By Courtenay Barnett

Dearly beloved, we are gathered once more at the place of the holy truth, to preach yet again about truth, rights and justice. The sermon today asks the question:-

What are friends for?

Many in the congregation may think that this is a simple inquiry regarding likes and dislikes – loyalty or disloyalty. To some extent that is correct, but the actual dynamics of friendships or lack of friendships or waning friendships or abuse of friendships is what we shall weigh and consider from the pulpit today.

May I use a personal example to get to the topic of concern – Venezuela/Jamaica relations are very much on my mind. The personal example shall lead to the broader and more important issue of political friendships on a global scale.

During my time at London University there were some eight Caribbean fellow students. We ranged from Black British of Caribbean parentage to latter day migrants’ children to British born to persons such as myself who had been shipped off to get an education. We bonded in that we realised that we were the so-called ‘minority’ and not necessarily with overt disapproval of our presence we were neverthelesscolourfully noticeable, be this by dint of our complexion or the lively personalities of some of us. Not to say that the Anglo-Saxons had disavowed our right to be there, for we accepted them as friends to the extent that such friendships were invited and/or welcomed. So, within this demographic sub-group of said Caribbean students there was a person, like myself, who had sights ultimately set on a career in the business and professional world. The majority of the others went on to earn doctorate degrees, become a professor or lecturer in a university or in one way or another remained directly affixed to academia. Note that I have chosen not to call this person’s name. Some, like myself and this “friend” ended up back in the Caribbean – while others remained in Britain.

Thus, a young lawyer and a migrant from Jamaica to the Turks and Caicos Islands ( where I built my career), I would frequently visit Jamaica and spend time with my beloved ( now deceased) mother. On a Sunday my habit was to drive and visit friends and have discourse, meet their families and wish them the best for their futures. The kind of things friends normally do with true friends. Upon returning to my Mom’s home she asked this particular Sunday, ” So Courtenay, who did you visit today?” I was not in a pleasant mood for reason of something I had experienced and I shared it with her.

I drove to this “friend’s” home up to the security gate and sought entry to visit “X”. The security guard rang up and I replied, “Tell him Courtenay, he will know who.”

Word came back, “He is in the bathroom.”

I replied, “Tell him I will wait.”

Another message came back, “He says he won’t be out for another twenty minutes”.

Well, kiss mi neck back and another part of mi anatomy thereafter. Mi kiss mi teeth, tun mi vehicle and proceeded to visit true friends.

My mother understood fully my feelings, for she had visited me in London at my flat, helped cook food for my party guests, met friends ( including this “friend”) and remembered all, and did inquire at times how “X” or “Y”, as the individual may be, was getting on in life. She was like that; she meant people well and had genuine concern for human welfare. Her reply came to me in a memorable one liner, “Courtenay di higher monkey climb, di more ‘im backside expose”, and we proceeded to discuss more pleasant things and persons. I have not exchanged words with “X” since then, chalked him up as shallow and opportunistic, and have elected to walk through life on the other side of the road with true friends instead.

Dearly beloved, we must reflect in this fleeting passage of time we call “life” and ask ourselves, ” what are friends for?” For, it is sagaciously said, “a friend in need is a friend indeed.” If I were in need when I sought to visit “X”, be assured, he was confirming – I am fine and rich and mighty; do not come knocking; I am fine; I don’t care how you are; I have neither time nor care nor concern for your piddling friendship for there are more important persons in life for me to engage. Yes – I heard and understood your message loud and clear.

Let us therefore reflect and now turn our minds to the really big question regarding Venezuela and Jamaica’s friendship with our said Latin American neighbour. I shall do so, not with any sense of grievance and/or resentment as I felt about my assumed personal friendship – but – by reference to standards of international law and global political values.

Venezuela

The post World War 11 era has seen several Latin American coups and dictatorships installed – and many of them were either supported by, approved of, or directly engineered by the United States of America.

Following the 1953 CIA led coup in Iran, the next one was in Guatemala to assist the preservation of the Dulles brothers’ interest in that country to the advantage of Chiquita bananas and to the manifest disadvantage of the Guatemalan people in this notable example which gave its literal name to the now well known phrase – ‘banana republic’.

The facts do reveal that be it the military in Argentina or in Brazil or in Chile under Pinochet, the patterns have only changed to the extent that elections take place and the question for the US is not one of real concern for preservation of democracy ( recall the US support for the short lived coup against Chavez and the overnight reversal when the OAS renounced the action of the military) – but for support of the supplicants who can support US foreign policy. This brief background serves well to address the current Venezuelan crisis with facts and direct questions:

A. Did a paper ballot validate the electronic votes in Venezuela?

B. Why when Macron in France was voted in with the same turnout at 48% as was Maduro votedin with is there an assumption that there is not a broad ( even as so declined) base of support for the elected government?

C. Why evidentially and in point of law are the Venezuelan elections fraudulent?

If there were European Union election observers, it would be interesting to read their assessment and analysis and conclusions about the Venezuelan elections. But, those are issues of the internal affairs of Venezuela, which interestingly, while I can discern same as being vital and important in getting to the truth regarding the ultimate question of legitimacy of an elected government ( leaving aside for the moment the paramount legal issue of ‘sovereignty’) – there is no such valid questioning and provisions of analysis which directly provide verifiable answers in the mainstream Western media.

My long-term observation is that the US has consistently embraced regimes across the worlddoomed to failure whilethreateningreformist and/or revolutionary governments which make the promise of betterment for their people more difficult to achieve in practical terms. Likewise,Britain and the other European powers reflect this same pattern of opposition, be that in Rhodesia or then Apartheid South Africa.

In the 1980s when Reagan was the US President, he had this to say about then President Mobutu of then Zaire and his ‘Kleptocracy’ – nowCongo:-

Reagan, astonishingly, described the dictator Mobutu: “A voice of good sense and good will.”

Not in the least surprising for Mobutu Sese Seko, as a leader acceptable to both Belgium and Western multinational interests, was installed as President and dictator in 1965, when the democratically elected Patrice Lumumba proved objectionable. It was the Belgians and the CIA that had worked jointly and murdered Patrice Lumumba, a man who at the independence ceremony openly critcised the Belgians for their exploitation of the Congo. In 1956 the Congo had its first university graduate. Between 1908 and 1960, when the Congo became politically independent, there were a mere 17 university graduates from the already decimated Congolese population of some 13.5 million. Belgium was offended by the truth as spoken by Lumumba – and the CIA quite helpfully installed a compliant and plundering leader to continue the looting of the Congo (likely the world’s richest territory with its oil, uranium, minerals, gold and diamonds). That is the truth; that is the established historical pattern. Belgium subsequentlyacknowledged its wrongdoing and apologised to Lumumba’s children.

I was a student in the 1970s in London when I noted that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was working actively to prolog Apartheid’s racism in South Africa, which she found desirable and acceptable. Not surprisingly, it was no other than her husband, Denis Thatcher, who had substantial investments in Apartheid South Africa at the time.

All the above to give context. And now back to Latin America and Venezuela.

China now happens to be the world’s most dynamic economy. President Trump finds himself continuing to embrace failed and losing strategies. He is embracing Bolsonoro’s Brazil while confronting China, in a manner reminiscent of the ‘opium wars’ when the European powers unilaterally dictated to the minions and lesser breeds across the world.

What are Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro and President Trump trying to achieve? They both wantto reverse nearly a century of state directed economic growth.They both believe that privatization of the entire – or -most as possible of the public sector, including the strategic finance, banking, minerals, infrastructure, transport, energy and manufacturing sectors– or – somuch of it as politically they can in their respective countries force to take effect – is the path to greatness. In Brazil, priority is now given to the sellout to foreign multi-national corporations. Interestingly, previous authoritarian civilian and military regimes both had protected nationalized Brazilian firms as part of tripartite alliances which included foreign, state and domestic private enterprises.I use this example to contrast what had happened under Chavez in Venezuela, for he had significantly reversed foreign ownership and consequentially also reduced the net capital outflows from Venezuela while simultaneously raising living standards – which – now, admittedly for reasons both domestic and international are under serious threat of reductions, if not ultimate reversals. That is the truth; those are the realities being faced by the Latin American and more particularly, for purposes of this sermon, the Venezuelan people.

Venezuela and Jamaica

One does not need to be a student of international law to accept and recognise that Venezuela is a sovereign nation.

Jamaica, for its part, as a small state should be able to exercise its sovereignty in its best interest to command respect, trust towards finding avenues of constructive and beneficial of co-operation in and withthe international community.

Have we done so in response to Venezuela?

• At a time when oil prices were souring on the global market, and when small oil dependent Caribbean nations, such as Jamaica, saw their entire economic future facing dire consequences once required to purchase oil at those prices – what happened? Under the Pertocaribe deal, it was Venezuela which came to the rescue of the Jamaican economy, and on generous terms of payment for extended periods of payment made oil affordable for the Jamaican consumer. What Jamaica received was in excess of US$3.2 billion in deferred debt.
• Venezuela paid Jamaica an equity cheque of US$63 million.
• It was Venezuela via the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica ( Petrojam) in 2006 agreed with Jamaica to a 49/51% ownership between Venezuela and Jamaica where the long-term objective was towards having the facility move from hydro-skimming to catalytic cracking technology – all to the advantage of Jamaica. Application of that technology would make the petroleum product more aligned to the energy-consumption patterns of Jamaica.
• Venezuela bought back Jamaica’s debt at 50 cents on the dollar where some US$3billion is accepted as satisfied for a mere US$1.5 billion.

Venezuela, way beyond the few facts stated above, has been a friend to Jamaica for a very long time.

So, what does our foreign minister do to this friend?

What does the Jamaican government do to this friend?

Recall the loving relationship between Presidents Mobuto and Reagan and note that genuine concern which Prime Minister Thatcher had for democracy in South Africa. Care? Concern? For those people?

First I ask, whether Jamaica’s Foreign Minister asked the questions I did above. Then if she did, did she bring her findings to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Jamaican people before rushing to judgment on the recent Venezuelan elections? At the very least, if a friend is flawed or coming up short, then as a true friend, would one not engage, discuss and then make an informed decision? International law recognises the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of all nation states, one to the other around the globe. If, for a small nation state, there were findings that a big power did interfere in the internal affairs of a middle range or small state’s domestic affairs, should not enlightened self-interest give pause for concern and questioning? Well, our foreign minister voted not to recognise the elected government of Venezuela.

Moreover, there are moves afoot to effect a hostile take over ( buy out – more like “sell-out”) of the Venezuelan held shares in Petrocaribe.

Are all these moves by the Jamaican Government, principled, enlightened, right, justice, fair, loyal – or demonstrating any of the attributes of true friendship?

As with my long lost once assumed “friend” – I raise these questions, for as a student I was proud of Jamaica’s stand against Apartheid, from the colonial days when then NW. Manley ( small as Jamaica is) took a stance of non-importation of South African produce through to the respectful relationship under both political parties in respect for and response to Nelson Mandela and the ANC. If Usain Bolt earned his respect on the international stage by virtue of sterling and consistent performances on the international track; then Jamaica did too earn its respect for sterling performances in joining with the global forces standing up for justice– as distinct from being supportive of – oppression.

Jamaica finds herself having to service debt, while education, health care and provision of other vital social necessities go wanting. Thus, did the Venezuelan government’s direct assistance in reducing the debt burden while assisting in securing energy security not serve well Jamaica’s long term economic and social developmental prospects?

Tell me – for I am truly concerned – my friend was not a friend. Does Jamaica show herself acting comparatively much the same as my “friend”?

Is that what friends are for?

And so endeth my sermon for today.

AMEN!

Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over thirty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. He lives and works in the Caribbean.

 

THE EARTHIAN – 6

 

Effective Learning Publications, 32 East Main Street, Statesboro, Georgia, USA, Spaceship Earth, January 8, 2019

Or So It Seems to Me Today

Richard John Stapleton, PhD, CTA, Editor & Publisher

Weltanschauung: Doom, gloom, increasing competition and agitation, untrustworthy governments and economic systems, uncertainty, unease.

Zeitgeist: To migrate or not to migrate and to get or not to get more aggressive to improve one’s own lot in life at the expense of others.

Doomsday Clock: About the same as last month.

There remains fulsome talk and writing around Spaceship Earth about the consequences of global warming and climate change, the consensus among experts being that if significant reductions in atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane do not occur in the next ten years there is going to be hell to pay by humans alive after that. There seems to be increasing awareness and conviction among ordinary humans that something has gone wrong with local weather patterns.

It will do little good to play AIN’T IT AWFUL, a psychological Game identified and labeled by transactional analysts , to stroke humans for being passive Victims of obsolete economic, religious, and political systems manipulated and exploited by rapacious sociopathic Persecutor oligarchs and leaders and their corrupt bought and paid for lackey politicians for selfish gain, however true that might be in reality.

On the other hand, it will do no good for Earthians to stick their heads in the sand or passively pretend everything is just hunky-dory and swell, with everything coming up roses for everyone, living in small imaginary Candide-like best of all possible worlds, playing a psychological Game labeled GREENHOUSE by transactional analysts, in which players are rewarded with plastic strokes for making nonsensical positive comments about the environment and their lives.

Regardless of the causes of the Earthian plight, it seems to me individual humans should assume responsibility and take action for conserving energy as best they can in their daily lives to reduce greenhouse gases; but more importantly they should select politicians who will create economic and political policies and actions to correct environmental and social problems on a mass scale.

In the past four months I have endeavored to set up a De-Gaming Democracy group here in Statesboro, hoping to engage citizens of various persuasions in discussions of relevant economic and political problems and opportunities, in what I call the Ogeechee Economic Forum meeting the third Saturday of each month. It appears most people have little interest in, or are insecure about, transacting in Game-free Adult ways in public dealing with economic and political problems and opportunities. Hopefully interest in this forum will pick up during the new year, 2019.

For more information regarding the nature, purposes, and uses of Transactional Analysis click here.

For information on how to create Game-free democratic learning processes see inside my book Born to Learn: A Transactional Analysis of Human Learning.

For more information on how to co-construct better organizations and economic systems read free my book Business Voyages: Mental Maps, Scripts, Schemata, and Tools for Co-Constructing Your Own Business Worlds.

See my article “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc,” for some management science ideas on how Earthians might eventually co-construct an economic and political system that is viable and satisfying for everyone.

Human migration is now on the mental radars of most humans around Spaceship Earth. Migration problems in the US have caused a shutdown of the US government. The elected president of the US is now holding the government hostage by refusing to sign a new federal budget if Congress does not appropriate him funds to build a wall across the southern border of the US to keep humans from Latin America from migrating into the US.

Much has been researched, written, taught, and published about human migration problems in academia. One of the pioneers in the migration academic field is Kurt Lewin, who wrote Principles of Topological Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936). Lewin pointed out human migration happens because of push and pull forces, or vectors, propelling and compelling people to move from one country to another. Few would move from their country of origin if the place enabled them to get their natural human needs met, physical needs for food, clothing, and shelter, and social needs for safety, love, acceptance, belonging, and self-actualization.

It seems to me almost all emigrants emigrate because their countries of origin fail to enable their subjects or citizens to get their legitimate human needs met, and that includes Europeans emigrating to the US.

Unfortunately, as I pointed out in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.,” moving farther west to escape problems at home is no longer an option for most humans.

I wrote about some of my ancestors who immigrated into what is now the US in “A Synopsis of my Family Background.” My ancestral gene pool started migrating to Virginia before the US Revolution in the 1700s, and according to Ancestry.com it’s composed of genes similar to those of humans now living in Ireland (about twenty percent); Scotland, Wales, and England (about fifty percent); France, Holland, and Belgium (about twenty percent); Spain, Italy, and Greece (about five percent); Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland (about five percent); and Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia (about two percent).

My ancestors in what is now the US were mainly farmers and ranchers generally producing families of six to ten offspring per family. Thus there was never enough land where they were to support all their children and grandchildren when they grew up, so some offspring in most generations had to migrate to the western frontier of their recently conquered and expanding country to acquire enough cheap undeveloped land to make a living as independent Calvinist patriarchal landowners. My ancestors on this continent created two main paths on their westward journey across what is now the US, some migrating from Virginia to North Carolina to Tennessee to Texas, with most of the rest migrating from Virginia to South Carolina to Georgia to Alabama to Mississippi to Texas, generally staying in each state for a generation or so before someone in the family had to move farther west to pioneer new territory to act out the family script. I cover in more detail the causes and consequences of family scripts in Born to Learn. Yes, some of my ancestors owned slaves and some were Indian fighters, not something to be proud of.

I was born November 3, 1940 at Corpus Christi, Texas where my father worked as a carpenter at a Naval Base at the outset of World War II. My parents soon moved back to Northwest Texas near Lubbock to be near their relatives who were cotton farmers. My father, Richard Gathright Maury Stapleton, soon acquired a cotton farm himself, which he sold after about two years, later starting a lumber yard and hardware store selling lumber and hardware to cotton farmers surrounding the town of Wolfforth, where I grew up and lived to age twenty-four. He and my mother, Ida Belle Coston Stapleton, a preacher’s daughter, had two children, my brother, James Clay Stapleton, three years younger than I, and me.

My father volunteered for the Seabees after he sold his farm and worked in Okinawa during World War II on construction projects. He returned to Wolfforth after the war and became a businessman.

His father, Sidney Clay Stapleton, had migrated as far west as New Mexico, owning a ten thousand acre ranch near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, “The Old Bear Ranch,” with a Spear-X brand, which he sold during the Great Depression. He then moved himself, his wife, his two daughters, and his four sons back east to Oklahoma, where he moved to be near a brother who owned a Chevrolet dealership in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma.

My Stapleton grandfather was born on a cotton plantation in Mississippi, where he taught school for a while, from whence he migrated to Jasper, Texas, where he managed a sawmill, where my father, the next to youngest of six children, was born. My grandfather and his family later migrated to New Mexico where he bought a ranch with some Mississippi plantation money he and his wife inherited, where they lived and ran their ranch for ten or so years. His wife Catharine Gathright Maury Stapleton served as a midwife in those years, sometimes being gone from home weeks at a time helping birth babies.

My father graduated from high school at Carnegie, Oklahoma at age twenty, having had to drop out of school at fifteen to help support his family because of the depression. The Great Depression declassed his father from patriarchal landowner status to itinerant carpenter status, managing his crew of four sons building barns, houses, corrals, loading chutes, and what-have-you in the wide-open spaces of Oklahoma and Northwest Texas. I remember him saying, “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” My father said he changed schools five times before he finally graduated from high school.

Those days are over, not only in the US but also around Spaceship Earth. There is no cheap undeveloped agricultural land left for migrants to take over and develop. Humans migrating now are generally so desperate that they will do jobs that most natives won’t do, hard, poorly paid, low status work. They are pushed out of their countries of origin because of collapsed economic, political, and social systems, being generally willing to migrate anywhere that is better than where they are.

A relevant consideration is what caused the economic, political, and social systems of their countries of origin to collapse? A simple answer is that their support systems were purposely collapsed by the wars, intrigues, sanctions, and machinations of imperialistic nations to acquire cheap resources in their countries, primarily oil. Other causes include natives producing more children than the natural resources of their countries can support. Other causes include the greed and callousness of top leaders of their countries who hog most of the resources for themselves.

Unfortunately, human migration problems around Spaceship Earth have increased in recent decades because of the US’s overt military destruction of regimes and governments in the Middle East and North Africa and its covert clandestine destabilization of Latin American regimes and governments, sometimes replacing socialist governments with right-wing dictators and fascist regimes who terrorize their own people, causing them to flee, causing them to flood European countries and the US, or at least try to. Whether Trump’s wall or anything else can keep them out of the US remains to be seen.

Who were the prime allowers of unauthorized immigrants into the US? Clinton and Bush II. According to the Pew Research Center unauthorized immigrants into the US increased from 3.5 million in 1990 to 8.6 million in 2000, the Clinton years, and from 8.6 to 12.2 million during 2001 to 2007, the Bush II years, and then declined to 10.7 million by 2016, during the Obama years. According to the Center for Migration Studies there are now ten to eleven million unauthorized immigrants living in the US.

At the same time, conditions have become so agitated and uncertain in some so-called developed not-yet-collapsed countries that some fairly well off humans born there would like to migrate to other countries to escape local conditions in their countries, which they perceive to be more onerous and oppressive than those in other countries, to escape high taxes and social unrest (in some cases caused by having to live cheek by jowl with recent immigrants who will not assimilate), feeling and thinking the grass might be greener in several places on the other side of the fence.

Some people now claim the US has become a third world country because of poverty, inequality, debt, and dysfunction and corruption in all branches of the US government, largely caused by corporate private money being used to bribe lawmakers, presidents, and bureaucrats to pass and create rules and laws to advance the interests of corporate oligarchs and the elite rich rather than we the people.

I studied migration problems writing my doctoral dissertation, “An Analysis of Rural Manpower Migration Patterns in the South Plains Region of Texas,” at Texas Tech University, which was supported by a $6500 grant from the Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation, and Research of the US Department of Labor in 1969. Young people at the time were migrating out of the South Plains of Texas for the same reasons their parents and grandparents had migrated in: It had become hard for children born in farm families to make a living growing cotton when they grew up where they grew up. Most Northwest Texas rural high school graduates around where I grew up were migrating to Dallas and Ft. Worth for the same reasons humans today all around Spaceship Earth are migrating from rural areas to urban areas, primarily because that’s where the money is. I used t-tests to determine whether rural out-migrants from Northwest Texas got better off than those that hung around.

Moving from rural to urban areas won’t work if everybody does it. All around Spaceship Earth Earthians need humans to stay where they are to farm small organic farms. To solve the Earthian environmental problem a case can be made that the status levels of agricultural lifestyles should be higher than those of bankers sitting in offices atop skyscrapers in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Hong Kong, Moscow, Brasilia, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, or Ottawa, or generals sitting in the US Pentagon and in equivalent command posts in other countries, or top leaders sitting in the US White House and in equivalent houses in other countries.

I included and quoted original research data I acquired by questionnaires as well as published academic secondary research and literature in my study of migration. The management science idea I explained in “The Evolution of Spaceship Earth, Inc.” for ultimately solving the Earthian migration problem, published in 2015, happened to me in 1969 when I was writing my dissertation, and is affixed to the dissertation as an appendix.

You can download a free copy of “An Analysis of Rural Manpower Migration Patterns in the South Plains Region of Texas” from Texas Tech University.

As usual this month’s THE EARTHIAN links and cites as SOURCES recent articles written and published by clear deep-thinking hard-hitting independent writers in various Internet publications on ecological, economic, social, political, religious, and military affairs around Spaceship Earth. I generally agreed with these writers about what is most relevant about Spaceship Earth states of affairs, but each of them brought up facts, analyses, conclusions, ideas, or perspectives that were new to me when I read them during the last thirty days or so, thereby teaching me something, which is why I included them in THE EARTHIAN.

It’s not easy, impossible some say, to separate relevant from irrelevant focal points to see what’s really going on while being inundated with the incredible volume of noise, facts, and information generated daily around Spaceship Earth and disseminated by various media.

If you have ideas on how to democratically discuss in Game-free ways economic and political problems and opportunities in something like the Ogeechee Economic Forum please go to my RESPONSES page and let me know about them.

I have no desire to sell subscriptions or advertising or solicit donations for THE EARTHIAN, but I would like to sell more books. If you feel you’ve gained value from this newsletter and would like to reciprocate go to the Effective Learning Publications page and purchase one or more books.

SOURCES:

January 8, 2019

About time.

SOURCE: “9/11: Finally the truth comes out?,” by Paul Craig Roberts, INTREPID REPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/25869.

January 8

Say it ain’t so Joe.

SOURCE: “Universal Basic Income is easier than it looks,” by Ellen Brown, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/25854.

January 8

Sounds good to me.

SOURCE: “There is quick way to end Trump’s government shutdown,” by Bev Conover, INTREPIDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/25859.

January 8

Say it ain’t so Joe.

SOURCE: “Freedom Rider: Elizabeth Warren and the trap for black voters,” by Margaret Kimberley, INTREPEIDREPORT, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/25865.

January 8

Say it ain’t so Joe.

SOURCE: “How The Federal reserve Quitely Bankrupted The US Pension System,” by Stephanie Pomboy, Macro Mavens, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-07/how-federal-reserve-quietly-bankrupted-us-pension-system?fbclid=IwAR16aTmeBx2-H_JNqw6UPxcwWedGVaF8R0Q8n4KpLR_aX_UuBNbgM9XFSlE.

January 8

So the US is not getting out of Syria?

SOURCE: “Reasons To Believe in Trump’s Syria Withdrawal Are Vanishing,” by Caitlin Johnstone, MEDIUM.COM@CAITYJOHNSTONE, https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/reasons-to-believe-in-trumps-syria-withdrawal-are-vanishing-280b0a90b1bb.

January 8

Is this the new Zeitgeist?

SOURCE: “Orbanonomics (Or The Return of National Economics),” by Guillaume Durocher, UNZ.COM, http://www.unz.com/gdurocher/orbanomics-or-the-return-of-national-economics/.

January 8

Is this a game changer?

SOURCE: “Hypersonic Weapons Pose ‘Significant Challenge to World Peace,’: Expert,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-06/hypersonic-missiles-pose-significant-challenge-world-peace-says-expert?fbclid=IwAR2qzzwCv1jlgFA2kjhDXNCts_BJv0H8fGptp-rHXa7genUJ4OZQkieURrg.

January 8

Migration gone awry.

SOURCE: “Gun Ownership Surges In Europe Amid Wave of Terror Attacks, Migrant Crime,” by Tyler Durden , ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-07/gun-ownership-surges-europe-amid-wave-terror-attacks-migrant-crime?fbclid=IwAR0sowEWPfltdODbqLmh2htKWFjlDsSmpBhMxjp4fpQ6WmmbKGO5ePl-25A.

January 8

Immigration it seems is not working so well in France.

SOURCE: “France in Free Fall,” by Guy Milliere, GATESTONEINSTITUTE.ORG, https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13500/france-in-free-fall.

January 8

Having lived in Turkey three months in 1982 teaching in a management science program with Troy State University at Incirlik Air Base near Adana I learned something about Turkish culture and the Kurdish issue. This was a touchy problem then and little has changed in the meantime. Trump wants to get out of Syria. The US deep state including the military does not. What will give?

SOURCE: “Lira Slides After Erdogan Refuses To Meet Bolton For Blocking,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-08/lira-slides-after-erdogan-refuses-meet-bolton-blocking-syria-withdrawal?fbclid=IwAR3bebKgiE1punbr2KCfFGIiCI3MII4SSuF0E3gfM_lBoeGh_sUA702ODWg.

January 5

What percentage of Democrat politicians in Washington have been bought off?

SOURCE: “Biggest Threat to Single – Payer? Democrat Support for a Public Option,” by Michael Corcoran, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/biggest-threat-to-single-payer-democrat-support-for-a-public-option/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR07CAF4d6x6cRI7GLynjLNLttKyjqiQX9ftOwEKskDk6NO52R3S-0an7XU.

January 5

FYI

SOURCE: “Watching the World Burn: Truthout Readers Share Their Climate Stories,” by Dahr Jarmail, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/watching-the-world-burn-truthout-readers-share-their-climate-stories/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR06sIDqjxTPA8TKXl7RpHKno9Drj_q7TW1csxc6BRIW3R9nzhDoGVp6-M4.

January 5

So be it.

SOURCE: “House Democrats Release Sweeping Legislation to Drain the Swamp,” by Jake Johnson, TROUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/house-democrats-release-sweeping-legislation-to-drain-the-swamp/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR0FmHSFu1LouX4wR6SaE4GOqoXTeGaXxlA1JHwxJczaD4ufA1uCWXxpK_8.

January 5

An interesting perspective.

SOURCE: “World is safe from global conflict in 2019,” by M. K. Bhadrakumar, INDIANPUNCHLINE.COM, https://indianpunchline.com/world-is-safe-from-global-conflict-in-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3C-ad64C8iGzlk86VX8wq3p4YWby8tq5jjPZPVQ5gxHWC8ybNaI3tybtw

January 4

Nothing more insane than this.

SOURCE: “Trump ready to shut government ‘for years’,” Video and text, BBCNEWS.COM, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46763940?fbclid=IwAR2tmvO7cEXslXZ35DswX6D2p7R77k9litsG3KQ69YdEDa_XeJnIh-4USlE.

January 4

Say it ain’t so Joe.

SOURCE: “Top Trump officials are about to get a $10K raise while federal employees work without pay during the shutdown,” by Emma Ockerman, NEWS.VICE.COM, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46763940?fbclid=IwAR2tmvO7cEXslXZ35DswX6D2p7R77k9litsG3KQ69YdEDa_XeJnIh-4USlE.

January 4

So very sad.

SOURCE: “Rich Democrats Don’t Care About Income Inequality Any More than Rich Republicans,” by Ethan Wolff-Mann, BBC.COM, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46763940?fbclid=IwAR2tmvO7cEXslXZ35DswX6D2p7R77k9litsG3KQ69YdEDa_XeJnIh-4USlE.

January 4

Shows the dynamics of arguing.

SOURCE: “A transactional analysis of truth,” by Richard John Stapleton, EFFECTIVELEARNING.NET, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-transactional-analysis-of-truth/?fbclid=IwAR0NF3RVJkkdduPBGkFWimuavwElOoca56at08-jUQj43EeysJ6a9uN9dvI.

January 4

Another useful article on how to educate your children by Joyce Wilson.

SOURCE: “6 Fun Projects to Introduce Your Learning Disabled Child to the Arts,” by Joyce Wilson, EFFECTIVELEARNING.NET, https://blog.effectivelearning.net/a-transactional-analysis-of-truth/?fbclid=IwAR0NF3RVJkkdduPBGkFWimuavwElOoca56at08-jUQj43EeysJ6a9uN9dvI.

January 3

A hard hitting article pulling no punches backward or forward.

SOURCE: “2019 FROM A FOURTH TURNING PERSPECTIVE, Administrator, THEBURNINGPLATFORM.COM, https://www.theburningplatform.com/2018/12/31/2019-from-a-fourth-turning-perspective/?fbclid=IwAR1t_WivgHMeBhQytKzbj0I1CtSQmKzzLywT8keHUWJA3G6ujnmQEbRqwUo.

January 2

Here is where the money is.

SOURCE: “Visualizing The Extreme Concentration of Global Wealth,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-01/visualizing-extreme-concentration-global-wealth?fbclid=IwAR0Nq63PeXvHAx1naCZEH863OcKlbB1jg9WgyvDer4fgr0b_jZTyca2OVAI.

January 2

How many secrets are there to be hacked about the World Trade Center blow up in September of 2001? Thousands?

SOURCE: “‘Pay The F*ck Up’: Hackers Threaten To Dump Secret 9/11 Attack Files If Bitcoin Ransom Not Met,” by Tyler Durden , ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-01/pay-fck-hackers-threaten-dump-secret-911-attack-files-if-bitcoin-ransom-not-met?fbclid=IwAR2OP4RnBnuSLsRWDI1P8IBglXrDnKM8zjzT9Ab87XDizWRGp6T8U_cCIt8.

January 2

Telling and chilling. Seems as though the Euro has not been so hot. Maybe there’s more to it than paper money. Maybe such things such as number of mouths to be fed and resources to produce things to satisfy those mouths have something to do with it.

SOURCE: “The Delusional Leaders of the Eurozone,” by Phil Dobbie, PATREON.COM, https://www.patreon.com/posts/delusional-of-23670929.

January 2

Not good signs.

SOURCE: “New Year’s Hangover Hammers Markets – Stocks Slammed, Bonds Bid,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-02/us-futures-tumble-ahead-eu-open-new-years-hangover-hits?fbclid=IwAR2Y5W5hWZLUmmlXOwz3GbqMNdsPq7slJPLL8qbq8oU76eeLSTCI7ygcE9k.

January 2

Agree

SOURCE: “How the War Party Lost the Middle East,” by Kurt Schlichter, TOWNHALL.COM, https://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2019/01/01/how-the-war-party-lost-the-middle-east-n2538314?fbclid=IwAR2t9swxdoKf73V9hNj35WWsUs83tnMYEtrEtuTmeBLYZVe_VDgfKQqj8Pc.

January 2

A ship of fools, sub-optimization to make a loose cannon president look good in the short run, and to hell with the long run. He actually said he won’t be around for the long run.

SOURCE: “The American Dream is Being Held Hostage,” by Virginia Fidler, GOLDTELEGRAPH.COM, http://www.goldtelegraph.com/the-american-dream-is-being-held-hostage/.

January 2

A stable genius in action.

SOURCE: “Trump Trashes Mattis, Says “I Think I Could Have Been A Good General,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-02/trump-trashes-mattis-says-i-think-i-could-have-been-good-general?fbclid=IwAR3LSRb4miTiqAXyENlBvkMJkISaGeMTpZEkhfoMaCmMID2RrNyxCrdaxqI.

January 2

Yuk, money talks.

SOURCE: “The New Congress and the Rolling Catastrophe of the US Body Politic,” by Roger Harris, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/02/the-new-congress-and-the-rolling-catastrophe-of-the-us-body-politic/?fbclid=IwAR0oUY1eBtcvwPpGXCGBbiBQMvVPj7flWjXniD23rZjjMDK4xiIZcuZiyUg.

January 2

Go Warren

SOURCE: “Elizabeth Warren Announces 2020 Presidential Run,” by Jessica Corbett, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/elizabeth-warren-announces-2020-presidential-run/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3eUaoYIdMvzA1_-afHJr-LN83WrwNtDHoPim8mOM9627ooqO2h3Y8uhrA.

January 2

Bad joke

SOURCE: “Pentagon Rings in New Year With Joke About Dropping Massive Bombs on People,” by Jon Queally, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/pentagon-rings-in-new-year-with-joke-about-dropping-massive-bombs-on-people/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR3gQvLkJ4x7EUox_vcFlDUfpxFfOo9MqJ_ikOI_NUp4-N7NJlU9-ijiftg.

December 27, 2018

Here’s Ralph Nader’s take on single payer.

SOURCE: “Ralph Nader on Single Payer, Climate Devastation,” Video, by CP Editor, COUNTERPUNCH.ORG, https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/21/ralph-nader-on-single-payer-climate-devastation/?fbclid=IwAR3GZK-zZ1tQbEjC_4j_eaQ3pBV4ovUeUKmspKrOuquQRmTqusyeL5CEhCs.

December 27

Good for them.

SOURCE: “Japan Suffered Biggest Natural Population Decline On Record In 2018,” by Tyler Durden, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-26/japan-suffered-biggest-natural-population-decline-record-2018?fbclid=IwAR0PpUSmJ9nCUgHSd6nCdt5VtGDc54dQ9dPAtOfVIAusRzLmRNqXTH54tMU.

December 27

Could not agree more about the F-35, apparently one of the most egregious US waste of money Pentagon lunacies of all time.

SOURCE: “War Games in Vermont: Danger of Crashes and Permanent Hearing Loss,” by James Marc Leas, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/articles/war-games-in-vermont-danger-of-crashes-and-permanent-hearing-loss/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR24EZ9z-t0Bg9Hmrfpwk69VD9nuIvUOpfX-dgEqxA8U733Dofe2GJ3CXfo.

December 26

Say it ain’t so Joe

SOURCE: “We Know How Trump’s War Game Ends,” by Matt Taibbi, ROLLINGSTONE.COM, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-syria-withdrawal-772177/?fbclid=IwAR0P6lxPDkC5yQJr-yCs22hwMS8jHTOEalZxSuwHNqt5IohtmfiXQW-704w.

December 26

This is a long winded but plausible explanation of how capitalist economies work. I agree everything operates according to cause-effect chains, but whether it’s possible for mere mortals to track, much less predict, their progressions in economic states of affairs is another matter.

SOURCE: “Ray Dalio Puts ‘Recent Market Moves in Perspective’,” by Ray Dalio, ZEROHEDGE.COM, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-26/ray-dalio-puts-recent-market-moves-perspective?fbclid=IwAR2X3gUZCif7kdR8as_eEH7gqPE48_VGPw2eT4m-r1M6pURsvVRdHP-GGGU.

December 26

Food for thought.

SOURCE: “Reading Into Albert Einstein’s God Letter,” by Louis Menand, NEWYORKER.COM, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/reading-into-albert-einsteins-god-letter?fbclid=IwAR1dThw-P6gcYwjFLUgnaSjpStdtLd_o0toViRgdSdTE8B9wkffesVUJ11E.

December 24

Is that so?

SOURCE: “What the US Can Afford vs. What the US Can’t Afford,” Video, Revere Politics,https://www.facebook.com/ReverePolitics/videos/262594257767209/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDM0OTY1MTE4NjoyMDk5NDE2NjE2NzQ2NjQw/.

December 22

Say it ain’t so Joe.

SOURCE: “Is The US Preparing For A War Between LatAm States?”, by Thierry Meyssan, VOLTAIRENET.ORG, http://www.voltairenet.org/article204400.html.

December 22

Sounds plausible to me.

SOURCE: “America’s Technology & Sanctions War Will Bifurcate The Global Economy,” by Alastair Crooke, STRATEGICCULTURE.ORG, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/12/18/america-technology-sanctions-war-will-end-by-bifurcating-global-economy.html.

December 21

Say it ain’t so Joe.

SOURCE: “The Bombings Will Continue: US Military Role in Syria Won’t End,” Interview with Nermeen Shaikh, Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, TRUTHOUT.ORG, https://truthout.org/video/the-bombings-will-continue-the-us-military-role-in-syria-isnt-over/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR1KpWn4J572FAS1-Sq0U11gGLGVudsFoZBJ9DcwCBoUho53Ig_MdXEqUpo.

December 20

Copple’s overview of how the US got where it is today and where we need to go is one of the best analyses of what the problems and opportunities are and what should be done that I have read in some time. A must read for any concerned conscientious citizen.

SOURCE: “Radical egalitarianism can save the planet, the world, and our souls, by Roger Copple, INTREPEDREPORT.COM, http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/25715.

December 8

William John Cox and I started our lives on Earth living in or near Wolfforth, Texas, in Northwest Texas in the 1940s, ten miles southwest of Lubbock in the Texas Panhandle. We were both descended from cotton farmers living in the Deep South going back to the American Revolution and spent our early lives living on and around cotton farms in the same vicinity. Wm had a tougher time of it than I did, becoming orphaned when he was ten years old. He moved away in high school and we never saw one another again in person, having renewed our friendship on the Internet about ten years ago. He became an officer for the Los Angeles Police Department who wrote the police manual for the LAPD, a distinguished lawyer who defended a Jewish holocaust survivor in a case he won that was made into the movie, Never Again, and a prolific author, writing several books on government, politics, science, mathematics, and philosophy. He now serves as a public interest attorney, having once run for president of the US. He recently formulated a new strategy to improve the US government, his Declaration of Non-Candidacy:

“I, William John Cox, do hereby declare that I will not be a candidate for President of the United States in the 2020 election; however, should a majority of American voters write in my name, Wm Cox, on their ballot, sufficient to carry the Electoral College, I would be honored to administer the executive affairs of the nation, to the best of my abilities, for at least one term, under two conditions.

“That, between now and the election, the Women of America select from among themselves, a Vice President to preside over the legislative portfolio in Congress and in the States, an Assistant President to preside over the domestic portfolio, and an Assistant President to preside over the international portfolio.

“That, the Women immediately commence organization of a shadow government to publish policy papers and to identify highly qualified leaders, so as to be prepared to take control of the government on January 20, 2021, and to competently manage the government thereafter. My limited role would be to coordinate administrative policy, necessarily retaining the defense, justice, and intelligence portfolios to ensure justice and to sustain peace.

“I have already written and published on a wide variety of relevant subjects, all of which is freely available, and there is probably little I could add, in addition, at this time, that would make a difference. So, for now it is up to the Women of America, who are increasingly alarmed about the colossal corruption that is destroying our government, to take charge of our future.”‹

“There are six hundred and eighty-eight days until the election–time enough to make a difference.”

For more on this prolific non-candidate go here.

I have read several of Wm’s books and have found them original, fact-based, insightful, well thought out, and well written. He is also a self-taught mathematician and physicist and this book, Mind, has been commended by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator.

If you want to respond with comments or a review of this book, go to our RESPONSES page and say what you want to say. Just click on the link below to read a complimentary copy of the book. Here is a YouTube link to a reading and video scroll of Mind by the author.

SOURCE: Mind & Its Languages of Reason, by William John Cox, https://williamjohncox.com/mind.pdf

 

TO RESPOND:

Just for the fun of it, play like you are a virtual Spaceship Earth, Inc. stockholder, owning one imaginary share of virtual stock, which I hereby figuratively grant you, along with all humans around Earth, giving you equal theoretical power to contribute to decisions about how to manage Spaceship Earth, Inc. Tell other stockholders what you think the problems and opportunities are, what the alternatives are, and what you think should be done to make for smoother sailing for everyone.

Also feel free to write what you think pro or con about anything I or any of the authors cited above have written in this issue of The Earthian.

Say whatever you want to say in response to the facts, analysis, conclusions, perspectives, etc. offered by the writers, pro or con, but please no ad hominem attacks, i.e., don’t try to prove you are right in your argument by illogically slandering or demeaning the personal characteristics, beliefs, behaviors, or integrity of the person you are arguing against.

To write what you think about anything relative to the management of Spaceship Earth, Inc. go to the Effective Learning Company RESPONSES page and just come out with it. Don’t worry about being “right.” No one knows it all and everyone knows something worth something to someone. Just say what you truly feel and think about an issue you consider relevant.

I have no desire to sell subscriptions or advertising or solicit donations, but I would like to sell more books. If you feel you have gained value from this newsletter and want to reciprocate go to our Effective Learning Publications page , Amazon.com, or any brick and mortar bookstore and purchase one or more of my books.

Feel free to forward, share, print, reprint, copy or otherwise disseminate this issue of The Earthian any way you see fit.

Best wishes, RJS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Learning doesn’t come in one set format. As Friendship Circle points out, “some children learn most effectively through the arts.” The arts make academic subjects more accessible to children with learning disabilities, promote the development of social skills and self-esteem, and reduce stress and anxiety so children with special needs are able to focus. The result is a higher academic achievement and stronger social skills for differently-abled kids.

Arts education needn’t be limited to childhood tinkering. A childhood foundation in the arts can lead to a fulfilling career in adulthood. Just look at the many successful artists, musicians, and actors with learning disabilities – Daniel Radcliffe, Chuck Close, Woody Harrelson, and Justin Timberlake are among the famous names who struggled with learning disabilities in school.

Unfortunately, as schools increasingly focus on academic instruction, kids have fewer and fewer opportunities to engage in the arts at school. As a result, it’s up to parents to provide their children with ample access to arts education.

Ideas for Arts Education at Home

Preschool and Elementary School

Arts and crafts are an excellent way for parents to introduce children to the arts at home. From an early age, kids can take simple materials and transform them into imaginative creations. Arts and crafts stimulate a child’s creativity and problem-solving skills, and they’re a fun way for families to spend quality time together. Angie’s List suggests a bunch of crafts that are perfect for kids ranging from toddlers to middle schoolers. These are some of the standouts:

• Make paper bag puppets: Animal puppets made out of paper bags are simple, but they delight preschoolers who not only get to design the puppets but also invent stories to share with their attentive audience – whether that’s you or a gallery of stuffed animals!
• Create clay-dough animals: Clay dough is ridiculously easy to make at home and provides endless entertainment. Instruct kids to mold animals to hone their fine motor skills or ask them to use their imagination to invent a new kind of creature!
• Design DIY bedroom decorations: Crafts with a purpose appeal to kids in the later elementary school years. Arm your child with supplies to make their own bedroom decorations, like blinged-out picture frames, faux flowers, beaded curtains, and more.

Middle and High School

As tots mature into adolescents and teens, they’re ready for higher-level arts instruction. The following ideas are perfect for older students:

• Recreate famous paintings: Challenge your teen to recreate famous pieces of art like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Magritte’s “The Son of Man,” or Picasso’s “Three Musicians.” Instead of using paint, have kids recreate the works with a different medium entirely. Your kids will get an art history lesson and an exercise in creative problem-solving!
• Write a screenplay: Tweens and teens might not be impressed by puppet shows, but they still love a good story. Gather a group of kids to write a screenplay and put on a performance for a live audience. From writing the script to building the set, this activity is full of interesting creative and educational challenges.
• Build DIY musical instruments: From homemade banjos to xylophones made of driftwood, the sky’s the limit when it comes to DIY musical instruments. A2Z Homeschool has links and resources to get kids started on their musical journey.

Also, don’t limit yourself to activities at home! Community theaters, arts-based summer camps, and arts and crafts lessons at the public library are all wonderful ways for differently-abled children to get involved in the arts.

No matter their ability, engagement in the arts is incredibly rewarding for children. However, for kids with learning disabilities who struggle in traditional academia – both in performance and confidence – the arts are an invaluable resource. When kids have a place they can learn, do, and grow without limitations, both ability and confidence soar.

Contact Joyce Wilson at [email protected], Teacherspark.org.