Trump and Putin G20

The American secrete service, according to Trump, has evidence that the Russians interfered with the last American elections, which Trump unexpectedly won. Putin denied it and they decided to move forward, dealing with world affairs. This is good news, since a conflict amongst those two may spell a nuclear war. What remains is correcting the problem of the USA being lead by a President who did not get elected fairly by a democratic process. This can be fixed in the US, by the US.

The main reason why the Russians would interfere with the American elections would be to remove the US sanctions on Russia and by doing so remove the barrier to developing oil extraction in the far north which would please Exon share holders to no end and expose the world to cheep oil which will hasten global warming and human collective suicide. This would also be beneficial to the Russian named Abrahamovich, a multibillionaire who reportedly chose and placed Putin in power. The oil billionaires on both sides would enrich themselves at the expanse of human long term survival, leaving future generations to try and repair the damage. How can we deal with this situation fairly and safely.

The simplest solution would be for the US to set up  new elections to take place no later then the end of this year. All the primaries, campaign and final elections could be hastened in order to protect the democratic process. If Trump wins without interference by foreign powers, so be it. In the mean time the presidents powers must be restricted to maintaining the country on it's present course, as during the last stable administration and not allowing any major new deals or new wars to take place. If the United States is going to change course on a dime, it should not happen without the participation of all it's citizens  as promised in the constitution. Mistakes do happen and we are normally judged by how we fix them.

Christian Right, 2017.

 

            It is at the point now where if you encounter "Christian" symbols you should suspect something. I remember the news here, in Canada, investigating the looting during the Bush wars and interviewing people who witnessed it. Also a lot of American tax money went into "rebuilding" what they destroyed in Iraq and the money went directly into the pockets of private companies. What they rebuilt was the oil infrastructure which went immediately into the pockets of American oil companies that took over oil production and export. Only  American and British companies were permitted since they participated in the plunder. It was their eighteen year olds who sacrificed life and limb for the "freedom and Democracy" that you guys are enjoying to this day. Using much superior weapons they won the war and returned home to find out that their benefits are cut, and many ended up sleeping under bridges trying to reconcile with what they have done and witnessed. The tough ones often joined private security firms and became the arm of the law that beats up native and black protestors who are peacefully protesting what is being done to them again, in order to increase profits of corporations which are often owned by share holders from any where. The profits are only taxed lightly before being whisked into offshore accounts that can't be traced for tax purposes but can be invested for vast returns. The peasants, that's us, are finding themselves in need of infrastructure which now will be privatized and we will pay for each item as we use it. Schools, roads, bridges or whatever we need.  If we don't like it we will be tossed in to a private jail.

            The saddest part of this story is, that its all done by a coalition of the Christian and the right. The Christian right, which is getting most of our votes during elections.' under this or that name. They always win. The forefathers provided us with the tools to avoid this kind of exploitation but we find ourselves unable to organize effective resistance. They toss us a bone and say that we are suffering because of Muslims or Mexicans and we go fighting on their side against our own interests. The Muslims or Mexicans take a beating and we feel that justice have been done. The chocolate cake in Maralago is so delicious providing additional pleasure for the masters while watching on big screen Arabs being bombed without any chance of retaliation.

            I am against pitch fork revolutions because I don't see a chance of winning them, but I so much sympathize or understand why some people are turning that way. The solution, in my opinion is in our ability to communicate the truth to every member of our society in such a way that they will understand. The population is mostly literate and we have modern tools to spread messages in ways unheard of in the past. All it takes is more of what is already happening. Combine our experience from the sixties with our knowledge of today, and you have a force equal or greater then the "Christian right" especially with so many people realizing that the Right is the opposite of Christian, regardless of being anti gay or against birth control. When I leave this world I want to know that Christian values are love your neighbor as yourself, not oppress the unfortunate until you squeeze their last penny and drop of blood. People are not "Human Resources" but creatures in the image of God.

The price we pay for insurance

I remember reading the story of the beginning of the Organization we know as "the Knights of Columbus". There were a lot of coal mining communities and death came early and often unexpectedly. The women and children of miners who died in accidents or "black lung", were doomed to beggary or even starvation. A priest came up with an idea. If they all contributed a small amount into an insurance fund, their families would have the means to stay alive if father died. Novel idea that served a good purpose. It did not remain that way.

Smart business types began to capitalize on the idea. Building on people's fears of the unknown future, insurance companies sprung up all over the place, selling insurance for just about everything. I remember the public interest, in the sixties when the French movie star Brigit Bardot insured her breasts for a big amount of money. Soon the Insurance companies  gained enough capital and power that unbaled them to influence governments. They were able to curtail people's personal freedoms in order to reduce potential claims. The tail was wagging the dog.

Now, other smart business types developed new ways to exploit the new insurance industry from the other end. Rationalizing that people will not mind if the crowd funded insurance companies pay high prices, they began to sell insurable items at far above normal retail prices. This included medical products, such as eye glasses and dental items, as well as life saving medications. After all, why not increase the prices and force people to purchase insurance. Good for everybody, aside from the consumer, who pays the monthly payments and dare not stop.

I lived at a time when there was no insurance. You took your chances and dealt with the setbacks as they occurred. I welcomed health care, retirement and other critical government programs, trusting that my government will keep the system honest and fair. They didn't do it. Bouncing over to private insurance didn't help either. Insurance Corporations became rich and we were left often with having to hire lawyers to process our claims.  Not everyone can do that. Now it's a mess.

Insurance is expensive and doing without it is impossible since the prices of insurable items are so high. Many people resort to paying the insurance grudgingly  and trying to cheat it for all its worth. It is time to re-evaluate the whole system. Critical aspects of life should be insured by a good government that keeps control over expenses and pay the political price if they don't. The rest could be regulated, again, by a government that takes the job of governing seriously. We must remember the reason for democracy. A government for the people, by the people.

Why imigration

This is 2017. The world is in crisis. There are millions of refugees and migrants converging on the land of plenty, the western countries. Each nation is dealing with the problem in a unique way, but overall there is no solution in sight. The reality is that the population of the poor countries is simply walking and swimming to the richer lands. Left unchecked, they will colonize the "advanced" nations and simply take what's there. Or at leas that's what the people in the "have" nations fear. Everyone I know advocates peace, as long as they are on top when peace is declared. This is the point that we have to defend by force if necessary.

The poor populations were initially invited or transported into the rich nations as slaves. The more advanced civilizations wanted the poor to do the dirty and hard work for them. Over generations they discovered that the poor people are human and will compete for all that the rich poses. As they assimilated to become part of the rich, others were brought in to replace them. Soon as the word spread, the "poor" took initiative to go to the "rich" places and overwhelmed them in numbers. The rich countries can not be absolved from responsibility. They became more technologically advanced and raided the poor areas of the world, not just for labor but for all the materials they could use. It was just a question of time until the exploited populations would wake up and begin to want their share and more. They challenged the values admired by the host countries. Being less advanced, the fear is that instead of the emigrants joining the wealthy nations they will take over the lands and bring them down to poverty. What became obvious is that the wealthy nations are mostly Christian and the poorer populations are Muslim. Two somewhat irrelevant ideologies that now signify the difference.

At this point we are seeing the mostly Caucasian Christian populations trying to defend themselves from the mostly brown and black Muslim people who are simply walking in to the white countries and settling in. There are so many of them that it is simply impossible to kill them all or to push them back. In Europe it is Africans and Middle Easterners and in North America it is the South Americans flocking in. Any attempts to contain them failed. The mostly white populations under siege are divided in opinions of how to handle the crisis. Some wish to help the migrants and keep trying to assimilate them, while others who call themselves realistic, wish to use force and physically expel assumed attempts of colonization. In the mean time Germany alone needs 400000 new people a year just to maintain the work force they have.

Neo-liberal thinking supports removal of regulations in order to allow the "market" dictate what happens in the world. The neo-liberals, or conservatives, or capitalists, do however want to regulate movements of people. It is not enough that hungry people gravitate towards food. The people should be allowed into the lands of plenty, only in small numbers and only in a way that legalize exploitation of their labor. They should be named, illegals, refugees or any other term which will deny them any benefits granted to the existing inhabitants of the land. There is no push towards allowing the market to dictate the rules of the game. In other words, Neo-Liberals wish to have no rules imposed on their ability to profit, but lots of rules, enforced, to regulate the upwards mobility of the less fortunate. It used to work but new technologies exposed the problem to all who care to keep informed. People in the Christian wealthy side of the world are realizing that they are participating in a very unchristian venture. Majority of the advanced populations are also discovering that they, themselves, are exploited but to a lesser degree then the migrants. We now see well wishing white Christians and Jews joining pro emigration movements and protests.

At this point people are still struggling with laws and boarders that existed in yesterday's world. Yet as the overwhelming majority of humanity is realizing its future options, a new reality is dawning. In tomorrow's world the emphasis will have to be on sustaining all humans regardless of economics. productivity, profits and returns. Either humanity will focus on existence for all, or the order in the world will be replaced with cause and perhaps extinction. We can insure that humanity over all will benefit from its own efforts, or the least fortunate in desperation will rise against the fewer "have got" people and all will loose. The choice is ours and the time to make a choice is running out. Any ult. right supporters who believe that we can just round up the "have not" people and incinerate them is not living in reality.

Our generation is completely unable to survive without the network of all the people around us. Nobody can build a computer or make a car without parts. Remove any of us from the social environment we are in and he or she will be back in the cave age, if they survive. Humans are not solitary animals but refuse to think as an integrated part of a self sustaining community.