The Honour in Failure

Posted 23rd of August 2019 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ

I was just thinking a great part of a vibrant society is due to the rare human desire to try the unusual and face down failure.
Maybe one day a year we should take time to celebrate the noble failures that happened in our region that would otherwise go un-sung and forgotten.

People are quick to scoff at crazy endeavors when they fail but when they succeed they can often change our society and our communities.
 History is full of examples of near failures that took off  and Southland has it’s share as well as some that didn’t.

So here is to the unsung dreamers of Southland who push boundaries against the odds and don’t quite make it a conservative, sparsely populated region.  

It has been noted the only difference between Invercargill and Silicon Valley is San Jose has a huge pile of money to throw at crazy stuff  like Travis Kalanick’s UBER or Rob Rhinehart’s SOYLENT (food replacement) and inflict painfully unfeasible bad ideas on the world, Oh and let’s not forget to mention Joe Gebba and Brian Chesky founders of Air B&B who are literally causing an economic refugee crises around the world. then there was the Guy selling vote cancelling software in Florida.  

So yes failure could indeed be a positive thing in some cases. 

Malcolm Gladwell - Lateral Thinking

Posted 20th August 2019 to the New York Times Newspaper NY NY USA

Canada's Malcolm Gladwell pointed out recently the historic problems of getting a large number of people to work together

It really has to be done by precedent to be workable.

However the problem is our leaders have to be able to break the rules when faced with new problems such as compromised power structures and blackmailed justice corrupting the interpretation of precedent.

I think what Malcolm was saying is that the United States is overdue for leaders who have the strength and wisdom to use their seats of power to effect urgent society corrections, not just keep those seats as Butt Warmers and default like sheep to precedent like it is scripture.

When Bernie Sanders says the US can have health care for all what he means is humans can do anything if they are open to change.

Precedent is like the glue to hold us together but it gums up everyone when it gets in the gears of judgment.

To our representatives, take the risk of thinking for your self, it may feel uncomfortable at first but it will open a rewarding world that will be a place of truth, beauty and unknown possibilities.

Helping Hands of US Democracy

Posted 16th of December 2019 to the Dominion Post Newspaper Wellington New Zealand.

Just noticed ex pat Americans and friends of world democracy feeling worried about the state of the US electoral system

can now help remotely from any part of the world.
I seems there is now a legitimate way to finance honest election helpers on line
through  votesaveamerica.com/fairfight 
I guess the Idea is what happens in Washington effects us all where ever we reside and that is often a little skewed by bad actors.
daylight it seems is the best antiseptic.

The Wounds of Racism USA

Posted 3rd August 2019 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ.

Observing the right wing in the USA picking at the scabs of racism that the country has been try hard to heal seems as maddening as watching a pet chewing at stitches .
It is the seals I feel sorry for not the performing marine animals but the elite navy commandos,  when their terminally racist commander in chief publicly throws presidential weight against
the men who tried to stop one of their own who has clearly lost his mind with hate. If this is not a call for racial violence It is certainly a green light.

I worry that America’s Manifest Destiny is rearing its ugly head again, It must be said  It is a destiny based on stealing mostly against people who can’t fight back.
So if you have a nation that is a pyramid of torment and theft where will it end. It’s not just people of colour who suffer but woman, children, but white voters, the sick and clearly everyone in the future.
History shows racism is toxic and inhuman but it is good for business... In a billionaire gangster’s paradise... 

Blackmailed Leaders Flagged

Posted 14th July 2019 to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper USA

Watching the politics playing out in Washington DC with a hand full of greedy individuals holding the future of a huge complicated Nation and unimaginable mass of Humanity in their hands,
one has to ask what our the safeguards against blackmail and if it happens who can stop it and if there are no watchdogs or whistle blowers the who can see it when it happens.
And if so how can it be distinguished from day to day donor activity without proper transparency ?

Several powerful key people in Washington are acting very irrational, is that normal or are they in fact under some sort of duress?
The Framers and Founders where worried about this but in the 21st century we seem to be more concerned about small change and minutia.

It is a feature of every human brain only handle a community of just over 100 person after that the mind shuts off so running a superpower involves a network of leaders that not only know how to organize for the greater good but also send out alerts when the net work is corrupted or subverted and that transcends national boundaries, cultures and faiths.

Currently this network is sending up a lot of warning flags! 

A PERFECTLY REASONABLE PRESIDENT

Posted 21st June 2019 to the Odentroll Blog

Something Missing?
Check the internet see if you can find any images of Bernie Sanders as President of the United States
Funny the most popular candidate for president in the last three years. Yet no images of even a dream to be found not even in fiction or art.

Especially as without cheating he would be in office today fixing and healing the Nation and its followers world wide. it seems a little odd.

Ironically The Current President has only made Bernie Sanders more electable so when he goes he will ironically make America great again. as a world inspiration based on reason and justice.

  

United States of the World ?

Posted 22nd May 2019 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin Otago NZ

The ghost of the late engineer Osama Bin Laden will be feeling happy seeing his handiwork play out
Using the USA’s military weight and size to break it’s back.  He set up a chain of events that have morphed
into his design.

As we speak the USA has two massive new wars on the books all ready to launch into plus all the ones still burning since
The events September 11th 2001  which will strain the US Military to it’s limits.
And at the same time facing potential turmoil at home and from the planet itself...

Strangely there is only one US Presidential candidate running on a anti war ticket Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
And she is not getting a lot of oxygen even from the liberals.

President Trump says he is “anti war” but he might be replaced soon and any replacement will come from a game of thrones cabinet.

Who would have thought that being a genius world leader would be so complicated!

Trump or Snap Election

Posted 22nd May 2019 to the Dominion Post Newspaper Wellington NZ

Things are looking very tricky for democracy in the United States at the moment with the breakdown of law in the higher levels of government. It is a dangerous game of chicken between the White House and Congress at play. 

There is only one tool in the box left to save the United States if congress fails. 

A snap election is the only peaceful hope. If that is held up by civil disobedience the complicated systems of this high tech civilisation will stop working. idiots with guns can not keep the systems going and 21st Century Americans are not capable of foraging for food and fuel like people of Venezuela.

There is another safety valve, many individual States are capable of self preservation if the federal system fails and just maybe the world could do without a mega super power if its too hard to keep it under control.
  
BTW Isn’t that is why FDR made the United Nations ? 

USA at the balancing point 2019

Posted 27th April 2019 to the Dominion Post Wellington NZ

It seems we are at a time in history similar to the Lord of the flies plot
The Democratic Party of the USA Need to decide if they should blow the proverbial conch shell on Donald J Trump and the Republican Party needs to allow the process of the law clear their President from the charges laid against him If the Nation wants to maintain any hope of allowing him to remain a legitimate leader.

Party leaders on both sides are afraid now to do their job because the stakes are so high.
Yet to do nothing means a literal breakdown of law and order.

The Man Children are working themselves into a frenzy as we speak and our only hope is for an adult to step in before
They start clubbing each other with blunt instruments.

Nancy Pelosi, and Mitch McConnell, 18 months of anger and retribution can be an eternity.

Mitch has just told the press he is calling himself the grim reaper  So I don’t think he is a cause for hope. 

 

Money Buys Loyalty Not Ability In Politics

Posted 31st March 2019 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ

Some American journalists are saying the Anglo American world has reached peak stupid..
It seems that opening the tap to big money in politics has bought us all a terrible problem, the problem of you can buy loyalty or you can buy competence but you cant buy both!

The fact is politicians need REAL skills especially to cope with un expected change the skill to raise money from rich donors is of very little use in the world of rational thought.

The Anglo American political world on both sides of the Atlantic has become fat and lazy. It is so bad that a 20 something  waitress from the Bronx with no political training is running rings around them all.

It is common conversation in the UK, if you randomly pick a person off the street they would have far more ability, flexibility and common sense then any random Tory MP out of Westminster.

Seriously, if you where paying for these people to run you might want a refund ! 

US Paranoia Spills over to NZ

Posted 17th March 2019 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ

It is very sad that the United States perpetual war on all non Saudi Muslims has spilled over to Australia and New Zealand, 
especially effecting those workers who came to to Christchurch to help rebuild the city or generally help to keep our businesses going.

It all seemed so surreal we needed to go to the Invercargill Mosque it see the flowers place there by caring kiwi hands to mark what is a real trauma to our society both here and globally.  If you have had a guts-full Just remember in the age of the smart phone we are all citizens of the Globe and we are all potential citizen journalists. 

Game over Mitch McConnell

Posted 10 March 2019 to the New York Times Newspaper NY NY USA

Mitch McConnell says that the house bill to stop corruption in US Elections is bad because the Democrats will use the votes to win...?
This Statement of bare faced corruption should get Mitch Fired on the spot, He should fall on his sword  and resign .
If ANY Journalist is good with his statement than they should do the same. This must not stand or America will fall because if there is no real law and order any more in the Conservative leadership and Mr un-american un elected Rupert Murdoch rules them like a God .

Ghost of Trump's Past

Posted 1st March 2019 to the New York Times Newspaper NY NY USA.

Hi Future Donald:  I know you and how you would have turned out with the pressure of inheritance that is a Great Burdon to carry.
I know you just wanted to be loved but all the money brings false friends and fake love which makes you grumpy though by nature you are not a bitter person at heart nor are you full of malice you suffer from the plight of the trust fund kid battling a cruel world. The world that will only love and respect you if you act like a monster. It is so easy to surrender but deep inside there will always be a past voice to guide you... Listen to your former self, the one that makes you do the right thing by accident... You might surprise your current self just how liberating that can be.  The Great History Book beckons. 

Governing Without Faith - USA

Posted 10th Jan 2019 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ

How is it that the United States had all the luck and power in the world for the last one hundred years and is now in a perpetual state of crisis ?  I think it’s due to a stubborn faith that it’s democratic process is God Like.
Ask any rational person if an election so corrupted as the US 2016 presidential Election should be valid and the answer is a definite no, however in the USA only the very bravest commentators say they need to run the 2016 election over again from it’s primaries knowing what we all know now.

Seriously, no faith should be this strong that this kind on madness can be left to run wild because of precedent.
The grave crisis that faces the USA is not on it’s boarders but inside them. This administration strikes at the very roots of law and order to keep it’s tentative grip on legitimacy alive.

If that is not a uber crisis than we all need new dictionaries.

As for the Government shutdown show me one billionaire stepping up to pay to keep the county that sustains them...
Not so much as a single Buffet. 

 

The Lesson of 2018

Posted 31st of December 2018 to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper Chicago Illinois USA

I though I should give the NYT a break from Americas view from a far .

So after crunching all the media information from this last year the Skin of Evil award goes to...
The US Right Wing Fundamental Christians.
After President 45 unscrewed their lid and looking over the historical record we find their finger prints on pretty much
Every evil act in us politics this century, and in case you have not noticed they scare the willies out of the media, judiciary,  other Christians and pretty much any democrat still in power. And oh, their prophetic mission statement IS to end the world.

Their Ideas appear from afar to be more satanic than Christian especially when they get involved in politics where no one is safe from their wrath.

Every US war where there is mass carnage of innocents they flood the polls with political cheerleading.
Something unbecoming a Christian Nation?  It is true, look it up, history is full of it and it is why All Americans live in a state of anxiety, fear, injustice and now political insanity.
So that’s the lesson for the year. Just remember, they are a minority. 

Fairfax Media - Anthropocene Stance

Posted 28th November 2018 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ

I read Nov 28th Patrick Crewdson says print media should make human made Climate change a serious subject.
I knew this back in the 1970s when Gordon Rattray Taylor brought out a popular book on the subject but yet
we are still waiting for popular movement to rise. This may be happening if the new blood in the US Congress can float the Green New Deal but part of the problem is The Media did not find the right tag, they used Global Warming and then Climate Change,  Social Media has the Anthropocene Outbreak which is more to the point, it is the cause not the Symptom but most modern journalists can’t deal with that.

Here is a thought, if we are to take this problem seriously we have to be honest with each other  Humans are what is known in science as an outbreak species.

However we are highly adaptive and cleaver, if we pull together on this and stop mindlessly humiliating each other we could turn the ship around.

Seriously what else have we got to do ?   Build more Walls?  

NYT - DO NOT PUBLISH THIS

Posted November 4th 2018 to the New York Times Newspaper NY NY USA

 Dear NYT opinion: 
Some letters are just a heads up for journalists..
Here in New Zealand boffins have been decoding the News Cycle in respect to the pending climate disaster that the human race is facing down.

For a start human overpopulation is the problem not the climate secondly every aspect of the world we know make have to change dramatically very soon and nobody's status will be safe.
There are just two solutions at our disposal one is start finding radical solutions now to save everyone and the other is wait till a crisis and cull the unwanted population so that the status quo can carry on a little longer.

Terrible news indeed but the worst part is that news cycle clearly is pointing to a bloodbath because if it was not population would be the header on the news cycle every day, not buried in obscure podcasts on the internet.

People may be sheep in the eyes of some leader but they evolved to smell fear and Washington is reeking of it. Herding them with lies and electoral fences might be the worst thing to do right now.

Its time that a good honest discussion takes place because Time is not on our side.

US Capitalism I am afraid is a pure luxury and it will have to go into the failed experiment bin.
And just maybe even the Idea of the United States will have to include other nation states if not all.  

So you better not print this if you favour a planetary blood bath.  

American Meltdown Midterms

Posted October 31st 2018 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ

At this point in time the USA is going through a frantic stage. They badly need change to deal with the impending future but their system is so inflexible the frustration is reaching a crescendo. It is getting to as point where Americans dare not talk too loud in public about politics as nerves are so on edge. Things could go very pear shaped in the next few weeks as all the pent up anger and disappointment comes to a head in the Midterms. The worst problem is the insecurity the status quo just fails to address the future in any logical way. If you listen to commentators those who are lucky enough to have bags of money they are looking at New Zealand as a bolt hole if things get out of hand.
Perhaps we might want to tell them that if they want to live in a Parliamentary Proportional Democracy they should try it at home first as running away is really not a good strategy. Besides we really won’t want NZ swamped by spoiled American Trust Fund Kids. Believe me! 

Saudi's Trump America

Posted 19th October 2018 to the Otago Daily Times

    

President Donald Trump aka #45 must really want to get on the wrong side of the Republican Party
With the Jamal Khashoggi case.

It’s one thing to make the USA kiss up to Putin but to Muslims wearing Arabian Garb ??
That’s really going to stick in their craw.

Is Trump trying to get the boot? Is he wanting out ? Will he defect to North Korea ?
What a crazy show this is!  What is his big ending I wonder?

Who writes this reality bending saga?  it’s almost it’s own industry now! 

Published 23 Oct 

US Empire -Trump's Fatal Blow

Posted 9th October 2018 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper NZ

 I would like to take this moment to mark the passing of the Ideal that was the United States of America  which has just flat lined on the political operating table. 

A bit over 37 years ago President Reagan poisoned the two party system by using his office to destroy unions which where the life blood of the Democratic Party and yesterday it was announced the barely legitimate Republican President of the USA just poisoned the justice system by breaking every rule in the book consequently abandoning over two thirds of the population in the process an consequently faith in the whole system.

Award winning political journalist Chris Hedges predicts that trust in the US Empire is about to collapse.
Maybe we should try and revive the old British Commonwealth Empire or crank an alternative
World government of more mature nations run off crypto currency cannabis and taxation that covers all necessities of life.
who knows,  we could even lure California Oregon & Vermont to join up!