Vote for Joe

I just read some of the cover article in this magazine. The relatively new field of “astrobiology” has scientists spending all kinds of time and money setting up experiments in places like a frozen arctic lakes, tropical caves, and such, in order to simulate conditions on, say, parts of Mars, Europa, and so on, in a quest to discover life forms, like, for instance, earth’s microbes and other possible microscopic life “out there.” Uh… I just interviewed a philosophy professor at Ohio Northern University who teaches a class on Environmental Ethics. He talked about people developing what he referred to as “virtue ethics.” That is, their actions are determined, not at random, but rather through where their moral compass points to. Okay… If I know that some one billion people on this planet don’t have access to clean drinking water, and I’m part of a field spending millions, maybe billions, of dollars, and all kinds of precious time and valuable expertise, on looking for extra-terrestrial microbes, what might that say about where my moral compass is pointing? Just askin’.

Yesterday Trump, with great fanfare, spoke from the Pentagon about withdrawing troops from Syria, ramping up even more our missile defense, and he talked, once again, about the need for a iron clad border wall. Yesterday I, with a whole lot less fanfare (in fact I was the only one there), visited a Military Memorial in small Spencerville, Ohio, in the early evening. The Memorial, among a good number of things, includes a marble stone listing every armed conflict the U.S. has had over the years where American service people have lost their lives. Anything from, say, WWII where 293,121 lost their lives to as small as the “Bay of Pigs” (1961) where four American service people lost their lives. As president, the gravity of going to war, any war, would weigh heavily on me. I believe in the “Just War” principles where, among other principles, you have to exhaust every avenue of peaceful diplomacy before committing to war. This would include, in my book, being as proactive as possible about preemptively “building peace” around the world at every turn. And there is so much more we could do in these areas, starting with our proposal for a U.S. Department of Peace. Note: “Bluster and Bombs” is not a sustainable, geo-political long-term answer.

We, many of us, are “trashing” the planet. I wrote this article a few weeks back. Ada’s Village Administrator pointed out that China is taking approximately 40% less recycling from the U.S. these days because it’s trying to get its own pollution problems under control. I mention further on in the article, that when we were on a research trip out east a number of years ago, we learned that New Jersey’s landfills were all but full, and garbage trucks there have clear cylinders on the outside that the trash is initially funneled through before going into the body of the truck. If recyclables are observed in the garbage, some municipalities levy fines now — of up to $250. For a look at our position on the environment…

I recently saw the movie First Man about Neil Armstrong. It was, indeed, compelling, and he was quite a guy. However toward the end of an Urbana (OH) Citizen newspaper article — see last post — on our campaign, it was noted that as president I would lobby to end the Space Program — at least for now. (I also said that during a Wapakoneta Daily News interview as well. How’s that for politically gutsy?! Especially given Wapakoneta is Neil Armstrong’s hometown.) Anyway, the reasoning is this: Today, as happens every day now according to the UN, 24,000 people will starve to death on this planet, some two billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water on this planet, global warming looms like a scary doomsday scenario above this planet — and I could go on, and on, and… In other words, until we take care of our planet, the billions of dollars rocketing toward other planets, and such, could be much better spent. Common sense. Note: And don’t even get me started on this Trump “Space Force” deal.

Part of my stumping strategy is: When I see a group, any group, of people gathered… And so it was the other Friday night along Old Rte. 30 in Cairo, Ohio, on the way to my kid’s away basketball game in Paulding, Ohio. A group of guys were standing outside of “Biggies” front door jawboning. I approached and said: “I know this is coming out of the blue guys, but I’m running for president of the country as an independent candidate…” They asked some questions, including one guy wondering why I was running against Trump. I talked for about five minutes and then passed out some signed campaign cards. Another guy, who was drinking a beer, exclaimed: “When you get to the White House I’m going there to have you sign this!” I pointed out it was already signed. “Then I’ll have you sign it again,” he smiled. Note: Notice the Biggies sign. I can go “coast-to-coast” without ever leaving northern Ohio. Now my wife has mentioned, more than once, that maybe I should get a campaign strategist — besides myself, that is.