Human Rights Democracy?

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    Introduction to the essays. It is easier than I ever thought possible. We look stuck arguing over the same small old doctrines and ideologies of Liberal Democrats or Trump Republicans that are getting us nowhere except at each other's throats. If those ideas worked we would be using them.
Could we reimagine? Could we re-enlighten? 

Sample: "Something," as Shakespeare had his character Marcellus opine to Horatio, "is rotten in the state of Denmark." Well, actually, Denmark is doing pretty fine right now and its people among the happiest in the world, but in the nation of the United States, something is wrong and the Danes know it; as does most of Europe and Scandinavia. 

    It is not too difficult to see that American politics is going through some hard times, to say the least. Right, Left, Democrat, Republican, Centrists, Extremists, nouveau Socialists or born again Fascists, Trumpsters, anti-Trumpsters, everyone is pointing a finger or raising the middle one at the other. A media circus it is with the media itself in the center ring pooped on by elephantine Republicans. " ... (FREE)

   The USA has some shortcomings as a democratic republic. It is not all that democratic. It has major flaws. How to go from where we are to where we might and should be. Far more citizen involvement and power; would that do? What to do! Can we make ourselves a really truly democratic society? 

Sample: "Pravda, the dominant newspaper of the old Soviet Union, was well known for propaganda slanted news. The tweeting and quacking Donald The Duck usually loves the contemporary American imitation of Pravda, that is, of course, Fox News.
    The all day and night CNN while certainly far more factual than The Fox — not really a trick at all given the poor relationship of the latter to anything resembling truth — endlessly beats the dead horse of the Trump's pseudo-imperial presidency and stokes every kind of scandal imaginable as well as factual. Over and over they broadcast all that sound and fury of Trumpish malevolent meanness, madness and moral emptiness. They have the perfect subject in dumb Donald, but they crave sensational semi-scandal everywhere from Biden's hugs and kisses to Bernie's heart attack to even what Elizabeth Warren proposes or that she is proposing anything that is not the same old same old. What did or did not Bloomberg say? Sick of it all, we are!..." ($10)

   Yet, even democracies fail. Are we living within a failed state? So, how can we reorganize the US governments? The best gov't may be the most minimal, inexpensive, yet effective, protective and satisfying. How to do that? Sounds truly impossible. We can do it if we organize properly. 

Sample: "Now, governments of nation-states — themselves a recent invention, starting in about the 1600s — pretty much cover the Earth, about 195 of them, and more or less govern every human being. So, one way or another we must deal with them, their underlying raison d'etre as well as what we would like of them. There are some among us, extreme Libertarians, Anarchists and true blue fundamentalist Marxists who would still like to see the state wither away. I have some sympathy for their positions as who likes being told what to do and be required to send off money, called taxes, to pay for it all. That said, I think government does have a legitimate place in human affairs with, to my mind, some very firm limits."... ($10)

    We can keep the best of free market prosperity capitalism and yet adjust away its all too real problems of gross income inequality, unemployment, etc. with a human rights balance of competition and cooperation.This essay shows with a few deft strokes just how to do that. It really is possible, too. It is COOPERATIVE CAPITALISM. It is not a contradiction. 

Sample:    "In America, both the Trump Right and the Progressive Left think that whoever wants to work should be employed. (Except Mr. Yang who wants to hand out a guaranteed income to the unemployed because the machines are so productive and automated and workers so unnecessary.) Pretty much everyone in between those poles thinks the same. So do I. It is not even close to a disagreement. Everyone disagrees, however, about how to go about it.
    If you have the right to: “Life, Liberty and Property” then you need a job to secure at least life and property. You may be free and pursue some kind of happiness without making a living by working, but not all or even a near majority of us have a sugar daddy, earth mommy, an exquisitely generous charity or huge inheritance to fund our adulthood without some kind of work on our part. ..." ($10)  

    Disasters of all types are bad enough. Yet, not being well prepared makes them worse. If the current pandemic teaches us anything for the future, it is to be ready. We were clearly not this time. What should next time look like? And for other world disasters, e.g. climate catastrophe?

Sample: "Shocking disasters whether Vesuvius interring the population of Pompeii, the infamous Bubonic Plague sickening and decimating goodly portions of Medieval Europeans, the Spanish Flu of 1918 at the end of World War I killing more people that the war itself or the current Covid-19 pandemic, flying, boating or driving around the world sickening hundreds of thousands, maybe millions and doing in hundreds of thousands — all of these are very natural and, you might say, virtually inevitable. It is part and parcel to our earthly home.
   One question to pose for ourselves is: what can we do about this? Can we eliminate these problems; can we better prepare and maybe the damage and death will not be so bad; or perhaps we must gasp and bear it? What could our distant relatives the dinosaurs do when big rocky asteroid fell to earth? What they could not do is now archeological history. Are we ready for Yellowstone Super Volcano and plumes of rocky soot making for such very harsh winters that it will be the end of all of us?" ... ($10)

    Immediate change to climate change by making fossil fuels illegal. Long term change to US topology and practice. The 4 Zones for tomorrow and the day after. Can we really do it or is it over for human beings and the birds and the trees? We can do it, but we had better be quick about it and immoderate. Otherwise, our gig is up! 

Sample: "In the long run but not too distant future, the Trump administration’s evisceration of environmental law and regulation will hurt many people worldwide as well as in the United States. Climate change and environmental degradation was happening already, and not only is this version of the government not doing enough just as many past iterations of the government did not do enough, but we are actually factually going backwards at a rapid pace. 

    One of the many results may be more and more refugees desperately seeking entrance at different borders, both within and around the United States as well as worldwide. There will be many other dire consequences. What happens when the Middle East is so hot that it is unlivable? Where will everyone go?  What happens when East Africa goes so dry that 100 million are starving? Who is going to feed them? What happens when Mexico cannot grow food? Think the Trump border wall will hold them back then? What happens when the Western states of the United States go so hot and dry, too, that everyone heads for the East and West coasts that are totally flooded? What happens when the ice in the Himalayas melts and first floods the Yangtze and The Ganges but then later they dry up and 1 billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians cannot eat because they cannot grow their crops? 

Make America Polluted Again?! Is that what we want? " ... ($10)

     Give peace a chance. Give Green and organic a second chance. Give democracy and human rights a first chance. Free movement of people and goods. Liberty and justice for ALL. 

Sample: "The 'war to end all wars,' that is, World War I, did no such thing. And, it was not that long ago, too, 1963, that human beings were almost annihilated from the planet. The Cuban Missile Crisis put us within a few hours of being history ourselves. Who would have written that history? Not that long ago!

     And now?

     The financially and morally bankrupt NRA will tell you that you need guns to protect your family. Given how many people in the United States have guns, those sane and those insane, those criminal and those not yet criminal and everyone frightened of everyone else and even the police using their knees as a weapon of deadly proportion along with their guns, well, it does make perverse sense for everyone to have a gun to protect themselves. What will go on in the future: gunfights at the OK Corral, then at Times Square, then on every Main St. in every town in the country? Guns shooting Senators and Vice Presidents? Almost happened. 

    The same applies worldwide. The U.S. has nukes, so North Korea builds nukes. The North Koreans have nukes and the Russians are building more nukes, so the U.S. needs more nukes and Trump wanted the Japanese to pay for our nukes to protect them, so then the Chinese need more nukes, so then again we need more and better nukes. And then Trump falls in love with Kim, who promises but does not deliver on de-nuking. And then Trump wants to upgrade and increase all our nukes. Make America Greatly  Nuclear Again." ... ($10)