World
THE WISDOM OF NIKITA
Older Americans remember well the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The then Soviet Union had placed nuclear armed missiles on the island nation mere minutes from being able to destroy most major American cities, including Washington D.C. and New York. As a sovereign nation, Cuba, like Ukraine today, had every legal right to have Soviet missiles placed within its borders.
Of course, these Soviet missiles were an existential threat to the U.S. and President John F. Kennedy was left in an impossible situation. No matter the international legalities, under no circumstances was ...
TECTONIC SHIFTS
History matters. As World War II came to an end in 1944, Europe and Japan were in ruins while the U.S. had become the world’s economic powerhouse. At a historic meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, forty-four countries agreed to fix their currencies to the U.S. dollar and the dollar was made convertible to gold at $35 per ounce. Thereafter countries would settle their international trade in dollars, and the dollar became the world’s reserve currency.
As one might expect, having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency proved enormously beneficial to America. ...
Nuclear Weapons and the Environment
January 22, 2023 marked the second anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. On January 22, 2021 nuclear weapons officially became illegal under international law. The world community declared the mass murder resulting from using nuclear weapons a crime against humanity. Currently 92 nations have signed and 68 have ratified the treaty and are bound by its provisions.
Unfortunately, none of the nine countries who have nuclear weapons have signed and ratified the treaty. Because they have not, the treaty does not apply to them. As a result, human ...
IF THE B-21 COULD SPEAK
The First Commandment: “I am the Lord thy God – thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Idolatry: the worship of a physical object as a god
The dignitaries, the VIP’s, the CEO’s, the top brass had gathered. Hundreds had come on a warm, a beautiful, California evening. The dusk sunlight still lit the air. The national anthem was sung. Hands covered hearts, the brass stood in uniformed salute as the ear shattering military aircraft flew overhead. It was perfection. Hollywood was humbled.
The stage was set. The CEO of Northrup-Grumman extolled ...
JUST WHO IS THE AGGRESSOR?
Americans all know Russia is aggressive, populated by Slavic barbarians, and their leader, Putin, is a mad gangster out to dominate the world. The Chinese are just as bad. Their leader, XI Jinping, is friends with Putin. Need one say more? We need to hate these people.
But Americans also believe in fairness, a level playing field. Since the U.S. has placed missiles near Russia’s boarders in Poland and Romania (Ukraine was next) just 5 – 7 minutes flight time to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other major Russian cities, Russia should put missiles back in Cuba. And as ...
LTE to Superior City Council
Editor's note:
Grandmothers for Peace and Veterans for Peace in Duluth-Superior are working to get the Superior City Council to pass a resolution supporting the U.S. signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The following letter of support for this effort was received from Dr. Ira Helfand, an internationally recognized expert and advocate for abolishing nuclear weapons.
Dr Helfand's letter is an excellent, concise explanation of why citizens everywhere should be asking their local elected officials support this important treaty by passing local ...
AVOIDING NUCLEAR WAR
The world is now closer to nuclear war than at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. History matters.
In 1961 the U.S. placed nuclear armed Jupiter missiles on the Soviet Union's border in Turkey. The Soviets reacted and in 1962 placed missiles in Cuba. The U.S. was outraged and threatened nuclear war because the Soviet Union had had the audacity to do to America what America had done to them.
Quoting then Soviet Chairman Nikita Krushchev in a statement to President Kennedy:
“You are disturbed over Cuba. You say that this disturbs you because it is 90 miles by ...
New Thinking Needed – Not More Pentagon Spending
In our country the endless increases in military spending are only matched by an equally endless propensity for wars and military conflicts.
Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposes $813 billion for the Pentagon. This is a 4% increase over the bloated $782 billion approved by Congress for 2022 – which was a 5.6% increase from 2021. Every year “defense” spending increases. It makes no difference which party is in control. It doesn't matter what the the real threats are to the country. It makes no difference how much of this money is unaccounted for, lost to ...
The Fruits of Faulty Judgment
“I'm just a miner in the mother lode of misery, where the fruits of faulty judgment meet the spoils of bad luck.” From the song “King of Junk” by Eddy Lawrence
This humorous song is about a junk yard owner who's good fortune is the result of others' faulty judgment and bad luck. He finds a “hidden trove of riches mid the mangled and the maimed” wreckage of cars.
I like the poetry of the song. To me it speaks (out of context) to much of the current craziness in our society. Politics has always been ugly and partisan. But the angry divisions are getting ...
Mother’s Day for Peace
War kills. Mostly it kills innocent people – women, children, the elderly and other non-combatants. War destroys. War destroys nations, economies, and the environment.
War does not resolve conflicts. It exacerbates social and political problems. War is a choice and it is always a bad choice,
War is failure. Wars result from the failure of national leaders to find peaceful solutions to conflicts.
The war in Ukraine is a senseless tragedy. This war could have been prevented. If the politicians had been willing to compromise, the diplomats more aggressive in ...