tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48211182477495794472024-03-08T08:08:51.734-05:00GadflyHere you will find the undisciplined thought derived from the random notes (loosely labeled research) that are responsible for the Gadfly commentary that appears in this Blog. Your comments are welcome. The best of them will be posted from time to time, with proper attribution, of course.Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-56301936074892744112020-09-21T09:58:00.002-04:002020-09-28T15:37:11.278-04:00<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><blockquote id="qt" type="cite"><div class="qt-yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div dir="ltr"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Global Heating — Self Worsening<br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">The American West was our last frontier not long ago. Well, not exactly. We went on to take a good part of Mexico, set a fire-sale price of $15 million, and made it the American South West. President James Polk called it “Manifest Destiny,” which was very appealing to many people, especially men and also slave owners.<br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then it was on to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines (a good try), …<br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Soon enough, it was the Whole World via fossil fuels, oil drilling, and fracking the bedrock for “natural” gas. No one was worried about global warming, except Gadfly who called it global heating.<br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">The western states were a little concerned — heat waves, wildfires, and smoke blotting out the sun weeks before the expected fire season. San Francisco had red skies all day long. The wildfires were directly adding to the heat of the planet, but also increasing the atmospheric level of CO2, the best greenhouse gas we have.<br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, more and more forest land was cleared for cattle ranching and factory farming, and cut for timber harvesting. Forests were being decimated, and less was left to act as a carbon sink to save the Planet.</span></span> <br /></p></div></div></blockquote><blockquote id="qt" type="cite"><div class="qt-yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div dir="ltr"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">As well, some federal lands adjacent to our National Parks were going to be leased to the oil and gas companies. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was getting its instructions directly from the White House.<br /></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sound the fire alarms louder!</span></span><br /></div></div></div></blockquote>Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-56340381856164238862020-08-30T08:36:00.001-04:002020-08-30T08:36:29.088-04:00Public Since the Pony Express<p> </p><div class="ydpabe10b4dyahoo-style-wrap"><div dir="ltr"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">Only in America would the USPS be the target UPS, FedEx, Staples, and Amazon — and getting help from Congress. In 2006 a law was passed that required the Postal Service to fund future retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. No other government agency nor any private corporation puts up with such political monkey business — not UPS, FedEx, especially not Amazon. Indeed, were it not for paying benefits 75 years ahead, the Postal Service would be self -sustaining.</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">But all these private delivery companies are not after taking over mail delivery and selling postage stamps. Every Post Office is located in the center of town and in a valuable piece of real estate. Imagine Amazon owning the building and being paid by McDonalds for putting up the Golden Arches on one side. It would be privatization in spades.</span></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p>
<div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;">In addition to stealing the property, the corporation could eliminate union jobs, raise postal rates for rural areas, and rewrite the history of the Postal Service, not even mentioning the Pony Express and stage coaches. It is a classic case of alternate facts written in White House tweets.</span></span></div></div></div>Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-44737030327841295522020-05-24T16:38:00.003-04:002020-05-29T12:10:33.260-04:00The Race To Destroy Ourselves<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who
will win the race to destroy mankind, and the other creatures of the
Earth? The nuclear powers or the populous countries that waited too
long to confront the coronavirus? </span></span><br />
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nuclear
weapons had a head start in 1945 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the
Soviet Union added to the US few quickly enough. And then it was the
UK, France, China, and unadmittedly Israel, India, and Pakistan in a
different kind of race to destroy. The one world movement got a strong
beginning with intercontinental ballistic missiles aboard submarines and
aircraft and in silos from Siberia to Idaho..</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When
the coronavirus struck, it was an equal-opportunity pandemic, and
different countries used different strategies. Norway, Germany, New
Zealand, and South Korea were most successful. The US was late in having
any strategy at all until May when people started wearing masks and
keeping a six foot social distance. That is everyone except the
President who seemed to double-dare the virus. Yet, in the UK, the Tory
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson — ostensibly Donald Trump’s
colleague-in-arms — was struck by the virus even though the UK gave him
the advantage of the National Health Service. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
coronavirus seemed to focus everyone’s attention on both the pandemic
and nuclear weapons. The research labs made a bit of progress on finding
a vaccine or two, and clinical trials with humans are ready to start.
Which antibody-related vaccines are likely to do the trick remains to be
seen. The scientists just do their work, leaving the speculation to
the politicians.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At
the UN, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Organization ICAN announced that
Belize just ratified the Treaty that Prohibits the Possession and Use of
Nuclear Weapons. So far 37, including Belize, have signed up. The
significance of the Treaty is that once 40 nations ratify the Treaty it
attains the force of International Law. That makes only 3 nations
to go. Some countries, even a few major ones, may yet join in. Many
would like to claim they are in compliance with International Law — they
feel it’s good for their image. It must be.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Gadfly Revelry & Research Team recently met in closed
session, masks and all, and decided on a new stratagem — to follow up on
a successful vaccine with an endorsement of the Treaty to Prohibit the
Use, or Even the Possession, of Nuclear Weapons. An historian of the
Team suggested a return to the 1920s, the worldwide Outlawry Movement
and the Kellogg-Briand Pact which is still in force in the US. We won’t
have to reinvent anything — it’s all in the history books.</span></span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-37202220893157451562020-03-20T19:10:00.002-04:002020-03-20T19:10:41.240-04:00Dr GADFLY Advises<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #1d2328; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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Gadfly
generally finds plenty of people in public life, both political and
corporate, who are in need of a satirist’s sharp pen. </div>
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But,
the coronavirus is in a separate category. So, today’s column will be
serious: The human body is complex, made of many structures and
functions, none more so than the immune system. If you’re lucky enough
to have been given a strong immune system, or live a lifestyle that will
maintain a functionally resilient immune system — you can thumb your
nose at viruses such as the common cold or the coronavirus. </div>
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I
have a heredity that offers heart disease, hypertension, and a lipid
profile that includes high cholesterol. My lifestyle, however, has been
influenced by a liking for athletics (track and field) and a few folks
who have a strong background in research. I never submit to flu shots,
nor do I ever get the flu. I am out walking (aerobic walking) when I’m
not splitting wood for an evening fire. I have also come to know Dr
Larry L who has introduced me to nicotinamide (Vitamin B3), which is
much more than a vitamin. </div>
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There
is more detail to such a healthful lifestyle and immune system than
aerobic walking and a glass of dry red wine with dinner. A number of
supplements from the health food store should be selected, and regular
meditation (Ommm) are important. A varied diet that is rich in
vegetables is basic of course.</div>
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The
medical profession has had no answer to the coronavirus, nor will you
catch them advocating for a strong immune system as a primary strategy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The next column will see GADFLY returning to the much needed traditions of Jonathan Swift.</div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-65123225896569035802020-02-10T08:04:00.004-05:002020-02-10T08:04:55.142-05:00Birds, Insects, People
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Environmental
disasters have been reported in scientific journals of all nations,
even in news journals such as Fox (Faux) News. <i>Nature,</i> and <i>Nature Briefing, </i>and<i> Inside Climate News</i>
have monthly and weekly reports of the effects of overheating of the
earth and oceans on plant life, animal life, and the life of
microorganisms.</div>
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The
global overheating has brought floods, wildfires, and heat waves to the
whole continent of Australia. The change in climate has affected the
language as well. It is now called climate chaos, collapse, crisis,
calamity, cacophony, apocalypse … </div>
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Several
human interest stories have been reported — if you can call such unfortunate “human interest.” The flying foxes of Australia have
suffered heat exhaustion leading to impairment of their mental and
physical capacities.</div>
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Sea-bird
die-offs have been reported among common murres and tufted puffins as
the photo- and zoo-plankton has changed and the fish and birds have had
to complete with each other for food. The birds died of starvation in
droves. At first the scientists looked for viral and bacterial toxins
and for parasites, but, it was nothing so esoteric. It was simply
starvation.</div>
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In
the countries of east Africa and around the Red Sea, there have been
incessant heavy rains and accompanying heat waves — favorite weather
conditions for breeding of desert locusts. The insects can eat huge
amounts of vegetation. A swarm of locusts the size of Paris can eat the
same amount of food in a day as all of France does. Sorry, no French
cuisine or Bordeaux wine. </div>
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Also
of human interest is what’s happening to people. We’re the new kid on
the block in geologic time. Homo sapiens gracilis is only 200,000 years
old, and has been living in the Pleistocene Epoch. </div>
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The
last ice age ended only about 12,000 years ago, as we entered the
Holocene, the Epoch of good weather. But the Holocene itself has been
changing in the last few years, mostly because of our industrial
activity and our use of fossil fuels <span style="font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">–</span> coal, oil, and gas. The linguists are starting to use the term Anthropocene for the new climate Epoch. Human interest, surely.</div>
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Also,
the reasons may be different, but we seem to be entering the Time of
the Sixth Mass Extinction. Will we be going the way of the dinosaurs?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-23720201793752396542020-01-20T19:07:00.000-05:002020-01-20T19:07:28.335-05:00Money vs. Social Needs<div dir="ltr">
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In
a recent GADFLY column, Goldman Sachs, the infamous investment bank was
reported to have announced that it would decline to invest in drilling
for oil In the National Wildlife Refuge. Was it Too Good To Be True? The
column went into the Goldman Sachs Shenanigans of the 2007-2008
financial crisis and its sub-prime mortgage customs & habits. As
well, there were credit default swaps and derivative trading that
started under Lloyd Blankfein’s tutelage. With Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and high speed computer trading, it is all still going on.</div>
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The
column concluded with the accounting practices that go on today and the
funds that would be available if a minuscule Financial Transaction Tax
(FTT) were added to all purchases and sales of derivatives. Yes,
Medicare For All and College for all could be financed.</div>
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In
today’s GADFLY column, we look at another waste of money that is just
waiting to be saved: the cost of US military bases in foreign
countries. The Pentagon admits to 800 such bases around the world. There
are only 193 nations in the UN, a few of which have refused the
Pentagon’s largesse, to make the math easy. You can bet that the real
number of foreign military bases is well over a thousand.</div>
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These
military bases have to be given something to do, so they often hold War
Games. The environmental impact of tanks and planes moving at maximum
velocity is (negatively) impressive and you may be sure that no one
drives or flies at fuel-saving speed. </div>
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No
one complains about the waste of money in the enterprise — we have to
support the troops. We hear only from the citizens of the host
countries. The citizens of the US who do the financing also ought to do a
little complaining when the schools have no budgets for art and music
and the libraries are short on staff. </div>
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Some free nutritious, organic food for school lunches, and creative
physical education classes would add to the health and social well
being of the students and their families. Let the defense contractors
such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman,
Boeing, and BlackWater Security et al fend for themselves and not be
given any government (taxpayer) handouts.</div>
</div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-33145773463983069772019-12-31T07:53:00.003-05:002019-12-31T07:53:29.787-05:00An Investment Bank, Too Good to be True?<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">Goldman Sachs announced that it will henceforth decline to finance Arctic oil drilling in the National Wildlife Preserve. [Pretty weak way to say “We</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;"> </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">won’t</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">drill for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve!”] They do get a little credit for the part of the announcement regarding mountain-top removal mining, where they will also decline that opportunity.</span><br />
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Before you applaud too loudly — Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UniCredit were way ahead of Goldman Sachs in the investment responsibility line. As well, the (infamous) US investment house may still finance fracking and oil tar sands operations elsewhere. For them, fossil fuels are still alive.</div>
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You may remember Goldman Sachs from the 2007-2008 financial crisis which was precipitated by sub-prime mortgage financing and associated monkey business. That and the credit default swaps and exotic derivatives trading.</div>
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Lloyd Blankfein was the CEO of Goldman Sachs then. He took phone calls from and gave advice to the Secretary of the Treasury (and President?). Lloyd B said he was just a banker doing God’s work.</div>
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If you think that the shenanagins of the sub-prime mortgages are over and Wall Street has turned over an ethical leaf, better think again. They are just more sophisticated and less transparent about it. Derivatives are still flying high. There are hedge funds and off-shore accounts. Now, with advanced computer technology and artificial intelligence, there is (very) high-frequency computer trading. There are still swaps, knock-out options, vulture options, and even plain vanilla options. The exchange of puts and calls is still on the basis of price agreement between buyer and seller which the SEC can’t keep records of, nor can the IRS can tax directly. </div>
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It took all those years for the Securities and Exchange Commission to file a successful suit in federal court against Goldman Sachs and collect damages to the tune of $5 billion plus an admission that it defrauded its own investors in the process.</div>
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The players on Wall Street meanwhile are still playing games (but not with their own money). Even progressive Congress-people, both Democrats and Republicans, won’t propose that a tax be assessed on the exchange of money in these transactions. Yet, a tiniest Financial Transaction Tax [call it a Fee] would add up to enough money to pay for a) <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>Medicare for All Without Deductibles</i></span> and b) <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>Totally Free College</i></span>, <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>Books and All</i></span>.</div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-89065629131153826272019-12-23T07:50:00.001-05:002019-12-23T07:50:59.705-05:00Just Practicing<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Predictions
of rising sea levels due to the melting of the Polar ice caps and the
Greenland ice sheet have plenty of science and technology behind them.
Not even Donald Trump can deny NASA’s S-D satellite images.</div>
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Well, according to an article in <i>Nature Communications</i>,
the satellite images were at first misinterpreted, and the expected
flooding will be far, far worse than anyone ever expected. Corrections
in the new NASA data are now predicting extensive flooding around the
World — Southeast Asia, Australia, Florida, and even the UK. </div>
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One
of the solutions proposed for the rapidly rising seas and the flooding
of low-lying cities is to build massive walls around these cities and
population centers. Perhaps Donald Trump is showing great foresight
when he is building a wall at our southern border. Practice makes
perfect — for sooner than 2050. He also may be anticipating a large
amount of climate-driven migration. Maybe the practice wall he is
building will serve <i>two</i> purposes.</div>
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One of the mysteries in the Donald’s thinking is why his Southern
White House is at Mar-a-Lago, where he often entertains foreign Heads of
State. Mar-a-Lago is on a barrier island at Palm Beach and so
vulnerable to flooding that it can go underwater with the next
hurricane. Is his enigmatic nature the reason why he’s President?</div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-38753277457195317122019-12-10T20:03:00.001-05:002019-12-11T09:03:22.414-05:00More Ways to Doomsday<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
The
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has just reset the Doomsday Clock at Two
Minutes to Midnight, having added Climate Chaos to the previous Nuclear
Weapons danger to Mother Earth.</div>
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The
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has been on a campaign interviewing
presidential candidates on their support for a no-first-use nuclear
policy. They have also polled the general public who have shown broad
support for a no-first-use nuclear policy. [John Bolton and Mike Pompeo
have refused to take part in any of the polls, but we know their
policy.] The UCS have just printed the Fall issue of Catalyst which is
self congratulatory concerning the land, sea, and air based ICBMs
(intercontinental ballistic missiles).</div>
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But,
now a new class of new nuclear weapons has entered the picture, and the
Two Minutes to Midnight may have to be further lowered to One Minute.
The new danger is the Intermediate Range Nuclear Missiles — from 500 to
5500 kilometers. An INF treaty was signed in 1987 between Ronald Reagan
and Mikhail Gorbachev. Now, many nations have the missiles that can
reach that shortened distance and are becoming capable of arming them
with nuclear warheads. Except, there is no longer a U.S.S.R. and there
is no sense of anything rational going on in the White House.</div>
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The Fall issue of UCS’s <i>Catalyst</i>
has attracted readers with an interview of Richard Garwin whose
illustrious life spans over 90 years and has more awards than anyone and
everyone. How many people have worked with Enrico Fermi and with Hans
Bethe? Garwin also collaborated with Edward Teller — not a proud moment
in his career. But anything to attract readers.</div>
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So
why are Russia and China refusing to enter an INF Treaty. The US is
connected in both instances. With Russia it’s politics, and with China
it involves dollars as well as politics. NATO has been playing footsie
with Ukraine (historically, in Russia’s sphere of influence also the
Russian Black Sea Fleet’s home base in the Crimea, which geographically
is part of Ukraine. The bottom line was the election of President
Zelensky, who is not a politician but an actor and comedian. Wonder what
Ronald Reagan would have to say about a Slavic “acting president”.</div>
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So
Russia agreed with the withdrawal of the US from the INF Treaty and in
return started to arm its Middle Range Missiles. Politics as ever since
the 19th century Crimean War. </div>
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China,
with its long history of Opium Wars, never got over the withdrawal of
Taiwan from Mainland China. [It was ceded to Britain as a Crown Colony
in the mid 1800s.] It was eventually agreed that it would revert to
Chinese rule in 1997. In between, other changes took place: It was
declared part of the Qing Empire, and after the Sino-Japanese war was
ruled by Japan. When Chaing Ki-shek fled the mainland in the face of
overwhelming forces of Mao Tse-tung, Chaing established martial law,
which was finally lifted after many years.</div>
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Taiwan
is known as the Republic of China to many residents of the island; and
is a province of Mainland China to The Peoples’ Republic. Chinese INF
Nuclear Missiles don’t threaten the US but target every square meter of
Taiwan. And, Walmart and the big Box stores do a brisk business with
mainland China.</div>
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Americans
generally support the military, but Supporting the Troops has little to
do with paying millions and billions to military contractors who
include the likes of: Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics (Major
General?), Raytheon, Grumman, Boeing, BAE, and BlackWater Services.</div>
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<div>
Let’s stop calling it the “Defense” industry. Then, it’s high time
for the US to take the lead and re-establish the INF Treaty. We can
bribe and otherwise strong arm lesser powers to sign it also — UK,
France, China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran [you can call them Persia],
Brazil, Argentina, and the Seychelles Islands. It would be just like the
Pact of Paris [or Kellogg Briand Treaty] when WILPF led the way through
the Outlawry movement. [WILPF is still active, though Jane Addams its
founder and Nobel Peace Laureate is not alive.] Let WILPF nominate
Gadfly for a Nobel Peace Prize for this latest essay.</div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-86823509125053125422019-09-10T21:55:00.001-04:002019-09-10T21:55:39.148-04:00Challenging Authority
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Ever
since Ancient Greece and Rome — perhaps Akkadian times, too, with the
poetry of Enheduanna, the poet-daughter of Sargon the Great — authority
has been blessed by challengers.</div>
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Even the name, Gadfly, originated with Socrates who corrupted the youth of Athens. Then, the playwright, Aristophanes, added <i>that</i> literary discipline to the compendium of satire.</div>
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Satire more recently crossed the Channel to Ireland and Britain with Jonathan Swift, and then in England (and the world) with <i>Punch</i>
magazine. Political cartoons found a niche, and reached their height by
making fun of JMW Turner, the pre-Impressionist British artist. Now,
political cartoons appear on the editorial pages of many newspapers on
both sides of the Pond.</div>
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GADFLY
started recently in the US in the time of the Iraq War when the
infamous liar called Curveball told Dick Cheney what he wanted to hear
regarding weapons of mass destruction. As an add on, the (Vice)
president told us that Saddam Hussein was friends with Al Qaeda. Neither
was true.</div>
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A
series of Letters to the Editor from Milanville followed, and soon
after, The GADFLY column appeared in three different local newspapers in
the Delaware Valley. Dick Cheney continued to supply raw material for
GADFLY, and Donald Rumsfeld added a few select gems. More recently,
GADFLY started its own blog: <a class="defanged3-enhancr_card_8127719198" href="http://gadflysmiling.blogspot.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gadflysmiling.blogspot.com</a>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
By the time The Donald assumed the Presidency, GADFLY held over 150
column with no end in sight, most of them as relevant as ever. GADFLY
plans to continue to teach using the Socratic method of questioning, but
has no plans to partake of hemlockGadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-44809171497575986252019-05-01T21:31:00.000-04:002019-05-01T21:31:31.661-04:00Walls and Fences<span></span><br />
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The
Gadfly Research & Revelry Gang (GRR) has heard that the White House
is composing a Tweet to announce a new position: a Retroactive Poet
Laureate and will name Robert Frost to the post. It seems President
Trump read the last line of Frost’s poem, <i>Mending Wall,</i> [“Good fences make good neighbors”] and decided that Frost would be the first Ex Post Facto Poet Laureate.</div>
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Never
mind that Mending Wall starts with “Something there is that doesn’t
love a wall” and a little further asks “What am I walling in or walling
out?” Frost answers the question with, “My apple trees will never get
across and eat the cones under his pines.”</div>
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But, President Trump is better known for creating his alternative facts than in reading a poem from beginning to end.</div>
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Neither
is The Donald known to be a student of history. But someone ought to
remind him that the Mexican-American war was about as shameful as the
Vietnam or Iraq Wars. We literally stole one-third of the territory of
Mexico. President James Polk invoked the principle of Manifest Destiny,
as if taking anyone else's land could ever be a principle of anything
but robbery. Then, to show that it was just a real estate deal, he
signed peace treaty with a Mexican name, Guadalupe Hidalgo, and paid
Mexico $15 million. $15 million even then was a fire (arms) sale for the
entire US SouthWest — most of Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California,
Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. Texas was another whole story. It was a
deal to make Trump proud.</div>
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The only ones to benefit from walls and fences seem to be the satirists and the poets. </div>
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A recent Letter to the Editor expands the topic a little:</div>
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<span class="defanged10-ydp445167d3Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Asylum or Sanctuary?</div>
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<span class="defanged10-ydp445167d3Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The first a legal status derived</div>
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<span class="defanged10-ydp445167d3Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>from working judges. The second,</div>
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<span class="defanged10-ydp445167d3Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>history and hallowed ground to set rules.</div>
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Let The Donald fire me.</div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-44998240896879580732019-01-21T15:02:00.006-05:002019-01-21T15:02:59.661-05:00Donald Trump — For All the Wrong Reasons<blockquote id="fastmail-quoted" type="cite">
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6715" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<div id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6720" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6718" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6721" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Only a few reasons are out there when it comes to why Donald Trump does anything. Pretty women, fame, and fortune seem to top the short list. Some say there are few if any others, but if we look at the international scene, he is ahead of even progressive Democrats. </span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6726" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">First, he made friends with Vladimir Putin (formerly of the KGB). Was it to end the Cold War? A Trump Tower in Moscow as an International Conference Center is more likely. The two leaders would prefer Peace Treaty conferences moved from Geneva to Moscow, each for their own reasons. Putin would like to restore Russia to its leadership role under the Czars. Trump would just like to shake things up, add to his rent rolls, and provide a venue for a formal Peace Treaty with North Korea and a subsequent Nobel Peace Prize for himself. Trump a Peace Laureate?</span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6731" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">He’s been working on it. He has already held talks with Kim Jong Un on turning the Cease Fire of 1953 into a real Peace Treaty. To show that he means it, he has unilaterally cancelled the annual War Games the US has been holding with (not against) the South Korean military. Kim Jong Un has already said he would dismantle his nuclear works once a formal Peace Treaty is signed with the US. The best the two sides have been able to achieve since the 1953 Cease Fire has been a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, is all for rapprochement. In the Inter-Korean summit Talks of April 2018 he and Kim signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Unification of the Korean Peninsula. So who is against a Permanent Peace Treaty? Maybe only John Bolton (of the white mustache), the perennial war hawk.</span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6733" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6736" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">For Trump, a Nobel Peace Prize would also add a cool $1 million to his coffers. And, who knows of the unexpected opportunities that may come up. The last model Peace Treaty was signed between Tibet and China in 821 CE (AD). In the Treaty, the Kings were given all due respect — the Kings were referred to as the Great King of China and the Great King of Tibet, the Miraculous Divine Lord. Such titles would surely suit The Donald. </span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6741" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">All well and good, but Trump may have painted himself into a corner with his Border Wall to keep illegal immigrants out. The Gadfly Revelry & Research Team met to discuss the matter, and found a way out for one who can change his mind when it suits him.</span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6746" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">US Law states that any immigrant with a green card or any other color may appeal for Sanctuary. Indeed, many of the immigrants from Central America — Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and others — have come to the US to escape danger, persecution or deep poverty. The Pilgrims,four centuries ago, came for religious freedom.</span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6751" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The R&R Team suggests that Donald just re-purpose the Wall. He can start by renaming it the Diego Rivera Wall in memory of the early 20th century Mexican muralist. Anyone who worked with such large scale frescoes would surely be attractive to Trump who was an artist in his own right. [<i id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6752">The Art of the Deal</i>.] </span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6757" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In fact, such a tradition already exists in Honesdale PA. the county seat of conservative Wayne County. The Great Wall of Honesdale displays large format paintings and attracts many artists. </span></div>
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<span id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6764" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So, for the right reasons or wrong, if Donald Trump can bring Peace, end the Cold War, reunite North and South Korea, and welcome immigrants (artists and others) we can give him credit for such worthy achievements. The Donald will have made America Great again.</span><b id="fastmail-quoted-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1548093402698_6879" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </b></div>
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</blockquote>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-40466770248814796772018-07-16T06:51:00.000-04:002018-07-16T06:58:54.928-04:00A Model Peace Treaty<br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40029" />
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<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40030" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40031" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40032">A Model Peace Treaty</b></span></div>
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<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40034" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40035" /></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40036" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40037" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In
these days of “Shock & Awe” bombing of the capital of a country
(Baghdad) by another country across the sea (the US); the bombing by
pilotless drones, based on rumor; and the assassination of the leader
of one country (Gaddafi of Libya) by a consortium of military appointees
(NATO) — the World is in desperate need of a Model Peace Treaty. </span></div>
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<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40039" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40040" /></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40041" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40042" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As
it happens, in 821 CE, the Kingdoms of China and Tibet were wise enough
to offer civilization such a Model Peace Treaty that would last for
10,000 years.</span></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40043" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40044" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40045" /></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40046" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40047" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">First,
they were respectful, addressing each other by their proper tiles: “The
Great King of Tibet, the Miraculous Divine Lord, and the Great King of
China, Hwang-ti”. They seemed to know that we might need such a treaty
or two in the 21st century, and so engraved a stone pillar in both
languages at the Cathedral at Lhasa, “to inform future ages and
generations that they extend their benevolence impartially with the
single desire of acting for the peace and benefit of all their subjects.
They agree on the high purpose of ensuring lasting good, and have made
this great treaty</span><span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40048" style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40049" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">to</span><span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40050" style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40051" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">live in peace and share the blessings of happiness for 10,000 years.”</span></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40052" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40053" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40054" /></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40055" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40056" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
Great Kings also instructed that messengers be sent to exchange
messages of friendship regarding the harmonious relationship between the
two Kings. The envoys were instructed to treat each other with honor
and respect.</span></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40057" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40058" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40059" /></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40060" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40061" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">They
also had expectations that the people of both Tibet and China would
follow the example of their leaders, that “the very word ‘enemy’ shall
not be spoken.”</span></div>
<div id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40062" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40063" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40064" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_39849">
<span id="defanged19-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531669292029_40065" style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">Surely,
there are leaders of nations today who are more interested in respect
and in their legacy than in ordinary money, perhaps in 10,000 years of
Peace.</span> </div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-40452071073392523542018-06-27T06:53:00.000-04:002018-07-16T06:54:53.546-04:00The Holy Land – The No-State Solution <div id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17438" style="color: #1b00a9; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px;">
<span id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17439" style="letter-spacing: 1px; text-decoration-color: currentcolor; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-style: solid;"><a href="https://thecatskillchronicle.com/gadfly-opinion/gadfly-archives/the-holy-land-%e2%80%93-the-no-state-solution/" id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17440" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Holy Land – The No-State Solution </a></span></div>
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<span id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17442" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This essay originally was written 6/10/09</span><br />
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</div>
<div id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17443" style="color: #333233; font-family: Verdana; margin-bottom: 8px;">
<span id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17444" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Hereafter,
it will be called the Holy Land, not Palestine, not Israel. The name
change is necessary to bring about the only possible solution to the
Arab-Israeli conflict – the No-State Solution.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17445" />
Before there were Jews and Muslims, before there was a Yahweh, the Near
East was well settled by different peoples. The Sumerians, having
migrated from Central Asia, settled in Mesopotamia. Bedouins from the
desert were accepted into their midst. Earlier, population centers had
developed at Catal Huyuk in central Anatolia (Turkey) and at Jericho in
the Levant some 9,000 years ago. Different races (by skull type)
apparently got along together. On the Mediterranean coast only a little
later, cities developed at Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre. Many people and many
peoples cultivated crops and herded animals in the Near East . They
became craftsmen using materials found in the earth. Trade existed from
earliest times in the Neolithic — obsidian and pottery are but two
examples.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17446" />
In these ancient times, most folks worshipped many gods: Utu (Samas) the
sun god, Nanna (Sin) the moon god, Ea the god of sweet water, Enlil the
god of air and wind, Ninhursag (Nintu) the goddess of the earth, and
scores more. You could call upon Innana the goddess of love, but after
Sumerian times, it was a little trickier as she became Istar, who was in
charge of both love and war. Perhaps that’s when Nanshe the goddess of
morality stepped up to keep some balance among mortals.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17447" />
Around 1900 BCE, a Semite named Abram, who lived in the city of Ur on
the Euphrates, had a vision and made a covenant with a God who said He
was in charge of everything. Abe changed his name from Abram to Abraham
and set off for Canaan on the Western Sea. Abraham had some major doubt
when this new God asked him to sacrifice his #2 son, Isaac. When the
request was rescinded at the last moment, Abraham kept his half of the
deal. God, over the following generations performed a few tricks
(miracles) to convince the skeptical who still had favorites among the
other gods. Soon, or maybe not so soon, monotheism among the Semites
became established. There followed a few centuries of wandering around
the Near East – once a nomad it’s hard to cleanse your blood of the
inclination – before three major branches of monotheism grew: Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. The denominations of each will wait till later
in our discussion.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17448" />
Today, there is great animosity between Jews and Muslims, especially
between Israelis and Arabs. Some pundits say the conflict has always
existed and never will be resolved. But, past history tells us otherwise
and professional seers say the future isn’t writ is stone. Here’s the
story.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17449" />
At the western end of the Mediterranean, the Moors converted to Islam
and established their rule in southern Spain. In Andalusia, the city of
Cordoba became the pre-eminent center of intellectual activity: science,
medicine, mathematics, literature, and philosophy. Scholars were
attracted from the entire world of the time. Jews were tolerated and
even served in high posts in government. Some change occurred from one
caliphate to the next, but Islamic rule began in the 8th century and
lasted almost 800 years. The great Jewish philosopher-physician-rabbi
Maimonides lived under Islamic rule in Spain, Morocco, and Egypt during
this time (12th century).<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17450" />
At the eastern end of the Mediterranean, Jews and Muslims had lived
together peaceably in the Levant for centuries. When Pope Urban II
launched the First Crusade and his forces captured Jerusalem (1099),
Jews and Muslims were slaughtered with equal fervor. Fighting over
political and economic power makes for strange friends and enemies –
strange to us today.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17451" />
Let us go back further to Sumerian times in Mesopotamia – many Bedouins
from the Arabian desert settled in and around the Sumerian city-states
of the Fertile Crescent and a few integrated with the urban populations.
By 2300 BCE, Sargon, a descendant of these nomadic tribes, took power
and embarked on a series of military adventures by which he established
the Akkad empire. War became an established way of doing business
thereafter. Before Akkad rule, the city-states – Ur, Uruk, Kish,
Babylon, Larsa, Eridu, and others – were each ruled by a king. But one
city, Nippur, was considered neutral ground. It was a holy city under
the protection of the great god Enlil and respected by all. When kings
of different cities would send their ministers to Nippur to confer (or
confront), they were not allowed to bring warriors with weapons.
Agreement was easier without spears and swords for distraction.
Archeologists have found many documents in clay (hard copy, then)
stamped with seals of several cities in common agreement.<br id="defanged22-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1531153558279_17452" />
Nippur is a fine model for a no-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Jews and Muslims can start integrating the cities one after another:
Jericho, Jerusalem, Gaza, Askalon, and Hebron – all the oldest cities
first. They would live side by side and even welcome Christians and
Pagans. Integration of the countryside would follow in short order.
Arabs and Jews working in the olive groves and raising figs and
pomegranates – the deserts would bloom. Muslims and Jews have a common
tradition. They both speak of Abraham as their common Patriarch. Their
dietary habits are similar to this day. In the Levant, many Israeli Jews
speak Arabic and Israeli Arabs all speak Hebrew. We know opposites
attract and can expect there to be a few who fall in love and marry. The
Holy Land will be the new land of man & womankind. The Holy Land
currency will be written in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, just as it was
in the early 20th century. The tradition of Isaiah will attract
diplomats, negotiators, and conciliators. Enemies here and there around
the world will become only adversaries, and then it’s just a short
thought to collaboration. Jerusalem, in the spirit of Solomon, will be
the place for resolving world conflicts peacefully. What work could be
more holy?</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-14847888430225019842018-06-11T06:55:00.002-04:002018-06-11T06:55:55.659-04:00Our Origins in Ancient History<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3436" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3437" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Jews and Palestinians are both Semitic people — originally from the Arabian (not necessarily the Saudi Arabian) desert.</span></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3438" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3439" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3440" /></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3441" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3442" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In
the 5th to 3rd millennia BCE, the Sumerians migrated from Central Asia
to the Mesopotamian Valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where they
became farmers and herders. Between farming and trading, the Sumerians
became prosperous and built towns and cities.</span></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3443" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3444" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3445" /></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3446" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3447" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Some
of the nomads from the nearby dessert became attracted to the life in
the settlements and were welcomed, even as the Semites and the Sumerians
exhibited different physiognomies. </span></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3448" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3449" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3450" /></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3451" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3452" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
centuries went by — the Sumerian Early Dynastic time from 3,000 BCE to
mid-millennium, the Akkad period of Empire, the invasion of the
barbaric Gutian mountain tribes and dark times, and then the Third
Dynasty of Ur resurgence. It was 2,000 BCE, the time that Abraham lived —
a thousand years into the Bronze Age. Religion had been polytheistic
among the people in all the cities: Shamash, the sun god; Enlil , god
of wind and storm; Inanna, goddess of love; Ea, god of sweet water;
and a patron god of each city-state. People liked the idea of choice,
and they especially liked the stories about the relations between the
gods.</span></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3453" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3454" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3455" /></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3456" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3457" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At
the time of Ur III, God revealed Himself to Abraham (then called Abram)
as the one true God and promised a land for his descendants. The story
went through Moses and the Ten Commandments, Jesus and the New
Testament, the Prophet and Islam. The bottom line is that Abraham was
and is the Patriarch of both Jews and Muslims, both having been desert
nomads and of Semitic origin.</span></div>
<div id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3458" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3459" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3460" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3461" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged10-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1528504950203_3462" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So
why are the Jews and Arabs forever fighting with each other? As Rabih
Alaneddine, the Lebanese writer told us, “At the heart of most
antagonisms are irreconcilable similarities.”</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-5345822889057258112018-05-02T07:01:00.000-04:002018-05-02T07:02:29.768-04:00Timing<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10838" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10839" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">North Korea, as everyone knows, is secretive. So, we have to depend on the US corporate press for our truth & perception of the young and crazy leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. But there are other sources of information such as South Korea and logic as taught by Aristotle in Ancient Greece. It is also generally known that Kim likes VSOP French Brandy and pretty, young women, one of whom is his wife. How crazy is that?</span></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10840" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10841" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10842" /></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10843" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10844" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">But, if Kim Jong Un is not so young and crazy, why is he suddenly testing new and long-range ballistic missiles to carry his nuclear warheads — 27 more tests at last count in 2017? So far, they might reach only to Hawaii or Alaska, though not to Hollywood or San Diego. It could not be because of the joint US-South Korea war games, which are now annual affairs. Nor could it be that the US withdrew from the Agreed Framework by which the two countries were to normalize their relations in exchange for North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons. That withdrawal took place in 2003 coinciding with the Shock & Awe bombing of Iraq. </span></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10845" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10846" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10847" /></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10848" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10849" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">So why has Kim Jong Un pressed the Panic Button concluding with a missile test that flew 2300 miles over the Pacific in September 2017? Let’s look at the back story of the bombing and invasion of Iraq based on information given by the CIA informant, Curveball. Saddam was captured in 2006 and ended up being hanged in 2006. A second backstory concerns NATO warplanes forcing Qaddafi of Libya into the hands of the Benghazians and an even more horrible fate in 2011.</span></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10850" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10851" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10852" /></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10853" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10854" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">Now for the Timing. In late 2016, North Korean cyber experts hacked into South Korean military computers and down-loaded a ton of documents [ok, so it was only 235 gigabytes] that included the details of US plans to assassinate Kim Jong UN and attack North Korea. The story came from the BBC who got it from the Defense Committee of the South Korean National Assembly, not from Kim’s barber.</span></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10855" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10856" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10857" /></div>
<div id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10704" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10858" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged29-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1525130573029_10859" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">So, Kim is young and wears a non-conformist hair style, but he is not so crazy. He is just wants a credible deterrent — maybe a missile that can reach the White House or Trump Tower. Alternately, we could sign a peace treaty with North Korea, ending the Korean War. China would be happy to act as a guarantor. </span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-40946176687305893172018-03-04T20:33:00.000-05:002018-03-04T20:33:03.680-05:00The Second Amendment<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3135" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3136" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3138" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3139" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3141" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3142" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Lots
of facts and opinion are floating around the cyberwaves re: guns,
gun-control, and the Second Amendment following the recent mass shooting
in Florida. Notice that the guns are called assault rifles or
semi-automatics, but not weapons of mass destruction, even though the
gunman killed 17 and seriously wounded others.</span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3143" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3144" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3145" /></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3146" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3147" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
Constitution: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the
security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms
shall not be infringed.” is often quoted in the defense of gun
ownership, but it’s always the second part of the Second Amendment,
never the first. Now, an amendment to the 2nd Amendment has been
proposed that would ban discrimination. The National Dyslexia Society
has claimed the right to arm bears and no discrimination would be
allowed. Black bears, brown bears, and white bears shall be equal under
under the law. </span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3148" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3149" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3150" /></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3151" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3152" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Other
groups want to ban discrimination in the nature of the weapon. All
kinds of weapons would be allowed: muzzle loaded rifles, semi- automatic
assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns, cruise
missiles, and anti-tank guns with depleted uranium shells. Only ICBMs
with nuclear explosives are forbidden as being in the domain of the
gods. Some gun-control freaks have objected to assault rifles with high
capacity magazines that can fire off up to 32 rounds without reloading.
But, suppose you were attacked by a herd of mastodons or even a pair of
angry wooly rhinos.</span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3153" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3154" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3155" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3156" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Some
gun entrepreneurs have been taking free enterprise to a shameful
extreme, only a week after the school shooting in Florida by sending out
a mass e-mailing, inviting respondents to”Qualify to carry concealed —
new loophole for US residents to carry a gun legally. Qualify in
minutes. Get your concealed carry license before they take away your
rights.”</span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3157" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3158" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3159" /></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3036">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3160" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1519872234535_3161" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Maybe
Australia did it right. In 1996, there was a terrible mass shooting in
Port Arthur Tasmania. In response, the Prime Minister drafted the
National Firearms Agreement that established a Registry of all guns and a
straight-out ban on semi-automatic assault rifles. Another part of the
Agreement mandated a buy-back program of all banned guns. The results
were remarkable— suicides declined by 57% and homicides by 42%. Nearby
South Korea, Japan, and New Zealand have seen only the rarest case of a
mass shooting. New Zealand police are not routinely armed — They say it
would destroy the trust between the police and the people. These nations
still look for ways such as comprehensive national registries to
diminish the chances for a mass shooting ever to occur. In the US they
look for loopholes.</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-70747901256277017282018-02-08T20:35:00.002-05:002018-02-08T20:35:18.071-05:00Gadfly Plays Archaeologist The Earliest History of Homo sapiens — A Thesis<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4643" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">Homo sapiens, a gracile creature, first appeared on Planet Earth about 200,000 years ago. He/She were not well suited for survival. Neither strong, nor fleet a-foot, no rapier canines or sharp claws, humans were poor hunters and not so good at gathering either. For the first 100,000 years, human populations grew agonizingly slowly. At some points, according to geneticists studying m-DNA, they were down to 5,000 breeding females, a recipe for extinction. </span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4644" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4645" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4646" /></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4647" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4648" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">The one saving grace was the high level of cooperation among the females, both in gathering plant-foods and in caring for children, who matured very slowly. OK, they had fire, too — a help. At about 90,000 to 70,000 BP, the men started to copy the females and formed hunting parties instead of only hunting in ones and twos. They became more successful and brought in more and larger prey. The meat was cooked slowly over a campfire, and the amount of nicotinamide (vitamin D3) in the diet increased sharply. Brain changes occurred, leading to a high level of conceptual thinking. It was a whole new ball game, and some empathy was thrown in for good measure. The time was the Upper Paleolithic Era, when our genome became established.</span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4649" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4650" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4651" /></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4652" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4653" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">But in the Bronze Age, only 5,000 years ago, a question arose and became more insistent recently. We began to ask if man was violent by nature? We were hunters, after all. That’s ipso facto violence, isn’t it? A look at the archaeological record of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods says otherwise. Two evolutionary anthropologists reviewed 400 widely scattered excavation sites, including 2900 skeletons, dated to that time. There were only five or six injuries that could be interpreted as involving human violence. </span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4654" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4655" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4656" /></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4657" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4658" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">The Thesis asks: <i id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4659">Our Genetic Heritage: Are We Wired For Violence & War </i></span><span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4660" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline;"><i id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4661">OR</i></span><span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4662" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"><i id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4663"> For Cooperation & Caring?</i> The Thesis Answers: Cooperation.</span></div>
<div id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4664" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4665" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4666" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4667" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">
<span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4668" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: 0px;">A book is almost complete — nine chapters — and is being sent to publishers. Chapter 5 is the last chapter being completed: <span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4669" style="font-weight: bolder;">Peace Heroes</span>. It starts with ancient Sumerian and Egyptian times — Urukagina and Hatshepsut, Gadfly will offer a brief summary of a long list of <span id="defanged2-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518107669421_4670" style="font-weight: bolder;">Peace Heroes </span>right into the 21st century. We all should be familiar with them. They carry our genetic and cultural heritage of peace. </span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-7874690345198816472018-02-05T07:42:00.000-05:002018-02-05T07:42:03.956-05:00Peace Heroes Series<span id="defanged73-yui_3_16_0_1_1517536561010_9692" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bolder;">Urukagina</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bolder;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bolder;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">The first Peace Hero of Sumerian times was Urukagina, the last of the nine rulers of the Lagash Dynasty. Under the previous rulers Lagash was ridden with corruption, conflict of interest in officials, and arbitrary violence. Urukagina was known as a social reformer who brought honesty to government by eliminating bribes among inspectors, tax collectors, and judges, and bringing equality and freedom to his people. The “Praise Poem of Urukagina” lists the various reforms of this ensi of Lagash and Girsu and represents the first written law code. The years of his leadership, 2380 to 2360, brought peace and justice to Lagash and set an example for other cities. We may count Urukagina as a true </span><span id="defanged73-yui_3_16_0_1_1517536561010_9698" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bolder;">Peace Hero.</span>Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-55515225235204451122018-01-27T16:16:00.000-05:002018-01-27T16:16:28.893-05:002 1/2 Minutes to Midnight — Part II<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3455" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3456" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A previous Gadfly blog post addressed the matter of nuclear weapons and the
carelessness of mankind in losing not just a few of the Doomsday Bombs.
It also told of the depravity of governments in using the possession of
the Bomb for political purposes. Part II now looks at the same ubiquity
of human error re: civilian nuclear power plants. </span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3457" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3458" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3459" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3460" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3461" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Pennsylvania
has a special place in the annals of “Atoms for Peace.” The very first
commercial nuclear power plant in the US was brought on-line in 1957 at
Shippenport on the shores of Lake Erie [as if Lake Erie were not
polluted enough already]. Another nuclear power plant was built in 1974
on Three Mile Island in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg. A PA poet
told the story:</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3460" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3461" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3462" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3463" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3464" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> When he said,</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3465" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3466" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3467" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>“This is how</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3468" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3469" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3470" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> the sun works,</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3471" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3472" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3473" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>these are the rules that stars</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3474" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3475" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3476" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3477" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3478" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3479" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> follow,” we</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3480" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3481" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3482" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>honored him</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3483" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3484" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3485" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> but asked, “What</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3486" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3487" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3488" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>use to us unless we</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3489" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3490" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3491" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3492" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3493" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3494" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> <span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3495" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> can coerce</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3496" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3497" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3498" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>the beads to</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3499" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3500" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3501" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> dance and leap,</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3502" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3503" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3504" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>to play the First Fury?”</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3505" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3506" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3507" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3508" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3509" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Too
soon afterward, 1979 to be exact, Reactor Two of the TMI plant began to
melt down, releasing significant radioactive emissions. “Significant”
translates to a real increase in cancers over the following years in
people downwind of radioactive emissions. Another first for PA.</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3510" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3511" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3512" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3513" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3514" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Then
in 1986, to assuage any jealousy of the US being first, the Russian
nuclear power plant at Chernobyl (Reactor #4) suffered two explosions,
followed by fires and a complete meltdown. Radioactivity spread wildly —
not just 50 million curies, as reported by the IAEA, but 10 <i id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3515">billion</i>
curies of radioactivity that spread around the entire Northern
Hemisphere. In Ukraine, Belarus, and eastern Russia, the proportion of
healthy births before 1986 was 80%. After the disaster, they fell to
20%!</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3516" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3517" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3518" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3519" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3520" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A book published in 2010, <i id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3521">Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment,</i>
reviewed over 5,000 scientific papers, most written in Slavic languages
and never before translated into English. The authors report increased
pathology of every organ system of many people in eastern and western
Europe and Scandinavia. In the US and Canada, fallout reached us nine
days later. The Mesopotamian gods: Enlil, the god of wind, and Adad, the
god of storms, don’t stop at man-made boundary walls. In the US, four
years later, 25% of all imported food was found to be contaminated.</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3522" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3523" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3524" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3525" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3526" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We
made it out of the 20th century without another major meltdown. But in
2011, Mother Nature showed us who’s in charge with an earthquake and a
tsunami to add to human ill-judgement and arrogance. The result was the
disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3527" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3528" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3529" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3530" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3531" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In
the US, there are some 100 nuclear power plants — all aging. President
Obama wanted more, and so did James Hansen, the environmental scientist.
But, Wall Street, the Big Banks, and the Insurance Industry are all
more guided by the bottom line than by politics. They all thought that
renewables were less risky, faster, and cheaper. Pennsylvania has
finally shown some good sense — the Three Mile Island nuclear power
plant will be closed for good in 2019. Maine, however, beat us to the
draw. The nuclear plant at the picturesque town of Wiscasset was closed
in 1992. </span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3532" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3533" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3534" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3535" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3536" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
Gadfly Revelry & Research Team, not renowned for advocating the
joys of Capitalism, used the logic of fun and common sense. They wrote:
“You want to split the atom to make the heat to boil water for steam to
drive turbines to make electricity?? Why not use technology that employs
sun and wind and tides — all of which are cheaper, and require far less
time to build? Maybe Nature is telling us something.”</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3537" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3538" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3539" /></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3540" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3541" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
original 100+ nuclear power plants in the US were commissioned for 40
years. Most all of them were or are in the process of renewing their
license to operate, despite their aging. Some are in the midst of a
second renewal. The NRC, acting more like an agent for the nuclear
industry than a regulatory agency that protects the public from
radioactive disasters, both large and small, renews the licenses
routinely. They were not even ashamed that they renewed licenses for
three plants that later closed. Meanwhile, the radioactive “spent” fuel
rods have to be stored on site, both at the plants that still operate <i id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3542">and</i> those that have been closed. Yes, Wiscasset still has radioactive waste stored in casks at the closed site.</span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3543" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3544" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3061">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3549" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged12-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1516044860781_3550" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When will they/we ever learn?</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-63254830596629495932018-01-27T16:13:00.002-05:002018-01-27T16:13:16.157-05:00The War Against Cancer<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58639" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58640" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The
War Against Cancer has been going on since it was officially declared
by President Nixon in 1971. Billions of dollars in research funding,
given largely to Big Pharma to test out various drugs in cancer killing
combinations were spent. Also, more tests and imaging studies were
devised to find more cases of cancer to treat. And, the War goes on. I
suppose it’s better than spending the money for the arms industry to
provide us with more bombs and (somewhat) depleted uranium tank
shells for the International War on Terror. </span></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58641" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58642" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58643" /></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58644" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58645" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In
a previous Gadfly essay, I proposed that we attack the cause of
epidemic of cancer, and even suggested a likely candidate — the chemical
laden environment since WW II. No one in the research community has
questioned the wildly increased incidence of breast and, especially,
prostate cancer since the fifties, but neither has anyone suggested that
the cause of the increase was the soup of artificial chemicals we live
in. There seems to be a gentlemen’s agreement not to point fingers,
especially at the agriculture industry.</span></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58646" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58647" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58648" /></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58649" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58650" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This
past summer I met Fouad, an Egyptian born researcher who has worked on
prostate cancer for his whole professional life. Fouad is acknowledged
as a principal research scientist at his institute in Scotland and the
world over. He says that the farmers of Scotland who were exposed to
high levels of pesticides and herbicides had the highest incidence of
prostate cancer in the general population. Logic, of course, would have
it that anything that is toxic to bugs and weeds is at least somewhat
toxic to humans.</span></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58651" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58652" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58653" /></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58654" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58655" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Add
to my observations at City Hospital and to Fouad’s research, the
experiences of the Vietnam veterans who came back from Agent Orange and
settled in California. They were part of the back-to-the-land movement
of the sixties and early seventies, but those knowledgeable about the
herbicide and its effects on themselves and their comrades would not
touch any farming that was not organic. They became the spearhead of the
explosion of the organic farming movement. They worked not for
temporary yield per acre, but for regeneration of the soil and
sustainable farming.</span></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58656" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58657" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58658" /></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58659" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58660" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Meanwhile,
the chemical industry wasn’t satisfied with selling pesticides and
herbicides to family farmers who might question the toxic effect of the
chemicals on themselves and their families. Neither did the public
relations campaigns popularize the various uses of the chemicals.
“Miracles through Chemistry” didn’t happen often. Nor was “Quick Henry,
the Flit” without problems as DDT produced too-fragile eagle egg shells
and an endangered eagle population.</span></div>
<div id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58661" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58662" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58663" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58513">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58664" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="defanged11-yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1514307912912_58665" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So,
the chemical industry encouraged large monocrop farms, often with
corporate ownership. Anything less would be un-American or, at least,
anti-capitalist. The number of man-made chemicals in the environment
increased to the hundreds of thousands. A blood test would reveal dozens
of such chemicals in our blood and, assumedly, in our tissues and
organs, including our brains. Is it any wonder that Alzheimer’s disease
is on the rise, as is dementia and memory loss. What will become of the
Baby Boomer generation, already too sedentary?</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-19300378464673095952017-07-07T06:38:00.002-04:002017-07-09T17:27:38.329-04:00Dear Donald: Growing Older Won’t Be Elegant<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4904" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4905" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Dear Donald:</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4906" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4907" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As we become older — may I remind you that you are a senior citizen now — we become medically more vulnerable. We get more cancer, more heart attacks, more strokes, more diabetes, more osteoporosis … and our immune system weakens. Practically every organ of our bodies performs worsely.</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4908" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4909" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4910" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4911" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4912" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Your own diet is rich in fast foods and poor in vegetables. You are (in)famously known to favor: Big Macs, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Diet Coke. You make no effort to avoid genetically engineered foods (GMOs), and I haven’t heard that you’re continuing Michelle Obama’s tradition of planting an organic garden in the South Lawn of the White House.</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4913" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4914" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4915" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4916" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4917" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As to exercise, I regret to inform you that riding around in a golf cart is not aerobic. Even swinging a golf club as many times, as it’s been reported in the press, as you need for 18 holes, is not marathonic.</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4918" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4919" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4920" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4921" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4922" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Re: the third leg of the the Wellness Triad — some sort of relaxation procedure — would you consider devoting a half hour a day to meditation? Writing tweets in the small hours of the night doesn’t count, not even if you use up all 140 characters.</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4923" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4924" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4925" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4926" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4927" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Another matter you will come up against as President is the intense bureaucracy of the federal government. Either four or eight years in the White House are enough to rapidly age anyone. Look at Barack Obama — gray before his time, which everyone can see despite his close-cropped haircut. And, Bill Clinton: white haired, and a cardiac patient for good measure. Only Ronald Reagan seemed to avoid the aging process with frequent naps [some at meetings in the Oval Office]. But, he did not escape a considerable degree of Alzheimer’s at the end of his two terms. Is that why Melania, our present First Lady, lived in the penthouse of Trump Tower in NYC until public pressures built for her to move to the White House (mid-June)? The Donald is known to like his women young and pretty.</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4928" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4929" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4930" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4931" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_6310" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There is yet another uniquely Trump factor that you must consider. It can be summed up in an aphorism of philosopher Gadfly Zeeks: “The more things you own, the more that things own you.” Especially you, whose </span>hotels and casinos go bankrupt <span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_6311" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">with some regularity. Just wait till rising sea levels make your shoreline championship golf courses into giant water traps — you’ll have to provide launches instead of golf carts to get around. You can rationalize you way out of that by thinking that the novelty will attract more golfers, but Wall Street won’t buy it.</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4933" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4934" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4935" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4936" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You may think you have the finest health insurance that money can buy, but you must have some awareness that it’s medical care that you’ve bought. Health needs a healthy life style, which requires some effort on your part: good nutrition, effective exercise, and a little meditation. That is as important as medical care,</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4937" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4938" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4939" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4940" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4941" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In Ancient Mesopotamia during the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, the kings of the early cities would avow immortality by claiming to be half half god and half human. <i id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4942">Gadfly</i> will close with a relevant poem. Do you see any parallels, Mr. Trump?</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4943" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4943" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_6425" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_6424" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> Ancient Mesopotamia</span></span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4943" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4943" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4944" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4945" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>When Enlil was</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4946" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4947" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4948" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> the god of wind </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4949" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4950" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4951" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> and Ea brought </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4952" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4953" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4954" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>forth sweet water,</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4955" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4956" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4957" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4958" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4959" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4960" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Ishtar offered</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4961" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4962" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4963" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> mace and sword to </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4964" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4965" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4966" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> the kings she knew</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4967" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4968" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4969" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>who could not rest</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4970" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4971" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4972" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4973" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4974" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4975" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>until tribute</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4976" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4977" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4978" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> arrived from four </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4979" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4980" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4981" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> quarters of the </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4982" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4983" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4984" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>world, kings who sought</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4985" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; min-height: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4986" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4987" /></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4988" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4989" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4990" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>the company </span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4991" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4992" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4993" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> of gods, yet knew</span></div>
<div id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4994" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4995" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4996" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> that soon enough</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4997" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4998" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span id="m_4510495743059519437yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1499112508618_4999" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Nergal would call.</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-56493001119788456482017-06-11T21:12:00.003-04:002017-06-11T21:12:37.232-04:00It’s 2 1/2 Minutes to Midnight, Part I<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3400" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The famous Doomsday Clock was the idea of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It’s now 2 1/2 minutes to </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_245662879" style="letter-spacing: 0px;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Midnight</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">.
The Atomic Scientists — some of them worked on the Manhattan Project —
have set the Clock 1/2 minute closer to the extinction of people. Also:
polar bears, orangutans, and the EPA. </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3408" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3409" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3410" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3411" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3412" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Are
they worried about Global Heating and Climate Chaos reaching the Point
of No Return? Perhaps — the greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere are now above 400 ppm for the first time in many millennia.
But, the major concern of the Atomic Scientists is nuclear radiation.
Lately, they’ve been reminded of the fallibility of mankind re: 1)
nuclear weapons and 2) nuclear power plants.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3413" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3414" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3415" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3416" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3417" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First,
the bombs and missiles. Nowadays, the nuclear weapons of US and Russia
add up to about 1400; France, UK, China, India, Pakistan, and Israel
together have another several hundred. Poor North Korea has only about
5. Lowering the total by even 5 would matter.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3418" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3419" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3420" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3421" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3422" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So,
how crazy (stupid?) is it for the US not to negotiate a peace treaty to
officially end the Korean War, when Kim Jong Un has said several times
that he will undo his nation’s nuclear program the moment a treaty is
signed? You mean there’s only a cease fire between the US and North
Korea all these decades? Of course, we must be officially at war to
make “overflights” of North Korea with B2, nuclear-capable bombers?
That’s just politics??</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3423" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3424" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3425" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3426" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3427" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Whom
else are we targeting with our nuclear missiles? Not Russia now that
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are friends and have business together.
Not China — Walmart would never agree to that. Did <i id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3428">anyone</i> suggest dismantling the US nuclear arsenal? </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3429" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3430" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3431" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3432" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3433" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
Perhaps the Atomic Scientists read some of President Trump’s tweets
with no semblance to reality, posted in the small hours of the night,. </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3434" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3435" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
Perhaps they read the recent reports that a diver may have discovered
a nuclear bomb lost off British Columbia in 1950. It was reportedly
marked with the identification M IV. The diver was scared to death it
might go off if he touched it. He came to the surface and called the
Mounties who called in the Royal Navy.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3436" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3437" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3438" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3439" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3440" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3441" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3442" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The
Atomic Scientists were also aware there have been more than 32 other
“significant incidents and accidents” with nuclear bombs, six never
recovered. Several were well known to the public at the time they were
lost. The short list includes: </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3443" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3444" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
The day in 1958 that two planes collided off Savannah, GA — one
carrying an H-Bomb. The B47 was damaged badly and decided to drop its
Bomb into the sea near the Savannah River. Search teams were quietly
sent to cordon off Wassaw Sound. They searched underwater, from the
surface, and from the air, but couldn’t find the Bomb or the plutonium
trigger. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_245662880" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Two months later</span></span>, the search was suddenly called off — the teams had to be sent to South Carolina where <i id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3445">another</i> B47 accidentally dropped <i id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3446">its</i>
H-Bomb. 200 lbs of TNT (part of its trigger) exploded on impact,
scattering radioactive debris across the landscape. Fortunately, the
core of the bomb didn’t detonate. The Air Force sheepishly requested one
replacement bomb. The Savannah bomb is still missing. </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3447" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3448" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
In 1961, a B-52, carrying 2 nuclear bombs, exploded and crashed
near Goldsboro NC, ejecting its H-Bombs. One landed in a swamp and broke
apart without blowing up; the other deployed its parachute and landed
tangled in a tree. Incredibly (or not so), 5 of the 6 fuses inserted to
prevent an unintended detonation failed. [Sometimes, failure can be
good.]</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3449" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3450" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
In 1966, near Palomares, Spain, a B 52, carrying 4 H-Bombs, crashed
while trying to refuel midair. One bomb hit the ground and was recovered
smashed up a bit; the TNT of two exploded, scattering radioactive
debris everywhere; and one landed off shore in almost 3,000 feet of
water. A mini-submarine located it several months later. Whether it was
ever recovered depends on whom you ask. That “significant incident” on
foreign territory, not under the authority of the CIA, could not be
hushed up and remains in the folklore of the villagers of Palomares.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3451" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3452" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_245662881" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Two years later</span></span>,
a B-52 carrying four H-Bombs caught fire and crashed in Greenland
(Danish territory) near Thule Air Force base. The TNT of the plane’s 4
bombs exploded strewing radioactive uranium, tritium, and plutonium
across the ice.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3453" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3454" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
Also in 1968, the nuclear attack Submarine, Scorpion, carrying two
nuclear torpedoes, sank in 9,800 feet of water near the Azores. Both
(torpedoes) are still there. </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3455" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3456" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3457" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3458" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3459" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3460" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3461" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3462" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
Several extra nuclear bomb "accidents" of US origin have also
occurred. A bunch of nuclear military catastrophes of the Soviet Union
have added to the total. Now, we must include radiation on the list of
man-made environmental dangers in the world.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3463" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3464" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3465" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3466" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3467" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> The US government has so many incidents and “accidents” with nuclear weapons that it had to create a file — they call it <i id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3468">Broken Arrow</i>.</span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3469" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3470" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3471" /></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3472" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3473" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
A few years ago, I published a cartoon showing a building with many
towers and transmitters. Nearby, an ICBM had just been sent off to a
target. A voice from the building says, “Lunch? I thought you said
Launch.” </span></div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3474" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3475" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3476" /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_2993">
</div>
<div id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3477" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_1328751302597703890yui_3_16_0_1_1496972386030_3478" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
That’s just the military side of the madness. Next issue of the
Sylvanian, Gadfly sets its satirical eye on the civilian side. Watch
this space for Part II.</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-37748888437906986332017-06-11T21:11:00.001-04:002017-06-11T21:11:04.539-04:00Health Care<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12885" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12886" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Health
care is complicated … if you insist on attaching ring-o-levio
capitalism to it. Even Donald Trump, who likes things as simple as
capitalism unencumbered by rules and regulations, has said “I have to
tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health
care could be so complicated.”</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12887" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12888" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12889" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12890" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12891" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Gadfly
dissents. Health Care can be as simple as Medicare for All. You may
call it by other names such as: National Health Care, Universal Health
Care, or Single Payer Care. Most folks, even Seniors who object to
socialist anything, such as socialized medicine, are passionate about
Medicare. At a town hall in Oklahoma, held by a Congressman in his home
district, he was told by a voter, “You tell the government to keep its
hands off my Medicare.” Oklahoma, as we know, is a very red state.</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12892" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12893" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12894" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12895" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12896" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In
the previous Administration, President Obama took a baby step in the
direction of National Health Care with the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Republicans maligned it, calling it Obama Care. Strangely, it was
much favored by most corporations whose costs for employee benefits were
getting exorbitant. But, for the Americans included in the ACA, if you
didn’t like any of the private plans offered in its marketplace concept,
there was no public option.</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12897" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12898" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12899" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12900" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12901" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You
still had to navigate through the jungle of deductibles, co-pays,
co-insurance, and out of pocket expenses. You would need a Humvee with a
PCP (primary care physician) co-pilot at the ready with a laptop
computer and a 7-column spreadsheet. The HMOs, PPOs, EPOs, and POS plans
are ever on the prowl, and those carnivores view you as prey. </span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12902" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12903" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12904" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12905" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12906" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The
private insurers insist that private industry will always be more
efficient than the government and produce better results less
expensively. Let’s see. The private health insurance industry has
administrative costs (beyond what they pay to doctors and hospitals) of
15 to 25%. These include: salaries paid to senior executives, salaries
of clerks who check on the accuracy of medical claim forms, dividends
paid to stockholders, marketing costs, and the cost of hired guns known
as lobbyists. The administrative costs of Medicare include none of the
above and are kept down to 3% (</span><span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12907" style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration-line: underline;"><i id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12908">three percent</i></span><span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12909" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">). </span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12910" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12911" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12912" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12913" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12914" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The
US health care industry is costly, but how about the excellence of the
care? We can look at the rate of infant mortality and the rate of
healthy life expectancy. The US does not do well in either — not even in
the best 25 of nations surveyed. You might expect Japan and Iceland and
Finland and Norway to do better than the US; but Italy and Greece? Yet.
the US spends more, per person, on private health care than anyone else
does on national health care. Even Maggie Thatcher didn’t try to
privatize Great Britain’s National Health Service.</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12915" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12916" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12917" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12918" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12919" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How
do we get more health for our dollar? First, we must change to some
system of universal health care coverage. Call it “Medicare for All” so
no one will scream Socialized Medicine. Then, make it true health care,
not just medical care. preventive care must have at least equal status
with medical care. What we eat, how we move (exercise), and how we relax
are generally more important than any medications we may use. Add
eliminating abuse to the lifestyle list — don’t take heroin, cocaine,
psychedelic (hallucinogenic) drugs; don’t smoke; always wear a seat belt
riding in a car, even in an armored HumVee. Don’t drink alcohol to
excess </span><span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12920" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0px;">— m</span><span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12921" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">ore than 2 glasses of (red) wine is excessive.</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12922" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12923" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12924" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12925" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12926" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Physicians
are very good at examining and testing — they generally get paid for
each. They think that prevention is mostly a matter of more examining
and testing. On a large scale, it’s called screening. But, it’s all just
finding disease early, not actually preventing it. Establishing a
diagnosis, and then treating the disease (usually with prescription
meds) doesn’t pay so well (except for the pharmacist and pharmaceutical
company).</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12927" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12928" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12929" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12930" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12931" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is known that lifestyle factors, as noted above, can be preventive for most chronic disease: </span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12932" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12933" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
Diet that is largely plant-based (but low in carbohydrates) and free of
toxic chemicals is a good starting point. Then, to insure getting all
the 5,100 vital nutrients, a <i id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12934">Variety Diet</i> is key — not the same old favorite foods. </span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12935" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12936" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
As to effective exercise, strength training (weights & machines)
will maintain muscle mass and bone density. But, to beneficially change
carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism and to better balance the
neurotransmitters of the brain — high grade aerobic exercise is needed.
The definition of high grade aerobic specifies: a rhythmic use of the
large muscle groups in a weight bearing way, far enough, fast enough,
and often enough. I have seen a physician prescribe exercise for
prevention only once. She wrote on her Rx pad: “Exercise.” When a
medical insurance company recognizes that exercise can be preventive,
they offer a six month membership in a fitness center. All the while,
the medical literature reports that aerobic exercise will reduce the
incidence of breast cancer by over 50%, and colorectal cancer by as much
as 75%, and hypertension, diabetes 2, obesity, coronary heart disease …</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12937" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12938" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">
Relaxation, while less effective than exercise and diet, is also
important. Meditation is the one procedure that has been tested in the
clinical laboratory and should be included in the Wellness Triad. </span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12939" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12940" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> </span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12941" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12942" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There
you have it. CDC&P (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention,
after an extensive review of the medical literature, concluded that 70%
of all chronic disease can be prevented by lifestyle means. Dr. Koop, in
an article in the JAMA, was in full agreement, yet ignored by the
medical profession.</span></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12943" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12944" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12945" /></div>
<div id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12946" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_-7588694872381565269yui_3_16_0_1_1497199474415_12947" style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So.
here in the US, we have an opportunity to do better than France,
Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia, and all the other industrialized
nations. The answer is Medicare for All for medical insurance and the
Wellness Triad for preventive care. We need not feel sorry for the poor
pharmaceutical companies which will cease making obscene amounts of
profit. They can just cut down on costs such as hiring such an expensive
cadre of lobbyists.</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4821118247749579447.post-64073263769218354222017-05-20T08:24:00.001-04:002017-05-20T08:24:26.037-04:00The Next System<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3866" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3867" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The <i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3868">next</i> System<i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3869">?</i> Two questions present at the very start: a) what’s wrong with the present social-economic System? and b) who celebrates and who suffers under its despondency? [Please note I did not say social-<i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3870">political</i>-economic System. The political system we live under is supposedly democracy, but there is no equivalence of capitalism and democracy, as many would insist there is.]</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3871" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3872" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3873" /></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3874" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3875" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Most people say, “Capitalism may not be perfect, but it’s not as bad as any other that has come along — communism, feudalism, absolute monarchy,…<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3876">.</b>” Many just shrug their shoulders with little quibble, “What can you do? It’s the System.”</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3877" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3878" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3879" /></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3880" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3881" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Others recognize the deficiencies and inequities and say, “Regulate or, at least, mitigate the worst burdens of the System, and learn to live with the beast.” A few, further to the left politically, are ready to fight, “We must confront and challenge the System.” They propose tough controls such as the re-enactment of the Glass Steagall Act which had separated commercial, savings, and investment functions of banks since 1933, until 1999 when it was replaced by the Financial Services Modernization Act. </span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3882" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3883" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3884" /></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3885" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3886" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the 21st century, new hydra-headed banks under the leadership of go-go banksters ceased to be so conservative and stuffy. They soon expanded investments from futures and puts & calls into derivatives, those imaginary “investments” such as swaps, straddles, strangles, iron condors, and bear call spreads. The largest financial institutions — CitiGroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and (not least) Goldman Sachs — all had aggressive <i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3887">traders</i> who dealt in derivatives. [That’s “dealt” as in a gambling den.] These banks became known as the Six Sisters. [Repeat rapidly: Six Sisters. There you have it — a reality check of these Big Banks.]</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3888" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3889" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3890" /></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3891" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3892" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Those who are ready to confront and replace Capitalism point to the many inequities, dishonesties, and outright lies of government officials who profess fealty to democracy and the Constitution. The front line challengers to Capitalism could easily add several more<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3893">:</b> the erosion of civil rights and civil liberties; the trampling on First Amendment rights [freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceable assembly, and freedom to petition for the redress of grievances]; the amount of poverty and homelessness in this, the richest of countries in the world; the failure to achieve women’s equality; the injustices and general sense of unfairness in the land.</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3894" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; min-height: 16px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3895" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3896" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3898" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> It is why so many people here and abroad have come up with such colorful names for the present System<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3899">:</b> Anything-Goes Capitalism, Sauvage Capitalism, Casino Capitalism, and Ring-a-levio Capitalism. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3904" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here’s a short list of matters that need urgent attention<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3905">:</b> </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3907" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3908" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3910" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3911">*</b> CEOs of large corporations make 300 to 400 times the salary of regular workers at their companies.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3913" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3914">*</b> The Pentagon budget, $600,000 billion, year after year, largely lines the pockets of the weapons manufacturers (defense contractors).</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3915" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3916" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3917">*</b> The government has failed to audit the Pentagon which admittedly is rife with waste and redundancy.</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3918" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3919" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3920">*</b> Whistle blowers are unprotected, even though they report government waste or illegal action. They are fired, prosecuted, and even jailed, instead of being celebrated.</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3921" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3922" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3923">*</b> Most of our elected officials (public servants) are bought off by way of campaign contributions. They are often “elected” by suppressing the vote of the poor and the young and by outright switching of votes on computerized voting machines provided by private corporations. There is usually no paper record.</span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3924" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3925" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3926">*</b> The oil and gas industries routinely receive tax breaks and subsidies (corporate welfare).</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3928" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3929">*</b> Off shore accounts (often just a PO Box number) are used by corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid taxes. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3931" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3932">*</b> Enormous levels of student debt ( $1.2 trillion at last count) are a burden to working class families. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3934" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3935">*</b> The illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the secret Special Forces operations in Iran have cost more than $2 trillion thus far.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3937" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3938">*</b> The illegal bombing of Libya leading to the assassination of Gaddafi was carried out at least partly for the purpose of preventing the establishment of the Gold Dinar as a competitive currency to the Dollar. The result was a failed nation that ended in total anarchy. </span></div>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3939" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3940" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3941">*</b> The maintenance of about 800 military bases abroad with their complement of troops and planes, account for over $150 billion every year.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3943" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3944">*</b> A modern two-tier criminal justice system treats law breakers in accordance with their needs. One tier is for the rich, imposing fines at most; and another for the not so well to do, prescribes at least prison time. It all costs over two billion dollars a year.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3946" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">* Many thousands of citizens are not covered by medical insurance, despite the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), under which the pharmaceutical industry makes out very well. All the while, the rest of the industrialized world has universal medical coverage.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3951" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">There we have a baker’s dozen reasons why a different System is needed. With the amount of money represented by those 13 reasons alone, the United States could be the nation of schools and libraries, and the center of intellectual activity — philosophy, literature, medicine and primary preventive medicine, cyber-science, cosmology, cellular and molecular biology research, and let us not forget art, music and poetry. Include, as well, a School of Statecraft and Diplomacy with a department of Peace Studies. The US can be Number One in all the hunan values to which a great civilization can aspire.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3955" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yet, a financially privileged few tell us that the present System is performing quite well. They point to the stock market averages at record highs. Too, the total value of all the companies represented on the exchanges are setting records, proof positive of the health of the economy. They note that the Big Banks, that were in such dire straights that they needed bailouts, are back to [obscene levels of] profitability. Our industrial monocrop farms, with the help of Monsanto and other chemical companies produce great volumes of grain and other foods on an industrial scale that they can afford to sell cheaply. The CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the banks that finance such farms (and oil and gas pipelines), says he’s only a banker “doing God’s work.” Their stockholders are deliriously happy, with the price of Goldman Sachs stock at record highs. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3960" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">But, the privileged few add up to only 1% of the population of the US. Some older folks of the 99% remember when bankers were conservative and staid, dressed with a pocket watch in their vest. Now, such bankers are considered Neanderthals. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3965" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How short our memories are; how few remember the sub-prime mortgage bubble, and fewer the dot com bubble of the 1990s or the merger mania of the 1980s. Further back, 17th century Capitalism expressed its sentiments with the tulip bulb lunacy. Bubbles followed by crashes are in the genes of Capitalism. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3969" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Several professional economists and other academics have suggested an alternative System — cooperatives and worker owned companies to replace the private corporations of Capitalism. They give examples of consumer co-ops, worker owned factories and other businesses, co-op banks (credit unions), state owned banks, city owned utilities, family farms joining together to form co-ops, and CSA (consumer sponsored agriculture) farms. Perhaps we should include national, state, and municipal parks, public schools, public libraries, and town squares, </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3974" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Good models of co-ops on a fairly large scale exist in northern Spain (Mondragon) and in northern and central Italy (Co-op Lombardia, Unico-op Firenze, Emilia Romagna, and several others).</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3979" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This essay proposes that we need <i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3980">not</i> challenge and actively try to replace the corporate System with a cooperative System. The corporateers will not quietly ride into the sunset, and the corporate mainstream media will not refrain from taking sides in the Capitalism–Cooperative debate. Rather than confront Capitalism directly, we can make an end run around the monster. In fact we already up to the line of scrimmage. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3985" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Historically, cooperative enterprises can be traced back to 1228 and cheese makers in Switzerland who organized a producers co-op. In 1498, the first service workers formed a co-op in Scotland. Consumers’ co-ops started in England in 1761. Matters became quite organized in 1844 with the publication of the <i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3986">Rochdale Principles of International Cooperation</i>, so well thought out that they are still used to guide the Co-op movement internationally. Today, Co-ops are strong in Ghana, West Africa where fine chocolate is produced, and in Ethiopia, East Africa where Co-ops produce 75% of the nation’s coffee. In India, 12 million dairy farmers are members of 100,000 Co-ops. In South Korea, most of the fishermen are members of Cooperatives. Co-ops produce the great majority of wind power in Denmark, a nation that is one of the leaders in the development of wind energy.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3991" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The US is no laggard in the adoption of the Cooperative model. The National Grange, formed in 1867, is still going strong. Within a half hour drive of my home there are five Grange Halls. They each provide venues for a number of community activities. No one speaks ill of Granges. Everywhere in the nation are credit unions, depositor-member owners, many long-established as well as a flood of young co-ops across the nation. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_3996" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Today in the era of huge multinational corporations, Co-ops can easily compete on a small production scale and a mid-range scale. With pooled resources of several cooperatives, they can compete with Capitalism on a larger scale. The 350, employee-owned Waitrose grocery stores in the UK, employ 91,000 loyal worker-owners. These retail supermarkets are highly profitable and regularly win awards for excellence, such as: best customer service, best store environment, and my favorite supermarket. By Royal Warrant, Waitrose supplies food, wines and spirits to the Queen and, more recently, to Prince Charles. So much for the argument that worker co-ops are always small enterprises of fewer than ten or so workers-owners. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4001" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The large corporations and private banks would have you believe that only they (the Big Banks) can fund really huge projects, and that that co-ops would be hopelessly inadequate. Let us look at the proposed Dakota pipeline (through sacred Indian lands) as an example. Seventeen private banks made direct loans, and 38 banks offered lines of credit. A group of large Credit Unions could handle a project of that financial size. The $3.8 billion wouldn’t scare a consortium of dozen larger Credit Unions, but the 1868 Treaty with the Sioux and the danger to the planet from burning the oil that would be run through the proposed pipeline would be enough reason not even to reply to a phone call from Energy Transfer Partners. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4003" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4005" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In worker co-ops, salaries of employees are relatively balanced. The more highly paid executives never have salaries more than five to ten times the salaries of the lowest paid workers. Multi-million dollar CEOs are completely unknown. There are no stockholders to receive dividends. Most of the workers at a worker owned business will live in the community and never vote to move the business to another state, let alone to a foreign country. Workers who are stakeholders take pride in their work and do not complain of honest, hard work. As well, they are paid a good amount more than minimal wages. Savings in other cooperative ventures easily outdo private corporations. One of the best examples is Medicare, run by government employees, which uses only about 3% of their total budget for administrative costs. The remainder is to pay medical claims, their basic business. Private insurance companies, in contrast, have administrative costs and shareholder dividends of 15% to 25%.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4010" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The naysayers to a Cooperative Economic System say that a Cooperative System would be easy to abuse or to rip-off. They argue that corporations with a single minded focus on profits are well practiced in the art of mergers, and could execute a take-over of a co-op that produced a strong revenue stream. Such a greed-driven corporation might keep the co-op identity and use its new subsidiary as a cash cow or could sell it off to another corporation for a quick profit. The Rochdale Principles of 1844, modernized a little for the 21st Century, would keep everyone honest. To make doubly sure, the National Cooperative Alliance would keep on retainer a few good Italian lawyers, well versed in Italian Co-op Law, which states clearly that 80% or more of any surplus must be re-invested in activities of the Co-op and not given to members or to non-members.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4012" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">..............................<wbr></wbr>..............................<wbr></wbr>..............................<wbr></wbr>...................</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4014" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">The US </span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4015" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">is proud of its tradition of rugged individualism. It is a land known for initiative, entrepreneurship, and self made millionaires, where people have started poor and pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4017" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4018" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4020" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">At lower profile, however, there is a long tradition of cooperation and caring. Let us count a few of the ways at the nation’s beginning that are still going strong in many places.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4022" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4023" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4025" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">• </span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4026" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4027" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The new country was largely forests and countryside and less city. Family farms and rural granges were a trademark of the young nation, both still around.</span></div>
<ul id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4028" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4029" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4030" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4031" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Barn raisings have a long tradition,— a joint effort by a group of neighbors in counties where small farms are still viable.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4032" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4033" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4034" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Quilting bees were and are another staple of small towns.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4035" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4036" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4037" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Choral groups and chamber music groups form spontaneously everywhere. It’s not just barber shop quartets.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4038" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4039" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4040" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> In the arts — printmakers, watercolorists, potters woodworkers, and blacksmiths form organizations.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4041" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4042" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4043" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Poets find each other in towns and cities and form workshops.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4044" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4045" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4046" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Farmers’ markets have seen a resurgence in recent years.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4047" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4048" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4049" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> County Fairs are going strong in rural communities, and attract city and suburban folks.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4050" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4051" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4052" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Pancake breakfasts and potluck dinners are common in rural communities and are well attended.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4053" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4054" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4055" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Block parties celebrate events and holidays in both towns and cities.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4056" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4057" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4058" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Every city and many towns have a central square or plaza belonging to the people where citizens may spend a spring afternoon in the outdoors, gather a music group, or bring a soapbox to address a political/social matter.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4059" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4060" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4061" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Our nation was founded on a shared sense of fairness – no taxation without representation.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4062" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4063" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4064" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">City parks are more to the purpose of an area set aside for people to enjoy the natural world in the midst of concrete & glass with rivers of asphalt. If paved drives cross or circle within a large park, they are often reserved for runners and walkers on weekends. The parks represent The Commons. </span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4065" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4066" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4067" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Throughout the nation, there are community service organizations such as Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Elks Lodges, and Masonic Lodges which serve both groups & individuals in need and worthy organizations.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4068" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4069" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4070" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Town meetings are held in a number of Congressional districts, even in residential neighborhoods of cities.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4071" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4072" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4073" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Folk dances and square dances are still held everywhere, from community centers to granges to churches.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4074" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4075" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4076" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Women in local neighborhoods may cooperate in sewing garments for the dowry of an engaged girl. It is an old tradition which still persists.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4077" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4078" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4079" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Women in local neighborhoods may cooperate in sewing garments for the dowry of an engaged girl. It is an old tradition which still persists.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4080" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4081" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4082" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Volunteer fire departments today respond to fires in small towns and larger towns, as well.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4083" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4084" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4085" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Habitat for Humanity volunteers gather building materials and actually construct houses for needy people. The future occupants give their own sweat equity.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4086" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4087" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4088" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> In schools in both cities and towns, PTAs connect parents with each other and with teachers.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4089" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4090" style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4091" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Food banks, soup kitchens, and Thanksgiving dinners for the poor illustrate the American tradition of caring for people in need. That is also true of organizations that collect coats and sweaters for them for cold weather. Some churches will set aside a community room for the homeless of a community in winter.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4092" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4093" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4094" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Many cities turn vacant lots over to neighborhoods for community gardens, much along the lines of cities in England where the Town Councils allocate allotments for citizens to grow their own produce. Needless to say, there is much cooperation such as the sharing of tools, labor, and experience.</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4095" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4096" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> In the country, many small farms have adopted a CSA (community sponsored agriculture) structure whereby members purchase a share of the farm’s harvest. Each week, the farmer brings whatever vegetables and fruits are ripe that week to an outdoor parking area or indoor community center.</span></li>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4098" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4099" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4101" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Volunteerism is a tradition in the US — strong evidence of cooperation and caring being inherent in the human spirit. Here are a few typical organizations that encourage volunteerism: the Red Cross, public libraries, hospitals, school classrooms, literacy volunteers, museums, churches & temples, Shalom Communities of the United Methodist Church (open to non-congregants), ASPCAs, local historic societies, the Boy and Girl Scouts, Little League teams and other sports clubs, YM&WCAs and YM&WHAs, consumer food co-ops where members do volunteer work in exchange for food at cost, disease foundations (American Cancer Society, American Diabetic Association, American Heart Association …), National Public Radio stations and PBS TV channels. There are, as well, many categories of NGOs that advocate for the environment, civil rights, civil liberties, scholarship funds, medical/surgical free clinics …<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4102">.</b> Volunteers are active in all of them.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4104" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4105" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4107" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the economic sector, in high profile, the US has been known for its individual-centered corporate culture. Examples of free-for-all Capitalism abound throughout — from the robber barons at the turn of the 20th century to vulture capitalists of more recent days. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4109" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4110" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4112" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yet, at very low profile, US economic life is also cooperative across a wide swath of enterprises. In North Dakota, the State Bank keeps its considerable assets invested almost entirely in-state. Across the US, over 7,000 credit unions hold $1 trillion in assets. These public banks are owned by more than 90 million depositor-members.My own daughter works in the Self Help Credit Union in North Carolina as the sustainability officer. In the State of Maine, population less than 1.4 million, the Maine Credit Union League boasts 175 member banks with 250 ATMs and 680,000 members who do their banking there. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4114" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4115" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4117" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In the 2008-9 financial crash, no Credit Union anywhere needed a bailout, and they had a record of increasing their loans during the time the Big Banks sharply cut back on theirs.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4119" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4120" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4122" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Across the nation, some 2,000 public utilities supply electric power to 46 million consumers. Some large cities are also engaged in capitalist-like enterprises, but they are owned by their citizens. Boston owns Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Hartford owns its Civic Centre – two examples of public ownership of commercial properties. As well – New York City, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Antonio, and Louisville all own commercial space in the name of the citizens of those cities. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4124" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4125" /></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4127" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Many municipalities, states, and the federal government (We the People) own and operate<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4128">:</b> parks and beaches, public transport, streets and roadways, public schools, public libraries, the Postal Service, the FAA, FDA, EPA, FCC, NSA, correctional institutions (prisons), police, armed forces, and all the agencies that carry out these public functions on behalf of the people. The National Parks are very high profile, but there are many state parks that are noteworthy, and even town parks are much used. Rural township parks such as the 60 acre Damascus Forest, where I live, has well used trails. American society, by its very nature, is cooperative. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4133" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">If there was any doubt about the nature of the US — cooperative or conflictual — first President George Washington set the question to rest in his Farewell Address. Four key quotes toward the end of the speech summarize the sense of his sentiment:</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4138" style="font-family: Georgia; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4139" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4144" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and ... great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4146" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4148" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">…maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4150" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Homo sapiens, even in the nation of rugged individualism called America, is cooperative and often understanding. Most days, random acts of kindness appear among the denizens.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4154" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As humans, not just Americans, we could even take history back to the very origin of our species. Homo sapiens first appeared on Earth in Africa about 200,000 years ago. In the early millennia, we lived in a few small bands of 10 to 30 individuals, and the rate of population increase was agonizingly slow. The geneticists, looking at the current degree of variation in human mDNA, tell us that it took 50,000 years to reach a breeding population of 10,000, barely enough to avoid extinction. Although we had fire and some tool making skills, we were not good at climbing trees to pick fruit and we were not good hunters. Too often we were the hunted. Proper predators had either sharp claws, or long fangs or greater strength than we. Neither were we fleet a-foot. Even today, using the best running shoes and the finest tracks, the fastest humans can’t run more than 25 mph for a short distance. Most animals our size could move faster for hunting or escaping. Sharing shelter with great cave bears, living among lions & leopards, and avoiding cantankerous wooly rhinos that could trample a human into a blood spot, all made life precarious. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4159" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yet, we survived extinction, though sometimes only by the skin of our omnivore teeth. Archeologists and comparative primatologists attribute survival to a greater ability to cooperate with each other than in any of the other great ape species. Human males could hunt in a cooperative fashion, and females would cooperate in looking after the young, freeing new mothers for a little time to gather fruits, vegetables, and roots. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4164" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In a hunting group, anger and violence against perceived disrespect of a fellow hunter, for example, would result in a failed hunt. They and their families back at the camp would have to subsist on a diet of edible weeds, roots and berries. Any violent individuals would be ostracized, and such natural selection ensured that their genes would not be passed on. Archeologists have found many sites dated to the Paleolithic period with different kinds of animal bones, proving the success of hunting. Cutting & scraping tools used for the preparation of meals have often been found at the same campsites. Hunters always brought back the prizes of the hunt to the camp, prima facie evidence of cooperation among the members of the band of newest primates.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4169" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The females additionally bore responsibility for rearing the young. The survival of the species depended not only on the hunting skills of the men and gathering skills of the women, it was reliant on the nurturing skills of the mothers and their kindness of spirit. The women’s own physiology and biochemistry helped. After pregnancy, the hormones of lactation became elevated and resulted in a peaceful and mellow demeanor. This pleasant nature, over time, would have been instilled socially and, by natural selection, in our genes. To this day, women with a penchant for violence are an exception. Modern research shows that in reaction to danger, men generally react by fight or flight, but women usually gather together to express their fears and work out their best defense. We must remember that 50% of our genome is contributed by women. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4174" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A little later in the Paleolithic era, an evolutionary change in brain function took place. About 80 to 60,000 BP (before the present), we started to think more in conceptual terms: cause & effect, the sense of past & future, awareness of the thoughts and subtle emotions of others …<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4175">.</b> There is plenty of evidence of conceptual thinking in the archeological record. Many cave paintings and a few sculptures have been found over a wide geographic area and long timespan across Europe and Asia — Altimira, Chauvet, Lascaux, Niaux, Peche-Merle, Dolni Vestonice and many other other caves and rock shelters in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Moravia and Russia. Represented in the art were mostly herbivores — bison, horses, mammoths, antelope, reindeer, ibex, wild cattle (aurochs), wooly rhinos, and musk oxen. At Chauvet, there are a few images of rhinos, one painting showing two angry rhinos charging each other. With rare exceptions, violence is not depicted. Rather, the paintings and sculptures often seem an expression of reverence, often created in sanctuary-like spaces in the inner recesses of the caves. The few lions depicted appeared more like portraits than as hunting carnivores.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4180" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Also found widely across Europe and and Asia were between 200 and 300 figurines and amulets representing the human female. These small sculptures in limestone, clay, ivory, and bone have been found at sites separated both temporally and geographically: Willendorf, Galgenberg, Dolni Vestonice, Petrkovice, Kostenki, Lespugue, Balzi Rossi, Brassompouy, and others. Many are works of art in their own right, whatever their original purpose. They are generally described as Venus figures and are often interpreted as fertility carvings, offerings to insure successful pregnancies. In contrast, sculptures of male figures are rare. The Venus figurines may have been meant to glorify women, as icons for goddess worship, pleas for healthy pregnancies, or art for art sake. Whatever the original intent in each, they tell us of Paleolithic cultures in which procreation, nurturing, and art — not violence — were the main concerns. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4185" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">An early sculpture of a lion-headed man carved out of mammoth ivory, dated to 40,000 BP, was found near Hohlenstein in Germany. It shows the symbolic, representational, and metaphorical thought of the Upper Paleolithic period. The sculpture was estimated to have taken at least a couple of months of full time work during daylight hours to complete. These artists must have been looked after by others of the hunter-gatherer camp for their food and clothing needs. More strong evidence of cooperation! </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4190" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Later in the same Upper Paleolithic time, we became skilled tool makers using wood, stone, bone, and antler. While there is evidence of wooden spears being used for hunting, the stone tools found in abundance included predominantly blades, scrapers, hand axes, cleavers, and points – tools for cutting meat, breaking into bone marrow cavities, and preparing hides. The points were shaped for use as awls, less as spear points. After 15,000 BP or so, sling thrown stones were used in hunting and atlatls were invented for throwing spears further and faster. Soon after, bows and arrows were figured out. One might conclude that such early technology was bringing hunting and violence into greater alignment. By that time, however, large animals were the preferred game, and it took more than one or two hunters to bring down a giant antelope or a mastodon. Cooperation among the several members of a larger band of hunters was needed, and the large bones of such animals found at human camp sites are proof that the hunts were successful. Ipso facto, cooperation must have been the first rule of hunting. And, back at the campsite, the women gatherers not only brought fruit, vegetables, roots, and berries,they contributed half of the genome of the species. They were peaceful, amiable, and nurturing of the children.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4195" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Military historians (anthropologists?) cite a total of 5 or 6 mass graves, widely separated by time and place, in the early Neolithic period (12,000 to 5,000 BP) to show that we were violent by nature, and predisposed to conflict and war. No such mass graves have appeared from the previous Upper Paleolithic era, the time when our genetic heritage was established. They go on into the Bronze age and document the first empire under Sargon the Akkadian, Hammurabi and the Babylonians, the Neo-Assyrians, and 3,000 more years of wars and slavery at various places. It proves that we have a strong cultural heritage of war, but violence and war is not a human genetic imperative. Culture, we know can change in less than a generation. No evidence of a putative violent gene is seen in the archeological record of the previous <i id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4196">190,000</i> years of the Paleolithic period since Homo sapiens first appeared.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4200" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">How, then, do we achieve the transformation to this Next System of a Cooperative Economy? Let’s look at some of the economic movements that have achieved success in their efforts to gain public acceptance. Here are a few<b id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4201">:</b> Granges and farmer co-ops, County Fairs, Credit Unions, Buy Local campaigns, family farms, farmers’ markets, community economic initiatives, sustainability anything. All of these are supported by all sides of the political spectrum. Where I live, Wayne County PA, the most conservative (reactionary?) county of the Commonwealth and where Walmart has a superstore, Buy Local is as good as the law of the land.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4206" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Buy Local campaigns and multi-national corporations were natural enemies from the start. Buy Local and international trade deals such as Trans Pacific Partnership did not see eye to eye either. A few articles that were uncomplimentary to Buy Local campaigns were published in newspapers and magazines, but they gained no traction. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4211" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Worker-owned businesses, if they produce any consumer products, can help promote co-ops by advertising “Worker-Owned” right on the package. Only a few do so now. Consumer co-ops can advertise on the paper bag at the checkout counter. Bumper stickers could shout: “Worker-owned Co-ops never move to China.” or “Worker-owned by people who live here.” The Maine Credit Union League tells its members: “A Maine Credit Union is as close as you are.”</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4216" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Music at farmers markets always raises the spirits of the customers and browsers. At one of the farmers’ markets — there are six within a short drive of my home— one vendor plays her flute and another his fiddle. At another, a hammer dulcimer is playing to a standing audience. Always pleasant. </span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4221" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A way to turn the economic tables and cause the loss of credibility of Capitalism is to make fun of the present System That can work when a serious critique would cause a retreat to a comfort zone of belief. Remember how the Court Jester could make fun of a bare-bottomed king, yet not lose his head? Parody, satire, humor!</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4226" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Solidarity can achieve a multiple effect. The effort has already started — Mondragon of Spain has joined forces with the United Steelworkers to bring unionized worker co-ops into being. The first two, Our Harvest and Sustainergy, both in Cincinnati, are in operation. Others in other cities are on the drawing board. Famers, consumers, workers — what a team!</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4231" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I am a member of the Luddite Poets’ Society and less adept with cyber technology and the social media, but the social networks must be a good way to spread the word that another economic System has come. Someone needs to tell the NY Stock Exchange that Capitalism is as dead as feudalism and should fold its portfolio.</span></div>
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<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4235" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The last item of business is to select a name for the Next System. Here are a few proposed names. </span></div>
<ul id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4236" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4237" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4238" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The Sharing Economy</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4239" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4240" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The Cooperative Society</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4241" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4242" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The We The People Economy or just the We Economy</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4243" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4244" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The Solidarity Economy</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4245" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4246" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> Community Localism</span></li>
<li id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4247" style="font-family: Georgia; margin: 0px;"><span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4248" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> The Commons Economy [my own favorite]</span></li>
</ul>
<div id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4249" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">
<span id="m_2696524336326523760yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1495241167157_4250" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Write-in votes are permitted, one person = one vote. No super PACs permitted.</span></div>
Gadflyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03282649681547501795noreply@blogger.com