Why Are We Really Supporting Ukraine?

21 Sep 2022 21 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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As the proxy war between the the USA and Russia continues in the Ukraine, I am still left wondering “What is the real motive for this war.”  It is all too easy to believe the propaganda put out by the US State Department such as the interview that follows with the US Ambassador to the Ukraine.  According to this narrative, it is all about freedom, peace, justice, and equality for the world.

Perhaps, I am simply a cynic at heart or perhaps it is due to my 76 years of experience with similar protestations when it came to wars and military efforts elsewhere such as in Vietnam, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Syria, and Afghanistan.  Efforts that beg many questions. 

Are we really fighting for peace, freedom, and democracy in the world?  Should we be fighting for these values?  Are we consistent in our values or are we simply USA Hypocrites?  Is America the Good Guy and Russia the Bad Guy?  Am I being “Unpatriotic?” 

Read the following interview and let me know what you think.

VOA Interview: US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink – June 18, 2022

Bridget_A._Brink,_U.S._AmbassadorBrink: I might put it a little different way. I think those of us who are such strong supporters within the U.S. government, within the American population, for Ukraine, support Ukraine because we see, or we think we see, and understand the future that Ukrainians want. And that is a future where Ukraine is free, independent, prosperous, sovereign and gets to decide its own future. To us, as Americans, it really appeals to also who we are. So, what I would hope, what I plan to do and what we are doing is supporting Ukraine in this immediate task of prevailing in its effort to defend itself that is crucially important. I think everybody would agree. And I think the government here and the people here would agree that another important task is and will be and will remain the reform effort, which will secure Ukraine for a future for Ukrainian children and their children.

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VOA: And this war is not only about Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting for a bigger goal, for democracy. Is Ukraine fighting for European values as well? If Ukraine fell, what could be the consequences?

Brink: Well, Ukraine won’t fail, and we will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. And as I mentioned, this is obviously very important to Ukraine, and it’s also really important to European security. It’s really important to America, because, as President Biden has said, it’s both morally outrageous what has happened, this unprovoked, unjustified attack on a sovereign nation. But it also is in America’s vital interest to have peace and security in Europe. So, this is something that has repercussions that go well beyond Ukraine. And for this reason, we all understand very much what’s at stake. And that’s why we’re here to help Ukraine prevail.

For the full interview click on the link below:

https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-interview-us-ambassador-to-ukraine-brink/6623182.html

I appreciate any comments that you have time to post.  Thank you for considering these questions. 

Doubling Down on Double Dealing Douche Bags

19 Sep 2022 5 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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What or who is a doubling down, double dealing douche bag?  Ever since Trump took center stage two egregious behaviors have become the norm in Republican politics.  The first is lying.  The second is doubling down on stupidity, arrogance and greed.  Trump set the bar on these behaviors and his loyal followers keep lowering the bar.  Many good hearted but naïve citizens of America are amazed with each new low and the media is constantly asking “How low can they go?”  There appears to be no low.  Lows with Republicans are like a black hole.  You can put an infinite number of lows into a black hole and never reach the bottom or fill it up.

I will save my comments on lying Republicans for another blog and today focus on doubling down behavior.  The latest example of this is Douche Bag Governor DeSantis and his ill-conceived and mean-spirited stunt of sending immigrants east to Martha’s Vineyard.  His followers think this is just grand behavior and applaud him when he responds to criticism with “doubling down behavior.”

DeSantis provides an excellent example of doubling down behavior:

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday said he intends to use “every penny” of the $12 million his state budgeted to relocate migrants and set the expectation for buses and “likely more” flights full of migrants paid for by the state.” — CNN

No compassion.  No remorse.  No backing away from a cruel stunt that hurts the lives of others.  Did you know that the immigrants he sent to Martha’s Vineyard with lies and misinformation were not from Florida but were from his fellow Douche Bag governor’s state of Texas?

So, what does it mean when we say that someone is “doubling down.”

“The phrase “double down” means to put forth an additional effort or risk in a situation or argument, even if you know the outcome will be a mistake or will be negative.” — Wikipedia

Doubling down can involve putting more effort into an approach that has not yet worked or even an approach that seems to be working but needs more commitment.  Thus, there can be a positive connotation to the phrase “doubling down.”

when-i-say-stupid-things-i-double-down-lie-and-make-it-worseUnfortunately, too often when it comes to Trump and his supporters, the behaviors that they are doubling down on have negative consequences.  This is because the efforts that they are doubling down on are either wrong or dangerous.  A few examples:

  • Trump doubling down opposing masking during the Corona Virus
  • Trump doubling down on assertions about a rigged election
  • Trump doubling down about his executive privileges
  • Trump doubling down on his appeal to White Power and privilege

When Trump and his followers double down it is because they know that they are mistaken or lying or corrupt.  The efforts of Trump and his sycophants have increasingly created a negative connation for the term “to double down.”  Why would any “good” person that we elect to help lead our country double down to support evil intentions?   Well, first it is because they are not good.  They do not give one red cent about morality or ethics.  They are pursuing what is known in ethics as a Utilitarian approach.  If the behavior is useful to their ends, then they will pursue it.  Obviously, doubling down is very useful to Trumpists.

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How is Doubling Down Useful?

In answer to the above question, you must be ready to accept the peculiarities of certain people.  For instance, there are people who believe:

  • The Trickle-Down Theory
  • Tax breaks for the rich will help the poor
  • Trump won the 2020 election
  • There is no climate change
  • The world is flat
  • 9/11 was a CIA effort
  • The moon is made from green cheese
  • Elvis is alive and living upstairs in Graceland

Doubling down behavior somehow (do not ask how, it just does) convinces some of the people noted above that the douche bag engaging in pursuing lies and criminal behavior must really know what he or she is doing.  Lincoln said that you can “fool all of the people some of the time but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”  Doubling down behavior is designed to lull us into thinking that we are wrong and that the person doubling down is right. Why we ask ourselves would anyone keep pressing an issue if they are wrong?  Why would people that we think must be smarter or more knowledgeable than we are stalk mistaken goals and objectives?  The answer which too many of us fail to understand or believe is that some of the people we elect are more focused on their own self-interests and do not care one iota about their constituencies.  Unless of course, they want your money or vote.

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We live in an age where the acquisition of things, the acquisition of power, the acquisition of riches and the acquisition of fame far override the value of the ideas that our Founding Fathers believed in.  If you add in the values that Jesus preached, you would not be able to recognize or understand what Republicans stand for.  They say they believe one thing, but then they pursue a completely different agenda.  The Republican Party today is the party of hypocrisy, lies and greed.  Lincoln would hang his head in shame at the behavior of his old party.  Jesus would probably throw most so-called Christians today out of his church just as he did with the money lenders.  As the song should go, “The Times they have a changed.”

“Pride can make one a stronger person in the one sense, or so it is often believed, when based solely on the surface, but in the other, and much more frequently, a stronger devil. When pride is undeniably found out of an evil, it saves face by doubling down.”  ― Criss Jami

destruction

Documents a chronology of the potential end of our democracy.

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2022

“I found this a difficult book to read because it shows how successful the republican party has been in destroying facts, reality, and our democratic foundation in order to move us towards an authoritarian minority rule nation. It was interesting to add up the number of related events through the decades since the onset of Newt Gingrich in 1994, that have been driven by lies, conspiracy theories, slander, and violence, or at least threatening it. Trump is truly a symptom of an underlying national decay that panders to the absolute lowest base instincts of human nature. Frankly, the book is harrowing and fatalistic in leading the reader to assume that the fix is in and our democracy in at least the near future is doomed. While we tried to “go high,” it seemed only to embolden the worst among us that going “low” was the path to their success.” — Richard Nelson

Can you forgive yourself and start another day?

17 Sep 2022 3 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

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“Tomorrow’s another day” is the famous comment from Scarlet O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind.”  This was perhaps one of the most powerful and dramatic endings to any story ever told.  Most of us were touched by these words and few who have heard them will ever forget them.  Have you ever wondered why these words were so powerful?  Why do they touch us all somewhere deep in our soul?  I believe it is because they blend an element of self-forgiveness with recognition that each new day is the possibility of a new beginning.  Self-forgiveness is evident, because Scarlett is not going to spend a great deal of time in self-recriminations.  She is simply going to start over again.

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The new day “tomorrow” represents for Scarlet is a new start to life.  It is her resurrection and her birth. Each day we can choose our life, our goals and our behavior.  The simple but powerful phase “tomorrow’s another day” allows us to be reborn.  It allows us to become free of the past and to start a new beginning. Each day of our lives offers us this possibility, if like Scarlet we are willing to grasp it.  We can have a new life or we can have an old life.  We can continue on the old path that we have chosen or we can find a new path.  Each new day can be a risk but life is a risk.  Without risk there is no change and no chance to live more fully.  We wake up each morning to a new set of choices.  Each choice offers opportunities and each opportunity has its own set of risks.

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How many of us do not realize the inherent possibility that tomorrow brings for us?  Do you see each tomorrow as a new beginning or as more of the same?  What will it take to help you realize the hidden possibilities in each new tomorrow?  Do you start each day with a sense of joy at the opportunities it presents?  Why not?

Let’s All Kill Buddha!

07 Sep 2022 6 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Years ago, I spent some time studying Zen Buddhism.  Some of this was the “fad” of the day during the sixties and seventies.  Zen was so different than the Christianity or Catholicism that I had grown up with.  Zen spoke in koans and paradoxes.  A koan is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.  For instance, “what is the sound of one hand clapping?”  Christianity has its parables and well renowned truths, but Zen teaches one to be skeptical of everything.   

Perhaps the most famous “truth” of Christianity is that Jesus was God incarnate.  In other words, Jesus was born a man but was actually a God.  This claim is indisputable among followers of Christianity.  Buddha never claimed to be a God.  Buddha never claimed to have any absolute truths.  One of the most famous lines that I have used many times was “If you meet the Buddha on the road, Kill Him!”  This message might seem bizarre to some people, but it makes absolute sense to many Zen followers.  Even Buddha’s message is not to be taken as “gospel” truth but instead examined and questioned with an open mind. 

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I think about “Killing Buddha” quite frequently.  In this day of lies, misinformation, disinformation, and deliberately confusing legalese, we see more and more people taking sides about issues that they have seldom spent much time thinking or questioning about.  Emotions rule conversations today rather than facts, data, or logic.  We believe doctors, salespeople, lawyers, reporters, and politicians despite the fact that they have a vested interest in making money off of us.  Doctors with their often-needless surgeries, reporters more interested in advertising revenue than the truth, politicians trying to be reelected for life, lawyers with few or no ethics dedicated to winning at all costs, and salespeople trying to make as much money as they can on each sale.  They all want you to think that they know the absolute truth.  Jesus said, “The Truth will set you free”, but where will you find the truth?  Ask a politician.  Ask a doctor,  Ask a lawyer.  Only if you are delirious.

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Can you imagine if I said, “When you meet a politician or lawyer on the road, kill him or her.”  On the contrary, the public keeps re-electing politicians to office.  It does not seem to matter to people that Congressional approval ratings are some of the lowest they have been in history; they keep electing the same liars back to office.  The reelection rate of incumbents is nearly ninety percent.

Congressional stagnation is an American political theory that attempts to explain the high rate of incumbency re-election to the United States House of Representatives.  In recent years this rate has been well over 90 per cent, with rarely more than 5-10 incumbents losing their House seats every election cycle.” — Wikipedia

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We have some very interesting challenges ahead of us.  Climate change, excessive militarization, corporate capitalism, assaults on democracy and the obfuscation of legitimate information in favor of bias and distortion.  I have not even mentioned sexism, homophobia, racism, xenophobia and the decline of education and the media.  Many of the people I know think that these problems are insurmountable and that they herald the decline of America.  Some believe that they represent the decline of humanity and civilization.  Optimist or pessimist or realist, I doubt very much that we can overcome these problems if we do not have the will or desire to start dialogues that question everything.  A quote by Einstein that I much admire goes:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”

EintsteinQuestionEverythingI have often been accused of being a pessimist but there is nothing about this quote that is pessimistic.  It is simply a fact that we must use our imaginations to see a different world and to believe that a different world can exist.  As long as we are stuck in the same thinking that generated our problems, we are not free to consider alternative realities.  We need more thinking about possibilities and the future.  We are bogged down with what Dr. Deming called the “problems of today.”  Deming said, “We must balance the problems of today with the problems of tomorrow.”

What if we taught our children in school to “Kill Buddha?”  What would tests look like?  What would a successful student look like?  What would schools look like?  Can you imagine students going around and killing Buddhas all over the place?  Imagine for a second if all the lawyers, doctors, politicians, and salespeople were challenged.  I suppose there are many who would be horrified at this idea.  Isn’t the role of education to teach facts and knowledge?  How would students get a job if all they knew how to do was “kill” Buddha? 

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Hope springs eternal in the human breast.  But what is hope without a plan?  We need positive direction from our leaders, but we also need more transparency and innovation on the part of our leaders.  Supporters and leaders should be in a dance together.  A dance of rhythm and harmony.  Leaders must be open and honest with their supporters and supporters must be willing to challenge their leaders at every turn and nuance that life puts forward.  There is too little dancing together today.  Demagoguery is not dancing nor are spell binding speeches excoriating the opposition. 

One has only to watch or read the political advertising to see the worst of American politics.  Political ads one after another spewing lies and misinformation about the opposition.  No one can tell what any politician stands for or what their plans are because they are so busy bashing their opponents.  Benjamin Franklin once said, ”We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”  I will paraphrase Franklin by saying, “Either Americans will all join together to destroy the problems facing us or we will all be destroyed together by these problems.”   That is the simple truth. 

 

Labor Day: A day NOT to Labor.

05 Sep 2022 3 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

labor day

September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar and one of four Gregorian months with 30 days.  September is my favorite month of the year.  For me, September is the beginning of Fall. Actually, in Wisconsin, Fall is well underway by the beginning of September and by the middle of September the leaves will soon start changing.  You can already see splotches of color here and there and the Sumac is bright red in places.  Technically Fall does not begin until September 21st, but we all know that the real end of summer is on Labor Day.

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In many parts of the world, summer ends when students head back to school (They are already back in Wisconsin and in Minnesota they will head back tomorrow).  The Fall weather and temperatures are perfect (for me anyway) and I love the changing colors of the landscapes.  I love the cool crisp air and the beauty of the trees, shrubs and falling leaves.  I love the many Fall flowers and the aforementioned shiny red Sumac bushes.  The flowers and Sumac bushes will soon be complimented by the Oaks, Maples and Poplar trees which will contribute bright yellows, oranges and reds to the smorgasbord of colors.  The leaves have an almost ethereal quality as they float to the ground and cover it in a rich collage of hues and fading tones.  However, when the leaves start gently falling, the end of Fall comes all too soon for me.

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I was born in September and of course my birthday will bring some treats.  However, I would still love the Fall with or without my birthday.  Many people do not feel the same way that I do about the Fall, particularly in Minnesota.  Karen does not enjoy September and seems almost pained by the changing temperatures and climate.  She does not like getting up in the morning when it is 47 degrees or less and she regrets the acorns that are already starting to scatter on the ground.  I love to tease her by bringing some of the first acorns I find on my trail runs home to her.  You can find them scattered on the ground as early as middle August up here.  Karen tells me that she can only think that when Fall comes, Winter will soon be here.  Winter means snow and ice to Karen which is why we now own a home in Arizona. After enduring “Northern” weather for 60 some years, Karen had enough cold, frost, snow, frozen fingers, frozen toes and slippery roads to have no nostalgia at all for a Minnesota Winter.

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In many parts of the globe, Fall lasts somewhat longer than in Wisconsin.  Weather-wise, we have a two month Fall that covers September and October.  Never mind that the calendar says Fall ends on December 20; up “North” it really ends right after Halloween.  By then the colors are over and the leaves need to be raked up.  Not to mention, we may have snow long before the “end” of Fall.  If you are lucky enough to live in New England, your Fall will last at least a month or so longer than ours.  I remember in China visiting the famous “Tea House of the August Moon” or in China, it was called “Tea House of the Autumn Moon.”   I still remember thinking how funny that in China, August was the beginning of Fall, at least in Hangzhou where we visited this famous local temple on the lake.  I am sure it is not the same one as in the Brando movie but it was historic and interesting anyway.

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Well, in four weeks, Winter will not matter much to us.  We will be headed to Arizona to escape the Winter.  However, I am hopeful that we will catch most of the Fall beauty before we leave.  I want to get to as many church “harvest” dinners as I can and perhaps even have a bit of Lutefisk before going West. If you do not know what Lutefisk is, you are missing one of the few culinary delights that the Swedes and Norwegians up here have bestowed on America.  Well, Karen would add Lefse and Krumkake and Swedish pancakes to the list and perhaps a few other dishes as well.  Who can forego the famous Jell-O salads which are ubiquitous at church dinners?

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Time for Questions: 

What is your favorite month of the year? Why? What is your favorite season of the year? Do you enjoy each season or do you have a special season you look forward to?  What does Labor Day mean to you?  Do you know what it commemorates?

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