as i’ve been saying for awhile, aren’t co-ops & employee-owned business models – where profits from all employees’ labors are distributed back to the employees themselves – or for co-ops, the owners – a etiological, surgical way to stem the on-going income inequality caused by a board of wealthy CEOs ending up with the majority of the profits from all labors?

isn’t that what eating the fruits of your labor is – as opposed to someone taking most or nearly all the profits of all employees’ work?

we could subsidize this more sustainable form of capitalism economically; cultivate it culturally — say it is a more ethical/sustainable choice, because it is; & also blend the two by governmentally advocating it – in PSA’s, speeches, & other forms.

shouldn’t we give co-op/employee-owned business models their place in The Sun – so we can temper the excesses of capitalism?

let’s do that & all the other good ideas we have for income inequality everybody has.

Thanks.
– Joe

have you ever noticed television — a welcome addition to our toolbox — seems to have created a sort of fascination with culture since about the 1950s — meaning video-recorded culture?

everything before video-recordings didn’t really happen – we sort of think — or things that did are just ‘old:’ obsolete; irrelevant.

all that matters is what was captured in motion picture.

well, i am here today to say that 6000 years worth of traditions has the tried & true, time-tested ‘way’ for our lives to be lived, much more than the “new & improved”, “latest & greatest” novelties in our little sliver of history.

tradition just makes sense, when it comes to a new communications medium ((the computer/internet)): weigh the meaningfulness of the cream of the cream from the last 6000 years of written work, with a recent decade’s cultural works — say the 1980’s — there’s little comparison: the cream of the cream coming out of the last 6000 years of cultural works hangs huge in its meaningfulness, juxtaposed with 50 years or so of admittedly fun, american elation & celebration — as fun as it is . . .

now don’t get me wrong – i was just dancing to a ’60s pop hit this morning — & i hope  you’re doing all that too, because it’s fun.

but it’s simply a numbers game. 6000 years of cultural works will have more superstars, more actual bearers of cultural mantles, than 50 or 60 years.

we need to learn from the whole of the past, what traditions we should guide the seeds of this current culture toward — the Information Age’s culture — & use these ideals like navigational stars — especially with the seminal role it is shaping up to play;

we need to build our culture on the tried & true foundations of all-time; timeless, time-tested, proven ideas.

go out there & find some classics. read The Bible, read Plato, sit at the feet of Ralph Waldo Emerson for a spell.

& still get those Hippy Hippy Shakes tho =)

*insert hippy hippy shakes*

– joe

July 2015: The continuation of this is Follow-Up To “Re: Computers”: Cultural Subsidization Helps Our Civilization Grow, Culturally – Let’s.

i am not a medical professional, but i came across a stat that puts me in the eye of a perfect storm for a possibly major national health job.

i was carousing PubMed studies one day, when i came across a study on turmeric that happened to mention that of the approximately 400,000 species of plants on Earth, only 7,000 – or not even 2% – have been studied for use as medicine, food, or textile.

that was astonishing in itself . . .

but then it came to me that we might have created what i would call an artificial market in synthetic medications via the patent system. the pharmaceutical patent system artificially inflates the profitability of production, the demand via advertising (etc), & therefore the use of synthetic chemicals as medicines, which are statistically 7,750 times more dangerous than herbal supplements, & 62,000 times more dangerous than nutritional supplements, according to a study of all the relevant available data in Europe.¹²3

so… one thing i would say is, i would put as an idea to ethical, intelligent entrepreneurs – people like Dr. Joseph Mercola  or maybe (Sir haha) Richard Branson – to what-i-termed ‘genetically experiment’ on these unresearched plants – as an example, give 50 volunteers with one medical condition each a their own unresearched plant, & study them. if one shows hope for safe effective & perhaps accessible medicine, (that is, affordable & available), do controlled experiments on it to make certain it truly is.

creating artificial demand for substances that are thousands of times more dangerous, & at by the same turn of the hand choosing to neglect the cornucopia of safer, effective  medicines, makes no sense.

we also need to investigate fixing this artificial inflation of production/demand of exceedingly dangerous “medications” legislatively.

are patents really the right thing for civilizational growth? or do they more concentrate wealth at the expense, in this case, of our health.

let’s get down to it.

Thanks,
Joe

don’t we want security in our national economy, too? the Depression era lack of regulation upended our economy – regulation secured it.

let’s not throw our fate to the wind, & ‘let the chips fall where they may’ when it comes to supplying everyone’s much-needed resources —

think of what a livable income, respectable shelter, healthy food & drink, safe & respectable transportation, high-quality education, safe & effective medical care, & good work mean to you —

what would you do without the money to pay for a home, or the openings to get employment?

should those be left to completely unmoderated, “free market forces”? — in our own time, millions of people lost their homes & their jobs, due to a handful of powerful corporate lobbyists de-regulating recklessly, eliminating key consumer protections that were like keystones for our economy;

we got greedy, & things gave out.

that’s why i’m saying we should insure economic security in our own time — as real a security as homelessness or not being able to put food on the table — & give up the ghost on “trickle down” economics, & hang back on “free market” economics — ‘let the chips fall where they may’ is a horrible, horrible strategy when it comes to supplying everyone’s much-needed resources – turn us all into beggars for our money, shelter, food & drink, transportation, education, healthcare, & work . . .

& anyway: why are we all living on a budget, anyway, when the top 1% & those securing the almost infinitely secure 1% are directing 95% of the gains to those who need it least?

#TemperCapitalism’sExcesses.

#RegulationOrRecessionTakeYourPick.

#WeNeedEconomicSecurityToo

Thank You For Reading. Truly.

– joe

according to a Center On Budget & Policy Priorities report, the top earning 1% – those already making the disproportionate average income of $346,600  – saw their average incomes go up by $973,100, from 1979 to 2007 —

in stark contrast, sort of “everybody else:” the bottom earning 80% of America, went from the low average income of $37,025 per household, up a paltry $10,150.

once you understand this, it goes beyond question that we must temper the excesses of capitalism; be it put on a pedestal by some or not —

that is because it makes absolutely a dime worth of sense to have a community system in place – a government run economic system – which awards 89/90ths of precious resources to those already walking bowlegged from their overstuffed pockets, while those suffering the myriad effects of poverty – loss of life, reduction in quality of life thru health & education deficiencies — get the richman’s dime in their cup to ease their suffering —

screw this.

screw you fat cats’ greed.

America will not tolerate Greed sucking the lifeblood from the majority of its citizens like vampires;

America will not tolerate the top 1% taking 89/90ths the fruits of all of our labors, & telling us you earned it.

senators & congressmen, presidents: please correct this gross excess of capitalism legislatively, decisively; actually.

those taking the fruits of the working man’s labors for yourselves: you’ll be hearing from me. in fact, you’ll be hearing from the whole lot of us.

i consider this the start of a fairer America, Day 1.

everybody else: spread the word on income inequality, read to your heart’s content; let’s make this gross injustice right.

Thanks For Reading.

– joe

just thought i’d man my little internet outpost to say Happy New Year =)

i wanted to pick a song for ringing in the new year, this year – with this being one of my all time favorite party songs (PLAY IT LOUD haha =)) & also Lou Reed leaving us in just 2013, i duly elect this song to ring in 2015 =)

I hope your New Year’s is a blast & your new year is ecstatic; Happy New Year To One & All =)

joe =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2duFNff_ArY

Love to You & Your Loved Ones, & Here’s Wishing You A Merry Christmastime & New Year ‘Round =)

=) Joe

i’m no artist — but i did have the good idea to list (most) of my favorite ways to be.

these are important touchstones in Life — i hope you learn & grow from it!

=)

phew. that title was a mouthful.

is Love just oxytocin? some would like to reduce us to strange cartoonlike machines, sputtering and chugging along — Love being a chemical & a formula, no consciousness just behaviors —

here’s a chat on what i consider a good direction philosophically — considering the wave of science that has comes down onto us since “The Enlightenment” & somewhat fueled by admiration of industrial era technological “progress” such as fossil fuel burning — that went well haha — where i argue for the whole existence of Love, & against reducing it, as well as air some ideas about our worth of Love vs. truth, as ideals, when it comes to schools, curricula, & our approach —

here:

<lakitu> some people say Love is oxytocin; that is the same thing as saying sex is sperm & vaginal fluids. but that is the reduction i see in some circles
<LionClan> may be a tautology
<lakitu> LionClan: use your noggin =)
<lakitu> or a grammar checker, i suppose
–> artalien2 ([email protected]) has joined #philosophical
<lakitu> wb artalien
<lakitu> just said this:
<lakitu> some people say Love is oxytocin; that is the same thing as saying sex is sperm & vaginal fluids. but that is the reduction i see in some circles
<lakitu> some people say Love is oxytocin; that is the same thing as saying sex is semen & vaginal fluids. but that is the reduction i see in some circles
<artalien2> Ty
<artalien2> Reduction sux :)
–> pauly ([email protected]) has joined #philosophical
<lakitu> sex is so much more than that, Love is so much more than ‘the fluid that runs thru our brain/glands when we Love someone’ – we must really take care to not make that mistake, we lose so much
<artalien2> Lionclan I would not answer literally and say ” if it makes sense to you it is well formed”
<altered> lakitu: id love to know what that you just said but its just glowing lights on my monitor :(
*** Mode #philosophical +l 44 by X
<lakitu> =)
<lakitu> exactly
<lakitu> agree artalien2, i feel a big anti-reduction thing coming on
<lakitu> i guess you call it non-reductionism – i think
<lakitu> thing/cultural wave
<lakitu> i hope anyway –
<artalien2> I gotta go – interesting lc
<– artalien2 ([email protected]) has quit (Quit: AndroIRC – Android IRC Client ( http://www.androirc.com ))
<– Dell1 ([email protected]) has quit (Quit: Leaving)
<lakitu> romanticism/anti-(over)intellectualism/non-reductionism/’mix in your own’ =)
–> Gomp ([email protected]) has joined #philosophical
<lakitu> i would love to see a non-reduction push among people, it can be such a big mistake, to write-off truly indispensible things like Love, consciousness, because your meter and a theory says too
<lakitu> that doesn’t mean i stopped ‘being a monist’, or really being able to see things monisitically – re physicalism
<lakitu> i was an early proponent of physicalism…
<– FathZippyZan ([email protected]) has quit (Quit: Free Speech is an Illusion)
*** Mode #philosophical +l 41 by X
<lakitu> but`reducing Love to oxytocin is like reducing sex to semen – both are so much more
<lakitu> semen and vaginal fluids* =)
-*- lakitu coughs gently
<– altered ([email protected]) has quit (Read error: Connection reset by peer)
<lakitu> delicate interplays
<lakitu> i won’t get theoretical on sex, that’s what i’m saying: over- or mis-theorizing about Love & sex is what i’m criticizing.
<lakitu> reductionism
<lakitu> you know, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing
–> altered ([email protected]) has joined #philosophical
<– MarmaladeEsq ([email protected]) has quit (Quit)
<lakitu> altered – you are not artalien are you?
<altered> i am indeed not
<lakitu> i guess the names look similar -ok
<lakitu> so you’re still here
<lakitu> not quizzing you, just seeing if you were art coming back, or what
<lakitu> 2nd nicks, you know
<altered> undernet servers appear to use 14.4kbaud modem, kicks me off all the time

Continue reading →

i just posted this on a Dr. Mercola report on the overwhelming health benefits of sprouts – both that report and this comment make for good reading =)

A trained dietician friend just suggested a wavy idea: sprout hemp, juice it as a vegetable.  *a professoinal dietician* in a professional documentary said hemp would be the best vegetable in terms of health — even better than broccoli, etc — if only we juiced it.

isn’t the seed a complete protein, too?

anyway, so if sprouts are x30 the nutritional value of the adult vegetable, and hemp is the healthiest vegetable, and juicing gets you 4 servings in an easy way, sprouted hemp juiced would be 4 servings of the healthiest vegetable at approximately x30 the healthiness.

just wow.

credit to my friend Donna G. from Faribault, Minnesota for the idea, as well as the rest of the idea which was handed down to me from Dr. Mercola.

hope someone ends up seeing this.

=) joe

=)

as a note, juicing hemp does not produce any psychoactive effects, it is just healthy =)

take care =)

~ joe.

There are many things i’d like to say, but will let you learn in your own life.

=) Thank You.

~ Joe

Let’s be clear: this is one of the most important times in American history. We have woke up — call it thru 60’s cultural revivalism, or internet-enabled information technology — but we are aware of injustices & dangers that are gigantic in importance — I can say that without exaggeration.

Because this isn’t about whether we should have a slight tax hike or not.

This is about the game being rigged, as Elizabeth Warren says: the superrich have more than half of all of the wealth in America.

This is about our climate changing — certain animal species being driven to complete extinction, sea levels rising, & temperatures changing — our very home being in danger — if not by what is predictable, even, then by the unknown unknowns involved in endangering our environment.

& how are we supposed to fix these things if our fix-it service, the legislative branch, is itself broken?

This is also about Citizens United, then, too: handing over the reins to the superrich, in the sense of campaign financing — reducing the already decimated voice of The People in legislation, & boost the already over satiated superrich’s voice — take from the poor, & give to the rich, in terms of power.

This is reason enough to rise up & vote — right? One thing is apparent: these are exceptional times — do not sit on your derrière during these important times.

Vote.

Speak Up.

Be Heard.

It Is An Important Time.

Let’s all be responsible & use the influence in government we ARE given, to vote for progressive democrats — whose policies align with the problems — & if not progressive democrats, then reasonable republicans, who WILL get the jobs done that need doing in our government.

& Let’s not stop there.

Keep right on speaking up until it’s so loud they can’t hear themselves think – all year-round — then we will see these major responsibilities of ours dealt with – finally – by those in power.

Let’s All Get Out & Vote! Add It To Your Calendar.

Do It Now!

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ouldn’t both the political will of The People & also the political will of Congress be better measured — that is, more accurately & only more accurately — by a (say) 10-point rating system?

(In fact that is the only difference, provably:

a say 10-point rating system subsumes binary voting & also instant-runoff voting, i believe, because:

• it supports everything they do: rating/voting a ’10’ would be the same as ‘voting for’ (or ‘ranking highest’ in instant-runoff voting (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting)); rating/voting a ‘1’ would be ‘not voting for’ (‘ranking least’ in instant-runoff voting),
• & rating voting also does more: compared to a binary vote, ‘2’ thru ‘9’ would be more nuanced votes, & total rating points p’s ratio to the number of candidates would be the increase in voting accuracy, compared to instant-runoff voting *i believe*.

)

The invention of voting was an epoch-marking invention. But if this provably subsumes its functionality — again, voting for would be the same thing as giving a 10, not voting for would be the same as giving a 1 — as well as instant-runoff (see 2nd point above) — then isn’t it just-better?

* * * *

From my cursory vision for this, you would have to allow rating each candidate — which would be no more a popularity contest than voting is —  comparable to instant-runoff voting, instead of expecting people to choose to vote for one candidate with a vote-power-lowering ‘6’, for example, instead of 10.

So e.g. you could give Roger Dodger a 4, because he’s better than Joe Schmoe, who you give a 1 — but John Doe gets a 10, in your book.

This would add up in the complete election & allow for accurate comparisons. i believe this would possibly be more accurate than ranking/run-off voting — since ranking does not capture strength, only relative strength, i.e. ranking. This has more nuance & you could even (at our serious benefit) use a 50 or 100 point rating system.

* * * *

It would simply be more accurate – by being more proportionate — to the American people’s political will, as well as (in congress) the congressional body’s political will, than binary yes/no voting. (1*thru* 5 would possibly be taught as no to no,-but, 6 *thru* 10 would be taught as yes,-but to yes.)

* * * *

As a final note, this post is a draft, & subject to improvement. 

Thank You For Reading,
Joe Valentyn

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]eddit.com has earned my respect as what the world can be like when it acts as a community.

using our modern invention of the computer, important, up-to-the-minute news bubbles to the top, thru the goodwill-voting of its free, unpaid members:

the world doing the work of a community.

the real ‘slice-of-life’ quality that is somewhat unformalizable, ineffable, is served up fresh everyday – again thru interests-voting, by its members.

because that is what the world acting as a community wants.

RIP Aaron Swartz, founder of Reddit, & kudos to Reddit.com & its community; & Long Live The World Living As A Community.

~ Joe

Where do we even begin?

85 people in the world have more than the bottom-netting 3.5 billion;

Now, some people say time & chance DO NOT happen to all men, & that the rich are necessarily & always just “that much” better: how much is “that much”? The average top-85-netter really 41,176,471 times “better”¹ than the average person from the bottom-netting 3.5-billion?

41 million, 176 thousand, 471 times “better” —

“Ha ha” is what I have to say that; you’re kidding me.

But what a cruel joke — because it’s real.

Sit down any of these top-85 netters & talk to them: you will see they, as the saying goes, put their socks on one foot at a time, too; they are not 41 million times better in any respect – *laughs*. how about we measure their sense of fairness?

Too, some say “Well, inequality; there must be some inequality, because some have higher & lower abilities” – income & wealth ‘variation’ is not what we mean; we are not un-understanding of that. I believe we SHOULD each have the fruits of our labor, as the Biblical saying goes, & get what we earn.

But when you produce 100$ profit an hour for your boss, & he pays you 10$, & then your co-worker too earns your boss 100$ an hour, but he pays her only 10$ for that same amount of time — are we really getting the fruits of our labor, then, or are people taking, or are our bosses taking the fruits of OUR labor, as their exorbitant profit? I believe they are taking the fruits of OUR labor, not you are jeopardizing the fruits you steal from us.

So really, I agree we should receive the fruits of our labor – that applies more to the people earning 41,176,471 times less — unless you feel the average worker among the poorest 3.5 billion DOES DO 1/41,176,471 times less work, on average, than the usual top-earning-85 person does. Otherwise: you see the unfairness.

& The truth is we are not evil. Power ossifies, but the those top-85-netting people – what some would call an old boy’s club – have not volunteered to beyond the shadow of a doubt make this fair; So the we will act where they will not.

* * * *

How?

One idea is employeed-owned business models & co-op business models; employee-owned businesses & co-ops are fundamentally different than normal ‘winner-take-all’ type business models.

As I understand them: profits are distributed more fairly / totally fairly, & decisions are no bureaucratic but democratic, more often. Also every worker feels they have a stake in the business, so they, if they are somewhat sensible, responsible, they tend their business more, with more passion, than getting minimum wage with little hope of increasing their income through their efforts.

This way people do make more money – the fruits of their labor – & do a better job, providing better goods & services cheaper.

Why not subsidize, campaign for, & yourself start innovative employee-owned or co-op businesses, & wave what like gold will not de-value: ethical doing.

* * * *

Poverty is a serious issue. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die everyday due to poverty.

If 22,000 people died a day of another preventable cause, we’d be flailing — much less children: 22,000 children die everyday due to our Greed, & wealth inequality, etc. To defend this is unconscionable. If you were at a party & many children were dying, unless you gave them 100$, then wouldn’t you give 100$ in almost every circumstance — only saving more lives I could think of would trump it — & save many children’s lives? it might be hard but in the end it’s the right thing to do.

we should think of global inequality the same way, & stop being so Greedy.

* * * *

footnote:

are these top 85 earners really, on average, 41,176,471 times “better” than 3.5 billion people¹, even those without large sums of wealth?: 

from freenode #math:
<mobuto> yes, 3.5/85 is the multiple for avg incomes in those 2 cohorts
<mobuto> 3.5 bil i mean

3,500,000,000 ÷ 85 = 41,176,470.5882; i rounded up to 41,176,471 for the multiple of times supposedly “better” they are, according to those who claim the rich are just all-out “better” than the poor. if that is not true, is the idea, if the rich are not just fundamentally better than the poor, & time & chance as we’ve heard in the Bible happeneth to them all, then this is actually a measure of the unfairness, with the genuine difference in abilities (considering we should eat the fruits of our labor) still needing some amount – maybe not totalized by some poorly-designed ‘measure of merit’ — the genuine difference of abilities needing some factorization.

* * * *

as a final note, consider contributing your opinion on inequality in conversation with your friends & family, & via social media. Thank You.

~ Joe

were you lucky enough to grow up with Your Mom or maybe be raised by Your Gramma? have you known anyone else to take as good of care as you?

how about in your relationships, if you swing that way – who was more communicative? more nurturing? more Loving?: you or your female companion.

these are stereotypes, some could foam, but there is some truth to stereotypes sometimes, & when we’re talking a positive stereotype i don’t know who can complain.

have you seen violence statistics based on gender? there is a campaign for “No More” sexual assault, i believe, & we all know the lopsidedness of those crimes: Men are the assailant more than Women – & that isn’t a fluke of anatomy. that seems to be a re-occuring theme in more Men than Women’s lives: the tendency towards physical violence.

in fact, 90% of guilty homicides verdicts spoken in the United States are spoken of Men. 90% . . .

like a little miniature model for us, i believe these, like all words of Christ, to be true: “The meek shall inherit The Earth.” (Matthew 5:5). i think with establishing Men of all ethnicities with the preponderance of belligerence, Men make my assessment easy: The Future belongs to Women, more than it has in our hunter-gatherer origins. Information Technology is flourishing, in our time, & who did we say – stereotypically – communicates better? i know who, in my experience.

Who manages her self-image, & social life with heightened sensitivity, elegance – stereotypically.

how about increased technology…. our projected future. Who will manage bombs of inordinate magnitudes better: those drunk with belligerence or those whose attacks, the specialists say, more often remain verbal/secondary to physical violence?

this is a serious thing i do not think will wash away with the next tides to our shores.

i am not female. this is not hubris. this is a positive commentary on a group of people i have come to know.

what should we say to those who think Women have surmounted sexist behavior against them, fully — we need only look a the trajectory of history to see liberation, suffrage are just yesterday in history; egalitarian working rights & privileges are still not established, & we are still living among mutterings of “Women’s place is in the kitchen.”

& this, perhaps most telling: tho women are essentially half our population, they still make up only 1/5th of the US Government Senate & House seats. (that is roughly a middle value, globally.)

. . . .

How Can You Increase Your Respect For Women?

as Eleanor Roosevelt’s International Bill of Rights – ratified by the U.N. – said: How Can You Increase The Dignity Of Women Of All Kinds?

these answers help You as much as they help Women; & more over they help Us; All Of Us.

#SocialJusticeForWomenNow.

Thank You For Listening =)

♡,
Joe Valentyn

I think Everyone is doing an amazing job. Everyone.

That is all =)

one problem with doing too much philosophy is you can fall thru the cracks into doing finer points, without proper emphasis on the basics that really matter: like dithering on about exceptions to being against war, when i should for the public good be loudly emphasizing the basics: i am anti-war, anti-violence, & even was a vegan for 10 years, until i was given some unrelated health troubles.

so – i’ve been thinking about getting back to basics, emphasizing the main ideas we need to live by, rather than the finer points, leaving the main idea unnurtured.

People are my 1st choice for a fundamental value. valuing People over Things for example – over Money (re Mammon), valuing a person as a whole, not their use for you; being human-centric, like in Philosophy, putting away “Cosmology”/Nature/Science/Things for Ethics, Life Philosophy, the human experience.

Love would be my 2nd choice, which used to be the first but – another finer point – i’d rather have People than Love, since Love is ‘just’ a thing… but, Love is no ordinary thing.

Love is The Greatest Thing, i can assuringly say, & we are most wise to live in Love: to do with Love: think with Love, speak/express with Love, & act with Love. i can assure you, it is like instant wisdom to learn to value Love properly, which is almost infinite. (i’ll pass on making any finer points here =))

lastly, what helped me rewrite this post even, when it got deleted: Positivity. if Love is the best moral guideline, then i would say Positivity is the best ethical guideline, which stands for persevering, being resilient, finding opportunity, finding happiness, & nurturing others. ”’Positivity is the language humans speak.”’ i would say – i would say the same about the other two as well — you will be listened to, received, & affect better, if you are supremely Positive.

that wraps this up. just felt i was getting a little too much into finer points, been wanting to hammer the basics for a few weeks now.

Thanks For Listening!
Joe

i just wanted to clear up something that it would be easy to misread from me.

i am not convinced we SHOULD negotiate with terrorists kidnappers, when they say & have used large past ransoms for killing more lives than are taken hostage – that is, in their case, more lives will be saved if we don’t send them 60 million dollars to fund their rocket launchers, guns, bombs, & their terrorist operations as a whole.

my understanding of hostage policy, which i used metaphorically, was something like you give them what they want, but then as soon as you get the hostages back you f– i mean, you capture them, etc. bring them to justice. that may not always be feasible, come to think of it now, tho. that may be a little more movie hostage policy than real life. i would entrust those in charge to determine the optimal general strategy & case-by-case solution — it seems right to me to not fund 300 deaths for to save 1 life, etc.

that is all =)

take care, & my apologies as well as congratulations to the Foleys — my apologies for their loss, but my congratulations on having a great & brave son who risked & ultimately gave his life to better civilization. kudos.

Joe

there is a lot going on, in a way, but i have heard some undertones of income inequality going to more of a 2nd fiddle role. other than climate change, income inequality is not a 2nd fiddle problem & we should not let those against solving that problem dissuade us from pursuing a solution, or solutions.

in the same breath, i’d like to say climate change seems like the most important political problem, to me, at the present time.

those will be our most fruitful & important focuses at home, i wonder.

Thank You.

– Joe

Recently, there has been a lot going on, both Israel & Gaza are in need of Peace & Security, the friends & family members of Micheal Brown need Justice, an amount of excessive force was [edit: apparently] used in a community who claims they are the victims of racial hatred — so the people of Ferguson need Social/Economic Justice, too.

Please help these people secure what they need. Anything helps, from a tweet on up – your imagination is the limit. whatever help you can summon for any person in need makes a real difference; & we thank you.

That is all.

~ Joe

you know, i don’t know your situation, but i am not sure choosing war over one attack IS wise — what kind of precedent does it set? escalations could spiral out of control. let’s choose peace every chance we get — but again, you have a terrorist group bent on killing you — i understand simply choosing peace may have unacceptable ramifications, if they are just planning to invade & attack you & your children anyway. if a man is ‘going to get his gun’, choosing peace isn’t enough.

i think you should choose to litigously make your case to the international community & develop international solidarity, where possible, & otherwise choose peace where possible & inform of us why you think it is not possible, if you do not.

i think a war over a single rocket may be justified, but may not be wise. good luck.

only about 3 minutes:

i’m retired ;), but given the latest concerns about the Israel-Gaza conflict, i thought i would weigh in on it:

from a very limited american citizen perspective, i waited while the facts seemed to unfold, coloring in the fuller picture, & when i felt it was time to speak, i took my understanding of Israel & Hamas’s current conflict to a liberal hangout & also to a conservative hangout, to see if i could improve my understandings of either.

here was my summary:

(+lakitu) Hamas is a terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel. Hamas struck first in this conflict (a rocket). & both groups – Israel & Hamas – have violated international war laws in this conflict (that is, have committed some war crimes, namely targeting citizens & especially children). is this correct?

&

(lakitu) also, don’t they have a semi-legitimate claim with the tunnels below [I]srael that threaten them – wasn’t there even an attack on [I]srael planned by [H]amas, using the tunnels?

both camps’ representatives agreed to this summary.

if this is true then, then i think Israel has a right to defend itself, including addressing security threats in the form of tunnels under Israel, whereas Hamas does not have a right to send unprovoked rocketfire into Israel; Israel & Hamas both have a responsibility to obey just war conventions going forward, including ‘right conduct in war’ (no targetting children or citizens); further, each side has an opportunity to overcome the challenge of their hate, & set an example for rising above hate & violence, & living & letting live. that seems difficult given Hamas is a terrorist group whose sole tenant is to destroy Israel. the other opportunity Israel & Hamas have are to make their cases to the world. it helps me greatly when i am truthfully informed about tunnels which threaten your national security, as we would say, & further a planned attack by Hamas using those tunnels. if your case is just, expect – in ways we can – help.

that said this strike seems to be more than countered, with a death toll of 500 from Gaza & 18 Israelis. considering your transgression of war crimes, a point where you gather yourself & choose to abide by just war conventions – including right conduct in war – so that you may soundly accomplish your goal of eradicating tunnels, which seem legitimate to me, is put forward as an idea. good luck, & please give the world an example we can all follow as you make your case & choose abidingly toward just war conventions.

Joe