I'm not sure about global warming yet. I believe that whether it is true or not true it make sense to protect our environment as much as possible. I can also say that because our environment appears to be changing we will have to be better prepared.
Emergency kits can help people weather some difficult spots. From the video you see that some were without food and water for a few days. I'm wonder if having a sack with basic supplies, first aid, and a radio handy might help in these situations.
Our Constitution and Bill of Rights are fundamental to our nation and our future prosperity. Without that we have no nation, and no real future as a unified entity. When we subjectively ignore those fundamental rights in favor or our clan, race, or religion we begin the trek backwards into third world status. Broken societies are often decided by our inability to use our systems for the best interest of everyone. Free passes are not free...they add to the cracks in our foundation.
I believe that our nation will turn toward the brighter light. While we have often given wink and nod (assuming that is the case) to certain hate based behaviors we know that there is a huge percentage of society that are beginning to distrust those blind sided decisions. Integrity comes from doing the right thing consistently and in the best interest of everyone.
We will turn toward the higher moral ground because eventually our choices will begin to catch up to us. As a people we know we must either come together or we must break apart. I advocate for peace, bringing people together, and finding a shared cause around our shared American principles. Creating a universal sense of purpose; some advocate for something different.
Our nation is strongest when we respect our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We becoming increasingly stronger when democracy represents the needs of the people and capitalism encourages people to be their best (not just the wealthy). When we engage in clan like behaviors we destroy that foundation by using different metrics for different people. We should take the higher moral ground.
While behaviors are often learned and repeated I do believe there are backstops within the system. While we might look at some individuals and say they have the "right" social group, background, race, religion, or friends we know that giving them free hand leads to all types of future atrocities (Just read the sequences within our history books.). That is why our system is designed with local, state and federal judges (elected and appointed) who have different perspectives that creates checks and balances.
Each has a slightly different vantage point based on the needs of the nation and its people. Local judges are often qualified to deal with local issues but don't always understand the greater purpose of the justice system. State judges think about the needs of the state and federal judges think of the needs of the entire nation. Sometimes it is necessary to step in when systems begin to default.
I always encourage empathy and kindness no matter what the outcome. Our lives are so short. As I have learned from experience, lives can be easily discounted and then supported by others in that discounting. Not a single person can say me or my kids have done something wrong to them. On the contrary, we are easy targets in a system where the laws are more focused on social structure and popularity then the deeper needs of the community, nation and people.
I made promises and oaths and I plan on following through with kindness, honesty, positive engagement, and encouraging win-win situations. Hopefully, I will not back down to inappropriate and unjust behaviors no matter how many people line up to blindly support the ignorance of hate. I cannot sugar coat bad behaviors. My perceived religion may have made me easily discardable but I believe I am making a positive impact to at least those few who can see beyond the obvious.
We have responsibilities to the next generation and that reaches far beyond our social groups. I know it sounds so stupid that our nation and future are built on the foundations of trust inherent within the system. We as a nation must stand together for some very basic rules of how we treat each other and deal with each other. When groups engage in hate with a level of immunity we must ask ourselves where our values lay. Shall we take door #1 which leads to a shared sense of purpose or door #2 where we sort of gamble with the outcomes.
What we have found over the past few years is that hate may not be taken seriously in our country (Antithetical to the needs of the nation.). No matter if our capital gets sacked or we are targeting people within our hometowns we have not been able to find a way to deal with that hate (There is some effort on a national level but not so much on our local levels.). Free passes are not wise and seem to be something of a little concern as statistically most of these issues are unreported and unenforced on a local level. (UCR)
We are not talking about a single incident but a repeated incident in manipulation of elderly, group level hate, rejection for jobs you were more than qualified, local police corruption (just a couple) and general aggressiveness by an ex sports playing group. While all of it is relevant, none of if seems to matter.
What I have advocated for is that the people who use these behaviors like tools should have mandatory mental health evaluation and that all records are audited where it appears there is an attempt to gain a profit by such behaviors (These people smirked, got a large group of people involved, and it appears repeated whenever there is something to gain. These behaviors didn't come from no where. The law should recognize those behaviors as inappropriate.). I would think that would be a given in similar situations.
I also encourage Michigan leaders to think about mental health and extremism and find better mechanisms for dealing with it (Track and Coding). Thus far it looks like as long as the targets are against "the other" there is unlikely to be any real level of accountability (Indicating a level of acceptability.). This is moral issue and does hint that we are beginning to break down some fundamental rights as subjectively applied.
I have not asked a single person to go to jail but I do ask that there is some level of accountability and what I have proposed is very reasonable and light on my part considering the intentionally destructiveness and potentially dangerous behaviors these individuals engaged it. So how does one build trust in a system....by that system acting with truth, wisdom and moral conscious (What we look for on a bio-psychological level. Its rooted in us.).
If we hope our nation will move to the next level as based in our human capital we will need to rethink how much free hand we give those who attempt to harm, profit, lie, restrict, or ostracize people. I'm just saying people like this don't often learn when they have a history of such "super cool" behaviors where they show aggression and rely on a couple of law enforcement friends to support them.
There are some communities where the laws become subjective and people that are not the "right" kind must wonder if we as a nation are serious about our national philosophies. We need to build unified communities and our institutions should universalize to help encourage prosocial behaviors. While people with Muslim sounding names have little value and mixed race children even less, we have to wonder.....at what point are we going to fix these issues?
The answer is right there in front of our face. Sometimes we have to come to accept that our system is not yet ready to move onto the next stage in the development of our democracy. In many ways it is trying to tread water holding against slipping its ground. Once we make the commitment to universalize our systems and values we will move ahead again. We may not yet be there but I think at some point we will come to accept that the voices/reasons that hold us back will begin to lose their merit.
Let us see what happens.....
The House may have narrowly passed it but it will need to make it through the Senate. I'm split on this bill. I don't think someone should be able to go down and buy a case of beer and then head next door to buy an assault weapon (Saying as an illustration example and not a fact).
We know that people sometimes do bad things with these guns. It would seem that a lot of the senseless death is through illegal weapons that wouldn't be impacted by this bill. As of recent it seems some of the perpetrators obtained them legally.
As a general concept, the more weapons we have in circulation, the more these problems will arise.
That being said I do support the 2nd Amendment. However, some guns seem like they should have more scrutiny. They are not defense oriented. There may be people who have a legitimate use for these guns but that isn't your average Joe.
Thus a better background check and a 48 hour holding period might make sense on this class of weaponry. Yet, that probably won't make everyone happy. Let us wait and see what happens in the Senate.
FBI nabs Russian operative. Likely the tip of the iceberg. My suspicion from a macro level is that some of the groups associated with the Capitol Riots January 6th were manipulated by these foreign operatives. You can see when you step back the way in which events were coordinated and developed in a non-organic manner (colors in crowd, staging, etc...). Let us wait to see how far this vine goes?
P.S. in case you weren't aware. Selling out your country isn't a good thing. Hate, politics, and ignorance are easy things to exploit by others. Its not party or person specific.
Indictment and Russian National Charged with Conspiring to Have U.S. Citizens Act as Illegal Agents of the Russian Government
Hate can be a powerful tool when wielded by the wrong person to achieve inappropriate goals. Hate rears its ugly head when someone/group chooses another person/people to be a target for all of the distortions that they feel internally. Not a problem until they use a larger social group and a couple of closely associated officers to target a family they feel are less worthy then themselves. That is when the law must do its job, and when it doesn't, it means we have major problems looming into the future.
Over the past few years we have seen mass protests, a possible attempted coup, a major pandemic, the rise of China, international conflict and much more. Our world has fundamentally changed in a few short years. Our political structure started to show a splitting of seams through the use of hate, radicalism, and rage as tools to power. We have an opportunity to redirect, learn, and build better.
We have started to put the economy and its people back together through changing the tone and transparent accountability. That willingness to "do the right thing" may help us navigate our current challenges. Those challenges defined by the need to compete on a macro level through enhancement of our most important assets-Human Capital (Including education, creativity, diversity, capacity, etc. One must also have the institutions/policies to ensure that happens.)
Our togetherness isn't a given and is based on mutual belief in a higher ideal (i.e. our American principles and not the value of extremists, bigots, and criminal networks). For example, there was a political scientist from Russia that believed the U.S. would eventually disintegrate. You can read about Igor Panarin HERE and his projection the U.S. would crack like USSR.
Igor believed the U.S. would split based on mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation. He argued that we as a society would lower our values, become racially/religiously/ethnic aggressive and our institutions would no longer be trusted. His beliefs should perk your ears a little and we should put our own values and behaviors in context to the greater needs of the American society. What we do and how we do it is important to the collective whole!
You will also notice that part of his philosophy was information used as a weapon and from an intelligence standpoint I believe that has been used to hype up our differences, reach out to some of our radicals, and in some ways contributed to January 6th, 2021 riots (That is a theory with a sound basis. One would have to analyze social media and the contacts of these groups. Trace them back. Were there any people throwing in comments within their forums designed to incite anger? Any meetings with anonymous individuals? You get the point.... ). You can read something in the Brennon Center for Justice and Why We Should be Concerned-2018.
Basically what I'm saying is that hate is a tool and often creates corruption across our society as some people are treated differently when compared to others. One can engage in hate on a micro level such as our hometowns and some might use that on a national level. We should be mindful of the need to limit the divisive nature of hate and ensure that we are creating a shared sense of purpose with universal institutions that regain trust. We should all be on the same team.
This is why I advocate for universalism within our institutions (Justice and all other institutions). Some people shouldn't get a free pass simply because they fit some demographic but because they earned it based on the merits of their case. Hate corrupts institutions on a local level and national level (i.e. false/distorted beliefs impact the decision making within institutions. For example the local college that retracted an adjunct offer once they found out I was the "Muslim" guy their friends hated, a couple of officers closely associated with the group that encouraged illegal targeting, and the large social network that hasn't yet stopped their childish/bully antics.).
While creating second class citizens may make sense in the minds of those who lack certain pro-social values (i.e. the local group that feels they "rule the town" and can act in any way they want. Use of intimidation learned from childhood bullying of people in the community. Except, they are adults and when those adults influence/bully local officials they are no longer part of the social group and instead take a turn around a dark corner.), it isn't wise from a national standpoint. Our very future relies on our ability to create trust in our institutions and open up the economic and innovative capacity of our people.
National development happens through universalizing our values to ensure that every American has a shot at the good life and is a valued and protected member of our society. Merit should determine how far someone goes and not whether or not they are the "right" or "wrong" people. We need the best and brightest to rise beyond the most connected of society.
This is where some national soul searching could lead to new tools that can match other structural changes (i.e. infrastructure investments, focus on digital society, and returning advanced manufacturing). Once we realize the inherent rights of all Americans as codified within our Bill of Rights and Constitution we will begin to slowly see more of the fruits of our diverse labor sprouting up organically from the natural motivations built within a capitalist system (A system that rewards individual and collective effort beyond classism. racism, and religious bigotry).
(My projection is that we will beat our current challenges. We now see the dangers of such behaviors and many of our politicians have returned to a more rational thought process that allows them to make more objective decisions. Not all of our politicians but you can see the movement toward compromise and bi-partisanship.)
