American Values Being Tested in Egypt by Wileyfoxes

Journalists from Al Jazeera News, the most objective newscast in American (my opinion) have been thrown in jail for doing their jobs in Egypt.  Secretary of State Kerry went to Egypt to ask for their release.  As an insult to him, they sentenced the journalists to many years in prison as Kerry was getting on his plane to leave Egypt.  Five extra years were added to one journalist for having a dangerous weapon, a bullet cartridge that he had picked off the ground at a demonstration stoppeIf a recent poll is correct, see below, do not want our financial or military aid.  So, guess what we are planning.

HHer is the irony.  We are now processing a one billion dollar aid package to Egypt.  So, are we going to put our money where our mouth is and not support a government that does not recognize freedom of speech, the right to peaceful protest, and the right of journalists to do their job.  Probably not.  We are probably going to give them the aid and ask them to do better in the future or some similar double talk crab.

I'm guessing our aid comes with strings.  Something to the effect that they will purchase some military equipment from us with the aid.  So, it is really not aid to Egypt but aid to our American Big Business, the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned would some day sink America.  Am I wrong here?  More money going to the rich from the taxes on the people?

So what are our aid to Egypt say about American Values?
 

Children from Latin America, are We our Brother's Keeper by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Obama is asking for an additional $2 billion and new laws to more efficiently get rid of the children coming to America.  Assuming 100,000 children come to our shores this year, its $10,000 additional for each child.  Imagine, that is long enough to feed a child for say a year.  Of course, its easier to send them back home, only some of them will be killed in places like Honduras.  What is an acceptable percentage of deaths to make this policy okay?

The Republicans will probably give Obama new laws to expedite sending these children back home.  The moral majority keep the Republicans afloat.  If they were quoting the Bible, they might pick something from Matthew Chapter 25:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in. ³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Of course, they would argue this doesn't apply since they are breaking the law by fleeing the chaos in their country.  They should stay there and die like a manchild. Or they would blame it on Obama for being soft on immigrants ignoring that he is deported far more immigrants than Jehovah Bush.

All the bullshit in the world will not speak as loudly as what we are about to do. 

What we do with these children will say to the whole world what are values are as Americans. 

Iraq and Oil: Plan B by Wileyfoxes

Many years ago when the Iraq war was started by our dear paranoid President Bush, the U.S. was facing huge shortage of oil and no hope for it being any better tomorrow.  Many moons later, we find that fracking, horizontal drilling and cars with better fuel efficiency has done the impossible in substantially reducing our need for oil.  And, if we have the good sense to build some pipelines and expand fracking with enhanced safety requirements, there is hope that things could even get better tomorrow.  

An what impact will the new CO2 emissions rules by EPA play in this new world of energy we find ourselves in?   This approach is not as good as that we posted in a New Energy Future for America, but at least it addresses efficient energy use in a somewhat backhanded way.  Perhaps this can evolve into a system where a carbon tax replaces our income tax system -- I can dream can't I?

So, back to Iraq.  The war was supposed to make the Middle East safer and keep the oil flowing.  It was supposed to decrease the number and effectiveness of the terrorists.  Well, it should be clear that the oil is not any safer with Iraq blowing up its biggest refinery this week in an attempt to get insurgents out of the refinery. The pipeline to Turkey has also been cut.  It should also be clear that our drone program has given everyone in the middle east someone to hate and that number of insurgents, terrorists, rebels, etc. is escalating.  If terrorist are less effective it is because of how we track their money and monitor their movements in America, our smart bombs and our Trillion dollar military effort doesn't seem to be slowing them down.  

In short, Plan A is not working. (My own opinion is that religious extremism is stronger than guns.  But, we don't have to agree on the reason Plan A is failing, only that it is.)

Plan B.  We do not have to control the world.  Let the Shia and the Shiites kill each other off.  Let the war spread.  Carefully choose which if any countries deserve U.S. air power.  Israel, Egypt, Turkey?  Let the Middle East clean up the Middle East. Let countries like Russia or China if they want try to clean up the religious mess called the Middle East.  Let the Middle East learn how to moderate their views and learn to negotiate with their enemies.  Apparently we didn't include these lessons in a our Nation Building 101.

Part 2 of Plan B.  Proceed with the New Energy Future for America with stepped up urgency to build pipelines and electrical infrastructure. Imagine if we had spent one trillion dollars on energy, on our economy instead of worrying about the stability of the oil industry in the Middle East. 

Finally, have the courage to admit our Plan A is not working and simply stop executing Plan A.  If you don't like my Plan B, then create your own and sell it, but please don't keep executing a failed Plan A or supporting governments/parties that want to be stupid by doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.   WE SIMPLY CANNOT CONTROL THE WHOLE WORLD AND BE A PROSPEROUS AMERICA -- it is a myth my friend.

Children Fleeing to America, but who cares? by WileyFoxes

Perhaps 90,000 children will cross illegally into the U.S. this year to get away from gang violence in the Latin American countries they come from ... Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, etc.

Of course, we act like it is not our problem, not our responsibility.  But, shouldn't the country causing most of the violence be responsible for taking care of these children.  As you might guess, gang violence is rampant in countries like Honduras.  The gangs are funded by the selling of drugs to America, lately a lot of heroin, but there is no shortage of cocaine and designer drugs either. Americans buy and order it, they deliver.  The kids of the supplying countries suffer thanks to us.  Our 70 or so school shootings in this country in the last eight months are nothing compared to the murder rate in places like Honduras.  Our 10,000 killings with guns each year are small potatoes on a per capita basis.

They say the definition of stupid is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  I can remember the War on Drugs when I was a small kid growing up in El Paso.  It was mostly pot in those days, today of course, it is mostly heroin on our streets.  There is no shortage of drugs, never has been, never will be.  (I hear we have apparently slowed down pot a little.)  The only thing that varies is the number of people willing to use them.  And yet, the War goes on.  Stupid, but not the point of this blog.

So our stupid War on Drugs goes on.  Children in the countries supplying us drugs are fleeing to us for help.  And, guess what we are telling them.  After due process, we are sending them back.  And the Republicans and Democrats argue about our border policies, our immigration policies, each blaming the other for the catastrophe.  They are right, each is to blame, but it is our War on Drugs not our Immigration Policies that are causing the humanitarian crisis.

Our plan is to send them back home to die, but out of our sight.  Back to their violent homes where we don't have to assume any of the responsibilities for our actions, our policies.  That is just the kind of people we are in this country.  After all, the War on Drugs is righteous.

These children are on our door step.  There is a chance to do good here, but today we are arguing about what kind of military help to give Iraq -- its a stage where we can show our almighty and righteous power. 

My View on Religion

I grew up hearing "hell and brimstone" from a god that supposedly loved me.  As a kid I was terrified of what this god of loving could do to me if I failed to be a faithful and humble servant.  As I grew and started studying history, I noticed what had caused all the wars in the past and saw where most of the conflict comes from in the world.  Yea, you guessed it.   I grew afraid of the harm that religion has done and continues to do in the world, a view I still hold today.

I distanced myself from any form of religion and would not go as far as entering a church building to go to a wedding for more than a decade after I left my religion.  I was the one that would finally agree to take care of all the children in the nursery in the front of the church.  This worked fine for me until I married a woman whose sisters are religious.  I have handled it by being withdrawn when I am around them.  I only engage in polite, casual conversations avoiding any hint of a religious discussion and in reality any kind of meaningful conversation.  They too have become guarded, no one saying anything that might upset the apple cart.  Of course, my wife wants them to get to know the me that she knows, the person that usually digs down and tries to see what is under the hood in each person I meet.

Here is the paradox for me.  Religions ask you to believe something on faith.  What does that mean?  To me, it means believing something that is possibly irrational and at best unknowable because someone acting for "god" has decided it is the right thing to believe.  In some religions, what they ask you to believe is relatively harmless on the surface, at least, and in other religions it is horrible.  The Nazi's fit my definition of a religion; they believed they were a chosen, special people and to be part of them you had to be of the right race and believe their sermon of superiority.  This is also very much like the Israelis of the old testament, or much like the ones still in the middle east, or the Palestinians for that matter.  (We talk about illegal immigrants in this country often with the same tone of superiority.) 

The harm to me in religion has always seem to be at the point that an individual  relegates "right and wrong" and "what" to believe to someone else.  Each person in my sense of right and wrong has to  responsible for what they believe, even more, what they think is right and and wrong.  To take a myth and a book written a long time ago as my guide for right and wrong seems horribly wrong to me, and it seems a step away from abrogating my responsibility to my fellow men.  I want my actions to spring from my thoughtful, honest opinions I have on the act in question based on my values which in turn are based on my life experiences.

I look at our political landscape in the country and it is filled with religious righteousness -- judgment pronounced in the name of the Bible primarily of what is wrong with our fellow humans.  Of course, it is a no brainier that religion is going to mostly be against gays or anyone else that departs from the traditional family assumed in the Bible, or the Koran for that matter. But, with only 64% of our workforce having jobs, it is more surprising how we find the righteous noble ground to characterize people not working as lazy. (Reminds me of Romney's 47% of the people that want hand outs.)  This moral righteousness that sometimes disintegrates into moral disgust keeps us from recognizing how serious this problem is and it eliminates all the obvious solutions that a religious perspective would not find appropriate (since these people are "lazy" and might get something for nothing).  Accepting the world and capitalism (often a religion itself) could be inappropriate for the situation we now find herself in would be anathema. 

So, obviously many people don't see religion as harshly as I do.  They don't see it as one step away from accepting something awful, they don't see the harm in choosing to believe things that I find to be illogical or at best unknowable.  So, how do I relate to these people, many of which believe that I am condemned to hell because of my lack of belief.  First, let me say that I don't really mind if they think I am going to a place that I have no evidence exists.  Second, I like being an example of a good person that doesn't believe.  It gives me a strange satisfaction to make them wonder about their god and their religion where people like me would be sentenced to hell.  Really?  Third, I like to contrast the simplicity of my religion which can be summarized by saying I believe in being kind and helpful with courage.

But, I still haven't found a framework where I can sit down and even discuss something like unemployment with my fellow humans who believe in a religion.  All I have is logic, I have no judgments to pronounce.  I still don't know how to talk to my religious relatives.  What if my wife and I want to bring a third party into our bedroom.

 My guess is that most of my religious friends are going to have a problem with this action and no amount of logic is going to make them comfortable with us living our life as we chose to live it.  So, how do I call a truce where I let them be religious and they let me and my wife live as we see fit.  We might even want to smoke dope with this visitor to our bedroom.  Now, I see we have brought in the legal into the subject that was before just right and wrong, believers and unbelievers.

I would argue of course that much of our legal basis in this country comes from our religious, Puritanical past.  I tried to buy some wine in North Carolina on a Sunday about 10 am in the grocery store.  I thought gee, this is more permissive than where I live where I have been protected from beer and wine being in my grocery store.  But, once at the register, I was told I couldn't buy wine before noon on Sunday.  Logical?  It is not logical, it is a religious outcropping.

Okay, I am still not any closer in coming up with a plan on how to relate to my religious relatives or my religious friends.  How do I know when being as logical and honest as I know how to be is going to cause hurt feelings.  How do I shed an air of superiority when I really do believe honesty and logic is superior to belief and faith?   My friend Brian says that I need to accept that all people are where they are on this journey of awakening, growth and consciousness as he calls it.  However, that seems to strike me as being very similar to my trust in logic, honesty, and kindness.

The best I can come up with at the moment centers around my belief in kindness, compassion and being my brother's keeper.  I think the answer for me has to come down to being as helpful to my religious friends as possible.  In conversations, I need to ask them about their beliefs without being compelled to share my viewpoint. But, I should not be afraid to inquire deeply on any subject that they bring up.  I should not be afraid to examine views that they hold that are not consistent with other views that they hold -- since being illogical and consistent are not possible.

When I was young, my fundamentalist religion made me an outcast at school and now I find my thought that faith is illogical separates me from many people.  I even find atheist's confidence that there is no god just another "faith".  I find it hard to find those like me that just don't know about the unknowable things beyond our senses.    

But in this muddle (this post and my thoughts), the desire to connect to my fellow humans remains strong and at conflict with my desire to be honest and transparent, and just be me, not knowing.

US victory in Ukraine, Pyrrhic

The following post was written by Steve Hayes on the Thoughts.com website.  It is presented here as a valid and thoughtful point of view of America, Ukraine, and Russia. 

May 30, 2014bystevehayes13

The US backed coup in the Ukraine is a Pyrrhic victory. Instead of gaining control over the country, the US has installed a regime that, not only has deeply repugnant attitudes, but is seen by many Ukrainians as completely illegitimate. Crimea has already succeeded to the Russian Federation. Areas of the east have held referendum and declared themselves independent republics. And the coup government are engaged in killing protesters and bystanders. This wasn't the Ukraine Nuland et al expected.

Meanwhile, Russia and China have moved closer together. The signing of the energy deal between the two countries is symbolic of the shift to the east of the world economy. The crisis in the Ukraine is simply the final straw in US double-dealing, which has pushed Russia and China into an alliance. Back in 1990 the US promised the Soviet Union that it would not move NATO forces east in return for the Soviet Union removing military from East Germany. It was not long before President Clinton reneged on that deal. NATO forces have kept pushing Russia's borders. The thought that NATO missiles might soon be located in the Ukraine as well forces Putin to seek allies in asia.

Russia is not only selling energy to China, it is selling arms. These trade relations between China and Russia also have the potential to undermine the status of the US dollar as the world reserve currency, something that is essential for the US if it is to continue to live beyond its means. The US provoked crisis in the Ukraine has had the unintended effect of cementing an alliance that significantly changes the geopolitical landscape.

My only two cents is that Russia is no angel in this Ukraine fiasco.  In some ways, it is Oligarchs in the U.S. fighting with the Oligarchs in Russia, but that is another blog. RRO