Republican/NRA Insanity in Tennessee by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

NRA Insanity in Tennessee a Good Citizen of Humanity

There is some insanity going on in Tennessee.   NRA is having convention and most of the Republicans candidates for President are invited to speak.  Tennessee which is 75% Republican wanted to show appreciation for the NRA for bringing 70, 000 people to come to Nashville.  So they started working on some new laws and rules:

1. Local laws that prohibit guns in parks are outlawed by State law. However, signs prohibiting guns in park may stay up they just don't count.

2. Democrats attempted to amended the bill to say people can bring guns into the legislature.  This amendment failed. Parks are okay, but not okay for the environment in which those laws are passed.

3. At the NRA exhibition hall all guns must be made non operational.

4. Guns are allowed in the convention when the Republican candidates are speaking. Permits will not be checked. They be operational and concealed.

5. And then there is this guy nick-named Rambo in Nashville that walks around with assault guns outside of schools. He has a permit so its legal.

6. So, because of The Rambo guy, the legislation is debating passing a law that fake guns, like squirt guns, are illegal near schools.  Real guns are okay still.

7.  And who is coming to this insanity party?  All but two of the Republicans candidates for President will be there giving speeches to impress the NRA.

The latest Social Progress Index has just been published and the U.S. is sliding down the list in many areas.  In terms of access to basic education, of a 130 countries, we are 43rd.  But that is okay, we are number one in access to guns.  What a country!   

Our Belief in Authority, a prejudice against the small man. By Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Our Belief in Authority a prejudice against the small man a Good Citizen of Humanity

We tend to believe those in authority, or some of us do.  I am a white man and my experiences with authority are reasonable although not perfect.  But if I was a black man, perhaps my experiences would be different and I would not believe people in authority.

Another black man has been shot.  It is very similar to the Hispanic gunned down by four police in California last month.   The cop shooting the black man was charged with murder.  The hispanic was an illegal immigrant, so apparently it was alright to shoot him.  He did throw rocks at cars and was probably mentally ill.  So, no charges against these police.   

And then there is Rodney Jones killed because he sold single cigarettes.  Does this wrench the gut out of you to know that police are arresting/harassing a man for trying to make a living selling single cigarettes. I am not big on cigarette smoking but I know a person with an addiction and no money sees Rodney Jones as a savior.  Police see him as a threat.  A threat to what, collecting more money (taxes) from those that are buying single cigarettes.  Have we sunk so low that we have to bleed blood from a turnip.  And, does it make anybody else sad as hell to know that is what our police force is doing?  Not to mention they killed someone over it.

It hurts me to see these videos.  It makes me cry, my throat clinch and it's hard to breath.  Am I the only one that finds this painful and unacceptable. It is the rare exception that a police officer gets charged with killing a black man, apparently never for killing an Hispanic, especially an illegal. Have we become that hard as a nation?

So, what is it about authority that we assume they are right and the citizen is wrong. Even when there is what appears to be evidence to the contrary, we (meaning grand juries) declare nothing is amiss.  The prosecutor works with the police so he can’t be impartial and try to get a conviction of a team member, a policeman (that is part of the police force that he needs to work with on an ongoing basis).  So I understand why he comes up short with presenting a convincing case with the grand jury , but why do we put up with it and not demand reform of the system. The new system would have a special prosecutor, someone out of state perhaps, when a policeman is the one being charged with a crime.  Why do we not rise up in anger over the injustice and demand a change to the procedure, the system? I'm guessing not everyone feels the pain I do when I see the videos?

It comes back to why we line up behind authority?  We want to believe the authority figure is doing things right.  And when they are not, we tend to turn our heads.  I could give many more examples of this … but they would not answer the question of why we think those in authority are right and the abused are wrong.   It is very similar to why we always think our country is right in any conflict. (See the new Social Progress Index.)  If our country does it, they must be right.  If the police do something they must have a reason.  

Is it our fear that if authority figures are wrong there might be something wrong with the entire system, the entire culture.  Perhaps we are not as great as we think we are. Our police are no better than in other countries where the authorities are abusive to citizens. We might be just like others in the world.  Would our compassion then have to extend to all of mankind? and ourselves?  Would we then be able to be judgmental about the failings of other countries, of the poor, of immigrants, etc. Just who would be the good guys and the bad guys? Perhaps that would be our first lesson in compassion.

Drones and Compassion by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Drones Good Citizen of Humanity

If someone was firing drones into our country killing innocent citizens would they be considered terrorists?

If we fire drones into another country (without permission) are we considered terrorists?

Much of what I am going to say here comes from two sources:

Living under Drones, Stanford and NYU law schools, and

Discontent and Its Civilizations, Mohsin Hamid.

Pakistan is one of the countries we fire drones into.

We fire lots of drones into Pakistan, as of last year there were 367 strikes killing between 2541 and 3586 people.  Yea, about the same amount as in 9/11.

Of course, we only kill the bad guys …

Let’s look at how we define who is bad … quoting from the report above:

From the Stanford report:

IF THERE IS any misconception that the drone strikes are primarily counterterrorist in nature, aimed at key leaders of international terror networks, this can be dispensed with. The report from Stanford and NYU highlights research separately conducted by Reuters and by the New America Foundation that comes to similar conclusions: the elimination of “high-value”targets—al-Qaeda or “militant”leaders—has been exceedingly rare, fewer than fifty people, or about 2 percent of all drone deaths. Rather, “low-level insurgents”have been the main targets of drones. The US drone campaign in Pakistan is thus largely a counterinsurgency operation, targeting men presumed to be intent on fighting US forces across the border in Afghanistan. In the media, the term “militant”is often used in describing drone casualties. The report makes clear that this blurs together two legally very different groups of people. A “militant”who is a member of the Taliban, planning to attack US troops, is not the same as a “militant”who normally herds livestock, carries a rifle, and today is sitting with other members of his clan to discuss a threat to his isolated village from a neighboring clan.

Furthermore, according to the report, the “current administration’s apparent definition”holds that any male of military age who is killed in an area where militants are thought to operate (and where, therefore, drones operate) will be counted as a militant if killed. This has allowed administration officials to make wildly unrealistic claims, disputed by even the most conservative analysts of drone casualties, that civilian deaths are “extremely rare”or have even been in “single digits”since President Obama took office.

If you disregard this novel definition ..you will arrive at an estimate that some 411 to 884 civilians have died in U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan … 168 to 197 children. (From the Investigative Journalism … )

If you have any problem understanding the above let me help you….

If we kill someone with a drone and he is in an area where we think there are bad guys then the person killed is a bad guy by definition.

Bush started the drone attacks and Obama has expanded them.  97% of Pakistanians are opposed to the attacks.  (That’s surprising!)

What effect is this having on the Pakistan Government?  It is undermining the faith of the people in their country’s ability to defend and take care of them.  We are in effect destabilizing the government of a nuclear power, much more powerful than Iraq, Afghanistan or ISIS. (Great plan since we are all powerful.)

Thank or curse your Military Industrial Complex once again …

For those of you that believe we do no wrong and that military power is all that we need, despite the failures of our military over the last 40 years, no action is required.  Sit back and believe we are good, they are bad, and we are doing the right thing.

For those of you that believe our military industrial complex is not so good in so many ways, please do you own research on how our government is using drones and the lack of checks and balances in the system.  I doubt if it will be possible, but we could hope one Presidential candidate will push for accountability for our drones by an independent third party.  And, I would suggest we spread the word about what our MIC is doing and hope enough good people care to slow them down.

The Role of Compassion

Finally, I think we need some compassion for all those families that are losing family members and friends from our drone attacks.  I could have added sad stories about families destroyed by our drones, but you can research that for yourself if you care.  And for ourselves, let us hope that we are not creating thousands of new terrorists from the survivors of drone attacks on their loved ones.

One Week of Exposure to Compassion in Denmark

One Week of Exposure to Compassion in Denmark Good Citizen of Humanity

I am in an airport lounge in Denmark waiting for my plane back to the states.  I have just spent a week working and living in Denmark, a very good experience.

Denmark is a very small country, you can compare to life in the United States, the official version.  But, mine is about impressions, a limited number for sure.  First, I have yet to see my first fat person, or even someone I would consider overweight.  Everywhere I look there is a beautiful body … Portion sizes at restaurants are small, and as you can see in the link they consume about half of the energy (electricity and oil) that an American consumes.  

There are no homeless people.  All people have medical coverage, retirement, a place (a flat) to live in whether they have a job or not.  If you have no job you will be provided with a place and an income quite sufficient to take care of yourself and your family.  They feel all people must be taken care of with the basics, food, shelter, doctors, etc.  You simply have to ask for help.  

The national budget is balanced, education costs for the individuals are modest, and they do have a reasonable size military for a country of 5 million.  They are well educated, most people speak from about 3 to 5 languages.  Houses are smaller, older, but quite substantial.  I’m guessing, but their footprint seems about 60% the size of an average middle class American home. They are built to last forever is my impression. The city I was in furnished hot water to all the homes for heat via radiators.  

Taxes are high, about 50% of your income is taken by taxes, but then again,  you have security throughout your life.  Of course, you don’t have 3 tv’s in your house, probably just one.  Cars are taxed heavily, a value added tax, so they cost 3X the amount in the U.S.  Plenty of computers, iphones, ipads, androids everywhere.  The traffic lights are smart, if you approach a light and no one if coming on the cross roads, it changes to green so you don’t have to stop.  Lots of traffic circles so you don’t have to stop has often.  Plenty of buses and trains.  Everything seems well maintained, I did not see any slums.  All the farmers fields are green, because that is the law … a crop must be planted to cover the field and prevent erosion in the winter.

Politics

Their conservative party is more liberal than our democrats.  The left are socialists and even the dreaded word, communists.  Of course, it is a democracy.  I love they feel the compassionate to take care of all their people, especially those that need help.  Their method is quite simple, the middle class shares with those that need help.  The middle class has less, just a little more than the poor … which aren’t really poor by American standards.

Fears

Of course, there is fear that those on the dole, since they represent a large minority, will vote themselves more and eventually take everything.  But, I am guessing there is still an ambition among those on the dole to move up to the working middle class even if it is a small step up.  So, I’m guessing no one wants to kill the golden goose.  And guess what, people still want to work, to have a career, and go to work everyday even though they don’t need to in order to survive. Who could imagine that in America?

Oh, not much violence here.  Yea, they still have abusive men and robberies and all the petty stuff … despite the fact that everyone is taken care of..  I’m thinking that there are always people that want more and are willing to break the rules to get there.  They have one tenth the incarceration rate as in America, surprise, surprise and instead spend it on people needing help.

Being a country with only 5 million, their medical system seems to take care of normal stuff pretty well, but they travel to other countries if they have something complicated. They are more likely to let someone die and not spend a fortune trying to keep them alive an extra month …

Global Warming  

They are pushing solar and wind power strongly in this country.  So much so they have the highest power costs in the world about $0.40/kwh, or about 4 X the U.S. rate.  But they use half as much power because their homes are designed to be more efficient.  So, on global warming they are doing their part -- the U.S. is unlikely to match them in this area.  We like our money too much, we are unlikely to spend it to help the world.

GNP versus Compassion, Caviar and Gutters

I would definitely like to see our country move more toward the Denmark model, it fits with my belief that I am my brother’s keeper -- and I would like to less greedy and selfish.  But, I think our religious right/Republicans think people are inherently bad and must be controlled and punished, so they would never trust people like they do here.  Our level of compassion for people in need would not even register on the scale here in Denmark.  They think here in Denmark that Obamacare is completely inadequate.  I do not believe I will live long enough to see Americans having enough faith in or compassion for  their fellow humans to become a Denmark.  Seeing a country that acts out the idea that we are our brother’s keeper makes me a little sad that we have chosen to worship the god of the GNP instead.  

I might add, their per capita GNP is about the same as ours.  So despite being a small country, with a system that we believe could not work, they do as good as us on average.  They just don’t have the wealth inequality we have where the top 10% get 80% of the wealth. In short, they don’t believe in a rich man dining on caviar as a poor man starves in the gutter like America does.

Of course, they are not as profitable as Switzerland or Norway, but of course, neither are we.  But again, GNP is not their god here in Denmark, its ours.   

The Top Ten Must Haves for My Political Party by Robert R. Odle

The Top Ten Must Haves  for My Political Party (Version 1). Robert R. Odle

My top value in life is compassion and I want to be a good citizen of the earth.  I want a party that reflects my values.  I care little for rules or laws that are not compassionate and the only religious concept that I buy into is that I am my brother’s keeper.  I have observed what has happened to the middle class over the last 40 years and the formation of an elite rich that runs the world, and I want to take back my country.  I believe we are all (99%)  fundamentally the same -- good people trying our best -- each of us has a fictional story of our life, our country and our party  that we back with carefully chosen facts (ignoring all facts that don’t fit in the story).   I’m analytical by training, compassionate by nature.

1. I want a party that feels compassion for immigrants and their families.  

Someone that came here to take better care of their family is alright with me and I don’t really care if they broke some unrealistic, out-dated, ineffective, and counter-productive immigration laws.  I really love children coming to our country for help -- I’m proud when we are a generous country, especially to kids.  Simple, isn’t it.

The win-win solution to the immigration laws is to make them legal ASAP and then tax them.  The cost of sending 11 million home I’m guessing has to be in the tens of billions of dollars and even more important is that it breaks up families.  If your kids are U.S. citizens, staying here and taking care of them sounds like the right thing to support.  But, even more, anyone that has come here for their family is okay by me.

I want a party that supports all families and people to live better lives independent of their nation of birth.   I believe in compassion for the those that pursuit life, liberty and happiness.

McCain, Rubio, and Obama seems close to a reasonable position on immigration.   The conservatives are hung up on retribution which is not my cup of tea.

2.  I want a party that has compassion for the difficulties that gays face in not being able to be married -- and in life in general.

I want a party that supports equal rights for all including gays.   Simple enough.  I believe in freedom to be yourself -- consenting adults is good.  Simple enough.

I need a party that embraces gays and doesn’t just tolerate them.  My first wife left for a woman and I supported her as much as I could.  It was my first introduction to the gay life and I think I did okay.  I want my party to do at least as good as I did 30 years ago -- I’ve grown some and I want my party to grow.

3.  I want a party that does not cater to and promote the super-rich.

The concept of trickle-down economics is stupid - just look at what’s happened in the world.  The top 85 people now control 50% of the wealth in the world. The top 10% has 80% of the wealth in this country.  If you think that’s okay, we don’t need to change anything, just keep trucking.  I’m not good.

As a first step, I believe in progressive taxation for all income, yes, including long term capital gains, inheritances, and salaries, etc.  Just a progressive tax on salaries only impacts the middle class and gives a free ride to the wealthy.  Not okay with me, part of the rules that makes the elite rich possible.  I’m not good.

I would phase out corporate taxes which is a double taxation scheme that makes no sense.  Money from corporations goes to individuals.  When it does, tax it progressively, see above.  Corporate taxes actually complicates fairness and gives companies plenty of incentive to misallocate resources to avoid taxation.  KISS.

I want a party that supports moving the wealth being created back to the middle class. Simple enough. Any more ideas on how to do this?

4. I want a party that has compassion for its citizens - those with pre-existing conditions .

For example, I want a party that has compassion for those with pre-existing conditions that could not get insurance before Obamacare.  I want a party that has compassion for all those without medical care.  This is standard stuff for most of the civilized countries in the world.  Simple enough.

And yes, I lost most of my life savings because a the pre-existing condition of my wife.  And Obamacare saved my daughter … a work still in progress, but he changed the rules to let children be covered under their parents policy until they are 26.  Otherwise, I am pretty sure she would have died and I would lose what is left of my life savings. And now she has hope because she can get Obamacare (I hope although she is in a Republican state) and we (her and I) still have a fighting chance. Thanks Obama for the compassion that saved my daugher.  I wish you had come earlier when my late wife had cancer, but I’m eternally grateful, Obama.

 5. I want a country that has compassion for all the children in this country and all of the downtrodden.

A society is judged in my opinion by how well they take care of the weakest among them.  If a child is in distress, our society needs to be there to pick him up.  Helping the mom usually helps the child; for example, if she needs childcare, birth-control, public transportation, etc. (similar to the Denmark model).  Investing in our children is the same as investing in our future.

I want a party that Supports subsidized child care and birth control for the poor -- and anything else the children of this country need to become healthy adults. Simple enough.  What can your party offer me?

6.  I want a party that will not be the policeman of the world.

I want a party that shows compassion for those families we terrorize around the world with drones, bombs, and our might-is-right philosophy.  (Our irresponsible support for Israel falls under this category and takes a whole document on its own.)  I want a party that has compassion for our children and the pile of debt our military industrial complex is piling on our children.  Each war ends up costing about a trillion dollars - borrowed of course. And each year it costs about $600 billion to be the policeman of the world.  Our military is now in 150 countries around the world- America the big brother. I’m not good.

I also see an arrogance that we think we are always right and our total lack of respect for most other countries of the world.  We desert our values out of fear, Guantanamo Bay and the Patriot Act are an examples.  And to be the world’s big brother, we get in bed with lots of people that aren’t so nice … Saudi, Israel, Egypt, etc.

I don’t believe you can win religious and ideological wars with guns.  Every war since Vietnam seems to prove this to me … Perhaps Afghanistan will be an exception but I doubt it.

Unfortunately, both our parties support the U.S. being big brother for the world.  I need a new party, perhaps Gary Johnson.

7. I want a party that has a long term strategic plan for America that includes investments in:

• Children, see above.
• Free Public Education …through college, see our competitors (other countries). See one scheme here.
• Traditional Infrastructure.  bridges, roads, canals, electrical grids, public transportation (see advanced countries of the world).
• Leading edge infrastructure … including universal wifi, and devices for all our students to access the internet … development of tools/software for the modern class room.
• Some loan forgiveness/management for the trillion dollars in college loans.  Obama’s rule that debt repayment can only take 10% of a young person’s income is a good start.  Again, we need to invest in these young people, not bury them in debt just to get an education to help themselves and America compete.
• Research into renewable energy and lower CO2 emissions.

The best example of long term planning is China.  Capitalism used to be the only way to manage and grow an economy.  But, now with huge computing power that is available, centralized planning coupled with capitalism at the street level seems a viable option.  For example, look at rare earths (RE).  China 30 years ago decided they would be important and now they control 97% of the world supply. Computers, cell phones, our fighter jets and drones, etc. all must have RE.  There are hundreds of such examples, they have us by the balls and are just waiting to squeeze.

So, give me a political party that wants to invest in the future.  I need to see some long term thinking.  What’s your party got to offer?

8.  I want a political party that has compassion for the world we are destroying including:

• Depletion of finite resources including energy and mineral resources.
• Depletion of habitat for the other creatures on this planet.
• Depletion of water supplies in arid areas, including California.

I generally favor replacing traditional taxes, like income taxes, with taxes on consumption of finite resources.  A carbon tax (CO2 emissions) seems a reasonable way to track this consumption.  Consumption taxes in general seem like a good idea, but devising progressive taxation schemes is beyond our collective willpower at the moment. So, let’s stick with progressive taxes the old fashion way for now.

I favor eliminating subsidies to oil companies, big farmers (the only kind there is really), and big business in general.  Keeping peace in the middle east is just another type of  subsidies for our oil habit.

9. I want a political party that does not make WAR on everything.

War on Drugs (actually on black people that do drugs) , War on Terrorism (can you drop bombs on bad ideas and ideologies),  War on Poverty (what does that mean, is there a positive way to say this?), War on Women, War on Democracy, War on War, War on Want, the War on Cancer, War on Voting, War on Christmas, War on Cash, etc.

A war on something is a mind-set that with enough might and power we can make someone do what we want them to do.  Those with this philosophy believe that we do not have to change their mind, we simply attack their actions and make them change their ways.  We punish the drug user, help the alcoholic, we punish the felony and wonder why they don’t really change.  The result, the highest incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world.  I want a party that believes you should try to bring out the good in all people.

10.  I want a party that normally complies with the will of the majority of the electorate.

In our days of computers and smart phones, it should relatively easy to poll the country on major issues, and even subtopics in the bill.  Social media could be used to present and argue ideas for a few months, followed by some poll taking.  In the beginning we would still need Congress to formulate the bills based on public opinion.  The goal would be to move us toward being a democracy again. Perot proposed this idea of an electronic town hall a few decades ago.  Of course, there are naysayers and it would take time and effort to get it going, but the goal is a noble as it gets.

For example, does most of the people of the U.S. want term limits?  A balanced budget? Pot legalized? Elimination of PAC’s?  U.S. being the policeman of the world? Let’s debate then have a non-binding referendum.

In conclusion, I want a party, and government, that is of the people and for the people.

Voting ID's in a Compassionate Society by RR Odle

Voting ID’s in a Compassionate Society  (Good Citizens of the World)

Many states, mostly Republican states, have passed laws that citizens must have an official state or federal ID to vote.  So, its not such a bad idea on the surface to require an ID to vote.

But, what if you are an old person who no longer has an ID since you stopped driving and you’ve lost your birth certificate, never had one, or have one that has an error on it.

What if you can’t get off work or don’t have transportation to get your ID up to speed.  Or what if you have changed your name several times, i.e., a woman that has got married a few times, and you can’t document all your marriages and divorces.  And yes, I know the challenge here since my wife has been married three times (third time the charge) and got her first name changed once just for fun.  I witnessed the hassle even though she had a pile of documents to work from … even then it was touch and go and took an hour.  If it was me, there is no way I am organized to keep all those papers and court rulings.

So how do we get the Republicans who want ID’s and the Democrats who believe no one should be denied the right to vote together.  Simple. Compassion.  If we pass a law that everyone who votes needs an ID, we should have compassion on those that do not have an ID and provide them support to get an ID.  Maybe even some rule changes will be needed to get some people an ID.  It should be the government’s job to make it possible to get an ID for everyone. No one should be denied the right to vote in a democracy.  Maybe even some temporary ID’s will be needed until the more complicated cases are resolved.  Compassion as usual, will recognize that some people will have problems getting an ID, even insurmountable problems, and it is our job as a compassionate society to help those who need it … and not accept anyone being not allowed to vote.