We're . . . Trumped

The temptation is great is to start making up "fake" news on my own. I just wouldn't know where to begin. Truth is stranger than fictional news anyway even if a bit harder to get at.

On December 19, the Electoral College will meet in their respective locations and cast ballots most likely for Trump. As most of my predictions have been off this year, that is our best hope for magical thinking that maybe he won't be our president. Still, I would hate to see the consequences around the country should the Electoral College do something that does not result in a President Trump.

Eew, I still can't get to the acceptance stage. I've had plenty of anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and all the rest. I just can't believe this.

Trump Wrong on Foreign Policy and Immigration

1) Trump willing to use nuclear weapons in Europe and Middle East:

See the Independent article here. Our European and other allies are very concerned - as are most thinking people in the U.S. My main opposition to Hillary Clinton is her hawkish attitude and her vote for the Iraq War. Trump is far worse. Hillary should revive the devastating daisy-petal-nuke ad from Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to use against Trump.

Magnets and Fevered End-Time Dreams of the Extreme Right Wing

First of all, both Anonymous D and I believe in some things that others find absolutely foolish. Our spiritual life experiences are unique to each of us even if we do have some common ground and understanding. There may be a follow-up post on some spiritual epistemology and religious oneness that we have been discussing. For now, I wish to draw attention to a matter that has fascinated us both and upon which we do not call "fraud" but urge extreme caution and a strong dose of common sense.

We've been nearly obsessed with the recent end-times prophecies of an LDS woman, Julie Rowe, who claims a near-death-experience vision and has been writing books and giving seminars. The upcoming blood moon this weekend figures into it as does some really weird right-wing fears of UN troops coming to America to help restore order after major disasters (beginning next week) because our troops will be over-extended overseas. The UN, of course, will send troops from North Korea, Russia, and probably Iran because the Canadians and Mexicans, even the Brits, are somehow too busy. And, of course, it almost writes itself that the UN Troops will turn on us true Americans and we will have to go hide in the hills in tent "cities of light."

Blanding Conspiracy Theorists Charged for Trespass on Public Lands

See any evil here? I don't

Work-related. Caveats in place. Not talking about inside information. And, I haven't yet been invited to secret Agenda 21 meetings to destroy truth, justice, and the American Way because such meetings simply don't exist. In fact, if more people actually believed in truth, justice, and the American Way and practiced them, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I am not directly working on the four-wheel trespasses on public land administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the multiple use of US Citizens (and even foreign visitors) under law, regulation, and the US Constitution. I wasn't going to comment at all until I saw the hand-held poster of one of the riders in an article of the Salt Lake Tribune. Check out the photos. The guy trying to hold on to the poster about Agenda 21 is also attempting to hold on to a young child. It is not clear which will slide off the moving vehicle first, the guy riding side-saddle, the poster, or the young child. I try not to go pejorative on the blog, but . . . .

HOPE in World Peace and Collective Security

We went pretty hard on the President last night. So today I further reveal my idealism which some find pollyannish to the max. But it's who I am. "And I'm not the only one. I hope some day you will join us. And the world will be as one." (Thanks, John).

The President is so close to being right, I hope he doesn't blow it with a US go-it-alone policy. Congressman Chris Stewart spoke at my son's high school yesterday and said that the US has a duty to be the world's policeman. I told my boy that I think our Congressman wants to have you all as soldiers. "I kind of got that idea," was my youngest's response. We have to stop people like Chris Stewart.

You may find it surprising, but my ideal for international intervention is what George H. W. Bush did. Sadam invaded Kuwait. US went to Security Council. US lead a true coalition of a multinational force for a limited objective of removing Iraq from Kuwait. Iraq suffered devastating military loss and left Kuwait. Iraq lobbed missiles at Israel for no good reason except to break up Arab states in coalition. US & others destroy Iraqi missile capabilities. Multinational force went home. (Except we didn't quite go home. We set up military bases in Saudi Arabia with Saudi consent. And that helped triggered the brutal plan for 9/11 in bin laden's warped brain.)

President Obama in Wales!

Just as Jonah of old . . . No! Not whales. There is a real country called Wales in English and Cymru to the Welsh or Cymry. Wales is not England but like England is one of the four countries in the United Kingdom consisting of Wales, England, Scotland (at least 'til next week), and Northern Ireland. This should be known to most people in world, but you'd be surprised.

Anyway, I found this picture of the President with some Saxon lady.

President Barack Obama talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the NATO Summit at the
Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, Sept. 4, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Interesting that the NATO Summit in Cardiff, Wales has its participants staying at a resort in Newport on the River Usk just below my ancestral lands.

Syria - The Way to Enter (or Not Enter) a War

Do I personally want the U.S to go to war in Syria? No. Do I want anyone to be gassed by their own government's chemical weapons? No. And I don't think the President wants either of these as well. He just said that he has requested that congressional leaders postpone any vote on the use of force for the US to pursue a diplomatic solution, particularly the one supported by Russia that Iraq declare its chemical weapons and place them under international supervision. I'm just fine with that.

A war in Syria right now does not meet my predetermined standards for going to war. There is no UN authorization, and with Russia, China, and now the UK opposed and on the Security Counsel that is not going to happen. Arguably, there is a legal way to go which would be to consider the Syrian incursions across the border or even the disruption caused by numerous refugees to be an attack on Turkey. As a NATO member, an attack on one is an attack on all. And while the UN acknowledges collective security in these regional organizations, only notice, not pre-approval, is all that is required under the UN Charter (still preserving each nation's sovereignty so no nation actually has to do anything). Yes, I'm overly legalistic as I look to the idealism of international law to structure war and peace. The UN has a messy history, but we're still here instead of flying through the universe as glowing atoms.

The Third Seal Opened the Market Based Economy?

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vasnetsov
Note the third rider on the black horse carrying the market scales

So, I was sitting there in Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class amazed by the teacher skimming through that lesson on Revelation Chapters 4-22, which is quite a lot to cover in forty minutes. We did have the McConkie outline explaining that it is mostly historical based on the dispensations of the Gospel and not all still to come. We read about the first four seals and the horsemen. There was a comment about the third seal representing famine and starvation because people of the world don't share the resources we have resulting in inequities. I went back and read the verses again:

Money Is Imaginary

Even the Lord says it doesn't matter much. I mean, look at the lilies of the field! And the real treasures you take with you into the next life are so much more important and can't be taken away from you. And you might as well give what you owe to the government as it is that power setting up the financial system anyway. Well, He said it all much better.

Eisenhower, Obama, and the United Nations: Faith or Fear?

OK. It's time to fess-up. I changed my profile to reflect that I have a degree in International Relations from that bastion of liberalism, Brigham Young University. And I'm only being a little facetious because my liberal arts education and my significant but modest political shift from moderate Republican to moderate Democrat did occur there. (Which, of course, makes me a flaming liberal if not an outright communist to many people here in Utah). But, education happens.

This recent Libyan conflict really has my hope soaring along with the recognition, but not fear, of great risk. As I noted before, this could be the first time the United Nations has actually worked as intended. I'll get back to that later.

To the Shores of Tripoli - War? and Peace?

Yikes! I look at my last blog title "Paved with Good Intentions" and worry about the standard meaning coming true with the turn of events of US involvement in Libya. Yet I hope and pray that this Libyan conflict truly is still the way I understand it. So far, and hopefully it will continue to be that no US or other outside troops will engage on the ground in Libya. To this point, it is enforcement of a no-fly zone by first taking out the capacity of anti-aircraft action by Qadafi's forces which seems to be working as a united effort sanctioned by the UN. There appears to be much more international support and authority than there was with the control and manipulation of the "coalition of the willing" in Iraq only covered by a fig leaf of legality.