Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Message to My Readers 112024

 

The last update to this blog was posted on October 10, 2024, almost six weeks ago. 

 

This update captures the high points of what has happened in the past six weeks.  I have tried to make this update more of a chronology within each subject category.

 

My health remains pretty good, overall.  However, I am still dealing with some pulmonary issues.  

 

This blog update is about 115 pages of links to the news covering the last six weeks. 

 

If I did not learn of a change in any previously reported veteran-related legislation, then that legislation is not mentioned in this update.  Just because there was nothing to report on pending legislation, doesn’t mean we should be passive.  This session of Congress will be over in a couple of months and if legislation is awaiting passage and enactment into law, now is the time to push hard on our elected representatives and senators to make that happen.  For more details about pending veteran-related legislation, see the earlier/prior blog updates.

 

The links appear in the categories listed below, including Veterans; Criminal Justice and Racism and Ageism and other discrimination; Economics and Coronavirus; Economics and Corruption and Healthcare and Education; Ecology and Pollution and Climate Change; Politics and Coronavirus; Politics; Terrorism; Military; and General and Miscellaneous (includes spirituality, music, etc.).   Don’t forget to click on the items in the column on the right to open the pages for those categories.  Then, click on the link to each article for details pertaining to that headline.

 

The war of resistance by Ukraine against the Russian invasion about 33 months ago continues.  During this period, Ukraine continued an invasion (counterattack) of Russia. Find these stories under “terrorism.” It appears that when hostilities end, Ukraine will become a member of NATO.  Russian losses seem to be significantly higher than Ukrainian losses.  Millions of refugees have resulted from the war.  The most recent developments include the authorization by the U.S and some of its allies for Ukraine to use long -range missiles to hit targets deep into Russia, which seems fair since Russia has been using its weapons all along to strike deep into Ukraine. Putin has responded with threats to use nuclear weapons against both Ukraine and those nations (like the USA) providing aid to Ukraine.  If he doesn’t want to encounter resistance, perhaps he should just stop his aggression and withdraw all Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.

 

On the political front, a campaign was quickly conducted by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, against Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance.  Trump and Vance won, or so we are told.  Both parties represented capitalism.  There were no viable parties in the race to represent labor, socialism, or communism, like exist in many other nations.  So, perhaps U.S. citizens don’t have as much choice as they are led to believe they have.  However, there appeared to be a lot of contrast between the Democratic platform and the Republican platform (namely, Project 2025).  We have some extremists in our nation on opposite poles – one wants fascism (a merger between the oligarchy and government) and the other wants communism.  The middle wants liberty and justice for all.  Many in the middle chose not to vote at all, perhaps because some didn’t feel either party represented them and their needs.  Those wanting to maintain the status quo probably supported Harris/Walz.  Those who were angry and feeling ignored seemed to vote in support of the dismantling of democracy.  The oligarchs and plutocrats that support authoritarianism would do well to recall how well those kinds of folks did under Hitler’s regime in the 1930s and 1940s.

 

The world is struggling to determine if the dominant form of government will be authoritarianism or democracy.  Even here in the United States, long known as the world’s beacon of democracy, there is a question about whether democracy can survive without another civil war.  It must be noted that democracy is not a spectator sport; rather, one must participate in the democratic process by supporting your preferred candidates and legislative initiatives and voting in every election.  Also, freedom is not free; in order for each of us to be free, we must exercise our freedom and demand that our rights be respected.

 

Let’s remember that two obvious existential threats faced by humanity are climate change and nuclear holocaust.  To mitigate these threats, the humanity of the entire earth must unite in common cause.  We must each answer for ourselves what is perhaps the most important question in the Old Testament, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  We are all dependent on each other.  None can survive if we don’t all survive.  Humans cannot survive without nature because humans are part of nature.  Perhaps if all humanity can unite, we can bring into existence and a world humanism.  

 

We must continue to resist tyranny, fascism, authoritarianism, racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, ageism, etc.  The three impurities of life are avarice, anger, and ignorance.  What others need from us is respect, kindness, and love.  The more respect, kindness, and love that we give to others, the more respect, kindness, and love we get in our lives and the better we feel about ourselves.  The 8 billion human beings on planet earth need to cooperate more with each other and compete less with each other.  We all need to learn how to equitably and sustainably share the resources of the earth with each other and with all other species on planet earth.

 

Peace and love to all.  Feedback is welcome.  My contact information is:

 

Email: ldholman40@gmail.com     

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larry.holman.52     

 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LarryHolman2

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