Disturbing Trends

Afghanistan death toll pressures U.S., allies | csmonitor.com

2008-07-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan death toll pressures U.S., allies | csmonitor.com

"I don't have troops I can reach for to send into Afghanistan until I have a reduced requirement in Iraq," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.

Privacy Threat

2008-07-03T05:29:00.000-07:00

A judge has ordered that YouTube turn over its complete logs of private viewings of videos to Viacom. Are we moving away from tenets of humanity and reason just to return to preindustrial era ideas of human ownership? Has the concept of privacy been abandoned in the US Justice system? How are 4 terabytes of logs going to be analysed by Viacom and what will stop them from using this commercial information for their own commerical gain? Has the judge overstepped the mark - and played into the hands of a dismissal? Or is this revealing of a more sinister campaign against individuality. Can what we do be handed over like chattels in this way without consulting us first?

The terms and conditions of any website are so long and complex 99% of humans do not read them. Folly, say the laywers. They still apply. I do not however agree that a term that my viewing patterns would be available to Viacom was on offer when I used YouTube and found otherwise buried content owned by Viacom. Now what will happen - will Viacom start to persue billions of damages from millions of users of YouTube?

Why? For goodness sake. Viacom is supposed to be an entertainment company. Not the bleeding gestapo.

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Foreign forces' worst Afghan toll

2008-07-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Foreign forces' worst Afghan toll

The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding

2008-06-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding

If we never died, would we fight wars? Would our bodies have a greater degree of priority over the environment, and therefore is humans being able to live two or three times as long not environmentally hazardous? Will there be warnings in generontological pill boxes, warning, taking these may make the future more unpleasant?

Does not the cold thrill of death, the end, the finish, the waste of everything the hard reality that makes it possible for us to appreciate bliss and procreate madly, rather than trying to make that same nebulous "everything" (a meaningless word if there ever was one) - somehow stretch further than it can before the rate of human progress makes your cost to the world unbearable?

If we have to confont living for ever, it may seem the answer to millions of dreams. Even if everyone got 100 more years. What would happen to the world? Much change. Much unplanned change. Slowly inexorably it would change. People would compensate by being careful to have less children. With current life spans, this is already happening.

The trend here is inward. The attention is on the self. Wanting to live forever is going to take quite some getting used to...

Justice for America?

2008-06-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

As rats desert sinking ships, the question of justice for Americans becomes urgent. Should Haliburton get away with the effective theft of middle class wealth, by requiring miliary expansionalism to excecise its hardware muscle most profitably they effectively planted their CEO into the White House and look at the result.

It is not only that the acts of Bush-Cheney led the USA to war on false pretexts but the vice-president's company stood to profit from those invalid decisions and that damaged the average American. The direct cost to the citizens of the USA was hidden by inventing sub-prime mortgages that creating billions of dollars of vapour wealth based on greed and irrational risk. This was deliberate transfer of your wealth to Dick Cheney's old company. Is that not called conspiracy?

After 9/11 Bush had a mandate to defeat his enemy. Instead he stirred a hornet's nest in a lurching dive for oil control. Instead of that he has handed his perceived enemy an economic whip of unbelieveable consequence. All for the SUVs and industry, unregulated are that affecting the air we breathe.

If it were not for the imperatives of not polluting the atmosphere so our children will breathe - it is the imperatives of disasterous climate change gripping the world with a peak of apocalyptic fear not unlike that which peaked around AIDS, SARS or Bird Flu. The media get excited and focus on the issue of the day. Sorry, we are being misled. AIDS is more dangerous today everyday. SARS may reappear as something else we do not understand yet. And Bird Flu does not depend on the continued interest of journalists or anyone.

Recent events of Biblical proportions appear to be submerging cities from the American landscape, climate change? Or just normal?

You can find "right thinking" rationales that we must keep on polluting as its progress - because 1934 was the hottest year recorded which "disproves Global Warming".

Eh? This trend of creating a layer of unrestricted pollution in our atmosphere is most probably the real cause of intergenerational acceleration of cancer, heart and resporatory problems. This stuff, this industrial scale pollution is not just changing the chemistry of the air. It is becoming part of our cellular makeup, our children are sicker and more problematic for it, and its certainly is therefore the very opposite of progress.

Is this the start of the new dark ages?

Jailbreak

2008-06-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

Terrorist Jail Break in Afghanistan

Suicide bombers and militants coordinate an attack on Khanadar's main prison releasing 1000 Taleban POWs back to the wilds.

Afghanistan worsens

2008-06-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

As Dennis Kuchinich reads his charges for impeachment of GW Bush and Dick Cheney, the folly of their actions is starting to kill more Americans in Afghanistan than Iraq, for the last month at least. This is partly due to "the surge" in Iraq reducing insurgency by killing more "terrorists" and others, but also to increased Taleban activity and the Al Qaeda leadership who continue to find sheltered and a base of resistance in Pakistan. But there are so many more soldiers in Iraq that each American death in Afghanistan is proportionately more "damage value" to the opposing side.

Reading the article linked above (click on the heading, or right-click to open it in a new tab*) makes me feel that there is an effort to say it is too hard to find Osama and this will be - or will be attempted to justify a limited nuclear strike to cut the head from the dragon, so to speak. There does seem to be a gathering force to expose evident obsessiveness of the American leadership combined with moral blindess and apparent illiteracy. Heading his old Press guy go public with his New York Times best seller - you distictly get the impression that as long as these guys run the USA, the world is playing Russian Roulette.

That another irrationally struck war or action this President could take to ease his frustration with the non-progress on his "War on Terror" - terrorism is worse than before but draconian Homeland Security has increased the risk to Al Qaeda operatives. As unbelieveablely huge and inefficient the DHS may be, it does require terrorists to fill out lots of forms, a sort of medevil test of guilt, perhaps.

But the DHS is more effective than the US forces are fighting a nonsensical war against all takers who want to try their luck in this human landscape video game emulation. It is a failure of Islam to allow youths to be so stupidly killed by overwhelming force. It is a failure of Christianity to allow its leader to justify committing crimes against humanity with a pack of lies.

The fierce war in Afghanistan/Pakistan threatens the United States of America. The insurgency in Iraq is a self inflicted wound.

*or update your browser to the latest Firefox 3, or Opera, or IE8 when it arrives

The end of war

2008-06-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

The End of War is a notion, certainly, but it is also a statement of intent. Many do not understand war as anything other than a force that some evil leads our side into, until our side bluffs its way into warfare and we then question if our leadership really does know what it is doing, what right it has to life and death and what the limits on use of armies as police are, and why.

Leadership has to be more than bravery and, let's face it, being suckered up to by the manufacturers of weapons that require Governments to consume their armanents to stay in business is a source of election funding.

Americans may blame Jimmy Carter for things that were economic consequences of the massive cost of Vietnam. When shall we learn the Republican adventure is actually a larger and more expansionalist form of Government?

On the brink

2008-06-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

As the days tick by, the world seems to be waiting for the relief of the commencement of battle between Barack Obama and John McCain. The disquieting suspense of the inevitable is becoming unbearable, but if Hillary Clinton now wins, well...

It does seem to me that she is more likely to take the Presidential election without effort from John McCain. Which one would you buy an insurance policy from? Politically, that is exposure to a weakness.

In contrast, Barack Obama will have to fight and decimate McCain on the pulpit of leadership. There is a chance, from that, will emerge a leadership that can take the fight to and defeat a far larger dragon.

It seems to me that Barack Obama has it over the other two in terms of command presence. John McCain is too likely to have ideas based on the history of the Middle East and Europe and so antagonise a war between East and West - whereas Barack Obama is the only leader who sees his country's many problems as a non-unique status in the world.

He appears to be the one leader who can reconcile the American dream so that it does not appear like a nightmare to the rest of the human race.

Red Alert

2008-05-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how the ingenious Dept of Homeland Security Alert System of colour coded warnings was derived?

Take a look at the linked movie. Click the title. It explains the design team's philosophy and perhaps explains why the Dept of HS is so effective at stopping terrorists (except white ones) from being able to harm Americans. Damn! It is so effective that even GW got it almost immediately!

Here is the link again:

Baby Trees (donationware)

2008-05-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

You can spend a few dollars and fund planting a baby tree in the forests of Indonesia. If you want a good look at the forests of Borneo and the Amazon, check out Microsofts' super globe and sky examination tool downloadable on www.worldwidetelescope.org - one of the finer Microsoft implementations. Beautiful. Here is a "fair use" clip that shows its LOD (level of detail) of how humans hack into the Amazon rain forest.

WWT has less resolution at this stage than Google Earth; but the upward view of the galaxy is this product's strength. Yes, the view of this planet is rather good, notwithstanding the ability to use your mouse wheel and once the images resolves, but the a space eye view through one of the world's great telescopes of some of the largest works of natural art you will see. Nebulae and the huge huge galaxies dotted through space like sand. You see a night sky, and can zoom into The Plaiedes - like in this image clip. In the WWT you see it full screen.

Download WWT and maybe you will understand the world's climate when you look at the Southern Ocean and its furious cloudscape.

And anyone who plants a baby tree - let me know. It would be fun to watch it grow here! We could have a baby tree forest.

The new Obama

2008-05-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

After confirmation of the Democratic nomination the guns train on the opponent - not the rival. John McCain may be a maverick Republican, but he firmly believes in respecting the historical emnity between "The West" and "The Axis of Evil".

GW Bush has been the "big game player" taking the very foolish and risky path into the Iraqi quagmire. If he had doubled his efforts in Afghanistan now, Al Qaeda may no longer be motivating and enabling young criminals to walk bombs into crowds of innocents or plant incendiaries aimed at US military targets in Iraq.

Or has the cancer spread on a train of its own infamy? Such a belief is frankly, madness. When GW Bush started to try and move against "the enemies of freedom" he did so in order to go to war in Iraq as that was his primary intention. Going to war in Afghanistan seems a pretext by Bush to secure involvement of NATO to reduces the military cost to the USA. He hoped for a coalition force in Iraq but few could take that faith electorially. Except Tony Blair.

Now, the USA is sick of being seen as an invalid invader and this is more than likely to be the meme during November more than the colour of either candidates' skin. In the end the logic of solving the problems of extraction is a military one, rather than a political one. And so Mr Obama enters the argument with an agressive and just approach constrasts starkly with McCain - stay there at all costs - logic.

During the presidential debate, I would not be suprised to hear more aggressive tactics in Obama's speaches - the Left will not lose faith as he has already expressly committed to ending the Iraq calamity - and when it comes down to it, even with GW Bush at the helm, the USA has just about survived. There is plenty of reasons that a message of hope is going to work with the democratic voice of Americans - but unless they dispose of the voting machines or audit them - there is no chance that it will be a fair fight.

The new Obama - the gloves can come off for the battle with McCain. Whomever the Democrat candidate is will face an ugly Republican attack. They call it "free speech" and that makes it okay and "constitutional".

Obama expresses a more detailed and diplomatic approach. He sees the value of winning the war in Afghanistan by not fighting one in Iraq but preventing one from brewing in Pakistan.

The future of solar power

2008-04-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

The future of solar power is linked to the cost of the medium for generating it. If it is too expensive, then the cost savings do not come into play fast enough to make it attractive to the greed instinct. A possible future breakthrough lies in a thin film that absorbs sunlight and generates electricity. It takes far less material to build photovoltaic cells from high grade silicon that is over US$500 per pound. Solar power is therefore a whole lot cheaper to generate and once you have established a solar farm it works without moving parts for 30 years. Instead of adding to global warming, nuclear waste dumps or using a finite resource, maintaining large scape solar power batteries becomes more possible when it is seen in a social context. Every roof in a city for example. It is time to evolve away from dependence upon a resource that is always going to be available for free. Unless we pollute the atmosphere with too much soot from burning coal, or worse a 500 year nuclear winter.

Zimbabwe nightmare

2008-04-27T04:30:00.000-07:00

It looks more and more like Mugabe is going to clasp on to power perhaps by changing the mind of everyone in the country who voted him out. Remains to be seen. But so far he has raided the opposition and rounded up election monitors who declared the recount went against him. He is the worst kind of fascist. A damn stupid one.

Tradition and history

2008-04-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

We reflect on the heroes of past wars. And wear poppies to celebrate their pointless loss. Films of children on the news, five year olds saying lest we forget - "they gave their lives so we could be free" one blonde six year old deliberately spells out for us incase we did not see it. They were talking about the twenty thousand young ANZACs slaughted on the beach at Gallipoli during WW1.

She seemed too young to understand why exactly those young men gave their lives. She seemed too innocent to understand what privations and horror those young men suffered, or would have suffered if their military achivements were not cut short in perhaps their very first day of battle. A soldier dead on a beach landing does not make invasion more successful. It does not advance the cause.

The use of landing craft was so much more effective at Dunkirk. But many were killed. The tradition has now outlived its use, parachute them in or use air strikes if you have to eliminate hard targets. War is evolving, on both sides of the divide.

If North Korea have been more active in exporting nuclear expertise, according to Israel and reason for bombing an alleged reactor in Syria that the US has kept secret until now, and this latest revelatation that Kim Jong-il (the "genius") has figured out a way to counter the US first strike advantage bestowed on it by superior gun power. Military evolution at the expense of the people? Is this shocking?

All military evolution is at the expense of people.

If the US had spent just half of what they expended on the Iraq war, they could have fixed their health and education and the next generation of children educated there would not culturally short circuit the moment you say "learn from history".

The Traditions of Warfare have no meaning in today's world. The West routinely tortures and does not respect the rights of citizens to exist free of political interference. Politics was invented to prevent the abuse of power. The definition of security is not the same as "real security". It is easier for a Government to survive on doublespeak than the raw truth.

If tradition is no longer seen as a value or learned from, if it is seen as redundant because we now can kill people in more ingenious and threatening ways, then we lost our way.

Health and Eduction for all (including Iraqi children) is the slow and definite answer. War as an expedient is the traditional source of real evil.

Banned (from TV) cartoon

2008-04-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

"very creepy, disturbing children's cartoon, banned from TV"

Views: 3,135,364

Original Sin, Version 0.31 ?

With over 3 million views, it carries a title that deserves to be quoted. An internet magic formula at work that also prompts me to comment about it. Is it sacreligeous? Heretical? Well, not quite.

Whether you agree with its ideas or imagery or find it objectionable you have to admit it is any bit as mystical as religious dogma of any faith - in that sense it seeks to be art. But to also be perceived as giving children a vision of that which competing religions seek to define, is troublesome to those who seek to steer clear of such defining influence.

The YouTube presentation is effective marketing. For clay-mation to subvert reality so effectively it simply has to be good because it is such a committed form of film making. When the mask of theatre becomes the mask of death it reveals that the powers that dictate seek to use our very lives as collateral that could be swallowed up in their wars for power. We are not very meaningful to the results of that equation.

Consider what the underground media in China spreading as their version of grass roots "conspiracy theory", stories of how the CIA exploits Tibet in a grand plot; where do you think "conspiracy theory" is written? Tibet is clearly a place to absorb a displaced population or burgeoning community. It is land theft on a massive scale. Overpopulation is a problem that will not just "go away"; addressing it by brute force to create a more successful low-cost economy out of a feudal cooperative always claims economic victims. Does China have the twin benefits of huge centralised wealth in an ocean of feudal poverty? How effectively capital can now successfully exploit the huge working class. Or does it elevate the masses to the very heart of power?

The rise of financial power powers this virtual continent within a continent but how socialised did it become after its one-child policy? It seems to have made an historical leap away from the cultural revolution. There are over a third of a million millionaires in China. "The number of U.S. millionaire households has risen to a record high of 9.3 million as of mid-2006". - TNS Newswire. Granted, China's wealth is more centralised and the potential for growth is enormous. But does this explain the adoption of concern by the Right Wing about "The Environment"? Perhaps it does. Addressing this without war is crucial to the continued existence of life on Earth. It probably really is.

The broken view

2008-04-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

"McCain's whole discourse on Iraq is just a typical rightwing Washington fantasy made up in order to get you to spend $15 billion a month on his friends in the military industrial complex and to get you to allow him to gut the US constitution and the Bill of Rights." - Juan Cole

McCain takes a soldier's view. If you can't understand it, shoot it. If it still looks disagreeable, send in a tank or a cluster bomb and silence them. The USA does not need political leaders who appear to be still acting out of post traumatic stress disorder from being to hell and back as a soldier.

The world does not need the USA profiting from the sufferering created by enforcing an inaccurate political view of the world. The World agrees, terrorism is not the answer for anybody. Engagement by the US political machine now gearing up for its "big decision" may invoke discussions to prevent more military misadventures. A country committing to the unwise acts of a failed leadership seems inevitable as a result of the collective guilt accumulated and unjustified.

Can wisdom take over, or are we stuck with the broken view, this endless cycle of creating conflict and resolving it by killing people?

McCain seems to have a handle on the "failed war on drugs" because he takes a logical view that first time offenders require treatment instead of interment.

One can see him extending that logic to apprehend the guilt vote by saying that it is only fair the USA should complete the job it started. The problem seems that the situation in Iraq is not better or more stable than before and it has magnified the threat of terrorism.

One hears Obama saying he would walk away, or Clinton saying she would nuke Iran.

It does not sound contextually geniune - if Democrats who regularly return to this blog do not object too loudly.

Does the United Nations really understand the sitution in Iraq? And if Iran is about to harm Israel they have to do so knowing that Israel's response may be far worse than the USA's inevitable long term rebuilding excercise if it engaged with Iran over nuclear arms - whether they actually exist or not has proven to be a matter that the USA holds itself beyond the usual norms of truth or reality. Never mind, they are at war. So their behavior over the past seven years is beyond question.

Barack Obama may ultimately be the Democratic candidate, but defining his position on Iraq as chicken is too powerful a political tonic for McCain to exploit. Hilary Clinton realised that and that explains her recent belicose language about the USA response to Iran's threats towards Israel.

UK Terror plot facing court

2008-04-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

"The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised."
- quote from The Times article

Disturbing Trends Analysis

UK based terror operations busted by the state now in trial. Our assessments about Pakistan seem to unfortunately be bearing out. Although it is a vast society and may take years to change in any direction, politically, it had the expedient of military rule that eventually just succumbed to civilian rule, reluctantly. Or he should, if I understand this right, from Khaleej Times. It is PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

"Gen. (Retd) Pervez Musharraf will have to accept the verdict of the people given in the election and step down," Sharif said in an interview with Indian TV channel Aaj Tak to be telecast today, according to a PML-N Press release here.

"We intend to bring the legislation in parliament for President's removal," he said, adding "Musharraf is isolated and will have to go."

There is a terrifying sense of political entropy in Pakistan and Zimbabwe. The idea that the leader must change seemed not believed by the autocratic aspirations of leaders who deserve no recognition for their decisions.

Intransigent leaders who will not let go of power are subject to law to allow other minds time to make a difference. The result of no change of leadership is social sickness and intergenerational domination leading to decay. We must hope that the disease does not spread.

Barack Obama - Background

2008-03-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

Good back-ground article on Barack Obama.

Blair aide says talk to the Taleban

2008-03-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

"Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair's chief of staff from 1995 to 2007 and is widely regarded as having been instrumental in negotiating a settlement in Northern Ireland, said his experience in the province convinced him that it was essential to keep a line of communication open even with one's most bitter enemies." - quote from article linked to headline.

The idea of wiping ones enemy from the face of the Earth may be the only other way of dealing with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. There is no black and white ruling that says that every member is as culpable as Osama bin Laden. In other words there is questionable moral justification setting out to murder every member of the cult just because of the actions of its leaders and its leading henchmen. There is little use if a more vicious generation seeking jihad and revenge for the death of their family then join the cult.

There is a military side that speaks against all this posturing against Iran. Treat them like they have nuclear weapons. Do not invade them, but take up negotiations with them and afford them the respect of knowing them. Hatred between countries is meaningless.

The way for the USA to grow up and out of this need to push others down to feel on top of things is to get around a table and talk. If Iran want to make unreasonable demands or the extremes of Islam want to destroy the West - then we had best seek clarification of their real meaning before killing every single one of them.

I doubt Iran wants very much to be a Nuclear state. It would be a political ace up any leader's sleeve to have recourse to nuclear weapons. Of course the US president is probably advised daily of the danger that they do not really know Iran's intentions. So why not talk with them and find out?

Juan Cole - who is Al Qaeda's choice for US President?

2008-03-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Video produced by NY Times bloggingheads with Juan Cole. For more Juan Cole check out his blog on our list below.

Where is the final straw?

2008-03-17T04:41:00.000-07:00

It started with the gross tax cuts. Giving several billion back to the echelon of the very rich provided opportunities for insanity. And out it came - another fictional revolution in valuation. The property market revalued and revalued but the US sharemarket has been relatively flat over the past eight years. Strange how a disinterested at first President caught at the ranch not just in the weekends until a strange blessing from his rival in the disguise of extreme disaster blessed this President with outrageous power. Tax cuts. They would go ahead. And they did. And then new vehicles to absorb the extra cash were invented, possibly the very very rich stopped buying futures when they started to bite back or maybe the extra liquidity violates the primary law of monetary policy - hunger provides need that makes logic paramount. In the US economy risk became paramount to keep the stock brokers from ennui when nothing but profit rocked the 90s. Since they started to pillory Hillary and her husband some years back, the US seemed to lose the plot.

Maybe that is because they are under the control of a politician who's only definition of management is after-the-fact over-reaction and waste caused by a lack of real consideration beyond making Dick Cheney fat - like he was winning a bet with his Dad - the real President Bush. This President Bush tarnished the memory of his father by violating the principal upon which his father gained the world's support going to war against Saddam. Bush Jr was always going to have something to resolve and putting the US military at the whim of this man has proven to be horribly expensive.

So the tax cuts generated pointless liquidity, no need to worry, clever dick's at investment banks invented ways to dress bad debt up so it looked like people could pay them, but no real capital gain was realised. Too much building changes the nature of the economy. Ownership gets centralised.

The frivalous investment in bad debt - which when you think about it is simply snake oil - had to collapse as nobody is going to want it. Who wants over expansion when we know we are already damaging nature to the degree that our children's lives are threatened? What kind of people are we? Sub-primates?

And now - the US Government with its most Right wing of right winged leaders finds his treasury bailing out the fifth largest financial institution. Is this a meltdown? Is that an earthquake on the horizon? If so, watch out for the Tsunami.

Nuclear War - how are we going to avoid it?

2008-03-16T03:20:00.001-07:00

The effect of one small nuclear bomb

www.NuclearTerrorism.org

2008-03-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

Nuclear Terrorism

What is a Nuclear Bomb?

First Plauges

2008-03-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

The idea that climate change is "far off" is indeed unfortunate. It excuses the United States from its claim to indulge itself. Utterly. With wealth and ridiculously so. They measure their progress by how much a presidential candidate may spend. By how close to suicide its celebrities can be driven. But for most it is the daily drudge of meeting the obligations life lays on you. Not understanding that what used to be a score card in a game you could lose was now your bank account.

For most however falling back on credit is not really going to do a whole lot, as there is no possibility that payment will proceed. It is as though the Bush Administration looked at what they had inherited and decided unanimously that it was not taking enough risk. Bushnomics is to reduce taxes and spend up huge on military wastage. It will take a generation to recover from, we keep hearing, but the idea that it has hastened certain economic doom and risk human extinction seems more like where its headed.

Climate change is immediate in economic terms. Damage from increasing unpredictability is just the wave building up. We have to face the fact that are are doing nothing about climate change; and if the USA elects McCain it is likely that the incredibly useless Iraq war will escalate, thus forcing more carbon into the atmosphere. The eventual result of that is non-recovery from the changed condition it may inflict - real global warming - that may take thousands of years to recover from - but that is only if McCain were to escalate the war.

We as a race, a human race, work best when we have hope.

It is necessary to have a thinker who understands how to improve the situation at the top. A tough US president who seeks to fool his opponents into surrender was tried already; with disasterous consequences, by Nixon threatening the Soviets with Nuclear attack and flying laden B52s up their way for twelve hours. Kiss the ground.

It is also necessary to have a person who understands the mutual effects of progress. It is perhaps a pity that Hillary Clinton went a little negative attack in this race, as it makes here look bad. Obama is at least an extraordinary opponent for anyone.

And that is his strength. He holds the key to unlock the deadly way of the American mindset that so devalues their currency and price to the rest of us. But that is not the crisis that the incoming president will face.

It will be the starvation and disease causing population decreases in some parts of the world, spreading like deserts into their own community. Unless they sit up and change their war making polluting ways, we are all bound to be annihilated by arrogance.