"A Republic, if you can keep it."

We are very concerned about the known attitudes of those that reportedly will become part of Trump's cabinet, including Steve Bannon, David Clarke, Rudy Giuliani and other extreme right-wing individuals who play a very large part in disseminating divisive opinions in conservative TV, radio, and Internet media. This, along with former Fox News president Roger Ailes, who operates quietly from the sidelines, is very concerning. We fear that there may be heavy consequences for peaceful protests. The Internet clearly shows that these people openly advocate the elimination or privatization of Social Security, Planned Parenthood, Medicare, Consumer Protection, and more. 

Though the new administration claims to represent the "disenfranchised", we feel that Benjamin Franklin's admonishment is becoming reality: He was asked at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

We see serious danger ahead. Trump’s recent interview on 60-Minutes reminds us of what the press was saying about Hitler’s talks in the early 1930s when media told the world not to worry…that these were merely words.

Let the World Rise

We have been the playthings and tools of powerful interests over the millennia...patriarchal authoritarianism in religion, cultures, traditions, institutions, education, militarism...indoctrination from generation to generation to think “anointed leaders” have our best interests at heart. It's a good way to manipulate our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.  But I do believe that we are finally waking up enough to break through this. Our minds are beginning to open. And our souls are coming through. Let the world rise.

The Makatok

by Robert Riley

And how the U.S. and Western European nations torpedoed a UN Resolution dealing with this injustice:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Reparations-How-Cuba-Beca-by-Mike-Rivage-Seul-Christianity_Cuban-Embargo_Globalization_God-131103-316.html

Hi Everyone,

The author is a former Roman Catholic priest (for over 30 years) who was involved in the liberation theology movement which flowered in Central and South America in the 70's.

Note these two clips from that article (the whole article being worth reading, IMHO):

In 1974, the U.N. endorsed what it called a New International Economic Order(NIEO) that would counter the poverty inflicted on the world's former colonies by their European masters since the time of Columbus. Among other provisions the NIEO would (1) indemnify the former colonies monetarily by transferring large sums of capital to impoverished nations, (2) deliver advanced technology to the newly freed nations free of charge, and (3) index prices of raw materials produced in the "Third World" to those of finished products produced in the industrialized nations (so that, for instance, the price of grain would rise with that of tractors purchased from the former colonial masters).

Shortly after the above comes this in the article: 

Of course, the U.S. and Europe saw to it that the provisions of the NIEO were never implemented. In fact beginning with the Reagan-Thatcher era in 1980, the industrialized nations moved in the exact opposite direction of the NIEO. They instituted a new regime of trade liberalization that came to be called "globalization." It's that process that the WTO is defending in objecting to India's Food Sovereignty Program. Margaret Thatcher said there was no alternative to it.

U.S. trade representative, Carla A. Hill, helped see to it that Thatcher proved right. She and others in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations used what Hill referred to as the "crowbar" of Third World debt not as reason to indemnify the exploited, but as a way to further exploit them. Hill argued that demanding debt repayment (instead of cancellation) would pry open the resistant economies of the former colonies and work against the kind of reforms the U.N. advocated with its NIEO plan.

The Carla Hill plan worked. As a result, the poverty of the world's majority has not diminished at anything like the rate foreseen by NIEO authors. 

Please also note, from the article, what the new Pope, Frances, is saying:

About a month ago, Pope Francis addressed workers in Cagliari, Italy. Departing from his prepared text which centralized Jesus' words about the contradiction of trying to serve two masters, God and Mammon, Pope Francis criticized free trade and globalization. He said free trade ideology had brought with it throw- away culture that victimized society's weakest including the elderly whose neglect amounted to what he called a "hidden euthanasia" of those no longer considered productive. "We throw away grandparents, he said, "and we throw away young people. . . . We want a just system that helps everyone." The pope added "We don't want this globalized economic system that does us so much harm. At its center there should be man and woman, as God wants, and not money."

************

From all this, you can see that social justice AND ecological sustainability must be the underlying goals of our advocacy work, no matter how daunting a challenge that may seem.  The U.S. has unfortunately been in the lead of many of these unfair international trade agreements over the last 60 years, as I think most of you know.  Eventually, there will have to be international standards of fairness with regard for currencies and such international trade.

I found the link to the above article was in a draft manuscript [which I am not free to share at this time] sent to me by Dr. J.W. Smith, long time researcher and author (several editions of Economic Democracy, as well as other works) in the area of profound economic reform in support of global justice and ecological sustainability.  He in turn built much of his life work on the "land rent" theories of Henry George, an American economist of the late 19th century who was influenced by both Quaker teaching and the reverence for the natural order he had found in Native Americans.

Please let me know what you think of the article after your read it!

Banking and Wealth // Based on Humaneness
by Bob Riley

As a preface - money at its root only represents a consensus of value - it need not be pegged to Gold or Petrodollars or anything else.  Eventually, there needs to be international standards related to some central definition and exchange value of dollars, Euros, Deutschmarks, Francs, etc., that would be fair to wealthy and poor nations alike when it comes to international trade and transactions.  We need to STOP operating on the "scarcity" principal which comes from interest-based systems and private ownership of natural resources (precious metals, minerals, etc.), since natural resources, in any ultimate sense, are given in the Creation for the common good and NOT as tools for private accumulation of wealth.

We need to move ASAP to a Federal Banking System (a part of our government) as a COMPLEMENT to the Federal Reserve Bank (the latter, as you know, being owned by a consortium of giant private banks, if I understand Ellen Brown correctly).  That Federal System will generate FEDERAL currency and fiat money and will initially be pegged to the value of the present Federal Reserve dollar in physical and fiat (electronic transactions and book entries) form. 

After the Federal Banking System is in operation, no more currency (Federal Reserve Notes) may be issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.  All public (local and state) banks and governmental institutions will borrow their money ONLY from the new Federal Banking system.  Private banks and businesses may borrow from EITHER the Federal Banking System or the Federal Reserve Bank, the latter still to be operating under the direction of the Federal Government for the common good.  Services for the elderly can be funded by direct grants, so that no one needs fear being left penniless in his/her old age.

The Federal Banking system will, at the least, issue all funds needed for public projects (infrastructure, green technology, etc.) and all social services.   The Federal Banking System will also, over a long period of time, issue the fiat money needed to pay off the national debt to the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank and all other Federal obligations to the nation's creditors (China, foreign investors, Treasury Bonds and Bills, etc.).  This will solve the interest-based, private bank money origination, present problem where we "can't afford" to develop green technology, provide healthcare to all U.S. residents, provide foreign aid, build mass transit systems, build low-income housing, etc.

Again, money has no intrinsic value - it only serves as a means of exchange for the good of society.  Natural resources, however, DO have intrinsic value (water, air, minerals, etc.) and therefore can NOT be owned by private parties or any form of government, from the local to the national to the global level.  However, in order for us to be able to achieve a globally sustainable way of life, there will have to be regulations developed at ALL levels concerning the amount of natural resources that can be consumed by any private individual or family or business or governmental body, and for what purposes.  If you think about it, this is an essential principle for the global family to achieve a fair/just and sustainable way of life.

Thus a rich family may NOT build a house that requires an excessive use of natural resources (wood, steel, natural gas), regardless of how much money the family has access to.  Violation of such standards of use would bring swift and severe criminal prosecution of all parties involved in such excessive use.  Thus all construction, subsequent heating and gas use, etc., will have to be closely regulated.  The same standards would apply to proposed development and manufacture of new products - such products would have to be reviewed by an appropriate level (local, state, federal, global) of public interest team which would have to look at public need vs resource value and abundance or shortage, etc.  Our economy can no longer afford to be driven by "blind market forces" which somehow end up benefiting the wealthy disproportionately and hurting the poor.

Let the World Rise

We have been the playthings and tools of powerful interests over the millennia...patriarchal authoritarianism in religion, cultures, traditions, institutions, education, militarism...indoctrination from generation to generation to think “anointed leaders” have our best interests at heart. It's a good way to manipulate our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.  But I do believe that we are finally waking up enough to break through this. Our minds are beginning to open. And our souls are coming through. Let the world rise.

The Makatok