There’s no military solution

Eight days ago I wrote "It's time to talk" - but I did not hear anything about talks starting with North Korea, despite reading
"Now is the Time for Talks with North Korea" at "Zoom in Korea".

The June 15 All Korean Committee had announced plans to continue
to pursue joint ceremonies on August 15, which marks Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 - also didn't happen.
These meetings had been part of reunification negotiations between the leaders of North- and South-Korea.

But I also suggested Plan B:

And here is Plan B:
Doing nothing. Only wait and see.
President Trump does not have to send fire and fury.
He can wait now and see what Kim Jong-un is doing now.

The result: Kim Jong-un announced that there will be no rocket, and there wasn't any.

Everybody would have expected another rocket "test" on the South Korean National Liberation Day.

No rocket on this day. But a meeting between Marine Corps
Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
Gen. Fang Fenghui of the Chinese army, chief of China's joint staff happened, a welcome ceremony in Beijing on that day,
on August 15, 2017, two days ago.


But today we got a great surprise. The news reported:

"There’s no military solution, forget it.
Until somebody solves the part of the equation 
that shows me that ten million people in Seoul 
don’t die in the first 30 minutes 
from conventional weapons, 
I don’t know what you’re talking about, 
there’s no military solution here, they got us."

Guess who said it?

If you didn't hear it or read it by yourself, you wouldn't believe me:
Chief Strategist Steve Bannon himself!

Foto: Doug Mills/The New York Times

Is Steve Bannon the only one in the White House 
who has learned his lesson?

As reported, during the presidential transition he read “The Best and the Brightest,” David Halberstam’s book about America’s misadventure in Vietnam, and he managed that everyone in the transition team read it.

Seems to be Steve Bannon is a rationalist.

Did you know that Mr. Bannon opposed the missile strike on Syria after President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people? That he has expressed doubts about sending more troops to Syria or Iraq? That he is skeptical of American military intervention in strife-torn Venezuela, a prospect raised last week by Mr. Trump, who surprised administration officials by speaking of a “military option” there?

Steve Bannon seems to have pacifistic views.
May be he is sick of all the American Adventures worldwide.

But there may be another reason:

To Mr. Bannon, all these ventures distract from his grand project of reviving American manufacturing.
He has devoted much of his time to pushing protectionist trade policies against China and other countries.
Says Mark Landler of the NewYork Times.

War with China instead?
May be there is a relief:

Top Chinese and U.S. military officials met in Beijing and signed agreement to enhance military ties. As mentioned above, on August 15, U.S. Marine Corps General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited China’s defense ministry in Beijing and met his counterpart Fang Fenghui, chief of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s Joint Staff Department. Both top military officials agreed to further develop military relations and build a new communication mechanism to reduce miscalculations.

“Cooperation is the only right option for China and the US, and the two sides could be great partners,” Fang said to Dunford. “The Chinese military is willing to work with its U.S. counterpart to strengthen mutual understanding and trust, deepen cooperation and manage risks and differences in an appropriate and effective manner.”
Let's hope the best!

But anyway:

Yes, it is time to talk!

Latest News, a day later, August 18:

Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon fired

Why now?
Believe it or not, Steve Bannon was fired just because his Anti War attitude.

Time to Talk

Yes, it is time to talk!

We don't like to be exposed to Armageddon these days.
We like to live peacefully together ever after,
despite experiencing scary dialogues on Twitter between
the Presidents of the United States and North-Korea
about the chances of self-destruction.

President Trump warned  to send Kim Jong-un
“fire and fury, the likes of which this world has never seen before”,
and Kim Jong-un answered with the promise
to attack the US airbase in the Pacific island of Guam
- in late August they will be ready.

This is a first signal for openness to negotiations.

Kim Jong-un did not answer with threatening New York or Washington,
but with threatening Guam, which is much nearer to his rocket base
 - and not immediately. They need some weeks for planning.

What does that mean? Kim Jong-un admits, intended or not,
that he is not able to threaten the US mainland now.

This is a big chance: It's time to talk!

Now Diplomats are needed who are able to seize this situation
and to arrange a meeting between US negotiators
and North-Korean negotiators on neutral ground,
let's say in Switzerland, where Kim Jong-un feels at home.

It is time to start unconditional, open-ended discussions on confidence-building measures.

Not long ago President Trump said he would be prepared to meet him over a hamburger.

President Tramp should stay to his promise!

And here is Plan B:
Doing nothing. Only wait and see.
President Trump does not have to send fire and fury.
He can wait now and see what Kim Jong-un is doing now.
May be he will prepare protecting Guam against the launching of Kim's attack. Kim Jong-un's announcement may look like fair play now.

The Iran Nuclear Deal - Joint Comprehensive Plan

All over the news are reports about the the Iran Nuclear Deal, called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Main point:

Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons.

But there are Pro's and Con's, and this is not an easy situation for somebody who has to decide to accept or not to accept this deal. Reading and hearing what people think, there are three options on the table:

Deal - No Deal - War 

Looks like President Benjamin Netanyahu is right in some of his claims concerning the negotiation results.

Following his opinion, it is a bad deal - but starting a war is much, much worse.

A war never should be started.
War means: "Game over". 

And the third alternative, no deal, may be the real start of the Iranians making something up like a nuclear weapon, even if it never may get done ready.

This is not an easy situation. It's some kind of a deadlock.

But:

Looking at these three options - deal, no deal, war - the deal is the best of these three options. It's like the outcome of the negotiations between the EU bosses and Greek's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras some days ago - he has chosen to take the deal to avoid worse results.

So, we have to take this deal to avoid worse results, and there is hope:

If you look at these people on the streets of Tehran, look at their excitement about the outcome of these negotiations! They are happy to see a better future. Remember the people in Germany when the Second World War had ended. They where rejoicing to see the American Soldiers as their liberators and rescuers. The United States treated the Germans well, and enemies became friends. This may - or let's better say: will - happen between Iran and the United States. Germany will follow suit. Everybody here is expecting big business, everybody there is expecting a better life.

Times will change. Life will change. Trade brings change.

Older Iranians remember Shah Reza Pahlavi with his pervasive surveillance by his CIA connected SAVAK, but they hope these times will never come back.

Everybody will be happy about this new situation except Israel and Saudi Arabia, may be. But that may change, too. Give peace a chance!

People in Iran will not allow the making of a nuclear bomb when feeling that their living circumstances have changed to the better.

That may sound like appeasement, well known by Chamberlain after visiting Hitler, but times have changed. The people of Iran like to live like normal people again.

They accept Western Values, they like Coca Cola and Jeans.

Let's them have it!

Ukraine - a Copy of Syria?

The Ukrainian Civil War is ongoing, so is ongoing the violence there.

We have to recognize that this war is a copy of the Syrian Civil War:
Both wars are proxy wars - Russia on one side, the United States at the other side. By the way, Ukrainian-made rifle cartridges are showing up in Syria's rebels hands...

The Ukrainian Government is asking for weapons from the United States to fight against uprising rebels supported with Russian weapons. Thousands of people died, ten thousands are rendered homeless. Arms from the outside would only invite escalations.

John McCain believes that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn't care about the Ukrainian people, because she objects weapon delivery to Ukraine. His idea is to avoid slaughtering of Ukrainians by delivering weapons to the Ukrainian government.

The truth is, this is a civil war!

The Ukrainian army is killing Ukrainians, they are killing their own people! Assad's army does the same! With more weapons they will kill more of their own people. And, not to forget, the rebels - called "Terrorists" by the Ukrainian government, have unlimited support of Russian weapons. They always will have more and better equipment than the Ukrainian Army has. Following John McCain's suggestions, this will end up with a request for Nuclear Weapons by the Ukrainian government.

It is reported when President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Moscow in July 1991 to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty (START-I) that called for both nations to make significant reductions in the number of nuclear warheads in their respective arsenals, that on his return to the United States, Bush stopped in Kiev, Ukraine, a hotbed of secessionist and anti-Gorbachev sentiment. Bush spoke to the Ukrainian Parliament and denounced “suicidal nationalism.”

A few days later, August 24, 1991, the Ukrainian Parliament declared its independence.

How farsighted President George H. W. Bush has been more than twenty years ago!

But what is the solution?

First of all, it is important to solve the Ukrainian crisis peacefully. There are so many wars in this world raging now. Ending the Ukrainian civil war would be a great start to show that it is possible to end a war peacefully. With ending the Ukrainian civil war as an example it may be possible to end the Syrian war, too. And Russia is interested to end the ISIS assault to the western world. So this is a great chance.

How can we achieve this?

The Ukrainian leaders have the goal to get in control again over all Ukrainian territory. Listening to them, this can only be achieved with weapons delivered by the United States. We all know, this is not feasible with the rebels unlimited support of Russian weapons. There is no chance to win. This approach may end up in a third World War. The only winners will be the weapon manufacturers, the Ukrainian people have to suffer the most.

Nowadays everybody knows that successful solutions are starting inside our mind - and that mind has to be changed.

First a question:
What is more important, saving the lives of another thousands of people, or getting control again over all Ukrainian territory?
I encourage you to agree, that saving the lives of innocent people should always be the highest goal to achieve!

What can we do to save the lives of innocent people? This should be a no-brainer, if we are the ones, who are killing them. The answer is: stop killing!

This is the truth the Ukrainian government has to accept.
Stop killing! The only way to stop killing is to really stop killing.
That means, unilateral stopping to kill. An unilateral drawing back of Ukrainian troops, ending this war by pulling Ukrainian troops out of East Ukraine.

This will be a step nobody expects. The rebels soon will find out that they are the only ones who are fighting. Negotiations about the future of the Ukraine can start. The Ukraine has a great history, and in the past the Ukrainian territory has been changed several times.
Peaceful negotiations will give a new shape to the Ukraine, resulting in a peaceful living together.

Last but not least, neither Napoleon nor Hitler could force the Russians to give up. Sanctions brought down Russians economy, but they didn't work to enforce Russians to change their mind. On the contrary, sanctions destroy all the great work which was done over the last twenty years to uplift Russia after ending the Cold War, which was proclaimed on February 1, 1992 in Washington, D.C., by President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Let's there be Peace !

Eighty years ago Hitler was elected in Germany.
In the following years Hitler made Germany the biggest military power in the world.

The United States have been the key to defeat Hitler's Germany.
The United States have sent their army to Germany to defeat Hitler.
The German generals signed Germany's capitulation on May 8, 1945,
50 days after I was born. Now the United States are the biggest military power in the world.

But the American people are tired of war.
The American people are demanding peace in Syria.
The American people know that starting a war with Syria will kill even more people.

We have all the ingredients to change the tides of war to tides of peace:

The American President is recognized as a power for peace.
The American President had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".
The American President has a civil army of supporters who are eager to work for peace.
The American President has access to all the data collected by the NSA, knowing names of people in Syria who are involved in the Syrian civil war.

What can be done now?

Instead of sending cruise missiles to Syria, letters and emails should be sent to Syria to end the war:
President Obama's civil army of supporters will be eager to write letters and emails, starting personal connections to people from Syria, and they will convince them to go back to peace. Thousands of people and thousands of letters and emails will pave the way to peace.
Cruise missiles will pave the way to World War III.

Way waiting?

The NSA will deliver names and postal or email addresses to start this peace walk. What else Intelligence would be good for?

How to Save the Middle Class

Today I read the headlines, and here is what I read:

The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking.
by Michael Snyder.

The middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world.

It turns out that our politicians and business leaders didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.

• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck.

• 66 percent of the recent income growth went to the top 1% of all Americans.

• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009.

• Now banks own more residential housing net worth than all individual Americans together.

• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.

• The bottom 50% of income earners now collectively own less than 1% of the nation’s wealth.

• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

• More than 40% of employed Americans are now working in low paid service jobs.

• For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps.

• A garment worker in China makes approximately 86 cents an hour, in Cambodia 22 cents.

• Approximately 21% of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line now.

• The number of millionaires in the United States rose 16% to 7.8 million in 2009.

• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

The American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool, competing with very low wages.
There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring.

The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.
Click here for the full article.

To know the State of the Union, look here:
Building a Progressive Economic Vision

Einstein once said "The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them." and John F. Kennedy told us "Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man" - and the freedom of man is in danger now with our middle class disappearing.

Listening to both, Einstein and Kennedy, we have to find something new, something unheard of, and we have to do it by ourselves to save the Middle Class - or to reestablish our Middle Class.

Many of us have been happy when the hard and dirty jobs were gone by automation, but then the typewriting jobs were gone, the gas filling jobs were gone, the shops around the corner were gone, to name a few. Big chain outlets helped to cheaper products, and computers helped everybody to do perfect writing by himself.

We are not the only ones in this world hit by Globalisation. People in other countries have the same problems. May be we should look around a little bit, how they are coping.

People in other countries often have one attitude in common: Solidarity.
Can you imagine that people of a little village started to work together to build their own Renewable Energy Power Plant?
Yes, they did. The little village Burgjoss in Hesse started last year, and they are remodeling the whole village now. They reduce their dependency on oil and they give their young people an opportunity to stay. Solidarity saves their day.

What else is coming up in the old world?

More and more people are recognizing that all these problems with diminishing jobs and prosperity are connected to the free flowing money - money that would help to sustain our community is flowing to foreign countries - jobs are moving out, too.

Global Economy - we are not the winners. But we can gain ground with local economy, but how?

People prefer to drive half an hour to get things some dollars cheaper. How is it possible to reverse the trend? Telling the story that local economy is good for us all is not enough.

There is a cure, which helps to sustain and rebuild local economy and, at the same time, helps against these financial Wall Street disasters: A local currency.

And the great thing is, some courageous people started local currency here in the United States:

Communities print their own currency
to keep cash flowing!

Local Currencies have their own names: Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina and BerkShares in Massachusetts.

You will find plenty of information about local currency
on the Internet.

Don't wait that mainstream is saving you. Educate yourself, speak with people, and take a step to Solidarity and local currency.
You cannot save the whole world, but you can save yourself with the Middle Class of your village or town.

Local currency is only valid local. That means the local currency you have will go to local shops.
Local shops then will buy at local producers. Money starts flowing locally. People start buying locally because they recognize the benefit. Read about local currency and you will learn there are a lot of benefits coming up with local currency. The desperate times we are living in need courageous people. Be one of them. Speak with others.
Become a local currency community.

BP begins testing oil well cap

I really hope for a good outcome of the Mexican Gulf Oil Gusher.

People in the New Orleans area are still suffering from Hurricane Katrina since 5 years - people in Bodo Creek, Niger Delta, are suffering from Oil devastation since 50 years.
This is what may wait for the people at the Mexican Gulf, too.

Life expectancy of people living at Bodo Creek went down ten years due to poisoned water and environment. The Niger Delta has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless. Royal Dutch Shell remains.
Source: New York Times, June 16, 2010