Allan J. "Alonzo" Wind's Blog, page 6

Militia Malarkey

The news out the last few days about the militia movement is very troubling. Some people fear the possibility of a second civil war with all the gun toting crazies that are going around. On the one hand, this is an old, long-ignored problem.  Back in the 1990s, the militia movement at times appeared even more advanced and likely to spur ever more examples of shootouts like Ruby Ridge and Waco. But it does also seem different now, given the encouragement to the lunatic fringe by some Republican so-called leaders and the addition of an ideological fanaticism like Q-Anon.  It should be an early priority to suffocate this militia movement. There is no God-given or Constitutional right to tote around military-like weaponry around polling places or government buildings. The fact that some police officials now at the sheriff level are actually embracing this type of behavior should be seen as very worrying as well, and to my mind should be looked at as grounds for discharge.

I am worried that the progressives and moderates have been pussy footing around on this issue of guns, and ever yielding or failing to stop the illegal creation of so-called militias, in such a way as to simply kick the can down the road and cause the problem and polarization to grow and grow. It’s time to engage in a very explicit dialogue and open discussion about what are legitimate and what are not legitimate Second Amendment rights.  Failing to do so simply balloons the potential danger this country will face in the near term.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-militias-part-of-americas-past-are-a-worry-today/2020/10/20/d41ba150-1305-11eb-a258-614acf2b906d_story.html

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Supreme Court Reform

Should Biden-Harris win, and the Democrats gain a majority in the Senate, I believe a key early issue should be Supreme Court reform. Indeed reform of the Judiciary branch as a whole. The progressive and moderate portions of the electorate, which every poll shows representing 65% or more of this country, can not continue to leave this area unaddressed.  We are not talking about Court packing.  Indeed, I think Pete Buttigieg came out with one of the most thoughtful and balanced ideas about moderate court reform during the Democratic Primary campaign.  It needs to be prioritized as a fundamental issue.  There are few things so important as protecting the basis and foundation of our rights and the structure of the democracy.  See this video on Youtube and comment please.

 

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Impoverishment of America

I just saw this graphic a friend shared on Face book.  It shows income inequality through the tax burden over the decades.  This GIF really gets to the heart of what a certain ideology has tried to foist on the American people.  We should be hiding and worried about “socialism” such as it is; we need to confront how corporate socialism and the socialism of the rich has eaten out the core of our democratic values as a nation. It is sobering and really terrifying, and so widely misunderstood on both sides.  How I would love to hear Democratic party leaders mention the practical realities and implications of what this has meant for America.  Make no mistake – the flattening of the tax bracket and the share of tax rates has meant the impoverishment of America on many many levels. It has meant the destruction of resources at every level of government to fund human investment and development. It has meant the gutting of education and so many basic services that used to be taken for granted in America.

How the taxes on the wealthy have fallen over the past 70 years (USA)

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Bumper Stickers

My wife pointed out something to me yesterday that I had not picked up on before. Have you noticed that there are far fewer bumper stickers around compared to past elections? This is true whether on the Republican or the Democratic sides. Yard signs and other sorts of signs of course are still out there – although they seem a bit reduced too. But bumper stickers at least in Virginia are now very rare. They were even more visible during the Democratic primary season. Hell, we had one or two stickers on one of our cars. But now you don’t see it. It makes you wonder.

Can it reflect the polarization and segregation between our two big tribal communities? Can it be people don’t want to see vandalism on their cars if they did risk putting a bumper sticker up? I don’t know. What do you think?

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No Bumper Stickers

My wife pointed out something to me yesterday that I had not picked up on before. Have you noticed that there are far fewer bumper stickers around compared to past elections? This is true whether on the Republican or the Democratic sides. Yard signs and other sorts of signs of course are still out there - although they seem a bit reduced too. But bumper stickers at least in Virginia are now very rare. They were even more visible during the Democratic primary season. Hell, we had one or two stickers on one of our cars. But now you don't see it. It makes you wonder.

Can it reflect the polarization and segregation between our two big tribal communities? Can it be people don't want to see vandalism on their cars if they did risk putting a bumper sticker up? I don't know. What do you think?

Sweat Industrial Complex

I really enjoy the podcast PIVOT with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. Scott is a madman in truth but Kara is no slouch herself, and the two of them tackle technology issues, internet and social media concerns most of the time.  I liked in particular a couple of recent podcasts where Scott referred to the collapse of the Sweat Industrial Complex, referring to all the big gyms and fitness centers, some good and some not so good, but all devastated by the Coronaverse Pandemic we reside in.  Scott made another great point as well which bears reflection and repeating: There has never been as good a time as now for getting in shape.  It's true. The COVID 19 really hits hardest those with co morbidities and metabolic ailments which are largely preventable over the medium term.  Really the only other person who bangs this drum even more is Bill Maher, and he has frequently argued in disgust about how the Tony Faucis and the Debbie Birxes of the world have shown cowardice in not coming out and confronting the question of our health and wellbeing in a land of obesity.  Why has the USA been hit so very hard by COVID? The incompetence and brazen insanity of the Administration aside, it really comes down to the obesity and high prevalence of metabolic ailments here compared to some parts of Europe and particularly East Asia.  This is a topic I would love to see out far more in the public square.  Farid Zakaria - who was recently on the PIVOT podcast and also with Bill Maher on his Real Time HBO program - hits this theme to his credit in his new book, Ten Lessons for a Post Pandemic World.  I've downloaded it on Audible and plan to listen to it soon. 

What are your thoughts about this issue of getting yourself in better shape? Have you been doing so? I know I have been trying; I managed to lose another 20 pounds over the course of the Pandemic to date.

Sweat Industrial Complex

I really enjoy the podcast PIVOT with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. Scott is a madman in truth but Kara is no slouch herself, and the two of them tackle technology issues, internet and social media concerns most of the time.  I liked in particular a couple of recent podcasts where Scott referred to the collapse of the Sweat Industrial Complex, referring to all the big gyms and fitness centers, some good and some not so good, but all devastated by the Coronaverse Pandemic we reside in.  Scott made another great point as well which bears reflection and repeating: There has never been as good a time as now for getting in shape.  It’s true. The COVID 19 really hits hardest those with co morbidities and metabolic ailments which are largely preventable over the medium term.  Really the only other person who bangs this drum even more is Bill Maher, and he has frequently argued in disgust about how the Tony Faucis and the Debbie Birxes of the world have shown cowardice in not coming out and confronting the question of our health and wellbeing in a land of obesity.  Why has the USA been hit so very hard by COVID? The incompetence and brazen insanity of the Administration aside, it really comes down to the obesity and high prevalence of metabolic ailments here compared to some parts of Europe and particularly East Asia.  This is a topic I would love to see out far more in the public square.  Farid Zakaria – who was recently on the PIVOT podcast and also with Bill Maher on his Real Time HBO program – hits this theme to his credit in his new book, Ten Lessons for a Post Pandemic World.  I’ve downloaded it on Audible and plan to listen to it soon.

What are your thoughts about this issue of getting yourself in better shape? Have you been doing so? I know I have been trying; I managed to lose another 20 pounds over the course of the Pandemic to date.

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Everything He Touches Dies

This was the title of an important book by Rick Wilson, a Republican who has since been in the leadership of the Republican Voters Against Trump and the Lincoln Project. The book came out in August 2018, and was to some extent one of the vanguard books of the movement against Trump, certainly from those on the political right.  In many ways the title proved to be incredibly emblematic of what we have seen in all of 2020, and only more so in recent weeks.  In the last few weeks, the reputation of Walter Reed Hospital has been seriously tarnished over the manipulations related to Mr. Trump's treatment and infectious status. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been probably irreparably damaged and blocked in terms of any serious public health action at every turn.  Ambassador Debbie Birx, a former public health leader at DOD and CDC who I knew and was familiar with with the ambit of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), has been made a mockery of and utterly reduced to a pathetic totem of the Administration. Her attempts to somehow mitigate and defend the indefensible from the White House are been rightly ridiculed and she has joined the trash heap of those who have been destroyed by this Administration.

How many more have been caught up in their ambitious and complicit silence? How many more knew better but failed to speak up to challenge the nonsense spouted at every turn by the criminally negligent and corrupt? Mitt Romney, who does not have a great history of showing a backbone, made a pretense of standing up against the corrupt and complicit during the impeachment hearings but promptly crept back to toe the line. 

Tonight one is hearing Senator Ben Sasse and ex Governor Christie finally speak up to essentially say the Emperor has No Clothes.  But where were they before? Where was Sasse before his primary? Where was the author of "Them" professing to reject the destruction of bipartisanship? And where are the others from amongst the rabid mob rushing to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the second of two stolen seats on the Supreme Court?  And how sad and tragic to see the clownery of Democratic Senator Feinstein from California, praising Lindsay Graham for leading "the best hearings" she had every participated in...

Everything He Touches Dies

This was the title of an important book by Rick Wilson, a Republican who has since been in the leadership of the Republican Voters Against Trump and the Lincoln Project. The book came out in August 2018, and was to some extent one of the vanguard books of the movement against Trump, certainly from those on the political right.  In many ways the title proved to be incredibly emblematic of what we have seen in all of 2020, and only more so in recent weeks.  In the last few weeks, the reputation of Walter Reed Hospital has been seriously tarnished over the manipulations related to Mr. Trump’s treatment and infectious status. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been probably irreparably damaged and blocked in terms of any serious public health action at every turn.  Ambassador Debbie Birx, a former public health leader at DOD and CDC who I knew and was familiar with with the ambit of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), has been made a mockery of and utterly reduced to a pathetic totem of the Administration. Her attempts to somehow mitigate and defend the indefensible from the White House are been rightly ridiculed and she has joined the trash heap of those who have been destroyed by this Administration.

How many more have been caught up in their ambitious and complicit silence? How many more knew better but failed to speak up to challenge the nonsense spouted at every turn by the criminally negligent and corrupt? Mitt Romney, who does not have a great history of showing a backbone, made a pretense of standing up against the corrupt and complicit during the impeachment hearings but promptly crept back to toe the line.  Tonight one is hearing Senator Ben Sasse and ex Governor Christie finally speak up to essentially say the Emperor has No Clothes.  But where were they before? Where was Sasse before his primary? Where was the author of “Them” professing to reject the destruction of bipartisanship? And where are the others from amongst the rabid mob rushing to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the second of two stolen seats on the Supreme Court?  And how sad and tragic to see the clownery of Democratic Senator Feinstein from California, praising Lindsay Graham for leading “the best hearings” she had every participated in…

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Indigenous Peoples

Today is Columbus Day, or as an increasing number of people know it, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I gained enormous respect for the resilience of indigenous peoples during my first fifteen years serving overseas in Latin America. This is amply described in my book, ANDEAN ADVENTURES. It is available in English on my website and Amazon

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and a Spanish edition is on pre-order on Amazon. If it were feasible, I’d love to see it translated into some indigenous languages I was exposed to, such as Quechua (Kichua), Aymara and Guaraní.

Living and working in the Chaco of Bolivia, it was particularly fascinating to encounter and adapt our work to the fact that local communities might have different indigenous communities adjacent to each other, each with somewhat different cultural traditions and practices.

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