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.

History repeats itself again today with immigrant crackdown

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book cover

A couple days ago, two National Guardsman were shot in D.C. by an Afghan national who, previously, had worked with the dangerous, CIA-led so called “Zero-Units” in Afghanistan. This man, as so many of our war veterans, may have had PTSD from the experience, and, again like a few of our war veterans over the years, snapped. However, the D.C. shooting is now cascading into a major, Trump Administration crackdown on a significant number of immigrants here across the board. It’s unconscionable, and the distinct possibility of ‘spiritual’ suicide for those backing this. As (providential coincidence) would have it, I’m currently reading the above book. The first half of the book is a chronological history of what led up to the Japanese Internment during WWII. An internment that was later deemed tremendously unjust. And an internment that led the U.S. Government to formally apologize and pay financial restitution/amends to the Japanese families, etc., impacted. The book notes the steps the government, aided by a good deal of the press, whipped up a lot of sentiment against Japanese Americans. It is a playbook now being used by the government again, with the target being Hispanics, Muslims, and so on. History, as it often does among a majority populace with little, if any, spiritual mooring, is simply repeating itself.

Graffiti can be (spiritually) beautiful

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“Graffiti Church,” New York City

I recently attended a talk by one of the pastors of this church, Graffiti Church. Amidst the ‘homeless sweep’ of our cities in recent months, this church, conversely, ‘sweeps’ people up in Christ’s arms. The ministries here are tremendously varied. There is an after-school program for latch-key kids. There are various meal programs. There are referrals for drug addiction and alcoholism help. And on, and on… The pastor said the church’s mission statement calls for “radical inclusion,” patterned after, well, the way Jesus approached the world. I wrote a newspaper article about the talk, emphasizing the “radical inclusion” part. What’s more, our position paper on poverty also emphasizes this, in spades.

bicycle friendly, painting friendly, journalism friendly, Browns friendly, sort of

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ELF bicycle car …photo by Joe

(Catching up on the last couple months, cont.) Bluffton, Ohio has been recently named the 2nd most bicycle friendly town in Ohio. This is, in no small part, because of the Bluffton Lions Club, which has, over the past decade, or so, done ongoing fundraisers to put in an elaborate bicycle/walking path system throughout the village. During our campaign research, I met with Dan Burden in High Springs, Florida, who had developed a “Walkable Community Model.” He’d travel the country giving presentations on it. (*And Time Magazine labeled him one of the “…top environmentalists in America.” Our administration’s Transportation Position Paper outlines a series of strategies to shift the transportation paradigm in America. And, believe me, it doesn’t revolve around “DRILL BABY DRILL!” Note: The photo above is a “bicycle car,” owned by the local bike shop owner. It’s for both cold and hot weather transportation… During the last couple months, I also did a number of outdoor house painting projects — to keep my populist persona (“Joe the Painter”) up, while putting food on the table as well. I do some of my best political thinking from the ladder… I also continued to write for a local newspaper (“Joe the Journalist”). And I’ve been to some local town high school soccer and football games, even though I don’t have kids in high school anymore. Too much focus, of late, has been on professional sports, and not enough focus on local sports. (Although this is easier to do, because I’m a beleaguered Browns fan. Lol, sort of. Not to mention, but I will, that I play a bit of ad hoc local sports myself.