Urban Shield: Doing Unto Us What We Did To Iraq, Syria, Etc.
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/06/urban-shield-doing-unto-us-what-we-did.html
How many Americans even remember America’s brutal and unnecessary “war” on Vietnam? Even though 50,000 (fifty thousand) of our sons and daughters died in that conflict? And that said “war” went very badly for us when a bunch of determined farmers in black pajamas kicked our butts?
How many Americans even know that our military-industrial complex financed, encouraged and promoted Saddam Hussein’s “war” on Iran in the 1980s — even though that brutal and uncalled-for attack lasted ten long bloody years? And that Iraq, even though it was working hand in hand with both America and Israel and probably most of Europe too, couldn’t even manage to defeat puny Iran?
And journalist Steve Fournier also asks the same question about Russia. “Would you entrust a war to an army that couldn’t defeat some of the weakest nations on earth? The armed forces of the United States have been engaged for over a generation in warfare against governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Syria. They have managed to destroy lives and property in abundance and have extinguished entire ancient cultures, but they have accomplished no discernible mission. Typically facing poorly-armed and undernourished enemies, they have been unable to record a victory since 1945. Should we trust them to take on Russia?” http://www.currentinvective.com/wp/?p=223
And then there were all those bloody and unnecessary “wars” on Nicaragua, Guatemala, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Palestine (by proxy), Syria, Yemen, Chile, Korea (twice so far) and so on — all of them now conveniently forgotten. http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/06/white-house-says-it-will-fake-chemical-weapon-attacks-in-syria.html#more
Hell, Americans can’t even remember any of the centuries of “wars” on poorly-armed American Indians or even the three or four centuries of brutal and cowardly attacks on defenseless Black people, conveniently referred to as either “slavery” or “Jim Crow”.
And now the same type of folks who brought us all those stupid and shameful “wars” abroad are now trying to bring these same stupid and shameful “wars” home here too. Does your local police department really need a tank? Seriously? Urban Shield sounds pretty much like Iraqi Shield or Afghan Shield or Syrian Shield, all of which ended badly for the civilians of those countries. Bad news for them — and now almost certainly bad news for us too. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-america-armed-terrorists-in-syria/
But great news for the military-industrial complex!
And speaking of urban stuff, here’s the next chapter of my recent adventures in New York City:
Day Three, Part 1: One would think that I would have fallen asleep easily last night after taking the red-eye from SFO — but no. Maybe I got a few hours of primo sleep. But whether or not sleep was involved, my wake-up call still came at 6:15 am. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/06/are-americans-even-good-people-any-more.html
And then I discovered Hudson Street Park. 20 blocks of lovely waterfront walkways going directly from The Jane hotel to the Javits Center. Birds actually sang!
Then I got in free to the Book Expo’s authors’ breakfast on my press pass. Karmic reward! Sweet. But shoulda known that the breakfast was not going to be gluten-free. Not even oatmeal or fruit cups were involved. Just orange juice and cream cheese for me.
Damn, there’s a lot of people here — and at $70 a pop. Who’s going to speak? Stephen King. Anyway, here I am, sitting right next to the Random House/Penguin VIP table. There must be at least a thousand people here. 150 tables of ten, plus a bunch of seating for groundlings in the back.
Oliver King, Stephen’s son, spoke first. “Our family sat around and pitched one-line story lines to each other at the dinner table. One of those story lines was about a world without women. Our new book ‘Sleeping Beauty’ resulted.”
Stephen King said, “I used to be a latchkey kid back before there were even latchkey kids — back in the 1950s. And my mom used to say, ‘If there’s no ring around the toilet bowl, you know that a woman is around’. Men just don’t do things like that. Women are the cooling factor in society when men run too hot.” Surely Stephen King didn’t just say that, that all women are good for is cleaning the toilet. I’m sure he meant something else. Will have to read the book to find out.
Whitney Cummings spoke next. “I wanted to write something that will last forever. Books are permanent. I’m an unapologetic book nerd. They don’t bombard you with visual chaos like social media does.” She’s funny as hell, is a screenwriter for “Two Broke Girls”.
“It’s totally hard to write a book. I thought it would be fun and sexy like when Cary Bradshaw did it on TV. But it was actually pretty frustrating. And then there’s fact-checkers. They should go over to Fox News. Fox News needs fact-checkers. Leave me alone!”
She used to be crazy. “You can’t just magically stop being crazy. I went into therapy. I was co-dependent, couldn’t say no. Busy but unfulfilled. Needing the approval of others.” She gave a really humorous presentation. Made all this terrible stuff sound laugh-out-loud funny. “Ambian and wine is not a sustainable combination.”
Her book is a manual about how to change your brain. “People only show their good sides on social media but a lot of people really are in pain. But people do want to change and grow. This book will hopefully provide healing laughs.”
Claire Messud spoke next. “My novel, The Burning Girl, is about two young girls and their close friendship as they pass through the storm of adolescence. We all remember middle school. When something doesn’t make sense just think, ‘Picture this as happening in middle school,’ and then it will make perfect sense. A week can contain a year’s worth of emotions.”
We all put together stories to make sense of our lives, Messud told us. “We fill in the blanks. Many elements are familiar, universal — what we give up to become adults, from only pieces of what actually goes on. But a state of uncertainty between knowing and unknowing is what makes us human.”
Scott Kelly spoke next. 520 days in space, 340 of them consecutively. He wrote a book called “Endurance”. When he was a kid, he read a book called “The Right Stuff” and immediately decided to become an astronaut. “It surprised even me that I did this, and my book is the story of how I got there. Today is a critical day in our nation’s future. I have looked at the earth from space. You don’t see a lot of rain forests down there anymore. You can actually see the pollution. Plus all the cooperation between people and countries regarding space programs shows that we can do anything if we have dreams.”
Then Jessmyn Ward spoke about her new book, “Sing, Unburied, Sing”. “Faulkner once said, ‘To understand the world you must first understand Mississippi’. My mother was a domestic and my father was a factory worker. I never thought I would become a writer. Mississippi will hug you before it smothers you.” Mississippi also has some of the best bookstores there is. Jackson, Tupelo, Oxford. “The past bears down especially hard on the present in Mississippi. Why? It was heavily invested in slavery and then later in Jim Crow and Parchman Farm. How does the past live in the present? That’s the question I constantly ask myself. Writing is my attempt to answer this question.”
She tells us that, “Mississippi is the foundation and walls. America is the roof. Your home fails you, murders you. There is terror — and there is hope.”
Pete Souza then spoke about his new book, “Obama”. He was the White House photographer during Obama’s presidency. “So. I miss this guy. I took two million photos in eight years.” A nice selection of his photos were projected onto a big screen, and that was the end of the authors’ breakfast.
Then it was off to the main exhibit hall to see who was giving away free pens. Nobody was! I only scored three or four pens. Bummer.
But at the Soho Press booth I scored the new Colin Cotterill book! And a pre-publication copy at that! Not to mention a new Timothy Hallinan book, “The Widows of Malabar Hill” and a few others as well.
I also got a copy of the new Joe Ide book, “Righteous,” and some free macadamia nuts — but paid three whole dollars for a tiny bag of potato chips. Had to. By that time I was starving.
Bought a deli salad after leaving Javits Center and then took the 9th Avenue bus back home to The Jane. Am going back tonight to attend the Hillary Clinton School of Lies but that will be about it for the BEA for today. I think.
To be continued…
Neutralize North Korean Threat
North Korea continues to expand its nuclear weapons program and is making progress in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the Western U.S. It is working on miniaturizing nuclear weapons to fit on ICBMs by early 2018, and it threatens to attack the U.S. with nuclear warheads.
North Korea is a virulent Communist country with a closed militaristic society governed by Kim Jong-un, who appears to be unstable and ready to aggressively use his military forces.
If North Korea reaches the point of being able to launch ICBMs against us, we might have to launch a pre-emptive conventional strike against their missile sites after beefing up the ground forces in South Korea and putting them on full alert. Hopefully, the Terminal High Altitude Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea will intercept any missile attacks by North Korea.
We will probably have to deploy additional U.S. army, marines and air force units to Japan and possibly Korea and position a number of carrier battle groups off of North Korea prior to the pre-emptive strike.
Donald Moskowitz, Londonderry, N.H.
Some Famous Quotes…
By Peter Stern
Here are some good ones. These have been around for some time…
- In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
— John Adams
- If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
— Mark Twain
- Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.
— Mark Twain
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
–Winston Churchill
- A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
— George Bernard Shaw
- A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
— G. Gordon Liddy
- Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
— P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian
- Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
–Ronald Reagan (1986)
- I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
— Will Rogers
- If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free!
— P. J. O’Rourke
- No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
— Mark Twain (1866)
- Talk is cheap, except when Congress does it.
— Anonymous
- The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
— Winston Churchill
- The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
— Mark Twain
- There is no distinctly Native American criminal class, save Congress.
— Mark Twain
- What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
–Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
- A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
— Thomas Jefferson
The Fire Burns, The Cauldron Bubbles
By Robert C. Koehler
America serves up its news in a cauldron from hell, or so it sometimes seems. The fragments are all simmering in the same juice: bombs and drones and travel bans, slashed health care, police shootings, the Confederate flag.
Double, double, toil and trouble . . .
Suddenly I’m thinking about the statues of Confederate generals taken down in New Orleans, the Confederate flag yanked from the state capital in Charleston, S.C. . . . and the secret flag the authorities can’t touch. Ray Tensing was wearing such a flag — a Confederate flag T-shirt — on July 19, 2015, while he was on duty as a University of Cincinnati police officer. That afternoon, he pulled over Samuel DuBose because of a missing front license plate. Less than two minutes into the stop, DuBose — a dad, a musician, an unarmed black man — had been shot and killed.
This is so commonplace that, while it may be news, it’s hardly surprising. Tensing was fired from his job. He went to trial for murder, twice. Both ended in hung juries. OK, that’s not surprising either. Cops are almost never convicted in such shootings. But what I can’t get out of my mind is the T-shirt. It’s what places this story fragment within the American news cauldron: the quiet hatred of it, the implicit sense of dominance, the armed racism. Tensing wasn’t a “loner” with an agenda. He was an officer of the law; he served the public. Yet he was secretly honoring the same agenda (the same god?) as Dylann Roof, the young man who killed nine African-Americans two years ago at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
This is the crossing of a line. Official public action — armed action, no less — is still permeated with poison.
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
“As Senate Republicans rolled out the Better Care Reconciliation Act,” Rolling Stone reported, “. . . the halls outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were starting to get a little crowded. Sixty disability rights activists from grassroots group ADAPT, many of whom were using wheelchairs, staged a ‘die-in’ to protest steep Medicaid cuts in the bill. They were arrested and removed by Capitol Police, with witnesses saying that some protesters were dropped by police officers dragging them from their chairs.”
A vote on the bill, as we all know by now, has been postponed because of the controversy it has generated across the country, the die-ins that have been held at senators’ offices, and the Congressional Budget Office determination that the legislation would wind up causing, ultimately, 22 million people to lose their health insurance, which translates into thousands of people dying prematurely. What T-shirts were the 13 (Republican, male, white) senators who wrote this bill wearing?
Maybe their T-shirts bore dollar signs rather than Confederate flags, but the connection resonates. Public policy emerges from what we believe to be right, perhaps without the least reflection or awareness. And there is a consensus of fear, scapegoating and dehumanization that has always dominated a portion of American policy as well as individual behavior. Some people’s lives just don’t matter. Or they’re in the way.
With the current president, reckless individualism and public policy merge, sometimes shockingly, as with, for instance, Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban, which the Supreme Court partially removed from the oblivion two lower courts had assigned it.
According to The Guardian: “The nation’s highest court said the 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, along with a 120-day suspension of the US refugee resettlement program, could be enforced against those who lack a ‘credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.’”
So the chaos at airports will continue, and families from these “bad” countries can be split apart. Somehow I don’t see this as a separate, isolated piece of news but part of the big picture of what President Trump might call American greatness, which is to say, American dominance. And of course many of the people who would attempt to enter the United States from these countries are refugees of the wars we are waging or facilitating there, which are making their homes unlivable.
“The enemies may rotate, but the wars only continue and spread like so many metastasizing cancer cells,” Rebecca Gordon wrote recently.
“Even as the number of our wars expands, however, they seem to grow less real to us here in the United States. So it becomes ever more important that we, in whose name those wars are being pursued, make the effort to grasp their grim reality. It’s important to remind ourselves that war is the worst possible way of settling human disagreements, focused as it is upon injuring human flesh (and ravaging the basics of human life) until one side can no longer withstand the pain. Worse yet, as those almost 16 years since 9/11 show, our wars have caused endless pain and settled no disagreements at all.”
We condemn, we bring to trial, the armed hatred and racism of individuals, but far too rarely do we ever bring the whole system, or a serious segment of it, to trial. That’s because it takes a movement to do so. The civil rights movement and the movements that followed — antiwar, women’s rights, environmentalism — did that, and we changed as a nation. But not enough.
It will take another movement of ordinary people to continue this evolution. I know it’s underway: I feel the courage, for instance, of the disabled die-in participants. We’re at a new beginning.
Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor.
Does 55 Save Lives? And Gas?
AUSTIN — With a state the size of Texas, getting from point A to point B can be time-consuming.
During the Nixon years, with Arab oil embargoes in place, it became illegal to drive 70 mph, the former standard. The new speed limit was 55 mph. A common slogan was “55 Saves Lives,” which was printed and broadcast everywhere in the Lone Star State.
Another offering was that the reduced speed saved on fuel, which was the reason for the change to 55 mph in maximum speed on Texas roadways. Waiting lines were common at gasoline stations and quite often the pumps were empty. Slowing down was the patriotic thing to do.
Today in Texas, the speed limit is commonly 75 mph, often going up to 85 mph in some areas, what with an abundance of extremely expensive fuel.
According to various officials, driving at 55 mph is considered safer, although it takes longer to reach a destination and it infuriates other drivers who are in a hurry and are traveling at the speed limit or beyond. In Texas, motorists tend to exceed the speed limit in droves.
As far as fuel savings goes, several sources, including the San Francisco Chronicle, have indicated that fuel economy drops about one percent for every mile-per-hour increase in speed past 55 mph, the number increasing even more after 65 mph is reached. A lot of factors go into this broad assessment, but these numbers are commonly stated.
The Chronicle did a study in 2005 that can be found at http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Drive-55-save-gas-get-flipped-off-Trip-2600719.php.
Employing the general rule, the 85 mph speed limit in Texas can reduce the mpg rating of a vehicle by 20 miles per gallon when compared to traveling at 55 mph.
Are Americans Even Good People Any More?
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/06/are-americans-even-good-people-any-more.html
Today’s proverb from my Franklin Planner says, “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” Dwight D. Eisenhower said that.
America is spozed to be a Christian nation and yet its military has murdered hundreds of thousands of women and children randomly in almost half the countries of the world — and done it for fun but mostly for profit. American “wars” on Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine, Honduras, Panama, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cuba (the list goes on and on) have been criminally-shameful and illegal rapes and slaughters of much weaker countries, based solely on American cruelty and greed. What would Jesus do? Certainly not this! http://www.worldcat.org/title/terlena-breaking-of-a-nation/oclc/76706500
And here at home, we Americans fight hard for our right to have guns so that we can protect ourselves against robbers and The Government, but only end up mostly killing our children by accident and committing hate crimes on purpose. How Christian is that?
Americans are spozed to love liberty yet we have Urban Shield and the NSA and the Patriot Act at home and the CIA and “Special Forces” assassination teams abroad, ones that support the worse kind of dictators such as the Saudi un-Muslim mafia, the Ukraine un-Christian neo-Nazis, the Israeli un-Jewish apartheid neo-colonialists and those brutal butchers in ISIS and al Qaeda who do our dirty work for us. http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/06/07/the-machiavellian-plot-to-provoke-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-into-a-blood-border-war/
America is spozed to be the Robin Hood of the free world and yet we constantly take from the Poor and give to the Rich. Counting the jobless, the homeless, those without healthcare, soldiers sacrificed to defend corporate profits, victims of yucky drinking water, victims of infrastructure failure, your aging parents, your friends and mine, etc., it looks like many more than a million Americans will die far before their time in this coming year because of the Koch brothers, the Deep State, Citizens United, the Wall Street casino where the House always wins, media “war” propaganda lies in order to sell WMDs, and the souls of the corrupt legislators that have been have been bought and paid for by these ill-gotten gains. To say nothing of shameful Jim-Crow-style election fraud by the GOP and also gross interference in our elections by, wait for it, Israel and Saudi Arabia — of which both Republicans and Democrats are blatant receivers of whole boxcars full of untraceable cash.
“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty does not exist,” my Planner goes on to tell me. Edmund Burke said that. And he was right too. https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Money-Street-American-Century/dp/1615778055
Are Americans only getting the corrupt and cruel leaders that they deserve? It certainly does look that way. And are Americans even good people any more — to have let all this evil corruption go on for so long? I don’t even want to think about the answer to that question. Let’s think about something more pleasant instead. Here’s a report on my first two days in NYC:
“Everything’s like a dream in New York City” — especially its book-publishing industry, its celebrity personalities, its amazing museums, its outstanding people-watching opportunities and its vibrant street life.
Day One: I leave for New York in six short hours and guess what? Just finished going through my usual heavy-duty pre-travel panic attacks — including the usual “I could just stay home and lose my airfare money and I would be okay with that” phase, followed closely by the “OMG, I’m so hungry and there is nothing to eat!” phase, and then followed by the “I’m gonna hide under the bed in denial” phase. And yet here I am aboard a BART train that goes to the San Francisco airport and I’m actually okay with that — and even excited.
Heading off to New York City? Who would not be excited about that? Museums and books. Museums and books. Museums and books. And hopefully not bedbugs.
And now I’m on the JetBlue red-eye flight with no problems. The service is great but the free inflight movies all seem to be at least five years old. Mrs. Doubtfire? Really? Moneyball? I played a game-watching extra in that one at least five years ago. The Sound of Music? Huh? Finally settled on 27 Dresses which was entertaining and cute.
Day Two: Well, apparently I must have slept on the plane because there are clearly two hours unaccounted for on that flight. But can’t remember falling asleep. But so what. I got to JFK airport, took the subway (the E train) to 8th Avenue and 14th Street, dragged my suitcase for seven blocks and voila. Here I am at The Jane hotel — in the world’s smallest hotel room. Even the one I had at the Tokyo airport was bigger. We shall see.
They don’t call these rooms “cabins” for nothing. Built in 1907, The Jane used to be a seaman’s hotel for when sailors were ashore. But, hey, the rate is really cheap, the staff is really nice and they don’t have bedbugs. That’s what counts. Plus I’m right near the shared bathroom. Good to know in the middle of the night. Plus the bathroom is really clean. And the cabins are wood-lined and cute.
Today was a day for walking my legs off. 30 blocks up to the Javits Center, and another 30 or 40 blocks wandering around what used to be Hell’s Kitchen and now appears to be Yuppies’ Kitchen instead. And the highlight of the day? Stopping by Soho Crime publishing house on lower Broadway and meeting one of its editors again. Seeing all those excellent books. Wow and double-wow! Plus Soho is located right around the corner from a Whole Foods market. Two birds with one stone. Mental stimulation and dinner.
“Got any recommendations for a good Chinese restaurant?” I asked the editor — the question that Henry Chang’s main character in his latest Soho murder-mystery, “Lucky,” hates to be asked. https://sohopress.com/authors/henry-chang/
“Sure,” answered the editor. “Anything on Doyer Street is great. Nam Wah, Tasty Hint, all of it’s good.” Maybe I’ll go there on Friday because tomorrow is going to be jammed — starting with getting up at 6:15 am in order to go see Stephen King and Owen King talk about their new book “Sleeping Beauties.” Apparently its a story about the consequences of having a world without women. Then I’m meeting a friend at 3:00 pm for rice pudding at B&H Dairy on Second Avenue, and then going to a talk by Killary Clinton at 6 pm. So much fun.
Bottom line: Walking around the streets of New York is a whole tourist treat all in itself and boy did I do that today!
To be continued….
TCRP Says ‘SB4 Has Got To Go!’
AUSTIN – In a post issued on June 27, Efren Olivares, Racial and Economic Justice Director of Texas Civil Rights Project, said that “Yesterday, alongside more than 600 community members, we fought for justice, for dignity, and fought against discrimination both inside and outside of the courtroom. I was proud to be in the courtroom with the support of our community behind us.”
He said that every Texan deserves to live with dignity and that the discriminatory “show me your papers” law, Senate Bill 4, is a threat to millions of immigrants and people of color in the state.
According to Olivares, “SB4 violates several rights enshrined in our Constitution. At its core, the law violates the 14th amendment because it was adopted to target immigrants, Latinos, and people of color in Texas. The disparate impact is a direct threat to the guarantee of equal protection under law.”
He asked that Texans support the cause of the Texas Civil Rights Project by visiting www.texascivilrightsproject .org.
Building A Sustainable World – Now
The most important element for sustainability is not energy. It is building materials with vastly increased longevity which can withstand natural disasters, is hydrophobic, fire-proof, strong enough to withstand impact, and is made from natural materials occurring across the entire world. And do not forget, this material can include no petroleum products while being extremely affordable. This last is important because we need to get the job done far sooner than any one imagined necessary.
This is the foundation of the world in which humanity can find the security to realize the dreams this past century has shredded. Those dreams can become the future we share as we build a new world for all of us.
One such building material is now being patented and will be on the market shortly. It is called Metacrete.
We need your help to shorten time, bringing people and groups together to carry out a plan which speaks to the multiple injustices done to people and our planet.
The reaction of shareholders to Exxon has told us that emotionally normal people understand why we need to take action. Many also understand why the present predatory system has brought only injustice, anger, and desperation. Many are already taking action, using materials like Metacrete those efforts become a lasting solution.
Our proposal is to start rebuilding with our eyes on the centuries ahead. We must do this both in America and around the world. Once, we were a beacon for freedom and opportunity. Today, we can be an example of how we get off the grids, reject greed, and come together as one people.
We can accomplish this by putting those most at risk, first, focusing on sustainable social justice.
Let me explain what the world can be like if we ensure this happens and how we should proceed.
At present, there is an assumption the best materials are expensive. Those now in the market, which are not usually really green anyway, are expensive and made with elements which include petrochemicals. These are falsely marketed as Green. To change this, we need a standard which allows us to see the fact these new materials, beginning with MetaCrete, are less expensive and better in every way than the faux green products now clogging the market.
When MetaCrete has done its job the world will be a different place for all of us. This is the material which will be the foundation of that world.
Each of us has our hopes for the future. Think about your own hopes as you read about what is possible.
Imagine for a moment the home where you were born. It has never been painted. The pigment went in when your great-grandparents built it. Inside it is always comfortable. Home means security and comfort to you for more reasons than any of us can imagine today.
There has never been any repairs needed though storms have sometimes taken down the trees around the house. Your parents added on once, but that is the only change. Your great-grandparents included Aquaponics and you grow a lot of your own food. Your in-home computer system monitors what has going on. Seed trades with neighbors are part of your tradition and now you grow plants from all parts of the world, keeping track of these and studying their DNA routinely. There is nothing you cannot grow locally, if you want but you often trade with neighbors as well.
In your world most kids study the magical world beyond our normal human vision as soon as they can read, or even before since they can see through the electron microscope which is now standard in homes around the world. They understand this extension of their sight. It is part of their backyard. Such technologies are natural parts of your integrated comm system, which, you understand, underwent multiple changes for a long time. You receive upgrades but these do not disrupt your activities.
Your water is recycled and comes from your cistern, built into the house and replenished by rain, naturally.
With these changes came an explosion in human creativity which also lead to understanding ourselves – and how we could be manipulated.
Energy systems took time to catch up, but now you get all the energy you need from your embedded solar and wind arrays. Nothing has been needed since your grandparents were living here, and they lived far longer than had previous generations.
The world population has been dropping for 200 years. Women finally achieved the full exercise of their natural, human rights as the world was experiencing universal freedom for the first time.
The idea of recurring costs every month is a story from the past. You have none. You care for the land, nurturing it, studying it and its microcultures. You save the time and dollar credits you get from your various projects and studies and donate some of these to projects others are carrying out you want to encourage. The age of great wealth is past, along with poverty.
Right now, you are studying the layers of paint from the works of masters created during the 1600s. Each layer fills in information on the artist and the world in which he lived. You do this with friends, one local and others around the world. You can find out about projects others are pursuing and follow those which interest you. When you were younger you were into Extreme Sports. Your own focus was diving from the stratosphere while painting complex images with your diving group.
Other members of that group went to Mars, where they still live.
You had one child, now grown but still living at home. This is a common pattern. Others build their own homes. Families stay in touch and many choose to live together or nearby. Travel became sustainable long before you were born.
Tonight you are having friends over for dinner, Preparations began a week ago with the harvest of a variation of potatoes you have been working on for some time. They taste like a combination of garlic, Vidalia onions, and butter. You enjoy traveling with your husband and your friends -sometimes. Other times you go alone.
Human understanding, without violence, began growing even before your grandparents were born. Now wars are fought by agreement and with rules – but those participating generally move on to other pursuits. War and re-enactment merged into one pursuit, fulfilling the human impulse, experienced by about 10% of the male population.
Your life is filled with variety you choose. You have lived as a woman from the 1600s in simulations carried out by the venerable SCA, and as a woman from the early 18th Century living in Appalachia. Your own lineage came through there so this was especially interesting and why you chose it.
One wall of your office shows your lineage, based on the DNA analysis begun by your great-grandparents on all lines.
One of your neighbors carves real wood objects. Right now, he is working on a desk which will look like the photo of one owned by one of his ancestral lines in the 1700s. He revived the specific variety used in the original and grew it for this purpose. Other seeds are now re-establishing the forest where the original tree was cut.
Many study the past. Others look forward. Always, you are free to choose.
The First Unexpected Step
The evidence from Housing First, which began as a measure to cut costs in Utah in 2005, showed that most people who have a secure place to live will turn themselves to positive pursuits. They may want or need treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Or they may have disabilities. But these are far easier to handle if they have a home. Utah noticed this and the information trickled through to others.
Homes should come first as we care for everyone.
Therefore, our proposal is to begin with those in need through all causes. But first, we should provide homes, schools and hospitals. Veterans, young mothers, the elderly and disabled, college students who cannot afford a place to live, those homeless for other reasons, especially those who lost their homes to the greed of corporations, such as the mortgage fraud must come first. Also included, refugees from war and those in other countries who have inadequate homes or no home at all.
There are many out there working on these needs, for instance Habitat for Humanity and BuildOn. What if all of us began using a material, like MetaCrete, which solves the problem, demonstrates the possibility for homes which then become places for people to solve their other problems? Temporary homes wear out. These homes are permanent.
What if the celebrities among us call on recalcitrant authorities who are more interested in control than in ensuring houses are built for those who need them?
As we build we will be moving away from petroleum and toward a sustainable world where war does not motivate greed. Every house built then moves us toward a sustainable human culture and to peace with the Earth and each other.
What if we come together to help those in need and by doing so bring peace?
If you can help, contact us.
Specifications and technical information.
3D Printing fot homes is now available. The cost is tiny compared to the benefit all of us will realize. We have estimates for multiple costs, including for building, remediation of polluted land, and more. Rammed earth technologies, precast, Shotcrete and other technologies were also considered and could be used with the MetaCrete. This form of material, which utilizes Kaolin and other minerals, is believed to be ancient in human usage in less advanced forms. MetaCrete is processed to the nano level and combines
Our project geologist knows where every reservoir of appropriate minerals is located along with other essential resources.
Send this along to your friends and associates. Sign up to follow Rebuilding the World at ACP Vision & Action.
When we work together all things are possible.
Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, 805-813-7600, themelinda@gmail.com
Dave Lincoln, davelinc@aol.com
EcoAlert, A Project of the Arthur C. Pillsbury Foundation
Dorothy Day Refuses To Duck-And-Cover
On June 15th, 1955, Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day joined a group of pacifists in refusing to participate in the civilian defense drills scheduled on that day. These drills were to prepare the citizenry in the event of a nuclear attack, and involved evacuations of city centers, taking shelter in subway tunnels, and, for schoolchildren, “duck-and-cover” to hide under their school desks. Such actions would be futile if a nuclear attack were underway, but the drills were part of a government propaganda program to convince Americans that nuclear weapons were a necessary part of the US arsenal, and that it would be possible to survive a nuclear war.
In this particular case, Operation Alert was a nationwide, mandated, legally enforced drill. Dorothy Day, fellow Catholic Workers and other pacifists informed the media that they would disobey the law, and refused to evacuate public spaces and work places for the proscribed fifteen-minute period. Instead, they sat on park benches in City Hall Park, quietly praying and meditating. All 27 – and a shoeshine man who was taken into custody by mistake – were arrested. They were branded murderers by their judge, who accused them of being responsible for the simulated deaths of three million New Yorkers.
Day said she was doing “public penance” for the United States’ first use of atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She and other protesters plead guilty to the charges, but the judge ultimately refused to send them to jail, saying, “I’m not making any martyrs.” For the next five years, Dorothy Day and many others engaged in similar acts of civil disobedience, refusing to cooperate with the civilian defense drills.
In 1960, more than 600 New Yorkers joined them at City Hall Park, with simultaneous demonstrations at CCNY, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Columbia University and several New York City high schools in noncooperation with the drills. When young mothers with children joined the protests in 1960, opposition to the drills increased, and the drills were stopped after the 1961 protest. Historians point to these campaigns and many others of the time as drivers toward the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty negotiated, signed by President Kennedy, and ratified by the US Senate.
This campaign is an excellent example of the power of nonviolent action, combining noncooperation with drills, civil disobedience of unjust laws, public acts of protest and persuasion, among others. The pacifists also used letters, speeches, trials, public statements, and interviews to convey the immorality of nuclear weapons and to expose the hidden agenda of the US government. The careful strategizing of noncooperation and protests brought a halt to the civilian defense drills, demonstrating to the US government that the populace would not passively comply with the unspeakable horrors of nuclear weapons.
As we know, the work is far from complete. With one trillion dollars slated for expanding the nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years, it may be time to dust off this chapter of nonviolent history, and tackle modern nuclear challenges with organizing nonviolent action.
Author/Activist Rivera Sun, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection and other books, and the Programs Coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence.
Rockets’ Red Glare And Bombs Bursting In Air
By John LaForge
A June 27 Pew Research Center poll says world opinion of the United States has plummeted since Donald Trump took office. Surveying people in 37 countries, 49 percent held a positive view of the United States, down from 65 percent at the end of 2016. Maybe we could cancel the fireworks this 4th of July considering the insensitive symbolism of vicariously enjoying war.
With the Pentagon’s rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air smashing seven majority Muslim countries — Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen — negativity toward the United States is easy to understand. U.S. drone attacks originating in Nevada, 7,200 miles from Iraq, and jet fighter-bomber strikes launched from supercarriers in the Persian Gulf are killing hundreds of frightened bystanders month after month. At least 25 civilians were killed in Mosul, Iraq on Saturday, June 24, when US bombs destroyed four houses.
Every child killed or maimed by U.S.-made weapons inevitably creates enemies among survivors. President Obama (pronounced “Oh-Bomb-Ah”) made the point himself May 23, 2013, in a speech to National Defense University. He said drone attacks “raise profound questions: about who is targeted, and why; about civilian casualties, and the risk of creating new enemies…” And Obama warned that, “U.S. military action in foreign lands risks creating more enemies.”
Whether bombing civilians only “risks” creating enemies or can be positively guaranteed always to do so, is a matter of opinion. But one need only consider the globalized, mechanized, mass U.S. military reaction to 9/11 — and the country’s demonization of whole groups and religions — to know that demands for revenge, retribution, and retaliation always follow the deaths of innocents.
If your business is peddling weapons, you could be smugly satisfied about every civilian wedding party, funeral procession, hospital, or Sunday market hit by U.S. drones, gunships or F-18s. One StarTribune headline on April 2, 2017, directed attention away from our arms dealers. It read, “Civilian deaths a windfall for militants’ propaganda.” Never mind the windfall for war profiteers.
U.S. offers $6,000 for each dead civilian [sarcasm alert]
In the world of weapons sales, nothing is better for business than TV footage of the anguished and grief-stricken after civilians are indiscriminately attacked by “foreigners.” In the countries being bombed, we are those foreigners, occupiers, and militarists accused of cheapening human lives. You decide: when a U.S. gunship obliterated the hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan Oct. 3, 2016 killing 42, the Pentagon offered $6,000 for each person killed, and $3,000 for each one injured.
The government and munitions makers say our bombs are saving people by killing terrorists, and — being a world away from the torn limbs, the burning wounds, the screaming parents — Americans want to believe it. The U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs across the seven states during 2016, according to Jennifer Wilson and Micah Zenko writing in Foreign Policy. Each explosion is guaranteed to produce enough newly minted militants to insure steady orders for more jets, bombs and missiles.
Even with a stockpile of 4,000 Tomahawk Cruise missiles, some in the military say the store could be run low by the bombing of Syria, Iraq and the others. “We’re expending munitions faster than we can replenish them,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told USA Today in December 2015. “Since then, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has asked Congress to include funding for 45,000 smart bombs in the [Pentagon’s] 2017 budget,” Public Radio International reported in April 2016. And now Trump’s SecDef, Gen. James Mattis has asked for far more in the 2018 budget for what he calls an “annihilation campaign.”
Lockheed Martin Corp. was paid $36.44 billion for weapons in 2015, and $47.2 billion in 2016, according to the Stockholm Int’l Peace Research Institute’s February 2017 report. SIPRI says that half of all US weapons exports in 2015 went to the Middle East. Last May’s $110 billion US sale to Saudi Arabia alone is bound to bring peace and stability to the region. Obama’s $112 billion in arms to the Saudis over eight years certainly did. The Kingdom’s fireworks in Yemen will cause “oooohs” and “ahhhs” of a different sort than our holiday firecracker fakery.
This cheering of faux bombs on the 4th while denying that our real ones produce enemies and prolong the war is why terrified villagers, refugees and the internally displaced of seven targeted countries will go on cringing and crouching over their children as U.S. drones and jets howl overhead. But “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto — ‘In God is our trust’ — And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
John LaForge, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, and is co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles of the United States.