Ukraine is a consequence of all government failures

 Daniel Franco, a life-long pacifist, has rightfully admitted that sometimes we need to fight to protect our loved ones.  And the world now needs to assist Ukraine in defending its people.  It’s time to use our thorns. 

 

Mr. Franco makes multiple valid points in this blog Roses. – MOBILIZED: What's Next is Now!.   “War is not the answer” is number one. Unfortunately, he missed the opportunity to offer an alternative to preventing and ending all wars.   It’s called the “Rule of Law”.  Demanding peace, democracy, or even freedom will not suffice without the foundation of justice.  Oddly, every media source I’ve read or listened to since Russia started its mobilization of troops and blitz into Ukraine has not mentioned this obvious solution. Why?

 

When people or nations have differences, those differences will either be solved by words or violence.  When words don’t work...violence is inevitable.  Thus if the words don’t result in liberty and justice for all, violence will follow.  It should be obvious that we have a global governance system today that rarely resolves differences because it lacks the essential elements to do so.  And the option of war remains.

 

Since the end of World War II the US has repeatedly experienced Franco’s point that ‘war is not the answer’.  He rightfully mentioned four times we’ve used it...and didn’t win.  

 

But Mr. Franco misunderstands the purpose behind the creation of the UN.  It was intended to avoid another war.   But he states “we founded the United Nations and wrote the UN Charter, which specifically demands action in defense of basic democracy and human rights.”

 

That is tragically false.  He, like most of humanity, persistently fails to understand that the UN Charter is a rose without thorns.  It was never empowered to take “action in defense” of human rights or any form of democracy.   It is an undemocratic institution that only offered a talkfest. A forum where nations using flowery words might be able to talk things out.   But clearly hidden in the words of the UN Charter is the fact that its only enforceable mission is the protection of each nation’s sovereignty. 

 

Most of humanity has lived blindly over the past 8 decades without this flawed assumption that protecting national sovereignty would protect human rights.  Given the varied interests of over 200 governments - each prioritized to maintain power – none ever will.

 

To engineer a global governance system that works sustainably for all, its systems and structures must be based on fundamental principles (self-evident truths).  And the use of words that mean the same thing to everyone it will govern.    Like math and science, its governance words must mean the same and achieve the same results in every nation, religion, culture, and tribe.  Let’s start with two words. Freedom and security.   

 

Thomas Paine, in his pamphlet “Common Sense” wrote, "Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz., freedom and security.”  Feb. 14, 1776.

One fact most freedom lovers don’t know is that collectively our nation’s founding fathers used the word ‘virtue’ more than freedom.  It was clear to them that without virtuous people, their freedoms would be lost.  This is lethally unclear to too many freedom lovers today.

Next, we must understand that there are words and phrases that are useless or damaging.  Like “peace through strength”.  Russia may be stronger than Ukraine but there will be no peace.  More important is the inherently dangerous phrase “National Sovereignty.”   

The word ‘national’ is clear.  But the word ‘sovereignty’ has been coopted.  Together these words have cemented into place a system of government that was invented over 400 years ago at the Treaty of Westphalia.   A time when the consequences of globalization were not so obvious.

Originally, sovereignty came from God.  And regardless of any nation’s definition of it, it remains the possession of each individual to determine how their life will be lived.   Back then groups could agree to live under a certain flag and within a certain boundary -or be killed or enslaved. 

This worked for periods of time but never lasted. And the evolution of weaponry always altered the borders and allegiances that were intended to keep a group safe.

 

Since then, globalization has been on steroids. And the global movement of people, ethnic groups, religions, money, material resources, technology, pollution, non-human species, and pathogens have made political lines on any map a dysfunctional illusion.

An illusion based on a word that exists only in the human mind as a concept. And on paper as an ideal.  But this concept we know as ‘independence’ exists nowhere on earth - or in the known universe.   

 

It’s ironic that the most functional blueprint for engineering a sustainable form of global governance is titled “the Declaration of Independence”.  Within its first paragraph, it offers two fundamental principles (or self-evident law sets) that should have been applied in the writing of the US Constitution.  It offered “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”. 

Abiding by these two law sets our nation’s founding fathers could have avoided a civil war.  A war between states that killed more Americans in four years than all the wars that our nation fought in since then, combined!  But their Constitution insisted on putting states’ rights superior to human rights. That’s what the UN system does today -- repeating this fundamental flaw.  And making matters globally worse, our Constitution enforces this flaw by insisting that the rights of nation-states (national sovereignty) and corporations are more important than protecting human rights or our environment.  

Until ‘we the people” of Ukraine, the US, Russia, and the world, reverse this simple engineering flaw our species will continue to face two existential earthly threats.

I used to think the greatest threat would be the collapse of our planet’s life support system – that thin biofilm covering our goldilocks planet.  We simply can no longer persist in violating the Laws of Nature. 

Now I believe our greatest threat is related to war.  It is the evolution of weaponry.  Our sciences: nuclear, biology, chemistry, cyber, nano, robotics...has yielded unprecedented killing capacity at affordable prices globally.  Even conventional civilian technologies like cars, trucks, passenger planes, or cruise ships loaded with fuel oil, and fertilizer can yield WMD capacity anywhere in the world relatively quickly - undreamed of 400 years ago.

And unless every religious or spiritual soul adheres to the laws of Nature’s God - and practices the Gold Rule - the hearts and minds of people anywhere will continue to use and abuse any and every technology available to them.  This will only persist until AI evolves.  Then it will decide we are worth keeping and hold every individual accountable, or remove us from the planet.

 

We must decide quickly between the ‘rule of law’ and the ‘law of force’.  

 

The “Rule of Law” can be most effective if clearly defined to include three fundamental elements. First, the laws must be made and enforced by a democratic process.  But that’s not enough. Second. The laws must be applied equally to all.  Regardless of nationality, religion, sex, or ethnicity.  Last. The laws must be protective of a certain set of inalienable rights.  Rights everyone has. Wise souls after the creation of the UN did give us the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a guild.   The best we can do if we are not going to engineer a global Rule of Law is to invest money in achieving it.   

 

Since 2015 the UN has offered humanity 17 Sustainable Development Goals targeted for the year 2030.  It is a comprehensive list intended to address the root causes of most of our government’s failings.

Sanctions on Russia may cripple its economic capacity to continue its domination of Ukrainians.  But there are also other trillions now locked in offshore accounts by other kleptocrats, oligarchs, crime cartels, violent extremists groups, and filthy rich capitalists – that could be used to achieve these 17 goals holistically.

I’m guessing Daniel Franco would approve of either of these pacifist approaches to maximizing human freedom and security sustainably.  And I’m hoping he will fight for either or both. 

FYI: An old friend and employer called me this evening.  He’s a conservative Christian who walks his talk in supporting Israel and protecting the Jewish people for 40 years.  We have always been at odds regarding my insistence on strengthening the UN to protect everyone and our environment.   Tonight he called to admit he was wrong.  He said “national sovereignty cannot protect anyone”.   We agreed that Putin maybe God’s way of sending us this message yet again...to the world.  Until we all walk the talk of the Good Samaritan, Armageddon may be in our future.  

Updating Joe Rogen’s experience. And ours!

Joe’s experience provides the self-evident truth regarding the consequences of freedom.  He is (and should be) allowed the freedom to have anyone on is a program to facilitate civil dialogue on controversial, even preposterously false issues.  He and anyone who does this even with the best of intentions need to know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that doing so is an inalienable human right we all have.  And we should also know that we will never be free of the consequences.   And some will be lethal.

Social media companies will attempt to repress the expression of ideas when it results in principled users stopping their use, thus hurting company owners' bottom line.  Yet, this is the most powerful form of democracy ‘we the people’ actually have.  Voting with our dollars daily.  This is infinitely more powerful than using a single ballot once every 2, 4, or 6 years.

The downside?  These dollar votes will be just as ineffective at yielding our collective intended outcome of ‘liberty and justice for all”.  Something most of us have pledged before our flag hundreds of times.  Maximizing our “freedom and security” which Thomas Paine’s 1776 Common Sense pamphlet then claimed was the only legitimate reason for government, will require more.  Far more in terms of ensuring that our laws and our Constitution are based on the real world and not just popular support.

Fact is, each of us is irreversibly connected and interdependent on and in the real world.   Our minds are deluded in believing otherwise.

First, no one can fully grasp the irreversibility of one’s global interdependence we all share regarding our freedoms, security, and prosperity.  Everything we believe and then act on now leads to countless consequences on our own body and everybody in the world.  Everything we do has consequences.  And our ignorance of reality most often results in harmful consequences to ourselves and ultimately others.

Even before Covid19, our nation’s sick-care system (18% of our GDP) was breaking our nation’s economic back.  The trillions we continue to demand for funding our so-called ‘health care' system are simply unsustainable and thus a threat to our economic security, connected to our national security.    

Few citizens take the preventive measures that nearly everyone is capable of to prevent this endless budget-busting spending.   Before this pandemic, the largest cause of death in our interdependent nation was heart attacks.  Cancer was close behind.  Now Covid19 related deaths may surpass both.  Yes. It was a China virus.  But it really doesn’t matter if it came from a lab or nature.  It’s a self-evident fact that more variants and other pandemics will come from multiple sources regardless of what we believe.  

Yet governments are only now considering serious efforts to prepare for what we know is coming.  Unfortunately, few governments are acting on the wiser choice of investments in preventing them.   

Fact:  Prevention of most infectious disease and chronic health problems (and other threats to our health like suicide, gun deaths, stabbings, multidrug-resistant pathogens, car accidents...) can be affordably preventable.   The one-word definition of health is prevention.  But we continue to bankrupt our nation with a sick care system responding to preventable problems.  But we call it “Health Care.”

Second, given the human mind's capacity to believe ANYTHING, and then not even do the things we know we should, coming to any democratic agreement on what will be done using our tax dollars, military, or intelligence agencies will simply not happen. 

Three Einstein quotes are appropriate here.  “There are two things that are infinite.  The universe and human stupidity.  But I have some doubts about the universe.’  

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."  

“There is only one road to true human greatness: the road through suffering..”

So plan on seeing a lot more preventable suffering.  It will only accelerate until we engineer a government system that codifies the wisdom of prevention - that profoundly functional unamerican word.   

Because our minds believe so convincingly that we are independent, our voices swear an oath to protect a system of government based on that very delusion.  A delusion that leads to reactionary government policies, research and development in drugs, cybers security, and weapon systems - that will break us economically.  Yet they still can’t protect our freedom, security, prosperity, or privacy as we will continue to refuse to accept the universal truth.   We all live on and depend on, a planet of irreversible interdependence.

We are highly unlikely to transform our current system because we are so easily distracted from what’s vitally important.   We can’t keep in our minds the growing list of national security threats we all face (the vipers at our heals) like climate change, more pandemics, bioterrorism, EMP events, supervolcanoes, asteroids, loss of our antibiotic arsenal, species extinction, AI, war, genocide... while swatting at bees (Rogan’s experience, critical race theory, voting rights, electoral college, border walls, riots, the insurrection, crime rates, confederate statues, Supreme Court picks, inflation, abortion, rebranding of the Redskins...).

The acceleration of chaos nipping at our heels is largely due to a lack of global justice.  Combine this with the global proliferation of multi-use technologies capable of unprecedented mass murder with virtually no means of effective global control without invasive and pervasive force –it is easy to predict things are not going to end well.

It is possible to sustainably protect our freedoms and security if ‘we the people’ with power globally exhibited sufficient virtue to others lacking power, and to everything around us that we need - instead of depending on our government's inability to protect it all with its dysfunctional system and structures.  All based on the illusion of independence.

If we are serious about maximizing the freedoms and security for generations to come, then at the very least we need to mobilize the funding to comprehensively achieve the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable before the year 2030 goal.  Humanity knows what to do.  It’s called the Golden Rule.  There is enough money without increasing taxes or even cutting existing budgets if we can convince those in power to tap the tens of trillions of dollars stashed in offshore accounts.  A piggy bank recently valued to be about 10% of the global GDP.   With sufficient political will it is possible to freeze and then seize a significant portion of this ‘anonymous’ massive wealth and devote it to global health.   Most of it was acquired and stashed away by kleptocrats, oligarchs, crime cartels, violent extremists groups, and other filthy rich folk avoiding taxes in ways that governments previously allowed.   Most of it is linked to the corruption that we should all want to be eliminated from our political systems.   But it won’t happen without ‘we the people’ coming together instead of swatting at bees. 

Josh Rogan vs Spotify dilemma resolved?

 The latest ‘dilemma’ regarding Joe Rogan, Spotify, and Neil Young may be over.  But other social media platforms will likely be hounded to change their ways.  I was asked by a close friend and associate about ‘which side’ was I on?  Rogan or Spotify?   

We had a warm (not quite heated from my perspective) discussion regarding this dilemma around ‘mandates’.   A word that appears to be at the heart of the resistance to vaccines and masks.  I dominated that last few minutes of the discussion with the math of viral mutations and the inevitably (and rarely understood consequences) of pathogen evolution.   And the highlights of humanity's greatest of all achievements.  The global eradication of Smallpox.   That basically ended the discussion but I’m quite confident Rogan understandably remains the hero in my friends’ mind. 

My attempt to use science and math to engage the deeper analysis of the life, death, and economic consequences of popular individuals who assist in spreading misinformation (or incomplete information) to their followers, usually doesn’t work.   Smart and reputable individuals who are committed to providing any information that they believe may have validity that may assist others to make the right decision are admirable.  Not always useful given the confirmation bias our minds are cursed with.

After dwelling on the Rogan/Spotify dilemma at home while increasingly concerned about all the other urgent and consequence problems and threats we face as individuals, a nation, and the world - I recalled one of the first quotes that I took the effort to memorize.  It was from a book that the woman I was wooing was reading.  I was willing to do whatever I could to entice this young lady into bearing my future children.  Today, some might call that stalking...in 1975 as a biology major at CSU I considered it selective breeding.  But she said yes...and we are still together today...but I digress.

The name of the book, Magic Animal, by Philip Wylie (1969) woke in me an observation about human behavior.  After learning of the holocaust in grade school, the insanity of the Vietnam War in HS, and other harmful human addictions in college, I noticed our species didn’t quite have its act together.

I leaned toward the hippy movement but understood from my wrestling experiences the profound life-enriching values of discipline, fitness, and excelling at something of importance.  Initially, I chose education.  The teachers and coaches who inspired me in school and in sports remain priceless.  Information and context are power.  Tested and true information should be self-evident.  But today’s information comes at us, not in a firehose, but a tsunami, making it virtually impossible for anyone without a grounding in what’s important -to sort the wheat from the chaff.

 And that is assuming people are even looking for wheat and not the feel-good ‘happiness’ which appears to be one of our culture’s greatest values along with greed, confirming what we already believe, and living in increasingly troubled times without questioning unexamined assumptions.

A lot has changed technologically since 1969 when Mr. Wylie (the equivalent of today’s Jorden Peterson?) wrote “we are standing in a pit of vipers, swatting at bees”.   This brings me back to the Rogan/Spotify dilemma.  Since 1980 I’ve been studying national security issues seeking the root causes of threats and instability.  In the late 1990s, my job was convincing people in key US Congressional Districts that we needed global enforceable mandates (laws) to protect our national security from almost every threat. 

In 1999 Hazel Henderson, a genius female economist spoke about the recent Nobel Prize winner in economics Robert Mundell.  It was his genius that led me to a fundamental principle that many wise souls already understood (Gandhi, MLK, Einstein...).  The powerful concept is that everything in our world/known universe is interdependent.  By extending Mundell’s official ‘Mundell–Fleming economic model’ frequently called the "impossible trinity," "unholy trinity," "irreconcilable trinity," "inconsistent trinity" or the "Mundell–Fleming trilemma”, I pieced together a global trilemma. 

The reality is that the masses of humanity want three basic things.  Freedom to do as we wish.  Security to survive, reproduce, prosper, and thrive.  And independence.  The punch line is that we can only have two!   The gut-punch is that freedom is all we really have.  We are free to do anything we like, anytime we want, to anyone we want.  But we will never be free of the consequences.   

Security is iffy. The human body has over 100 trillion vulnerabilities.  Every cell and virus in our body can turn on us and terminate all of our freedoms in hours or days.  And any cell can be targeted by nature or an engineered biological weapon using genetic information using wind, water, or our global transportation/food supply systems for delivery.  And our cells are irreversibly connected to a vast number of natural and human-engineered systems and structures outside of our body or national government's control.  Systems and structures that we depend on for everything we and our cells need to survive and thrive. 

Unfortunately, government systems are based on the concept of independence. And those in power persist in ignoring this fundamental principle. Except once!  They globally eradicated humanity's greatest killer, smallpox.  The smallpox inoculation concept had been available for centuries. But it wasn’t until the Soviets suggested a global eradication campaign that the world and US leadership took on the task.  Some of the last individuals and families had to be forced to take the vaccination.

I can’t imagine anyone today opposing that mandate given that Smallpox had killed more humans in the first 70 years of the 20^th century, than all the wars, revolutions, genocides, and homicides combined...during 100 years of that same century.  Polio, another vaccine-preventable death/disability, is close to being eradicated.  Rotary International’s leadership with volunteers and funding dispersed to every nation in the world has ensured that every nation now, except two (Afghanistan and Pakistan) hasn’t had a case of polio in years.   It was dysfunctional governments all along that were unwilling or incapable of mandating universal Polio vaccinations that meant the rest of the world needed to continue their polio vaccination programs since the year 2000.  The year polio was originally targeted for global eradication.
If Polio (an RNA-based virus that has much higher mutation rates) had mutated over the last 20 years every nation would have needed to restart a new campaign.  Especially if the new mutation was worse than the original. 

What most people don’t calculate regarding Covid19 is that it (as bad as it was) was not as bad as it could have been.  And every day in every person infected  (be they hospitalized, exhibiting minimal symptoms, or no symptoms) continue to spread the virus thus enabling its natural mutation tendency.  There is only a 50/50 chance it will become a milder infection or a more lethal one.  Omicron had over 50 mutations on its spike protein. These enabled it to increase its attachment rate to our airways 70 times that of its predecessor.  That made it milder because it didn’t make it into our lungs.  But there is no guarantee that won’t happen.  Or something worse. 

Another factor that increases the mutation rate of any genetic material is exposure to other caustic elements.   And like the antibiotic resistance of bacteria that continues to accelerate due to mutations gained by our abuse (inconstant or overuse) of antibiotics a simple hospital or dental appointment could turn into a death sentence.  And people who are unvaccinated or using untested cures for Covid19 or may end up needing a hospital bed.  Along with others who are Covid free.   Then getting a bed, if one is available, only increases the chance of them getting an incurable hospital-acquired infection.  Perhaps just waiting in line for a bed.

So, we are all free to do as we please.  Even refuse a traffic mandate to stop at red lights, limit vehicle speed, or use a seatbelt.   But we are playing the odds.  Odds that police officer or camera won’t catch us.  We might know where they are and avoid them.  Be we never know where pathogens will catch us.   The best we can do is keep our immune systems healthy and do what we can to reduce the mutations of variants in every other person on the planet. 

And while we are at it.  Work like hell to change the governing systems that are now cemented into place with archaic laws that fail to keep pace with the exponential technological change over the last 40 years.  Functional change that is based on reliable, accurate, and tested information.  Cellphones, electrical power grids, new bridges... In a nutshell “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God (the Golden Rule)”.   

Basing any government foundational on the delusional context of ‘political independence’ is simple and lethal insanity.  We keep using the same legal system (lacking liberty and justice for all) over and over again expecting a better result.  If you follow the accelerating chaos in the news, you must know by now that a better result isn’t coming. Not without transforming the laws that govern our personal, national, and global relations.  Justice and accountability must be global if we lack the wisdom and virtue to do the obvious.

We can endlessly debate the freedom/security dilemma of Rogan/Spotify, Russa/Ukraine, Peace through strength or disarmament, oil/solar, science/religion, capitalism/socialism...any dilemma.

But until we accept our global interdependence - and act on it with urgency, civilization as we all know it will not persist.   Connect the dots.  See the web of life.  Work for global justice (funding the 17 SDGs) or prepare for the consequences. 

More strikes against democracy and our Constitution

 More strikes against democracy and our Constitution being our self-evident truth 

“In a functioning liberal democracy, Trump would be seen right now as a once-in-a-century kind of monster, his despicable assault on our democracy a turning point for the GOP in coming to its senses.  He would be a pariah far beyond what Nixon was in 1974 – untouchable, toxic, despised.  His grotesque and corrosive lies about the election are disqualified on their face.  But our liberal democracy is extinct after four years of Trump.  We are in a tribal war now, in which our democratic institutions are mere tools for the conduct of hostilities.”  Andrew Sullivan, AndrewSullivan@substack.com  (printed in The Week magazine 1-7-22).

Mr. Sullivan missed the fact that “our democratic institutions” have always been “mere tools for the conduct of” corporate business, the rich tweaking the system, and the military-industrial complex getting what cannot bring us real security.  The masses of “we the people” are either too comfortable, distracted, or ignorant about citizen power to use it for making our nation (and the world) ‘a more perfect union'.   

Only about half of us show up to vote each election.  And most votes are based on emotions stimulated by one or two concerns.   Emotions exacerbated by the cognitive dissonance linked to tribal instincts.  A deep dive without bias into vital issues facing humanity are rare.  I’m guessing fewer than 2% of us actually ‘petition’ grievances directly with their elected officials those six hundred plus days between elections.  Protests, actually petitions, and riots have not worked.  Being in inspired by a better vision for humanity's healthy and sustainable future must be done in face-to-face meetings with constituents using loving persistence...not anger or hate-filled rants as deserving as they may be.

Yet we are shocked and in despair that things are not working as we want.  Too often what we want is not what we or our children and grandchildren need.  We fear “losing our democracy” forgetting that Hitler was elected to his first position of power.   Even when a vast majority get what they want there is no guarantee the fundamental human rights of any minority wouldn’t be abused.  Or their families terrorized by death threats or slaughtered.  And that’s even likely without a democracy.
What we really need and should desire above all other forms of government is the Rule of Law. 

The Rule of Law is a phrase we frequently hear, but few can list its fundamental elements as well as Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia.   Over 20 years ago in a C-span interview before an international audience, he was asked “what makes the Rule of law effective?”  He replied it requires three basic elements.  First, the laws need to be made and enforced by a democratic process. But that’s not enough. [which should be a painful self-evident truth to anyone now paying close attention to the withering of our increasingly imperfect union], Second, the laws need to be applied equally to everyone.  Third, the laws need to be protective of people’s inalienable rights. 

Note that our Constitution only provides us with a legal framework for making laws.  The Supreme Court, most lesser courts, or the Department of Justice interpret laws based on it within the framework of federalism or national sovereignty.  Not the concept of “justice for all” as every American has pledged repeatedly before our flag.  

True American patriotism would be based on the fundamental principles expressed in our nation’s profound founding document, the Declaration of Independence.  What Abraham Lincoln once wrote, was our “Apple of Gold”.  He labeled the Constitution as it ‘frame of silver’.   A true American patriot would see (and behave) as if ‘America’ were an ideal.  Not a varying collection of independent states increasingly divided internally and increasingly less likely to form a more perfect union.

If we did this, we could truly inspire others in the world to do the same.  Instead of converting more and more to violent extremists willing, and increasingly able, to undermine our nation’s freedom and security.  And better able to protect the sustainability of our collective environmental infrastructure which every human, economy, democracy, kleptocracy, dictatorship depends on to survive and thrive.

The evolution of weaponry, viral variants, conspiracy theories, and terrorism requires the adaptation of government systems and structures in order to avoid accelerating chaos and inevitable extinction.

It will require a comprehensive plan and effort to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals before its 2030 deadline.  Perfecting democracy will NOT get us there.  Only the perfecting of the Rule of Law globally can.   Thomas Paine in his pamphlet “Common Sense” stated “Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. freedom and security.  And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say, it is right...I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple anything is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when discorded; and with this maxim in view.”  He wrote these words about the “constitution of England”.  

I believe If he were alive today he would be saying the same about ours now. 

Biden should be more like Jimmy Carter

 Dear Editor,

Jonathan Alter’s superb detailing of “major” problems with the current Carter/Biden “analogies” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/01/14/jimmy-carter-biden-comparisons/) missed two profoundly important Carter contributions.  Commission reports that could have radically improved the increasingly chaotic world we have today if they had been popular reading.  First is the foresighted conclusion and warnings of President Carter’s 1980 bi-partisan Commission on World Hunger.  It stated “In the final analysis, unless Americans -- as citizens of an increasingly interdependent world -- place far higher priority on overcoming world hunger, its effects will no longer remain remote or unfamiliar.  Nor can we wait until we reach the brink of the precipice; the major actions required do not lend themselves to crisis planning, patchwork management, or emergency financing... The hour is late.  Age-old forces of poverty, disease, inequity, and hunger continue to challenge the world.  Our humanity demands that we act upon these challenges now...”   

It then warned that “The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair and often hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order…  Neither the cost to national security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain to be derived by a genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or measured in any precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on avoiding the chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the world begin to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other critical global threats… Calculable or not, however, this combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.”

It then recommended “that promoting economic development in general, and overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S. national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the advent of nuclear weapons most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The Commission considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”

This should have been Alder’s expose’s conclusion on MLK Day’s Washington Post Outlook section.  Along with the predictions listed in Carter’s Global 2000 Report ...which nearly all eventually proved accurate - and are now a “painful ‘what if’” for us and the rest of humanity.

“Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured; this is its interrelated quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Libertarians' worst promoter: Senator Rand Paul

Today's (1-11-22)  C-Span hearing with Anthony Fauci...had comments/questions and assertions by this libertarian Senator.   https://www.c-span.org/video/?517046-1/drs-walensky-fauci-testify-response-covid-19-variants   JANUARY 11, 2022   Drs. Walensky, Fauci, and Others Testify on Response to COVID-19 Variants

Dr. Anthony Fauci, along with CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and others, testified on the federal response to new COVID-19 variants before the Senate Health Committee.

In my opinion, Senator Rand Paul disgraced the libertarian movement and endangered US national security instead of using precious time to address a tsunami of urgent issues before humanity.

Senator Paul made more flawed assertions, misquotes, and demeaning, inflammatory, degrading, false, and deplorable comments than I have ever heard in listing to C-span for the last 30 years.  He did this repeatedly interrupting Fauci’s answers and his attempts to refute with facts what the Senator did NOT want to hear. 

Fauci gave a legitimate detailed report of one man apprehended on his way to DC traveling all the way across the nation with AR15 and sufficient ammunition to kill a hundred members of Congress.  But he stated he had the singular intention of killing Fauci and all of his family.   The Senator did not express any concern for Fauci or this family.  He simply went on continuing his angry, partisan, delusional rant until shut down by the Ctee chair.    

Any true libertarian would know that the essential human characteristic to ensure the preservation of humanity's freedoms is for individuals to put responsibility and virtue at the top of their personal behaviors and words.

As a new Rotarian, I will try to live by their 4 foundation questions.  1.  Is it true?  2.  Is it fair?  3. Does it build goodwill?  4.  Does it benefit everyone?   Paul used his precious time doing none of these.  Instead of meaningfully addressing the greatest killer of Americans today, preparing for the next variant or pandemic, or other serious and urgent national security threats we all face he gave the worst advertisement for anyone professing to be a libertarian.  

My generation's failure. How we got to this chaotic point in our nation's history.

 My generation's failure to do what was needed got us to this chaotic point in our nation's history.

 

At sports events, we pledged before our flag “liberty and justice for all” thousands of times without voting for it.

On Thanksgiving, we thanked the Lord for all we have...and then ignored the story of the Good Samaritan.

We won the cold war... then turned inward...instead of out.

We asked God to Bless America and then ignored “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”

And now nearly half of us can’t grasp the simple concept of ‘Truths we hold to be self-evident”.

 

Almost a year ago to this day, those who stormed the Capitol did so believing lies of someone ordained by the laws of our Constitution and pledged on a Bible to protect it.   Abraham Lincoln may have endorsed a radical change in the Constitution.  But he would be appalled at this unpatriotic logic.   He wrote that our Declaration of Independence was our “Apple of Gold”.  And our Constitution it’s “frame of silver”.  Many have sworn to protect it...instead of the freedom and security God intended for all human beings.

 

The single greatest factor motivating last year’s insurrectionists (mostly white, gainfully employed, middle-aged males) was fear.  Fear they were going to be replaced by others if our nation actually lived up to its founding ideal of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” via “justice for all”. 

Today many fear we are on the precipice of another civil war. We all know things are going to get worse before they get better... 

 

My generation was warned 42 years ago by a bipartisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger.  We failed and are now reaping the consequences.   Sadly, the only thing we remember about the US President who initiated that profound and prophetic commission is ‘inflation’.

 

“In the final analysis, unless Americans -- as citizens of an increasingly interdependent world -- place far higher priority on overcoming world hunger, its effects will no longer remain remote or unfamiliar.  Nor can we wait until we reach the brink of the precipice; the major actions required do not lend themselves to crisis planning, patchwork management, or emergency financing... The hour is late.  Age-old forces of poverty, disease, inequity, and hunger continue to challenge the world.  Our humanity demands that we act upon these challenges now...”    Presidential Commission on World Hunger, 1980.

 

The Commission details warned about “diseases”, “international terrorism”, “war”, “environmental problems” and “other human rights problems” (refugees, genocide, human trafficking…).  Each threatens our lives, our freedoms, and our prosperity.   Today these consequences fuel fear and generate populist movements.  Movements that make it impossible to peacefully change the course. 

 

The commission specifically warned that “The most potentially explosive force in the world today is the frustrated desire of poor people to attain a decent standard of living. The anger, despair and often hatred that result represent real and persistent threats to international order…  Neither the cost to national security of allowing malnutrition to spread nor the gain to be derived by a genuine effort to resolve the problem can be predicted or measured in any precise, mathematical way. Nor can monetary value be placed on avoiding the chaos that will ensue unless the United States and the rest of the world begin to develop a common institutional framework for meeting such other critical global threats… Calculable or not, however, this combination of problems now threatens the national security of all countries just as surely as advancing armies or nuclear arsenals.”

 

It also stated “that promoting economic development in general, and overcoming hunger in particular, are tasks far more critical to the U.S. national security than most policymakers acknowledge or even believe. Since the advent of nuclear weapons most Americans have been conditioned to equate national security with the strength of strategic military forces. The Commission considers this prevailing belief to be a simplistic illusion. Armed might represents merely the physical aspect of national security. Military force is ultimately useless in the absence of the global security that only coordinated international progress toward social justice can bring.”

 

Our failure to focus on the protection of human rights in combatting terrorism after 9-11 has cost the US twice as many lives since then.  And over six trillion in US tax dollars.  These costs will keep climbing.   The US economic cost of Covid-19 alone cost six trillion in just 4 months.  And approximately six times the number of American lives lost during 19 years fighting terrorism. 

 

It should be a self-evident truth that Covid-19 and most other threats we face today are largely the result of ignoring this report's recommendations.   Dozens of other prestigious, bipartisan studies and academic reports have followed since then.   Each report clearly documented the direct and indirect links between world hunger, conflicts, human rights violations, environmental degradation, refugees, and increasing global instability.   Accelerating threats to our nation’s security, economy, and political stability.   

 

Addressing these threats requires a comprehensive global action plan.   The good news -an affordable and achievable plan exists today.  It is the 17 Sustainable Development Goals most nations agreed upon in 2015.    Unfortunately, most Americans are unaware of this action agenda.  An agenda intended to tackle the root causes of the growing chaos we are now witnessing.  Interdependent problems, by definition, cannot be solved with independent agencies or countries.  What is missing is the political will.  The will to do what’s right  -- and make adequate investments in sustainable local, national, and planetary health for all.   Working together humanity has the potential for maximining human freedom and security globally while protecting nature.  And this can be achieved for dozens of generations to come.

 

Time is not on our side.  The evolution of pathogens, weapons, and war is outpacing our will to voluntarily change.   This by definition is literally…unsustainable.   Things change.  Can we?