Don't fight with violence, but with love and humor

The nasty guy has said he needs to send National Guard troops into Portland because it is “war ravaged.” The local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office is under siege and needs protection from “coordinated assault by violent groups.” So a team from ProPublica reviewed the situation and wrote about what they found in an article posted on Daily Kos. They reviewed arrest records, reports by the Portland Police Bureau, sworn testimony from local and federal official, and 700 video clips posted by protesters and counter protesters. What they found: There was no coordinated assault. There were clashes between police and protesters. But after their peak in June they became more infrequent. Federal officers used force inappropriately, even aggressively, and were described as instigating chaos. They were sometimes violent without any violent provocations. Their conclusion comes down to this: If the nasty guy is using particular incidents to justify his invasion and claiming they are so violent he has to bring in the National Guard why were there so few arrests? The nasty guy’s order to send in the troops is tied up in court. Of course, the article has a lot more detail. Yeah, this is old news by now, so I’ll just briefly mention it. Former vice president Dick Cheney has died. He was 84. Oliver Willis of Kos gives some of the highlights, the big one was being the front man for pushing the weapons of mass destruction claim (ultimately shown false) that got America into the Iraq war.

The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 ultimately killed at least 200,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,492 American soldiers, with an additional 32,292 service members wounded. The war cost the American people at least $728 billion and further destabilized the Middle East in ways that still reverberate today.

Glad he’s gone. Seems appropriate to balance that with this: Alisa Chang of NPR spoke to Sean Ono Lennon about his documentary about his parents One to One: John and Yoko. I hope by now you’ve been able to thread all the names together, even though John was murdered 45 years ago. While the whole discussion is interesting there is one bit worth mentioning. A lot of what John and Yoko did was to promote peace. And one thing John said, his guiding principle, was that you can’t fight the man with violence because violence is his language, it’s what he understands. But what the man can’t deal with is love and humor. An Associated Press article on Kos reported the last penny has been struck at the US Mint in Philadelphia. They are still legal but no more will be made. The reason why no more will be made is that pennies cost nearly 4 cents to make. Besides, most of them are cast aside or collected. The nickel costs nearly 14 cents to make, so maybe it is next? The dime costs less than 6 cents to make and the quarter nearly 15 cents. The penny was first minted in 1793, when it could be used to buy a biscuit, a candle, or a piece of candy. It can’t do any of that now. In Thursday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman discussing he nasty guy’s lies.

Voters do sometimes believe lies, but not the kind of lies Trump is telling. Voters can sometimes be convinced, falsely, that bad things are happening to other people, even when they themselves are doing OK. Many Americans who don’t live in Chicago probably believe administration claims that the city, which just had its safest summer since the 1960s, is a war zone. But telling people that things are great when their personal experience says otherwise is different. Are violent mobs overrunning Portland? If you watch Fox News, you might believe that. Are groceries “way down,” as Trump keeps insisting? Anyone who does their own food shopping — even Republicans — knows that this isn’t true.

Victor Mather of the New York Times wrote an ode to the penny.

The final pennies were minted on Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia. Top Treasury officials were on hand for its final journey. No last words were recorded. In its heyday, the penny had immense cultural impact. It was the going rate for thoughts. It was a symbol of frugality, saved and/or earned. It could sometimes be pretty and other times arrive from heaven. And how many ideas would never have come to light without a penny dropping? [...] The American penny was born in 1793 in Philadelphia. Its parent was Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the Treasury, who was the chief author of the Coinage Act, which birthed the penny and its siblings. [...] As the penny entered its long decline, it more and more frequently found itself casually tossed into a jar in someone’s home or ignominiously dropped in a “Take a Penny” tray at retailers. Calls grew for it to be euthanized, citing its obsolescence. In the end, President Trump signed its death warrant in February.

Bill Berkowitz of the Kos community wrote about Reverend Dr. Caleb J. Lines, the pastor at University Christian Church in San Diego, California, who is creating a series of videos called “MAGA vs. Jesus” which use Bible verses to rebuke MAGA talking points. The most popular video has over 5.5 million views. It discusses abortion, cancel culture, the need for manly men, and “fake news.” Berkowitz wrote:

Over the years, conservative Christian preachers and political activists have weaponized The Bible to enrage their followers, engage them in political campaigns and supporting candidates, while at the same time, building personal financial empires. They frequently use the Bible as a political tool, selectively highlighting verses that reinforce their cultural grievances or policy goals while ignoring the broader context of scripture. Immigration, LGBTQ rights, racial justice, and public education are recast not as policy debates but as spiritual warfare, with dissenters portrayed as enemies of God. As The Daily Dot’s Rachel Kiley noted “The Bible contains so much, with various translations and interpretations, that cherry-picking verses can bring people to just about any conclusion.”

An example of Lines’ arguments:

In one video, refuting the notion that “real Christians support Trump,” Rev. Lines cites 1 John 4:20: “Those who say they love God but hate their neighbor are lying.” “You cannot follow Jesus Christ while actively supporting politicians or policies that hurt your neighbor. You know, like cutting their food aid or their healthcare,” he says.

I followed a link to look at a couple of those videos, including the one with 5.5 million views. On manly men Lines quotes the verse that says in Jesus there is neither male nor female. On the MAGA claim of protecting Christian power the Bible says God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Christianity isn’t about power. Besides these claims of protecting power are about protecting the power of those already powerful. The Bible isn’t about winning or losing, it is about standing with those society is taking advantage of.

That line at the airport is security theater

Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported that the nasty guy has been losing elections all over the world. I’ve already written that the nasty guy’s portrayal of Canada boosted the chances of the liberal party, giving a win to Mark Carney. The latest example is the Labor Party in Australia getting a comfortable win over the Liberal Party (which is center-right, not really liberal). The next Australian Prime Minister is Anthony Albanese and not Peter Dutton, who had been portrayed as a cheap knock-off of the nasty guy. And in Singapore the People’s Action Party and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong won in a landslide. They portrayed themselves as a force for stability in a world made turbulent because of the nasty guy’s tariffs. Steve Inskeep of NPR talked to author Walter Isaacson about the end of World War II in Europe, which happened 80 years ago. At the time America helped build global institutions. How are those institutions being changed now? The Marshall Plan sent billions of dollars to help rebuild Europe. The plan created a market for US goods. It stopped the spread of Soviet communism. It was also “one of the most generous, least selfish acts in history because it took a war-battered Europe and got it back on its feet.” Then came the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and agreements on tariffs and trade that became the World Trade Organization. All were designed to protect free markets and democracy from the threat of communism. Dean Acheson had developed the Marshall Plan with George Kennen. They saw that after WWI the Treaty of Versailles punished Germany so harshly that it fueled the rise of Hitler, resulting in WWII. They wanted to not do that again. Rebuilding Germany and Japan would make the world safer. We now have tight alliances with both. These institutions that promoted free markets also meant free trade and free immigration. A lot of wealth was built. And a lot of people got left behind. That produced a nationalist backlash. See Brexit, Orban in Hungary, and the nasty guy here. Some of those who created and believed in the global institutions didn’t understand the number of people left behind was so huge, how resentful they would feel, and how strong nationalism would become. After WWII politicians put the national interests and values before party. That isn’t true now. Also, no one is proposing the next set of global institutions we need now to make sure everybody shares in the prosperity they help build, to balance trade with domestic manufacturing that promotes democracy, to address climate change, to lessen terrorism, and to find meaning in living. A week ago Kos of Kos discussed the resource-sharing agreement between the US and Ukraine. This is the successor to the deal that didn’t happen in February when the nasty guy and vice nasty verbally attacked Zelenskyy. And, from the way Kos tells it, this time the nasty guy caved. The deal creates the United States–Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. The deal does not include reimbursement for the aid the US gave to Ukraine. The deal covers only new leases, not existing ones. While the minerals, oil, and gas may be exported, the money stays in Ukraine for at least ten years to fund new projects and reconstruction. The US commits to long-term peace. This is a joint project, not one directed by the US. By those terms one can see what the nasty guy wanted and didn’t get. There is a big reason why the deal covers only new leases.

Most of Ukraine’s mineral wealth is in Russian-occupied territory. That is literally the reason Russia invaded. If Trump really wants it, he’s gonna have to fight the Russians (via Ukraine) for it.

One thing Ukraine didn’t get – American security guarantees. The resource deal is separate from a peace deal. About that Mike Luckovich posted a cartoon on Kos. It shows the nasty guy dictating terms to a skeptical Zelenskyy, saying, “Here’s the deal, let the guy who broke in and attacked your family, remain inside and be gifted the kitchen, guest bedroom and den.” In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Paul Krugman, writing in his own Substack about the defunding of scientific research.

Why should those who aren’t scientists care? In the 21st century, science isn’t some esoteric intellectual affair. It’s the foundation of social and economic progress. And no, we can’t expect the private sector to fill the gap left by loss of government support. Basic research is a public good: it generates real benefits, but those benefits can’t be monetized because everyone can make use of the knowledge gained. So government support is the only way to sustain science. And that support is being rapidly ended. But why do our new rulers want to destroy science in America? Sadly, the answer is obvious: Science has a tendency to tell you things you may not want to hear. Medical research may tell you that vaccines work and don’t cause autism. Energy research may tell wind power works and doesn’t massacre birds. And one thing we know about MAGA types is that they are determined to hold on to their prejudices. If science conflicts with those prejudices, they don’t want to know, and they don’t want anyone else to know either. So they really want to destroy science.

Kev quoted Rebecca Gordon of TomDispatch:

It’s tempting to think of Donald Trump’s second term as a sui generis reign of lawlessness. But sadly, the federal government’s willingness to violate federal and international law with impunity didn’t begin with Trump. If anything, the present incumbent is harvesting a crop of autocratic powers from seeds planted by President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney in those war on terror years following the attacks of September 11, 2001. In their wake, the hastily-passed Patriot Act granted the federal government vast new detention and surveillance powers. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 established a new cabinet-level department, one whose existence we now take for granted. [...] The constant thrill of what some have called security theater has kept us primed for new enemies and so set the stage for the second set of Trump years that we now find ourselves in. We still encounter this theater of the absurd every time we stand in line at an airport, unpacking our computers, removing our shoes, sorting our liquids into quart-sized baggies — all to reinforce the idea that we are in terrible danger and that the government will indeed protect us.

Michigan Public, my NPR outlet, has a spot that runs frequently that says public media is under threat. It then directs me to a website. I haven’t gone there yet. That’s not because I think the threat isn’t real. Wednesday of last week Willis reported that the nasty guy fired three of the five directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In response the CPB said it is not a government entity and is not subject to the president’s authority. It filed a lawsuit to block the firings. Willis then gave some of the history of the CPB. Willis reported last Friday that the nasty guy issued an executive order instructing the CPB to “cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.” The order says NPR and PBS don’t provide unbiased, fair, and nonpartisan news. Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB repeated the CPB is not subject to the president’s authority. It is authorized and funded by Congress to be independent of the federal government. His executive order is meaningless. The nasty guy claims the media landscape has changed since CPB was created. There are now “abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.” Willis responds that most mainstream media are owned by private corporations that are willing to bow to him. He’s already shown he doesn’t like media that doesn’t do his bidding. I’ve heard the Nasty Guy’s proposed budget calls on Congress to defund the CPB. At the end of March Willis, in one of his posts explaining the right, sets out to explain why Republicans want to murder Big Bird. This is a long Republican tradition going all the way back to Nixon in the 1970s, shortly after the CPB was created. One reason why Republicans hate is it because PBS and NPR content is trusted by a large number of Americans because they provide info without corporate or political influence. For 22 years PBS has ranked as the most trusted institution in the US, beating out commercial television, print media, courts of law, Congress, and the federal government. Sesame Street and related companies are trusted by 88% of parents and 90% of parents say the programs help prepare children, including black and brown children, for schooling. It also tackles important topics like racism.

In short, public broadcasting represents the opposite of many conservative beliefs. The networks support accessible information, prioritize education, and strive to produce content opposing bigotry. Conservatives see more utility in divisive, bigoted figures—like Greene and Trump—than in Big Bird, who promotes kindness and friendship. That’s why the networks are under attack from one Republican leader to the next.

In the comments of another pundit roundup is a cartoon by Garth German:

Man: ...But the Founding Fathers didn’t intend... Woman: I’mma stop you right there. The Founding Fathers didn’t intend for black slaves to go free. Nor for me to vote. Nor for you to vote since you don’t own land. I’m kinda over the Founding Father’s intent.

Trilemma posted a cartoon of the white supremacist future.

You dreamed of a whites-only paradise. Big checks, cheap gas, everything finally “right.” But your heroes were flying over your potholes, on their way to brunch with billionaires. A man says: “We were never one of them. Just the background noise for their victory lap.” You thought expelling non-whites & immigrants would elevate you. But it fed no one. Built nothing. And the messes still needed cleaned. The blame still needed a name. You used to cheer as your leader crushed dissent. Now it’s your turn, hogtied, silenced & robbed blind by the man you worshipped.

Those who hate need a social hierarchy. The hierarchy is how they define themselves. They assume their position is high in that hierarchy. But if the lowest levels of a hierarchy are swept away those higher in the hierarchy still need the hierarchy and will oppress those now at the bottom. They don’t care you supported their previous efforts. In the comments of a third roundup is a meme posted by exlrrp showing a man and two women drinking Champagne on a yacht. The caption:

Billionaires Imagine having more money than you can spend in 1,000 lifetimes and still being mad that people get Social Security. It is time to end this!

For those toward the top of the hierarchy having lots more money than other people isn’t enough. They also need to take money away from the poor to emphasize the gap between themselves and those at the bottom. Another example of that is a cartoon by Toonerman. It shows a man sitting on a large mound of bags of money talking to a red hat family below. “There’s been a change in plans. Things are gonna suck for awhile ... for you that is. MAGA’s working for me.” Another meme posted by exlrrp shows a man in a bathing suit and wearing a MAGA hat next to a (real?) woman whose bikini top is strained by her assets. The caption, “I voted for him, and now I only get to have a couple of dolls?” Just below that is a tweet by Dare Obasanjo, “At this rate MAGA will only be able to afford to rent the libs.”

Three generations of peace

A couple smaller items.

Jeff Stein, a reporter on policy and taxes at The Washington Post tweeted:

Sources: Government watchdog estimates IRS needs 12-18 months to recover from shutdown.

IRS faces:
-- 5 million unopened pieces of mail
-- Massive (precise #s unknown) flight of IT personnel to private sector
-- Need to hire 8K workers, train 2K more

Adriana Grande Strategy responded:

Losing over 100 IT workers (if lost at ~25/week) in any organization is a major problem. Losing over 100 IT workers in a federal agency, hampered by glacial hiring speeds, is a catastrophe.

Matthias Bergmann of Hamburg, Germany starts off a long Twitter thread talking about his grandparents. One grandfather stayed an avid Nazi until he died in the early 1990s. Another grandfather was broken by experiences on the Eastern Front. A grandmother’s apartment received a direct hit by bombs three times. His parents met protesting Nazis. He and his siblings were evacuated four times because of found WWII bombs. They were encouraged to see the world and his best friend is a Jew.

A united Europe is our legacy. The EU is a guarantee of peace and prosperity, not an economic project.

Seeing my father play with my nephew I am witnessing the first three consecutive generations of Germans living in uninterrupted peace. Ever. Nobody is going to endanger that unopposed.

In addition: when the Berlin Eall came down in 1989 my parents woke all the kids. We sat in front of the TV sipping our first Champagne and looking at our parents cry. My father told me that this is the day WWII truly ended. And our European friends made it possible.

Diversity and peace

Today’s episode of Hidden Brain on NPR discusses the effect of diversity on creativity. Professor Adam Galinsky at the Columbia Business School has seen that people score more highly on tests of creativity when they have deep relationships from people from another country. This includes dating partners, spouses, or business colleagues. The first part of the episode discusses the Silk Road Project, created by cellist Yo Yo Ma who gathered together musicians from a wide variety of cultures. This diversity link to creativity is also noted in scientific research teams and in major fashion houses.

However, it was the last third of the program that was the most interesting. It is also the part not mentioned on the episode’s webpage, so I don’t have details and I didn’t want to listen again. There is first an Israeli soldier who became annoyed with the way he and his fellow soldiers could occupy a Palestinian home for security reasons no matter the consequences to the families living there.

Then we hear about a Palestinian professor trying to create peace. His students don’t admit to the humanity of Israelis. He begins to teach them about the Holocaust. He thinks it is weird that his Palestinian students know nothing about the biggest influence on the creation of the state of Israel. But that still doesn’t get through to his students. So he takes his students on a field trip … to Auschwitz. As they tour the grounds the professor sees the students get it.

But while they’re gone the professor gets emails from the university that there are death threats against him and he shouldn’t come back. He did go back. And lost his job.

I’ve long been annoyed with the modern state of Israel. The state was founded as a refuge for the oppressed. One might think that since they know oppression the would want to avoid perpetuating it. But they have become the oppressors. They say it is because of security, but there are better ways to achieve security than through oppression.

A common way to battle oppression is to try to flip the oppression. To do that one must continue to portray the oppressor as evil and less than human as the Palestinians have been portraying the Israelis. But that trip to Auschwitz told the students the Israelis suffered too. They’re just like us.

This discussion of experiencing another culture reminds me of my two years of living in Cologne, Germany. It was an historic time – I moved there just before the Berlin Wall opened (and was in the city five days later) and saw protests against the first Gulf War. It was during these two years I changed from feeling like a citizen of the United States to a citizen of the world. That was an important step in my life journey.

Though I see my time in Cologne as an important step in my understanding of the world, I hadn’t thought about how it might have affected my creativity in problem solving or in my music composition.

A step forward, a step back

Every two years I've been attending a Convocation put on by Reconciling Ministries Network, an organization that is working to make the United Methodist Church more gay-friendly. The next Convo is Labor Day weekend this year to be held in Maryland outside Washington, DC. This is the first time Convo will be held in a state that has marriage equality (though it didn't when the site was chosen). Event organizers will take advantage of that. They will offer wedding ceremonies, complete with presiding pastors, for attending couples who, according to their home pastor, are ready for marriage. This includes having taken a marriage preparation course (which UMC pastors may do, they just can't perform the ceremony). Organizers say this is not a part of the regular program, so the entire assembly may not witness their happy moment (but wouldn't you want 700 people cheering wildly that your wedding is even possible?).



Back in 1999 oil company Exxon bought out Mobil and became ExxonMobil. As part of the deal the domestic partner benefits that Mobil employees enjoyed were canceled. That gave the new company a negative score on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (most other oil companies have scores around 85 out of 100). As has happened every year since then proposals for gay equality have been presented at the annual shareholder meeting and rejected. This year the vote was 81% against us, our worst showing yet. Whoever owns ExxonMobil stock really doesn't like us and wants their corporation to remain stuck in the middle of the last century.



At the start of the week I wrote about the presentation that Jim Harrington gave about just war and peace as justice. I remembered one more detail that is important. As a part of describing peace as justice I wrote:

People have a fundamental right to life, food, shelter, health care, education, and employment.

Harrington says the wars being fought today are about those issues, not about religion. Deal with those issues and the need for war subsides.



This is the end of the legislative session in Illinois and -- alas -- the marriage equality bill did not come up for a vote in the House. It had already passed the Senate. The bill's sponsor said he would only call for a vote if he had the 60 needed to pass, and he doesn't. Not yet. A few members said they will be holding conversations in their districts and expect to be able to vote yes when the legislature reconvenes in November. Maybe you can enjoy Chicago at Christmas.

Loud, thundering, irritating voices

While here in Austin I attended Trinity United Methodist Church for their morning service. I found it because it is a member of the Reconciling Ministries Network. Several UMC churches around the University of Texas are gay-friendly.

This church is small. As I approached it I passed a big Baptist Church, big enough that it built a parking structure.

We met in the social hall because the air conditioning system for the sanctuary wasn't working. The replacement unit had been delivered, but there was too much rain last Friday (yeah, in Austin) to get it installed. There were about 60 in the congregation and the service had a laid back style. Music was provided by piano, a few guitars, and a harmonica.

The sections of the service were titled in the bulletin with such things as “befriending creation,” “befriending letting go,” “befriending creativity” and “befriending compassion.” The speaker was Jim Harrington, a human rights attorney with nearly 4 decades of experience. He has done lots of work advocating for the poor and set up a pro bono legal clinic for them. Harrington said that Memorial Day is a good time to honor our servicemenbers and also to question war. Here is a summary of what he said. I couldn't take notes during the service, so asked if his ideas were online. He gave me his speaking notes.

Yes, it is appropriate to honor and commemorate those who have protected our country. Harrington told the stories of his father, uncle, and grandfather who served our country. But as we honor them and others who serve we should consider our country's propensity for war and whether those wars have been just. “To the living, we owe our respect. To the dead, we owe the truth.”

Harrington listed what makes a just war.

A war is just if it is waged for self-defense against imminent aggression or a massive violation of a population's basic human rights (such as genocide). This is about protecting human life, It is not about capturing things, material gain, maintaining economies, or punishing people who have done wrong.

A just war is last resort, self-defense, and not pre-emptive, and is waged after exhausting all peaceful alternatives. War must not be directed towards non-combatants caught in circumstances they did not create. Fighting must use minimum force to limit excessive and unnecessary death and destruction. Methods should not include mass rape or weapons whose effects cannot be controlled, such as nuclear or biological weapons.

The Iraq war was not just. Afghanistan was probably excessive and disproportionate. Several other war through history have been unjust.

Obama recently discussed his drone policy. For the first time a president discussed concepts of a just war. Whether or not he actually follows them is another question.

Harrington then turned his discussion to peace. There is no peace without justice. There are some principles of social justice.

All people are sacred. They do not lose dignity because of disability, poverty, age, lack of success, or race. People are more important than things.

Our dignity and right are in relationship with our community.

People have a fundamental right to life, food, shelter, health care, education, and employment. All have a right to participate in decisions that affect their lives. With that we have duties and responsibilities to respect the rights of others and to work for the common good.

The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members and the poor have the most urgent moral clam on the conscience of the nation. Public policy decisions should consider how those policies affect the poor.

People have a right to decent and productive work at fair wages with economic initiative. The economy exists to serve the people.

We are one human family. Our responsibilities to each other cross national, racial, economic, and ideological differences.

We are called to care for creation, be stewards and trustees, not just consumers and users.

The church is amazingly quiet on these issues of war and justice. We should be the loud, thundering, irritating voices like Isaiah, Micah, and Jesus. But believing and talking is not doing. We are called to do. Are we up to it?

Being at peace with your neighbors

The organization Visions of Humanity has released its 2010 Global Peace Index. It rated 149 nations on a 5 point scale for 23 areas that include:

* Number of jailed per 100K, number of homicides per 100K, number of police per 100K.

* Perceptions of criminality, accessibility of weapons of minor destruction.

* Number of deaths from organized conflict (internal and external)

* Military capability & sophistication, military expenditure as percentage of GDP.

* Relations with neighboring countries.

Top of the list: New Zealand (score 1.18), Iceland, Japan, Austria, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden.

Bottom: Congo, Chad, Georgia, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq (score 3.40).

USA? It's at 85th place with a score of 2.06. Nice colorful map at the link.