only comprehensive global approach to sustainably “secure the Blessings of liberty for ourselves and our Posterity”.   This is a self-evident truth that our Constitution, as is, has failed in achieving any of its seven intended results listed in its preamble.   One wise soul once said, “The truth will set you free.” Another said, “but not before pissing you off.” 

“Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.... And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort....” Jen Easterly. Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency’s director in a speech Oct. 29, 2021. [CISA is our nation’s newest federal agency established by the Trump Administration in 2018]

 

 

Solving unsustainable trends.

 Do current trends in immigration, extreme weather events, cyber and biosecurity, energy, and food security, declining trust in government, truth decay, populism, loss of freedoms, national debt, mass shootings, drug overdoses, obesity, wealth concentration, economic uncertainty, species extinction, hate speech, the evolution of weapons, civic education and elections, political polarization, and hypocrisy domestically and globally – concern you?  They should!   None are sustainable.

 

It should be self-evident that we must understand the two primary sources of these worsening trends.  Some of our core principles and our Constitution are flawed.  Skeptical? Read our Constitution’s preamble.  Then give each of its seven objectives a school grade.   It is vital we take the most cost-effective means of halting, reversing, and even preventing these trends.  Urgency is desirable and achieving wise outcomes could be fast.  But not easy given our mind’s resistance to change and our government’s systemic dysfunction.   Global progress in halting preventable mass human deaths, disabilities, and suffering is achievable with humanity's existing resources and technologies.  But ONLY with sufficient political will and a genuine patriotic commitment.

 

Recall that the first paragraph of our “Declaration of Independence” set the stage for our nation’s founding principles that we have never applied.  It holds these profound yet usually forgotten words, “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.   Nature with its bountiful systems once freely provided our basic life support infrastructure.  Now, civilization depends on how we treat it and one another.   Together these primary factors ultimately determine to what level we can sustainably maximize our most cherished freedoms, health, and needed security.

 

Thomas Paine in his pamphlet Common Sense stated "Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with snow, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right.”   Thomas Paine, Common Sense.  Published Feb. 14, 1776.

 

He asserted “It is the duty of everyman, so far as his ability allows, to detect and expose delusion and error.” And, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." 

 

Nearly 100 years later Abraham Lincoln wrote that our Declaration of Independence is our “Apple of Gold” and our Constitution its “Frame of Silver”. We revere the frame.

 

We must gain a firm grasp of reality and a commitment to fundamental principles. We must engineer those “truths” that we all hold to be “self-evident” into a more perfect global union for healthy and sustainable generations to come.

 

REALITY 1:  The three most complicated systems in the known universe that have enabled humans to survive and thrive.

1)      Nature.

2)      Immune systems

3)      Our mind's problem-solving ability.

 

Why is this important?  Nature’s microbes have always been our greatest threat.  Pathogens change rapidly.  Immune systems in higher organisms must keep up with microbial changes to survive and thrive.  When mental concepts fail to grasp this and act improperly in response to this irreversible reality, we risk actions that reduce the health and fitness of our immune systems, thus increasing risks to our own species' vitality and survival.

 

REALITY 2: Everything is connected, interdependent, and vulnerable.  Literally!  “Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.... And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort....” Jen Easterly. Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency director.  Oct. 29, 2021. [CISA is our nation’s newest federal agency established by the Trump Administration in 2018]

 

REALITY 3: Our body’s experiences and perceptions start with three biological suppliers. 

1.       Five senses.  Animals, plants, and scientific instruments offer vastly superior sensing and experiencing of reality.

2.       Emotions and feelings (internal experiences) - usually depend on what we see, think, or experience within our culture or the values we have adopted.

3.       Mental concepts.  Our minds have many profoundly powerful capabilities. 

a.       Problem-solving.

b.       Creativity

c.       Believing ANYTHING.

d.       Defending flawed ideas to our death (or damaged relationships).

e.       Mass murdering others who look different or create other concepts.

f.        Avoiding what we know needs to be done.

g.       Doing the opposite of what’s needed.

h.       Ignoring wisdom

i.         Codifying women as lesser citizens

 

Why is this important to understand?  "We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man ... far too little. His psyche should be studied -- because we are the origin of all coming evil." - C.G. Jung

 

REALITY 4:  Paces of change in three global factors.  

1.       Technology’s exponential growth in power, affordability, speed and spread of distribution, anonymity, and multi-use nature.

2.       Our mind’s linear capacity for learning new things and understanding connections.

3.       US government system and global governing system are virtually flat-lined.

 

REALITY 5:  There are three underlying human demands/expectations.  Freedom, Security, and Independence.  All we really have is freedom.  Individuals are free to do, or not do, anything they want.  But humanity is never free of the consequences.   [See REALITY 2]

 

REALITY 6:  Humans have two fundamental means of resolving disputes.  Fight or talk (the law of force or the Rule of Law.

 

ASSERTION 1:  For the Rule of Law to function peacefully each of these 3 elements are needed.

1.       Laws must be made and enforced by a democratic process.

2.       Laws must be applied equally to everyone.

3.       The only purpose of Law is to protect human rights and the environment.

 

"A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse." Thomas Jefferson.

 

We must choose wisely.  Living by the Law of force will end badly.  And excluding any one of the 3 ‘rule of law’ elements will lead to a dysfunctional governing system.

 

"When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am friend of its happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government." Thomas Paine.

 

ASSERTION 2:  There are only two types of laws.  

1.       The “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” and

2.       Human laws.

These must work in harmony because human laws tend to be unjust creating unfavorable global consequences.  

 

ASSERTION 3:  There are three types of Truth.

1.       Personal (What God do you worship, or not?)

2.       Political (What political system do you swear to defend, or not)

3.       Practical (What truths do you hold to be self-evident).  When two scientists debate an issue there are only three possible outcomes.  A. One is right, the other wrong.  B. Vice versa.  C. Both are wrong – now find it if possible.

 

ASSERTION 4:  “the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead”.  Thomas Jefferson.

“The earth belongs always to the living generation… Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right.”   Thomas Jefferson  In a 1789 letter to James Madison

 

Dr. Benjamin Rush (a signer of the Declaration) suggested Jefferson edit its best-known phrase “Life, Liberty and the pursuit...” suggesting “Happiness” be changed to “Health”.  Imagine how different we and the world might be today if Jefferson had listened. And our constitution prioritized it.

 

WTimes LTE. on Polio Day.

 Dear Editor,

Today’s (World Polio Day) Washington Times editorial “Halting the coronavirus merry-go-round” with the byline “Once in motion, the cycle of illness and cures proves hard to break” missed key factors regarding biosecurity issues related to both nature and biosecurity labs. 

First. People, animals, and pathogens have always been in motion - and always will.  Thus, the “cycle of illness and cures” are “hard to break” because pathogens are constantly evolving with no start or stop.  Worse yet, our addiction to flawed concepts and our democratic republic government system failing to change is a perfect storm for accelerating biosecurity threats from multiple sources.  There are at least five ways pathogens will persistently change.

Our freedoms and security depend on understanding and codifying laws consistent with the three most complicated systems in our known universe.  The environment, the immune system, and the human mind.  Over 3 billion years every immune system needed to keep up with the evolution of microbial threats constantly produced by nature.  Our minds have engineered human systems that are now ignored (or forgotten) this constantly changing aspect of life.   Mental problem-solving skills and concepts got us this far.  But now, due to arrogance and ignorance, we persistently defend an increasingly dysfunctional government system that will only empower microbial threats to thrive. We won’t.  

October news reports included: ‘expert warnings of a “swarm” of Covid “subvariants” soon overrunning our defenses’, US hospitals experiencing a sharp rise in childhood ARI cases, horrifying flesh-eating bacteria in Florida, the first US death from Monkey Pox, Cholera in Haiti, Polio is back in the US for the first time in decades, and the Biden White House just releasing our nation’s new National Biodefense Strategy.  A ‘national’ strategy with global weaknesses, and recommendations that both political parties will resist.

Humanity needs ‘gain of function research’ in biosecurity labs in order to keep ahead of nature’s pathogen evolution.  But now we must also prepare for nefarious biothreats now possible from virtually anyone with a grudge.   This is no idol warning given the exponential growth of biotechnology we’ve seen just over the last decade.

Our greatest threat is not nukes, pathogens, or climate change. It is our failure to change our minds in reaction to a world that is changing exponentially and a government system that is flatlined. 

Polio eradication inspire global biodefense systems?

End Polio Day (Oct 24, 2022)

Recent front page news reports include health experts' fear a “swarm” of Covid “subvariants” will soon be overrunning our defenses, a sharp rise in ARI in childhood hospital cases, flesh-eating bacteria in Florida, Cholera in Haiti, Polio is back in the US for the first time in decades, and the White House released our nation’s new National Biodefense Strategy.  Given the reality that biotech advances over the past two decades have made bioweapons an increasing possibility for anyone with a lab and a grudge, and the return of nuclear fears, do we really need Halloween this year?   

Humans are the most intelligent species on earth. Maybe not the wisest.  We have split the atom, frequently leave earth’s atmosphere to explore space for days on end, and even nudged an irrelevant asteroid a million miles from the earth as an experiment to confirm we can build a planetary defense system when (not if) needed against another celestial mass. Unfortunately, we’ve not yet managed to protect our species' essential life support infrastructure on our own planet’s bountiful natural systems.  Systems that are essential for everything we hold near and dear and depend on here for all life’s survival.  We could.  Some are trying.  But collectively we persist in resisting the practical solutions and the tools we’ve had for generations.  Even with more new tools and solutions created each day, the relatively easy plan of eradicating polio is still with us.  From space, we appear to be a species standing in a pit of vipers while swatting at bees.  

Do we need a spiritual revolution to invest in the global capacity to protect against humanity's oldest and greatest earthly threats?  Microbes (natural and now human engineered) are evolving rapidly.  We are not.  But we did have one glorious victory. The global eradication of Smallpox is arguably humanity's greatest achievement.  Humanity globally eradicated it in only ten years during the 1970s Cold War with a heroic global campaign that protected every human against the greatest scourge ever known.  A virus we couldn’t see unless we had an electron microscope.  Smallpox had killed more humans in the last century than all of our wars, revolutions, genocides, homicides, and natural disasters...combined.  Yet, the Polio virus, for which we still have no cure, remains.  And it has been maiming and killing (mostly children) for millennia.  For two decades we have had it on the edge of global annihilation.   

A 1916 outbreak in NY City killed over 2000 people.  In 1952, the US recorded our worst outbreak killing over 3000.  Fortunately, global science research led to the creation of the first successful vaccine by Jonas Salk, a US physician.  He tested it on himself and then his family in 1953.  One year later 1.6 million children in Canada, Finland, and the USA were protected. 

 

Astonishingly, in 1979 an inspired Rotary Club member in the Philippines dreamed of eradicating polio globally.  That effort succeeded in vaccinating 6 million Philippine children, and within five years Rotary International birthed it as an official worldwide Polio eradication campaign.  In 1988 the World Health Organization joined in.  The Gates Foundation recently announced $1.2 billion in addition to billions it had given since it joined the ‘Polio Plus’ campaign 14 years ago. 

In 1990 the Polio eradication target date was set for the year 2000.  Unfortunately, international conflicts stymied that easily affordable, doable, and globally agreed-upon plan.  2003 became the new deadline.  Enormous progress was made, yet again for the same reason, it needed to be reset to 2015.  Then this August the U.S. had its first confirmed polio case since 1979 with recent wastewater samples in Jerusalem, Israel, and London, UK, indicating community transmission in regions where new cases of polio have not been seen for decades.  

Scientists always knew that polio was only a plane ride away. And polio anywhere is a threat to everyone everywhere due to infection cases literally going viral.  This concept is not rocket science.  The borderless nature of viruses is indisputable and will never change.  But now eradication efforts must also contend with vaccine misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories that go viral.   Combined with complacency and a perception that polio is no longer a threat makes this victory even harder.  But it is still doable.  And permanently eliminating this virus means that anyone of any age, political party, wealth standing, or religious belief will never be crippled or killed by this virus again. Will we be able to start planning victory parties before 2025?  

Our species had the means of protecting against Smallpox for hundreds of years. Maybe thousands.  Indigenous African tribes used it.  George Washington used it.  The British didn’t.  Our nation stands today because of George Washington’s military genius and his bold decision in trusting that unknown tradition.   Today’s biothreats are inevitable and accelerating for multiple reasons at the same time and pace of Truth and trust decay.

Working with science and within “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” (see the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence) has the potential for preventing multiple sources of global chaos sparked by any one of dozens of unsustainable trends we’ve known about for decades (world hunger, species extinctions, war, terrorism, genocide, the evolution of weapons, pollution, global warming, new and re-emerging infectious diseases...).

 

The three most complicated systems in the known universe are the environment, the immune system, and the human mind.  For over 3 billion years immune systems within every higher life form needed to keep up with the evolution of microbial threats that nature was constantly churning out.  Viral variants will persist indefinitely.  And unless our human mind’s problem-solving skills and concepts, which got us this far, fail to grasp the profundity of this trifecta, polio and other microbial threats will thrive.  We won’t.

All life forms are exposed daily to hundreds if not thousands of new microbial mutations due to six or more mutagenic forces.  Almost always immune systems quickly adapt because most microbes are not a threat.  Some novel pathogens like Covid19 are.  Vaccines enable us to boost (essentially hack) our own immune systems.  This ‘hack’ has saved billions of lives in just decades.  But this vital human security asset is now in question with our stagnant political systems and flawed mental concepts have become our greatest threat.   Things evolve.  We stopped.

Our minds evolved for over 100,000 years solving survival problems enabling our species to thrive in an ever-changing environment.  Using the scientific method doctors gave up bloodletting and leeches. Now we need to abandon other delusional beliefs.  Primarily the concept of independence. Yes! It is only a mental concept.  It exists nowhere in our known universe except in our minds and in dictionaries.  What is more important?  Protecting national sovereignty or protecting human freedoms, security, health, and the environment?   Pathogens (natural or human-engineered) change relatively instantly.  These, and pollution, cyber threats, and poverty do not respect borders.  And our minds and political systems are failing us.

Future generations of every creed, color, culture, and country can survive sustainably.  But we must first realistically prioritize our needs, and theirs.  It is possible for humanity to engineer a global governance system that maximizes our cherished freedoms, fundamental security, and every aspect of health.  Expecting better results on any of these using our existing government systems fits the definition of insanity as truth/trust decay accelerate.

Profoundly, Jen Easterly, director of CISA our nation’s newest federal agency (the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency) stated last October that “Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.... And that’s why this has to be a more than whole of government, a more than whole of nation [effort]. It really has to be a global effort....”.   I’m sure Ms. Easterly understands that cybersecurity and biosecurity are uniquely similar.  And lacking a comprehensive global approach to any threat endangers all generations.

 

Globally eradicating Polio is a step in the right direction of engineering a reliable global health governance system capable of preventing and protecting us against nearly every biosecurity threat.   We can no longer allow Polio to dominate our children’s unprotected nervous systems while choosing delusional priorities.

God forbid another Polio variant emerges.  Or an antigovernment extremist group creating a genetically modified global genocidal killer.   “Things Change, can we”.  This is our most fundamental planetary health challenge.

If you doubt this, read the preamble to the US Constitution, and give a school grade to each of its seven intentions.  Abraham Lincoln wrote that our “Declaration of Independence is our Apple of Gold.” And our “Constitution” it’s a “Frame of Silver”. 

Jefferson's close friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush suggested he edit the best-known phrase in the Declaration of Independence to read "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Health" instead of happiness.  Imagine how different our nation might be today. 

Jefferson also wrote that every law and Constitution should be rewritten every 19 years.  Because the future belongs to the living...not the dead.  

Anyone truly committed to achieving the seven intentions listed in the US Constitution's Preamble should focus at least as much of their time promoting the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals as talking about the elections.   Simply because the Director of CISA told us a fundamental truth. 

 

 

 

 

GOOD News! All from recent WPost articles.

1.       Humanity has successfully demonstrated our capacity for planetary defense against celestial threats. Google DART experiment.

2.       2.   Social media is used for human rights protection.

a.       The death of one young woman in Iran sparked nationwide protests in all 31 of Iran’s Provinces. She died from a skull fracture due to police brutality after being arrested and sent to a “Re-education center”.

b.       Driven by deep grievances:  repressive religious rules, 50% inflation rate, and economic mismanagement by the regime, thousands of Iranian feel they have nothing to lose.  So far at least 76 protesters have been violently killed.

c.       Satellite technology undermined Iran’s internet blackout of civil voices allowing a song to go viral and became the Iran protest anthem.

3.       3. The evolution of weaponry on battlefields has empowered Ukrainians with little military training to use personal drones to help Ukraine’s military use smart ammunition to devastate Russian forces 20 miles away still within Ukrainian territory.

4.     4.   US foreign/military policy is now ethically prioritizing its defense of freedom and security beyond its borders “Freedom has to be better armed than tyranny.” Ukraine’s President.

5.       5. A single individual using an IED (Improvised explosive devise - a truck bomb) can thwart an abusive and criminal superpower.  Nations no longer have a monopoly on WMD.  

6.       6.  George Will exposed Russia’s cultural history of the torturous treatment of enemies (domestic and foreign) asking ‘is this only a problem for the US when it is done outside of Russia?’.  Thus exposing the unstated universal insanity of the UN (our global governance system) which was engineered to put the protection of national sovereignty above the protection of human rights and the environment.  We now have a perfect example of this dysfunctional system. 

With our world about 100 years past the need to create a global governance system based on the “Rule of Law” instead of the law of force.