There’s a meme I’ve included in this post that highlights corporate profits for 2023. Which are ridiculous. I fact-checked a few of the numbers and they were spot on. For context, the author highlights that Starbucks could give every one of their 400,000 employees an $11,000 bonus and still have a profit of $20B.
That is the modern day capitalism that we are so proud of. Corporations price-gouge to maximize revenue and pass it off as inflation and it is rarely questioned. They take extreme measures to minimize costs including suppressing wages, fighting collective bargaining, using cheap supply chain materials and even toxins and poisons in food supplies, cut corners on worker safety etc. etc. All so they can get to these sort of ludicrous profits which serve the few at the expense of the many.
It depresses me. Greed, corruption, extreme vanity. It’s pervasive and it’s killing the planet, the people, and all other life. And while this is going on, our news is mostly a trial about a billionaire fraud paying off a hooker and the childish antics of silly politicians focused on irrelevant social policy.
So it goes, as the great Kurt Vonnegut would say.
Between 1976-1978, The Carter administration significantly advanced energy policy which set the tone to seriously address, for the first time, environmental degradation and public health policy due to toxic pollution and general disregard for emissions. The examples of Carter’s early understanding of these problems, and his commitment to solving them are many. Too many to catalog here. Read the book. But just know he was amazing. Prescient, determined, and so informed and intelligent that he very often better understood the details of highly complex systems as well or better than the academic professionals advising the administration.
To be clear, 50 years ago, we had a president telling us what we needed to do to save humanity and the planet. And we didn’t listen. We understood the problem, had the ingenuity and resources to solve the problems, but we did not have the will. Instead, the establishment politicians and corporations dug in their heels, demonized and ridiculed Carter, and funded obstructionist politicians to water down legislation to preserve their power and entitlement.
After Carter’s four years, the Reagan, Bush, and Trump administrations, took immediate and significant steps to reverse environmental and energy policy gains. They willfully, and to great cheers from their delusional supporters, traded long-term planetary viability for a few low paying coal, gas and transportation related jobs.
Reagan immediately took down the solar panels from the roof of the White House that Carter had installed. This, so he could look tough and gain cheap political points.
This is the legacy of Republican legislation. They aggressively do the wrong things all the time so they can bathe in adoration of ignorant supporters and cash the checks of the corporations who are trading away life on the planet for wealth.
This week in the news we learned Donald Trump met with CEO’s of multiple large energy companies and promised that if they would donate $1B towards getting him elected, he would roll back environmental regulations on day 1.
This is the essential issue we face. Humanity seems to not be evolved enough for the responsibility we’ve taken upon ourselves. When faced with a decision of doing the right thing or the wrong thing, we nearly always choose the wrong thing when that choice comes with power, status and riches. Our political systems are perfectly designed to exploit this weakness of men.
Our moral compasses are influenced more by vanity and greed than by inspired benevolence. We are emotionally immature relative to our powers of destruction.
We often talk of political and economic systems to manage our societies. Capitalism, socialism, monarchies, dictatorships, communism or some hybrid of these. None have proven to be particularly effective over the long term — they are all subject to the poor decision making and easy manipulation of humans influenced by greed and power.
The history of humans of European origin, recent and ancient, is all there for us to see. And the results are not hard to comprehend. Mankind is destroying the planet and most of the species living here at an alarmingly pace. We simply have not yet contrived the social mechanisms (or the emotional maturity and intelligence) to exist peacefully with one another and in harmony with the planet.
We choose self-destruction all the time.
Jimmy Carter tried as hard as anyone ever has to give us a heads up and some tools to at least slow down our destruction. But we are not wired for moderation. At least in America. We are entitled and conditioned for expansion and pursuit of opulence and to hell with any consequences.
In addition to energy and climate policy, Carter appointed 40 women to the federal bench; prior to this, there had been a total of 8 in all of US history. He took the same attitude in mid and high-level government positions and the same again for people of color. He preserved a total of 159 million acres of pristine lands, more than any president before or since including Teddy Roosevelt. His work to broker peace between Egypt and Israel at the Camp David talks remains unprecedented as a peace deterrent. At a time when most politicians wanted the US to continue a militaristic occupation of the Panama Canal Zone, Carter paid a heavy political price for doing the right thing and negotiating a cooperative and peaceful treaty that served both nations. His approval rating dropped 20 percentage points and all his advisors (including Rosaylnn) told him not to do it until his 2nd term. But because he knew it was the right thing to do, he pushed It through because in his view, the risk was too great that he may not have a 2nd term.
Well, thanks anyway Jimmy.
Sjoerd, Shane andI took the train from Amsterdam to Berlin and back. It was a good visit. 6-days. Just the right amount of time. King’s Day was very subdued this year. Last time I was in Amsterdam for this celebration was 2017 and it was a much bigger party. But we had fun of course.
We walked a lot in both Berlin and Amsterdam. My tracker put us at around 52 miles over those 6 days. We also took time to sip coffee at sidewalk cafe’s in the mornings while the sun was still soft and beer in the afternoons when it was high in the sky and we needed a break. We took a river boat tour, had some good meals, discussed history and argued a bit. All normal for us.
A couple of very unique coincidences. First, was that our next to last day in Berlin was the 79th anniversary of Hitler’s committing suicide in his bunker as the Soviet army bore down on the Nazi headquarters. Even more interesting, was that the bunker where Hitler was hiding in those last days, along with Goebbels, Krebs and some other aides and administrative staff, was essentially right under the apartment we had rented. Just outside the front door of our building was a sign with a map of the bunker system and some language explaining this is where it all went down. That night we watched the last days of Hitler in the brilliant movie Fallen. Some heavy shit — that Nazi era.
Protests continue at US universities over the lack of action on protecting Palestinians. I am all for it and if time and circumstances allow will join the protesters. Just as I did in the BLM protests. My experience is that most of the time, the thoughtful, earnest protesters are ahead of the social curve and on the right side of history. MLK Jr. marches, Vietnam war protests, Mandela and the ANC with their civil disobedience actions, Ghandi, BLM etc. Status quo simply does not change without inspired, committed actions that bring awareness. If a few windows get broken or a few people get a little shaken up, well that’s an easy price to pay for instigating change. All of the populations named in the examples above were being tortured, killed, raped, unfairly imprisoned and economically hamstrung for generations before taking to the streets. So I don’t accept these arguments that the students are out of line. That’s the old white entitled class afraid of change. I shouldn’t say old — most of the white people in my community, old and young, believe the protesters are the problem rather than trying to understand the situation. Rather than accepting that in a free society, people have a right to demonstrate and make themselves heard.
Just as it’s not right for 1 in 1,000 to take an illegal action in an otherwise peaceful protest, it is equally unacceptable to judge an entire crowd for the actions of a few. So arrest just the perpetrators, not the entire crowd. But of course the establishment and media characterizes the situation to their advantage and most people are too lazy to wade through the bullshit to understand the truth.
Some good copy as I have been thinking about this situation and researching a bit.
What is the legacy of the 1968 protest?
The major legacy is that students are the moral compass of these well-endowed, elite institutions – even if they engage in disruptive behavior. They are willing to act on campus when no one else will. If left to the trustees, administrators, faculty and staff, the university would likely be quiet and civil while waiting for the marketplace of ideas and countless committees to suss out what to do about real-time humanitarian crises.
Young people have always been impatient in their calls for justice. In 1968, the issues were Columbia’s construction of a gymnasium in West Harlem and the university’s relationship with the IDA; in the 1980s, it was the university’s financial interests in apartheid South Africa; and in the 2010s, the school’s investments in private prison corporations. The 1968 rebellion taught later generations not to accept indiscriminate killing and injustice.
Another legacy is that the deployment of police to break up demonstrations may end disruptions in the short term, but it may also end up radicalizing moderate students who see their friends get arrested or injured.
In another really good article we see that violence during otherwise peaceful protests is actually initiated by counter-protestors who aggressively initiate conflict with the protest group. Police and security stand by for hours and let the violence go unchecked. This of course will give the perception that this was a ‘violent protest’ and that sways peoples opinions.
A quote from the article here and below that a link to the full article.
A New York Times examination of more than 100 videos from clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that violence ebbed and flowed for nearly five hours, mostly with little or no police intervention. The violence had been instigated by dozens of people who are seen in videos counterprotesting the encampment.
The videos showed counterprotesters attacking students in the pro-Palestinian encampment for several hours, including beating them with sticks, using chemical sprays and launching fireworks as weapons. As of Friday, no arrests had been made in connection with the attack.
When I grew up I was always told the Vietnam was a just and necessary war, and that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist who should be in jail. Later, we were sold the bullshit that the US was right to invade two sovereign nations, Iraq and Afghanistan, who had nothing to do with 9/11. We lost 3,000 and killed a million. A million who had nothing to do with 9/11 + OBL whom Obama finally got. We invaded Afghanistan ostensibly to free them from the travesty of The Taliban and Al Queda and then 20 years later and after a trillion dollars and several hundred thousand dead and even move displaced, we handed the country back over to the Taliban and come crawling back home. That worked out well.
Civil disobedience is important. Very important. Without it social change stagnates and status quo is never questioned. People who try to liken the vast majority of protests as ‘violent’ are ignoring the violence they are fighting against, in a massively mis-sided war and focusing on exactly the wrong thing. Whether it’s immoral wars like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan or blacks and minorities being the victims of deadly targeted killings by police, or South Africa’s apartheid government or US government’s attempted genocide of native Americans — protests were central to bringing change. Shutting down or condemning protests for meaningful social change is regressive and unhelpful.
I’m tired of being called anti-semitic for expressing anger and disagreement over Israel’s actions — just as I was tired of being called anti-American for not supporting the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Protest loud and often I say. There is no other way to instigate social change as the established power structures by definition have no motivation to change.
More on the good Jimmy Carter. In his 4 years in office, not a single bomb was dropped or shot fired against someone else. Many historians believe the way JC renegotiated the Panama Treaty avoided a war in Central America. He also chose not to bomb Tehran when Iranian student revolutionaries took 60+ American hostages to protest US meddling in Iranian affairs.
The hostages were finally released and 100% of them came home. Carter showed remarkable restraint when all his advisors were telling him that by not taking strong military action, he was certainly giving away his re-election. But Jimmy was convinced that while it may take longer, the right thing to do was to not start a massive war which by the way, would also have resulted in the death of the hostages. He also did not campaign during this period — instead focusing all his energy on negotiating for the hostages release.
Historians have speculated that Reagan and probably any other republican (and perhaps democratic) presidents would have bombed Iraq in this situation. Reagan said he would have. That would have started a disastrous war. Even though JC went to Annapolis and served as a Navy Nuclear Submarine officer, he understood war should be avoided at all costs. That is rare, unfortunately.
Later, it was determined that Reagan actually negotiated with Iran to make sure the hostages did not get released until after the election that year — ensuring he had the votes to beat Carter. 4 years later, it was proven that Reagan administration illegally sold arms to Iran to fund another secret war in Nicaragua. 11 people went to jail but Reagan was protected and George H. W. Bush (also almost certainly deeply involved in this bullshit) later pardoned all those convicted.
So — go Republicans! Not hard to see the line from Nixon, to Reagan, to Bush, to Bush jr. and then Trump. They are criminals. Corruption, massive tax cuts while increasing military spending beyond reasonable measures (to appear masculine), illegal voter suppression and district gerrymandering, indulging business interests (de-regulation, cutting corporate taxes, resisting all consumer protections etc.) at the expense of average citizens, massively expanding wealth inequality and starting wars every time they got a chance to try to look tough.
I am not a democrat by the way. They are far less evil or destructive than republicans but not always innocent and are definitely hapless.
At the airport lounge in Amsterdam, while drinking coffee and sorta reading and sorta people watching, I got attracted to a mid-40’s couple sitting not far from me with their baby. The man was on his knees in front of the stroller and he was holding a kids book in front of the bemused toddler and reciting from the book in a high pitched kids voice. He looked goofy as hell. The woman was feverishly mixing some porridge in a small bowl and also speaking to the kid in a baby voice. There were a dozen or so toys scattered around along with bottles and a cup of fruit and blankets and a binkie lying on the table. The stroller was the size of a SmartCar with all kids of extra wheels and platforms and umbrellas.
Every fabric of their being was laser concentrated onto that toddler — apparently trying to get him/her/they to quit crying and to eat, drink, and learn to read all at the same time. I imagined the baby was thinking he was not about to embark on a meaningful journey, but was apparently borne into a circus where clowns were ever-present.
I cannot pretend to understand parenting in the modern environment. My only context is my own upbringing. Rita was the most amazing mother of all time. No question. But there was no baby talk. No doting on toddlers. No thespian-like performances from mom and dad in a desperate attempt to control infant behavior. We got fed and were appropriately cared for. But definitely not a level of indulgence like this. We behaved or there were consequences. To my recollection there were few or even no public spectacles. Babies and kids behaved because we were not indulged. What was the point of crying for no reason if no attention was given. We simply didn’t fuck with Rita and she didn’t have to resort to bribes and cheap entertainment to keep the peace. We had a well defined family hierarchy and rule of law was understood and abided.
Those poor bastards. They looked exhausted and beaten. The baby had a victorious look, but also seemed a bit confused. He clearly was in charge of that family but perhaps he didn’t know what tricks to teach the parents next.
One of the great tragedies of human existence is that it takes 18 years or so to raise a kid. Most mammals drop a baby to the ground and it’s up walking around in a few minutes. A few months and it’s venturing forth and exploring on its own and within a year or so it walks out the door to find its own way in the world. But not humans with our big brains.
If I could have a kid and then after a year or two get my life back, I’d probably give it a go. Why not. But 18 years? Sorry little unborn mini-me — you’ll need to find another sponsor. Or better yet, take a pass on this planet. Not the best time really to come to earth unless you’ve got some serious solutions to a myriad of self-induced planet threatening problems.
When I moved to Europe the first time, I had the option with my company to move basically wherever I wanted as long as there was a Siebel office there. I almost came to Amsterdam but wound up moving to London because I thought it would be easier with language and also the way UK taxed stock options would save me money over how Netherlands handles such things. But I’ve since thought Amsterdam would have been the better choice. It’s such a great city and of course Sjoerd and Onah are here and it’s generally easier to get around the continent from the mainland. Dutch culture is lovely and the weather is better than in UK as well.
Alas, it seems not to matter much now. I always returned to US, primarily to be closer to family. I could have obtained a long term visa to remain here and go back and forth but again, I did not take that choice. Anyway, I later moved to Namibia and then to Australia, so I guess I was too nomadic to stay long in any one place anyway.
I’ve always felt more at home in Europe than in the US and never stopped thinking I should have fully committed and made this home. The culture here suits me in every respect — much more than the US.
Namib Futures is up and running. That is the new charity I help found along with a few others. We will endeavor to continue to support marginalized young people from the poorer townships of Namibia and Southern Africa.
Misty Malarky Ying Yang? That was the name of Amy Carter’s cat when she lived in the White House as a child.
Humbly Submitted
Robert Myres, Flanker, Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club (ret.)
The Martini Tales 