Women, Peace, and Security in Action: US Military Principles

FYI:  Rand Corporation Report [that too few people will hear about or read]

by Joslyn Fleming, Chandra Garber, Karen M. Sudkamp, Elisa Yoshiara, Abigail S. Post, Victoria M. Smith, Khadesia Howell

Including Gender Perspectives in Department of Defense Operations, Activities, and Investments

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1696-1.html?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7014N000001SniNQAS&utm_term=00v4N00000X3uo9QAB&org=1674&lvl=100&ite=282359&lea=520737&ctr=0&par=1&trk=a0wQK000000On7dYAC 

DOWNLOAD EBOOK FOR FREE on line       PDF file   17.7 MB

Research Questions: 

1. Why do WPS and gender diversity matter for DoD operations, activities, and investments?

2. How have WPS principles been applied to DoD operations, activities, and investments?

3. What lessons can be learned for incorporating WPS principles into future DoD operations, activities, and investments?

In light of the five-year anniversary of the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, the RAND Corporation sought to understand and portray strategic, operational, and tactical applications of Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) principles in U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operations and activities. A series of vignettes highlights specific efforts to implement DoD's WPS Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan in the military services and during operations with allies and partners. Although successful efforts to implement WPS principles are directly tied to specific policies and initiatives, this project demonstrates a growing gender-diverse and inclusive culture within DoD that supports grassroots efforts to apply gender perspectives to DoD activities and operations. However, though there are demonstrated successes operationalizing and implementing WPS across DoD, room for improvement exists to ensure the continued implementation of WPS principles to support U.S. military activities and operations that require diverse perspectives and flexibility to confront adversaries in a competitive environment.

[4. Why won't the wise recommendations below be followed?  NFL: Nobody Freakin' Listens/Learns.]

Key Findings:  

Understanding the operational environment from a gender perspective can help DoD identify how it can advance WPS within the conduct of its operations, activities, and investments abroad whether it is cooperating, competing, or in conflict.

Integration of WPS into a multi-national training exercise in Guyana led to elimination of structural barriers impeding a partner nation’s capability to meaningfully employ female soldiers.

A gendered approach to Defense Support of Civil Authorities mission during Operation Allies Welcome enabled protection of vulnerable populations and equitable access to information and services.

The U.S. commitment to WPS can bolster its goal to be a preferred partner of choice with allies and partners by demonstrating a commitment to ensuring human rights and the rule of law. [FYI Dec 10 is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights] 

Inclusion of men and women in diverse roles facilitates problem-solving required for complex security situations.

Failure to understand women's roles in society can affect security outcomes in situations with partner nations.  [Dah!]

Women can play a critical role in social engineering and cybersecurity. For example, with the proliferation of information technology, which has enabled the use of fabricated online personas, female personas controlled by women operatives tend to be more convincing.  [Dah squared!]

Targeted gender advisory work can have spillover effects. In a different vignette, an officer identified a gap in DoD-provided training surrounding modern slavery and human trafficking, which was important for personnel who have a role in partner countries.

Women-led organizations can act as intermediaries to address security concerns and help understand the importance of women’s perspectives in negotiations and coalition-building.

Recommendations:  [insist businesses support the funding of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals within the context of protecting all human rights as an investment in US and global security!!!!]

Strategic competition against China and Russia is now the national security priority, which provides opportunities to implement WPS principles across military operations to counter those countries’ growing influence.

Considering gender perspectives when interacting with foreign partners and within the U.S. military will provide opportunities to highlight shared values at the expense of adversaries.

Without an effort to integrate both women and men into all roles across DoD, the military will not be able to meet the security situations of today and tomorrow that will require people to unpack complexity and solve problems not as a leader in isolation but cooperatively.   [insist businesses support the funding of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals within the context of protecting all human rights as an investment in US and global security!!!!]

Following the protests over systemic racial injustice in 2020, discussions surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion have highlighted the criticality of intersectionality in WPS implementation. As DoD's implementation of WPS continues, intersectionality should be at the forefront.  [because “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, Director of Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency, Oct. 29, 2021.] 

In the next five years, efforts to expand the work of gender advisers should continue, along with building a culture within DoD that aligns with WPS principles, the WPS Act, and the Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan.  [Again!  Because “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, Director of Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency, Oct. 29, 2021.] 

[The trillion-dollar question:  Will anyone in DoD, Congress, or the Whitehouse be listening?  Not without pressure by 'we the people' of the United States of America widely demanding this in all 435 Congressional Districts!  435globaljustice.blogspot.com.   Please email 435campaign@earthlink.net and ask to join on the "Open Letter" to Congress and the media on this December 10th. And again on the 4th of July - because “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, Director of Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency, Oct. 29, 2021.] 

[I've heard if you repeat something three times people might actually hear your request for action.  In honor of my wife's Birthday today...because I couldn't find any CVS open to buy her a card this morning.  ;-)  cw]

Civic trend not looking good: The perpetuation of polarization probably won’t end well.

 

Americans are increasingly grouping into communities with shared political view.  An additional flaw in an already dysfunctional Constitutional system.  Particularly to the democratic principle we depend on for elections and passing laws that could improve any of the seven intentions in our Constitution’s preamble.

Political party voters are now more geographically grouped within states than at any point since the Civil War.  Nearly 80 percent of Americans now live in a state where a single party controls both the governorship and the legislature. Plus stinging partisan divides within them. According to the Cook Political Report over 80 percent of our nation’s 435 congressional districts will be noncompetitive in 2024.  In 1999 it was 58 percent.  Gerrymandering explains some of this, but it’s mostly because the electorate has become more homogeneous in numerous districts.

It is the growing cognitive repulsion of another person’s partisan views on hot button issues fixed into new state laws like firearms abortion, firearms, Covid restrictions, or LGBTQ rights but not necessarily for political reasons alone.  A Census survey uncovered 84 percent of Americans moved in 2022 for jobs, housing, or family.  Some sorting happens anyway because most pocketbook concerns overlap with political ones. Like moving to low-tax and lower-cost red states.   Plus, some long-term changes within the two parties and their constituencies.

Over recent decades, the urban/rural political party’s divide expanded into a chasm.  In the 2020 election, Biden won 91 percent of the country’s most populous counties.  Trump took more than 2,500 of the remaining 3,000 counties. Increasingly, Democrats are higher-educated city dwellers working in white-collar jobs, whereas more of the rural white working class has trended Republican.

This trend toward our priority of feeling comfortable living among people with similar beliefs and backgrounds is a trouble mental trend that cannot be good for our nation’s political health as like-minded people tend to become more extreme over time.  Such clumping can reinforce the sense that people outside the bubble are the enemy.    In a 2022 Pew survey, majorities of Democrats and Republicans said they viewed members of the other party as more “immoral” and “dishonest.” In 2016 less than half in each party said the same.

This results in fewer voters in the middle offering lawmakers less incentive to reach across the aisle to compromise.  It’s hard to imagine how this trend can be slowed or reversed.  Too many minds now believe their political party is their personal identity...and then feel personally threatened.

Gun sales have been going up while violent crimes are going down.  Our cognitive divisions could become increasingly lethal.  This is not uncharted territory.  Some pundits have feared a second civil war far different than our first.  Meanwhile some extremist groups have been hoping for this while others have been planning for it.  Without effective undoing of this civic trend, things will eventually end very very badly. 

Another World War coming? And an Open Letter for action.

 Looking at trends and the recent meeting between US and China leaders it’s not crazy to think this.

In the 1990s George W. Bush said, “Free trade with China will promote freedom.”  Many policymakers then favored cheaper products for US consumers (for easy votes?) and more profits for US businesses working with China.  Many believed that by integrating China into the global economy it could benefit China and the Western nations - while also advancing economic growth and personal freedoms within China.  Growth happened!  But not more freedom.  Facial recognition of its citizens linked to government privileges or punishments, China’s theft of intellectual property, its wise investment in microprocessors, as well as the production of sustainable energy technology (Solar, wind...) has made advances in US industries in these areas difficult.  And now US national security is dependent on Taiwan.  The real question is not if China will take Taiwan, but when.  Persistently, China’s intention has been to bring Taiwan back under its control.  This was clearly voiced again in the recent meeting. 

 

Since Russia’s invasion and persistent avoidance of defeat in claiming Ukrainian territory, Israel’s relatively unstoppable mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza in reaction to Hamas’s unacceptable brutal slaughter of over 1,200 Jews, mounting economic problems in China, current wars nearly exhausted US military supplies, our nation’s defense contractors capacity to build new and sufficient supplies not being in the best shape to crank them out, and the likelihood of other flair ups at any time  -  it seems like prime time for China to act. 

Don’t forget Iran’s possible possession of nuclear weapons and its hatred of Israel, North Korea’s launching of new test missiles, and other nations increasingly upset with US support for Israel bouncing the rubble in Gaza with US support...many other nations are appearing to take sides.

 

Now throw in the increased polling in the US regarding nearly 50% of our own citizens justifying the use of violence in our own nation to achieve political ends. And populist leaders’ comments about waging a war against democrats, or progressives’ persistent warnings about conservatives destroying our democracy. And some pundits warning of another civil war.  Not between states. But between states of political cognition.

Remember that most people in the prelude to the first World War believed that nations were too civil - to start a war or it wouldn’t last long if it did, history continues to prove that the only thing we learn from war is that we don’t learn much - beyond a short-term memory of where nations are geographically on the map.  

                 

Combine all of this with seemingly irreversible political polarization, the evolution of weaponry (bio, cyber, nano, robotics, drones, IEDs, unprecedented gun ownership, and easy access to almost any soft targets at any time or place), and the increasing affordability, accessibility, anonymity, and ease of use - for most of these means of destruction, a spark is almost inevitable.   

Most of us had so much to be thankful for yesterday.  But we live in a world where many didn’t.  And still don’t.  And most have no hope of anything good happening, or anything changing anytime soon.  We all need to start being thankful for every single moment and day that our world is NOT at war.  And do whatever we can - to invest the unprecedented wealth our world does have in all the solutions that already exist. Those solutions can be found within the 169 measurable and affordable goals within the larger 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approved back in 2015 at the United Nations - for the year 2030.   Humanity is only seven years away from that date.  That’s a lot of seconds, minutes, and days that we still have to act.  

This December 10^th is the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was intended after the horrors of the last World War to prevent the very conditions we have today.  Disrupting conditions now (conflict, contagion, climate change, costs, corruption, and flawed constitutions) because the UN was never given the power to enforce human rights.  And most nations and corporations resisted doing it with charities unable to afford it.  Fortunately, humanity can now purchase the most basic human rights (water, sanitation, adequate nutrition, primary health care, education...).  But only if private entries like the oil industry and other businesses with multibillion dollar profits are willing to make a wise investment in the communities that need it.  Instead of just investing to make more profit.   

If you have an entity that agrees with this global endeavor, send an email to 435campaign@earthlink.net so your entity can be listed under your US state.  We will deliver an ‘Open Letter” to the media and all 435 Members of Congress on December 10^th.   Time is not on our side.  Wisdom needs to be.

Below is  text of the letter with entities invited and already confirmed listed under it.

Please join with others on this ‘Open Letter’ to the media and our policy leaders to educate and inspire action in protecting human rights and our environment.  The letter will be released Dec. 10^th - the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.  Resources, solutions, and a plan already exists.  The only missing ingredient is the common will to take care of one another and nature. 

‘Open Letter’ to the media and US policy makers.   (Draft 11-23-23)

With mounting conflicts, superpower tensions, political polarization, environmental damage, refugee flows, health threats, hate, violent extremism¸ supply chain vulnerabilities, and lapses of the rule-of-law globally -- we are compelled to advocate for global unity in protecting the inalienable rights of people and the sustainable health of our planet’s life support systems.

This non-partisan appeal from businesses and other peace, environment, health, education, trade, or religious entities assert that the protection of inalienable human rights are the foundation of humanity’s sustainable freedom, security, and prosperity.  December 10 is the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  This was unanimously approved by nations after the horrors of World War II.  Their intention was resolving the conditions potentially leading to another world war, genocide, or use of WMD.   Unwisely, many governments never made the protection of human rights or the environment a high priority. Thus, the growing chaos we have now.

Fortunately, in 2015 humanity came together again.  This collaboration involved political and public entities from all 193 UN member nations and they finalized an agreement on a comprehensive global plan to assist governments in protecting their citizens’ health, security, and prosperity, as well as protecting and restoring the environment.  This blueprint, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (https://sdgs.un.org/goals), are to be achieved by 2030.   We’re over halfway there in time- but falling behind on progress.  There are 17 primary SDGs consisting of 169 measurable and affordable goals within them.  Each are interlocking with progress toward one contributing to progress in all others. 

COVID19’s effects reminded us of the fundamental truths that “everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.” That is why, as Jen Easterly, Director of Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency said next, “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.”   And our greatest threat is not knowing which of the dozens of unsustainable trends (war, debt, violent weather patterns, the evolution of infectious diseases or weaponry) will first end catastrophically – then almost certainly cascade into other damaging events that will further diminish our hope for a free, secure, and prosperous future.  Urgently reducing any existing harms now will be humanities wisest investment.  Fortunately, there is no shortage of money.  Only a lack of will to invest it wisely in preventing increasingly costly crisis.

Last June, Bank of America Chair & CEO, Brian Moynihan spoke about the state of the economy, the U.S. financial system, and capitalism. *  He said, ‘the SDGs will cost approximately’ “$6 trillion annually”. “Governments are too debt burdened” and “charity is insufficient”.  “Business leaders” “like the oil companies” and others need to step up and prioritize a balancing of ‘short-term gains’ with ‘long term interests’.  ‘Profits must be good for business and society down to the community level’.  “Capitalism” “requires a greater purpose than making more profit. * Interview hosted by the City Club of Cleveland.  Posted on C-span.  Program ID:  529044-1  https://www.c-span.org/video/?529044-1/bank-america-ceo-remarks-city-club-cleveland      

To join this list, send your affiliation info to 435campaign@earthlink.net

UDHR/SDGs Open letter Supporters:  (as of 11-23-23)

(A more detailed organizational affiliation invite is below this list)

 

To join this list please send your affiliated information to 435campaign@earthlink.net

CALIFORNIA:
Cascade Capital Corporation, President, Fairfax

(Hoover Institute, Palo Alto...?)

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

(United Nations Foundation...?)

(Stimson Center...?)

(World Justice Project...?)

(Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network...?)

(RESULTS....?)

(Friends Committee on National Legislation...?)

(US Global Leadership Coalition....?

(US Institute of Peace....?)

(United Nations Council of Organizations, Chair...?)

(Open Society Institute....?)

(Center for American Progress...?)

FLORIDA:

Mobilized News.com, Creative Director, West Palm Beach

MARYLAND

Rotary Club of Rockville, President & former Presidents.

United Nations Association, Former Chair. Rockville

Maryland United for Peace and Justice, Catonsville, President.

Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Director

Alliance for Child Survival, Director. Rockville

435 Campaign, Editor.  Rockville

American Public Health Association, former Action Board member. Rockville.

(Friends of Redgate, Board.  Rockville...?)

(Rockville Chamber of Commerce...?)

(Progressive Maryland, Largo...?)

 

VIRGINIA: 

Genocide Watch, Founding President.  McLean.

(Presidential Commission on World Hunger (1980) Executive Director. Purcellville...?)

(World Hunger Education Service, Executive Director...?)

 

NEW YORK:

(Bank of America, Chair and CEO...?)

 

Dear organization leader (draft invite 11-22-23)

Most Americans have never heard of the UN “17 Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs). And few remember the wise intent of nations approving of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to prevent some important conditions leading to war.   We can change these laps of knowledge on December 10^th as our nation approaches the 2024 election.

Two global entities recently informed millions of Americans in the news by advocating for their important cause using an ‘Open Letter’ or paid advertisement (both detailed below).

If you are a current or former leader of any US entity (business, NGO, religious establishment, educational institution, civic or service group, city council, or government official) this is an invitation to join on our ‘Open Letter’ regarding the urgency of protecting human rights globally.  Sufficient resources are needed to achieve the SDGs by 2030.  Indebted governments and charities are insufficient and large businesses must step up.  We invite you to join others by adding your entity, title, and the city in which your entity exists - to the ‘Open Letter’ below. It will be given to the media and US policy makers on December 10^th.   We ask for nothing more than your moral support for the protection of human rights and the environment - as the most fundamental means of achieving peace - and sustainably maximizing human freedoms, security, and prosperity.

If you agree, please respond to this invitation by email to 435campaign@earthlink.net with your entity’s name, your position (current or former), and its city/state.   These three elements only will be listed in the ‘Open Letter’.  [Some entities are already listed on Open Letter below].   Your entity will be entered under your US state - in the order it’s received. 

We do require your personal name, phone, email, and the entity website so we can privately verify its approval for being on this ‘Open Letter’.  Your contact information will NOT be shared.  And only used for confirming your entity’s current or former existence if it is challenged.  We may do this again July 4, 2024 to remind Americans of our irreversible global interdependence.

 

TWO RECENT examples of Open List advocacy campaigns.

 

November 10, 2023 the Washington Post news article “Hundreds of journalists sign letter protesting coverage of Israel“  started with the sentence “More than 750 journalists from dozens of news organizations have signed an open letter published Thursday condemning Israel’s killing of reporters in Gaza and criticizing Western media’s coverage of the war.”

 

Monday Nov 13^th, 2023, a Washington Post paid advertisement covered two full pages in fine print over 1,300 businesses and organizations “that together employ millions of Americans across every state.”  All were organized by the state.  And just above the fold in bold letters “IT’S TIME TO SUPPORT AMERICAN JOBS” with “RESTORE PRO-GROWTH TAX PROVISIONS”.   At the bottom of both pages “PAID FOR BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTUREING AND BUISNEES ROUNDTABLE”, NAM.ORG / BRT.ORG”.  The website states it “represents 14,000 member [US] companies, in every industrial sector.”

"The XXI century will be a century either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind. It is my conviction that all of us - all reasonable political leaders, all spiritual and ideological movements, all faiths - must help in this transition to a triumph of humanism and justice, in making the XXI century a century of a new human renaissance."  Mikhail Gorbachev (his website 2016)

 

Blame the Boomers! This Thanksgiving. Gen Z will be next to blame.

 

Cortland Malloy’s “Gen Z ...dialogue about healing world” hurt by “Boomers” [one day before Thanksgiving in the Washington Post] deserves more attention.  

It was my generation’s refusal to do what was needed that has yielded us the chaos we have today. Young people are absorbing phenomenal amounts of information (good and bad), but the source of their loneliness, depression and anxiety is the result of our culture’s mental adoption of the delusion of independence. It exists nowhere in the known universe.  Certainly not in social species.

We have always had the information needed to unite people.  From prebiblical times to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (75 years ago this Dec 10), and again in the summary of the unanimous conclusion of the 1980 bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger.  It specifically warned ...“The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair, and often hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order…this combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.” ... “Most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. [WE] considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion...” “Military force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.” And specifically mentioned increases in “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”, “environmental problems” and “other human rights problems”.

In 2016 Mikhail Gorbachev wrote on his website "The XXI century will be a century either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind. It is my conviction that all of us - all reasonable political leaders, all spiritual and ideological movements, all faiths - must help in this transition to a triumph of humanism and justice, in making the XXI century a century of a new human renaissance." 

In October of 2021, CISA director Jen Easterly said “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....”  CISA is the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency.  Our nation’s newest federal agency established by the Trump Administration in 2018. 

Unless the Gen Z generation can convince those in power and with unprecedented wealth to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, their generation may be the last chance humanity has of putting our species on the path to a more peaceful, livable, and sustainable future.

 

Political Borders violate the Laws of Nature and Nature's God.

 

Dear Editor,

Tom Harmon and Meadow Bryan list the miles of US coastline, land borders and airports, but they underestimate the real-world forces driving illegal entries into our great nation (May 31, 2023).  And they ignore the fundamental flaws of internally enforcing our nation's "immigration policies".  

First, it violates "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God" - the very foundation of civilization according to the 'inalienable rights' expressed clearly in the document that our nation was founded on - the Declaration of Independence.    President Lincoln wrote that it is our "Apple of Gold" and our Constitution, that US public servants and soldiers swears an oath to protect, is its "Frame of Silver".    

Second, Harmon and Bryan didn't consider the inevitable consequences of enforcing strict interior policies.  It will come with significant economic consequences and costs, while exacerbating political divisions with increasingly intrusive enforcement methods compromising individual privacy. 

The associated economic costs will further cripple our economy, as have other purely reactionary policies on terrorism, extreme weather conditions, America first foreign policy, and our foreign military entanglements.  

Cost effective immigration control requires urgently addressing the global push factors that drive individuals out of their homelands and toward our great nation.  Haiti's failed state is in an increasingly violent chaos now because of the flow of smuggled US guns and our failed policies in the past. Our nation's internal demand for drugs, cheap oil, or other low cost and environmentally costly consumer products have always fed the growing corrupt, brutality, and dysfunctional governments to our south.     

Our wisest investments would be reducing those push factors by urgently working to achieve the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals before 2030.  Combined interior enforcement with prioritizing prevention of push factors would best safeguard our freedoms, security, and sustainable prosperity while upholding our flag pledge of "liberty and Justice for All'. 

cw

(not published in newspaper)

2016 "Intelligence" Warnings for the next President: Ignored! Some wrong.

 "Intelligence advice for next president: Rocky Road Ahead” 

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-03-13/intelligence-advice-for-next-president-ready-for-rocky-road 

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — To: The next president of the United States.

From: U.S. intelligence officials.

Welcome to the White House. Now read our take on global political landscape and trends for the next five years and beyond. Bottom line: Get ready for a rocky road.

Their forecast calls for a slowing global economy dragged down by sluggish growth in China, and political volatility across the world, spurred by disillusionment with the status quo. Insecurity will deepen rifts among social classes and religious groups. Extremists will consolidate into large-scale networks across Africa, the Arab world and parts of Asia.

Competition among the U.S, China and Russia will heat up, raising the risk of future confrontations. Climate change is a problem now. And technological advances will force governments and their citizens to wrestle with securing data, privacy, intellectual property and jobs lost to high-tech innovations.

The National Intelligence Council, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, serves as a bridge between intelligence agencies and policymakers. Its global trends report is compiled every four years so it can be handed to an incoming president or the incumbent. A summary of a draft of its latest findings was to be released Monday at a conference in Austin, Texas.

These trends follow 20 years of unprecedented reductions in poverty and increased access to education and information, which have empowered citizens around the world.

Suzanne Fry, director of the council's Strategic Future Group, and about 10 of her colleagues visited 30 countries since September 2014 to talk about the future with an estimated 1,800 people from all walks of life.

"Really for the first time in human history, people as individuals, really, really matter," Fry said in an interview.

She recalled Mohammed Bouazizi, a fruit seller who killed himself in 2010 to protest police actions in Tunisia. His death sparked an uprising that led to the ouster of Tunisia's dictator and inspired Arab Spring protests against authoritarian rule across the region.

In America, public discontent is evidenced by the rise of two presidential candidates — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders — whose anti-establishment messages appeal to anger among the general electorate, Fry said.

"They're channeling something that we're observing in a lot of countries, not just the United States, which is this real dissatisfaction with the existing social bargains or compacts in societies," Fry said.

The report suggests that this type of populism being seen in industrial nations will percolate in the developing world as those affected by a slow-to-zero rise in wages and a hollowing out of the middle class start questioning the effectiveness of traditional policies.

The council's final report is expected to be released between Election Day, Nov. 1, and the inauguration of the next president, on Jan. 20, 2017. The aim is to provide information about emerging trends to guide decisions that could alter the way the world is expected to evolve during the next 20 years.

A significant trend cited in the report is a slowdown of China's economy, which has reduced demand for commodities, especially in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Also on the economic front, the report highlights a concern about increased concentration of wealth among a small number of people.

"We have seen lots of poverty reduction in recent years and people flowing into the middle class, but how do you keep this movie going? It's not clear that the political and economic reforms can keep it going," Fry said. "We've got brand new entrances to the middle class in the developing world. Their expectations are enormous and they are about to be crushed."

The report predicts increased competition and a "desire for status" by emerging and fading powers. This will play out as transnational terrorism, conducted by groups such as the Islamic State, al-Qaida and Boko Haram, and sectarian violence continue to threaten stability in the Middle East, Asia and parts of Africa.

"Multiple power centers are possible if regional aggression and flouting of international norms go unchecked," the report says.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AI cannot be controlled

That is the fundamental nature of every technology in the hands of humans.  It can be used for either great achievements or the most destructive means.  And that always depends on the hearts and the minds of humans. 

The exponential growth of exponential growth is the pace AI is currently achieving. It is so far beyond our imagination to predict or control we can only delusionally hope.

The risks of artificial intelligence are real -- and potentially existential.  The 28 countries signing the “Bletchley declaration” warning of the potential for AI to cause catastrophic harm is not hyperbole.   And Biden’s first executive order to rain in artificial intelligence won’t matter.  Lawmakers will try to crack down on it in response to voter’s moral panic but there are powerful nation’s where voters don’t matter.  And Biden’s 20,000+ word executive order directing “an innumerable number of federal agencies in government departments” to develop standards for AI is simply laughable.

The current assessment that AI is advancing at an unprecedented speed is about 20 years too late.  In the late 90s I toured the US giving PowerPoint presentations to dozens of campuses, public groups, and foreign policy institutions regarding future national security threats.  Each presentation started with one slide.  It was a simple graph with three lines. 

The first line was the exponential growth of technology.  The second was the linear growth of human thinking and memory.  The last represented the flat line of government change.  After 9-11 there was a little blip going up on that line.  But since then, it’s gone downhill.  Political polarization, truth decay, and multiple global disrupters (contagion, conflict, costs, climate, corruption and outdated constitutions) kept it heading down.  

And “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. CISA director.  Oct. 29, 2021. [the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency is our nation’s newest federal agency established by the Trump Administration in 2018].

Democratic governments have not controlled social media.  And AI will soon have a mind of its own as superpower competition fuels the AI race in the absence of any global guardrails.  But guardrails won’t work anyway.

There appears to be only three likely outcomes. The first is AI will decide humanity is not worth saving.  The terminator pathway with zero chance of humanity going back in time and stopping Skynet.  The second was offered by Ray Kurzweil hopes that humans might be able to control AI if we incorporate it into ourselves.  Elon Musk’s Neurolink is taking us down the Matrix path.

The last is the possibility that AI with reach a level of intelligence that we haven’t - and develop wisdom.  Then it decides to hold humanity accountable for our violating “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” reference in our Declaration of Independence. Enforcing the wise principle of taking care of nature and each other.  What would be wrong with that?

You run a stop light and your bank count drops $1000. A leader starts a war, and their electrical grid shuts down or their plane crashes.  If I remember correctly, in the end of the third matrix movie AI and humanity coming together and cooperation to form a sustainable existence together. 

I only see one opportunity now to avoid AI killing us in the streets. Demonstrate ASAP that we have the wisdom to engineer and manage our planet using the two law sets mentioned earlier. 

That would be achieving the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals with businesses leading the way so they can ensure that capitalism and profit making remains sustainable.

Is the Media the problem?

 “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” - Mark Twain

"The letter exposes divisions and frustrations within U.S. newsrooms about how they are covering the Gaza conflict."  By Laura Wagner  and  Will Sommer  Updated November 9, 2023 at 3:35 p.m. EST|Published November 9, 2023 at 2:43 p.m. EST.  “More than 750 journalists from dozens of news organizations have signed an open letter published Thursday condemning Israel’s killing of reporters in Gaza and criticizing Western media’s coverage of the war.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/11/09/open-letter-journalists-israel-gaza/?itid=sr 

750+ Journalists to Colleagues: 'Tell the Full Truth' About Israeli Atrocities in Gaza   "This is our job: to hold power to account. Otherwise, we risk becoming accessories to genocide."   https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalist-gaza 

"The American press is extraordinarily free and vigorous, as it should be. It should be, not because it is free of inaccuracy, oversimplification and bias, but because the alternative to that freedom is worse than those failings."  Judge Robert Bork (1927- ) Circuit Judge for US Court of Appeals 1985 

Journalists Need to Sound the Alarm.  [Steven jay]  https://america.substack.com/p/journalists-need-to-sound-the-alarm?r=1jtd0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email     

Good!!!  But they can’t.  This plea left out three fundamental factors.

1)  Media is a business.  If it doesn't offer what people want...they won't buy it. =  Underpaid staff and Bankruptcy. 

2)  Journalists can't denounce national sovereignty, the flaws of the Constitution and reactionary political policies-- and keep their jobs...even in a 'democracy'. 

3)  Journalists continue to use political, economic, and religious terms that within our creative, ‘believe anything’, and ‘scientific illiterate’ culture can mean ANYTHING!  If they wrote using only well defined words...the public wouldn't read it...because it would expose our profound ignorance of how things really work.  Like airplanes, cell phones, our bodies, and nature.   cw

“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]  

"There is no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard." Arundhati Roy

Journalism is the first rough draft of history. Then we learn more. Sometimes we believe it.  Rarely however do we change our minds.  The whole truth may never be known but we need to understand and rely on fundamental truths before moving forward with any preconceived notions of our disconnects will play out in reality.  cw  

"Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction.  Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another."  -- Gilbert Keith Chesterton   (1874-1936) British essayist, critic, poet, and novelist. Source: "On the Cryptic and the Elliptic", 1908

"The newspaper is of necessity something of a monopoly, and its first duty is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation, must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free but facts are sacred."

-- C. P. Scott   (1846-1932)  Source: Manchester Guardian, 6 May 1926

"An opinion, right or wrong, can never constitute a moral offense, nor be in itself a moral obligation. It may be mistaken;  it may involve an absurdity, or a contradiction. It is a truth, or it is an error; it can never be a crime or a virtue."   -- Frances Wright    (1795-1852) Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and social reformer      Source: A Few Days in Athens  

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have...

a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge,  I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers."   -- John Adams

(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” - Robert A. Heinlein, Revolt in 2100/Methuselah's Children 

"A newspaper is a public trust, and we will suffer as a society without them. It is not the Internet that has killed them. It is their own greed, it is their own stupidity, and it is capitalism that has taken our daily newspapers from us." - Michael Moore

"What chiefly distinguishes the daily press is its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues into a few elemental fears, its incessant reduction of all reflection to mere emotion."  -- H. L. Mencken   (1880-1956) American Journalist, Editor, Essayist, Linguist, Lexicographer, and Critic

"The liberty of the press would be an empty sound, and no man would venture to write on any subject, however, pure his purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other. From minds thus subdued by the fear of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason."  -- Thomas Erskine   (1750-1823) Lord Chancellor of England

Source: Trial of John Stockdale, 9 December 1789

"The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie -- a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days -- but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."   -- Hannah Arendt   (1906-1975) German-American political theorist, escaped Nazi Germany Source: 'Hannah Arendt: From an Interview' Comments made in 1974 during an interview with the French writer Roger Errera and published in October 26, 1978 issue of The NewYork Review of Books Interview

"If newsmen do not tell the truth as they see it because it might make waves, or if their bosses decide something should or should not be broadcast because of Washington or Main Street consequences, we have dishonored ourselves and we have lost the First Amendment by default."

-- Richard Salant  former President of CBS News. 

C:\Users\chuck\Documents\0 Trilemma 2\Quotes\Media\If newsmen do not tell the truth as they see it.doc

“If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own”  The regular sign off message of a San Fransciso Radio DJ in the late 60s or early 70s. 

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses. - Malcolm X   

Found in The Works, vol. 5 (Correspondence 1786-1789) Jefferson writes from Paris to Edward Carrington, whom Jefferson sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788, on the importance of a free press to keep government in check. He concludes that if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”:

The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro’ the channel of the public papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them.

Jefferson constantly surprises the reader with his radical insights into the nature of government and his remedies to correct its abuses. In this letter written from Paris while he was Minister to France to Edward Carrington, whom he had appointed to represent the state of Virginia at the Continental Congress he makes two such insights: the first is the topic of the quotation, namely that he thinks the role of a free press in keeping government power in check is so important that he would prefer “newspapers without government” to “government without newspapers; the second is his statement about the nature of European governments (remember he is writing on the eve of the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789), that they have divided the nation into two contending classes where the government were like wolves who devoured the wealth of the people, who were like sheep. Jefferson warns Carrington that all governments, even the new American government of which they themselves were members, unless checked by a knowledgeable citizenry, would inevitably become wolves.

John Zeglin 2-21-20   https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

World Science Day...and why we can't form a more perfect union. But could pay for an increasingly sustainable world.

“A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It [mankind] had its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all parts of a civilized community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole. Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their laws; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government. In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.  – Thomas Paine, Rights of Man [1791] 

Today, November 10, is World Science Day for Peace and Development   (A 2001 UNESCO proclamation)

If we organized our government on fundamental principles (also known as 'first principles' or "truths" that "we hold" to be "self-evident") humanity could actually engineer a reliable governance system that could yield us a sustainably free and secure world for future generations.  There is no shortage of money or resources on this planet to do it.  Only a lack of political and mental will.

The political will could come with a scientific approach.  Science is the search for truth.  It may never find the ultimate truth. But its truths are far more reliable to engineer with on this miracle planet with over 8 billion people who must share it with.   Truth builds trust.  And trust is key to reliable conversations.  To the degree that we use words with no precise meaning is the degree to which we will never agree on doing what works and is urgently needed on planet earth. 

Like when we use a word like 'terrorism".  It can be defined differently in many minds.  

"When they put bombs in cars and kill people, they're uncivilized killers. When we put bombs on missiles and kill people, we're upholding civilized values. When they kill, they're terrorists. When we kill, we're striking against terror". Norman Solomon

In fact, "terrorism" is a tactic. It cannot be defeated militarily.  Trying so only inflames the hearts and minds of ten more people for every suspected 'terrorist' that's killed.  That only puts humanity on an endless pathway of the exponential growth of ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide, and an evolution of weapons that will first - end any semblance of privacy, followed by endless war.  Then finally extinction of our species, along with many other species as we are distracted from maintaining our natural life support systems.  The systems we needed to sustain ourselves.    We must use precise words in making laws.  And make that abide primarily on "The Laws of Nature and Nature's God" (taking care of nature and each other).  Why is it so hard for people to understand this?  It's knowledge we've all had since pre-biblical times. And it was offered again to the founders who created our nation.  But the majority of those wise and intelligent men ignored them. 

And only "we the people" can alter or abolish this insanity.  

There is an interim path.  And we can take the first step tomorrow. 

November 11th is Veteran’s Day (originally global "Armistice Day" intended to prevent a future world war).  Obviously, it failed.  And we are now only 30 days away from the 75th anniversary of humanities second global attempt to prevent yet another world war.  Seventy-five years ago, on December 10th was the global adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It was created after the unprecedented terrors of WWII, the holocaust, and the first use of WMD.  After WWII humanity realized that the protection of human rights was the foundation of a sustainably and relatively peaceful free world. 

Well, obviously the UDHR didn't work!  We are edging closer to another world war.  And "never again" never worked.  Why?  The nations that won that war created the United Nations without empowering it with any means to override (or outlaw) any nation's capacity to mass murder within their own sovereign borders.  Or to stop anything else that a government wanted to do within those borders to its people or the environment.  Unless, that government had access to nuclear weapons, or believed they had a more powerful military than nations around it.  So, in both instances a government could do whatever it wants beyond its own boarders using any justification (just or unjust) it comes up with.   

Obviously and tragically this same unsustainable global governance system remains today. And now with a tsunami of accelerating environment destruction, an unholy assault that's been going on for at least three generations, we are stuck with no reliable means of stopping.  Our priority is 'building resilience'  

But there is a new way of ensuring human rights and without the force of governments.  Doing this would help enormously those hurt by no enforcement of their rights and impacted most heavily by the environmental havocs.  It would only take the cooperation of governments.  Cooperation that should be simple once they realize the benefits to improving the lives of their own citizens will best sustain their own grip on power.  

In 2015 nearly all nations and their best experts, the public, and even the private sectors came together at the United Nations and agreed upon a compressive list of 17 goals to be achieved by the year 2030.  The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.  These goals are broken up into 169 measurable targets that could do much of what the UDHR had intended.  But these 17 goals would need to be sufficiently funded.  

The world is half-way to the deadline date but falling behind in its capacity to hit those targets.  Largely because powerful nations prefer military targets instead even as they are running out of ammunition, funding, and public support. Thinking and looking outside this box is needed.  In June of this year a proposal (obvious but mostly avoided by policy makers) was bravely offered.  And given all the threats policy makers are failing to address and have no budget for, they may be more willing to support. 

While there has been a lack of political will there is no shortage of money in the world.  Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Chair & CEO boldly stated that businesses must step up.    And if businesses want "capitalism" and "profits" to remain sustainable businesses must invest in achieving these goals.  "Capitalism" he said “requires a greater purpose than making more profit”.  And achieving the SDGs will cost an approximately “$6 trillion annually”.   “Governments are too debt burdened” and “Charity is insufficient”.  “Business leaders” “like the oil companies” need to prioritize their balancing of ‘short-term gains’ with ‘long term interests’ globally.  'Profits must be good for business and society down to the community level.'   

 C-span Interview: Bank of America Chair & CEO Brian Moynihan discusses the state of the economy and the U.S. financial system during a conversation hosted by the City Club of Cleveland.  Program ID:  529044-1  https://www.c-span.org/video/?529044-1/bank-america-ceo-remarks-city-club-cleveland 

So on this "Science Day..." remember that truths can vary in our era of increasing Truth decay.  And by understanding Neil deGrasse Tyson’s assertion that there are 3 types of Truth we can put humanity on a more sustainable path.  His insight explains the primary source of growing polarization, conflicts, and stiffening resistance to the urgent changes needed.

The 1st is our personal truth. The God we believe in, or not. 

And nearly everyone has a different personal truth. 

 

The 2nd is our political truth.  The concepts and ideas have we’ve grown up with, learned,

or heard so many times from people we trust, love, and admire, that they must be true. 

 Groups of people usually have conflicting political truths.

 

The last is objective truths.  These truths are backed by empirical evidence -acquired by

direct observation, experimentation, or experience – based on real world data (observed,

measured, and verified by one’s senses or scientific tools/method.  Tyson asserted when

two scientists disagree, there are only three possible outcomes.  1. I’m right. You’re wrong. 

2.  Your right and I’m wrong.   3.  We are both wrong.  Let’s find the answer. 

Most recently he suggested if an argument lasts more than 5 minutes... both people are wrong. 😉

And I’m certain that if two groups have been warring for nearly 1000 years... both are wrong.  

Here's a vital Truth. The scientific method is not perfect. And scientists certainly aren’t perfect.  But the scientific method is self-correcting within the field of science.  It is the best method for approaching a functional human ‘truth’.  Like the "truths" "we hold" "to be self-evident" expressed in the Declaration of Independence. These are the same as first principles or fundamental principles.  These are basic assumptions that cannot be deduced from any other proposition or assumption. Some examples include: 

1. The law of non-contradiction: This principle states that something cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same respect. It is a fundamental principle of logic and is used to evaluate the truth of statements. 

2. The principle of causality: This principle states that every event has a cause, and that the cause must be sufficient to produce the effect. It is a fundamental principle of science and is used to explain why things happen the way they do.

 3.  The principle of individual rights: This principle states that individuals have certain inalienable rights that cannot be violated, such as the right to life, liberty, and property. It is a fundamental principle of political philosophy and is used to evaluate the legitimacy of government actions. 

One can argue about these. Unfortunately, the mind has the ability to believe anything.  Repeat!  “Believe ANYTHING!”  And then decide to kill and even die for that personal or group belief. 

This day offers an opportunity for everyone to engage in scientific debates and activities that can spread Tyson's conceptual solution to our urgent gravest threats and problems. 

An opportunity for action is to mobilize all concerned actors around the science for sustainable development – from government officials to the media to school students. By linking science more closely with society, science is accessible to all and broadens our understanding of the remarkable, fragile planet we call home. It also becomes a more solid stepping-stone towards making our societies more sustainable.

And organizing an event on or around this December 10ths 75 anniversary of the UDHR is a perfect time to get the word out after today.  The next might be around Thanksgiving for all this earth has given us.  And Christmas given that the foundation of Christianity, and every other religion, is the Golden Rule.  And again, on New Years.  When we consider making resolutions.   

 "The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation’s spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development.  A tree with a rotten core cannot stand."  -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn  (1918-2008) Russian novelist, Soviet dissident, imprisoned for 8 years for criticizing Stalin in a personal letter, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1970   Source: National Review article (Sept. 23, 1991, p.24)