Monthly Archives: August 2023

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S: OUT OF A POPULATION OF ALMOST 340 MILLION IS THIS THE BEST THE USA CAN OFFER ITS PEOPLE FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION – JOE BIDEN OR DONALD TRUMP.

09 Wednesday Aug 2023

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( Eight minute read)

America is a Consumer Nation and its elections are all about money with the true sources of funds becoming increasingly opaque.

With the world’s most powerful military, a huge economy, home to many entrepreneurs it has created many iconic products which are highly sought after around the world.

However it didn’t invent steel, the car, radar, the gas or steam turbine, the television, the ships propeller, the aircraft carrier or even the steam catapult or angled flight deck. They definitely didn’t invent the steam engine, the railway, or the first mechanical computer. They didn’t invent the loom, or even the gun. They didn’t discover Penicillin, build the first successful VTOL aircraft, the first jet airliner, the first jet fighter or even the first jet engine, the hovercraft, the ships propeller, or the Bessemer converter so they could invent steel.. They didn’t invent the aircraft carrier, the battleship, the television (oops I already mentioned that one),and trust me I could add more..

Television – John Logie Baird – Not American

Telephone – Alexander Graham Bell – Not American

Radio – Gugliemo Marconi – Not American

World Wide Web – Tim Berners-Lee – Not American

Cars – Carl Benz – Not American

Penicillin – Alexander Fleming – Not American

Pasturisation – Louis Pasteur – Not American

Jet Engine – Frank Whittle – Not American

Splitting the Atom – Lord Ernest Rutherford – Not American.

Discovery of Radiation – Marie Curie – Not American.

Now we know what they didn’t invent, please tell us what they did.

They did invent.

The USA gave the world some of the greatest programmers, scientists, biologists and physicists.

Tupperware, defibrillator, Video games, the bill of rights, the Kul Klux Klan, motion pictures, light bulbs, advances in agronomy, Norman Borlaug awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world,  the telephone, Microwave ovens, industrial robotics, Washing machine, Television, Hollywood films, Fast food, the integrated circuit, the laser, the PC, the transistor, the Webb telescope,  Calvin and Hobbes – Apple and Facebook.

What is the single greatest American Invention? 
I think the answer is America itself. It keep being re-invented all the time.
 The current contenders contributions.

Biden’s flagship victories.

The approval of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package,  appointed 41 federal judges, reinstated a national freeze on federal executions, re-joined the international Paris Climate Accord, overturn Trump-era ban on openly transgender members of the U.S. military, reduce the rate of national unemployment, chaotically ended the war in Afghanistan, imposed several sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, released 180 million barrels of oil from the country’s Strategic Oil Reserves.

Overall, Biden’s tenure as president has been the proverbial “glass half full, half empty.

Trump’s presidency may be best remembered for its cataclysmic end.  A four-yearlong storm of tweets, rallies and on-air rants that ended in a mob riot and historic second impeachment. Trump didn’t repeal Obamacare — he accidentally bolstered it. Arguably the most consequential decision Trump made involving American workers was something it chose not to do: He declined to implement a so-called “emergency temporary standard” when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Cannabis is now legal in some form in 36 states, meaning that a majority of Americans have some form of legal access even though the drug remains officially illegal at the federal level.  It’s easier to prosecute financial crimes like money laundering.  On gas emissions, Trump went the opposite direction from the rest of the world, he made it possible to follow the Pentagon’s money. His biggest legislative achievement was arguably the $1.5 trillion tax cut package Republicans pushed through Congress, which he said would super-charge the economy. Rallied the world against China’s 5G dominance, doled out billions in aid to farmers shrinking the food safety net — a lot.

————

Sure, not everyone can run for president. Anyone under the age of 35 is out, as are those born overseas and non-residents of 14 years or more.

It helps to be well-known, popular and to sit on an eye-watering pile of money;

The 2020 presidential election cycle, for example, cost candidates a combined US$5.7 billion ($A8.37 billion), more than the GDP of several small countries. But even with all that considered, the pool of possible surely could not be reduced to the same two candidates as 2020.

So, why then are the odds of Biden and Trump going head-to-head once again so good?

With only ten of the 45 former presidents unable to secure second terms, incumbent presidents generally have a pretty good shot at winning a second term in office..

More than half of American voters do not want Biden to run in 2024, but dissatisfaction with a sitting president isn’t new. For example, 60% of Americans did not want Reagan to run again in 1984, despite him having a relatively high approval rating at the time. No prominent Democrat officeholders appear willing or have enough support from the party or the public to suggest a challenge would be successful.

The reality is, despite being 80 and sometimes appearing frail, Biden is an electable leader. He won the popular vote in 2020 by more than 7 million votes and a 4.5% victory margin.

Trump’s campaign to reclaim office is the first attempt of any former president to regain office after losing in over 130 years.

Almost all the Republican primary challengers are reluctant to openly criticise the former president. They have stood him even amid the two recent criminal indictments, which would ordinarily present a golden opportunity for opponents to give their own campaigns an edge.

The major question facing the party is, if not him, then who? And the party is coming up short with a more compelling answer. But, at this point in the election cycle, despite the wants of the majority of Americans, and no matter how uninspiring – 2024 looks to be 2020 all over again.

The extremes are now feeding off each other, allowing both parties to ignore the voices of the exhausted majority. This is exactly why so many Americans are fed up with Washington.

The truth is there is more that unites as Americans than that which divides us.  Consumerism.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

Contact: bobdillon33@gmail.com

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S. WILL CLIMATE CHANGE LEAD TO MORE WARS?

08 Tuesday Aug 2023

Posted by in 2023 the year of disconnection., Arms Trade., Carbon Emissions., Climate Change., Climate refugees., CO2 emissions, Collective stupidity., Fourth Industrial Revolution., Human Collective Stupidity., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Human values., Humanity., Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Life., Migrants/Refugees., Militarism., MISINFORMATION., Mr Putin., Natural World Disasters, Northern Ireland., PAIN AND SUFFERING IN LIFE, Palestinian- Israel., Reality., RUSSIA/ UKRAINE/ US/ NATO/ EU, State of the world, Survival., Sustaniability, Telling the truth., The common good., The cost of war., The essence of our humanity., The Obvious., The state of the World., The world to day., THE WORLD YOU LIVE IN., THIS IS THE STATE OF THE WORLD.  , Ukraine/ Russia., Unanswered Questions., VALUES, War., Wars, What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage., World Organisations.

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( Six minute read)

It’s one of the most important questions of the 21st century:

You always have a higher potential for violent conflict when the survival conditions of groups of people are threatened.  This is a very basic principle.

Will climate change provide the extra spark that pushes two otherwise peaceful nations into war?

The obvious answer is yes.

You can see this when you look at events that are already happening, like land conflicts due to desertification, or various resource conflicts around the world.

There are currently 27 ongoing conflicts worldwide. A quarter of the entire global population lives in conflict-affected areas. This year, it is estimated that at least 274 million people will need humanitarian assistance. But it’s important to remember that the causal links between climate and conflict are rarely direct.

However there has always been an empirical connection between violence and climate change which has persists across 12,000 years of human history.

We now  live on a planet expecting changes to temperature or rainfall in the coming decades—which will come faster and stronger than the many natural climate changes of the past.

This is the situation the world finds itself in today.

Conflict is on the rise. Millions are displaced. International law is disregarded with impunity, as criminal and terrorist networks profit from the division and violence.

The reasons for the outbreak of conflict range from territorial disputes and regional tensions, to corruption and dwindling resources due to climate change.

Take the Syrian war for example.

Nearly 11 years after it started, the Syrian refugee crisis remains the largest displacement crisis worldwide (13.2 million, including 6.6 million refugees and more than 6 million internally displaced people). At least 2 million people are living in tented camps with limited access to basic services.

Lasting more than 60 years, the conflict in Myanmar (previously called Burma) remains the longest ongoing civil war in the world.

The cost of war is almost unfathomable with conflicts driving 80% of humanitarian needs.

In 2016, the cost of conflict globally stood at an astonishing $14 trillion. That’s enough to end world hunger 42 times over.

For the seventh year in a row, global military spending is increasing, exceeding trillions’ for the first time.

Just imagine what the world could do with that money if conflicts were to end worldwide.

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If you’re looking for the causes of climate change, it’s us—the overconsuming, fossil-fuel-burning North and West.

If you want to get serious about climate change, worrying about the small-scale details of conflicts in Africa is missing the point.  It’s us.

Twentieth-century wars were fought over land, religion, and economics. But the wars of the 21st century will be fought over something quite different: climate change, and the shortages of water and food that will come from it with mass migration leading to social disruption and potentially violent conflict.

I think this will become more apparent over the next decade or so. You can see it already in Europe.

I suspect we’re going to see more nativism, more xenophobia, and more talk of building walls on our borders.

If you look deeply at the source of future conflicts, I think you’ll see a basic resource conflict at the bottom of it all.

The thin veneer of civilization.

‘ Overwhelmed by the disaster, people could not see what was to become of them and started losing respect for laws of god and man alike,” Thucydides wrote.

Do we have the institutions, the structures, the systems of cooperation we need to deal with this problem?

I don’t think we have an existing structure of peacekeeping that can hold up under these conditions — or at least I’m not encouraged by what we’ve seen so far.

Can Western democratic society, which is built on a system of limitless growth and productivity, change its destructive relationship with nature?

No, modern liberal democratic societies are successful at improving the lives and freedoms of people who live in them but the problem is that their systems are based on the exploitation of nature and our environment, and we’re sort of trapped in this paradigm.

Climate change is a threat multiplier, which means it amplifies problems already facing the world.

Stressors such as poverty, political instability, and crime are magnified by increased droughts, floods, or heat waves. Of the 25 countries deemed most vulnerable to climate change, 14 are mired in conflict.

The climate crisis is altering the nature and severity of humanitarian crises.

As the world gets hotter, mayhem could spread.

Humanitarian organizations are already struggling to respond and will not be able to meet exponentially growing needs resulting from unmitigated climate change.

I think one of the things that clearly exacerbates matters is when the issues become politicized.

It’s going to take a combination of both personal action and systemic change to combat climate change. One is not a substitute for the other, and doing one without the other won’t solve the issues we face.

How civilized will we remain?

Climate change will be a small hole through which we glimpsed what always lies below the thin crust we lay across the seething magma of nature, including human nature.

Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat.

These are some of the ways that we’ve been told can slow climate change.

But the inordinate emphasis on individual behaviour is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.

With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defence of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won’t happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward.

While humongous industries continue to shirk responsibility, lobbying against change and top-down regulation. Nothing decivilizes more quickly and surely than war.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.

Contact: bobdillon33@gmail.com

So watch the video, learn the facts, and form your own conclusions.

. https://youtu.be/RnWoFJmqCF8