*Peace. We don’t hear much about it these days. It’s almost as if we talked and fussed and signed about it so much in the 60s & 70s, that it got tired – or we did. By the 80s a person flashing a peace sign was seen as immature or perhaps desperately clinging to their youth. Peace became passé. Which explains 2018.
The thing about Peace is that it can mean so many things.
*Having owned a 1965 and a 1967 Ford Mustang convertible and Ford celebrating 10 million Mustangs produced, I don’t understand why Ford stock is hitting a 52-week low. I thought the cause might be a Ford truck that dodged an FBI sniper bullet in the Finicum trial, but it’s a Dodge.
Reviewing the video the shooting, the Oregon State Police (OSP) ordered LeVoy Finicum’s party out of the truck at a particular location near the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Finicum keeps shouting,
“Go ahead and shoot me.”
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*Capitalism is a complex, dynamic, adaptive and non-linear system because it has elements or agents in large numbers that interact with each other – forming one or more structures that originate from the interactions between such agents.
Complex systems are characterized by their dynamism, whose fundamental characteristics are their sensitive dependence on the initial conditions, whereby minimal differences at the beginning of any process can lead to completely different and/or opposite situations over time. The opinion of Ervin Laszlo, Ph.D. of the Sorbonne and president of the Budapest Club, presented in the book O Ponto do Caos (The Point of Chaos), is that a dynamic system, in society or in a computer simulation, is governed by attractors. Keep Reading
*The seizure of assets, or asset forfeiture, by government agencies (FBI and local police agencies, among others) without proper legal proceedings, has become intolerable. In case after case, government officials confiscate cash that citizens are carrying, and it is up to the citizens to fight to get it back. Essentially, if any police or law enforcement agency finds that you have a lot of cash, they seize the money, under the assumption that it was obtained illegally, whether or not they even charge you with a crime.
This behavior of confiscating assets is nothing more than theft, abuse of power, and denial of the rights of citizens. Only an out-of-control police state would do such a thing. Keep Reading
*Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is! It’s funny how things stay with you. Vietnamization will end U.S. involvement in the war. Even if you’re a kid and you don’t really understand, if you hear something often enough it becomes part of who you are. Never has it been doubted that everything’s better with Blue Bonnet on it, or what kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs or that Jesus died for our sins or that America is the greatest nation on Earth.
Some of these are ingrained in us before we have any chance to understand what they mean, never mind question them. Whether we hear them on TV, in church, at school or at home, if words are repeated often enough, long enough, they become part of who we are; and we believe them. How else can you explain prejudice? Kids get along fine until someone important in their life tells them why they shouldn’t.
BTW: Fat kids, skinny kids, kids that climb on rocks. Tough kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox love hot dogs. That old commercial could never run in 2018 because of the words used to describe the kids. Try calling a child fat, skinny, or a sissy and prepare to deal with an onslaught of anger from whoever happens to be standing near! The words matter. Now more than ever before.
Insidious: proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects. treacherous; crafty.
The two most important words in the American lexicon are Fake News. 
The president repeats them more often than beer commercials during a football game. Keep Reading
*Aaron Rodgers may be the greatest of all time, Tom Brady may be the greatest of all time. Mohammed Ali told us that he was the greatest of all time, and who wants to argue with him – even from beyond the grave? But to lead my team down the field with 85 yards to go and 1:40 on the clock – with all due and considerable respect to Elway, Brees, Rivers and the Mannings – Joe Cool is my first pick every time.
Watching those 49er teams matriculate the ball down the field was like watching an infantry unit doing drills; methodical, sharp, quick and precise, yet fluid and graceful. The dynasty of the 80s provided entertainment the likes of which we can never see again. Once the NFL implemented a salary cap the owner kept on spending on star players, ‘mortgaging the future’ to win today by delaying, deferring and derailing payments. When the wall tumbled, it fell into rubble as the 9ers of the new century are only now appearing to be in recovery mode.
Mortgaging America’s future is what Betsy DeVos and her geniuses at the Department of Education are doing currently.
As one of the mindless trumpions currently running the show she is once again seeking to cut several discretionary programs, including federal funding for the Special Olympics and a grant program for college students with “exceptional financial need.” Keep Reading
*The redacted version of the Carter Page FISA application is out.
The kernel of the evil seed has sprouted, as we have former lawmen use the term “FISA debacle” to describe the process only active FBI agents, four Republican judges on the FISA panel, and DOJ officials know to be true. The alleged conspirators, or as the media calls them – collaborators: a news network (specific media have been able to cast doubt and attack the integrity and reputation of the FBI), the agents, the DOJ, attorneys for DOJ, the FISA judges, and the FISA judicial process.
Call our institutions, our Constitution and our legal process the swamp. Read and interpret the redacted pages of the FISA report to suit your fancy so your soapbox of judgment will determine your outcome, and if it does not go your way, there will be some left in the herd to manipulate.
*How about some age limits? I know, I know; you can’t do that – discrimination; ageism; our seniors are our greatest treasure. OK. And as someone that has of late been the recipient of impudent young whippersnapper’s thoughtless comments and assumptions about my age and its affect on my ability to do this or that, I can tell you that being judged based on your appearance sucks; I can only image what my darker-skinned brothers and sisters have had to deal with their entire lives while living in this racist country.
But seriously, how about some age limits?
The president is seventy-two and is apparently going to run for reelection, which would make him seventy-eight if could finish a second term without blowing up the world. He could make it, or he could drop dead any day now. More to the point, he has less of an idea about what it is like to live in this country in this century than the ETs floating around above us.
Rounds of golf and hookers costing thousands of dollars each are not within the realm of the average American, yet he takes these things for granted. His antiquated ignorant perspective on people less white than he and the resulting utter lack of connection with people of color is typified in the mess he has created by sticking his nose in the NFL’s anthem controversy – a place his nose has no business being.
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For David Hogg to be held up as a poster child of choice for gun control, at the hands of puppet masters with axes to grind, is a terrible mistake, and a readily identifiable one.
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By directly attacking an American President and Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces on such a preeminent and potentially dangerous issue as Iran, by way of propping up and trotting out someone so far out of his league it hurts to watch, done with such vitriol, disdain and mockery of the office of the presidency, ought to sound a death knell for such activism, activism that uses death tolls strictly for political benefit.
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Students around the country who study political science in high school or college are taught the fundamentals of how Congress works. This includes how Congress considers policy, passes laws, works in committees, and the rules for how issues are debated, and much much more. Each congressional session in our nation’s Capitol, students who study political science (and the nation at large), have the opportunity to watch their representatives in action at the U.S. Capitol building, legislative office hearing rooms, or of course— Live on CSPAN from the comforts of their own home. However, one of the most influential players in law making process is often hard for the citizen to see.
These unknown and underestimated influencers are not the lawmaker, not a reporter, not a lobbyist, not a celebrity, not the business executive, and sadly not the citizen. One of the most powerful and unknown voices in our modern lawmaking process is the “professional committee staffer” in Congress.
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*The Rubicon was crossed on July 11 in Brussels when President Donald Trump laid bare the façade of the ambitions of the United States.
We have officially become an imperial power, exacting tribute from those whom we enfold within the protection of our magnificent arms. Acting unilaterally, against the advice and wisdom proffered by those in his administration who possess a brain, he demanded that NATO members not only meet the level of a 2% of GDP defense spending level, but feels it should be doubled to 4%. One can only assume there will be a Paypal account set up to forward delinquent accounts to US coffers.
I can understand “shaking things up” as being a necessary step in order to bring about a change in behavior. We may agree that some sort of action was needed in order to prod reluctant allies to meet their commitment to fund the common defense. But the behavior of bullying that was on exhibit in Brussels goes far beyond what a prudent person would do in order to maintain workable relations with our allies.
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*Keynesianism is dead.
The economic failure of liberal capitalism from the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) to the Great Depression with the crack on the New York Stock Exchange (1929) led to the adoption of Keynesianism based on the ideas of the English economist, John Maynard Keynes, who unlike classical economic liberals, defended state action in the economy with the objective of achieving full employment.
Keynesian philosophy ceased to be effective by the 1970s, due to the decline in world economic growth after the so-called “glorious years” of the 1950’s and 60’s. There were two oil crises along with the debt crisis experienced by most countries of the world that drove insolvency at international banks.
This situation made the conservative forces of the United Kingdom and the United States, under the leadership respectively of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, carry forward neoliberalism whose economic doctrine advocated the return of liberalism now on the world stage – which meant absolute market freedom and a restriction on state intervention on the economy. Neoliberalism was adopted after the end of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist system in 1989, respectively.
With neoliberalism, social inequality has reached alarming levels throughout the world.”
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*Kids are so much fun to be around. Little bundles of energy, they are overcome with curiosity; constantly information-gathering, testing and discovering new things. It’s hard to imagine a place specifically designed to feed that curiosity and offer information and present new things that some children would fake a tummy ache to avoid.
It’s equally difficult to imagine parents in the most world’s most prosperous nation who expect their children be both educated and tended to during work hours, yet balk at providing the financial support required to get the jobs done well.
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*Last week, along the southern border of America, refugees were separated and children were caged. Shock and outrage ricocheted around the world. Under the cover of chaos the Republicans pushed through two atrocious assaults on our mother, Nature.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order, which washed away President Barack Obama’s emphasis on ocean conservation and a plan to mitigate the climate in crisis.
Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Obama, Dr Jane Lubchenco said, “The policy reflects a shift from ‘use it without using it up’ to a very short-sighted and cavalier ‘use it aggressively and irresponsibly’.”
Trump’s policy increases slaughtering the ocean and it greenlights more subsidized fossil fuel seismic surveys. It’s in keeping with his election promise to unlock $50 trillion of U.S. oil and gas.
In so doing, Trump is impoverishing all sea life by increasing ocean acidity and decreasing ocean oxygen.
*Recently, someone advocated the dissolution of the federal government of the United States, insisting that the states could manage themselves. It also suggested that the federal government has usurped power and taken away the rights of states. Let’s consider a few things.
There is no doubt that the federal government has become what Jefferson didn’t want, and that was a tyrannical central government, much akin to the monarchies and aristocracies of Europe. Unfortunately, I will accede that this has been the case, and I have never denied what my constitutional law professor claimed, that almost every decision by the Supreme Court has gone the way of the federal government.
When in doubt, the federal government always wins, for the most part. The most egregious ruling was Gonzales v. Raich, which ruled that growing marijuana in one’s backyard for medical use was a federal issue. Sandra Day O’Connor bravely stated that it was not, but hers was the dissenting opinion.
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*Recently, someone in academia (no point in revealing the exact location) was criticizing the West for destroying Middle Eastern and other cultures. Academically, this instructor was teaching of the “evils” of the West, and how Middle Eastern cultures were suffering and being erased. The instructor used imperialism as the model.
The imperialists overtook the foreign lands and exploited their resources and their citizens, making the lands colonies. The colonies surrendered their wealth to the imperialists who got fat and enjoyed the bounty of the land. The indigenous people of the colonies worked hard to make the lives of the imperialists easy and prosperous. The great thing about academics is that if one theory works, it can probably explain other events, and if that theory fits your personal ideology and position, all the better.
Imperialists considered themselves monarchs who achieved their positions via merit, when in fact their rewards were simply fate, being born to certain people in certain places.
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*There is a giant gulf today between those who promote and profit from fossil fuels, including Presidents Trump and Putin, and our life support systems – Nature. In my latest book, Save Nature Now, I’ve dubbed it “Black Gold Fever,” a contagious excitement over the riches of fossil fuels.
Consider this, there has never been such an accumulation of money on our planet controlled by a handful of people. The bulk of that wealth was derived from killing Nature at the expense of the health of our biosphere, the livable space occupied by all living organisms.
Instead of prudently protecting our home, since 1997 earthlings have burned as much fossil fuel as the previous 250 years. Keep Reading
* Opinion: President Trump’s Maximum Pressure campaign has, as planned, become a threat to the Kim regime’s survival. Average North Koreans are now enjoying more access to outside information than ever before and their money can buy them whatever they want. Kim is unable to stop the free market, but he’s started imposing life sentences on his citizens for contacting the outside world.
In the short span of one year, Kim has changed tone from turning the U.S. and Seoul into ‘a sea of fire’ to ‘okay, we are willing to denuclearize.’ As a result, Kim has embarked on an unprecedented charm offensive.
The bell rings and twenty-nine angelic faces look to her for guidance. In that moment she realizes that while as Governor overseeing the statistical lives of her state’s almost four million citizens is a huge responsibility – one she takes seriously, being entrusted with the actual lives of these twenty-nine cherubs is a grander burden.
Initially an eager participant in the new ‘Leaders in School’ program, the Governor is becoming increasingly dismayed as the reality of spending an entire day working as an educator in the public school system is becoming clear. It was bad enough that she had to make her own coffee and breakfast this morning and then actually drive herself to school, but facing a day without her personal assistants seems like cruel and unusual punishment.
The day is only forty seconds old, and she is already looking for a light at the end of an awfully long tunnel.
Make no mistake; this is colonization under the guise of immigration.
You enter the country without permission, disrespecting the laws of that country. You settle in and establish your culture, ignoring the native culture. You don’t speak the language, and make little effort to learn the language.
You even fly the flag of your home country, instead of the flag of the country where you reside. You take advantage of the already built industries as well as the infrastructure. If fact, you stress the wealth of the country that you have taken over. You have no intention of adopting the language, and you exploit the economy, as well as the infrastructure, to your advantage.