World Peace! The Opportune Moment is Now
Written by Richard Kane
Wednesday, 07 November 2012 05:02
Peace Won Locally, State, and Nationally only Third Party Victory would be Better News
There have been a lot of celebrations this November! Young people do vote after all! Gay Marriage is much sweeter at the ballot box!
But there is one celebration that has not yet sunk in. Peace won! only slightly at the National Level, since the Third Party vote didn't determine anything except in Florida, but with Senators, Reps and ballot initiatives as well.
There was a hysterical Virgina ad, �Anti-Defense Organization Comes To Kaine's Aid�,
http://www.rpv.org/node/1855
The local Republicans boldly posted, as proo,f Council for a Liveable World's website near the top of the ad. Many of those clicking on the ad ending up thinking highly about, even joining the Liveable World campaign. Livable World won big around the county, but where they lost I discovered something incredible, peace won instead of the peace organization. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, voted against Afghan troop surg funding, earlier against continued funding of the Iraq War and the Cuban embargo, but not for the UN, which Better World wanted.
Peace Voter had an ad where peace leaders were lecturing Kathy Boockvar running for a PA Rep as she was enthusiastically agreeing with what they were telling her, while her opponent ran ads that she would blindly support Obama's wars. Since she had been prominent in telling people that she urged President Obama to stop Ahmadinejad from speaking at the UN during Yong Kipper, the peace leaders forgot to lecture her about the importance of the UN,
http://www.peacecoalition.org/campaigns/47-peace-voter/392-peace-voter-2012.html
http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-02/news/34858811_1_kathy-boockvar-boockvar-and-fitzpatrick-mike-fitzpatrick
The anti-Islamophobic scorecard was 100%. This is a basic change in US attitude. America finally learned that you don't make yourself more secure by baiting, taunting and insulting those you disagree with, such as depicting historic religious leaders as porn stars. The film created a different new world then the film expected. The October Surprise totally failed in making Democrats look weak on foreign policy besides failing to get Romney elected.
Today, not when Obama first began serving in 2009, is the time for celebrations about peace victories, including victories in mental attitude? The only major bad news is that third parties didn't gain permanent ballot status in many places. The peace movement had high hopes with Obama and apparently is afraid to hope again.
January 2009 was a very difficult time for Obama to start off positively on the peace issue. Peace groups won't admit that the hawks are sometimes right in claiming it is bad to look weak. This is awkward news that has never been before attempted to be put in a peace article. South Koreans and Filipinos are the prime candidates for kidnappers because kidnappers know that those government will not get involved except to help pay or guarantee the ransom payment, Al Qaeda dream for the West which both hawks and doves ignore is to help the borrow-crazy west become hopelessly bankrupt. Neither Hawks or Doves noticed that bin Laden's plans (recovered from his hideout) to derail trains was a way to attack the US without risking a draft, a far more cheap way to fight than a volunteer army or and incredibly expensive private contractor fighting force. If the looming deadlock between the Republican House and Obama occurs that will be another bad moment to leave Afghanistan with al Qaeda feeling especially bold. The last best moment was when bin Laden was killed. If Americans had started leaving and al Qaeda suicide attacked the withdrawing troops to get the US back on the road to bankruptcy, the Taliban would have at that point attacked al Qaeda for not letting the US leave. The US must choose peace at another moment from an economic meltdown. The fact that USSR collapsed right after it left Afghanistan still inspires terrorists against Russia today.
Al Qaeda claims that the only way for the Muslim World not to be hopelessly picked on by the west is through absolute ruthlessness. That mindset threatens Saudis. Iranians and every sane government on earth. Perhaps other counties could take the lead and not wait for the US to try to create peace.
Iran might offer to end its Iranian enrichment program, accept the US offer to redesign its reactors for less cheatable nuclear fuel in return for major concessions from the US, such as no veto of any joint Russia-Chinese Security Council resolution trying to create peace in Syria, and end to all blockades including the embargo on Cuba and the freeing of US and other Western political prisoners.
The economic embargo on Cuba besides hurting Cuba hurts the US and a future without falling-domino-like currency collapse. Cuba might look at minority representation in Philadelphia and some other places and modify its system to mandate one non-Communist Party candidate with the highest votes, get into the Cuban Assembly. Or there could be three overseas slots, where every oversees Cuban who could get to Cuba or a Cuban embassy or consulate such as in Canada, would have one vote to choose the three highest vote-getters for the new three new overseas reps in the Cuban Assembly, encouraging Cuban-Americans to demand a US Cuban embassy, and a consulate in New Jersey and Miami.
Maybe the Taliban could start a world peace moment rolling by appointing Afghan President Karzai the Mayor of Kabul (his unofficial title anyway) and suggest Karzai suggest that the multimillion dollar rent for the US refueling center in Kyrgyzstan, be instead a year's rent for Kabul to be semi-autonomous like Hong Kong is to China, allowing US to make the next peace step.
Once the peace movement was of the mindset for a Kucinich-Ron-Paul election team. Cheering Jeff Flakes victory instead of calling it a tea party victory will save us all from a very grim future. Celebrating the peace victories this November will be fun and give us more to celebrate in the future. Now is the time for peace, or perhaps next New Years Day, or a related religious holiday's present to the world be peace at last.
There have been a lot of celebrations this November! Young people do vote after all! Gay Marriage is much sweeter at the ballot box!
But there is one celebration that has not yet sunk in. Peace won! only slightly at the National Level, since the Third Party vote didn't determine anything except in Florida, but with Senators, Reps and ballot initiatives as well.
There was a hysterical Virgina ad, �Anti-Defense Organization Comes To Kaine's Aid�,
http://www.rpv.org/node/1855
The local Republicans boldly posted, as proo,f Council for a Liveable World's website near the top of the ad. Many of those clicking on the ad ending up thinking highly about, even joining the Liveable World campaign. Livable World won big around the county, but where they lost I discovered something incredible, peace won instead of the peace organization. Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, voted against Afghan troop surg funding, earlier against continued funding of the Iraq War and the Cuban embargo, but not for the UN, which Better World wanted.
Peace Voter had an ad where peace leaders were lecturing Kathy Boockvar running for a PA Rep as she was enthusiastically agreeing with what they were telling her, while her opponent ran ads that she would blindly support Obama's wars. Since she had been prominent in telling people that she urged President Obama to stop Ahmadinejad from speaking at the UN during Yong Kipper, the peace leaders forgot to lecture her about the importance of the UN,
http://www.peacecoalition.org/campaigns/47-peace-voter/392-peace-voter-2012.html
http://articles.philly.com/2012-11-02/news/34858811_1_kathy-boockvar-boockvar-and-fitzpatrick-mike-fitzpatrick
The anti-Islamophobic scorecard was 100%. This is a basic change in US attitude. America finally learned that you don't make yourself more secure by baiting, taunting and insulting those you disagree with, such as depicting historic religious leaders as porn stars. The film created a different new world then the film expected. The October Surprise totally failed in making Democrats look weak on foreign policy besides failing to get Romney elected.
Today, not when Obama first began serving in 2009, is the time for celebrations about peace victories, including victories in mental attitude? The only major bad news is that third parties didn't gain permanent ballot status in many places. The peace movement had high hopes with Obama and apparently is afraid to hope again.
January 2009 was a very difficult time for Obama to start off positively on the peace issue. Peace groups won't admit that the hawks are sometimes right in claiming it is bad to look weak. This is awkward news that has never been before attempted to be put in a peace article. South Koreans and Filipinos are the prime candidates for kidnappers because kidnappers know that those government will not get involved except to help pay or guarantee the ransom payment, Al Qaeda dream for the West which both hawks and doves ignore is to help the borrow-crazy west become hopelessly bankrupt. Neither Hawks or Doves noticed that bin Laden's plans (recovered from his hideout) to derail trains was a way to attack the US without risking a draft, a far more cheap way to fight than a volunteer army or and incredibly expensive private contractor fighting force. If the looming deadlock between the Republican House and Obama occurs that will be another bad moment to leave Afghanistan with al Qaeda feeling especially bold. The last best moment was when bin Laden was killed. If Americans had started leaving and al Qaeda suicide attacked the withdrawing troops to get the US back on the road to bankruptcy, the Taliban would have at that point attacked al Qaeda for not letting the US leave. The US must choose peace at another moment from an economic meltdown. The fact that USSR collapsed right after it left Afghanistan still inspires terrorists against Russia today.
Al Qaeda claims that the only way for the Muslim World not to be hopelessly picked on by the west is through absolute ruthlessness. That mindset threatens Saudis. Iranians and every sane government on earth. Perhaps other counties could take the lead and not wait for the US to try to create peace.
Iran might offer to end its Iranian enrichment program, accept the US offer to redesign its reactors for less cheatable nuclear fuel in return for major concessions from the US, such as no veto of any joint Russia-Chinese Security Council resolution trying to create peace in Syria, and end to all blockades including the embargo on Cuba and the freeing of US and other Western political prisoners.
The economic embargo on Cuba besides hurting Cuba hurts the US and a future without falling-domino-like currency collapse. Cuba might look at minority representation in Philadelphia and some other places and modify its system to mandate one non-Communist Party candidate with the highest votes, get into the Cuban Assembly. Or there could be three overseas slots, where every oversees Cuban who could get to Cuba or a Cuban embassy or consulate such as in Canada, would have one vote to choose the three highest vote-getters for the new three new overseas reps in the Cuban Assembly, encouraging Cuban-Americans to demand a US Cuban embassy, and a consulate in New Jersey and Miami.
Maybe the Taliban could start a world peace moment rolling by appointing Afghan President Karzai the Mayor of Kabul (his unofficial title anyway) and suggest Karzai suggest that the multimillion dollar rent for the US refueling center in Kyrgyzstan, be instead a year's rent for Kabul to be semi-autonomous like Hong Kong is to China, allowing US to make the next peace step.
Once the peace movement was of the mindset for a Kucinich-Ron-Paul election team. Cheering Jeff Flakes victory instead of calling it a tea party victory will save us all from a very grim future. Celebrating the peace victories this November will be fun and give us more to celebrate in the future. Now is the time for peace, or perhaps next New Years Day, or a related religious holiday's present to the world be peace at last.
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I agree with you... However: I prefer to use the term "climate change," instead of saying "global warming."
As the climate changes, some areas - for example, the United Kingdom - may actually become colder.
Winters and cold weather won't vanish.
What will happen should be called "climate change." This term will help to reduce confusion.
Colder climes due to climate change due to global weirding due to global warming.
Gotta admit that "climate chaos" most accurately presents the reality to non-scientific community ! Good ONE !
And, I gotta wonder why Juan Cole overlooked :
#7 Stop all the corporate welfare to Gigantic Polluters like the petroleum industry which STILL receives an annual SIXTEEN BILLION taxpayer dollars in "incentives" for petro-exploration.
This is why we have more "reserve" than we can possibly burn and still breathe, and the refining side of the "oil bidna" is actually working for it's profit.
Everyone else wants that Corporate Welfare money (grandma can eat discount cat food), and few want to face the actual "free market" in force on the refining side.
If we don't take these monsters off the Welfare Teat, they will NEVER relinquish the death-grip they now enjoy over the global economies. And why WOULD they ? They are being HANDSOMELY rewarded for the absolute WORST of BAD behavior. And this in a time of GLOBAL RECORDS in oil industry profit levels !
His science-based arguments (based on "his" science) quickly unravel and disintegrate upon sound scrutiny.
Rather, Inhofe's most compelling persuasion is that the massive coordinated American addressing of rising CO2 levels will mean the largest tax increase in American history and massive job loss if the U.S limits its competitive manufacturing through CO2 curtailment while India and China undercut us with their continued environment-ign oring production.
Inhofe's book, "The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future" gets a strong majority of rave reviews on the Amazon site. The dissenting minority is scathing about how his religiosity influences his scientific reasoning.
Reading it certainly raised my blood pressure, invoking an imagined very theatrical rebuttal on almost every page, but as the adage goes, "Know thine enemy".
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I want to add to the list of things that should be done to avert a climate catastrophe, a major societal shift toward vegan diets is essential. A 2006 UN FAO report, "Livestock's Long Shadow," indicated that animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) than all the cars, planes, ships, and all other means of transportation worldwide combined. Other reports indicate even more startling conclusions, largely due to the large amounts of methane emitted by cattle and other animals, since methane is far more potent in heating the atmosphere than CO2.
A shift to plant-based diets would have many additional benefits related to environmental sustainability, improved human health, more efficient use of land, water, energy, and other resources, reduced animal abuses, and educed hunger.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379108000760
Congress will not pass a Carbon tax, it is
up to we the people to pass a constitutional amendment demanding such a tax.
When you think of it, letting climate change continue unchecked is imposing a
regressive tax on all the people of the world, in the form of higher food prices.
Inaction is not free, as we see in the Billions that Sandy, alone, will cost the US taxpayer. How much will the out of control fires in Australia cost them?
The longer we wait before switching over to clean energy sources, the more expensive the whole process will be and
the more climate devastation will have
occurred. If we wait until all the feedback loops have kicked in, we
may ruin the planet permanently.
What lunacy to spend money on the military when climate change is the
major threat facing us as a species!
Thanks Juan Cole, and let's keep trying
to raise the visibility of this crisis
while there is still time to fix it.
Therefore, time for action NOW!
Hmmmm.... I don't know what is, exactly, that you're trying to say. However: I certainly agree with you that the climate change problem needs a "systemic approach."
Climate change is a product - one of many - of a global energy system gone crazy. I blame fossil fuel companies for many of the problems. EXAMPLE: Why do fossil fuel companies purchase patent rights for clean energy technology without developing the new technology? (Are the big energy companies trying to protect their fossil fuel investments?)
Is it our media, the only one to blame, for not reporting the facts on this subject? Something is, as we seem to be the only country in the world who are so utterly uneducated, clueless and un-interested of this reality.
"Is it our media, the only one to blame, for not reporting the facts on this subject?"
Blame the wimps in national politics who refused to talk about climate change until Hurricane Sandy arrived. Despite the major problems - droughts, forest fires, etc. - that Americans experienced during the summers of 2012 and 2011.
The big energy companies share some of the blame. And, yes, we need a new generation of environmentalis ts. The Al Gore crowd doesn't know how to move the climate change discussion out of classrooms and into the places where most Americans live and work.
If Gore and his allies were effective, they would have pushed the climate change debate forward during the Democratic primaries and during the Democratic National Convention.
Gore is the only man in America - aside from Obama himself - who could have forced the Democrats to address the climate change issue in important ways during 2011-2012.
"...As one Idiot Senator said how can there be global warming when we can build a snow man and igloo on the mall in Wash DC, which his kids actually did a couple years ago...."
Get it right, Howard.
"...which his kids actually did"...
GRANDKIDS, Howard, GRANDKIDS!
(See: Inhofe's "The Greatest Hoax", pp. 87-88)
The media then mocked Inhofe's mocking of Gore.
But I told you he was shrewd.
For his denialist fans, he smoothly paints the media uproar as attacking the innocent play of children and then proceeds.. ...and I must begrudgingly admit, proceeds WELL... to paint the media as fantasizers and deniers of reality.
Just look at his reviews on Amazon...
He IS shrewd.
GREAT contribution. I'm on board all the way if you can just answer one question. Has *anyone*, I mean ANYONE, yet figured out how to safely dispose of Nuclear WASTE ? If not, the whole nuclear "option" is totally off-the-table. For the SAME reason that it was shut down in the Seventies. More efficient producers of deadly waste are likewise a non-answer, and therefore, a non-starter from the "git-go" as well !
Renewables are the obvious answer, one that we would be pursuing and leading ahead of Germany and Japan who are now "kicking our economic tails" in the safe energy market, were it not for our indentured slavery to the Oil Boyz.
Geothermal, Solar, Wave power, etc., as you observe above, all have great potential and NO danger of "snapping back to bite our children and grandchildren for the endless ages that represent the nuclear half-life of spent Fuel rods.
No one can convince me that, were this country allowed to pursue a "Manhattan Project" (shout-out to the Nuke Fans)
for alternative energy, that this country would not lead the world in no time.
Unfortunately, the Oil Boyz will not even allow that discussion, much less the implementation of such a "Project".
It's a damned good thing that putting a man on the moon didn't involve the use or discovery of alternative energy, or THAT would have been accomplished by some other country as well !
The balance of your post is marvelous. Thank you for your input.
So does warming: warmer weather means molds that kill bats who would normally eat insects, and more insects. Rats and mice multiply several times a year in warmer climates: it will bring plagues.
So, add together the increased infections and increased cancers, and, we will be going to hell, and not in a handbasket, but by the boatload.
But then, when you've got country with a "Creationist museum" in Kentucky and mega-churches railing against anything but "God's will" with a capitalist press owned by the same six conglomerates that support the Kochs', with many heavily invested in fossil fuel -example, Westinghouse just bought CBS and their CEO's are now the same person, it's looking like an uphill battle, especially with the current congress.
I guess moving back to Scotland makes more sense all the time. Last time I was there, many of what used to be barren moors had sprouted wind farms -and the sheep didn't seem to mind.
They are also re-building railways cut by the Tories and re-planting sustainable forests at a high rate. Makes me proud.
Unfortunately, the USA is so big and the worst polluter in the world (not sure where China stands here but at least they are getting into solar) that it's sins are able to spread beyond it's shores and borders, which is the tragic consequence of industrial and media consolidation both by vertical integration and interlocking directorates.
It's up to the grassroots yet again.
Bill Maher makes an entertaining visit to the Creationist Museum in his film, "Religulous".
Solar works best in California and Arizona, we're told; it's not practical for northern climes. Yet Germany is doing remarkably well in developing its solar power, and if we could slide it directly to the west at its latitude, it would lie north of Minnesota.
I fully enjoy many of your comments. Some very good stuff to be found therein. I note that you frequently "threaten" to go back to Scotland.
As a fellow Celt, we here in the American West (in which I know you yourself reside) have a saying that you may not have heard. It runs along the lines of "Don't *talk* about it, DO it" !
As much as we'd all bemoan your absence, the last I checked, flights to Glasgow were *still* going both ways.
So did the American Indians -in controlled spells to head off worse major conflagrations but they knew what they were doing being close to the land.
I imagine that the "Abbo's" were the same.
Pity we can't learn from races who have always been wiser in the ways of the planet than we plunderers.
I could see that the "talking heads" moderators didn't believe what they were made to report, but they earned their salary from big oil.
And if you've been previously inclined toward dismissing so-called 'conspiracy theories,' there is now an excellent, science-based documentary available free at youtube, "Why in the World Are They Spraying?" I urge you to watch that immediately--th en follow that by searching for talks from the recent conference "Consciousness Beyond Chemtrails".
We're nearing the tipping point, when this will be exposed, and governments will have to acknowledge what they're doing. ('on your behalf,' will assuredly be the explanation.)
American scientific illiteracy is showing even though we have risen to 24th in the world
The inconvenient truth here is that Wall Street wants to create a "green" financial bubble in carbon futures.
And the dumber among you will support them.
(Hint: It is not carbon dioxide/CO2. And it used to be taught to 3rd graders.)
Talk about an irrational religious belief...
Global Warming 'fundamentalism ,' like 'Creationism' is taught in way too many public schools.
The third graders (I used to teach 'em) here on the sidewalk with me can quickly tell you that warmth comes from the sun.
That warmth varies locally daily as the earth rotates (diurnality), over the year (seasonality) as the earth tilts ('bout 21 to 24 degrees).
Moving on to 8th-grade science, precession ('bout 20k year cycle) varies the orientation of the axial tilt. Obliquity ('bout 40k) accounts for that 21-24 degree wobble. Eccentricity ('bout 100k) shifts orbit from round to a tiny bit more egg-shaped.
Global Warming "fundamentalism " is rooted in the heat-trapping characteristics of CO2, or rather, in the immutable laws of physics.
Creationism flees from the slightest empirical test.
We're up to 394.39 ppm of CO2, and it's trapping that solar warmth. http://co2now.org/
You still look good in that uniform, Shah!
And the Sun causes a lot more 'climate change' than all the SUVs ever built.
A generation ago many spoke of a new Ice Age in the offing. They were likely right. Does Ray remember?
It would also be informative to ask them if they have examined the curve of temperatures starting in 1900 and tried to correlate the decadal movements with likely human emissions.
Dominant GHG? Easy.
That's water vapor which varies markedly by time and region.
CO2, on the other hand, is consistent in ppm throughout the atmosphere. Reading at Mauna Loa, the Solomons, and in the Aleutians are remarkably close.
And the rising % of CO2 seems to be enough to raise water vapor reading by 4% over the last three decades.
True.
And stimulating these increases is the rise in our CO2 emisions.
"The inconvenient truth here is that Wall Street wants to create a "green" financial bubble in carbon futures."
You may be right about Wall Street and the "greening of the economy." I'm very wary of carbon trading schemes.
However: The global energy economy needs a radical overhaul. Climate change is real and it's a big problem that needs to be addressed. And there are a lot of other energy-related problems that need attention.
OCCUPY NOTE: Be wary of any "green scheme" that's eagerly endorsed by Wall Street. Creating more wealth for the wealthy won't solve environmental and economic problems. And be wary, also, of any environmental plan that doesn't address the basic problems of economic injustice.
Yo ! Shah ! I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this consideration of CO2 has a LOT in common with the presence of WATER in the human environment.
While water *itself* is not a "bad"thing, TOO MUCH water will drown you. *Insufficient* amounts of water will quickly bring about your early demise as well.
See how it's kind of a PROPORTION thing ?
One can think of both water and atmospheric CO2 as the "Goldilocks" proportion. Not enough - bad news. Too much -
bad news. Just enough - "Juuuust RIGHT "
I hope that helps.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/global-warming-has-stalled-since-1998-uk-met-office/1056899/
2) It's interesting to see that the overwhelming empirical as well as scientific evidence of ongoing catastrophic warming (e.g. Australia at this moment) and extreme weather (Sandy, two months ago) has no influence on the ritual appearance of the denial industry in blog comments.
But if I know George he was probably selling the junk to me...
8. Encourage people to grow their own food at home.
9. Encourage people to insulate and weatherstrip their homes.
Global warming has stalled since 1998, and in the next few years Earth's temperature will not rise as rapidly as feared, UK Met officials have claimed.
Over the next five years temperatures will be 0.43 degrees above the 1971-2000 average, instead of the previously forecast 0.54 degrees -- a 20 per cent reduction, the Met office in UK has confirmed.
This rise would be only slightly higher than the 0.4-degree rise recorded in 1998, an increase which is itself attributed by forecasters to an exceptional weather phenomenon, a media report said.
With all but 0.03 degrees of the increase having occurred by 1998, it means that no further significant increases to the planet's temperature are expected over the next few years.
The figures have been seized on by sceptics of man-made climate change, who claim that global warming has flatlined
despite a large rise in greenhouse emissions in recent decades.
"That the global temperature standstill could continue to at least 2017 would mean a 20-year period of no statistically significant change in global temperatures," Dr David Whitehouse, science adviser to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, said.
"Such a period of no increase will pose fundamental problems for climate models. If the latest Met Office prediction is correct, then it will prove to be a lesson in humility," Whitehouse said.
"Global warming is not 'at a standstill' but does seem to have slowed down since 2000, in comparison to the rapid warming of the world since the 1970s," Dr Richard Allan of the University of Reading said.