borders… a lie that vanishes from space

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National Geographic photo

Just finished reading about combat at the highest elevation in the world. According to a National Geographic article, after World War II, when the British relinquished control of the Indian subcontinent, they hastily decided to divide the region into two states, based on the dominant religions, Inda for Hindus and Pakistan for Muslims. A cease fire line was drawn through the middle of Kashmir to delineate this. Since then, there has been disputes over the line, including 40 miles that was left out of the drawing of the line by mistake. India and Pakistan have set up outposts and bases along the line, and over the years, a number of soldiers have been killed during these high-altitude skirmishes. What seems senseless about this, at least in part, is these battles are around mountainous land with seemingly no productive value. Note: Ron Garan, a NASA astronaut who spent 178 days at the International Space Station, said, looking down, he saw the earth as “…a single, borderless, and fragile entity. He argued that humanity’s focus on national divisions is a “lie” that vanishes from space.

clean wind energy

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wikipedia photo

I have been researching wind turbines this last week. I was looking at, for instance, a cluster of wind turbines in Paulding County, Ohio. The turbines are much more spread out (then what’s shown in this California photo, which looks to be in a remote location) over a good number of farmers’ fields. The Ohio location has some 200 wind turbines spread throughout a two-county area. And they produce electricity for some 100,000 homes annually. What’s more, the farmers typically earn between $3,000 and $20,000 annually for each turbine. And the local governments and schools get approximately $2.5 million a year in taxes. Note: That 100,000 home figure would double, maybe triple even, if us First World homeowners were a lot more conscientious about energy use, across the board. *What’s more, I also learned that 94% of each turbine (once out of operation) is now recyclable. For a look at our position on energy in general, see…

eco-friendly, Indigenous conservation

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National Geographic page excerpt

In doing some research in regard to our ecology stance, I read an article about conservation in America in a National Geographic Magazine. A portion of the article was about “…reviving Indigenous management techniques.” Our administration would be all for that. Something we should have done from the beginning. That is, we would have done well to coexist with the Native Americans and learned their eco-friendly ways. The article noted these management techniques would include such practices as: prescribed fire; clam gardens; traditional fishing practices… “Like conservation in timberlands, farms, and cities, tribal management is about simultaneously meeting the needs of people and of other species.” My position paper on the environment embodies this paradigm. Another article excerpt: “It is about improving our relationships with the nonhuman world, not severing them.”

nuclear madness (cont.)

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nuclear power plant

During his speech to the World Economic Forum this week, Trump said that his administration was going to considerably ramp up the construction of more nuclear power plants throughout the country. With massive AI Data Centers on the horizon, coupled with America’s virtually unsatiable demand for energy at this point, we will need additional power sources. This is a huge mistake, from several different angles. The names Chernobyl and Fukushima come to mind. Secondly, there’s been no measured, prayerful discernment about the AI Revolution. It’s just been full speed ahead. (*What’s more, Trump is proposing no state regulations on these AI plants for the first 10 years. This is blind lunacy.) Our administration’s energy template is just the opposite of this. That is, we would ask Americans to “sacrifice” in the energy area to decrease demand. Secondly, we would exponentially ramp up development of alternative energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal…). We would unequivocally say “no” to nuclear, including phasing out existing nuclear power plants. Note: Speaking of spiritual takes on things… Overuse of energy, like overuse of anything, to enhance lifestyle comfort, is the sin of gluttony. One of the seven deadly sins. ‘Deadly’ meaning, of course, putting your soul at jeopardy for eternity. For more on our energy policy, see…

motor vehicle mania?

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Lincoln Highway presentation… photo by Joe

I recently attended a presentation on the Old Lincoln Highway. It was the first trans-continental road for motor vehicles in America. The highway stretched some 3,333 miles, from New York City to San Francisco. The highway was dedicated in 1913. As the motor vehicle phenomenon evolved, rapidly, in the U.S., this road was built at relatively breakneck speed. And over time, and incrementally, highway systems in America kept growing, and growing… With people being able to go farther, and faster, families started to break apart, with adult kids moving further, and further away from their families, away from their hometowns, with this markedly increased mobility. Motor vehicle accidents started increasing exponentially (we’re now at 33,000 traffic deaths a year in America — which would be like a half an airliner going down every day in our country). And air pollution levels have skyrocketed. Point being, there was no prayerful discernment at the start of this all, like, say, the Amish have done around motor vehicles. No, we just blindly rushed ahead down the highway. And now we’re hopelessly addicted to mobility, to oil, to motor vehicle mania…

Venezuelan Solution? Partly, at best.

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Venezuelan flag

There’s a vital, and glaring, missing link in the whole ‘blow up supposed Venezuelan drug boats/capture narco-trafficker Maduro thing.’ And it is this: THE U.S. IS CREATING THE DEMAND FOR THE DRUGS HERE! The real answer is stepped up drug prevention programs like DARE; way more quality, long-term drug rehab programs to cut down, significantly, on relapse recidivism rates; and the systemic healing (through exponentially stepped up counseling social services, and counseling modalities in general) of dysfunctional family dynamics, which is the genesis for a lot of the alcohol and drug addiction in the next generation. Venezuelan drug export interdiction is like putting a small band-aid on a wound (our wound) that requires major surgery. Not to mention, but I will, how much is the Venezuelan drug thing/regime change, merely subterfuge for fueling another even more persuasive addiction of ours? Addiction to oil. Note: For a look at my take on addiction in America, in all its dimensions, see…

Auld Lang ‘Sigh’

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Joe ‘Almost Presidential Library’ scene

It’s the evening of Dec. 31, and I’m in Joe Campaign Headquarters & Almost Presidential Library, as 2025 winds down. I’ve run in seven successive election cycles for U.S. President, primarily as an independent candidate. I have logged some 150,000 campaign miles during that time. What’s more, accumulatively, I’ve logged some 250,000 cross country miles doing research for my position papers. And I have, concurrently, spent many nights, late, doing a significant amount of reading to supplement the research. The positions, in all their dimensions (and there are many) are tremendously solid — and where the country needs to go at this time. This last year, 2025, I have spent numerous hours enhancing these positions even more, while tying them into how they would influence contemporary affairs. (*See the 2025 blog entries, etc.) The path the country is currently on, is simply not sustainable. This isn’t political rhetoric, it’s just the truth. The path is not sustainable spiritually. It’s not sustainable environmentally. It’s not sustainable… well, in virtually every way. What’s in those position papers is the answer. Period. My hope for 2026 is that people wake up to see that, before it is too late.

homeless campus or internment camp?

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City Mission… Findlay, Ohio

The Supreme Court, in this last year, opened the door for municipalities to make it illegal for homeless people to sleep on the streets. Concurrently, Trump mobilized a “homeless sweep” in DC, and other cities are following suit. And in addition, Utah is building an isolated, 1,300-bed “homeless campus” (…although detractors are calling it a “detention camp.”) Theoretically, homeless people taken here will receive integrated mental health and addiction recovery help; healthcare; housing; job services. The concerns include how extensive these services will be, and will this, ultimately, simply be a homeless internment camp, similar to, say, the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Indications are that Trump’s main concern is, in essence, sanitizing, and beautifying, our city streets, as part of his “Golden Age” paradigm. *I recently wrote a newspaper article about the City Mission in Findlay, Ohio. It’s a Christian outreach. Volunteers from churches throughout the area, fund short term, and long term, housing in the facility. There is alcohol/drug addiction rehab options. Mental health services. Education help. Job training. And these Christians work, side-by-side, with residents at the facility, to help them at every level. This is the kind of model which should be replicated from city to city to city, around the country. Taking homeless people off to isolated spots, with what could be minimal secular help, is a poor first choice. But this, of course, entails more Christians stepping up from city to city to city… To look at our position paper on poverty in America, see…

A ‘proportional’ response in Afghanistan?

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Inter-Religious Center photo, BYU.edu

I just finished reading a rather in-depth National Geographic piece on Afghanistan, written 20 years into America’s war here (and just prior to the final U.S. withdrawal). The war was sparked by “9/11,” and created havoc, and death, across Afghanistan. Instead of doing a targeted strike on Osama bin Laden, who admitted to “9/11,” and, perhaps some other al Qaida upper-level operatives in response; we rather, in a knee-jerk revenge fashion, targeted the entire country. President George W. Bush, during a memorial service for the victims of 9/11, famously said at the time: “Today we will pray. And tomorrow we will get revenge.” Doesn’t seem a Biblical New Testament principle, does it? Anyway… Just in human cost, estimates are there were some 3,000 civilian deaths a year, for the seven years prior to when the article was written, and 43 percent of these were woman and children. We lost some 3,000 people on 9/11, and that attack wasn’t initiated by Afghan women and children. There should have been a proportional U.S. response, not this.

advanced education reform in America

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education/psychology book

An excerpt from this book notes that W.E.B. Du Bois, a philosophy professor, who was an avid proponent of civil rights, suggested that being “…Black in America” sometimes plays out in trauma responses that range from defiance, to fear, to anger… He continues that Black youth sometimes feel “…separate from mainstream white America.” While Du Bois’s work was prominent last century, it, indeed, could still ring true today for a significant number. I have a background as a counselor, and I know that trauma is passed on through the generations, until the cycle is broken through various recovery modalities, and such. My campaign’s position paper on “Black Amends” addresses this, at length. And the paper includes a clear formula for how to significantly build on improving this area of society in general.