Happy New Tax Year

People are going to be “very, very happy” with "the largest tax cut  in the history of our country.” “They're going to get tremendous, tremendous tax cuts and tax relief and that's what this country needs.”

For most, the tax reduction is no help at all.  

• For the bottom quintile, they'll get an extra $5/month, enough for two gallons of gas.
• For the middle quintile, it's about $77/month.  Enough for a family dinner out perhaps, but not enough for their health insurance or their kid's college.
• Top quintile folks will see and additional $7000 per year, and top 1% will get about $51,000 per year in additional after-tax income.

I imagine the rich folks will enjoy that $51,000 bonus, but I don't think they need it.

What would really be helpful ... reasonable wages, healthcare, education, mobility, opportunity ... for everyone.

Income increases have gone to the top, while costs of survival have increased and left half of our workforce behind.

I'm open to another interpretation of this tax reform, but similar policies in the past have had the same outcomes.

• Since the 80's, education costs have increased 600%
• Medical costs have increased 250%
• and wages have been stagnant for the middle and lower economic segments.

Corporate tax restructuring is indeed necessary to keep U.S. businesses on a reasonable footing in the international marketplace. 

Individual tax rates are already low compared to other developed nations. Tax relief for the wealthy is not what's needed, but rather perhaps  restraint of predatory finance (Wall Street and the Banks) and abusive wage practices (Walmart, et al, and fast food sellers).  Marketplace practices by pharmaceutical providers have been particularly harmful.

Reducing taxes for the wealthy is a political play, not a needed or helpful economic adjustment.  The latest congressional analysis predicts the plan will add one trillion to the deficit in the next decade.

What we'd like to see,
  a flourishing education system,
    an upwardly mobile workforce,
      an improving healthcare system,
        a thriving culture,
          and emerging social understanding, wisdom ...

Over the last forty years, we've watched inequality and poverty increase, indebtedness increase (to the benefit of the financial industry), and mobility decline ....
Our national identity is fractured,  and we're told yet again, it's just wonderful how well we're served.

Curious if there might be a higher standard for both citizens and nations?
___________________________________________________________

Things to watch in the coming years:
Where does the wealth go ... to the top or shared reasonably?
Quality of education on an international scale ...
Quality of healthcare on an international scale ...
Middle-class and the American dream ... nearer or farther away.
And who gets left behind?  Years ago, we worked hard to make sure our children, at least, were equipped for life and growth, but the issue became political rather than human, didn't it.

And, what are our national goals?

The man comes around ...

"And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying,
'Come and see.' and I saw, and behold a white horse"

There's a man goin' 'round takin' names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reachin' down
When the man comes around

The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup
Or disappear into the potter's ground?
When the man comes around

Hear the trumpets hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin'
Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettledrum
Voices callin', voices cryin'
Some are born and some are dyin'
It's alpha and omega's kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks

Till armageddon no shalam, no shalom
Then the father hen will call his chickens home
The wise man will bow down before the throne
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around

Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still
Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still
Whoever is filthy let him be filthy still
Listen to the words long written down
When the man comes around

Hear the trumpets hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin'
Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettledrum
Voices callin', voices cryin'
Some are born and some are dyin'
It's alpha and omega's kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn trees
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks
In measured hundredweight and penny pound
When the man comes around

"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked, and behold a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him"

Johnny Cash wrote and performed this, among the last of his works before he died.  It's taken partly from Revelations Chapter 22.  
The apostle John had a particularly difficult time describing what he'd seen and heard, but what was clear through it all ... there is a divide, and somehow, we choose deliberately.
As the Christmas season draws to a close, it's worth remembering, there's more to a story than just the beginning.

I was a stranger ...

The crisis today is the largest in the history of the world with 65+ million driven from their homes, more than half of whom are children (UNHCR).  Thousands have died along the way.  If you're struggling for how to pray, here's a suggestion.

O God, our help in ages past, you led the Israelites through the wilderness.

Guide these who flee for their lives, as they board boats and trucks and cross fences, as they carry their children and walk for miles, protect them, Lord.

Our hope for years to come, you created us all for life, to find meaning, to know love, to seek after you.

We pray for these who have lost hope, safety, and faith.
For parents whose precious children are lost or have died.
For children who are struggling without food, water, and safety.
For communities abandoned and for communities overwhelmed.
Oh God, bring help and hope.

Our shelter from the stormy blast, you are the one who brings peace.  You protect us under your wings.

We pray for an end to the tyranny of ISIS, to the violence in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Myanmar.  
Protect those who haven’t yet found a way out.
We pray for the hearts of those who intend to kill.
We pray for the eyes of the world to turn toward this injustice.
Give wisdom to the leaders who now must choose how to bring peace.

Our eternal home, in you we find hope and help, for this life and for the next.

For those who have lost everything, we pray you will rebuild their lives.
For those in danger, open the doors to a safe place.
For those hungry and thirsty, restore their livelihood.
For those whose communities and families have been ripped apart, strengthen them with new bonds of fellowship.
And for the church, near and far, which worships in safety today -- inspire us to welcome the stranger.

Help us see how to reach out to refugees with mercy and how to pursue justice for them all.

Amen.

________________________________________________________

Refugees continue to pour into Kenya, our friends tell us.

You can pray and help too -- World Vision Refugee Crisis Fund and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

________________________________________________________

Peace, peace, peace on earth we pray.

Momentary IQ Loss

Capital Beltway - safe following distance at 50 mph.  🤣 ... 70+mph is the norm, of course.

Green - safer.  Red - depends on no one making any mistakes or doing anything stupid.

Given the opportunity to choose between holding a two-ton boulder over some unknown person's head or keeping your distance, most would probably choose the latter ... except when driving in traffic.

Typical reaction time is 0.25 - 0.7 seconds.  If the fellow in front of you puts on his brakes, the brake lights are your visual cue, and you'll begin to react after that time interval.  Good enough?  Maybe not.

Research shows typical reaction time from stimulus to max braking is 2 seconds or more.  At 50 mph, that's half a football field, or 10+ car-lengths that you'll travel before you start to slow down.  If the guy in front breaks hard, you'll hit him, and legally it will be your fault.


Joining the competition in a traffic swarm can momentarily reduce your IQ to match that of the moron tailgating behind you and the idiots cutting in front of you.  You'll be tempted to close the gap ahead to keep your place.

Following too closely is considered aggressive driving and is a leading cause of accidents in most states.   It's also reported as behavior likely to elicit road rage.  Most states define safe distance as 2 or 3 seconds separation.

A reasonable alternative?  The 2-second rule allows you to flow with traffic.  Aggressive drivers will beat you by perhaps 3-5 minutes in a typical commute.  It isn't worth it. 

__________________________________

(I was embarrassingly far into my adult years before I could say, "I don't care" about traffic congestion or rude drivers.  These days, it's a needed reminder on the DC beltway every week as we go to visit our granddaughter ... we'll gladly take an extra 5 minutes to get there safely.)

$50,000 a day

Data compiled and reported by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Spend $50 a day and live well.  That's normal for the wealthy.

So, if you spend $500 or $5,000 a day, it starts to get really strange.

When you reach $50,000, that's what you'd have to spend every day for fifty years to use up a billion dollars.

You could use that kind of wealth to influence government and manipulate the marketplace.  That way, you get millions more, and you can pump more wealth out of the world.  (We called them robber barons back in the early days of industry.  Today, they're the wealthy elite.)

Or you could use just what you need for a healthy life and use the rest to help others.  Some folks do that, and it makes a difference.

Is there any good path for the billionaires?  So far, 154 have pledged to give away at least half of their wealth for the common good.  Good for them.  

     ________________________

They taught us about giving at church when I was a kid, and I thought it was just another religious rule.  Later, I discovered that most such 'rules' are practical advice for a healthy heart and that giving frees you from the insanity of always wanting more.  It brings balance to life, it frees you from the trap of fear, and it opens so many doors.  (Even a few billionaires have figured it out.)  Funny how that works. I guess there's more to faith than just being religious.  😏

__________________________________________________________

Spend $5 a day and survive, barely.  That's common, by the way, but it shouldn't be.  Incredible wealth flows up from lower echelons to the coffers of the wealthy.

The world needs to change, and in fact it is changing.  Extreme poverty (less than $2 per day) is declining -- that's improvement, but it's still a long way from being out of poverty.  Half of child mortality is from malnourishment;  22.9% of children under five are stunted.  More than half the world lives in significant deprivation.  

Justice and equality, national priorities, distribution and conservation, all must change, and most will of necessity.  Meanwhile, we have many opportunities to make a difference.

As for the 1,900 remaining billionaires and 14,600,000 millionaires ... we'll see.  
   Then there are the corporations whose only motive is profit.  
      They're richer than any individual and some are bigger than countries.

A Child's Future

Getting by or getting better, what occupies our days?  Life fills up quickly with mind-numbing routine, attending to work and meals and bills and kids and homework.  Days pass, and months, just getting by.

How might a child be inspired to greatness while living in such humdrum? 

Practically speaking, it won't happen.  Unless ...

Children will aspire to what they see in people they know and respect.  A good heart is a great role-model.  Encouragement and affirmation are powerful shapers.  Meaningful conversations (not lectures) about real life are powerful, and they're inspired by our honest efforts to learn and to become better people.

Education begins at home; core values are established there.  Schools often have difficulty supporting those values.  Issues of principle and character are furiously assaulted in the social arena. (ref)(ref)  It's a high-risk and difficult path to thoughtful adulthood; not everyone does well. (ref)

Teens are in the most turbulent period of identity development.  As they begin making their own choices, our best offering is to be an anchor of principle and values and acceptance.  Pray for them every day and for your own journey as well.

Circumstances can make it difficult for us to help our children mature; difficult, but perhaps not impossible.  Rich or poor, this culture or country or some other, who we are will still have the most impact on who they become.  Their vision for the future rises out of our vision for life and how earnestly we pursue it.  

__________________________________________________________________

Children's ethics, principles, convictions, values, conscience, character, clarity, morality, and life goals come first from ours.  

The Race to Ignorance

Race issues are emotionally charged.
We should instead perhaps categorize ourselves by ear size.  
Or freckle count.
Is that reasonable?

The young lady's photo was originally part of a campaign against racism and prejudice.  It

was stolen by the racist organization, Stormfront.org, and used for the opposite purpose.

Their use (left) was posted claiming there's a world genocide against whites ...

Modern science has provided the truth about racial differences.  There aren't any.  We're all 99.9% the same, genetically speaking, just human.* 

(The few visible differences have been determined to be no more significant than freckles.)

Skin color, for just one example, is a response to environment rather than ancestry.  If a white population migrated from Canada to the equator to live in the sunshine (and somehow remained isolated from other populations), their common skin color would permanently darken in response to increased ultraviolet exposure.  The trait would change in a hundred generations or so, just the blink of an eye, anthropologically speaking ... white to black, just by environment.

Or vice versa -- that's how white people appeared in Europe despite being dark skinned when their migration began from the tropical regions.

The pure white (Aryan) race of Nazi propaganda never existed, anywhere.  Every population and all individuals share a common ancestry, and suggesting we segregate ourselves based on skin color or eye shape is perhaps as meaningful as making that same distinction based on ear shape and freckle count.

So why do we struggle with racial prejudice?  What's the root of wanting to identify ourselves as separate and distinct from others?

• Why do we have an 'in-crowd' in high school?  
• Why do we have social classes based on wealth?  
• Does in-group against out-group qualify as collective bullying?
  What part is played by selfishness, hubris, anger, insecurity, fear?
  What part is played by our discomfort with a more complex world than we can easily grasp?
• What legitimate justification exists for prejudicial discrimination?

At every level from individual to global, the motivation appears to be the same.  Economic, ideological, and political competition all follow the same logic of us vs. them; the results are divisive and deadly.

Recent research in genetics unveils a wonderfully complex mapping of thousands of physiological elements, none of which provide any meaningful way to racially separate one group from another.  We're all 99.9% the same, genetically speaking, just human.*

_____________________________________________

*Ignorance = lack of information

Race as biology is fiction, racism as a social problem is real.

Discussions of racial difference often point to gang culture, crime rates, and poor educational achievement as proof of white superiority.  Research (gangs, crime, education) shows such differences arise from imposed poverty, discrimination, and denied opportunity.   
What we do and don't know

Astroturfing!

Astroturfing - the practice of faking a grassroots consensus while hiding the sponsorship behind the message.  It creates the impression of widespread support (where little exists) in order to popularize and exaggerate credibility.

... the creation of an artificial grassroots buzz favoring a viewpoint, i.e. lies, propaganda, brainwashing. ...



Examples:

Tobacco Industry: in the 90's, they funded the National Smoker's Alliance to generate what looked like public support for smoker's rights against legislation that would dampen their business.  It was fake support, of course, and the industry knew it.

By the time they were forced to come forward with the truth, that smoking “kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol combined,” it was too late for the millions they'd killed ... deliberately, in defense of their profits.

Politics: GOPTeamLeader.com (now closed) offered a tool which sent a user’s letter to the editor to dozens of newspapers under different randomly generated names.  In 2003, virtually identical letters that were essentially lists of GOP talking points were published nearly simultaneously in over 70 newspapers across the US, creating the impression of broad support for controversial GOP policies.  Similar campaigns were used by GeorgeWBush.com.  

Such tactics are not exclusive to the right; the liberal website MoveOn.org used the same tactic the very next year.  Letters to the editor don't affect much these days, so there are twitter bots that fake and forward multiple thousands of generated messages.

Many organizations in the Tea Party movement are considered astroturfed, with direct connections to right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, and their activities controlled by wealthy supporters or the GOP.

The DNC under the control of the Clinton campaign persuaded Democrat voters that the choice of candidates rested completely on transparent process.  Not quite true, as we now understand.  By formal agreement, DNC staff and policy required approval by the Clinton campaign prior to implementation for more than a year before the primaries.

Environment: Since 1997 the Koch Brothers have spent over a hundred-million dollars funding supposed scientific organizations.  The groups are masked as think tanks whose purpose is to spread false ideas, to attack climate change scientists, and to popularize climate-change denial.  

Exxon has recently acknowledged that climate change has begun, due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels.  They had attempted to hide or obscure that truth for decades using deliberate misrepresentation detailed in a Harvard analysis and report, using non-peer-reviewed studies and editorial-style advertisements ('advertorials') challenging the science.  Exxon was aggressively and knowingly misrepresenting the results of their own scientific research across four decades, just like the tobacco industry did.  Residual misinformation generated by the oil industry persists in public thinking, even after having been repeatedly discredited.

... and anyone can buy thousands of 'likes' for their web page.

Today, it appears that the internet and media have become, among other things, a tool to shape us according to someone else's plan.  More often than not, the motive is money and power at the top of the pyramid.

____________________________________
Apparently, Governments also do it.
Then there's Gaslighting.

It's hard!

For some folks, it's automatically going to be a hard battle, one almost impossible to win.  Reaching the goal just isn't going to happen without extraordinarily difficult tasks, choices, and sacrifice.

Being rich apparently insulates us from reality, from the real world, from God's view of things and people, even from our own children.

This young fellow came to the teacher and asked what he needed to do to finish well.  He was told to love God and obey the rules.  The guy said he'd done all of that, and the teacher told him to prove it, but he couldn't or perhaps wouldn't.  His wealth and position, it seems, had tainted his thinking, his view of himself, his comfort and luxury and future. He couldn't bring himself to consider changing course to a better purpose.

It's hard, the teacher said, for a rich person to finish well. Really hard. Later, the teacher's friends were struggling to understand.  "If that rich fellow can't do it, how can we or anyone?"   There is a way, but it's perhaps not obvious once wealth and class obscure things.  

He meant what he said, I think.  And if I live in America, chances are I'm rich, maybe fifty times richer than most others in the world.  Is that a problem?   What do I not see, what have I missed?  How much of my life is spent on the wrong things?

And as for that kingdom he was talking about ... what are the chances the richest country in the world, a wealth-focused culture and economy, is headed in the right direction?  

If the path I'm on seems easy, it might need a critical review.   

Is the goal clear?

The Threshold for Participation

A poor person in the U.S. is richer than half of the folks in the world.  True or not?

Because there's more to the question, perhaps not actually true.

The more complex the economy, the more it costs you to live in it.  That cost is the threshold for participation and the cutoff for survival.

The conservative view here is that the poor live rather well compared to the rest of the world, so we needn't worry much about them.  The reality, the top quintile household income rose significantly in recent decades while the lowest made no progress or lost ground. 

There's more, if you want to know.

More than half of the world lives at low income.  Few have regular jobs.  Most survive by fishing or small plot farms and flocks, perhaps a little trade and selling on the street.  They walk to the river for water.  There may not be public transportation or stores or health care nearby.

As an economy grows, it updates those rivers and footpaths and gardens with municipal water systems, city streets, and grocery stores, but living there means you pay your share of the cost.  

In any economy, if your contribution falls below that threshold, you're disenfranchised or perhaps homeless and on the street along with your family, begging.

The poverty line in the U.S. is indeed middle-income compared to the whole world.  That's because basic participation in the economy costs much more than in India or sub-Saharan Africa.  Here, if you don't have a cell-phone and a vehicle, you'll not likely be able to hold a job.  If you don't have a computer and internet, you're kids will have difficulty getting an education, and you'll have difficulty keeping up with your bills and finances.  A good diet, health care, shoes and clothes, soap and toothpaste ... making your way forward requires the ability to participate in the economy in which you live.

The GAP - The more useful measure for this issue is inequality.  When the privileged extract wealth from the economy at the expense of the rest, the result is a widening gap, or inequality.  The flow of wealth from bottom to top fosters persistent corruption in business and government, and deprivation below.  That's within a single country or economy.

Globally, countries can face the same difficulties.  There's a threshold for a country's participation in the global economy.  Poorer countries struggle and extractive trade policies are deadly.  Western countries have extracted wealth from African countries for centuries, for example, resulting in a deadly inequality and extraordinary difficulties for countries and their people.

Progress goes disproportionately to the top of the economic pyramid.  At the bottom, millions fall below the threshold for survival every year.  

Do your own inquiry - Human Development, extractive economics, and the GAP

Or look at fair trade vs. free trade, archenemies in international politics and competitive economics.  If international trade is just a competitive sport, then workers being abused and destitute isn't a problem.
Then there's the question of minimum wage vs. fair wage vs. living wage.

______________________________________________

(Smallholder farms depend on family labor for food and income. There are 460 to 500 million smallholder farms that grow 80 percent of food consumed in low income countries.)

______________________________________________

Change Makers and Help Bringers  -- The rich world's troubles fill our headlines, yet a more important reality is the yawning gap between the world's haves and have-nots. The average American income is 50 times that of a typical Afghan and 100 times that of a Zimbabwean. Despite two centuries of economic growth, over a billion people remain in dire poverty. We've yet a long way to go.

Protest, issues and responses

Burning flags and draft cards, protests and demonstrations.

Disrespect? Or a call to the nation for change.         

Our military veterans have earned the respect of us all. In serving,
 they offer their lives to preserve the liberty and justice we so
cherish.  More than two million served in Vietnam.  They
served with courage and at great personal cost.  Then 
  and now, they deserve our deepest appreciation.
Those who sent us there, however, were
deceptive and unjustified in their
decisions.  They mislead us.

Protest is often disruptive. The war in Vietnam brought protests that included riots and flag burning, campus demonstrations and the death of innocents.  The protests were pointedly about the need for change.  Public response was divided much like today with many attacking the 'unpatriotic' voices.

We found it difficult to separate our loyalty to country from the issues being raised.  The Vietnam war felt like a choice we had all willingly made and that we needed to uphold, but it wasn't.

From a recent conversation,
"Today's uproar reminds me of the 60's and the response to anti-war protesters. It was becoming clear, the war was devastatingly wrong, based on misrepresentation and unethical decisions. Instead of hearing the message, however, many attacked the protesters. And some died, precious young lives ended.  

And then there were those fifty-eight thousand more who died on the battlefield, those hundreds of thousands injured, those thousands more who never got over the war, a million refugees, and the two million civilians who died.  

The protest was valid.  The truth behind the war was eventually acknowledged, but it's troubling and rarely discussed."

______________________________________________

Kaepernick and a few others take a knee in protest against modern discrimination, oppression, and death, whether at the hands of police or by prejudice and inequality, now entering its fourth generation.  It's a call to the nation for change.  

Public response today is divided with many attacking the 'unpatriotic' voices.  
The protest is valid.  The truth will perhaps eventually be acknowledged.

"Which is more troubling ...
- that a protester takes a knee during the anthem, or 
- that black teens have to be taught how to avoid being beaten or worse not if they get pulled over, but when."  

That's what the parents of black children do, did you know? (ref)(ref)(ref)(ref)(ref)

______________________________________________

Curious; read further.

Look up Jonny Gammage for a little insight into Kaepernick's concerns.  
Or Master Sergeant Rossano V. Gerald, or Philando Castile, or other examples.
See Harsh History for more on protest and reason.  
Or The Courage of Conviction.

______________________________________________

Our hope, perhaps, is that we would be a noble nation, understanding and slow to anger, not easily offended, not quick to judge or condemn, and wise in our decisions.  🤝

The Stunning Expression of ...

"We all know something's wrong.

At first I thought it was just me. Then I stood before twenty thousand Christian college students and asked, "How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the church are missing it?" When almost every hand went up, I felt comforted. At least I'm not crazy."   ~Francis Chan

The magnificent love of God has given us life and has commissioned us to be the light that shines in a troubled world.  We are to be the stunning expression of his love and grace, compassion and acceptance.  We are to be his voice, his hands, his open arms.

So what's life about, anyway?  Meaningful life consists of:                                                                                      Middle ground:                                                                                                          Meaningless life consists of:

Select from the following: loving, helping, understanding, teaching, defending, serving, movies, sitcoms, social media, sports, style, gossip, annoyance, grudges, reality shows, 40-hour week, wealth, luxury, winning, position, power, influence, reputation, and the last word

The chance of a lifetime!

_____________________________________________________

If you're looking  ...

Continuing Opportunity '17  Dealing with drought  '16      Nobody wants to go '15      Want a better use for your money?        Opportunity '14       Kenya's Need '12

First memory, first understanding

Not me; just a kid in the mud.

His first memory is of sitting in the front yard, playing with some toys in the mud.

The years that follow are fascinating.  He tells us his story ...

"I watch and learn, trying to find the rhythm of this world where I live.  I observe and cooperate.  I float along with the current.  I make a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand, and perform the millions of gestures that constitute life on Earth.  I assimilate the thoughts I'm given, study the actions and choices until they become reflexes.

Why am I here?  I know there's more; this world can't be all there is.

Finally, I remember that long letter from Dad.  It arrived years ago, and I only read a little of it; I was very young at the time and the letter is really long.  So I find in the letter that this world isn't my home, and it's not all there is.  It's just school and work, and my Father has laid out a long path ahead of me with good opportunities along the way.

Nuts.  Now I have to undo all that assimilating and cooperating.  I have to dump all the 'normal' thinking I've worked so hard to learn, and I have to learn skills this world doesn't teach if I'm going to graduate.

I had a brief view of the sun and the 'real' world the other day.  Seen from the classroom window, the curtains were back and the horizon was just visible in the distance.

Flooding it all was this blazing light that somehow filled out everything it touched.  Nothing soft and gentle about it, it was powerful enough to shake me to the core as I stood watching.  That's probably why the curtains aren't open all the time; we'd never get any work done."

______________

From Dad's letter - instructions

Whatever it was that he saw, it was not a gentle occasion.