Inspiring A More Equitable Society And Improving Family Life: United We Succeed, Divided We Fail

By Douglas B. Schaper

"Everything has changed but the way We think." Attributed to both Leslie Groves and Albert Einstein right after the Hiroshima explosion, We humans still think as We always have about pretty much everything. It may be the source of Our present anxieties. Respect and Responsibility, with their sibling Justice, have seemingly become lonesome doves, as near to extinction in some manner as so much wildlife and Our stable atmosphere. Government policy and more rigid and brittle individuals have come together to hamstring Our present and Our future.

We yet have a lot to learn about Ourselves.

This book hopes to begin a new discussion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886549010

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Inspiring A More Equitable Society And Improving Family Life

United We Succeed, Divided We Fail

Douglas B. Schaper

Copyright © 2024 Douglas B. Schaper

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-88654-890-7 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-88654-904-1 (hc)

ISBN 979-8-88654-901-0 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

For Our young folk, and the better world We'll leave Them.

Freedom: Respect, Responsibility, and Justice in today's America and around the world (12/15/19).

What a world.

One thing: All here is what I've written. I take full responsibility for All of it.

I apologize for any errors or omissions.

If You don't like it that is my Responsibility.

I did my Best.

DBS

Preamble

Dedication

Introduction

Respect for, Responsibility to, Justice for All. For One and One For All

Oh!!! To Be Gay!!!!

Prologue

First Up

Respect and Responsibility

Borders

The general state of our world as the people's weal turns up and down

Everything has changed but the way we think

Respect and Responsibility II

Chapter 1

The Case of the Disappearing Lady

Chapter 2

Is It China, or Is It china?

Chapter 3

America as It Is and as It Sees Itself

Taxes and the great experiment

Taxing America: Our federal code

Business and Responsibility

Scream Socialist!

Immigration

Race of Races

American Individualism, pros and cons

The trump Bli[m]p; America and its Age of Discontent

The American ethos

Military Preparedness and Its Reinforcement of American Society

Paying for it: Our Cleaner and Healthier Environment, Healthcare, Education/Child Care, Military, Infrastructure, Social Security, Repair and Promotion of Our General Welfare and Public Weal.

Chapter 4

The Russian Bear in Hibernation

Chapter 5

The EU

Chapter 6

The Least Developed Country

Chapter 7

Giving Everyone the Business

Chapter 8

The World We Live Amongst

Chapter 9

The Human, Being

Chapter 10

Solutions

Education

Climate Change, Atmospheric Transformation

Healthcare

Infrastructure

Energy renewables

Justice and the law

Big business, high technology, sociopaths

Foreign policies

china, Tibet, The Uighers, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and All of Us

Russia

The UK, Scotland, Ireland, Wales—and the Old CommonWealth

The Middle East, Western Asia

Asia

Africa

Latin America

The EU

Arctic and Antarctic

Last thoughts

About the Author

For Our young folk, and the better world We'll leave Them.

Freedom: Respect, Responsibility, and Justice in today's America and around the world (12/15/19).

What a world.

One thing: All here is what I've written. I take full responsibility for All of it.

I apologize for any errors or omissions.

If You don't like it that is my Responsibility.

I did my Best.

DBS

Preamble

Rachel Carson dedicates her 1962 book Silent Spring to Albert Schweitzer (born 1875, died 1965; Nobel Peace Prize 1952; dedicated humanitarian) who said: Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.

It sure looks like he will. Now might be a good time to fully share the reins with women. They, being Mothers of the Earth, have never had the luxury of losing that capacity as We men have. In fact, We seem to singularly reward those who have lost that capacity. Failure to do so will only bring about this destruction that much sooner. Those who cannot or have not seen this only prove the axiom.

For those who seek to forestall and foresee this book is firstly dedicated.

*************

This could be such a wonderful world for Us all and can be but for a few simple tweaks here and there of Us. We are so close to such a world, and yet We are far from it as We go now. We threaten everything on Our current path. At times this appears to be a grating contest between those who care for everyone and those who care only for their own tribe; those open to new ideas and those who hold tightly, so tightly We - and They - choke, to what is superficially comfortable and does not threaten said comfort, reality be damned.

To date, there's been a bit too much of Us in all We do and not enough of everything else that's out/in there. We have so much to learn about Ourselves and yet We are so frenetically anxious to stick, poke and intrude Ourselves everywhere.

It's coming to a head. These two are not Siamese twins. It's one family that We share. Share. This is unavoidable if We are to flourish Our future. There is no divorce here. Divorce to where? The other side of the Equator? There is no other side. We have only Us. E Pluribus Unum. Configure Divided States in Our mind. Then configure United. If We continue on the path of division that is what each and every one of Us will do unto Ourselves. Each and Every One of Us. Split down the middle. Good Luck with That.

The Administrative State. Saying We don't like it is like saying We don't like the plate Our food is served on. (I do so miss Dilly Douglas and her Mother-in-Law Helen's vineyard gourmet, with or without a plate.) Do We want to get rid of them? Kind of irrelevant. Administrative States are responsible for every great civilization we've ever known throughout Ourstory. Imagine Athens, Sparta, Aztec, Rome, Churches, Dynastic China, Genghis Khan, Ancient Egypt, Knossos, Iroquois, Carthage, Sioux, Tlingit, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Peter the Great, King Harold, the Mayan, the Maori, the Mughals, Denmark, etc., without administration. Government Big or Small. Are Administrative States the problem, or are We? Two people get together, Marriage or otherwise. It's only Administration between them.

The Administrative State. Our Institutions. Civilians. Individuals. Does it pay to hate and want to bring down One or all or love them? How are they related? Necessary? How to Best make them work for Us All? What is it We want?

Cook Ourselves Up? Die of thirst. Burn. Melt. Pesticides and sixty thousand chemicals in Our food? Hunt and fish for animals grown up wild in chemically saturated lands, airs, and waters? Bring Up Our kids likewise? Watch corporations pursue the Almighty Dollar whatever the cost to the rest of Us? Abide Corruption at the local on Up to the Federal level?

Respect. Responsibility. Justice.

Personal discipline. Imposing on oneself or on others.

fascism in the 1920s was a natural reaction to monarchies post World War I. Government before that War served the king. fascism arose in the name of the people. Clever fascists arose to serve themselves. Now fascism arises again—in the name of the people. But, as before, the fascists only serve themselves. Democracies have failed to properly serve the people.

If they serve the gates, the kochs, the musks, the zuckerbergs, the bezoses, the xi's, the putins, the trumps, the castros, the maduros and their ilk, they cannot, by definition, serve the people. There is a lot of truth in the old adage: the meek shall inherit the earth.

Trouble for some is, they have never been really meek. Is this a world where We make it work, where We actually make it work for We the People, or have We doomed Ourselves?

We made it work in Our Civil War here in the US. World War II. Whole nation mobilized after squandering life and time. We're close to extinguishing both now—Closer than ever before. Is it time to confront the enemy—Ourselves—and mobilize? We are One. On Ben Franklin's 1787 Fugio Cent. Are We?

A House Divided Cannot Stand. Each of Us has a part in this.

Accountability. Respect and Responsibility's Bedfellow. It somewhat rhymes with Justice. Our climate, environment, and All living things within are not of primary concern to folks right now. Neither was slavery nor Hitler. War in Ukraine. The Sassanid Empire's slaughtering of Genghis Khan's Embassy, prompting him to visit Persia.

Koch, the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron, the Federalist Society, and all their bed buddies have done everything they can to promote the use of fossil fuels and backburner fossil-fuel regulation of all sorts. Should they be held accountable for the increasingly obvious damage this entails?

Many have depended on this industry for their livelihood and do so now. How can we improve on the well-being they have had with this debilitating source of energy with its replacement?

First: nationalize the wrongdoer's assets and profits to be distributed to those communities heretofore dependent on them and also use the proceeds to stimulate small business development and training. These proceeds to be fused with Federal Government funds to realize these gains. Friedman was wrong about corporate Responsibility, as outlined below.

People who run these corporations—and too many governments—foment discord for their own benefit: trump, bannon, mccarthy, cruz, hawley, graham, and their ilk. Happy to use people the way We all use toilet paper to further their own interests. Serving themselves in the footsteps of so many.

Trump and putin both ignore the best interests of their country's. putin and xi, ukraine and taiwan, same script. Palestinians, Kurds. Same script. Muslims, Hindus. Same script. It's the festering, stupid.

In the United States, Conservatives, Liberals, and Progressives. Same script. Not conservative, reactionary. Not liberal or progressive, idealistic. Always better to be realistic. Otherwise, We become stupid, selfish, and solipsistic.

Personally, I don't care who or what someone is, so long as they put their shoulder to the wheel. Our wheel. In whatever fashion they choose. With Respect and Responsibility. To and for themselves. And Us. Out of many. One. One Made of All of Us. We the People are One, Made Whole of Each of Us. With all Our Peculiarities, likes, traditions, creeds, sexual or religious or political preferences, if We are not for Ourselves, Who are We? If not for Others, What are We?

Per the United States' so-called supreme court. Again, not conservative. Personal. There's a reason for the Founder's disdain for the fusing of religion and the state. Classically educated, they knew well what happens when not divorced from one another clearly. Allowing for churches of all stripes to pursue their own interests separately in a strictly secular society they wished to avoid inquisitions, reformations; Mongke Khan's debates between Nestorian, Roman, and Orthodox Christian—and their aftermath; Henry VIII's split from Rome and its ensuing disruptions; what we see now in Burma, India, Iran, the Taliban, and the Wahhabi, and Salafi dictates. And then there were the Salem Witch Trials being held sixteen years before Ben Franklin was born. Keep in mind, Roe, passed in 1973, was by this court shattered in 2022. It would have been as if another Witch Trial had again been held when Franklin was thirty-three years old.

So much for the history alito and his coconspirators refer to in the American record. It is not his-story, it is Ourstory. Wouldn't it be nice if he knew something about it and not just his own. Another fascism serving another group of fascists on a court of reactionaries—not conservative. How does this decision Establish Justice, ensure domestic tranquility, Promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity. It doesn't.

As for its EPA decision. Last paragraph Section 8 of Article 1: To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Sounds like the Environmental Protection Agency to me, especially considering that both Houses of Congress over the summer of 1970 accepted Richard Nixon's proposals for the Agency with its first congressionally sanctioned administrator—that is, Administrator William Ruckelshaus taking office on December 4, 1970. (Administration again. Someone doesn't like that. Promoting not the Constitution but the real end of Ourstory.)

We have a rogue court accountable only to themselves driven by personal vendettas, dictums, and creeds. Imposed on All. Fascism. Promoting two governments. So much for Article 3, Section 1's Good Behaviour.

Second Amendment:

The Robb Elementary School killings, murders, slaughter in Uvalde, Texas, demand action on a ridiculous status quo and are a call to a mind that approaches Our welfare, Our Weal, in a Better manner. It's all about Family—what makes them stronger, Better, what corrodes them and their future. How do We best Promote the General Welfare? What are the Best paths to improving Our Weal?

Some suggestions for gun management are as follows; some of which are further discussed deeper in this book along with other comments on other matters.

Guns cannot be bought by anyone under the age of eighteen. While military service at eighteen may serve as an excuse to overlook this caution, individuals who sign up at eighteen are under a far different monitoring regimen than are civilians of eighteen. Persons of eighteen have a considerable way to go before their learned social skills and abilities to cope with the stresses and strains of life have Better developed.

Crimes against the person need to be consistent across state boundaries, federalized. This is especially true for any and all crimes where the perpetrator uses a gun in any manner. As it's Our Federal Constitution that enables gun use in this country, so should use of a gun in a crime be managed and regulated by Federal dictate where crime is committed. And more. As it is, using a gun in any crime in any manner requires mandatory, severe, and consistent incarceration. The perp should know, without any obfuscation, what is going to happen when the gun is in his hand and he uses it to ill effect.

Guns should be a mandatory subject or course of study in schools from the sixth or seventh grade onwards. Special instruction of instructors, and students, should include graphic images of what guns do to living things. Instructors need training on how to, in these classroom settings, identify possible problem persons where guns are concerned. Guns are a part of Our lives and need to be spoken of in a far more open manner in a context of Respect, Responsibility, Justice. We seem to put guns in a sort of boxed mind as we do sex. One leads to more and more killings and the other to more sexual dysfunction. (My thanks to Wayne Barrow for some of this, a hunter of supreme integrity.)

Some guns designed and made to kill in a military setting like the AR platforms have no place in home or street settings. Weapons of War. The one exception to this that I know of is the M1911 handgun with seven or eight-round magazine, which is ideal for home protection. I've only fired one of these guns decades ago at my uncle's Vermont home. The noise was so loud I saw those little points of light. I couldn't hear anything for some time. While these types of handguns are used in more shootings than long guns, they are less accurate—but more easily concealed. Extended magazines and the AR platforms, and guns like them—assault weapons, semiautomatics with large-capacity magazines—should be regulated and sold only to special license holders with said holders going through some sort of special screening. They should not be sold or made available to the public at large any more than a machine gun should. Indeed, it makes sense to have any gun purchaser under the age of twenty-five go through mandatory training and/or screening. Ex-military folk need a review of their record in their respective service before being okayed for taking a weapon home. Far too many suicides by gun have taken these courageous honorable folk from Us, a factor which leads to some of the mental health concerns addressed in number 6. PTSD from military service, along with all mental health concerns associated with military service, must be addressed infinitely better than they are now, as discussed at Better length herein below. Our veterans—and their families—have earned a rigorous support far exceeding what they get now. It is an imperative to appreciate the fact that there are tens of millions of gun owners in the United States who are as aghast at these gun horrors as the rest of us and who also champion various blocks to gun ownership for individuals who are not trustworthy, folks who are never involved in any gun violence, except in hunting for their table. None of this would be an infringement of an adult's right to own a gun. It would be an acknowledgement of the existence of that right's Responsibility. The two are inseparable.

Again, put simply, better than 98.6 percent of gun owners are responsible. Laws to regulate guns need to be addressed towards keeping guns away from those who misuse them. It is a given, and inevitable, that this entails some inconvenience on the part of those who don't. It is up to these folks to make their voices heard to stop this insanity—by making it clear that this is what they want. Isn't this one of many responsible things to do to address this issue? Much has changed since the latter part of the eighteenth century, particularly in this country. What de Tocqueville would say about it now is probably not what he said about it two hundred years ago. It's not only the types of gun and gun violence that today relative to then dictates a relook at the issue. Our relationship to religion is different to strangers. What makes a stranger? What makes a neighbor? No man is an island. A peace of the Maine. And the issue has never, not then nor today, been one of taking guns away from responsible folk who Respect their Responsibility. Another way of illustrating the point is whether or not we'd like to see someone like Jeff Bezos buy an armed F-35. To my mind, he doesn't make the cut. No one does except in an official military capacity or setting. Any gun can cause catastrophic damage. Some just make it easier. Some are designed to. Weapons of War. What's the Point?

Lever action weapons such as the Winchester model 1894 that have built-in magazines, in this case usually a seven round one, are surely enough for any serious gun holder to use to hunt or defend home. With one in the chamber, they have eight bullets ready to load and shoot. Sure enough for anything—outside of war. This capacity is the same as the Colt factory model 1911 handgun's. Eight rounds is plenty. Some want more, but what for? It is surely easier for target shooting to have large magazines. A license for this with a special background check or some other check is not unreasonable. The Winchester trench shotgun is another gun that should be in a class of assault weapons that should be regulated and their owners screened as we do with those who own machine guns. The trench gun was flagged as an illegal weapon by the Germans in World War I, given the damage it is capable of. Our troops continued to use it. (There were many inhumane weapons used in that and all Our other wars. Imagine what those troops who, in 1371, first encountered siege guns in what is now Italy thought. Or a hundred years earlier at the gates of Krakow when the Mongols used grenades. Or a hundred years later at Agincourt when French troops with crossbows encountered the English longbow.) Other shotguns are not so enabled. Some are. These weapons of war have no place in any original intent interpretation of Our Founder's Second Amendment. Flintlocks are not mass killing machines. Those who doubt this interpretation might reflect on the lessons of the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania and Daniel Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts; both of which were dealt with directly by George Washington.

The call to abort more gun crimes with better mental health capabilities is not misplaced. Much of this gun damage of the past few decades has come upon Us as We have deemphasized, not sufficiently prepared for and accommodated, and happily ignored the healthcare of the mind. Like the French of old who just locked those of ill health in the basement, closet, or attic, we too put them out of mind as best we can. Our own little out of sight, out of mind madhouse. Can't be bothered. Well. Bothered We do seem to be. This ties into much healthcare involving the use of drugs as well. And this all brings us to Our economy, economic development, income inequality, and even Our tax code. There is enormous injustice built into Our systems of economy and governance. We need to address these now as they are as vital to Our Future, as is managing the too many negative changes we have rolled and wrought into Our natural world. And All of It feeds into a populist backlash that does nothing to address the problems We share but vent in as outrageous fashion as can be mustered.

If We don't think the leg bone is connected to the hip bone, We have not been paying attention. Leaving Our gun laws lax is a fool's paradise and game. Never speak of rights without working just as hard—if not harder—to acknowledge Responsibility to Ourselves and to Others. Three Musketeers.

Much of Our gun culture stems from vanity and testosterone. This stuff manifests itself All over Our Place to little good effect. Something to consider, perhaps. I've been a member of the NRA for some time now. My views on its promotion of gun rights is colored by Wayne LaPierre's $6,000 suits and travels to Africa to kill animals I lived in the bush with. It is not a positive coloring. That is not what I pay my dues for any more than I pay my taxes so that they can be subverted by lobbyists and special interests. And if I can take a picture of an animal, I can easily kill it with a rifle and scope. I don't consider that real hunting. Especially when the hunter drives in and out to the kill in a jeep, in wild comfort. Try killing a rhino as a member of the Pygmy Tribe does. That is hunting. But so many rifles, poisons, and machine guns and AK-47s have been employed in this pursuit that there are already far too few of these wonderful animal folk maybe it's best to just leave them alone. Instead, Shoot the son of a bitch in Your mirror. If You have to shoot someone. And try to get along without doing that. Think about it. Where does this need to kill things arise, and why. Watch out. We're all next.

Want a license to sell guns? If it takes two years for a cosmetologist to get licensed to do a manicure, maybe we should have licensing qualifications for gun sellers mandated to include training on how to spot possible problem gun buyers and have a national database on folks who, to put it simply and bluntly, shouldn't have guns, having been previously flagged by community members concerned about some signal. Here, however, is a fine line between going the way of china and Our Respect for—and Responsibility to—the responsible gun owner, who outnumber the problem folk by legions. This might translate into a holding pattern for some length of time, as between a learner's permit and a regular license, before the gun can be picked up at the shop. Unless the gun seller knows and has had a relationship with the potential buyer, being members of the same community, any gun seller who doesn't know the buyer had better beware, as she may be being taken for a bad ride. Hence, even more the need for that check. The ability of folks to drive is not infringed by Our having to get a license to drive. Background checks and the gun buyer's reaction to them are a righteous indication of the best qualities inherent in the understanding of what having and bearing a gun means.

Stop trumpeting the names of the killers. Much of this is motivated by a crusading sort of vanity. Ego is virtually always involved, sometimes with the killer emulating or mimicking other's acts of slaughter. Why feed it? The media and social networks and webs have a role to play here. Media has loads of terrific Reporter folk within its ranks, but their management and the management of the social network—Big Tech Corps more interested in ratings, advertising dollars, market share and outright market power, and producers—sometimes lose sight of their effectively Better and Bigger Fourth Estate Responsibilities. Regardless of their being labeled as Fourth Estate, media, publishers, news organizations, common carriers or dumb pipes, these entities are not absolved from Responsibility for allowing or providing a stage for someone's yelling, Fire! or Kill!

Red flag laws. While a serious risk of abuse is possible here, a dedicated team of inspectors set up by county could research claims made on the public's behalf by the public, school administrators, and mental health professionals funded by the states and federal government. A tandem agency entrusted to deal with restraining orders, or with these orders included in the red flag responsibilities, needs also to be implemented. This database must be included in a national database open for research for background checks nationwide. Included must be the ability to be dropped from this list as the subject of such inquiries is cleared as being safe.

The most important element on this list is the cultural factor, which is dependent on the overall management of Our government—and Our Society. This includes Our tax regimen; the disparity in incomes and wealth ownership; Our legal system and its inequalities and inefficiencies; Race and LGBTQ issues which receive so much blowback; notwithstanding Our elder's ongoing reference to Our Greco-Roman intellectual and reasoning democratic heritage; along with and in tandem with Our religious faith-based Judeo-Christian heritage which calls on us to Love thy Neighbor, where We more often want to kill her; Our miasmic health care system; Our Public system of education and the implementation of and emphasis on quantifiable, statistical—rather than a qualitative—assessment of students, teachers, and its overall effectiveness at providing an education for Our students. This stuffs students into boxes. Qualitative may be messier and more imprecise, but it is more human and more humane. Childcare and its lack of affordable provision across the country. The difference between what We say and what We do—as with Our Veterans. Thank You for Your service. See You later. Corruption, debasement, and personalization in politics and business; Our star-studded descent into hell, decay, and irrelevance. The lack of action and morality on existential threats Our students pick up on with so much more facility than adults—like atmospheric transformation and climate change, food provision, pollution, energy production and going green, land use, ecology and the threat to wildlife, the fundamentals of economics, politics, religion, and society…and the bleak future We have provided Our future adults with. Our decrepit example. Morality is for suckers. When I was young and growing up in the 1950s and 60s, the future looked promising—to say the least. Now, to be Young is positively frightening. For Our young Folk to look at their Future and not be scared—and angry—is absurd.

If We really want to address the trigger finger on so many, do something about All of the Above, nothing can entirely erase the risk, but it can be mitigated with policy that does not infringe on the rights inherent in the Second Amendment and does encourage Our Responsibilities also enshrined in Our keeping it and Bettering the Public. This means Our Family's Weal, their Well-Being.

When the burdens of the king came to be too much, We changed Our relationship to him, as We have with all the most important elements of Our life: slavery, dignity for differences—not in character but in personhood and its definitions—women, above and beyond their vote, especially come to mind, a process far from complete, as it is with persons of color and LGBTQ. A reflection— and part—of Us all, as with Christ. Before God and Ourselves. I often ask myself how Christ would have reacted/responded. More than two thousand years ago. And how about Spartacus. How far We have come.

If they vote Cheney out, they should have their minds examined closely. I disagree with her politics 95 percent of the time, but integrity and a perspicacity worthy of Lincoln, Washington, and the rest of them—including Officer Caroline Edwards.

As vladimir putin butchers his way across Ukraine, on the way doing the same to his own children, I wonder when the Spirits of the Potemkin, Bloody Sunday, and the relatively nonviolent overthrow of the Duma on November 6 and 7, 1917, will again rise and raise the flag of the Russian People over the Russian People's Future. All this death, destruction, and displacement—the result of one utterly corrupt and greedy individual man's fantasies. Like the empress tzu xi, building mega luxury yachts, not of stone but of gold bathroom fixtures that reflect the same contempt for [respectively, the Chinese] Russians and reality and express only the idolization of the self.

It's almost always men (tzu xi an exception that proves the rule).

See below.

As for the emperor xi jinping, with hallucinations about some kind of Mandate from Heaven (just like tzu xi), I wonder if he knows how to listen to anything but himself. Humans seem to have no effect on him. Like trump, putin, assad, and kim, it's all about him. Worse than pontius pilate, the lot of them.

china will not be China until Tibet is Free.

Much of the above feeds the narrative that testosterone is a fossil fuel that we need no more of than we have oil, gas, and of course, coal…

And then there is the administrative state represented not by the US government but by the Kochs and Chevron and their ilk and all their lobbying, the Federalist Society and all its behind-the-scenes machinations in pursuit of policies that enrich themselves short, medium, and long term while the multitude reaps the crumbs—Trump, Bannon, McConnell, McCarthy, and what is often referred to as The Right, who seek to run their guns freely and without restraint or any Responsibility to anyone but each individual, in so doing revealing the limits of the individual in a nation respecting We the People; and who seek to limit who can vote, manage their own health, run the entire environment into the dirty dirt For a Few Dollars More for a Few, transform the atmosphere into floods, burns, storms, death, and destruction on an ever-increasing scale as we push the climate into new and uncharted territory—For a Few Dollars More for a Few.

We may be headed towards Venus and its eight-hundred-degree cauldron, compliments of excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere.

Now, don't forget—We are the most intelligent animal in the universe, as far as we know…

If We Want the Administrative State, I give Us The Righteous Right.

And on the other side, We have Critical Race Theory, which posits that all can be traced to Slavery. Well. Visit Faneuil Hall in Boston with its Antique Bronze Cod Marker. I'm sure slaves helped fish the fish, along with indentured servants and many others whose ancestry faced burnings, lynchings, and more in the lands they emigrated from. Calvinists, Quakers, Huguenots, adherents to Spanish or Italian Popes, the English Church, the Roman Church, Protestants, Baptists, and the like. The same as slavery? Certainly not. But not much more fun for those burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, thrown in prisons where they died, families ripped apart, impressed into the Army or Navy as cannon fodder, starved, beaten, and thrown or shackled out of their land of birth. Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa… Our World without boundary.

Slavery has not been acknowledged as what it is for what it is but that all is reducible to its cruelties is simplistic. While it was critical to some of the worlds of men in America, there were many other worlds where it had little or no place, and it was from these worlds that it was eliminated and from which it is still being fought. Simple—and true to say—it is a central tenet of life here, but not necessarily its central or main theme. The American experiment includes slavery and its enduring aftermath and its many threads in the fabric of this nation, but it's a large fabric handmade by many types of hands with many heritages that have endured injustice, a lack of Respect, and a dearth of Responsibility through the ages. It is what America is all about. Slavery is central to this weave. But Our injustices to Ourselves knows no bounds. Knows no end. Yet knows enough Justice.

And on to Our Supreme Court and Mohammed.

As outlined in greater detail below, this roberts court is one where personal articles of faith serve as the benchmark for us all. Using state and federal income taxes to fund religious schools is, without question, establishing religion. Abortion, citizen vigilantes, campaign finance, EPA, and the so-called administrative state, guns, gerrymandering, voter registration… Original Intent? Not hardly. Maybe in some agenda-driven mind, but for We the People, these decisions are absurdities. They reflect an agenda borne of administrative entities that would rule Us all for the satisfaction and benefit of a few. Worried about rule of a majority? Try on for size rule by minority.

Akin to ISIS, the Taliban, Xi, Putin, Maduro, Castros, and so many more. Aren't We the most intelligent animal ever!!!! And then there is Mohammed, the Founder if Islam. As the word Islam means Submission, it bears asking submission to who, or what? I take my cue on Islam from its Founder's acknowledgement that without his wife, Khadijah, there would be no Islam to God, Allah—Peace, so elusive within and without Islam, Be Upon Him.

So to the Taliban, ISIS, and all those who, in the name of Islam, demand submission to their own peculiar personal interpretation of Original Intent—just like Our American Supreme Court—We say: Blasphemy! The subjugation of women is Blasphemy. The subjugation of We the People by any means, but especially Your selfish ones, is Blasphemy.

More below.

Dedication

And for the following whose lives have enriched mine.

We humans may very well not be the smartest animals on this earth. Everything around Us has been dedicated and directed towards our well being, happiness and security. Just exactly how has that been working out for Us? Keep in mind most of our work of the last 10,000 years or so has been directed by men. Maybe We are in fact the dumbest animal on the planet because We seem to have been working ourselves to a point where We are on the cusp of doing more damage to Our earth - and Ourselves, than that asteroid of 65,000,000 years ago. This book is first and foremost dedicated to all those working towards the opposite of such an ending. The following have been, in my life, seen to be integral to that effort. For Charlie and Jane, Carl and Julia, Armin and Ethel, Bots, Dick and Bud, Peter Aspinall, Dr. John and Carlie Levinson, Uncle Harold and Aunt Margaret Lawrence, Aunt Sadie, Aunt Cele, Uncle Bob and Sylvia, The Chairman of the Board Fran Levinson, Mark, Poki, Maya and Remi, Corey and Sarah, Chris and Emanne, John and El, Liz and Jen and families, Milt and Glo, Kenneth Werrel All Time, Frank Zarb, Peter and Grace Levinson, Isabella, Markus, Kamil and Patrik Krobova, Jane and John Drukker, Pattie Dalton, David Amidon, Janet Almroth, Walter Curley, Gen. Richard P. Mills, Marilyn Boteler Horan, Lynn Herzog, Nick Whitcraft, Paul Hanley, Vinnie Ferro, Laurel O'Brien, Meg Sheerin, Jill Jelenko, Susan Tembeck, The Murray Family from Ireland and MV, Leonard and Helen Yaseen, Howard Blum from Blue Note Guitars, Jon Burnham, Megan and Maile Mitchell, Caryn Cosentini, Pepi Frivaldska Forever, Ellen Petrakowski/Pierce, Cedric Grant, Debbie Grant, Bente Strong, Fran Capposella, Ginger Dubin, Jean Gramaglia, Chris Gompert, Mary Lou Gilbert, Sarita Gantz in all Her Glory, Nancy Anderson Always, Peter Aspinall, Henke Hassing, The Hester Ladies, Tim Helfet, Jim Sarnoff, Eddie Higham, Chicy Bohmfalk, Doug Holtquist, Gilena Hooton, Banafsheh Keynoush Indeed, Allan Rothman Definitely, June and Warren and Carla, Tino and Mona, Joseph Destefano and his Dad! Bartholomew:Engineers forever!, Marian at Delson's Kathy @120WPM, Casper the Pooch, Max the Dog, Oliver the Dogster, [Eleanor, Winston, Carlie, Sophie, Annabelle, Archie, Spencer, Sassies Jr. and Sr., Jamie and Zoey the Doggies], Reine, Marie, Alexa, Connor, Linda, Michelle, SueEllen, Dr. J. and ALL staff, Amory & Annette, Merlin, Jonathan and Alice Kotch Twice, Kiyomi Kawaguchi, Charles Kovacs in Hungary, Ginger Dubin, Judy and Alex Kahn, Evy Mages the Absolute Photographer, Steve Lazarus, Tom and Nancy Seaver and family, Harry Fisher and his wife!, Liesel Friedrich, Allie Torre and family, Henry D. Lane the Best, Dr. Sid Zimmerman, Leslie and Audubon, Alain Conrat Always Forever, Ted Dawson, Souhail Hosni and family, Cathy&Jaz and Leslie McFarlane, Sandra Audy, Sam and Russell Williams, Walter from Riverdale, Michelle Le and Klara of Prague, The Lotus Club, Amanda Leigh, Larry and Eda LeShan and Edward, Nikki Agnelli, John D. Pape, Vivek Murthy, Anthony Fauci, Paul Hanley, Bhalindar Rikhy, Stuart Rubin, Ron Meadows, Sam Taylor, Syl Scheffler, Chief John McCarthy, Holly and Frank, Linda and Frank and Zoe and Franca… and Family!!, Maples: The Trees and the Family, Mary Middlemiss, Pammy Maffei/McCarthy Indeed, Coach Charlie McCarthy, Mr. Cowing, Irene Guiney, Mr. Gronningsater, John Jones, Mr. Klue, Mr. Schultz, Mr. Edwards, Coach Bertino, Coach David Hemery, Mr. Keasby Golden Hearted, Coach Bertino Family, Buzzy Burroughs, Rick Klauber, Tom Zakian, Kent Mignocci, Tony and Gerson and Dick and Gar and Val Reichman, Sandra Audy, Miss Bruskin, Mr. Murabito, Montana, Dr. Leaf, Larry Chipurnoi, Sue Charney, Uncle Jens and Bets Quistgaard, Dorothy Rostov, Aline&Julia&Lara Deoliveira, Jonathan Revere, Sheryl and Sharyn Stein, Irene Hecht, Cliff and Barbara Grodd & Paul Ostrove All Forever, Ray Nethercott, Bernie Fierro & Heidi Vanderbilt always, All the Chaos, Stan Stokowski in All his Glory, Ingrid Persaud & Delilah for All Time, Tom Gladwin and Ingo, Steve Thorne, Teddie Hermann, Sol Gittleman and Lynda Shaffer, Laura Ann Tomaso, Forbes Tuttle, Iris von Braun, Sig Van Raan, Mike Kelsey, Sam Williams of Riverdale, Amy Winik, Jerry Bell, Steiner Ladies, Al and Freddie Noyes, Lionel Suporta, Kristin from Silverscape and her Dad Terrific Let Me Know!, Harold Merithew Completely, Ana Maria and Alain Bars, Brooksie, Dennis Daniels Sounds Great, Claudia Carmel, Kansas Hillmans Everywhere, Albany Sara and her son, Rye Corroon, Bart and Joseph Destaphanos, Marge Cacciola, Len Gabbidon, Rick Henry, Bob Simmons of Winchester For Sure Darn Tootin', Annie, Eddie Conroy and Sue and Dave Cooke, Tom Osmers, Pam Danz! Yesirree, Sooooz, Steve Kroft, Kathy Bragdon, Jeannie Goodman, Kevin from Walter's, Pascal Sabater and Marie Jose', Gus van Sant Sr., Jonna Johnson, Appolonia von Raversham, Chris Chambliss and his Adorable Wife, Jane Bierne, Vinnie Ferro, John and Mary Ellen Mendes, Larry and Judy Lachman, Tony Adler, Tom Stanback, Stu Rubin, Jerry Hall and Elizabeth and Jimmie and Georgia, Ted Dawson, Enoch Page, Colin Birch, Dawn Mello for Everest, Kenny Sherman, Virgil Dudley, Kristin Weber and her Dad, Constanza Erdoes, Maureen Watts, Pattie Hansen and Keith's Dad, Leora Raikin, Bronwen Sharp @ the .com and very Picturesque, Ronald Roderick, Robert Simmons (2xs) of Winchester Virginia and the Real US of A, Tatsuo Okaya, Nobuko Shiotani Of Course, Howard&Julia&Alice Ernst, Frank&Linda Lynch and Family, Alison Withers, Jeff Brauer, David Michaelis, Cliff and Barbara Grodd, Paul Ostrove, Arthur Grodd, Wayne Waggoner, Butch of the Oglala, Sky of the Cherokee, Colleen Primrose, Kathleen Brady, Landon Bowie, Susan Gilbertson, Linda Bistany Indeed, Holger Engberg All GoodHeart, Louis Giordano For Sure, Reuven Glick, Siobhan Cavagnaro, Carol Lembo, Kelly Giacalone, Max Weisen, Robert Roosa, Tracy Schwarz, John Hersey, Art Buchwald, Jules Feiffer, Frederick von Bolhuis, Clas and Lee Wihlborg, Roanna MTrigona, Amy Winik, Jack Ware, Rashmini Yogaratnum, Doug Gold, Peter Farker, Jim Hooper, for Milt and Glo and Linda Coombs Timeless, Louie, Bart, Forrest Cuch of the Ute, Butch of Oglala Sioux treasure, Mike Hanitchak of the Choctaw, and Sky - Jim Locklear 2xs, for Mzee Peter Kihonge, Karanja, Petro Olela Omuya, Tony Parkinson and John Seago, Levs Mark and Fran, Remi, Pokey and Maya, Sweet P, Jen and Liz, Glaser Carla and Stein Bill, Rob and Anya, John Hubley for Ever and Ever, Josh Lee and Joseph Losey, Bobby Hsu, Amory, Merlin, Dan, Nick and Nasreen, Kenny, Jade and Lady T, Wayne, Muggsy and Big John, Kwame, Betty, Mike Mullally, Sam Allen, Dick Cox, Henry Lane, Dave Cloud, Kenny, Mike and Cheryl, Chuck Rothschild, Holger Engberg PureHeart - Twice, Oscar and John and Marion and Jane Dystel, Estelle and Sydney Silverstone, Julia, Howard and Alice Ernst, Dick and Betty Fuld, Bill with Jen and Family!!!!!, Kinnereth Ellentuck, Sunny Skies in Paris, Gerhard Mussener from Germany, Jouko Vayrynen from Finland, Stig Winberg from South Africa, Rudy Nugent from Brazil, Ed Higham, Vicki Annunziata, Ajai & Abha Kaul, Kathleen Cuomo, Ed Conroy, Sue Smith, Pete Cronig, Fran Caposella, Doug Rebert, Icky, Irv and Winnie Givot, Constanza Erdoes, Yin Jin-yi and Yin Le-tien of Pure and Solid Character, Tom Cassidy Forever, David and Anthony and Christian, Anthony and Eliza Lewis, Angela&Catalena, Ali Vitali, Carl Hulse, Frank and Holly Mignona, Eileen Kraft, The Entire Dr. Chao family!!!!!!!!!!!!, Sally Rubin, Philly Big Boy Coccialetti, Big John Fisher Burns, Alex, Ed, Ajai, The Healing Hester Ladies, Jimmie and Tommy and Phoebe and Billy and May, Melissa&Hart&SteveGoldman, MeganMaudMitchell, Debs McCall, the Seidenfaden Family, Henning Glahn, Alain Conrat, Colin Birch, Hanni Dzubas, Jim Brooks, Tim Helfet, Ted Hermann, Jim Egan, Cedric Grant, Bente Strong, Chris Gompert, Mary Lou Gilbert, Matt Jeffers, Michael McKenna, Lynn Munsinger, Premila Nair, Bob Basilik, Jack Nevison&Nancy McJennett, Enoch Page Yup Giddyup!, Balaban, Ruth Roosevelt, Jonathan Reverre, Allan Rothman, Syl Sheffler, Jon Burnham, Steve and Sherrie Thorne, Forbes Tuttle, Stephen E. Clark and Susan McAvoy, Richie Weinstein and Family!!, Harold Rosen and Family Too!, Rob Woodrow and Michael and Sis!!!, Doc Sid Zimmerman, Peter Simon, Tom Gainey, Lynda Shaffer again Oh! Yeah! Learned a Lot, Jeff C. Mitton, Dennis LaMarsh, Susie and Katya and Kirsten Carter-Barrow, Mickey Ataya, Betty, Marina, Alexis, Ben and Andrew, Ye Olde Don Gummer, Nelson, Malleta, Reggie and John, Michael, Gerard, Pio, Said, Arnold, Isabella, Leona, Klara, Michelle, Siddiq Adam El- Aqub, Cody, Saleem, Oscar Mallory, Ed Dobbs, John and Alice Kotch, Tony, Sue and Sarah, Janet and Janice, Carl, Lynn Buttolph, Bruce Berk, Teddy Martellini, Derek Allen, Reiny and Mark and their Dad, Adam Dindinger, Bobby Hsu, Diana Gregory, Brilliant and Beautiful Heather Upstairs, Reggie, Elaine and Angela and May and Dr. J, Kesang, Dolma, Tsering and Dickie, Maros and Slavka, Angela, Miguel, Jorge, Catalina, Leana, Nyssa, Phil, Barbara, Diane, Marissa, Carol, Paul, Emerson, Reno and Ron, Al, Jeremy, Rob and Anya Porto; Will, Jen, Alyx, Samantha, Max, Max's Lovely Bride Lindsay, Caden Jay, Parker Lane, Catherine, Jessen and Jorie; Christian, Anthony, David, and Rick Henry; Mr. Tripicchio; The Estelle and Sydney (again) Special, and for, especially, again:

My Sister Betsy and my ex-fiancé Miriam Maria, who lost family in putin's latest gambit imitating hitler. Apparently, hitler won the Great Patriotic War after all. His reincarnation in putin cares no more for truth or Russian and/or Ukrainian lives than did hitler himself. And a fervent Heil!! to xi and his dystopian, paranoid desires and accomplices. china will not be China until Tibet is free. And for Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese and everyone else who love, respect and are responsible to Family, not just their own, Mir, Justice, Truth and Freedom above all… If'n Ye could but see Yourself as others see Ye…If'n We could but see others for what they are and not what We'd want them to be. This can still be a Magical World for Us if We let it be so; if We don't keep sticking Our Big Foot so hard and sloppily into it.

Introduction

Imagine being a child, a youngster, a teen in today's world: Ukraine; Covid and other diseases and afflictions; nazis—referred to as autocratic in today's jargon but nazis; atmospheric changes, inducing climatic transformations; the sixth extinction—the elimination of so many wild forests, places, and animals from most of the surface of the planet; food and their sources and means of production and preservation increasingly contaminated by plastics, chemicals, and depleted soils and waters, with said methods dominated by the desire for profit rather than healthy nourishment; increasing inequality of wealth with the corollary decrease in the political viability of We the People; public education increasingly influenced by poor distribution of funding, greater involvement by narrowing special interests, increased politicization; public and private education increasingly focused on jobs for workers rather than educating citizens to fashion a better Public Weal; healthcare having lost any care in its provision as its business pursues profit for lawyers, HMOs, and insurance companies, with providers and patients left twisting in their wind; infrastructure needs of every stripe made a political football as existential threats from all sides descend on We the People; a tax system that serves the few at the expense of the many, all in service to self-serving and utterly disproved rich aggrandizing hypotheses; Big Business and Big Tech corporations gathering ever more power and profit to themselves, oblivious to their effect on society as they ally themselves with fascist regimes, pursue every monopolistic advantage they can gather to themselves, in cahoots with politicians spending ever more of their time begging for campaign funding rather than learning about what is best for We the People; Our Fourth Estate increasingly focused on dollars and not truth, serving We the People with verbiage that serves to excite rather than inform; Societies across the planet increasingly made up of Subjects and not Citizens and a concomitant increase in corruption, influence peddling, domination of, by, and for the special interests of a few; The demonization of everyone different from some prevailing description of who is Green with All Others Red; the Incredibly ironic, hypocritical, cynical, and destructive messianic effort to paint All Difference Red in the name of Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Abraham and Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X—fascinating positions for ISIS, Taliban, intolerant Political and Religious Rights and Lefts everywhere—and so much more. Everywhere We look, folks doing harm to themselves and as many others as they can aim their guns at.

Young folk know People are just People. They've looked at the destruction, the pointlessness of it all. They've learned the lessons of the humanists and the fascists and learned and made their choices. They understand the separation of church and state is built on the Salem Witch Trials, the persecutions that drove their ancestors to these shores, the Inquisition, the desire of the Founders to speak of Providence more than God, and the endless and relentless examples of Ourstory: the Crusades, the Reformation, Galileo, Martin Luther, St. Francis of Assisi, Rome East and West, and so much more.

They've learned that if We don't build a New World built on Respect, Responsibility, and Justice, We will all die in Our Old One. It will be a slow but, increasingly as time marches on, unpleasant Death. They've learned to separate the wheat from the chaff. They've had to. We've left them no choice.

This book is about Us. All of Us. Choices we have made, things we think about. Policy, Domestic and Foreign. Our Actions over the millennia. The idea that I am going to think of everything, say everything, describe, explain, and highlight everything is preposterous. This is a book that demands the reader's participation. I try to shed bits of light on a range of paths taken, not taken, and contemplated; paths the reader must walk. They need not be walked alone. Much is covered, but far, far more is up to the reader to fill out, finish, light up, illuminate.

We live in an age when information is dug up in a war zone. Truth, Lies, False News, Disinformation, Misinformation, Half Truths… As the man said, Lies are Lies, but Half Truths are told by People who have Forgotten where they Have Put the Truth—or don't care about it or anything but themselves.

In May 1945 American forces were closing in on Japan. On Okinawa, four hundred miles from Japan, they met their fiercest resistance. The Japanese had told Okinawans about American Marines and Soldiers. They told them all Americans would torture them, kill them, even eat them and their children. Japanese propagandists told them all manner of the worst things anyone could say about anyone.

It was False News, meant to dissuade folks from going down a path the Japanese didn't want them to go down. American forces certainly performed acts that would qualify as War Crimes during World War II—and in other wars. We all know that. All troops in all wars have. The distinction between Official Policy and random acts by a few means nothing to those tortured, killed, and maimed. But on scale, Americans have never perpetrated crimes against humanity on the same scale as the japanese did in Manchuria, or Manchukuo as the Japanese called it, or in the Nanking Massacre, or in Chungking, or in so many of the places the Japanese invaded and occupied during the Second World War… We have, as in the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, Tokyo, and many other cities in Japan, firebombed, or in Afghanistan and Iraq and Vietnam and Laos, killed millions. But these were not artillery operations or actions by individuals en masse, targeting hospitals and schools and children systematically as russia has in Chechnya, Syria, and now Ukraine, or as the japanese did as pointed to above.

It's a feeble distinction, admittedly, but a line nevertheless—nor is it one to be relied on to give succor to the perpetrator.

The False News / Lies filling the minds of Okinawans had the most horrible consequences as mothers jumped from cliffs, cradling their babies or holding the hands of their children and loved ones.

False News and Lies make a difference. Have consequences. Shape the world we live in. Contribute to the actions we make which affect Our lives and Our Weal. Demonstrably.

I mention these things because False News and Lies have come to saturate Our world of ideas, thoughts, and actions. They are impacting our lives directly even as we read these and other words every second of every day. False News and Lies are a cancer on the body individual and social. I know. I have physical cancer. And I have seen the False News / Lies cancer firsthand in Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Spain, Uganda, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Ireland, Great Britain, Italy, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Yugoslavia—in all its new republics—Austria, and of course, here in the United States. It's a very poisonous thing, particularly if it is given a second wind by those who wish to ride it like a Horse of the Apocalypse. Oftentimes there is reason to give it such a wind and ride, but when better sense prevails—such rides are notoriously self-destructive—such rides are motivation for Good, not Bad, Works instead.

The United States is held up as a beacon of light for all humans, its ideals, Founding Documents, and many of its actions speaking to the best of what is universally held up as Our Better Light. Dinka or Ainu, Pygmy or Russian, American or Iroquois, it matters not where we come from. We all wish to go to a place where love of family, Respect for Ourselves, education for our children, and freedom from want of the most basic of necessities is shared by us All. We All wish for this Light to Shine on Us.

False News and Lies block this light. Light does not come from this darkness. It's where the Fourth Commandment comes in and shines its Light. Its where a Light on josef goebbels shows him to be what he truly is. It's an is we need to see for what it truly is so that we can bury it, like what he did to his own children after this Light found him.

There are swirls of False Truths wishing and washing all over America now, about voting, covid, certain groups of people who don't conform to some narrow and un-Christlike idea of what a person should be, or read, or say.

A lot of these lies are pushed by some who wish to direct us into a place they call home but which to us may well be a prison. Look at Russia today, under the thumb of the twenty-first century's Hitler. False News and Lies and half-truths everywhere, the truth buried as well as it can be by an operation dedicated to such burial—and cremation. The chinese nazis, pushing the convenience that biolabs in Ukraine are churning out research and bio weapons, that putin and the russian military is carrying out a justified excursion, just like the japanese did in China and so many other places: Tibet, Chechnya, Xinjiang, Georgia, Hong Kong, Ukraine… History repeating itself. Same people, same reasons, same actions, same effect, same outcome, same disgust.

Romeo and Juliet. Hatfields and McCoys. West Side Story.

Perhaps it is simply so much easier to hate and fear than it is to Love. For us, as we so amply have demonstrated.

Obstructionism. It is so much easier to grasp, so as to choke Our opponent/neighbor, than it is to embrace her and work with her. So much easier to try and destroy her than to help her build herself and those around her.

Working with as opposed to against does take more effort and work and trouble and trust. But consider the world we live in. Ultimately, it is better to live in peace than to try and kill everything and one that doesn't fit our Glove. And so much obstructionism is performance for a perceived sameness for a base of interest that is simply being manipulated by the performer.

Take Tucker Carlson for example. Making millions by spewing his self-serving fabrications, all on a platform provided by a person of boundless cynicism—Rupert Murdoch. Friction pays. Making people angry stimulates passion, and passion sells. No matter if the passion stirs all the evils humankind can muster.

The 2020 vote. Take one person. One Person. That's Just One Person, with proof of Fraud. Give that Proof to TC, and what have we got? A manipulated election. Undeniable. But… Answer Our Own question. Any Proof?

Biden this and Biden that. Trump this and Trump that. Very different folks, these two. Who would We want to depend on when the chips are down? Marry Our Daughter? Give the Key to Our home to?

Respect, Responsibility, Rights. Inseparable all three. The real Fundamental Three Rs. Where would We be without them? Where are We going, and are We going with or without them?

The Ukraine Horror: In a call with Mr. Biden, Mr. Xi used the phrase let he who tied the bell on the tiger take it off in regards to china helping end Mr. Putin's war of blanket destruction. The reference to this war being the fault of the United States and Europe in form of NATO.

This is tantamount to saying that World War II was China's and the World's fault. Hitler, of course, had his gripes about how World War I ended, and Japan had her gripes about Asia and her own Manifest Destiny denied. And then there is the parallel between Tibet and Ukraine vis-a-vis China and Russia, respectively. And Taiwan. And Hong Kong. And the South China Sea. North Korea, Kim Land, has her gripes too. I guess at this point in Ourstory, just about everybody has gripes. So when Xi bails on Respect for the lives, dignity, security, and integrity of Ukraine and her self-determination and absolves himself and denies any Responsibility for anything but self-interest of China strictly as defined by Xi, the cynicism is deafening, defining, and demonstrably disrespectful [of everything on this planet but China's self-interest as strictly defined by Xi].

Think of Versailles and a table set for Hitler. Glory to germany! Think of the end of the Soviet Union and a table set for…Hitler. Glory to russia! Think of Red China and a table set for…Hitler. Glory to china!

Same MO, different face.

May the Real Germany, Russia, and China Stand!

For We the People.

Mr. Xi has said his partnership with Mr. Putin has no limits. Neither does china's efforts to plant their Belt and Road Trojan Horse all over the planet, banking on desperation, corruption, coercion, and misinformation to extend their reach. In all of china's actions, notice how there is absolutely no Respect for real democracy—power to the people, individuals—even though Xi demands he be the number 1 Individual Above All Others (Emperor with a Divine Mandate From Heaven). No Respect for different from his own points of view. No Respect for truth. Visit Xinjiang and feel free to explore the wonderful Uigher culture untrammeled by thought or action police. Sail the South China Sea—a sea shared equitably by all those wonderful nations bordering its bountifulness. Trek Tibet and learn from experts who enjoy absolute freedom of thought and study all about its very long and independent Ourstory. Hear about the Red and Blue Turbans of the eighteenth century and their impact on Tibet and their genesis from its beginnings. Walk the streets of Hong Kong and revel in its unbridled freedoms so hard fought for by its inhabitants. Travel Taiwan and marvel at its vibrant democracy and learn how it evolved from an agricultural waystation of native folk into a haven for a warlord who set the stage for what We see now—a democracy in full bloom under the watchful, envious, and angry gaze of covetous nazis who only know to threaten, intimidate and coerce—not to attract by setting an example folks would want to, or even be excited to, follow.

So should we, would we, could we, look forward to a china-dominated world? Read their real example and weep. Watch what they do, not what they say. And run. False News? Tampering with all studies of Covid to suit political purpose in such a way as to make Goebbels proud. Lying through their teeth about the Ukrainian slaughtering fields so as to serve the party—the chinese nazi party—it isn't communist. Not Hardly. And look at their buddies doing their bidding: Eritrea, Syria, North Korea, and Russia. Their partners, looking to carve up the world in self-service. No Respect for any views but their own. No Responsibility for anything but their own pocket, line, or tomorrow. Justice for One.

Why, We ask again, do misters Xi, Assad, Kim, Putin, and Afwerki have so much less Respect for the people who share their nation with them than We do?

That's nazis for Us. Prime examples. Who amongst us wants this for our children and children's children? Or even folks living cross country from us. There are some who do, of course. Apologists. Co-conspirators. Disrupters. Opportunists. Joseph Kennedy Sr. Charles Lindbergh, Tokyo Rose, Lord Haw Haw, Rupert Murdoch. We know who they are even if we don't wish to name them. Folks who care about nothing but their own narrow, desperate grip on specialness.

It's a fertile field, Ours, for numerous tropes about numerous designs and conspiracies. False, Fake, Lies, Half Truths, Dis- and Misinformation. It's a minefield. But survivable, if we set Ourselves to the task. More than survivable. We may yet flourish. Though we may yet fail. Efforts to limit discourse, political correctness, woke left and right feed into a restrictive narrative that runs afoul of Respect for Our minds, bodies, souls,