Cato's Discussion: "What to do about US support of the Saudis in the Yemen Civil War?"

Perhaps, no topic is more deserving of widespread discussion in the US as to how supportive of the Saudis should the US be in the former's pursuit of war in Yemen?    And, I am grateful that the Cato discussion raised the issue, no matter how couched in political verbiage it was handled (in my opinion).  The event took place in Washington, DC at the Cato Institute, December 7th, 2018.

The point could be made in a much larger historical context:  Should the US have become involved in the Medieval war waged by certain Christian states (known as the Crusades) to take over the Middle-East Palestinian peninsula--assuming the US had existed at the time?  But that is precisely what the US is doing today.  It has joined forces in a religious war between Sunnais and Shia'a Muslims in both Yemen and Somalia (so it would seem), favoring the Sunnai Muslims (e.g., Saudi Arabia) in both cases.  Even more outrageous. the US administration apparently never asked us citizens whether we want to become combatants in a religious war that is tearing apart at least two countries and killing countless number of civilians including children in the region?  How dare we become participants in a religious conflict that dates back to the time of Mohammed himself!  What is wrong with our national government!  Hooray, for President's dictum, Don't get involved!

So, now in Sweden, the UN is sponsoring cease-fire talks among the two ever-warring factions in the Muslim religion.  I hope the discussions enter the theological realm, so that there is some final resolve to the bitter hostilities that have marred the history of the world since the early centuries A.D. of the Muslim faith.  It is true the Middle Ages is replete with the bloodshed wrought over the many European Crusades, but cannot the Muslims learn from the horrors the Crusade annals record in Christianity? 

There is no hope until a Muslim unity challenges the option of war and its human annihilation as concomitant necessary effect.  And, please, let not the United States become involved on either side of  forces in some religious war either by supplying weaponry to the combatants or sending up our drones to wreak havoc in support of a particular religious, Muslim faction.




               

Reflecting on recent development: My making friends in DC

I am beholden to any federal agency that has made it possible for me to return to DC.

When I was here a few years ago and thought I was staying but didn't, I experimented with the help of that federal agency to reach out in friendship to groups in the area to get to know them.  It was successful, but I couldn't do much than just meet with a few, very few groups.  This method is available to me only in DC.

Anyway, I'm back!  And just recently, the federal agency sponsoring my final return has apparently made available to me this one-on-one communication once again.  I've tried it on several occasions in the last few days with again good results.

This enables me to add to the blog method of communication with those interested in knowing what I'm about.  So, onward to my making more friends with whom to carry on conversation!  My pleasure.

What purpose can you have in a world of automation?

Up to very recently, a man's identity (i.e., who he was in the community) was tied to what he did as a living.  If he was a tradesman in the Middle Ages, he could be known as one, e.g., John Smith, the town's man who worked with horses.  Then, when man worked in factories, he was identified with the product he made.  Today, automation has taken away many jobs from workers that they used to have, particularly on assembly lines and in maintaining company books. 

On the Washington Journal program aired December 3rd over C-Span, the findings of the current status of the working class was presented by its authors of Opportunity America, headed by Tamar Jacoby.  The statistics mentioned demonstrated that workers are experiencing a wage crunch caused by the necessity for workers to compete against computerized operations, wherein AI machines now make human intervention in productivity systems virtually obsolete. 

Even in agriculture, machinery, I am told, will soon displace countless farmer laborers in such activities as planting and harvesting crops! 

In a world of machinery and humans interacting on a continual basis, how is the human being to count for something?  How can he feel purposeful and his efforts needed and valuable?  Already, the unemployed can become despondent and irrelevant to today's active and productive atmosphere, which is presented him on TV.

This is becoming an ever increasing stark reality:  fewer jobs for the takers.

I think the paths to self-worth can be found in the government offices of unemployment who deal with workers who have not worked for many years.  Re-training isn't the answer for those over prime working age.  They may find themselves doing odd jobs around hospitals, volunteering to work with mentally challenged persons, like doing household jobs for them, and some even volunteer to do non-paying jobs in political campaigns.  The point is they are reaching out to make a contribution to society, in particular, in their community, whether or not they are gainfully employed.  For they are attending to the needs of other humans, which, hopefully, brings about greater happiness for all to share. 
   

How do you make trading partners of formerly "Third World Nations"?

I want to act like a historian for this blog item.  To President Trump, the presidents since WWII were dumb, treating the backward nations as legitimate trading and business-astute partners, offering them "most favored nation" status that virtually eliminated tariffs in selling their goods abroad that were once made in the US.   All they needed was to join a trade organization, such as the WTO.

But there are rules and regulations imposed by a trade organization upon its members.  For one thing, the accounting method known as GAAP must be deployed in the financial books of its corporations and business enterprises.  And so on.  Now if China wants to maintain the status of a trading partner, one whose businesses are governed by GAAP rules, then it will benefit by the most favorite nation, paying minimum import tax among all businesses in member states.

While trade organizations were promulgated by the Advanced Nations, e.g., the United States, the idea was to sell their financial procedures and concepts to all those nations seeking to become world class trading partners, i.e., its companies participating in trading deals with others around the globe.
The carrot to backward nations was low tariffs.  Moreover, to assure compliance with the trade organization's rules, third world nations would include companies of the Advanced Nations, which established regional corporate centers in these backward countries.

That is, a certain number of  companies that moved some of their operations abroad would lose their employees at home--say, in the US.

But thank God for President Trump who can up the tariff upon the company divisions that produce goods abroad and would sell  them in the US at cheaper cost than had their production occurred on US soil.  GIVE ME A BREAK!   
     

A Military Stalemate in Afghanistan

Some military analysts surveying the armed conflict primarily between the Taliban and the Kabul government have admitted a stalemate.  But to my mind, there is no other way to evaluate the years of war between the two sides as being nothing other than a continuance of war.

Part of the reason is that not all sides in the conflict are represented by the two warring parties.  Tribal groups or aggregates remain independent of these two factions.  Moreover, much agrarian land is used to grow the poppy seeds and plants used in the manufacture of opiates.  And, how about the Chinese mining of the mineral rights in the Afghanistan West?  Land so valuable to the drug trade can be openly traded by one or another claiming itself the legitimate government of the country. 

It is a true miracle that there's not greater loss of life in this country torn apart and dismembered into the several, local governing units. 

Immigration: A Human Condition

I think it would be remarkable if the boundaries of nations extant today remained in tact, changeless forever more!  People love to roam about, to pick up and go--wherever their inner spirit takes them!

It is natural to expect that those settled already in regions they have carved out for themselves would regard immigrants to their territory as intruders!  The latter are tolerated when they declare themselves as visitors for a particular time.  And, a country may  reach out and gather those in flight from elsewhere, as have the Germans extended a welcome to the displaced Syrians; and as the United States has granted asylum to multitudinous destitute groups and victims of physical and social calamities over many years.  Who can forget the potato famine in Europe that sent waves of migrants to American shores many years ago?

Now it is true that not all native populations are accepting of migrants who pass into their lands.  Each country proclaims its own quota system of those desirous to remain and settle down.  Nevertheless, migration continues today across territories; and when migrants are desperate enough, they will climb over walls and barriers that would keep them out.

All a country can reasonably demand on the stage of world opinion is that it not be overwhelmed by some current migration of people.  I am reminded how the Roman Empire endeavored to restrain German tribes to their north from invading but in the end succumbed to an ever-increasing overrun of these desperate people.

Moral of this item:  You can't restrict migrants from entry into lands you regard as (forever) yours!  Sooner or later, they'll ignore your border signs and demarcation lines.  Why?  Because they're as transit upon this earth as you are!  And everybody is moving about into "new" lands.  It's the nature of the homo sapiens!  

As the old time religion puts it, 'This world is not my home.  I'm only passing through!'           

Angela Merkell's Response to Trump's Call for NATO Members to pay up!

At a recent meeting of Germany's legislature, Angela Merkel reflected upon President Trump's insistence that the member nations of the military alliance NATO should update their financial commitments to its support.

It is certainly the case that any sovereign nation should have its own military units to defend itself  and protect its borders.  But it is also true that NATO, as a military alliance, is promoting peace in Europe.

Her discussion caused me to think the usefulness of a singular country's military when multi-nations are threatened.  We've gone far since World War II in our understanding of the usefulness and deployment of military alliances to counter the rise of despots, dictators, hostile groups and nations who would disturb the peace and tranquility of  what world order there is.

Now it is true that the United States has a mighty military whose tentacles of power reach far beyond US shores.  I, and others who argue that its influence has netted more peaceful conditions among the world's populations, note well that it is committed to works together in military alliances to end conflict and political strife wherever they occur.  The US military pursues peace through military intervention accompanied by political negotiations toward cessation of armed conflict.

   

P.M. T. May of the UK struggling with Parliament

It's problematic whether she'll survive in her present position of top leader.  I am amazed that the Conservative Party would be leading the drive toward independence from the EU.  For a conservative stance would be to remain within the established bounds of safety and less risk of the already accepted, which an independent Great Britain would seem to be breaking from.

I followed on C-SPAN her recent struggle to defend her version of an independent GB.  She was adamant that the people of her country have spoken; and she was simply carrying out their directive to show how the country could proceed on its own, but with ties of trade and business with the various EU member states.

This is a momentous venture in the history of the world, to be sure.  We know how union of disparate states can become One; but the course toward independence is most uncertain and its pathway precarious.  Usually, to separate from a national entity, a province or territory would be construed as forcing a revolution--a threat to the national government necessitating in military might have crush  for the preservation of its territorial integrity.  Appealing to the United Nations is not a viable option for a territorial region to defend its cause for freedom from a ruling government desirous to hold onto its entire territory.

The American Revolution is a reminder how difficult and bloody a break-away can be, even when there are enormous miles the new land was distant from its homeland (which nevertheless claimed it as its own).

Be it noted that Scotland has voiced in recent times its desire to secede from GB.  And, the region of Barcelona is struggling to break away from Spain. 

Yet, the human spirit longs to be itself formed into a lasting cultural heritage of a people.  It is that spirit which has led mankind to find an autonomous homeland where it can flourish through language and mannerisms peculiar to its region.  In this way, each member of the community can claim a personal identity and self-respect, contributing to the growth of its people in the territory it resides as independent.

Cato Policy Forum: The Consumer Equation of Demand/Supply Revisited in Preparation for Independence

The thing about creating a situation of economic uncertainty as does Brexit present to  England, is it provides an opportunity to re-examine some basic notions about governmental functions.  At the recent Cato Policy Conference on what government can do to help its citizenry, the supportive role of government was cast in the consumer equation of demands of its citizenry to supplies of goods and services available for their usage.  The speaker was England's Liz Truss, who holds the office of Chief Secretary Treasurer, at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC on September 18, 2018.

She acknowledged that her country is committed to maintaining its socialized medicine as a rightful citizen demand.  They want their healthcare!  But she seemed to refrain from endorsing a demand of several large corporations who aver they are too big for government to let them fail.  Once an enumeration of the demands upon government are clearly set forth, it would seem, the government can then reach out to industry and business to promote goods and services its citizenry may want to avail themselves opportunity to use and enjoy.  That is, government acts also in the capacity of an enabler--one of several-- as the means for business growth.  In this capacity it must impose relatively few regulations upon beginning start-ups and established businesses such as those producing energy, whose products are so essential to industrial expansion.  Specifically, she argued for regulation reform to minimize the burdens placed upon business in particularly new areas of innovation and technological overtake.

As Brexit moves ahead toward its completion date next year, we should expect that the English government will reject avenues of financial support for enterprises and pet projects that lead nowhere but to more debt and mad favoritism at the cost of promoting less those which will benefit the citizenry the more.  One looming large project is to shore up the coastal lands from the threatening rising sea heights.     

Implicit in Truss' Position

There is a corollary to Liz' understanding:  no new direction nor endeavor should impede or disavow a country's commitment to meeting the demands of its people, when the demands are legitimate and bona fide.  That is to say, a government should not double-cross its citizenry to proceed in directions that would deceive its people so as to no longer support their demands to the level it has met in the past nor promised in the future.   

Steve Reeves' Defense of Cultural Independence

Together with the EU leaders, Steve Reeves applauds the many nations of the European Union that support ethnic regionalism.  In this most recent book, Travel as a Political Act, Reeves points out that cultures are tied to lands where they are indigenous and peculiar. A person within a cultural milieu takes on a personal identity, just as the crops and industries are so particularized.  There is indeed worldwide a richness of cultural diversity among all peoples.

It remains through travel to become acquainted with that diversity and respect the ways in which peoples are rooted to their geographical surroundings.  While it may be true there exists babel among us all, it is still to be recognized that we exist as part of God's creation!

South China Seas patrolling of Chinese military working out

Yesterday on public radio a news media offered a public service evaluation of the Chinese patrolling the South China Seas.  It found the Chinese maritime performing well in their policing duties.  This service also provided some tapes showing the military's diligence in real time situations.

Keep up the good work, congrads--Chinese government!

Mayor of Bristol centers on cities as governmental, independent units

I heard a speech of the Mayor of Bristol, England  (yesterday on C--Span) setting forth the view that cities and their county designations are the elemental building blocks of any independent governing structure, including their own--that the cities themselves can be regarded an independent, functional governments.  That may not seem radical, except that, there sits Barcelona, part of Spain, which wishes to retain its own independence from which to form alliances, etc. with those capable of meeting its needs in areas where assistance is obvious, e.g., defense.

Taking cities as the primary building blocks of independence permits a restructuring of national configurations.  Indeed, it opens up the questioning of justification of the present-day configurations along simple, geographical contiguity location. Now, the proposition to demand an accounting of present-day national boundaries to warrant a city's inclusion (and its counties) within a particular nation is just what is lacking; and without it, a city may legitimately claim independent status, should it choose to do so ( I contend). 

By making the cities and their counties independent, we solve the problem of a city's declaring itself independent of its traditional, national incorporation.  It simply reverts to its primal status.

Similarly, has Great Britain asserted its independence from the EU.  Not gaining sufficiently for its people by the union, GB declares it will once again become independent.  Similarly, it is only because of our being accustomed to the current configuration of independent states that we fail to start with the basic building blocks of governmental independence, the cities.  Yet, history has shown cases where cities have been independent of further controlling bodies.    

The only proviso upon any city assuming its independence is that it be a viable course of action, i.e., that it not by so doing, become insolvent and bankrupt.        

Former Russian Satellites benefit from resurrection of the Silk Route

The Central European nations that once were part of the old Soviet Union are now the beneficiaries of trade and commerce across its territories to shorten the travel costs and time to transport goods from the West to the East and vice versa.  This means enlargement of ports and sea lanes and rail connections across Europe that heralds a golden era for the entire European Continent.

You pave the way for world peace and prosperity.

Soln. to Hacking Problem: A Smart Electorate

Russians have been hacking elections in the European Theater for years!  I think there's general consensus among intelligence people that an informed electorate, i.r., one that knows they're being targeted with propaganda and stories to influence their voting behavior is the best way to ward off outside influences upon them. 

Note that Trump has not posed this solution to the barrage of foreign propaganda capable of affecting an election outcome, but rather has entrusted a small band of intelligence forces to thwart hackers at their source.  The problem with that solution is it leaves the voting public in  the dark as to what's really going on which plays upon the non-rational elements affecting their voting. 

What it takes in International Relations-4

Don't be alone!  I've learned the hard way--many attacks and several bruises and bumps on the head--that you need to demand support of those around you for protection (primarily).  They've given me a case manager who does all the detail stuff to integrate me into my surroundings so that I don't stand out as a sore thumb.  I've never had that degree of support all the thirty some odd years I've been working the route.  Finally, someone had come to  realize in intelligence that I am a TARGET!

What it takes in International Relations-3

You need to keep looking for opportunities; and then like an animal of the deep sea, pounce when you find it coming in your ken.  I've used the vehicle of the Whack-O Theory to propel a possible course of action into reality.  Picture how things would improve dramatically!

I mean to tell you, create an aura of opportunity to bring about substantial and needed change by making offering it as YOUR REALITY!  Your audience will then comprehend the significance of what you're proposing toward a better world for humans.

For example, take the present prospect Baltimore represents.  There are groups, including merchant seamen, who are to benefit greatly from renovating Baltimore.  The property values in the city make renovation a significant step toward improving the quality of life of those living there.  But time is of the essence--carpe diem!  The smart leader won't dally over details; he must act before the window of opportunity closes, i.e., becomes embroiled in the minutiae of recalcitrance to initiate a major change (toward your objective to make the world a much better place).   

What it takes in International Relations-2

We have seen in "1" that as a prerequisite you need to have an interest in people and their cultures sufficiently strong enough to inquire into what they are inclined think about life.  On any particular issue, each individual is inclined to take a cultural attitude,  gathered from impressions his culture has provided him over  time.

He must recognize as a cultural member he has a bias toward any especial issue.  Yet, he must force himself to accept other points of view on the topic..  Say, the issue is race relations.  Then, he starts off recognizing the prevalent attitude and reaches over to the other point of view, accepting it as just as valid.  Not calling any one or another perspective prejudicial, he struggles to ascertain the experiential foundation underpinning each stance, admitting: "I can see reason why someone might aver that position." 

What it takes in International Relations-1 (according to Oastler)

I've been trying to get young people excited about entering the field of international relations.  Now I know that there's university programs that offer courses in international relations.  A firm knowledge of geographical environments and a willingness to become updated in geography and cultures is of course a useful experiential backdrop.  However, these are not the tools of the trade, so to speak.

It's the ability to see the principle or insightful idea that an event or country is going through at the moment--the forest through the trees, as it were--that is a telling trait of the person in the field.  You've got to hang on to what you see as the underpinning concept or descriptive process that you are seeing in your mind right before you!  And once you've located the phenomenon as a case of  an x, you're in position to make adjustments and alterations to the actual present event.  I think the danger is in thinking that altering the present will make the object or event into something other than it has been.  Play with it from all sides and angles to see where changes lead to the greatest bang for the buck.

The second consideration is price and cost of making an alteration or even of suggesting a change in a present-day phenomenon.  Change is the nature of life, of things, of objects in the universe in space and time.  Be sure it's a change with the most advantages financially for those who are to make it.

And once you've determined on a course of action to recommend for improvement of some situation, stick with it!  Too often, a person is willing to take on another point of view for the sake of financial and social security! 

Well, herein is the major idea I'm proposing: give a global dimension to the here and now particular.  Maybe, this approach to the topic as I develop it will include several paradigms, assuming I continue put it all down on paper!   

North Korea's Poliitical Future among Trading Nations

As things stand after the summit between North Korea and the United States, there is no place for North Korea among trading partners on the world stage.  North Korea is still ostracized from legitimacy.  It is still a pariah in the international trading community.

It may trade with China back and forth; but its ports appear confined to the limits of a tacit blockade, narrowly circumscribing those countries with whom it is granted acceptance as a legitimate trading, equal partner.  I get the impression from the war games periodically held, as a threat to North Korean independence, that a de facto blockade exists, reinforced by the military might of the United States in conjunction with that of South Korea.    

To demilitarize the Korean Peninsula must imply permitting North Korea to be elevated to an equal status among trading nations, freely capable to import and export goods from its shores without incrimination.     

Cato Conference: "Overcharged Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care"

The 4-hour conference was held in Washington, DC June 8th.  While I am most sympathetic with the purpose and aim of the conference, viz., to reduce health care costs to the consumer, I am of the opinion that the participants missed the boat on this one!

They had it within grasp when they pointed out in the second panel discussion that obesity rose dramatically since the inception of the 1980s till today, although it hasn't peaked yet! The real question should be (to my mind) why all the obese people in the United States as compared with 12 other leading countries?  The reasons may be myriad--fraud, waste, abuse--mentioned;  but near or at the top of the list has to be the use of both advertising and marketing fields by today's corporate America.  For, through packaging and selling, foodstuff items wet the appetites of rapacious American consumers in the marketplace.  The techniques developed initially in university research labs became available to corporate America just after the 1960s; and there's no end in sight as to the ingenuity of the technocrats in these two fields by corporations such as Coca-Cola, Starbuck's Coffee, Tyson Chicken, Popeye's, Chick-fil-A, Burger-King and McDonald's. The food-basket at the Super-Market is chock-full of goodies to savor and delight both the youth and the old alike!  Oh, yes, have we forgotten the alcoholic beverage commercials drenching the airwaves from noon to 2 AM tempting the youth as well as their parents?

Indeed, the American response is to consume from the time of rising to the time going to bed!  And, if it's not to eat food, it's to swallow the medicines needed to counteract some of the effects of overeating upon their inner organs--stomach pills, aspirin, and so on, until at last the overeating causes more serious problems, e.g., to the digestive system; plus an onslaught of overall malaise.  That is to say, the typical overeater eventually panics.  He is beset with a yearning to break clear from the feelings of nausea that overwhelm him and sap him of his energy and vitality!  He experiences a breaking-point to his human rationality; wherein he must succumb to any course of action for relief suggested to him--the latter by some well-meaning health-care providers!  At this rock-bottom state of mind he enters, he will try any curative posed him--except, LAY-OFF EATING MORE!

So, why do Americans pay too much for health care?  Not that corporate America doesn't take advantage of him in the condition he's been reduced to through overindulgence, but when all is said and done, it's because he panics seeking a sure-temporary palliative that uplifts his spirits from the lowly, awful state he's come to experience!  He must have hope in the health-care provider to work a miracle once again over his obesity, involving the continuing series of self-initiated marathons in food consumption!

------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a somewhat humorous response from Chuck Darling at Miriam's Kitchen to the above rumination--the response nearly verbatim but with some editing on my part:

"In my relative youth, age sixty-one as compared to Moses' lifespan of 120, I find that all foods are clean, if accepted with thanks to God.

I have lived well, without healthcare, since (about) September, 2001.  That's seventeen years.  My outdoor life--sleeping on the streets in DC--has not sunburned me; nor have I succumbed to Snowmageddon, Hurricane Sandy, or Hurricane Iris.

I'm living without hernia, avoiding the complications of synthetic mesh.  The important part of daily life is remembering your Creator in all that you do.  When I chew recycled cigarette butts, I toss a bit of  tobacco to the four winds as an offering to the Great Spirit.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus said God is a Spirit."

                 

Questions arising from the Vector-Borne and Water-Related Disease Workshop, Wilson Center, 5/17/18

This all-day workshop covered a lot of ground of the very busy disease specialists who presented papers at the workshop.  I came to realize the complexity of their problem in knowing how to respond when an air-borne disease encircles a region in some area likely to give rise to an epidemic of wide-scale proportions if steps aren't taken to ameliorate the severity of the contagion and deal with the germ or bacteria-laden environment nurturing it. "It's a very complicated situation that can become explosive at the genetic level," Chuck warned.

Professor Rita Colwell seemed to argue for getting the basics covered through exhaustive elimination of hot spots where climate changes mean an increase in a myriad of diseases.  While those hot spots are being tackled, it would seem appropriate to shift the population to somewhere more conducive to human life.  Simply, one could at least urge the citizenry to leave the area of contaminated water until wastewater has been sufficiently cleansed into safe water through filtration, isolating along the way pathogens in the water and predicting where the epidemic is to go on land.

One recalls how Panama had to reclaim its damp rain forests with their sludge-ponds through projects of land utilization formerly diseased-ridden.  We move people when there's civil strife; why not when there's disease-bearing environments in damp, humid regions of any country?  Importantly, when science identifies a region as pathogen-carrying, scientists should get the inhabitants out until the area has been scrubbed and de-humidified.  The use of drones should enable a shorter time length for declaring a region free of disease-carrying pathogens and declaring it more moderate in temperature ranges.

To my mind, it is unjustifiable to permit human beings to populate the infested Amazon forests and rivers, where disease runs rampant and water quality seems of low concern, and while air temperatures reach ever-higher levels. The same evaluation may also apply to Yemen and Bangladesh, not to forget parts of India along the Ganges, polluted by human detritus.

The point is, certain areas of the world are uninhabitable by our species due to the likelihood of genetic and environmental factors attacking disease-susceptible human tissue and organs; and these areas should be declared off-limits until their environments are treated by cleansing agents.  It took time, but the Great Lakes in the United States has become much cleaner and less infested with pathogens.  The list of successes is long!     

The US Military's Major Role Today: The PEACE-KEEPING Formula

I talked recently with Chuck at Miriam's Kitchen, Washington, DC about the military's most important role today, viz., that of keeping the peace worldwide.  We used as the springboard of the conversation Phil Klay's recent article in the May, 2018 issue of the Atlantic magazine entitled "Left Behind." The article is interesting because its author presents the standard argument for military presence: engage an enemy in battle and win the victory!  But today's military, particularly, the US military, is primarily engaged in what I call peace-keeping duties pertaining to forestalling or preventing  any actual engagement with an enemy for the sake of peace.  Its primary function is to support and encourage communication and dialogue that fosters mutual trust among peoples of differing cultures to solve common social and political problems without resorting to force and violence.

The old concept of win the battles and dictate the victor's terms with which the defeated must comply is laid aside in search of meaningful and productive interactions in a tranquil and accepting environment.

That is to say, the military, as well as US corporations and businesses; and our governments are reaching out to those self-same institutions abroad in formerly strife-worn countries to engage in economic enterprises for mutual gain and cultural exchange (i.e., the peace-keeping formula).    In such a milieu, the US military's mission is to ensure the regional safety of the citizenry no matter a particular individual's heritage.

Currently, there are over 190 countries that have brought US bases and installations to their shores.  In the cause of peace, our soldiers offer guidance to governments the world over when asked for help.  It is in the spirit of comradeship-the same phenomenon that impels a service member to risk his life to save that of his comrade in battle--that our soldiery serves to bring peace the world over.

On the Talk "What Europe Can Teach The United States on Free Speech" Cato Institute

On 4/18/18 I attended a conversation on free speech given at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC between Jacob Mchangama representing the European expert on the topic and Professor Miller, the American viewpoint.  I talked with Chuck at Mariam's Kitchen pertaining to some points made; and I've included others, too, in the below.


From the European standpoint, free speech must be protected as a fundamental source of the manifold kinds of freedoms and as a bastion against violence and oppression from groups fostering hatred toward ones they would oppress.  The various governments of the EU must maintain a vigilance against the rise of demonstrations and proliferation of incentiary literature condemning the actions and philosophic principles decried by tyrannical groups against their antithetical and ideological foes.  It was noted during the discussion there is a marked erosion of free speech (probably due to each country's homogeneous population).   

The issue of the regulation of free speech raises whether those responsible for creating the social unrest should be held accountable to liability statutes of private law:  Make them pay for the amount of mayhem they have wreaked for the several affected communities to clean up!   

On the Atlantic Magazine article 'What Putin Really Wants' by Justin Jofffe

The article appeared in the January/February, 2018 issue.

I talked about the points raised in the article with my friend Chuck over at Miriam's Kitchen.  He pointed out that recently President V. Putin has been concerned with  a number of issues pertaining to his neighboring countries.  He wants to satisfy China's hunger for oil, which should net him profits galore, including the building of a modern seaport in the Crimea (an area annexed by Russia with its dispute with the Ukraine).  Then again, he is concerned to meet oil energy needs of  the European countries, e.g., by building a pipeline from  Russia to Germany, for instance.  He's also concerned to maintain good relations with Syria, so as to continue to use its port cities in the Middle East.  Putin must also assure that Russia is up-to-date technologically in the transportation and developing of  its own oil industry, to be sure.

Concerns about satisfying its neighbors' needs for oil and energy occurs amid the national government's responsibility of assuring the citizenry that it is responsive to the citizenry's needs and demands for a comfortable lifestyle.  The question that must now occur in the minds of  the Russian constituency is, "What, Mr. Putin, have you done for us Russian citizens lately?"   Admittedly. he led the Russian people from the brink of economic disaster after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1990s;  but what has he done for them recently to improve their economic situation?  It would seem that foreign investment has been diminished in recent years, as the economy languishes under sanctions imposed by Western governments. 

When will a prosperous Russia return?   Not likely that the Soviet Empire will return anytime soon.   

On the book "Injustice-Story of the Holy Foundation Five" by Miko Peled

Recently, I attended a book signing talk given by Miko Peled on his newest book Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five published by Just World Books. This event was sponsored by the Palestinian Center, Washington, DC.

I solicited comments from my friend Chuck, a guru of Miriam's Kitchen, regarding the Five's apparent attempt to establish an orphanage (or, orphanages) for the children of parents who were deemed terrorists or terrorist sympathizers that had been killed in conflict dating as far back as the 1967 War--that war virtually has led to the US-Israeli denial to a Muslim population in the Palestinian region an independent state.  Having lost the war of 1967, the Palestinians still insist upon an independence from Israeli domination and intrusiveness in regions where Palestinians live.  Israel has said its major concern is that Palestinians no longer engage nor support terrorism upon Israelis; and as victors in that war, have moved to enforce its own provisions for the safety and security of Israeli citizenry.

I asked Chuck, don't the Palestinians realize they lost the war?  Aren't the Israelis entitled to spell out the terms for future peace and stability in the region we know as Palestine?

Chuck pointed out to me that the Israelis may better comprehend the fact that hordes of children under the age of 18 could become a cadre of recruitment into some terrorist army of youths to engage in even further terrorism in the region for years to come--and some of these quite possibly, could come from orphanages well-intended Palestinians might be concerned to establish now, but lack cognizance how these could be swayed by evil-doers who want to continue war with Israel, drawing upon any available group of  malingers and malcontents to renew hostilities once again.

So, while some Palestinians may argue for the establishment of orphanages. they seem unaware of how these orphan children housed altogether could become pawns for furthering a conflict and war for years to come between Jews and Muslims in the region.

Please, let's not forget who won the 1967 War between Israel and a retinue of Muslim nations against them!       

Dan, the Miriam Resident Painter

There's at least one very good painter whose a regular at Miriam's.  His name is Dan.  He's homeless, fearing that if he should change to a domicile, his painting genie would desert him.  He's at least middle-age and is short, sporting a beard he sometimes paints red.  He wears absurd clothing, wanting to make fun of his appearance for others as well as himself to mock.  He boasts he can paint an impressionistic work in three hours!  Each of his paintings is supposed to highlight a singular emotion he is capturing for his audience to appreciate.  To experience the feeling, they must translate the picture's elements into a spiritual composition without space and time, structurally conceived in a bare-bone feeling-dimension.

To conceive of paintings as conveying only feelings, the objects identifiable in the picture become  imaginary; not representing real things, only the ideas of what each item might seem to be.  A person's feet, for example, are blobs at the bottom of stilt-legs appearing on canvas, just suggestions of real feet.

Dan loves to paint Biblical religious scenes in his geometric box of fourfold delimiters--lines drawn to come together at the picture's corners.  He seems to grasp a Biblical view that the myths told therein have intrinsic value--to be enjoyed for their own existence in a universe of paintings.

 

Advocacy for the Homeless and the Poor in the US lacks the Clients' Dimension

I was invited to express my point of view on the plight of the homeless on February 22, 2018 at a convened session of the US Congressional Council on Homelessness at Miriam's Kitchen.  My comments centered about the way the homeless have been contained within certain areas of a city or town, e.g., Oklahoma City, and huddled into shelters at night, leaving the daylight hours to fen for themselves out of the dilemma that has wreaked chaos in their lives.  They're supplied with road maps and told to find the one that's suitable to pursue out of their quandry.  What will spell success back into the mainstream of society, where they are currently not welcome in their present physical and mental condition, is left to the individuals to determine on their own.

I contend they cannot go it alone.  Yes, there are advocacy groups that supply information about housing, shelter, food and clothing for them.  These groups also plead with legislators and city, state and federal politicians to "remember the homeless."  Such demonstrations of concern do not fall on deaf ears.  The public at large wants the homeless to live on, but not in their backyards or in their neighborhoods!

So, there's public concern and seemingly, no direct involvement insinuating the homeless into the community-at-large in appreciable measure.  That gap can be remedied through the infusion of case managers, each of whom should handle a caseload of homeless clients in the journey from homelessness to full acceptance into a community prepared to welcome them.

For instance, there are stages of going from homelessness to becoming a member of the community in full standing.  These include getting an ID within the community in which they are homeless, establishing a relationship with human and social services, ultimately leading to finding a place to live, i.e., to call "home."  At each stage, the homeless should be able to call upon an advocate that will stand with them to assure that each case is being attended to in prompt fashion.  But the role of  case managers that provide individuals they represent the care and effort toward full acceptance in the community is not being highlighted in the scenario upwards.       

Think how important this role of advocacy is in these steps the homeless must take.  He needs medical attention.  The case manager can assist in this effort; and when an appointment error is made--which happens all the time--the case manager knows how to get the communication back on track between medical service and client pronto!  That repartee between a case manager, skilled in dealing with representatives of "the system" and the client the manager represents is a significant lack by agencies that send a client on his own with a myriad of information and contact numbers! 

What is in existence now is a presentation and offering to clients that does not demonstrate an interest nor concern for their especial needs beyond that of a concerned citizen.  Specifically, clients receive little help in dealing with the people and situations that will spell their success toward becoming  full-fledged members of the community (once again).             

Critiquing an American Indian's Work of Art

Last weekend, the National Art Gallery, Washington, DC, held a series of symposia on works of art of the American Indian genre.  To my mind the striking feature of American Indian art that came out from their analysis of the art discussed was its illusive ability to succumb to art criticism.  Any particular work of art cast in that genre appeared incapable of evaluation by the art critics that cited it except for a self-serving comment of how "perfect it had been wrought" by the artist.  Actually, because the creation of a work of art in American Indian style is simply a step among several leading to a curative condition of a patient for whose benefit the work came into existence/  Among the sequence is 1)identification of the patient's malady, 2) a recognition of the gods who should be invoked to provide remedies, 3) using sands, etc. create the likeliness of them onto a backdrop cloth through an artist's hands, 4) call for these gods in representation to evoke a cure upon the patient; and 5) record any positive effect upon him.  Any beneficial effect counts toward the physical response a cure.

My friend Chuck refers to the entire process 1-5 as enumerating the metaphysical critique of healing.  It acknowledges the curative effect wrought by the gods of the spirit world connected through the painting to achieve a miracle.  A work of art so adjudged becomes known as part of valid Indian art, i.e, the process whereby the spirit world of the psychical is.connected to the physical for purposes of healing the body and the soul of a living John Doe.  And referring to any one step in the sequence is merely calling forth a perfection in the execution of the whole, metaphysical procedure.  The procedure is  divine; and the cure is holy--accomplished through creating in the art a relation between the eternal and sublime; and the transitory by the artist's hands. 

Thus, only if the art work achieves the goal of a patient's health is it a true work of Indian art.