“Truth’s be told: Failing the Seven Cs (Constitution, Covid,
Conflict, Climate, Capitalism, Culture, Corruption) and the need for Cognitive Change.”
[Your
honest feedback is vital. Editing is very helpful. Plus, exposing flaws in my logic
- or a better idea you have will be deeply appreciated. chuck@igc.org
Chapter 1: The Existential flaws of the U.S. CONSTIUTION
What does it mean to be an American? There are north, south and central Americans. But not all are US citizens. When contemplating what it means to be an ‘American’ for US citizens we often blend the words and thoughts together believing that America is both the land we belong to as well as the best universal ideal. Unfortunately, most of us “We the People” rarely live up to our idealism that was offered in the profound phrases in the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. Then we idealize our U.S. Constitution believing it offers only us as citizens a unique and exclusive value of being an official U.S. citizen - whenever and wherever we travel. Something special deserving of a higher status than people in other nations.
But what is most unique to our nation is both the quantity and variation of people from other nations, ethnic groups, races, and religions. All residing here as official U.S. citizens. In other words, ‘we are the world’. More so than any other nation within this specific context. From our very beginning the diversity of people immigrating to America the land, long before we had a constitution makes our nation’s soil and the mixed blood of all its citizens the best representation of humanity in history.
The purpose of any constitution is to form a governing system between multiple entities that can overcome the problems within the system, between those entities, and to deal most effectively as a united force against any outside threat or even one from within.
"The aim of
every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men
who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good
of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for
keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public
trust." -- James Madison (1751-1836),
Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President Source: Federalist #57
However, the purpose of the U.S. Constitution was to establish a system to ensure the survival of 13 states and most of the citizens within those states, in order to “form a more perfect union” between them. A union that could best enable them to collectively and effectively deal with the threats from without those 13 states - and prevent those from within.
As we all know from the enormous cost of American lives and treasure from our civil war that the Constitution that was initially created had at least one great flaw. Those who engineered it ignored the wisdom offered within the clear words and profound ideals expressed in the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence. This appeal to all mankind was signed 11 years earlier by 56 men. But only six participated in creating that major constitutional flaw.
The Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution did not fulfill it.
“The secret rights
of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records.
They are written, as with the sun beam in the whole volume of human nature, by
the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal
power “.
Alexander Hamilton, 1775.
“…a constitution,
intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the
various crisis of human affairs.” John
Marshall, (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was an American
statesman, lawyer, and Founding Father who served as the fourth chief justice
of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835.
The good news is that our government’s blueprint came with the capacity for change as they agreed it may be needed. They also knew that changing it required a well-educated and well-armed citizenry with a clear understanding of their personal responsibilities for maintaining and/or changing it as time passed and the world changed. And without adapting to change the entire system could be put at risk from either internal or external threats.
As “we the people” approach
the 2024 election a survey regarding the presidential race was conducted by the
Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with the Brookings
Institution. It indicated that as many
as 20% of American voters might resort to violence if their preferred candidate
is not elected. This alarming statistic
reflects a broader concern that nearly a quarter of Americans believe
"true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the
country," up from 15% in 2021. The
study also revealed that 75% of Americans think the future of American
democracy is at risk in the upcoming election, with a higher proportion among
Republicans who support Donald Trump.
And threats from outside our democratic republic
of 50 states, the District of Columbia, 5 inhabited territories, 9
uninhabited territories, and 2 claimed territories that our Constitution covers
is a growing list of threats. With some accelerating
and it should be a self-evident truth that while our Constitution may be at a
breaking point, the freedom and security of every citizen is at increasing risks
related to spreading global conflicts, infectious diseases, extreme weather
events, violent extremists, economic instability, cyber-attacks, and artificial
intelligence.
Most citizens have great reverence
for the Constitution. And some are advocating for special amendments in hopes
of fixing it. But most proposed amendments
are as polarizing as the extremists within each political party with virtually no
chance of achieving any of them.
Yet most people fail to
understand that there are systemic catastrophic flaws that remain in this 238
year old governance blue print.
Worse yet the vast majority
don’t understand that the real problem is not the flawed Constitution, but ‘we
the people’ who have largely ignored the real-world changes that started emerging
after World War II - and started accelerating much faster after Sept, 11,
2001.
“What the people want is simple. They want an America as good as its promise.” Congresswoman Barbara C. Jordan
"Nip
the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever
preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their
deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no
resisting afterwards. The nature of the encroachment upon the American
constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a
cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners,
and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady,
spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every
day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue,
integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality, become the objects of
ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and
downright venality swallow up the whole society."
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
Source: Novanglus Letters, 1774
“A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It 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]
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin
"For the great
majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were
realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those
that are."
-- Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Italian Statesman and Political Philosopher
Source: Discourses, 1513-1517
And 2), our Constitution's real-world inability
to achieve liberty and justice for all -- and rarely any justice at all. And neither of these are achievable without
systemic amendments demanded by a majority of “We the People” which now appears
impossible. And without a transformational
change in our thinking (with or without violence) we will remain on a treadmill
to oblivion. Chapter 2 explains why changing our minds is so hard.
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to
work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards. On the road to
tyranny, we've gone so far that polite political action is about as useless as
a miniskirt in a convent. ... Something’s eventually going to happen.
Government will bloat until it chokes us to death, or one more tyrannical power
grab will turn out to be one too many. ... Maybe it’ll be one more round of
“reasonable gun control” or one more episode of burning children to death to save
them from “child abuse.” Whatever, something will snap." -- Claire Wolfe Source: "101 Things To Do 'Til The
Revolution" 1997
“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” Declaration
of Independence.
"How prone all human institutions have
been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized
governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult
it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest
rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of
despotism." -- James Monroe (1758-1831), 5th US President Source: speech in the Virginia Ratifying
Convention, 1788
“For we
know that when a nation goes down and never comes back, when a society or a civilization perishes, one condition
may always be found ~ they forgot where they came from.”– Carl Sandburg, Speech at Wade House Historic Site
[1953]
“Unlike the rest of the world,
we have ‘Constitutional rights,’ which
apparently include the right to commit war crimes with impunity.” Rebecca
Gordon. The United States Thinks It’s the Exception
to the Rules of War, The Nation Jan 10, 2023.
On
Jan 3, 2023, the first day of the new 118th Congress, with a
quorum to elect a Speaker of the House of Representatives,
they started with a prayer and the pledge of alliance.
Here are the highlights of the Chaplain’s prayer they were supposed to listen to:
“ETERNAL GOD, YOU SPOKE AND THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH LIFE. WITH A WORD YOUR
SPIRIT BREATHED INTO HUMANITY THE ESSENCE AND PURPOSE OF OUR VERY
BEING. ... BREATHE INTO THE BODY OF THE 118th CONGRESS YOUR WORD OF
TRUTH AND JUSTICE, COMPASSION AND WISDOM. GIVE EACH MEMBER THE GUIDANCE TO BE
FAITHFUL STEWARDS OF THIS DIVINE TASKING AND TO WIELD THIS PRIVILEGE CAREFULLY.
... REMIND US THAT AMIDST ALL THE DEBATE, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THE
FINAL WORD. .... LAY ON THE SHOULDERS OF THESE MEN AND WOMEN
THE MANTLE OF BOTH RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.... CALL
THESE WHO REPRESENT THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF THE AMERICANS WHO HAVE VOTED THEM
INTO OFFICE TO HEED FIRST YOUR VOICE AND THEN AS THEY UPHOLD AND DEFEND THE
CONSTITUTION AND ITS MORAL PRINCIPLES, GRANT THEM STRENGTH AND REASON, PURPOSE,
AND INSIGHT. ... GIVE US EYES TO SEE YOUR GUIDING HAND, EARS TO
HEAR YOUR WISE TRUTH, AND HEARTS TO HOLD FIRMLY TO THE FAITH WE PROFESS IN YOU.
WE PRAY THIS IN YOUR MOST SOVEREIGN NAME. AMEN.”
Their next pledge each of them made immediately after
this holy plea ended with “with Liberty and Justice for all”.
"The life of the nation is secure only
while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous."
Frederick Douglass
“Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest
undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is
a howling reproach.” Ted Koppel
Next in their very first day they debated who should be elected
Speaker of the House. This essential chamber vote required by
the Constitution has never had more than one round of voting over the last 100
years. Four days and 13 roll call votes later Kevin McCarthy was
finally elected. But only after making
substantial concessions to his ‘Never McCarthy” GOP holdouts. During
these days of internal squabble, the House could not perform its fundamental
job of filling committee assignments, congressional oversight, receiving
intelligence briefings on national security matters, or appropriating money for
any national security, foreign policy, or disaster assistance related
tasks. One of McCarthy’s concessions was to allow a single member of
Congress to force a vote to remove the speaker. A vote that would
lead to the loss of more vital time for dealing with the full array of vital issues
related to our nation and our citizens’ security. Which in our new era is almost every issue.
“Our lives begin to end
the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
In the days following there was more infighting as the GOP split into two factions - the ‘Never
Trumpers and the ‘Putin GOP’. This increasingly
dysfunctional congress was witnessed by China’s Communist party, Iranian
religious leaders, North Korea’s dictator, other authoritarian leaders, and every
populist candidate in every democratic nation.
All they could see with joy was a sign of U.S. weakness and the instability
inherent in adopting elements of democracy. Then these same folks
offered the self-evident truth ‘that our system of government is dysfunctional’.
Then continued their ‘disinformation/misinformation’ campaigns on US social
media (some owned by China’s corporate based companies). Political conditions here were so bad that
our enemies were actually telling the truth about the US government.
Then, as Americans had been warned, this GOP-led congress
spent even more valuable time launching oversight investigations and
impeachment hearings on Alejandro Mayorkas attacking his lack of action on
immigration. Then even more attempting
to Impeach the head of Biden’s Justice Department claiming that he was
weaponizing government. This was simply showcasing
that party's popular short-sighted narratives for building MAGA voter momentum for
victory in 2024. And for gaining more
MAGA recruits if Trump loses the election. Both parties have been using increasingly
heated rhetoric driving fear on both sides that a civil war may be in the
making. By early July there was an
assassination attempt on former President Trump which could yield a movement
towards more violence or less. Here’s
the difference between thinking and wisdom. A smart gambler would bet on more
violence.
Unprecedented challenges are
rising while becoming more perilous. Johnson told
reporters that his two GOP colleagues were not helping advance the GOP agenda
and called on them to put forward “a united front”. He also said he sees himself as “a wartime speaker” who is facing unprecedented
challenges. Again, a self-evident
truth. And if another long-contested GOP effort happens to find yet another
Speaker during this time of escalating challenges, both national and global
security threats could rapidly become even more perilous.
On July 16,
1996, the Senate Committee on Governmental affairs held hearings considering a
bill to require Congress to specify for each new law which section of the
Constitution gives it authority to pass the law. Sen. Glenn spoke out strongly
against this requirement. He said "Why, if we had to do that we could not pass most of the laws we
enact around here... Americans just want us to solve America's problems of
health and safety -- and not be concerned if they can be constitutionally
justified." -- Sen. John Glenn (1921- ) First American astronaut to orbit
the Earth, US Senator (D-OH).
It’s irrelevant which
Congressperson or political party captures the Speaker of the House. The system remains
dysfunctional with little prospect for improvement even within each political
party. Reelection appears to be far more
important than doing the work that ‘we the people’ want. And even that would be
short of what we really need. While
there are third party candidates for the upcoming Presidential election the top
two runners are both burdened with enduring liabilities with nobody knowing for
certain which leading candidate would benefit most from any rational third-party
entry. Meanwhile US citizens will see
virtually no change in our two-party system now failing our republic. A major flaw that our nation’s founding
fathers had warned about - yet put no controls in the Constitution to avoid it.
THE
2024 Elections:
“We the People” are the problem! We continue to put these people
on ballots. Trump’s anti-truth. Biden’s anti Trump rhetoric is complicit in
our nation’s political parties polarization.
Add to this, President Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the
President’s son’s laptop computer, Biden’s age, and his speaking errors, and
fumbling performance in the first unique public debate confined to Biden’s
terms. Now even his nomination is being
questions by democrats. This election will not be about stopping the
polarization or solving problems. It
will be decided by passionate opinions and threats to our nation impossible to
solve with existing policy makers and a dysfunctional democratically elected
Congress and an inherently flawed Constitution.
Imagine what might have been if the
new Congress had internalized the prayer, they all heard at the beginning of their 118th Congress. And then kept their pledge of allegiance to
our nation and republic that they had already given hundreds of times. And then committed their own political party
to passing laws “with liberty and justice for all’! Do you think they could find ways to make
Congress functional - and put our democratic republic on the right track to forming
a more perfect union? Not without fear of losing their next election.
Congress and most US citizens are yet to grasp the
fundamental objective truth that our government is broken. They sense it and think it. But keep voting with a blind faith that those
in power might yet be able to fix it. They
believe our democratic system will get the right people elected then 95% of
Americans ignore most issues until the next election or one bites them somehow.
“Under
democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying
to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed and
are right.” – H.L. Mencken
"Man
can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting
himself to society" : Albert
Einstein
Both
political parties believe they have rational principles that will appease
their special interest groups. Their highest priority is always being
elected or re-elected. Thus, these two parties increasingly
work against each other. Like a train with two engines pulling
in opposite directions on an outdated, poorly unregulated, and basically
dysfunctional rail system - with only two destinations. And both are insufficient to inspire or
achieve success or change unless it voting to name a new post office.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter if there were three, ten, or
unlimited number of political parties. The
flaw is democracy itself. It is a
lovable notion that a majority of voters will know what is best for everyone
within everyone, even minorities. But
what everyone wants and needs is an equal opportunity to survive and thrive
together in a healthy and sustainable environment.
Unfortunately, every policy maker and others hired to serve
our nation swear an oath to protect our Constitution. They do not swear an oath
to protect everyone’s public health and safety like most engineers and medical
professionals do. Their work and
expertise is shared globally. And when
used in this global context has done more to improve human life and the
environment than any one government. And
when their skills are misused or abused, it is usually done for one
purpose. Protecting national sovereignty.
"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
Notice
there has never been any measurable means offered to all voters regarding any progress made between
elections in achieving any of the seven intentions in our Constitution’s
preamble. Accountability is only offered every two, four, or six
years. Our nation simply needs more voters’ aware of, committed to, and advocating
for wise action regarding the growing numbers of obvious ‘self-evident’ truths
that Covid, extreme weather, corruption, our culture, and our dysfunctional
congress exposed in the number of excessive deaths because warning are basically
ignored. And most of our personal freedoms
fail to account for how they impact others around us or in other nations. What we need is a second Constitutional Convention,
but our political, religious, and economic polarizations simply will not allow that.
I don’t believe for nanosecond that sufficient voters would
join an “Interdependent” party to transform our Constitution. But that is exactly what’s needed for codifying
the wisdom of the principles that our nation was founded on and clearly express
in the Declaration of Independence. So
why do I fantasize about this? It feels
better than being a gloom and doomer.
Meanwhile our increasingly polarized
partisanship and ununited states continues to metastasize and take our nation
closer and faster to the inevitable trainwreck.
Inevitable because of our runaway debt, unsustainable environmental
practices, and the persistently evolving weapons, wars, pathogens, and the
capacity for anyone to weaponize anything and everything. And given that ‘everything’ is connected,
interdependent, and vulnerable, why not fantasize? And do what needs to be done, regardless of
how it turns out. That is the ‘hope’
that Vaclav Havel offered decades ago.
And each day we escape the inevitable is one more day to experience the
awe and wonder of life on this planet, and our species failures that need help.
Elected officials persist in the delusional
belief that defending the Constitution as each has pledged to
do, will protect our freedom and security.
What they don’t see is that the
Constitution’s primary and inherent systemic flaw is that it is founded on the
illusion that things are independent.
When in reality, everything in the known universe is interdependent and
vulnerable. And all they are really
defending is their political party and its hopeful policy positions based on public
whims and our collective delusion that issues, agencies, and nations are
independent of each other.
It’s not difficult to believe
that some US citizens still believe our government is working. This is usually the wealthy people. Only a fool or a liar would claim that their
elected official is prioritizing the fundamental principles that our nation was
originally founded on.
Read and grade the U.S. Constitution’s seven preamble
intents below. Use the A B C D F grades
related to our legal system’s current progress.
Given how long the system has been in operation an “I” for incomplete is
not an option.
“We the People...in order to:
1.
Form a
more Perfect Union: ___ While our civil war made significant progress on
one of our Declaration’s fundamental principles, we may be approaching another
civil war. It won’t be anything like the
first. But it could get very ugly and
bloody quickly without additional amendments supporting Self-evident Truths.
2.
Establish
Justice: ___ This may be the second greatest flaw in
the Constitution. We have a legal
system, not a justice system. A few
relatively easy steps toward fairness not requiring a Constitutional Convention
would be a) eliminating our two-tier tax system where those who are wealthy and
well connected to corporations are taxed and enforced similarly as our nation’s
working class. B) Codifying the same
jail sentences for most crimes. C) finding
a fair way to make sure that someone who is rich and likely guilty gets the
same legal support as someone who is poor and probably innocent. There is little fairness in our current legal
system. And the word ‘justice’ is only
found in the Preamble and etched into stone on federal buildings. It is rarely found in our domestic courts or
in our military and foreign aid efforts globally. And then we wonder why there is so much
hatred domestically against our government and globally against both our
government and our citizens.
3.
Ensure
domestic Tranquility: ___ LOL!
Campus protests regarding US weapons support in response to an initially
justified Israel counterattack against a genocidal Hamas political party, and
then intentional efforts to prevent food from reaching nearly half a million
now close to starvation is just criminal as the Hamas official targeting of
Israeli genocide. There obvious war
crimes committed in the destruction of Gaza, as well as other murderous violations
and sometimes approved ‘ethnic cleansing’ operations by some Israeli spokes
people and violent settlers in the West Bank.
Some Americans are rightfully appalled by their tax dollars fueling the
death and destruction of tens of thousands of Palestinians (about one third
children) with Isreal insisting on continuing this murderous destruction. What
should be clear to any rational individual on any side of this conflict and
debate is that the ongoing violence will not be stopped militarily. A political two-state solution is
needed. And most important and
self-evident is that continuance of violence will only reduce Israel’s security
in the long run – and inflaming Middle East tensions that will inevitably lead
to one side or the other using nuclear or biological weapons. An event with unimaginable devastation to
people, places, and things throughout the region and the world. The combined religious, political, and moral
beliefs polarizing both sides is insane.
And pushing other vital issues, criminal injustice, and preventable mass
deaths out of the news. Ukraine! Haiti!
Sudan! Extreme weather events! The evolution of weapons and pathogens...
combined with people’s capacity to believe anything, their failing to do what
they know is right, and what both people and nature need most (relying on objective
truths), only a fool would expect things to get more tranquil any time
soon. Domestically or globally.
4.
Provide
for the common defence: ___ This is impossible without a total
rewrite of our Constitution and effectively eliminating the concept of
independence in all domestic and foreign laws.
Simply because everything is connected, interdependent and
vulnerable. And only a virtuous global
effort will bring anyone a reasonable level of security anywhere on earth. Not even the best candidates elected, our
military fully funded, the border walls fully operational, efficient carbon sequestered
successfully, wars ended, global populations reduced, WMD banned, and the 17
sustainable development goals achieved -- will human security be sufficiently
gained. Because “everything can be weaponized”.
And pandemics, solar events,
asteroids, a Kessler effect event, or super volcano eruption would still
threaten everyone. The best we can do is work together to prevent, preempt,
prepare for, and recover from these inevitable threats. Security is an illusion. A global security system is needed. And our best chance to reduce and recover
from threats will be found in the hearts and minds of the human family, and our
species working together in prioritizing our need to take care of nature and
each other with virtue and accountability.
5.
Promote
the general Welfare: ___ Absolutely possible with all of our nation’s
wealth and natural resources and working with the rest of the world. This won’t happen without shifting our
appropriation bills toward investing primarily in addressing systemic root
causes...instead of our reactionary band aids that only increase our debt to
astronomical levels. The other massive
change must be cultural. Our selfish,
hedonist, reactionary, greedy, comfort seeking, stress avoiding, unhealthy
freedoms, and virtue dodging behaviors are not what our mind, body, and spirit
were engineered for. We were engineered
for solving problems, abiding by the Golden Rule, and having a greater purpose
than just feeling good and looking great.
It takes a virtuous community to ensure everyone’s welfare.
6.
Secure the
Blessings of Liberty to ourselves: ___
We are free to have guns. We have the
right to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our property with whatever
weapon is needed. But weaponry will be
insufficient if our government collapses from debt, disease, civil war, or its
own dysfunction. We are even free to
abuse our freedom with unvirtuous behaviors. But we will never be free of the
costly consequences to our health, wealth, comfort, and survival. In the
120 thousand written communications between George Washington, John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison that are now digitally available in our
national archives the word “virtue” is mentioned 6000 times. That is more times than the word ‘freedom”.
"[D]emocracy
will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do
what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or
liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mold itself into a
system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities,
all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the
capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few."
-- John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President. Source: An Essay on
Man's Lust for Power, August 29, 1763
7.
And our
Posterity: Mission impossible without transforming our Constitution and
sufficiently funding and achieving the 17 SDGs (and meeting the specific 168
measurable, achievable, and affordable targets within them) ASAP. Current generations are already suffering
from the Greatest Generations failure to create a United Nations capable of
globally protecting the 30 unalienable human rights listed the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Then my
generation’s failure to act on the conclusion of the 1980 bipartisan
Presidential Commission urging to end world hunger by the year 2000. Acting
on its warnings regarding the threats to everyone’s own personal, national, and
global security would have prevented most of the problems we face today. Our children and grandchildren are now witnessing
and experiencing the wars, genocides, pandemics, terrorism, environment
destuction, refugee flows, human trafficking, and other violations of human
rights that could have been prevented had my generation had done what that
commission told us was needed. These
problems are now accelerating unsustainably.
Thus, future generations will experience both the miracles of technology
as well as the unprecedented horrors of technologies misuse and abuse- on a
pace and scale we can now only image.
The earth belongs always to
the living generation…not the dead. 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
The
fundamental principles offered in the Declaration of Independence could best
assist us in achieving most of the Constitution’s seven intentions. And it is our presently flawed Constitutional
principles that have determined and accelerated the growing chaos we are now
seeing and feeling. And these will keep
coming to our lungs, homes, jobs,
cities, farmlands, states, and nation because we have never been, and
can never be independent of other people, nations, or nature.
Our mind and body are irreversibly dependent on food, air, water,
and our immune system. Because
everything is connected, interdependent, and vulnerable, and this literally
means everything! Every cell in your
body, every subcellular organelle, and every strand of DNA within each cell. The same with everyone in your family,
community, and world. And every food
crop, government, and nation (democratic or not) on the planet. Plus, every living thing, including each of
our planet’s natural systems that we depend on for our security, energy,
livable climate, prospering economy, and our future.
Meanwhile, our nation’s short-sighted interests, reactionary
whole-of-government approaches cannot effectively work. A global effort is urgently needed on nearly
every problem! We can pay now in money -
or pay substantially more in money, blood and human suffering. It’s our choice. “We the People” can change this.
Remember
our nation’s civil war killed more Americans than all the wars we have fought
in since then – COMBINED! And why
President Lincoln wrote that our Declaration of Independence is our “Apple of
Gold” and our Constitution its “Silver Frame”.
Two
vital Constitutional amendments were approved after that ‘just’ war. The 14th abolishing slavery and the 15th
allowing citizens of any “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” to
vote. But these fell short of bringing
peace into many communities. Twelve
amendments were later approved but none being devoted to “liberty and justice
for all”. A different civil war between
those who hate and those who love is possible. Even another World War on top of that.
“Nothing truly valuable arises from
ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion
towards men.” Albert Einstein
Short list of other Constitutional Flaws:
1. States Rights are
based on the same illusion as
national sovereignty - global independence.
“All this is
simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one
directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no
man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars. As long as diseases
are rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live more than twenty or
thirty years, no man can be totally
healthy, even if he just got a clean bill of health from the finest clinic in
America. Strangely
enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Just
as elements of slave states complicated political relations with non-slave
states, current differences between US states related to gerrymandering, voting
laws, and even ballot designs at can have national, and thus global consequences. Consider the year 2000 elections when a
butterfly ballet design in on Florida community played a role in the Supreme
Court decision to give that contested election to Goerge Bush instead of Al
Gore. Then 9 months later the attacks on
September 11. A bi-partisan Commission
created by the Clinton/Gore Administration intended to prepare the next
president with a better understanding of the new global security risks of the
new century had issued its final report 3 months into President Bush’s first
year in office. So just three months
prior to 9-11 the President, Congress, and the nation had been warned that the
Commission concluded that terrorism was our nation’s greatest threat. And ‘Americans should prepare to die in large
numbers on American soil from a terrorist attack’. That was ignored by the Bush/Cheney
administration. And even after the
attack on 9-11 they still resisted the creation of the Department of Homeland
Security. Then in 2003 the Bush/Cheney
duo launched their ‘shock and awe’ invasion of Iraq with that war/ending 20
years with another few thousand American deaths and an expansion of
terrorism. Many foreign policy experts agree
that invasion/occupant was the worst US foreign policy decision in our nation’s
history. It’s hard to imagine Gore ignoring
those bipartisan and experts’ recommendations.
Next came the death toll of over
a thousand Americans in Louisiana due to the soppy response to Hurricane
Katrina by a Bush appointee to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Our Constitution allowing states to ‘independently’ Gerrymander House seats strip
away the power of voters having fair elections with certain American voters
losing their influence in the outcome of a state’s electoral college count. So until every state changes this system that
allows the rigging of power by one partisan political party to reside over the
rights of others in that state, and possibly one state’s electoral slate
deciding which Presidential candidate wins the general election (as in Florida
in the 2000 election determining the final outcome for all US voters) then impacting
everyone in the US and the world – that is simply unjust and crazy.
"For peace to reign on Earth, humans
must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first." - Immanuel Kant
"Humankind has
not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to
the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things
connect." - Chief Seattle, Duwamish
(1780-1866)
“All is connected. That’s the truth of the world’s wisdom traditions ...
No single thing, no species or ecosystem, community or culture is safe when so
much hangs in the balance. We unravel as one or we regenerate as one.”
- Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K.
Wilkinson, All We Can Save
“Every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact (casus
non faederis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by
others within their limits. Without this right, they would be under the
dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of
judgment for them.” Thomas Jefferson,
Draft Kentucky Resolutions
[1798]
Jefferson is saying that each state has the natural right
to reject or ignore (nullify) any actions or laws imposed by the federal
government that go beyond what is allowed by the Constitution. He argues that
without this right, states would be completely controlled by the federal
government, with no way to defend their own authority or the rights of their
citizens. Essentially, Jefferson believed that states should have the power to
protect themselves from overreach by the federal government.
Basically, arguing that without this right of separation
from the Constitution, states would be completely controlled by the federal
government, which could thus do whatever it pleased without any check or
balance it so desired. This shows Jefferson
believed in the importance of states being able to stand up for their own
rights and thus it has limits against any federal overreach. But this ‘independence’ is not the way the
real world works. A deadly virus outbreak on any farm, in any
city or state can soon spread to every state in the US and every nation
globally. And the Constitution as it
exists would not be able to stop it without the state’s cooperation.
And this potentially catastrophic Constitutional law holds
true or almost any other economic, environmental, military, political, or
public health threat. So, within this
context the existing US Constitution is effectively a national and global suicide
document.
Underlying unity isn't a dream; it's
reality. The appearance of separation is, though, a dream, and it's turning
into a nightmare. ~Jude Currivan
Africans speak of ubuntu (humanity), often translated as “I am because we are.”
JUSTICE IS FOUND IN THE RIGHTS
BESTOWED BY NATURE UPON MAN. The U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C.
2.
Justice is a natural right. We
may not be able to define it but we know when something is unjust and unfair to
our survival. Any species that allows
itself to be killed or abused without some form of evasion or resistance will
not survive to pass on its genes.
"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.
If
you go to trial in the US, you would be better off being rich and guilty than
innocent and poor. The one time I
experienced a personal legal problem with construction of my home using used
materials I was fined $200. Unwise I
didn’t have a lawyer. I complained to
the judge “that the law wasn’t just”.
He explained “we have a legal system. Not a justice system” and kindly dropped the
fine to $100. The city had three lawyers
and likely spent $10,000 in preparing and handling the trial. It ended well. I used the materials and about 20 years later
the city gave me an environmental award.
"Law and justice are not always the same." -- Gloria
Steinem (1944- )
Publisher of Ms. magazine
The
trial regarding Trumps case of election interference by paying off a prostitute
to hide this act and paying a media source to diminish the reputation of
candidates he was running against in the 2016 elections - is a more important
example of the power of wealth in politics.
If he gets away with what he did with any legal loophole his defense finds,
my loss of confidence in our legal system would be complete. And if he is found guilty, he will unlikely
serve jail time. Which would have been part of sentence had if almost anyone
else had done what he did.
“Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on
the facade of the Supreme Court building. It is perhaps the most inspiring
ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system
exists…it is fundamental justice that should be the same, in substance and
availability, without regard to economic status.” Lewis F. Powell, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., features
the following inscription on its exterior: "Equal Justice Under Law." This phrase
reflects the principle of justice being applied equally to all individuals,
regardless of their background or status.
The hypocrisy of our federal legal system is laughable.
Agent Orange was a herbicide used by the U.S.
military during the Vietnam War to clear vegetation. Its use has been
controversial due to its harmful effects on both human health and the
environment.
There was a lawsuit filed by Vietnamese citizens against
several chemical companies, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto for their role
in producing Agent Orange. The lawsuit alleged that these companies were
responsible for the health problems and environmental damage caused by its use during
that War. In 2004, a group of Vietnamese plaintiffs
filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. federal court against the chemical
companies. But the case was dismissed by the court. It ruled that the chemical companies were
immune from lawsuits because they were acting under the direction of the U.S.
government during the war.
Despite the dismissal of this lawsuit, the issue of Agent
Orange and its effects on the Vietnamese population and environment remains a
contentious and unresolved issue. There have been legal cases related to the use
of Agent Orange by U.S. military personnel and its effects on their health. One
significant case was the class-action lawsuit filed by Vietnam veterans against
several chemical companies that produced Agent Orange. The case was settled out
of court in 1984 for $180 million, which established a fund to compensate
veterans and their families affected by exposure to Agent Orange. The Supreme Court has still not issued a
ruling specifically addressing the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
“Justice is the great interest of man on earth. Wherever her temple stands, there is a
foundation for social security, general happiness and the improvement and
progress of our race.” Inscribed
above the entrance to the U.S. Department
of Justice, Washington DC.
"The
commonwealth endures only in proportion as the guarantees of the rights of the
people are faithfully maintained." The
Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C.
This
quote underscores the importance of upholding the rights of the people as a
foundation for a strong and enduring society.
But outcomes in US courts are more money dependent than just.
LIBERTY IS MAINTAINED IN
SECURITY OF JUSTICE. The
Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C.
"If we do
not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.": Francis Bacon
"Iniquity [gross injustice], committed in this world, produces not fruit immediately,
but, like the earth, in due season, and advancing by little and little, it
eradicates the man who committed it. ...justice, being destroyed, will destroy;
being preserved, will preserve; it must never therefore be
violated." Manu 1200 bc
SUMMARY: A lack
of justice in US laws (domestic and
international) is simply unsustainable.
3. Zero-Sum budgeting between “Independent” agencies and states: Some agencies require secrecy
and/or complete separation from other government agencies in competition with
them for budget resources. With all
agencies overlapping on different issues and each with different rules and
priorities, this competition for the same limited funds is essential for them
to achieve their own departmental priorities.
This constant competition and overlap – is expensive, a waste of time/effort,
and unsustainable.
Just a movement of harmonizing laws regarding elections,
business licensing, pollution control, recycling procedures, building codes,
fuel additives, speed limits, electrical grid protection... across most or all 50
states would result in enormous savings in money, time, and confusion for
citizens vacationing, moving, or doing business between them. This would also facilitate
resolving irreversibly interconnected and interdependent problems given the
vulnerability of everything.
Engineering, medicine, and other professional accreditations could
follow with harmonizing of other federal laws and vital procedures that
everyone benefits from -except lawyers.
4.
The democratization (Congressional voting) of US the weapons procurement
process is a national security threat. The time it takes for Congress to approve of
any weapon systems and pass appropriation bills when we are in military
competition against autocratic governments capable of changing budget
priorities immediately is unsustainable in a hot or cold war. A March 6, 2024, Washington Post Opinion
piece, “Let AI remake the whole U.S. government (oh, and save the
country)” By Josh Tyrangiel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/06/artificial-intelligence-state-of-the-union/ he detailed this growing national security
threat of competing with other governments weapons procurement processes (both
ally and enemy). Unfortunately, our non-democratic enemy’s are uninhibited
by oversight, safety, or environmental regulations. This problem is more serious, larger, and
applicable to our entire government management and funding system directly tied
to our Constitution.
This slow and troublesome
law making and law amending process in our democratic system was
intentionally engineered into the US Constitution from its creation. This is a catastrophic flaw given the pace
of evolution of weapons, war, pathogens (via nature and labs), and any other
element critical to our national security.
"All our lauded technological progress - our very civilization - is
like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal." - Albert Einstein
The original constitutional
intention was to keep a balance between the three legs of government and to prevent
fast reactionary laws often demanded by a heated majority without sufficient
vetting of the law. In our real world
of fast and exponential change of technologies combined with unpredictable
superpowered enemies using hyper speed weapons systems, versus our own
sluggishly slow deliberative legislative machine increasingly paralyzed by
polarized dysfunction with political parties that more committed to protecting their
power (or defending the constitution) than protecting our freedoms and security
is simply and insanely unsustainable.
5. Our Democratic
Republic is run by lawmakers
elected by mostly ignorant citizens with most of their votes based on
their personal gut feeling, party affiliation, misinformation, disinformation,
conspiracy theory, special interests, or simple self-interests. This cannot yield a wise and cooperative House,
Senate, or President. Add to this
conundrum the likelihood that only half of eligible voters will even turnout makes
the outcome even more unpredictable at a time in history where time consuming
uncertainty is not a survival advantage. This is tied to another weakness given that
each Congressional district has over 700,000 constituents. Originally there were about 20,000. This leaves each voter today with an entirely
accurate feeling that their individual vote means next to nothing, and even
disempowers those working with others in their district to inform their
Congressperson. This gives corporations
or special interest groups with big money far more capacity to easily rig the
rules to benefit themselves. Then this
hurts most constituents if their most
basic needs cost more and their taxes rise, because the system is rigged.
Consider housing vs corporate profit making. A safe place to live (a home?) is a primary
essential for a healthy human life and friendly community. But from 2020 scarcely affordable houses
became a commodity on Wall Street.
Corporate investors purchased hundreds of thousands of houses in U.S.
suburbs with all-cash offers - buying single-family properties that could
easily be converted into rental units and then traded or speculated on by
financial markets and overseas investors.
This legal house-buying spree snagged one out of every four homes and
deepened our nation's house affordability crisis. Corporate raiders have been stealing the
American dream with multibillion-dollar U.S. firms using “finely tuned algorithms
to" find houses they can turn into rental properties. By making over-market and unbeatable cash
bids - often within minutes of a house hitting the market - American families
within every political party found it hard to compete with that. Some unable to buy a home falsely accused
this rising home ‘inflation ‘on the President.
Two corporate
homebuyers, Invitation Homes and AMH, are publicly traded companies. Others may be backed by private equity that values
profit over people. Lawmakers in Ohio,
California, New York, and other states are sponsoring bills using heavy
taxation to inhibit such institutional owners, but money talks. And those seeking campaign donations
gravitate to it.
“Democracy is a pathetic belief
in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far
as I know—and I have researched the records for years and employed agents to
help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great
masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
- H.L. Mencken, Notes on
Democracy
6. Government Secrecy: Trust is based
on truth telling. Our
government legally lies and does it knowingly for what it can say is to protect
our national security. It is often to
cover somebody’s mistakes. Our just
classified because someone doesn’t have the time or interest in classifying it.
Yet over 4.2 million Americans have access to classified
government information, with more than 1.25 million holding top secret
clearances. A recent leak of classified
Pentagon documents highlighted the vulnerability of the system which grants
access to classified government information.
One was 21-year-old man who a member of the Massachusetts Air National
Guard was arrested was arrested. The
federal governments grant top secret clearance to large numbers of both
government employees and contractors.
Even the National Security Agency has been hacked.
"It is a great importance to set a
resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so
mean, so pitiful, so contemptible and he who permits himself to tell a lie
once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it
becomes habitual, he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the
world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart,
and in time depraves all it's good dispositions." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the
Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
It is no mystery why most citizens have lost nearly
all trust in our governing institutions.
In competition for investments, elections, wealth, power, technological
advances, and idea patents, companies, and governments keep lots of secrets. This makes it virtually impossible to know
the truth about what our government, elected officials, or even our family
members are doing. Or what has been done
with our tax dollars, or other valuable resources.
“The steep decline in
America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global
distaste for the instruments of American hard power: the Iraq invasion,
Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture, rendition, Blackwater's killings of Iraqi
civilians.” Shashi Tharoor
This undermines the trust of voter, the value of voting when valid
signs and accusations of corruption or waste are reported, but doesn’t seem to
reduce American optimism that our military can protect us. This secrecy,
and security around exposure of secrets also prevents citizens from holding
government agencies and their leaders/policymakers accountable in a timely
manner, if at all.
“Everything secret
degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not
show it can bear discussion and publicity.” - Lord Acton
“The liberties of a
people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their
rulers may be concealed from them.” - Patrick
Henry, American colonial
Read: America’s
Secret Government Crisis, by Patrick
Eddington Posted on January 20, 2022, https://original.antiwar.com/patrick_eddington/2022/01/19/americas-secret-government-crisis
“It’s important to remember that the Constitution only mentions secrecy
once, and not in connection with the executive branch but Congress – Article I,
Section 5. Congress was the original arbiter of what should or should not be
kept from the public, and if America’s governmental secrecy sickness is to be
cured, it must reclaim that leading role.” Patrick Eddington
7.
Ambiguous words and phrases in
the Constitution or our laws. Or
the meaning or context of these changing over time. This flaw is usually not
allowed in science, engineering, or the miliary. But it is rampant in politics, religion, song
writing, and sales. Such broad word leniency rarely produces
reliable or sustainable results except in poetry and music. Yet
these word and phrase imperfections are allowed and used repeatedly in making
laws. Then we wonder why the government
doesn’t always work as promised or intended.
Then some actually have various altered interpretations over the years or
between different agencies and administrations.
Some notable examples include:
1.
"General Welfare": The Preamble of the Constitution states that one
of its purposes is to "promote the general Welfare." Its meaning has
been the subject of debate, with some interpreting it broadly to justify a wide
range of federal government activities and others interpreting it more narrowly
to limit the scope of federal power.
Any rational person, parent, health, or medical provider would know
exactly what ‘promote the general welfare” means. Ask a banker or policy maker and you’ll get
a blank stare, a more ambiguous word salad, or a personal story.
2.
"Commerce": The Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) of
the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate
commerce. The meaning of "commerce" has been the subject of numerous
Supreme Court cases, with the Court often expanding the definition to encompass
a wide range of economic activities.
Again, the flexible definition can be used to help or hurt almost any
special interest out of favor with the times, the place, or the producer.
3.
"Necessary and Proper": The Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I,
Section 8, Clause 18) of the Constitution grants Congress the power to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the
enumerated powers. The meaning of "necessary and proper" has been
debated, with some arguing that it gives Congress broad discretion to enact
laws to achieve its goals, while others argue for a more limited
interpretation.
4.
"Cruel and Unusual Punishment": The Eighth Amendment prohibits the
infliction of "cruel and unusual punishments." The meaning of
"cruel and unusual" has evolved over time and is often subject to
interpretation based on contemporary standards of decency.
5.
"Due Process": The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee that no
person shall be deprived of "life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law." The meaning of "due process" has been the
subject of numerous Supreme Court cases, with the Court interpreting it to
encompass both procedural and substantive rights. And again, these can change over time and
with different technologies.
These
are just a few examples. There are many
other words and phrases in the Constitution that have been subject to
interpretation and debate. And thousands
more in the laws already passed or being put through legislative council which
attempts to limit them.
And
these don’t even begin to enter the chamber of horrible definitions that
Congressional policy makers come up with.
Like “Right to Life”. “Peace
through Strength”. “Market forces” will
solve the problem”, there is “only males and females”. Or the woke left words like “equity” that can
mean either ‘access” or “outcome”. “Gun
Control” meaning certain firearms removal.
“Peace” meaning either cut military expenditures or increase them.
"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous
citizen these days
is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in
the great struggle for independence."
-- Charles Austin Beard
(1874-1948) Professor at Columbia Univ. 1935
You
wouldn’t fly in an airplane or spacecraft engineered and constructed with the
use of ambiguous words in designing or building the systems and structures that
people’s lives depend on when taking a vacation or a trip to the moon with the
desire to return home safely. Why do we
allow such ambiguous words when conducting operations protecting our health,
our lives, and our environment.
SUMMARY: To ensure sustainability for you, your
family, and your posterity here on spaceship earth (thank you Bucky Fuller for
this unambiguous two word phrase) which kind of words would you prefer be used
when engineering the systems needed for surviving and thriving?
8. Partisanship stacking of Supreme Court Justices and the loss of public trust in its decisions.
“The Supreme Court is an anomalous
institution. It combines vast power with minimal accountability. And trust in
the Court has, rightfully, plunged to the lowest level ever recorded. Millions
see it as hopelessly politicized. The Supreme Court is broken and urgently
needs reform.” Brennan Center for
Justice at NYU School of Law
Ideally every Supreme Court decision would be based on logic and
the majority view of partisan justices. But
that is no longer the way it works. Its
biased conservative members recent decision to outlaw a woman’s freedom
regarding the inalienable human right to control her own body was against “the Laws
of Nature”, established legal precedent, and the vast majority of voter’s expectations.
Next the Supreme Court overruled the administrative state’s
decades-old precedent known as the Chevron deference. A precedent that only the conservative legal
movement has dreamed about reversing for decades. The 1984 court’s ruling in Chevron v. Natural
Resources Defense Council held that courts should defer to federal agencies
when there are disputes over the meaning of unclear or ambiguous language in
laws passed by Congress. It was a sensible ruling given that nearly every law
has holes and ambiguities, but the experts at federal agencies like the EPA,
FDA have the knowledge and scientific skills to address the countless complicated,
complex, and technical questions that almost always arise.
Conservatives have long believed this gave excessive power to
unelected bureaucrats with corporations fearing overregulation. But in a 6-3
ruling along ideological lines, the court now trusts jurists - not experts in
their agencies—should have the final say on regulations affecting everything
from food and drug safety to air and water quality. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote
for the majority calling Chevron a “fundamentally misguided” doctrine that
blocks judges “from judging.”
Justice Elena Kagan’ descent connected the true motivation to
“judicial hubris” and with this one decision turned the court’s majority into our
country’s “administrative czar.”
This case reversal will likely be met with multiple waves of litigation
seeking reversal of other outcomes favoring environmental regulations
businesses considered burdensome. The EPA has used the broadly written Clean
Air Act during the 1970s to curb greenhouse gas emissions and recently turned
to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act to regulate the “forever chemicals” known
as PFAS making these regulations vulnerable. The FDA could now see lawsuits ranging
from the tracking of tainted veggies back to a farm to which drugs and
e-cigarettes are safe for consumers. Former FDA associate commissioner Mitch
Zeller said “This is disastrous for public health...”
Article III of the Constitution vests judges with the duty to say
what the law is and reach their own independent, legal judgment. Unfortunately, Supreme Court judges rarely
have the technological or scientific expertise needed in determining all the
life, death, and environmental consequences of all the new technologies,
chemicals, and biologicals profit making industries are creating every day at
an exponential pace.
“How can five people amend the United
States Constitution? Become Supreme
Court Justices.” Peter Kellman,
former POCLAD principal
Can the American people really depend on unelected bureaucrats and
unelected jurists to be the best decision makers when we can’t even trust most
elected officials? In a recent ruling
blocking the Biden administration’s plan to limit ozone pollution drifting from
state to state, Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion repeatedly confused
nitrogen oxide—which causes smog— with nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas.
We can only expect more ludicrous errors given the flood of cases now likely to
come regardless of who wins the 2024 election.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living
together in society, they create for themselves in the course
of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies
it." - Economist, Frederic Bastiat
Condoning
corruption? It appears wealth has
more than just legal advantages. It can
also purchase policy maker decisions.
This appears to be the ‘case’ logic of the conservative Supreme Court
majority in Snyder v. U.S. which
centered on an Indiana mayor. He had
been found guilty of corruption for taking a $13,000 check from a trucking
company after he had awarded them a $1 million contract. In his appeal he argued he didn’t accept a
bribe, because the payment came after he
awarded the company a contract, not before.
The high court agreed with Justice Brett Kavanaugh stating in the
majority opinion that gifts given to an official could be seen as a “gratuity”
for good service, like tipping a waiter. Kavanaugh engineered a difference
between obvious quid pro quo deals and “mere tokens of appreciation.” Even when
those tokens are worth thousands of dollars.
Look to Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to see how modern
influence peddling works. Both accepted
generous “gifts” from Republican billionaires pleased with their far-right
rulings. It appears these justices have now ‘justified’ other public officials embracing
exactly this sort of corruption they’ve obviously have done themselves.
"America
does not need another political campaign based on denial and avoidance of some
of our real problems. It needs a crusade to reform and renew our country, its
institutions and political system." - Richard Lamm Reform Party's nomination for President of
the United States in 1996.
"I would not use the US Constitution as a template if
I was creating a new constitution." Justice Ruth Bader Ginzberg
The
Declaration of Independence is the foundation of thought that uniquely
represents the
original American ideal of universal freedom for all. It has since inspired billions of people
globally by expressing the simple yet profound concept that government exists purely
to ensure people’s innate freedoms and their inalienable rights to survive and
thrive. In short, ensuring that all of humanity’s
rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of” Health (mind, body, spirit,
family, community, environment, economy, and governance systems), all within
the context of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”. Happiness today is a brief feeling no human
can perpetually sustain without drugs. Health however is what we all desire,
especially when we don’t have it, and used drugs to try and sustain it.
“We
therefore believe in liberty because we believe in the harmony of the universe,
that is, in God. Proclaiming in the name of faith, formulating in the name of
science, the divine laws, flexible and vital, of our dynamic moral order, we
utterly reject the narrow, unwieldy, and static institutions that some men in
their blindness would heedlessly introduce into this admirable mechanism.” – George B. De Husza
Political
parties were not mandated or banned in the Constitution. But the founding fathers warned against
them. Unfortunately, they are almost
inevitable when voters have such a variety of special interests and
affiliations and seek power to gain them. Whether they need them or not. Our nation’s persistent party duopoly has
only empowered and perpetuated the extremes within each party. Winning elections now is more important than
serving ‘we the people’ what we need to maximize our freedoms and security. Our political differences will never go away
with citizens who have little knowledge or interest in the fundamental
principles of nature and sustaining healthy lives for all. As James
Madison said when discussing special interest factions and liberty in the
Federalist #10, “Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without
which it instantly expires. “
What if our Constitution allowed
only one party based on the fundamental principle
of interdependence. Currently, every
U.S. political party is based on the partisan principle that it alone is the
best party to govern our nation. The
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) undoubtably believes it’s the best for making its
government the most powerful in the world.
And it is on the path to doing so with far more people and far faster
decision making than ours.
What can we do to abort
this? Is there anything short of world
war or a revolution inside of China? Imagine
all other freedom-loving nations uniting and forming a Global Interdependence
party. The CCP would not agree to
this. But maybe most Chinese people would.
Could one global
political party be established on the fundamental principle that ‘everything is
interdependent and that protecting inalienable human rights, everyone’s
freedoms and our common environment are irreversibly connected’? And this is more important than any national
government or private group priorities. United, such a
movement could stand a chance. A small
chance. But humanity remaining divided
has no chance of a free, secure, and sustainable future.
The Democrats: Progressives lack the testosterone and wisdom
to aggressively re-consider their own delusional Constitutional principles of
democracy, peace, and disarmament. And
their failure, in achieving peace via ‘justice for all’ by prioritizing the global
enforcement of fundamental human rights and protecting the environment. Failing to grasp that disarmament is a
non-starter, just as maintaining unenforceable international law.
The Republicans: Conservatives lack the understanding and wisdom that the best means
of reducing government, limiting its powers, and balancing its budget cannot be
achieve by Peace through strength - and putting the protection of national
sovereignty above the protection of human rights and the environment. Maximizing freedoms requires virtues,
fairness, and accountability globally. Not more weapons.
Leaders in each party have
sworn an oath to protect the Constitution. And each has allowed their
party’s inner power to be the primary source of dysfunction. Even before the GOP went off the rails by
electing Trump in 2016 our nation’s best national security experts rated our
nation’s own “government dysfunction” as its “second” greatest threat. Terrorism was number one. Both a higher threat than Russia, China, N.
Korea, Iran, or climate change. In a
new survey they would likely move government dysfunction to the top. I wonder how they
would judge a white supremacy group genetically engineering a biological
weapon targeting Blacks or Jews, Or an
anti-government conspiracy using a bioweapon to incite national disorder and then
taking advantage in the Chaos?
A June 25, 2012 blog by
Jessie Jane Duff titled “Defense Secretary: D.C. ‘Dysfunction’ A National
Security Threat https://jessiejaneduff.com/defense-secretary-d-c-dysfunction-a-national-security-threat/ she wrote, “on Friday Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta spoke at the Center for National Policy, where he warned that
“dysfunction” in Congress will have serious implications for the nation’s
security. As one report on Panetta’s
speech details it: The “dysfunction” in
the US Congress, where Republicans and Democrats have failed to compromise on
debt reduction, threatens US national security, according to Defense Secretary
Leon Panetta. “One my greatest concerns
as secretary is the dysfunction that we see in Washington,” he said late
Thursday at a ceremony in which he received an award for public service. “It threatens our security and it raises
questions about the capacity of our democracy to respond to crisis.”
“The
constitution has erected no such single tribunal,
knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruption's of time and
party, its members would become despots.” Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson's statement reflects his concerns about
the concentration of power in a single institution. He emphasizes that the U.S.
Constitution does not establish one supreme, unchallengeable authority or body
that can decide all matters definitively. This is crucial in maintaining a
balance of power. He acknowledges the
potential for corruption over time and through political party influences.
Jefferson feared that if a single group or tribunal held unchecked power, its
members could be swayed by self-interest, party loyalty, or corruption. And by suggesting that such members would
"become despots," Jefferson warned that unchecked power could lead to
tyranny where a single entity rules with absolute power, often oppressively. His broader point is about the importance of
checks and balances within government. He advocated for a system where power is
divided among different branches (executive, legislative, judicial) to prevent
any one group from gaining too much control and potentially becoming tyrannical.
Conclusion:
Jefferson’s idea is foundational to the structure of the U.S.
government, ensuring that power is distributed and that various institutions
can hold each other accountable. But he and it does not account for the
ignorance of science and technology now exhibited within each institution or
the hyper pace of change and weaponry with our competition with other
governments hostile to ours.
10. Voter ignorance, selfishness, and lack of virtue:
Sadly, many Americans today
have difficulty distinguishing between our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln made a simple and clear
distinction. He wrote that our
“Declaration of Independence is our Apple of Gold” and our “Constitution” its
“Frame of Silver”. A biblical reference
with poetic and functional meaning.
"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights,
that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these
propositions." Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) 30th US President. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence.
This ignorance of our Constitution’s systemic
flaws and our individual short-term selfishness is tragically linked to our
nation’s dependence on elections and its now wavering hope that the next
election will give us best candidates for making the right decisions on nearly
every aspect that of our lives depend on.
Yet they are still expecting a majority vote of the 535 politically
polarized House and Senate members to cooperate together, or to at least override
a Presidential veto. Citizens continue
to expect quick fixes to complicated and complex problems then only get more
polarized and increasingly radical when things don’t go their way.
Both sides have gone off the rails. Consider the US invasion of Iraq, January 6th,
2021, or our exit from Afghanistan. Our reactionary
short-term thinking and extended length of policy decision making is a profound
disadvantage for any democracy. And autocracies
know that this makes their own government look good - given their capacity to
make immediate decisions on key issues to placate the masses or sometimes the
minorities. This continued failure of
our democratic systems to insist on wise investments in preventative measures that
are urgently needed to economically and physically sustain our vital
infrastructure systems will not end well.
And they won’t end given our nation’s level of citizen ignorance of, or their ignoring of,
this reality. In this era of
unprecedented dependency on critical but vulnerable systems that are all
connected and interdependent will not end in comfort.
11. MARCH 11,
2024, three high ranking US Intelligence officials testified on Global Threats before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. One
mentioned this very systemic threat. And
there should be no doubt that multiple hostile government, criminal, and/or
religious extremist entities outside the US would support, likely cooperate,
and participate in any disruptive plan then ‘cover their tracks’ as they can - as
warned about in the threat assessment.
Even just the threat of a
pandemic or report of another ‘gain of function’ research accident in China
could spark a drop in the Stock market.
Just knowing the timing of such a nefarious event could yield
substantial profits for those in the know.
Even if they didn’t plan it. The threat of Artificial Super Intelligence
(ASI) was also on their Global Threats list.
But these were no pre-Trump
threat list yet on Jan 6, 2021, when hundreds of mentally biased MAGA followers
tested the stability of our political system.
Fortunately, it held. This
time. No one can guarantee a peaceful
transition of power in 2024/2025. Trump
and some of his supporters are already claiming his victory with an
unwillingness to accept a Biden election victory even if it goes Biden’s way. That
makes a clear Trump victory a good thing?
OMG. Its embarrassing, dispiriting, and shameful knowing of all the
lives lost in conflicts to protect our Constitution.
A sound case can be made to any rational mind that Trump came to
power largely because our constitutional system and its two-party domination
matrix that failed to improve the lives of middle-class Americans. Or really protect us from multiple global
forces of nature, hostiles, or our own mass ignorance, apathy, and stupidity.
We
didn’t see or feel opportunities rising while the rich were getting obscenely
richer. And many Americans were hurting
with other democratic nations experiencing similar declines linked to the
inability of our global governance system’s failure to protect people in other
nations, universal human rights, and the environment. And our own dependence on independent-national
government systems to address those same global threats impacting human
security (economic, health, environmental, political) here at home. Meanwhile authoritarian governments appeared
better able to quickly and decisively adapt when needed, making them look wiser
and our leaders to be chumps.
Klaus Schwab,
chairman of The World Economic Forum, praised China's economic and political model said: "I think it's a role model for
many countries... the Chinese model is certainly a very attractive model for
quite a number of countries."
Even if its system does have less freedom, a stronger surveillance
apparatus, and state-controlled media. The decline of the U.S. has been
linked in several ways to China’s rise.
The Chinese government’s success in enriching its people with its own
version of capitalism, even though it now is struggling. But China still has the ability to change
policy on a dime, as while any progress in the U.S. will be stagnant, tiresome,
and depressing given our legal political capacity to rapidly change any policy
is almost nonexistent. Hopefully a real
emergency could change that. But certainly
not the next election unless a new President Trump starts dictating as he has suggested. Which would be a violation of the
Constitution that many Americans will likely support.
Friedrich
Nietzsche said it best. "Hope, in
reality, is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of
man."
12.
Privacy: The 4th Amendment. “The right of
the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to
be seized.” Americans have had a centuries long love affair with
this amendment for all the right reasons.
The following quotes sound entirely logical and suitable. But now the 4th Amendment makes the
U.S. Constitution a virtual suicide document.
"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with
slavery." -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778) Political philosopher, educationist and essayist
“Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first
and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. Among
deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing
the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart.” Justice Robert H. Jackson, Brinegar
v. United States [1949]
"The right to privacy is one of the most cherished rights an
American citizen has; the right to privacy sets America apart from totalitarian
states in which the interests of the state prevail over individual rights. A
fundamental part of our concept of
ordered liberty is the right to protect one’s home and family against dangerous intrusions subject to
the criminal law." -- John Louis Coffey (1922-2012 ) Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals
for the Seventh Circuit Source: Quilici
v. Village of Morton Grove, 695 F.2d 261, 272, 278 (1982) (dissent) cert.
denied 464 U.S. 863 (1983). “
"...[W]e insist on the principle that no danger or crisis, foreign or
domestic, will be solved by Americans surrendering more of their constitutional
liberties, in the foolish hope that a bigger government will provide greater
security." -- Larry P. Arnn (1952- )
President of Hillsdale College, MI
But privacy is not a natural
law. It exists nowhere in nature. And
only exists as a human-created principle intended for the most natural of
personal of reasons particularly within our bedrooms and bathrooms. Civilization and cultures evolved this idea of
keeping more things private - like one’s personal habits and economic affairs which
has enabled human freedoms to flourish. And with this came wealth, a lack of
virtue, along with a tsunami of corruption and secrets that enabled one person
or group of people to succeed over others. Sometimes righteously. And at other
times catastrophically as civilizations, weapons systems, and flawed cultures
grew.
The founders were wise in
establishing the 4th Amendment and many of the personal rights it has secured since
then. In the words of Supreme
Court Justice Potter Stewart,
in Silverman v. United States
[1961]. The 4th Amendment is
“At the very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own
home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.”
It’s when someone leaves their home in this modern era then enters
a corporate office, research lab, or the military that this ideal of personal
privacy can go catastrophically wrong and harm equality, health, individual or
community safety, plus national/global/environmental security.
“Like so many government policies, the Patriot Act is
a shell game, promising to protect us from enemies abroad but instead being
turned inward to persecute American citizens. — Sam Martin, "The
Patriot Act is Un-American" [2022]
Resistance to eliminating
privacy and the freedoms that come with it within a comfortable and civilized
society has multiple downsides, and individually understandable and justifiable
when entering public affairs or institutions.
But those reasons will quickly melt
away with the detonation of a car bomb, nuclear weapon, or the release of a
genetically engineered virus capable of targeting one or more specific genetic
profiles - like a Camelpox engineered only to kill people who were never
exposed to camels - or the special vaccine engineered with it as a means of
protecting only those favored for survival.
This is where the
overpowering value of virtue in being kind to all others should be obvious to everyone. And the wisdom of abiding by the golden rule -
while taking care of nature and all of the basic health and survival services that
mother nature provides. Those few
selected rights in our Constitution’s Bill of Rights is nowhere near this
virtuous ideal that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights comes very close
too.
“Civilization is a hopeless race to
discover remedies for the evils it produces.” Rousseau
Reducing
privacy to financial transactions would go a long way to achieving this. Limiting global financial transactions to
smart phones has the potential for making significant progress increasingly vital
to human security, national security, and environmental sustainability. fewer cash transactions would also diminish
minor crimes and violence. Less cash,
less motivation.
“Prosperity ripened
the principle of decay” Edward Gibbon 1776
Digital
transactions could also eliminate the problem of counterfeit currency, money
laundering or fraud, especially in any cash-based economy. Digital transactions create electronic
records, making it easier for authorities to trace the flow of money which is
vital in helping to identify and prosecute criminal activities by oligarchs,
kleptocrats, violent extremist groups, or wealthy individuals and corporations
evading taxes. Cash facilitates bribery
and corruption making transactions less transparent and harder to audit. Additional tax resources can help governments
reduced debts, invest in prevention, and increase revenue for funding basic
human needs vital to reducing economic disparities, fighting organized crime,
while reducing financial exclusions/discriminations of under privileged groups
thereby improving their health, social, and economic stability leading to the
better possibility of their stewardship of the environment.
Shifting to mobile payments offers these benefits but also
raises major privacy concerns about state surveillance and the global need to balance
the protection of individual rights and both individual and national security -
given humanities irreversible global interdependence.
There will always be the ignorant crazies that want to commit mass
shootings or some group’s genocide. This
is where closely protecting everyone’s privacy inhibits a community’s capacity
to identify in advance someone, or some group- with such a murderous mind set. And best ensure that mind won’t achieve its
intention. And the born psychopath will
most likely be discovered early, then treated appropriately without violating
their basic human rights.
Most human minds are geniuses at solving problems. The problem is avoiding the creation of
problems that would likely drive a human mind to hillbilly justice or the mass
murder others for any reason. With
today’s technological power both affordable and globally available we must all
recognize that where there is a will, there is always a way. This is where insisting on objective truths
instead of enabling and empowering personal, economic, religious, or political
truths to dominate - is where humanity can
best focus and make sufficient early investments of time and money to prevent
the human will to kill.
13. Moral Injury: Excessive
sentences and a lack of affordable and competent defense
lawyers can cause moral Injury. So when our nation allows its own citizens to
suffer injustices to which they have no immediate remedy, physical and
biological bodily harm can follow. This
consequence was first identified as “Moral Injury” nearly a decade ago. It is a relatively recent mental health term
was detailed in late 2022 in a Scientific American article “An Invisible
Epidemic; Moral Injury results when a person’s core principles are
violated...”. It stated, “Moral injury
is a specific [bodily] trauma that arises when people face situations that
deeply violate their conscience or threaten their core values.” “Those who grapple with [this] can struggle
with guilt, anger, and a consuming sense that they can’t forgive themselves or
others.” These mental dilemmas produce
powerful feelings that often lead to a depressed immune system, harmful
addiction, suicide, or a related accident.
Soldiers, medical emergency workers, police, veterinarians, teachers,
social workers, activists, and other deeply caring service professionals have
not yet developed the vocabulary to fittingly summarize their deep feelings of
hopelessness. Their powerful emotions
are distinct from PTSD which is the stress suffered by those who were directly
traumatized by threats or injury to themselves.
Imagine being a medical care worker unable to meet
your oath in aiding patients in a hospital overwhelmed with Covid patients, a
lack of beds, and supplies to help even regular life and death emergency
patients during the height of the pandemic.
All this then someone walks in unvaccinated and refusing to wear a mask,
believing that they have the right to receive treatment. Yet feel no responsibility for the health and
survival of others that they may have at home, or even you. Consider a soldier committed to following
orders while knowing innocent civilians will be killed by hitting a legitimate
military target intended to save the lives of his own military forces. Or a veterinarian needing to euthanize loving
pets that no one would adopt.
14. WHAT US Government
agencies work?
In researching US government agencies looking for accountability
one might ask “Who polices the police” if you are suspicious of our
government. Intelligently there are
three Federal agencies with the mission of doing objective non-partisan
research, auditing, and oversight of our federal government. Here are their 2024 budget numbers.
1.
Government Accountability Office (GAO): The bill provides $811.9
million for GAO—a $21.5 million increase over fiscal year 2023—to support the
agency’s essential oversight and auditing responsibilities. As Congress’ independent,
nonpartisan watchdog, GAO helps ensure federal programmatic and grant
activities are executed in an efficient and effective manner as intended by
law.
2.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO): The bill provides $70 million—a $6.8
million increase over fiscal year 2023—to support CBO’s essential role
providing Congress with objective, timely, and non-partisan analysis to
inform budgetary and economic deliberations essential to the legislative
process.
3. Congressional Research Service (CRS): The bill provides $136 million for CRS— $2.5
million above fiscal year 2023—to support its vital responsibility to provide
Congress with expert, non-partisan policy and legal analysis. . It provides
Congress with analysis, reports, and briefings on a wide range of legislative
issues. Funding for the CRS comes from the congressional budget, and specific
amounts can vary from year to year. Congress may adjust CRS funding as part of
the annual appropriations process. It
has been subject to cuts by Congress in the past. Congress periodically reviews
and adjusts funding for various government agencies and programs, including the
CRS, as part of the budgeting process. These adjustments can involve increases,
decreases, or other changes to the agency's funding levels based on
congressional priorities and budgetary considerations. It also serves as shared staff to
congressional committees and Members of Congress with experts who can assist at
every stage of the legislative process — from the early considerations that
precede bill drafting, through committee hearings and floor debate, to the
oversight of enacted laws and various agency activities. CRS approaches complex topics from a variety
of perspectives and examines all sides of an issue. Staff members analyze
current policies and present the impact of proposed policy alternatives. Its
services come in many forms: reports on major policy issues,
tailored confidential memoranda, briefings and consultations; seminars and
workshops; expert congressional testimony; responses to individual inquiries;
With public policy issues growing more complex, the need for
insightful and comprehensive analysis has become even more vital. Why hasn’t it reached the same conclusion as
CISA’s director (“Everything is connected...).
If congress relies on CRS to marshal interdisciplinary resources,
encourage critical thinking, and create innovative frameworks to help
legislators form sound policies and reach decisions on a host of difficult
issues they are failing their job if they are ignoring the weighty preventative
aspects of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Measurable, doable, and affordable goals that
could guide and shape the nation, and the world, now and for generations to
come.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a US
prestigious honorific society established by an Act of Congress signed into law
by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
Its founding was prompted by a need for an independent organization to
provide expert advice on scientific matters to the government. The NAS operates
as a private, nonprofit institution and is composed of leading
scientists, engineers, and other experts who are elected by their peers in
recognition of their distinguished achievements in their respective
fields. It’s key role in transforming
our dysfunction government is considered below.
And
fortunately, our Constitution was engineered to be fixed.
Theoretically, it could
ultimately achieve what’s needed to form a more perfect union globally. This isn’t likely, but it is possible. And perhaps with more public support and
advocacy it could inspire a more perfect world that no political party has ever
inspired to achieve.
Our
U.S. Constitution contains four readable instructions embedded into it that could
enable policy makers to actually achieve the best solutions for addressing the
root causes of threats to nearly everything we know, love, and need. The
constitutions articles were intended for adapting a growing nation to a rapidly
changing world and making it worthy of swearing an allegiance to defend and
protect. A living blueprint capable of
ensuring and sustaining liberty and justice for all, even for our posterity.
1.
Proposed by
Congress and ratified by the states: The most common requiring a two-thirds
vote of both the House and Senate. Then
ratified by three-fourths of the states (currently 38 of 50 states) to become
effective.
2.
Proposed by a
national convention and ratified by the states: This has never been used. It
requires two-thirds of the state legislatures (currently 34 states) to call for
a national convention to propose an amendment.
Then the amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states to
become effective.
3.
Ratified by the
states, upon the application of legislatures of two-thirds of the several
states: This method has also never been
used. It allows states to bypass
Congress and propose an amendment directly. Which must then be ratified by
three-fourths of the states to become effective.
4.
Ratified by the
states, upon the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several
states, or by a convention in each state called for the purpose: This method
has also never been used. It allows the
states to bypass Congress and either propose an amendment directly through
their legislatures or through a state convention called for the purpose. The
amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of the states to become
effective.
In all four cases ratifying
an amendment involves the state legislatures or state conventions voting on
whether to approve the amendment. Once
proposed, it becomes a part of the Constitution if it is ratified by the
required number of states within a certain period (usually seven years).
What about the accountability
of elected officials? Is two, four, or
six years too long to wait? Given the
hyper pace of change today that answer should be self-evident.
"You can't run a society
or cope with its problems if people are not
held accountable for what
they do." John Leo Columnist
“If people in the position of
power are not made to be accountable, then, ungodliness, injustice and
oppression will continue to be the order of the day in the society.” - Sunday Adelaja
The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of
informed representative government provides no real security for our
republic. – Hugo L. Black
“The
trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it,
keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out.
There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.” - Arundhati Roy.
Other options aside from another
civil war is States Rights:
“Every State
has a natural right in cases not within the compact (casus non faederis) to
nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their
limits. Without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and
unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.” – Thomas Jefferson, Draft
Kentucky Resolutions [1798]
In this
statement, Jefferson is expressing the idea that states have the inherent right
to nullify or invalidate any federal laws or actions that exceed the powers
granted to the federal government by the Constitution. His argument is rooted
in the belief that the federal government’s authority is limited by the
Constitution. His key points include 1.
the ‘Natural Right of Nullification’ asserting that states have such a natural,
inherent right. 2. ‘Federalism and State
Sovereignty’ underscoring the principle of federalism, where states retain
certain powers and autonomy. 3. ‘Warning
Against Centralized Power’ that without this right of nullification, states
would be at the mercy of the federal government, effectively losing their
autonomy and rights. Jefferson’s desire was to protect state
authority and prevent the emergence of an overly powerful central government.
Some examples of
this were ‘The Alien and Sedition Acts’ (1798) passed by the
Federalist-controlled Congress and signed into law by President John Adams.
These acts included laws that restricted speech critical of the federal
government and allowed the president to deport non-citizens deemed dangerous.
Or the ‘Nullification
Response’ when Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia
Resolutions, arguing that the acts were unconstitutional and that states had
the right to nullify them. They believed that the federal government had
exceeded its constitutional authority by infringing on freedoms of speech and
press. I wonder how dealing with the
COVID19 pandemic, or a future pandemic far more deadly, would cause similar
problems leading to the deaths of tens of millions of Americans.
In our
globalized economy today ‘The Tariff of Abominations’ (1828) how would high
duties on imported goods from China, Russia, or Iran be delt with if it benefitted
only people from those nations but harmed the general population or a
particular state economy?
Another modern hypothetical
example would be ‘Federal Mandates on Environmental Regulations’ with the
federal government enacting stringent environmental regulations that impose
significant economic burdens on certain states or key industries, such as coal
mining in West Virginia. Oh wait! This
is not hypothetical. A state could claim
that environmental an regulation is primarily a state responsibility thus a
federal mandate would be infringing upon state sovereignty. Notice that each of these issues are working
on the flawed assumption that things are independent.
One simple law Congress could pass with a super
majority could make Congress somewhat more accountable. It would be a new rule requiring every Member of Congress (House and
Senate) to read a bill before they can vote on it. They won’t do this because the massive $1.7
trillion Omnibus spending bill passed by the 117th Congress was
4,155 pages. It’s almost certain that no
elected official reads that entire bill before voting. And it is outrageous
that most members didn’t even know what was in that bill until after it passed. What
if voting against such an ‘accountability’ bill would be grounds for an
immediate election recall?
The
Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a 2006 federal law enacted in response to
many high-profile corporate and accounting scandals. It contains several provisions designed to
enhance the integrity of financial reporting processes. One key provision established an oversight
board requiring CEO and CFO certification of financial reports. Something similar is needed regarding votes
on appropriation bills. But members of
Congress would never allow such a law.
It would put their annual $170,000+ salary at great risk. But simply making bills smaller and easier to
understand (even by elected officials) could be the first step to fiscal
accountability and eventual responsibility.
With every aviation incident involving civilian or
military casualties there is
always an extensive scientific investigation.
No piece of wreckage is ignored until the exact cause of the accident
and loss of human life is determined. Be
it mechanical, human error, or act of God (Law of Nature - things will change). Yet Congress is allowed to pass various bills
every session that fail to prevent the needless loss of thousands of human
lives here or abroad. Consider the
annual loss of over 100,000 lives from opioids which have taken more American
lives in the last four years than our nation lost during World War II. And the GOP solution is sealing the border
and drone strikes on Mexico’s drug cartels.
And ‘progressives’ are gun shy of blaming our pill dependent culture and
our nation’s constant pursuit freedom without virtue, always feeling good, and
being ‘happy’ by being selfish. And
most people only ‘react’ to the loss of their own private financial security or
a self-inflicted health concern. And that
depends on which party is in power, whose ox is getting gored, and who will
chair the oversight investigation. Why
are politician’s votes immune to science-based data and their flawed reasoning regarding
life and death outcomes for U.S. or foreign citizens? This would be a good question for the NAS to
research and answer, but congress would probably cut their funding.
The National Academy of
Sciences is what we need most today to protect and empower ‘we the people’ if
we truly intend to sustain our freedoms, security, interdependent environment,
and form a more perfect union. Meanwhile
all human life support systems are under accelerating harmful change and
increasing political strains.
The NAS is part of a larger
organization called the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine, which also includes the National Academy of Engineering and the
National Academy of Medicine. Together, these
organizations form a non-partisan, non-profit organization capable of providing
autonomous interdependent objective advice to the nation on matters related to everything
related to science, engineering, medicine, and our collective future. It is made up of approximately 2,000 elected
members, who are some of the leading scientists, engineers, and medical
professionals in the nation. They are elected through a rigorous, peer-review
process, based on their outstanding contributions to their respective
fields. The NAS also includes some
international members, who are elected in recognition of their distinguished
scientific achievements.
Over the years, the NAS has
played a key role in advising the federal government on a wide range of issues,
including the impact of climate change, the use of nuclear energy, and the
development of new technologies that are changing far faster than our nation’s
law-making bodies have been able to keep pace with. The NAS also has been involved in several
high-profile projects, such as the Human Genome Project, the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a wide range of issues directly linked to
U.S. national security.
Some examples include
guidance on the development of new technologies for military use, such as
missile defense systems, satellites, and unmanned aerial vehicles; research related to homeland security,
including studies on the effectiveness of security measures at ports, airports,
and other critical infrastructure;
providing expert advice on issues related to nuclear weapons and
nonproliferation, including studies on the technical feasibility and
consequences of disarmament and the potential for proliferation of nuclear
weapons; and research related to cyber
security, including studies on the vulnerabilities of computer systems and
networks, as well as strategies for protecting against cyber-attacks.
In 2022, the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS)
released 269 new publications. Its top 15 most-downloaded titles reflect its
mission to address the world’s most pressing issues and provide guidance to
inform our nation’s future. Some titles explore issues including environmental
health, research and policy, health care, educational equity, and new
directions for science and exploration.
One publication stands out. It offers a path for our nation
to transform our Constitution to meet the ideals
of our Declaration of Independence: ‘Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for
Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032’. The next decade of planetary science and
astrobiology holds tremendous promise. New research will expand our
understanding of our solar system's origins, how planets form and evolve, under
what conditions life can survive, and where to find potentially habitable environments
in our solar system and beyond. It highlights key science questions, identifies
priority missions, and presents a comprehensive research strategy that includes
both planetary defense and human exploration. This report also recommends ways
to support the profession as well as the technologies and infrastructure needed
to carry out the science. The only
thing this visionary publication is missing is the formula to make Congress
politically functional with the capacity to achieve what is scientifically
possible and desperately needed. This change is needed because change has always been
inevitable.
14. Changing our Constitution with wisdom or by shredding
it. The
exponential growth, power, affordability, and availability of technology
combined with our mind’s linear capacity for understanding, predicting, or
anticipating inevitable consequences is simply unsustainable. With our overarching government nearly frozen
in time we are in deep triple squared trouble.
AI Could save us. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/06/artificial-intelligence-state-of-the-union/
With our current Constitution
unchanged, it is effectively a suicide document. Sustainably managing any government and
eventually the entire world will require coping with the global growth of
unprecedented volumes of information and data, misinformation, disinformation, unprecedented
technological killing power, and at the same time the widespread American
public ignorance, loneliness, obesity, apathy, hopelessness, inequality, debt, and
injustice. With our lack of political
will to change our system at all.
The growth of digital data
alone is incomprehensible. Humanity will
have generated 175 zettabytes
(a number with 24 digits) of digital data by 2025. And after that, the data deluge will require
new prefixes for the metric system. The quettabyte
is currently its largest number with 30 zeros after the first digit. Combining
AI with fake news and the election -- time is not on our side.
“Every constitution,
then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years” because “[T]he earth belongs always to the living
and not to the dead...
The only “umpire” between the generations is the” law of nature.” -
Thomas Jefferson, c.1789
“Shred the Constitution.” During the Cold War a secondary government was created to replace the real government, had a nuclear war
obliterating it. Those who proposed and then organized such a ‘replacement government’
proposed this as a means of starting over. What could have been their
reasoning?
Then there is Project
2025 initiated by the Heritage Foundation. It outlines a comprehensive plan to reshape
the federal government significantly if a conservative administration,
potentially led by Donald Trump, takes office in 2025. The project proposes
various changes that could impact the existing U.S. Constitution, particularly
regarding the balance of powers and federalism. Key aspects include:
1.
‘Unitary Executive Theory’ aims to consolidate
executive power by reclassifying many federal civil service positions as
political appointments. This would allow the president to replace many federal
positions with loyalists, effectively reducing legal separations within the
federal bureaucracy and increasing the president's control within the executive
branch.
2.
‘Dismantling Federal Agencies’ by significant
restructuring or outright elimination. Including the Department of Education
and the Department of Homeland Security. This would shift responsibilities
either to other federal agencies or to state governments, which could alter the
balance of power between federal and state authorities.
3.
‘Judicial and Law Enforcement Control’ envisions
bringing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) under tighter presidential control. This could undermine
the rule of law and reduce the legal separations between these critical law
enforcement bodies, posing a challenge to the checks and balances enshrined in
the Constitution.
4.
‘Economic and Regulatory Changes’ will include
significant tax reforms, deregulation of environmental and climate policies,
and support for fossil fuel production. These economic shifts could lead to
conflicts over constitutional interpretations of federal versus state
regulatory powers and the federal government's role in economic management
capable of grievous human health and environmental concerns that are often
linked to human and national security threats.
5.
‘Christian Values in Governance’ proposes
infusing government policies with Christian values. This raised concerns about
the separation of church and state by implementing policies based on specific
religious doctrines. This could lead to
constitutional challenges regarding the First Amendment.
In summary, Project 2025's ambitious blueprint seeks to
centralize executive power, dismantle or restructure key federal agencies, and
implement policies that reflect conservative values, all of which could
significantly impact the current constitutional framework and its principles of
checks and balances, federalism, and the separation of church and state.
What would be possible in
our personal lives if future elected officials acted on science instead of political partisanship? Many things!
And one defining challenge of this century in the U.S and many other well-developed
nations is an ageing global population that will fundamentally impact how
families, communities, societies, industries, economies, and the environment
functions. Another NAS report (its 2022 Global
Roadmap for Healthy Longevity) envisions what societies could look like in
2050 if humanity applied all that we know now on how societies can remain
robust and even thrive because of, not just despite, demographic change, lower
birth rates, and level population numbers. This is the basis of a “Future-Back Vision,”
supported with evidence where available, and otherwise with expert opinion.
It would require humanity
revisiting our current life stages. And
instead of compartmentalization into phases of learning, working, and then
retirement, consider a blended journey where the elements of learning, working,
and leisure are intertwined - from early adulthood to old age.
We can be heartened that
globally there is a significant number of elderly people who wish to remain
engaged and contribute to society. This will
require a significant financial investment but the benefits and returns in terms
of human, social, and economic capital will more than justify the expenditures. This economic and human capital growth can also
help protect and restore the environment.
Much of this is detailed in the
report’s chapters. And investments like
this are arguably the strongest protection we have against the fears that
demography will dictate destiny and increase environmental decay.
The NAS report builds on and
reinforces recent critical efforts, especially the United Nations Decade of
Healthy Ageing (2021–2030) by providing a roadmap for leaders across societies
to extend health spans and identify what actions will be required to ensure the
success of each community as they become aging societies. Central to this success would be the need for
societies to address their social compact and accomplish equity.
Such an ambitious
all-of-society approach to revolutionize humanities current approaches in
caring for the aging is unlikely with the U.S. Constitution given its inward
facing laws and regulations which rarely takes a serious view of how its laws
will benefit all of humanity. It
continues to largely ignore how other societies benefit us when all people
globally live healthier, longer, more productive, and meaningful lives.
Victor J. Dzau, M.D.
President, National Academy of Medicine believes that the US needs immediate
movement in this direction so it can benefit everyone sooner. Unfortunately, even if a majority of U.S.
policy makers wanted to act on this wisdom our current Constitution and increasingly
polarized political party would likely limit such progress if not stop it
completely.
"The good thing about science is that it's true
whether or not you believe in it.”
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
“The greatest distance is not between Earth and the
Stars. It’s between two minds that don’t
understand each other” Turkish Poet
“What country ever existed a century and a
half without a rebellion? …The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to
time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
Thomas
Jefferson, Letter to William Stephens
Smith [1787]
Democracy’s other flaws.
Relying
on democracy, the will of a democratic majority rarely lasts. It can swing back and forth or change dramatically over time or
place when we are running out of time.
In recent years right-wing domination
of largely democratic nations by populist movements, the traditional
democracies have been failing. The GOP
barely survived its ‘speaker of the House’ circular firing squad, and MAGA
numbers are increasing.
Elsewhere populist movements
are failing. UK’s Brexit led to
economic chaos and turmoil within its conservative party and suffered five new
prime ministers within six years. And
both conservative and liberal populist political parties in South America have
failed wretchedly. Brazil’s Bolsonaro
was ousted in an election while Chile’s voters rejected the far-left wing’s
populist effort to create a new constitution.
But populism will continue to
happen as ‘independent nations’ fail to solve fundamental interdependent problems. In 2024 more than half the world’s population
will be voting within so-called democratic nations. None of which can stem the rise of domestic
security threats alone. The only rational solution is stemming the rising costly
disruptions in global economic, health, security, and environmental problems
that independent government cannot solve with independent agencies - and will
increasingly turn military power try and control the problem or to resist the
voter’s wrath from failing efforts.
This will be the continuing trend for years unless most nations unite to
achieve the UNs 17 Sustainable Development Goals ASAP. Finding ways to fund or enforce the basic inalienable
human rights of the vast majority of citizens will always be the best path to
global stability and sustainability.
But here is yet another
creative human principle offered by the CATO institute that misses this
fundamental reality.
"The real reason to abolish departments like Energy
and Education is not to promote efficiency, nor even to save taxpayers’ money.
It is that many agencies perform functions that are not Federal responsibility.
The founders delegated to the Government only strictly defined authority in
Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Search the entire Constitution, and
you will find no authorization for Congress to subsidize the arts, finance and
regulate education or invest tax revenues in energy research." -- David Boaz
(1953-) Author, executive vice president of the Cato Institute Source: Budget Cuts: Less Than Meets the
Eye, New York Times, Op-Ed Thursday, July 6, 1995
Does this freedom loving NGO
really think people or corporations are going to sufficient fund education or
energy innovations before the destructive homeland consequences of ignoring
these global fundamental needs hit? Art may usually be a distraction or waste of resources,
but funding artists to develop and test creative solutions to urgent global problems
holds merit.
Democratically elected
populist movements cannot thrive if the voters do not have the knowledge and
wisdom to recognize that global interdependent problems are immune to
‘independent’ national solutions and their ‘independent’ agencies. Ignorant, selfish, and shortsighted masses
will always elect demagogues offering reactionary solutions to complex problems
that require a comprehensive, holistic, and global systemic response.
Freedom to be ignorant of,
or to ignore, fundamental principles will not end well. Rampant
American ignorance combined with our reactionary thinking, favored conspiracy
theories, and the constant tsunami of fake news, misinformation, and limiting
our news sources to social media algorithms will not solve problems with mere
opinions, hoping and praying. And with accelerating global
problems our nation cannot achieve ‘domestic tranquility’, “the common
defence”, ‘promote the general Welfare’, or ‘secure the Blessings of Liberty
for ourselves and our Posterity’.
Ignorance is legal, lethal, unacceptable, and unsustainable.
We
need to amend, rewrite, or ignore our existing constitution but too many people
still believe it serves us. Fortunately
some are suggesting change.
Given our irreversible
dependence on a healthy environment the most important change would be to
codify nature’s rights. A ‘Rights for
Nature’ movement is growing. They, and
this author agrees that we need an ethical and legal system at every level to
counteract or reverse any human, capitalist, nationalist, or corporate
exploitation of nature. Those intending
to convert nature into commodities primarily for profit without funding
safeguards and assurances of nature’s restoration must be sufficiently penalized
to deter such crimes to existing and future generations. Failing to grasps the increasing ecological
costs will lead increasingly to an unsustainable “standard of living” for most of
humanity. The extinction of species and damaging
earth's life support systems are simply unacceptable and like most other trends
unsustainable. There must be enforceable
laws to ensure the surviving and thriving of humanity and most other life forms
that nature has provided over the hundreds of thousands of years our species
has lived on earth. A Rights of Nature for Nature advocacy movement is urgently
needed to develop an effective body of law capable of influencing the societal
ethics and norms needed to shift away from our existing view that nature exists
primarily for humans. Our minds need to
grasp the fact that we are a part of nature and cannot live healthy lives sustainably
without it. If you agree with this, consider
supporting this organization.
The New Constitution Project by
“crowdsource”. This strives to make the Constitution a force for solving
the 21st Century challenges that we face as Americans. The project seeks to
gather comments, text, and ideas from across the body politic, beginning with a
proposed draft of a new Constitution. The National Constitution Center also
reconvened the conservative, progressive, and libertarian teams for a virtual
constitutional convention to draft and propose a series of amendments to the
U.S. Constitution. The result was five
new amendments adopted by representatives from all three teams.
1. Eliminating the Natural-Born Citizen Requirement: This
amendment allows foreign-born citizens to become President, provided they have
resided in the United States for at least 14 years.
2. Creating a Legislative Veto: Congress would be able to
veto executive actions with a majority vote in both the House and the Senate.
3. Revising the
Impeachment Process: This amendment raises the standard for impeachment in the
House but lowers the threshold for conviction in the Senate, and clarifies that
former officers can be impeached within six months of leaving office. It also
specifies that the bar against future officeholding applies to both the
presidency and vice presidency.
4. Imposing Term Limits on Supreme Court Justices: This
amendment sets term limits for Supreme Court justices, fixes the number of
justices at nine, and mandates automatic appointments if the Senate fails to
act within three months.
5. Easing the Amendment Process: This amendment makes it
easier to propose and adopt new constitutional amendments by lowering the
threshold from two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to
three-fifths of Congress and two-thirds of the states
New Constitution Project: https://www.centerforenvironmentalrights.org/the-new-constitution-project
Working Draft https://www.n2k.world/workingdraftofthenewconstitution
Other movements are trying. But going in the opposite direction. It is a
large and growing conservative political movement in the U.S. calling for “The Convention of States” advocating for the use of
the Article V convention - for proposing new amendments to the U.S.
Constitution. The American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) website states as of May 2024 that "Congressional
approval has reached record lows, and the national government appears incapable
of governing effectively. America’s founding fathers included a mechanism for
the states to submit applications to compel Congress to call a convention of
the states for a time like this, and [this] work is an important resource to
describe the historical underpinnings for an amendments convention and to
address the concerns of those who are still skeptical of the
process." The ALEC posted this Oct
31, 2017.
It goes claiming to be
"America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state
legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and
federalism..." And “Comprised of nearly one-quarter of the country’s state
legislators and stakeholders from across the policy spectrum..." It wants to put "people in
control" and "provides a forum for experts to discuss business and
economic issues facing the states."
And its "model policy library is home to dynamic and innovative
ideas that reduce the cost of everyday life and ensure economic
freedom." ALEC’s “ideas and
publications" are to “serve as a toolkit for anyone who wants to increase effectiveness
and reduce the size, reach and cost of government."
This movement fails to grasp
that this targeted weakening of the U.S. federal government would be leaving all
50 states, territories, and their inhabitant to defend for themselves against
any and all national security threats from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea,
violent extremists groups (within or beyond our US borders), pandemics, and
nature's wrath from the onslaught of unregulated capitalism and profit making
in terms of extreme weather events, evolving weapon systems, or economic
contagion from any maligned source.
ALEC represents "more
than 60 million Americans" maybe of the best evidence I've found that
confirms the dangerous ignorance Americans who are most incapable of
understanding the reality that "everything" is “connected”, “interdependent”,
and “vulnerable”, thus requiring a “global effort” if they seriously want reduce the size and
cost of government expenditures required to effectively deal with the growing array
of global threats. Personal threats to
the freedom and security of all Americans that are now accelerating because these
ideologically conservative fools, and other ignorant 'independent' minded
citizens refuse to adapt in the only sane direction possible - abiding by “the
Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”. And this
regressive movement is supported by a network of organizations and individuals
who believe this will address the problems they see with the federal government
related to the size, scope, and balance of power between the federal government
and the US states. And as of March 2024,
it was restricted to proposing amendments that will impose fiscal restraints on
the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and impose term
limits on its officials and members of Congress. While some of its ideas launched in 2013 may
sound good, they have spread nationally with millions of supporters and
petition signers in every single state house district across the US and are now
active in all fifty states. I’m guessing
they are linked to Project 2025.
An Article V convention has never been called in the United States. The process for doing so is highly
controversial and has never been tested. It is not clear what would happen if
an Article V convention were called, or what the outcome of such a convention
might be. But this ALEC movement is
happening. And they are well organized
and funded.
While a convention is needed,
this movement is taking us backward while the progressive movements remain
divided and some splintered due to Hamas genocidal attempts in the Middle east
that will never be stopped military.
Especially because of the unacceptable death toll of nearly 20
Palestinians to every Israeli that was brutally murdered on Oct 7th,
2023. And there is no indication this
loss of life on either side is going away without a political two-state
solution. The obvious solution that the
current leader of Israel will never accept.
One other progressive movement has been suggesting an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. It is fittingly called
“Move to Amend”. Its December 23, 2022,
appeal stated the obvious, “We are under no illusions. Amending the U.S.
Constitution is enormously challenging.”
It has been done only 27 times before, including the first 10 (the Bill
of Rights) all at once. In March of 2024 MoveOn was urging Congress to support
H.J.R. 54, the We the People Amendment -- a constitutional amendment to
end corporate personhood and get big money out of politics.
US citizens oblivious to our current
problems will not
be solved by electing better officials, passing better laws, reducing
regulations, or making executive decisions.
Especially if the laws governing our society continue to favor corporate
rights, special interests, American exceptionalism, or Constitutional
originalism over the protection of our God given inalienable human rights and the
health of our home planet.
This needs to change! Our need to significantly amend, or abandon the U.S.
Constitution in
event of a catastrophic failure is inescapable. And while democracy is not the final goal, we can
and must democratize the ground rules to start for whatever follows. U.S history shows that fundamental
constitutional change happens only alongside a fundamental cultural
change. One that requires educating and
organizing a large majority of people to challenge both the credibility and
sustainability of the status quo. And then
expand to a truly united grassroots movement for systemic and structural change
to make what now seems impossible – not just accepted, but necessary, and quickly
inevitable.
The things to do
are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one
else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing
that which needs to be done - that no one else has told you to do or how to do
it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character
that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others
on the individual. R. Buckminster Fuller
In an interesting 2007
article, “The U.S. Constitution: Pull the Curtain”, by Greg Coleridge and
Virginia Rasmussen “reveal the many examples within the Constitution which blow
up our beliefs that this sacred document represents ‘We the People’”. They obviously did not dug deep enough to
find the greatest flaws in the Constitution mentioned above. But while most Americans have only worshiped this
profoundly flawed document for decades, some are finally writing about it.
The simplest amendment needed
in transforming THE CONSTITUTION would be insisting that only unambiguous words be used in engineering any
changes. Most flaws of our Constitution may
have been unintetionally engineered into it.
Some ambigous words may have been used to pass laws but ambigous words can
no longer be allowed to do this or be in our laws. Most of our flawed laws have been written with
ambious words by political, religious, or economic ideaists seeking specail
advantage. We need realists in the
global context using and enforcing self evident truths.
WORDS: No sane person
would choose to ride on a rocket launch vehicle designed by
engineers who didnt follow the agreed upon words or phrases with clear
and precise definitions used to achieve highly predictable outcomes for any
vehicle. Yet we are literally flying
around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour on a finite planet that obeys all the
laws of nature. But we agreed to ride on
it having engineered an inherently flawed global govenance system and we think
nothing about it except an occasional fear of another world war.
"What we think, or
what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The
only consequence is what we do." - John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
And on our significant patch of ground we allow many ambignous
words or phrases to keep our Constitution as is. Some words being interpreted differently by
political parties or special interest groups to meet their short-term goals or to
protect their reactionary impulses ahead of the needs of many others. Words
like “Democracy”, “Peace”, “Terrorism”, “Strong”,
“Freedom”... We use these words
ad nauseum. And have done so for decades
to manipulate political power and favor instead of negotiating reality. There should be no mystery why Americans and
much of the world appears to be more divided today than at any time in the last
150 years. We have more rational and/or
irrational fears of local or global threats than ever before as our world today is more fragmented and multipolar
than at any time in living memory, with our systems exhibiting attributes of
unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity simultaneously.
In reality, democracy has never worked. Peace
isn’t security or maximum freedom. Real Strength
is the power to adapt not kill. Terrorism
in an emotion that cannot be defeated. Freedom
requires virtue and accountabilty or nothing will work reliablly. These should be self-evident truths yet our
minds chose to defend these words or ignor them. And then we wonder WTF is
happening. And why, in spite of a few
succeses, most things are continuing to worsen.
DEMOCRACY: A noun or verb? It can be both. But in
both cases it is entirely insufficient to achieve maximum human freedom and
security without everyone following the golden rule and protecting Mother
Nature.
"Elections are held to delude the populace into believing that they
are participating in government." - Gerald F. Lieberman
"You
want sanity, democracy, community, an intact Earth? We can't get there obeying
Constitutional theory and law crafted by slave masters, imperialists, corporate
masters, and Nature destroyers. We can't get there kneeling before robbed
lawyers stockpiling class plunder precedent up their venerable sleeves. So,
isn't disobedience the challenge of our age? Principled, inventive, escalating
disobedience to liberate our souls, to transfigure our work as humans on this
Earth." Richard Grossman
Democracy
means nothing more than people having some say in the rules or laws they must live under. This individual personal agency or ‘God-given
sovereignty’ to communicate in some way about one’s concerns, wants, and needs is
something we are all born with. Speaking out is a universal freedom. It is an unalienable right to try and
influence our own life’s trajectory. But
our freedom must consider of the same rights of all others around us, or lose
it.
Sovereignty was originally conceived and
defined as a gift from God
to all people. Essentially, it was human
freedom, self-ownership and autonomy. Or a fundamental natural right to be one's own person, to be the
exclusive controller of one’s own body, thoughts, actions, and direction in
life. This religious context varies
among different belief systems and traditions. In monotheistic religions such
as Christianity and Islam, sovereignty is believed to be held by God as the
supreme authority. God then granted
that freedom of action to those born, thus giving them the choice of how to
live their lives with the intention and hope they would live virtuous
lives. This changed when charlatans,
rulers and earthly governments claimed their sovereign authority was God
given. In other religious traditions,
such as Hinduism and Buddhism, sovereignty is seen as an illusion and the
ultimate authority lies in spiritual enlightenment or nirvana. In any case, the
idea of whether God gives sovereignty to individuals or governments is a matter
of human interpretation and belief. But governments
now own it.
“The love and hopes
of those who are no longer with us resides in our hearts; The love and hopes of
current and future generations resides in our actions.” Steven Jay
About 400 years
ago that individual right was confiscated and consolidated into the right of a
king, religious ruler, a majority within a nation state, or a government with
the ‘Sovern ‘power to do whatever it wanted to whomever it wanted, whenever it decided. Today we call this murderous concept “National
Sovereignty”. This two-word phrase was invented
as a principle during the creation of the treaty of Westphalia. It was based on the rational desire for
separation between warring religious factions.
It offered the illusion of independence which was cemented into our
minds and over 50 million human bodies about 350 years later at the creation of
the U.N. And just as Slavery in the U.S.
was initially established by a democratic vote, it was the victors of World War
II - including two nations armed with nuclear weapons - that ‘democratically’
established this suicide governance system that powerful governments still
resist changing today. And most of humanity blindly accepts this flawed yet
dominant global governance principle without question now so it remains globally
tolerated.
But this western
dominated ‘world order’ has not stopped wars, genocides, terrorism,
environmental destruction, pandemics or the global crime and corruption that
benefits from all this chaos. There was
one exception. The global eradication of
smallpox. A global effort in which every
national leader and violent extremist group cooperated to eliminate.
"[T]he
people as ultimate sovereigns, retain the ultimate power -- and even the duty
-- to overthrow any government that fails to respect their
authority." -- Glenn Harlan
Reynolds
(1960- ) Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of
Tennessee
Source: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Under the Tennessee Constitution, A
Case Study in Civic Republican Thought, 61 TENN. L. R. 647, 652 (1994)
Individuals always have the
freedom to do whatever we want, anywhere we want, and whenever we want. But we will never be free of the consequences
when freedom is abusive to nature or others. And now, with the unstoppable
evolution of technology and lack of change in some governments, this freedom increasingly
enables bad actors to avoid accountability.
Especially if they have nuclear weapons, a strong military, or are
willing to sacrifice their own lives while committing mass murder that has been
justified in someone’s mind or experience by their own real or perceived
grievances.
Such payback,
blowback, or ‘hillbilly justice’ is nearly inevitable without a global justice
system. And over the last 80 years humanity
has collectively failed to manage our existence justly. Now we have basically two options. Continue down this current path to oblivion
with persistent wars, genocides, terrorism, diseases, environmental loss because
we value our national sovereignty (independence) more than we value human
rights, life, health, and the environment. Or we invest sufficiently and urgently with a
planetary focus on deterring violence by ensuring liberty and justice for all. Even taking responsibility for our original sins
and pleading for forgiveness.
For 2024 with a record breaking number of elections, rising global temperatrures, as crisis’
continue expanding – the world’s authoritarian leaders will remain a logical
attraction and beneficiary of the chaos.
And believing that more democracy (as a noun or a verb) will pull us
away from increasing global chaos is simple insanity.
“Never has our future been
more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that
cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces
that look like sheer insanity" - Hannah
Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Consider
real-world examples of democracies failing to ensure their cititzen’s basic
rights, freedoms, and any semblance of sustainable security. Argentina, Sweden, India, Russia, Ukraine,
China, Israel, Haiti, and the US.
Argentina’s Javier
Milei, a far-right libertarian president issued a decree banning the use of
“inclusive language” like nouns endings that include the feminine and neutral,
in any government communications.
Public officials are also forbidden to “unnecessarily include the
feminine” when masculine could be the default.
Milei appeared to be removing women from
the national conversation with even references to members of the lower
House of Deputies using only the masculine diputados, not diputados y diputadas. This is creating more fear in Argentina women. Milei and his young male followers don’t
want progressive social change. They are
fearful of men losing their power, respect, or status. And women gaining theirs. Milei has campaigned on overturning the
legalization of abortion while his male minions harassed women journalists and
activists with rape and death threats. He
is just following the global wave of regressive populists, including Donald
Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Hungary’s Viktor Orban. These men may seem ridiculous and backward in
their reactionary zeal. But in the face
of almost every democracy losing its capacity to stop growing global forces
impacting on their majorities they must keep them happy. And in this case the
abuse and domination of women is not the only downside he can manage with unenforceable
treaties, sanctions, and anemic diplomacy power.
Gambia is a relatively new republic with a
democratic government. It has a multi-party system, and elections are held
regularly to elect the president and members of the National Assembly. However,
like any democracy, it adheres to democratic principles that will vary over
time. In March 2024 Gambia ‘s national
assembly voted to advance legislation to overturn a ban on female genital
mutilation. This would put this tiny
west African country on the path to be the first nation globally to roll back
this human rights crime against a woman’s body.
The parliament majority are men.
Only five of Gambia 58 lawmakers are women. The majority of males intended to uphold
religious rights and ‘safeguard’ cultural, norms, and values.’ They considered the ban a direct violation of
citizens’ rights to practice their own culture.
If it passes other nations could follow.
This barbaric procedure has no medical benefits. And can cause multiple short and long-term
harms, including infections, severe pain, scarring, infertility, and loss of
pleasure. This is a case of democracy
accurately defined as tyranny of the minority.
In this case the majority of people in Gambia may be female but the majority
in power are ignorant, fearful, and elected by a population with seriously
flawed cultural values.
.
VIETNAM: In March of 2022 the Vietnamese President Vo
Van Thuong resigned after a little over a year.
This makes him the latest senior official to leave office after being
implicated in an intense anti-corruption campaign. The only political party in Vietnam said,
“violations by Vo Van Thuong have left a bad mark on the reputation of the
Communist Party.” They are fortunate not to have a two-party system like in the
US. That would mean twice as much
corruption. Mr. Thuong is the second
president to resign in two years, some analysts see this as a worrying sign for
political stability for a country sitting between the U.S.-China competition
fault lines for influence in East Asia.
Vietnam has become a rising player in global manufacturing with many
economic temptations to gain an advantage.
President
Vo Van Thuong claimed it was “personnel matters” but said earlier, Vietnamese
police had arrested the former head of Central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai province
for corruption. He was previously supervised by Mr. Thuong as the provincial
party chief. Mr. Thuong, 54, became president in March 2023, two months after his
predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned to take “political responsibility” for
corruption scandals during the pandemic.
While the position of president in Vietnam is mostly ceremonial and ranks
third in the country’s political hierarchy, the most powerful position is that
of Communist Party general secretary. A post held by Nguyen Phu Trong, since
2011. Analysts have warned that the
anticorruption drive has hurt Vietnam’s business environment, making foreign
investors jittery about unpredictable economic policies. Vietnam has tried to strike a balance between
its larger neighbor China and the U.S. while positioning itself as an ideal
home for businesses looking to shift their supply chains out of China. Last
year it was the only country that received both President Biden and Chinese
President Xi Jinping on state visits.
Sweden joining NATO was a major change. For over 2 centuries it was a stubbornly
neutral country with an understandable terrified fear of international
involvements. During the Napoleonic Wars
it had joined with Britain and Russia against Napoleon’s France. That led to the loss of Finland, which Sweden
had ruled for seven centuries. That war
also came close to Sweden’s downfall.
After that the nation had one goal.
Keeping peace by keeping out of war.
Even after World War II when they allowed trainloads of Nazis in to
avert an imminent German invasion. Their pacifism was always “realism rather
than idealism”. After Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine that flipped to realism. Now
Sweden has taken the ‘peace through strength’ path believing that an alliance
that would require them fight a war to defend others being their best chance
for peace. Democracy is a gamble that it
is taking hoping they there will not be another world war between the axis of
Russia, China, Iran, N. Korea, and any other nation’s siding with autocratic
governments with a much faster reaction time than any democracy relying on a
majority vote.
Ireland:
In mid-March 2024, Leo Varadkar, Ireland's prime minister and the leader
of the governing Fine Gael party, made a surprise move in stepping down from
his elected office, for "personal and political" reasons. His departure as head of the three-party
coalition did not automatically trigger a general election. He did ask for a new leader of the party to
be elected ahead of Fine Gael's annual conference in April. Following that election Ireland's parliament
would vote on who would be prime minister after the Easter break. In making his announcement he said,
"after careful consideration, and some soul searching, I believe that a
new taoiseach (prime minister) and a new leader will be better placed than me
to achieve that (the coalition government's re-election)." The main opposition Sinn Fein party, the
former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, has held a wide lead over
Fine Gael and their main coalition partner Fianna Fail - in all opinion polls
for the last two years.
Germany: The bad old days in the east return. (From Sebastian Huld NTV
report in the Week. May 24, 2024.) The
“baseball bat years” are coming back. That term was given to the era right
after Germany reunified in 1990, when neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists
roamed the formerly communist eastern states, beating up leftists and
immigrants. Such violence is surging
again now, in the run-up to the June European Parliament elections, in the
eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony. Lawmaker Matthias Ecke, a Social
Democrat, was putting up posters in Dresden two weeks ago when he was jumped by
far-right hooligans who kicked and beat him, shattering his cheekbone and eye
socket. And he’s not the only one. Many campaign workers say they’ve been
harassed and threatened, their posters covered with Nazi symbols. At rallies
for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, “pictures of left-wing
politicians are symbolically hung on the gallows.” Thuringia and Saxony are
fertile ground for right-wing thuggery today, as they were in the ’90s, because
they are still underdeveloped relative to western Germany, and resentment is
smoldering. But local politicians from the Greens and Social Democrats say that
this time they won’t be intimidated. They’re calling on police to give “a clear
stop signal” to this “aggressive, violent minority.” Eastern Germans don’t want
to “leave the field to the enemies of democracy without a fight.”
Russia a democracy in name only. It uses its propaganda machine and police to
keep its majority in line. That might work as long as a majority of Russian
people keep believing in the propaganda and are no longer sacrificing young men
in Ukraine. Or Ukraine’s majority
decides to take the Pope’s advice and seriously consider Russia’s cease fire
plan believing Putin will stop there.
Ukraine: A strong national
democratic ideology with a brave but dwindling military may not last. And a united democracies attempt to stop
Russia’s success might lead to a world war.
Israel: A theological democracy with nuclear weapons (and I’m guessing a
thriving biodefense industry) only offers limited freedoms to its minority of
non-Jewish Israel citizens within its own boarders. And ensures far fewer human rights and
freedoms to the much larger Palestinian population that Israel dominates in
Gaza and the West Bank. Meanwhile allowing
its own citizens the freedom to settle into rightfully disputed lands east of
its own border. All while relentlessly
murdering tens of thousands of a Gaza Palestinian majority population and
anyone else who may be there. The
majority population of Gaza originally elected a leader of the Hamas political
party. And it persists with a genocidal goal of killing Jews. With all the death and continuing
destruction, it would have been hard for even a minority of those suffering and
starving to hold a vote. And how would
anyone determine if those in Gaza were responsible for the Oct 7th
slaughter of pro-Zionist voting families?
Should be handed over to the
Israel democratic government? What seems inevitable now given the relentless
killing and starvation of Gazans- is a
growing majority of Palestinians, Arabs, and even Persians plans of some
retaliation or revenge. With the U.S. elections
and inevitable future security caught in the middle.
Haiti’s decent into gang rule
came after it’s multiple attempts at democracy failed. Even one supported by
the US, which may have contributed to it failing. Its failures would have happened even without
the 2010 earthquake that killed more Haitians in Port-au-Prince in 10 minutes
than the number of Japanese fatalities from the bombing of both Hiroshima and
Nagasaki combined. Haiti’s persistent
and extreme poverty was also the driver of corruption and untold suffering for
decades as other nations in this hemisphere ignored or exacerbated the
suffering. Meanwhile the current unelected leader in March 2024 is Jimmy
“Barbeque” Cherizier. He is a
‘God-fearing Robin Hood’ that got his name from burning people alive. He may never be elected if elections are ever
allowed but remember Hitler came to power under harsh economic conditions and
how that worked out. Dominican Republic
has little to fear except hurricanes and the flow of migrants seeking a better
place to survive and maybe thrive. And
every nation in the western hemisphere is going to face the same.
USA: With our 2024 election near it is hard to imagine what this nation or
the world will be like afterwords. But
there is a near certainty that things will worsen no matter who wins. And things will continue to get worse with
growing chaos here and in many other nations regardless of their system of
government, and the US system is no longer the last great hope for the
world. But the founding principles that
sparked the creation of our nation remain both great and golden. How do you define what it means to be an
American? Is it an idea? Or is it the
place you live? Your answer will
determine the world’s future.
“The hallmark of Wisdom is asking,
what effects will the decision I make today have on future generations? On the
health of the planet?” Dr. Jane
Goodall, Douglas, Abrams, and Gail Hudson.
Collective actions could
literally make all the difference in the world. The only thing certain is that Trump will
not intentionally create that collective wisdom and become the greatest man in
history. If he loses the election, it is impossible to know what he and his
supporters will do. But it’s a safe bet
non-violence will not be their priority.
Both parties have polarized extremes within
them. Whoever gets radicalized most will
likely turn to violence first.
Unfortunately, neither extreme
within either party has gotten radicalized enough to go back to the basic
ideals and the fundamental principles that our nation was founded on. Everyone’s “Unalienable rights” to “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’.
In more words moving U.S.
citizens beyond our flawed identities as a nation of initially 13 states (now 50
) consolidated by a majority vote into a constitutional democratic republic with
one immoral amendment democratically passed - to now become a true wonder of
the world with no fear that ‘God is Just’ because our nation of mixed
nationalities and colors now live virtuously with each other and all other people
and nationalities in the world. And
engineer a new constitutional framework for global sustainability that will
greatly enhance the protection of everyone’s freedoms and security with no more
wars or genocides. There will always be
violent extremists and natural or accidentally released pathogens...but a truly
united world (based on fundamental principles not radical fundamentalists) will
be far more able to prevent these horrors, quickly identify them, quickly and appropriately
respond, and then recover and rebuild after the chaos comes.
But the 2024 election season is
nearly here. And ‘illegal Immigration’ is likely to
remain a key issue of contention and increasingly weaponized by the GOP. It
remains their best wedge for putting fear into voters, only months after they buried
a tough bipartisan border bill they had originally helped forge and support. And dumped it simply because their candidate
feared its passage would help Biden. Now
they might seek new talking points against a different target.
And a greater
disruption may happen before the election.
The GOP shifting on the abortion issue or their overwhelmingly opposition
to both the Infrastructure Bill and the Chips Act to help fund semiconductor
factories in the U.S. - which could change with both of these bills that
address serious national security issues.
Will the
Democrats keep using Trump’s convictions, two impeachments, and inciting a
violent insurrection against him? Or Trump continue his opposition of US military
aid critical to Ukraine’s survival and his favoring Vladimir Putin and N.
Korea’s despot leader? Will their new House
Speaker Mike Johnson who said Trump “is a Christian nationalist who thinks he
was chosen by God and takes direction from the Bible, not the Constitution” recant? Wiil it take a war with China or a super
volcano eruption to stop this growing political polarization since Trump’s
potentially lethal ear piercing didn’t? What
can stop the insanity of conspiracy theories on both sides or the flat out lies
and bold hypocrisy from either?
It appears our nation’s
experiment by “We the People” favoring a democracy
and our U.S. Constitution is doomed to
fail or implode. We repeatedly hear the
phrase “Rule of Law” must be followed. But
the only rational definition I’ve heard came over two decades ago on a C-span program
when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was asked by a foreigner “What does
it take for the Rule of Law to be effective?”
He responded; ‘it works best when it has three basic elements’. When the laws are made and enforced by a
democratic process. People want to have
some say in the laws they will be expected to live under. Second, the laws must apply equally to
everyone. Last the laws must be used to
protect people’s basic rights.’ He referenced
Hitler’s democratic election. And the disruptions
when there is a lack of justice or the violation of people’s most basic
rights. At that point I fell in love
with the “rule of Law” phrase which I had not liked or understood because my
few experiences with ‘the Law” and “law enforcement” were not good. The analogy of concrete comes to mind.
Three basic elements – cement, an aggregate, and water. Together in the right proportions they harden
into something more solid than most rocks.
Leave one out element, or add too much of another, and it loses its
structural integrity or fails completely.
"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." --
Thomas Jefferson
The most essential
fundamental principles were clearly written
in our nation’s
founding document the Declaration of Independence. Yet we still ignore the rock-hard foundation
we could sustainably build on by codifying “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s
God”.
“If the misery of the poor be caused
not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” Charles
Darwin
Dr Benjamine Rush was a close friend of Thomas
Jefferson and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As
Jefferson was writing it Rush suggested he edit the last word in its most
mentioned phrase “Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Rush suggested changing “Happiness” to
“Health”. Happiness is now defined differently by each person. Most think of it as an immediate feeling. And believe they have the right to feel it
all the time. Back then it meant something
you gained from being vitious and using your talents serve those you love and
the community in which you live with others.
I wonder what our nation would be like today if Jeferson had
used that edit.
"The purpose of life
is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate,
to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ideally health would be our first fundamental value
underpinning every aspect of our lives. Including healthy politics formed by healthy
minds, bodies, spirits, families communities, environments, economy, governance
systems, and global relations. With the
key element of health being ‘prevention’.
Another fundamental principle essential for achieving,
maintaining, and sustaining all seven intentions in our current Constitution’s
preamble is our global interdependence. Imagine if health and our global interdependce
instead of feel good happiness had been idealized over the last 248 years. And firmly applied to every system and
structure engineered into each of our U.S. governance systems. As our U.S.
Constitution is - is simply
unsustainable.
“If the American
Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would
have been worthwhile...The beauty and cogency of the preamble, reaching back to
remotest antiquity and forward to an indefinite future, have lifted the hearts of
millions of men and will continue to do so.... These words are more
revolutionary than anything written by Robespierre, Marx, or Lenin, more
explosive than the atom, a continual challenge to ourselves as well as an
inspiration to the oppressed of all the world. – Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People [1965]”
While
‘health’ is difficult ill-define, both Congress and our culture has actually done
it. By codifying what is really a medical care system we have now and naming it
“Health Care”.
"Everything is
backwards; everything is upside down.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy
knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information,
and religions destroy spirituality."
-- Michael Ellner
No sane
person would argue against being healthy in most aspects of life. Yet
rarely do we make health a priority. Both Albert Einstein and Mother
Theresa made it their highest for obvious reasons. Most people have many things they want to do.
A sick person usually has one. And too many things in our nation and culture
is sick. Our nation’s Surgeon general calls
loneliness our nation’s greatest single health problem.
Time magazine’s Jan. 18/Jan. 23, 2023 cover story was “The Secrets of Happiness Experts”. It surveyed 18 leading happiness experts
about their daily habits and the professional insights that they offered others
to boost their moods and well-being.
They interpret happiness as both subjective (how we feel) and objective
(scientifically agreed upon beliefs and actions that can basically make most
people feel better, good, or great for a longer period of time).
Objective happiness is based
on the fact that we all have some control or agency in our life that is guided
by meaning and/or purpose. Creating a
purpose for one’s life can be learned, measured, and intensified with
practice. To this degree happiness is a
choice in this massively complex and complicated world we live in (especially given
the mental world that our mind spends so much time in). Both with many disappointing or disruptive
factors.
The
illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but
those who cannot unlearn the lies they have been taught to believe.” - Alvin Toffler
Most external factors we have
little immediate control over. Being
grateful for what we do have, however, may be the first vital building block of
happiness. Billions of other people will
almost always have things worse. When
someone habitually or sincerely ask you “How ya doing?” You can look them in the eye with a smile and
sincerely say “I’m fine! I only have
first world problems and a lack of discipline.
Other than that, I’m great!”. This
can temporarily assist others in really thinking.
Most of the time we all have freedom
of mind when something is said or happens. But only if we stop and
think instead of robotically responding. With almost every person,
place, or thing we encounter we have a choice to say or do nothing in response.
Ignore, accept, resist, joke with, complain, or be in awe. Or do a variety
of these. Find a simple way to make a person’s day. Open a door.
Fix something broken. Use your
mind to be kind and/or helpful.
"You may not
control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced
by them." - Maya Angelou
"The
purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help
others." -Albert Schweitzer
I’m often reminding myself (and
occasionally others) “Don’t believe everything your mind thinks!”. It’s
helpful in negotiating a world where our perceptions are usually wrong.
My mind can easily fall
into hopelessness thinking about how we can actually amend the Constitution. Then I get to wrestle with my mind and the
feelings it generates by such a crazy thought. Then I try to use the coaching advice
mentioned earlier and “be the landlord” of my own mind. It doesn’t always stick. But I know this fundamental truth works when
applied. And enlivens me when I do. And knowing that amendments are absolutely needed
and urgently- reminds me that it is more
important to do the right thing, than worry about it not working.
Another personal revelation applicable to
humankind occurred
to me when I was first hired to coach wrestling at a Jewish school. Not being Jewish, I was stymied in thinking of
‘how I could interest these young Jewish students into joining the wrestling
team?’. Wrestling had made a profound difference in my
own life and I was hoping it could do the same in theirs. So, I asked a Rabbi friend about how I might
introduce wrestling to them. He
laughed. He said, ‘the first wrestling
match in recorded history was between Jacob and an Angle.’ I won’t expose my lack of details about that
biblical story, but I later wondered “why was that allegory used so early in
the bible?’. After a quick google
search, I learned most people interpret it as a metaphor for Jacob's
struggle with his own identity, morals, and faith. And Jacob had a very long wrestling match.
This symbolic struggle with his inner turmoil and desires
was a turning point in his life. He was
injured. But what really changed his
life was after the match, Jacob was renamed Israel, which means "he who
struggles with God." This renaming
signifies his transformation and his newfound faith and determination. WOW!
Thank you, Lord!
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings,so that
you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.”
Socrates (a wrestler)
Winning a wrestling match is nice. But what’s most important is learning from it
either way if you plan on beating the same opponent again. That made constant improvement and adaptation
as important as cardio, technique, focus, and persistent repetition key elements
of improvement. And important for health
and mastering many things in life because everything changes except fundamental
principles. If someone fails to change when
things change - one’s life may not work as well as planned or hoped for. Strength is rarely important - unless it is
strength in spirit. Peace through
military strength is now global suicide given that everything can now be
affordably weaponized, hidden, and disguised as something normal.
And what is the American spirit? Hopeless?
Angry? Distrusting? Uncertain? WTF? Most of us already have the most important
basics. A flush toilet. Clean water,
shelter, refrigerator, access to emergency care, vaccinations, a wide variety
of food (we eat too much of, and usually the wrong stuff), breathable air, and
means of transportation, and hopefully a job that pays enough to maintain these
basics...and maybe a little extra for some fun/relaxation/donations. A level of comforts once only imagined. And about half the world has access to a
voting system that sometimes works.
Changing things is rarely easy. But sometimes it can be simple but not easy. Most
things happen without our assistance. We
just accept it and use what we have, like, or can buy if we have the money and
want it bad enough. But do we need it? Do
we need to go into debt to buy it. What
do we value? Looking good and feeling
good - or being good and doing good? Maximizing
humanities freedom and security - or continuing down our current path of losing
both?
The big things that need to change
will require us working together in very large numbers. Humanity now has the technology to facilitate
such global transformation with near instant global communications, increasing technologies
for cooperation, real solutions, at mostly affordable economic prices. The big question is, what will we do and how
will we use these unprecedented resources going forward? And, bot going backward, or off the rails? What we have been doing simply isn’t working
and systemic changes are needed. And letting
things happen as they are now will not end well for anyone.
Every person’s mind needs to understand
that our freedoms and security - our very survival - depends on making essential
things happen sustainably. And make it
clear in our hearts and minds the profound distinction between fundamental
principles and the alternative principles that our creative minds have invented
for selfish, shortsighted, or special interests. For over 100 years Rotary International has
had a universal test that its members learn and repeat in meetings almost
weekly. They take an oath regarding the
things we ‘think, say, or do’. It’s
called the “four-way test”. 1) Is it the
TRUTH? 2) Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3) Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? And there should be a resounded YES to each
of these regarding humanities need to systemically and comprehensively achieve
the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
If we are truly committed to creating a nation and
world that can
achieve and sustain the seven intentions of our U.S. Constitution, we must
transform the world by engineering a governing system capable of doing so. A global system that puts the sustainable
health of every system and structure that each of us is dependent upon within
our body, mind, family, community, environment, economy, food supply, energy
supply, city, state, nation, soil, waters, sky, and even space. Simply because everything is connected,
interdependent and vulnerable.
Objective ‘truths’ can set us
free from most suffering and best sustain security for us and the nature’s
systems we need. We cannot trust our
polarized minds, religious divisions, woke philosophies, or weapon systems,
artificial intelligence, hopes, or prayers to protect us and our freedoms. It must be our intentional commitment of who
we really are. Members of the human
family and not any of our mind’s various identities that we cling to - or kill
and die defending.
A father gave his young wrestler, Kyle
Snyder (the world’s first 19-year-old Gold medal Olympic heavyweight champion)
the greatest coaching advice I’d ever heard.
“Be the landlord of your Mind”.
Kyle wanted to be the best wrestler he could be and took that coaching
to heart by convincing his mind to “torture” his body every day in wrestling
practices so he would never need to “fear anyone” when he stopped on the
mat. Kyle defeated both a Russian and
Iranian in the Olympic heavyweight division.
Wrestlers from most nations considered these two heavyweight wrestlers to
be ‘deities’ in the wrestling world.
In our American culture we over
value comfort and avoiding stress to our own harm. Astronauts spending time in zero-gravity space
need to be taken away in wheelchairs when they return to earth. The body has the capacity to recover from stress
and thus grow stronger and more resilient.
We too often interpret unusual sensations as uncomfortable or stress that
doesn’t feel good. That feeling alone
inhibits the immune system’s growth. While
choosing stress, and even seeking it, actually boosts the immune system. Research has discovered a new tissue in the Femur
(upper leg bone) that produces white blood cells as well as red blood cells when
the femur is stressed. Being an Olympian, or just being a healthy and
fit person requires being ok with stress, and continually being comfortable,
with being uncomfortable to maximize one’s health and fitness. Being comfortable is certainly important for
the recovery and growth in muscle, neurological, and brain tissue. But comfort is not what our bodies were engineered
for. It was engineered for stress.
FACT:
Without stress our body withers.
Same with the mind, body,
and spirit. Your systems grow after
being stressed beyond what is comfortable if given the time and essential nutritional
elements needed. And it is the mental attitude we pick that can
determine the difference between withering or thriving in this hard and often unfair
systems we live in. The saying “That’s
all in your head” has profound value.
It might also all apply to “its only a feeling” because of the culture that
your mind has adopted to be landlord of who you really are. A human being capable of incredible physical
feats by maintaining good fitness habits, thoughts, and fundamental principles.
"You do not
belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain
forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your significance
if you apply yourself to converting all you experience to highest advantage to
others. Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible
time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the
disadvantage of anyone." ~ R.
Buckminster Fuller
So, by changing our minds
from being the landlord of our bodies and running it into feelings of depression,
hopelessness, obesity, illness, and early death, we can use our heart and soul felt
commitment to manage our mind. And use our
own words to express exactly what we are committed to achieving by being the landlord
of our mind. This is who we truly
are. A powerful human ‘being’ with a
commitment to solving problems. Not a
flawed mind that creates and defends flawed ideas, negative thoughts, and uncomfortable
feeling. We must use our mind, body and
spirit to wrestle with problems to work through the barriers we must in order
to achieve our intended goal(s). And adapt when we fail. Then fail again. And adapt again.
“To the ordinary person in
life, everything is either a blessing, boring, irrelevant, or a curse. To a warrior
for life on this troubled planet, everything is an opportunity for action.” cw (adapted from the definition of the Warrior
Spirit)
Another perspective. Balance
our mind’s gifts in both our right and left-brain hemispheres to serve who we
really are, all others that we love, and the natural systems essential to sustaining
humanities health, wealth, freedoms, survival, and thriving.
“The love and hopes
of those who are no longer with us resides in our hearts; The love and hopes of
current and future generations resides in our actions.” Steven Jay
Albert
Einstein’s mind believed our intuitive or metaphorical mind is our sacred gift.
And our rational mind is our faithful servant.
In modern life many of the catastrophic consequences that we are now
experiencing are due to prioritizing our servant mind that has distanced us
from the divine. We simply value more
stuff - rather than the organic systems that got us here. And we use our logical minds to build
reliable weapons, medicines, and machines.
Then use these while ignoring how these will be used to kill innocent
people. This is because our minds are
now value and prioritize mental constructs like nationalism, religion, and
money more than clean air, clean water, healthy soils, a cooperative spirit,
and the golden rule. The very fundamental resources that got us to
this point in time - but are now on the edge of destroying.
Below are two basic institutional systems humanity can put
great trust in. One we known as engineering. Consider NASA, our technological model with
the most experience in keeping humans alive in the most extreme, deadly, and
chaotic environment beyond our planet.
As Astronaut Rusty Weikart said, we must
work “as crew members on space ship
earth not just passengers.”
Putting humans on the moon
and returning them safely to earth may be the most astounding technological
human feat thus far in history. But NASA
has had catastrophic systemic or structural failures. Then it used these to learn from its mistakes
and constantly adapt when imperfections are made clear. But NASA can only do this when managed by
minds sufficiently funded by the minds and governing systems outside of NASA. And these then prioritize the healthy minds and
bodies of all employees within it.
The first memorable NASA tragedy was in 1967 during a
test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft. It was only a test
intended to simulate launch conditions at the launchpad at Cape Kennedy (now
Cape Canaveral), Florida. A fire broke
out in the cockpit, and the three astronauts on board, Gus Grissom, Ed White,
and Roger Chaffee, were unable to escape.
The cause of the fire was later determined to be a combination of
factors, including faulty electrical wiring and the use of highly flammable
materials in the cockpit. That tragedy led to significant improvements in
engineering and safety procedures paving the way for future successful Apollo
missions.
Later
on, Apollo 13 had an oxygen tank exploded enroute to the Moon endangering the
lives of its three-member crew. But
creative engineers on earth working closely with the Apollo crew used ideas and
materials based on the laws of nature to solve it. Prayer cannot be ruled out. But then almost 20 years later the space
shuttle Challenger disaster killed all seven crew members on board when it
broke apart 73 seconds after launch. And in 2003 there was another space shuttle
disaster when the Columbia shuttle broke apart upon re-entry, killing all seven
of its crew.
NASA has had other failures and incidents which were not
catastrophic, but each one resulted in modifications to the
program. Imagine if those responsible
for our Constitution (we the people and those we have elected and allowed to be
appointed) functioned the same way.
Relying on the fundamentals of the laws of nature and nature’s God as
our nation’s founding fathers had signed off on.
What
would our government look like if our public servants adopted and
applied such functional engineering principles to their work? Instead of swearing an oath to protect and
defend an outdated governing system? A
system that is leading toward catastrophic events. And continuing to make the same mistake
repeatedly. The key takeaway for ‘we the
people’ is that most of us don’t learn from history. This must change. And that change must begin in our minds. And perhaps applying our mind’s most powerful
game-changing technology - Artificial Intelligence – without causing
catastrophic harm. AI holds enormous
possibility of bringing our government back from its increasing dysfunction and
inevitable collision with reality. Hopefully before a total collapse.
The Olympics is the second global system of
sustainable governance functioning is the world’s Olympics. A highly competitive global event where guns,
spears, using globally approved of rules and regulations applied equally to all
participants with their basic rights protected and a sufficiently financed
operation with objectively judged competition and combat is allowed. Cheating and injuries happen. But there are investigations by people
trained and approved by another global system of people who have earned their
status by merit, not majority vote. This
human engineered governance system originated with a democratic global
participation process with various values and fair consequences. And if violations are found to be intentional
then individuals or groups of individuals are held accountable. And if further regulations are needed, they
are democratically created and then changed with unanimous approval.
A few intentional deaths
occurred in the 1972 Olympics but those were due to political tensions outside
the Olympic system when Palestinian violent extremists murdered seven Jewish athletes
and their coaches in the Munich games.
But then in the 1992 Summer
Olympics in Barcelona, Spain there was the first time the Olympic Committee allowed
all participants to enter the stadium during the closing ceremony without
marching in together with their nation’s team. This change was made to offer
athletes more freedom and allow them to express their individuality. And as in
every Olympics these participants represented every sex, sport, nationality,
religion, culture, sexual orientation, and political ideology. And there were no injuries, deaths, or
riots. Many participants and some people
watching it said it felt like a spiritual experience.
And the global eradication of smallpox
deserves a second mention within this context of what is realistically possible when everyone, every
nation, and government in the world comes together for the protection of our
species. And now Polio is very close to
being the second virus eradicated from Earth.
A global mindset that must
continue to be reborn regarding the growing array of threats we all face today. Our nation won’t fall from an invasion of a foreign power. It will fall from an
ignorant, apathetic, and arrogant population ignoring the Laws of Nature and
Nature’s God and not changing their minds.
I
apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe. Our destruction, should
it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the
people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and
negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they
may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly
to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of
designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them
intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the
wrong, and they will apply the remedy. – Daniel
Webster [1837]
"By far the most dangerous foe we have
to fight is apathy - indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of
knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a
contempt bred of self satisfaction" William
Osler (Canadian Physician, 1849-1919)
"Most Americans aren't the sort of
citizens the Founding Fathers expected; they are contented serfs. Far from
being active critics of government, they assume that its might makes it
right." Joseph Sobran
Columnist
“Distrust of authority should be the first civic duty.” – Norman Douglas, An Almanac
[1941]
U.S. Constitution Chapter REVIEW: Some of the greatest flaws in
the U.S. Constitution: The delusion of Independence, a lack of justice, excess freedoms lacking virtue
and accountability, the over reliance on the democratic
will of the people, gross ignorance of “we the people” regarding
fundamental objective principles and ignoring what we know and have been told
that already works – “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”.
Independence: Our founders
engineered our constitutional system on the illusion of independence. A flawed mental construct is better defined
as ‘separate’ yet connected and interdependent.
It is delusional to believe that without transformational amendments to
our constitution it can ensure liberty and justice for any American. Or anyone anywhere. And it will never achieve any of the seven
intentions listed in its preamble. Our
nation is fading from whatever functionality it may have once had. If we are to successfully correct our
Constitution’s flawed engineering, we must overcome our heartfelt desire to
worship it and the delusional human-created principle of Independence.
“It
is the duty of everyman, so far as his ability allows, to detect and expose
delusion and error.” - Thomas Paine
JUSTICE for ALL? Our
Constitution and legal system are easily manipulated by money. Fairness or justice cannot be found within
it. Ask any indigenous American Indian. Or many citizens who have experienced in our
“criminal justice” system, increasingly seen as ‘more criminal than just’ with
too many judges using current laws to justify unjust sentences, unfair verdicts
inspiring some people to justify breaking of other laws - or turning to our
Constitution’s 2nd Amendment for justice -- a fundamental right to
enable anyone to protect their freedom, security, family, and property.
In his 1838 Lyceum Address in Springfield,
Illinois, Abraham Lincoln advocated that schools should teach a reverence for
our American ideals: “Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American
mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap—let it be taught in
schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling
books, and in Almanacs;—let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in
legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it
become the political religion of the nation.”
Most Americans today have difficulty distinguishing between
our Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence. Abraham Lincoln made a
simple and clear distinction. He wrote
that our
“Declaration of Independence is our Apple of Gold” and our “Constitution” its
“Frame of Silver”. A biblical reference
with poetic and functional meaning.
And if you have any doubts that our
Declaration of Independence is truly a universal document applicable to all
people, in all places, for all time please watch this 7 minute video regarding
Abraham Lincoln’s persistent belief “The
Declaration - For all People, at All Times, Everywhere.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxysVRmy5Q
*************Chapter Resources for
verification of concepts within it *****************
1. Taking
[human] rights seriously: To the
government, they are merely privileges.
By Andrew P. Napolitano. July
18, 2024 Washington Times Opinion piece.
https://washingtontimes-dc.newsmemory.com/?clip_article&token=5rXYy9fP3d3QrrbK38fYnZmfhpmTpZKumMNwdo7p1tTel6aFnZKhmKiWlXBvkqaYkqagn4OV “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and
only one person were of the contrary opinion, Mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, Than he, if he had the power, Would be
justified in silencing mankind.” — John
Stuart Mill (1806-1873) The
world is filled with self-evident truths — truisms — that philosophers, lawyers
and judges know need not be proved. The sun rises in the east and sets in the
west. Two plus two equals four. A cup of hot coffee sitting on a table in a
room at 70 degrees Fahrenheit will eventually cool down.
2.
July 20, 2024 C-span WASHINGTON JOURNAL Eli Merritt on His Book "Disunion
Among Ourselves" He is a Political
Historian, Vanderbilt University. The
author discussed his book about the political divisions among the country’s
founders and what it can teach us about today’s political polarization. https://www.c-span.org/video/?537132-5/eli-merritt-book-disunion-ourselves 41 minutes.
His book won the 2024 Society of the Cincinnati
Prize from the American Revolution Institute. In this eye-opening C-span interview Eli
Merritt reveals the deep political divisions that almost tore the Union apart
during the American Revolution. So fractious were the founders’ political
fights that they feared the War of Independence might end in disunion and civil
war. And how they apply today. I urge you to apply them to the threats in
the world humanity now shares. Time for
a “shot gun” wedding?
3. Robert
Wright opinion piece printed in the Washington Post 7-14-24. Mr. Wright was the keynote speaker at
the 1998 World Federalist Association national conference when as WFA’s ‘Issues
Director’ I was warning about the evolution of weaponry, war, and the
biosecurity threats that I had well documented in my congressional testimony in
both 1996 and ’97 as Issues Director at the Global Health Council before my
role within WFA. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/10/progressive-realism-foreign-policy-wright/
4. Thomas
Ricks 2020 book “First Principles: What America’s founders learned
from the Greeks and Romans and how they shaped our country” If you seek a profound base of knowledge
regarding the foundations of reasoning in the wordings that created our
nation’s federation read this book. And
discover why it is stumbling. In his
Epilogue “What We Can Do” offers 10 steps. The first is “Don’t
Panic” #2 Curtail campaign finance, #3 Re-focus on the public good, #4 Promote, cultivate, and reward virtue in
public life – but don’t count on it., #5 Respect our core institutions – and
push them! #6 Wake Up
Congress. #7 Enrich the Political
Vocabulary. #8 Reclaim the definition of
“un-American”. “Make American More American!” MAMA (I love
this...with a focus on the principles of the Declaration of Independence). #9 Rehabilitate “Happiness”
[this has potential...for transforming the American way...and how we went
wrong.] #10 Know your history.
5. June
2023, Bank of America Chair & CEO, Brian Moynihan spoke on C-span
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 must step up prioritize a balancing of ‘short-term
gains’ with ‘long term interests’. ‘Profits must be good for business and
society all the way down to the community level’. “Capitalism” “requires a
greater purpose than making more profit.” Neither are sustainable without these
SDG goals being achieved.' C-span
covered this interview 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
6.
2017 book WARNINGS: FINDING CASSANDRAS TO
STOP CATASTROPHES By Richard A. Clarke
and R.P. Eddy, 2017: https://cco.ndu.edu/PRISM-7-2/Article/1401978/warnings-finding-cassandras-to-stop-catastrophes/ The first 8 chapters detail the millions of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars lost to
catastrophes,– natural and human engineered – due to people in power failing to
act on the advanced warnings of experts.
The last eight chapters estimates the billions of
lives and trillions of dollars that could be saved if humanity collectively
works to prevent the other dire warnings now being given regarding other
threats (some existential). Chapter 11
“The Journalist: Pandemic Disease”.
Most instructive is Chapter 9. It
outlines three cognitive reasons why humans ignore such warnings.
7.
Here’s
a video of optimism if humanity wakes up, adapts using fundamental
principles in envissioning a sustainable
future. https://www.rethinkx.com/videos
Chuck Woolery
Former Chair, United
Nations Association Council of Organizations
Former Issues Director,
Global Health Council.
Former Action Board
member, American Public Health Association.
Author of 1996 and 1997
Congressional testimony warnings regarding threats to US and global bio-
security.
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