Pragmatism - #4 Mindfulness Series

Pragmatism - #4 Mindfulness Series

November 16, 2020 

Henry T. Hill

From June of 2018 to today I have faced Amyloidosis, chemo and peripheral neuropathy. In my Amazon book, "Mindfulness vs Disease and Debilitating Symptoms Such As Pain, Fatigue and Loss of Coordination" and in my Mindfulness Series essays posted on Latitude Attitude at https://latitudeattitude.blogspot.com/ and on Marketplace Mission Learning Center at http://marketplacemission.squarespace.com/, I present my journey.

To achieve the healthiest me, daily, I use the following mindfulness techniques:

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Five Stages to Acceptance
Pragmatism
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy
Transactional Analysis
Making Sense with General Semantics
Somatosensory Part of the Brain and the Role of Behavior Chemicals, Emotions and Physical Activity
Placebo Effect Concept
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Marshall McLuhan and The Medium Is the Massage
Words and Questions and Grammar and Chaos
Learning Theories
Poems and an Essay and Quotes
Feelings and Reactions

Pragmatism offers another mindfulness tool. William James in The Principles of Psychology published in 1890 presented the formula: Self-esteem = Success/Pretension or Self-esteem equals Success divided by Pretensions. The goal of this equation is to have Self-esteem equal one and have Success divided by Pretension equal one so that balances with one equals one. Pragmatism, a philosophical movement, began in the United States in 1870 from the writings of Charles Sanders Peirce and continued with William James and John Dewey. Pragmatism holds to the maxim, “Consider the practical effects of the objects of your conception. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object.” Think of “objects” as events, actions, conversations, thoughts and sensations in your body and outside your body that disrupt/effect homeostasis/balance that you describe in words. So these become “objects” real-to-you, nouns with names and everything a noun represents like a “banana” to you in your mind. But “objects,” namely events, actions, conversations, thoughts and sensations, etc. when turned into words are not like “banana.” According to the pragmatism maxim, these “objects” you have created in your mind of physical objects like “banana” become your reality or conception of the “object,” which you in your mind have “objectified.” But what about “mind objects” that are not physical, cannot be observable, measurable, aren’t rational, aren’t scientifically verifiable, can’t be measured, weighed, dissected, dated and timed and indexed and with the underlying et cetera (etc.) but yet are still “objectified” in our minds. We react to these non-objects, these mental objectifications, as if they were like a “banana.” Words and thoughts act as tools and instruments for predictions, problem solving and actions. Words and thoughts do not describe, represent or mirror reality. “Pain” from my peripheral neuropathy offers an example of how to use pragmatism. Is “pain” an object like “banana,” or have I “objectified” “pain” and then I treat “pain” as an “object”?

Ideas … become true just so far as they help us to get into satisfactory relations with other parts of our experience. Any idea upon which we ride…; any idea that will carry us prosperously from any one part of our experience to any other part, linking things satisfactorily, working securely, saving labor; is true for just so much, true in so far forth, true instrumentally. William James (1842-1910) Pragmatism: A New Name for some Old Ways of Thinking 1907

"Our self-feeling in this world depends entirely on what we back ourselves to be and to do. Our self-feeling is determined by the ratio of our actualities to our supposed potentialities, thus the equation where our Self-esteem equals Success, what we have actually achieved, divided by Pretensions, what we pretend to achieve in the future.

Self-esteem = Success / Pretensions.

Such an equation may be balanced by increasing our successes to equal our pretensions or by lowering our pretensions to equal our successes. To achieve the best self-esteem, we must balance our successes and our pretensions so that they equal as 1=1. To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified; and where disappointment is incessant and the struggle unending, this is what men will always do."

Success (our measurable actualities) divided by Pretensions (our pretendings or our imagined potentialities) equals our Self-esteem. So what should we do? Work day and night on our internal and external dialogue. Control our thoughts to maximize our self-esteem. Before peripheral neuropathy you may have walked three miles a day, but now with peripheral neuropathy you might find yourself only able to walk 200 steps a day. So put 200 steps a day as success divided by 200 steps pretensions so when you walk 200 steps, your self-esteem is high. Work to increase your number of steps per day. Work to maintain your number of steps. Like any learning task, this task takes time. You must change “I can’t” statements to “It is hard, but I will keep trying” statements. “I can’t” statements belong in the “Insane” category of General Semantics. “I can’t” statements using Rational Emotive Therapy represent “belief statements” we learned. We can’t unlearn these statements, but we can substitute a healthy productive statement as soon as we replace these “I can’t” statements with “I can’t right now, but I will continue working on this problem.” Date and time statements, repeat healthy scientific statements over and over as if you were learning a new song, record your struggle and your successes in your daily journal and look back at your journal to see how far you have come.

Free will, with whatever means we have to exercise free will, gives us freedom to choose to act or to choose not to act, to choose to say something even to ourselves or to choose not to say something even to ourselves. By the way, a choice to do or say nothing is still a choice for which we are responsible. Since kindergarten, we teachers have taught three rules: 1. Try to show up everyday on time and ready to work. 2. Try to do the job. 3. Try not to cause trouble. These rules will serve us throughout our lives. We patients must try to follow all three rules.

We must also accept the responsibility of Free Will. William James’ two-stage model of Free Will postulates that we have the basic ability to choose Free Will. William James separates chance and choice, the two factors, by arguing that chance is the part of the model over which we have no power, but after chance comes choice where we have, if we choose, the opportunity to make a decision of what we do or what we don’t do. We make our choices based on our unique experiences. So when you argue that you did not have a choice, often, that argument does not prove true-to-the-facts. We all live with chance, and our chance experience includes amyloidosis, PN or other health conditions. To become as healthy and productive as we can become, we must learn to accept the chance experience not with “Why me?” but with “Why not me?” and then take responsibility for the consequences of our Free Will choices such as Acceptance and use all the mindfulness tools to make us as healthy and productive as possible.

William James received his M.D. from Harvard in 1869. During his years of study James developed a neurasthenic condition which included symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, neuralgia and a depressed mood. James, reacting to his diagnosed neurasthenia said, “I take it that no man is educated who has never dallied with the thought of suicide." We must choose to accept as a fundamental core belief that we have free will. We do not have control over chance, the cause of our disease, but we do, with free will, have control over the choices we make every day, and those choices must include our willingness to fight, to just do it.”

Use pragmatism in everything you do. Even small acts will accumulate and help you to create great effects. Even the littlest act can help to make you healthier and more productive. There can be no difference that doesn't make a difference (Pragmatism (1907), p. 45). Record your journey in your journal so you may look back to see how far you have come.

Pain, the word, grammatically functions as a noun: “The pain is real,” “The pains are real.” The examples show the word pain as a subject (a noun use) in a sentence and shows the word pain as countable, a characteristic of nouns. Pain, the word, functions as a verb: “It pains me …” or “They pain me…” and as a verb expresses action or being, has a form for a singular subject - “It pains me” and a plural subject - “They pain me” and has the following forms: pain, pains, pained and paining. Nouns name a person, place, thing, idea, action or quality. Verbs describe an action, state or an occurrence. The word “pain” falls into both noun and verb categories.

Now apply pragmatism to the word “pain.” Are you treating your pain as an “object” like a banana of your conception? If so, “then, your conception of those effects is the the whole of your conception of the object.” This means that you have ascribed your pain as “real,” “real” like the chair, the window, the table, the television set, the walls and the floor and the ceiling of the room, like a noun. The difference of pain as “real” as chair, window, table, television set, walls, floor and ceiling has profound effects on your daily experience of “pain.”. Other people may observe, measure, and physically react to the chair, window and such. Researchers can sometimes measure nerve signals but cannot measure with a degree of certainty your brain’s reaction as “pain.” You feel something you define as pain in your brain, the somatosensory area of your brain, because somewhere in your body nerves send a signal to your brain and your brain hits the “Pain” alert button. Your “pain” is “real” to you but not “real” like the chair, the window, the table and such and get rid of the word, “pain.” Use the word, “real” for observable, measurable objects that have a distinct individual identity, have a state of properties which change and have a behavior that can do things (even slowly decay) or can have things done to them. Now for something even harder, get rid of the word “pain.” Substitute the words “strange nerve signal.” Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP) or congenital analgesia describes a person who cannot feel and has never felt physical pain. People with CIP can feel a discriminative touch and usually have no other physical abnormalities. Some researchers believe this condition exists because of an increased production of endorphins. From December 19, 2018 through June 2019 when I experienced daily and nightly PN pain, I noticed that a visit by a friend often turned off the pain for a while. Endorphins could have contributed to this relief from pain. Could my brain learn to release endorphins daily and nightly to lessen the peripheral neuropathy (PN) pain? Could my brain learn to feel the PN nerve signal as just a “strange nerve signal” and not as a “pain” nerve signal?

So, I stopped calling my daily PN pain “pain”, and I stopped thinking of the daily pain as “real”. The former “pain” became “strange nerve signals,” which gives a neutral (neither positive nor negative) measurable, and sometimes observable phenomenon. “Nerve signals” constantly define living and therefore present a positive experience. I stopped feeling and acting angry about my nerve signals and said to my brain using internal dialogue that these nerve signals should not register as “pain” and should register as simply “sensations.” Using this and other mindfulness techniques requires discipline and focus. One must practice using these techniques over and over every time the PN “pain” returns. This practice took me six months, December 19, 2018 through June 2019, to reduce my PN “pain” to PN “strange nerve signals” and PN “sensations.” Now I receive strange nerve signals that are just strange.

Give yourself a Self-esteem badge, a blue ribbon, for every time you balance the pragmatism formula: Self-esteem = Success / Pretensions.

For more see "Mindfulness vs Disease and Debilitating Symptoms Such As Pain, Fatigue and Loss of Coordination" by Henry T. Hill on Amazon (September 23, 2020 and 153 pages and 3359 KB). Henrythill@gmail.com

References

Bolognesi, Marianna. “How Language Shapes Your Thoughts - What Researchers Know.” ResearchGate, The Conversation, 26 July 2018.

“Depression.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 30 Jan. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression.

James, William. “PRAGMATISM.” Pragmatism, by William James, 1907, www.gutenberg.org/files/5116/5116-h/5116-h.htm.

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. The Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/57628/57628-h/57628-h.htm.

Lorentz, Madeline M. “Stress and Psychoneuroimmunology Revisited: Using Mind-Body Interventions to Reduce Stress.” Https://Www.mm3admin.Co.za/Documents/Docmanager/6e64f7e1-715e-4fd6-8315-424683839664/00025132.Pdf, Alternative Journal of Nursing, July 2006.

Miettinen, Reijo. The Concept of Experiential Learning and John Dewey's Theory of Reflective Thought and Action. International Journal of Lifelong Learning , 11 Nov. 2010, www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/026013700293458.

Murray, Greg, et al. “The Mind-Body Relationship in Psychotherapy: Grounded Cognition as an Explanatory Framework.” Frontiers, Frontiers in Psychology, 1 May 2014, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00472/full.

Pragmatism. Wikipedia, 3 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism.

Satsangi, Shipra, et al. Thought Consciousness : A Panacea For All Ills And Evils Of Mind. Dayalbagh Educational Institute, www.consciousness.arizona.edu/documents/TSC2018AbstractBookfinal3.pdf.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Five Stages to Acceptance - #3 Mindfulness Series

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Five Stages to Acceptance - #3 Mindfulness Series

November 9, 2020

Henry T. Hill


From June of 2018 to today I have faced Amyloidosis, chemo and peripheral neuropathy. In my Amazon book, "Mindfulness vs Disease and Debilitating Symptoms Such As Pain, Fatigue and Loss of Coordination" and in my Mindfulness Series essays posted on Latitude Attitude at https://latitudeattitude.blogspot.com/and on Marketplace Mission Learning Center at http://marketplacemission.squarespace.com/, I present my journey.

To achieve the healthiest me, daily, I use the following mindfulness techniques:


Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Five Stages to Acceptance

Pragmatism

Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy

Transactional Analysis

Making Sense with General Semantics

Somatosensory Part of the Brain and the Role of Behavior Chemicals, Emotions and Physical Activity

Placebo Effect Concept

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Marshall McLuhan and The Medium Is the Massage

Words and Questions and Grammar and Chaos

Learning Theories

Poems and an Essay and Quotes

Feelings and Reactions


Every day I use Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages in my mindfulness journey. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance - think DAB - DA. Many people lock into denial or anger or bargaining, investing psychic energy, in essence, to pretend that denial or anger or bargaining will improve their situation. Many people sink into depression seeing no way out. Well, depression surrounds us with its “always” presence. But Acceptance, real Acceptance, dispels depression and helps hold depression away.


Using Denial in the face of accurate diagnosis simply will not work against a disease. Denial, pretending that something is not real does not marshall the mind-body to fight the disease. Anger works for some situations and may even save your life. Anger against a disease only stresses the mind-body and may make the symptoms worse. Bargaining with others and with ourselves becomes at an early age a way of life. Bargaining with a disease does not work and only postpones taking real mind-body action. Depression does not present an end, a place to stay. Depression is a part of the path one must take to move to acceptance. Depression will not disappear. Depression presents a shadow waiting to drive the sunshine away. Acceptance pushes the shadow away, but acceptance must be renewed every day and every night.


Depression, recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the leading cause of disability and the fourth leading contributor to the global burden of disease, often shares a comorbid relation with anxiety, a distinct emotion. Patients must address the threats from depression and from anxiety. Chronic disease and chronic conditions such as amyloidosis and peripheral neuropathy contribute to depression and anxiety because of the loss of sense of self, lack of energy, reluctance to engage with friends because uneventful days leave nothing to talk about, sadness, anxiety and uncertainty about the future, loss of relationships, social isolation, feelings of guilt because of the need for others to become your caregiver and fear of death. Positive thinking, medications and exercise can help address anxiety and depression. Move to acceptance, leave anxiety and depression there because they will always stay there ready to move back in and will move back in again where a patient must embrace acceptance again and again.


To fight depression call on your life badges you earned through real experience. I had a great advantage growing up from 1943-1961 when I faced my medical challenges starting in 2018. In the 1940’s and 1950’s we got sick with mumps, measles, chicken pox, whooping cough and sore throats. Because both my parents smoked, I got sick more often every fall and winter when we had to keep the windows closed. But my real advantage in facing amyloidosis and PN consisted of me getting scarlet fever in the summer of 1948, being quarantined and almost dying. After that experience any thoughts of my dying held a different meaning for me then for most people. I had learned real Acceptance of mortality.


Remember Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer:”

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And Wisdom to know the difference.


On June 18, 2018 when I first heard the words, Amyloidosis AL, I did a Goggle search and learned about the in curable and serious nature of Amyloidosis, I said to myself using my internal dialogue, “OK, I am 74 soon to be 75 years old and have enjoyed good health my whole life, so now the health challenge begins. The adventure of my life has opened a new path.” No denial, no anger, no bargaining, no “why mes” and at that point, no depression, just acceptance of the new journey, but I knew that depression would enter my world. My study of Kubler-Ross and my application of her stages throughout my life helped me jump through denial, anger and bargaining and helped me to realize that depression would always hang over this new journey, but I knew that acceptance, cold, objective, rational, scientific acceptance, everyday acceptance, would help hold depression away and give me the best chance to face this new challenge. Lesson: stop any denial, anger and bargaining thoughts right away and accept that depression will always be there. Use acceptance to push away depression and use acceptance thoughts to immediately face a new reality. Do not indulge yourself in self pity. Do not say, “Why me?” Instead say, “Why not me.” Do not let denial, anger and bargaining enter your daily world, and hold depression back with acceptance. Use the continuum of Sane ----- Unsane ----- Insane, found in “Making Sense with General Semantics,” which I will explain in a later essay, to monitor your thoughts. Is this thought observable, measurable, rational, scientific verifiable, dated and timed and indexed, with the underlying et cetera (etc.) meaning that there is always more to any immediate situation/episode/event as this thought can be? If my thought does not meet that criteria, than that thought falls in the Unsane or even Insane category. Unsane thoughts may contain words like: “always,” “never,” “can’t stand it,” “no answers,” “no cause,” “no solution,” “no cure,” “no relief,” etc. For example, when someone says that they can’t stand it, that statement is false to the facts because they are standing it by simply being here and saying that thought. For example if your hand and then your arm were caught in a machine that was grinding flesh and bone, you would be standing it until you either passed out or died. So when someone says that they can’t stand it, they are making an Unsane statement. What they are saying as a Sane thought is that they do not think that they can stand it very much longer without passing out or dying. Now take that Sane thought and turn it into a “badge” that you have earned by standing it. Unsane thoughts, “fictions”, take valuable and limited psychic energy to maintain and as with most mental disorders require a person to spread their Unsane thoughts to others. Maintaining Unsane thoughts is like bailing a leaking boat without trying to plug the holes. The leaking boat will eventually swamp and sink because you can’t bail fast enough. Stop Unsane and Insane thoughts right away. Plug the holes in your leaking boat. Substitute Sane thoughts which require very little psychic energy to maintain. Remember the lesson about lying: liars need to have good memories to remember their lies. Truth tellers just tell the truth. Unsane thoughts and insane thoughts are lies we tell ourselves and others. Monitor every thought using the Sane---Unsane---Insane continuum and use mindfulness techniques to change Unsane and Insane thoughts into Sane thoughts. Remember the four categories of thoughts: positive, negative, neutral and waste.


Use mindfulness. This process may seem difficult, but when you change one Unsane thought into a Sane thought and practice that Sane thought, you will not go back to that old Unsane thought. New Unsane thoughts will appear so filter them and change them into Sane thoughts. Just keep doing this using mindfulness tools. These tools and others help you keep yourself in the Acceptance frame of mind and help you keep Depression away.


For more see "Mindfulness vs Disease and Debilitating Symptoms Such As Pain, Fatigue and Loss of Coordination" by Henry T. Hill on Amazon (September 23, 2020 and 153 pages and 3359 KB). Henrythill@gmail.com


Works Cited

“5 Stages of Grief®.” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, www.ekrfoundation.org/5-stages-of-grief/5-stages-grief/.

Bolognesi, Marianna. “How Language Shapes Your Thoughts - What Researchers Know.” ResearchGate, The Conversation, 26 July 2018.

“Depression.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 30 Jan. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression.

Lorentz, Madeline M. “Stress and Psychoneuroimmunology Revisited: Using Mind-Body Interventions to Reduce Stress.” Https://Www.mm3admin.Co.za/Documents/Docmanager/6e64f7e1-715e-4fd6-8315-424683839664/00025132.Pdf, Alternative Journal of Nursing, July 2006.

Murray, Greg, et al. “The Mind-Body Relationship in Psychotherapy: Grounded Cognition as an Explanatory Framework.” Frontiers, Frontiers in Psychology, 1 May 2014, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00472/full.

Satsangi, Shipra, et al. Thought Consciousness : A Panacea For All Ills And Evils Of Mind. Dayalbagh Educational Institute, www.consciousness.arizona.edu/documents/TSC2018AbstractBookfinal3.pdf.

2020 Undecided Election Stress -Fears Addressed

 

2020 Undecided Election Stress - Fears Addressed 

November 5, 2020

Henry T. Hill

 

With the 2020 presidential election undecided as of 11/5/2020, citizens face the stress of a possible two months of lawsuits. The Electoral College electors meet on the December Monday after the second December Wednesday of presidential election years. So, electors meet in their state capitals December 14, 2020 to cast ballots and officially elect the next president and citizens how all contested election issues will have been settled. All states follow a winner take all of electoral votes except for Nebraska and Maine whose electoral votes are proportionally allocated.

Why did the founding fathers put Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3 in the Constitution? The members of the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia from May 25 through September 17, 1787 with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton leading and with George Washington as president of the convention presented the American people in their thirteen American states with a republican constitution based on the separation of powers with three branches, endorsing legislative supremacy. The map below shows the United States as of August 1789 with 13 states.

“Constitutional Convention (United States).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Convention_(United_States).

The members of the Constitutional Convention knew that no national government had fought and won the American Revolution. 13 colonies with their own governments had organized and fought the British. These 13 governments go back to 1607 for Virginia, 1620 for Massachusetts, New Hampshire 1629, Connecticut 1636, Rhode Island 1663, Delaware 1664, New York 1664, New Jersey 1664, Pennsylvania 1681, Maryland 1632, North Carolina 1712, South Carolina 1712, and Georgia 1732. So, for the members of the Constitutional Convention the question was how do we create a national government that will protect and incorporate the strengths of the thirteen states and keep the unity intact? Looking at history the members of the Convention saw how easily nations could slip into chaos if a tyrant could take control and/or if elections became so corrupt that the13 governments and the new governments that would soon be created could leave the new national government.

The Electoral College:

·       creates a buffer between the population and the selection of the President

·       creates the sense that the entire state is voting for a candidate

·       gives extra power to the smaller states because each state has at least three votes

Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers (68)

It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations. It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. This evil was not least to be dreaded in the election of a magistrate, who was to have so important an agency in the administration of the government as the President of the United States. But the precautions which have been so happily concerted in the system under consideration, promise an effectual security against this mischief.

Hamilton, Alexander. “Federalist Papers: Primary Documents in American History: Federalist Nos. 61-70.” Library of Congress Research Guides, Library of Congress, 14 Mar. 1788, guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/text-61-70.

September 28, 1787 the members of the Constitution Convention voted to transmit the Constitution to state legislatures for submitting to state ratification conventions in each state. The U.S. Constitution was ratified through a series of state conventions held in 1787 through 1788, and on June 21, 1788 the Constitution became the official framework of the government of the United States of America. Today, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world. The first presidential election under the Constitution was held December 15, 1788 to January 10, 1789. George Washington was inaugurated President in New York City April 30, 1789.

Politicians and public speakers repeat the phrase, “All votes count.” Speakers should amend the phrase to read, “All legal votes count.” For citizens to continue to believe in the integrity of the voting process, the election board administrators must maintain strict controls to maintain the perception that only legal votes count. If the 2020 election ends up contested and unclear a sizable portion of the population could insist that Trump or Biden really won the election. The longer the election outcome stays contested the less likely the general public will consider the outcome fair and legitimate. With this perception citizens begin to question the legitimacy of the electoral system and the US government itself for three reasons:

·       Contested elections damage political myths of elections resulting in a government guided by “the will of the people.”

·       Contested elections present the theoretical and moral problem of a “tie vote” and “majority rule.”

·       Contested elections present the image of rigged, unfair and unreliable elections.

The façade of consensus dissolved with the 2000 election when the Supreme Court had to step in to decide the election. Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens said the Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore stripped away the “nonpolitical Illusion” of the court. A contested election puts the above factors into play and on display and addresses the phrase “of the people” and addresses the claims made by the winning candidates that they have a “mandate” to legislate their programs which will probably be intrusive, expensive and freedom-reducing. Abraham Lincoln received 1,866,425 out of a total of 4,490,024 or about 42% of the total vote. The Civil War followed. Can a nation of 330 million people remain united?

McMaken, Ryan. “Close Elections Force Us to Ask Unpleasant Questions about Democracy: Ryan McMaken.” Mises Institute, Mises Instutute, 30 Oct. 2020, mises.org/wire/close-elections-force-us-ask-unpleasant-questions-about-democracy.

What comes next? Biden or Trump must understand the strain these events have placed on the American people and work to heal and unite the nation. A vote for a candidate may mean a vote against the other candidate. What does a 51 to 49 split mean at the national level and even in some states:

U.S National Vote as of 11/5 – Biden 72,440,615 vs. Trump 68,894,239 or 50.4% vs. 48%

California – Biden 7,912,482 vs. Trump 3,987,415

New York – Biden 3,694,125 vs. Trump 2,848,068

Illinois – Biden 2,922,733 vs. Trump 2,265,052

Washington – Biden 2,130,017 vs, Trump 1,327,658

Wisconsin – Biden 1,630,542 vs. Trump 1,610,007

Florida – Trump 5,658,404 vs. Biden 5,283,904

Texas – Trump 5,856,594 vs. Biden 5,207,513

Ohio – Trump 3,074,418 vs. Biden 2,603,731

Indiana – Trump 1,690,008 vs. Biden 1,197,188

Missouri – Trump 1,711,848 vs. Biden 1,242,851

In the 2016 election Wikipedia estimates that 230,931,921 Americans were eligible to vote but only 136,669,276 or 59.2% voted.

“Voter Turnout in the United States Presidential Elections.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections.

For the 2020 election, Americans eligible to vote equal 239,247,182 with only 141,334,854 or 59% who voted. What about the 97,912.328 eligible voters who did not vote? They will have to pay any new taxes, follow new regulations, obey new laws and more. According to the 68 page “The Untold Story of American Non-Voters,” A Knight Foundation Study, several themes emerged:

Many non-voters suffer from a lack of faith in the election system and have doubts about the impact of their own votes.

Non-voters engaged less with news and are left feeling under informed.  

While less partisan, non-voters are more evenly divided on key issues and candidates.

The emerging electorate is even less informed and less interested in politics.

Non-voters have lower civic engagement

Non-voters see the voting process as easy but annoying.

Non-voter does not like the candidates.

“The Untold Story of American Non-Voters.” The 100 Million Project from The Knight Foundation , A Knight Foundation Study, 18 Feb. 2020, knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-100-Million-Project_KF_Report_2020.pdf.

Where do we go from here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020 Civil Unrest - Fears Addressed

 2020 Civil Unrest - Fears Addressed 

November 2, 2020 - The Day Before Election Day

Henry T. Hill

Regarding  the current unrest including the George Floyd protests that began May 27, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, consider two suggestions:

1. Remember any video tape posted someone edited and maybe even doctored the video even if only showing one part of the video.

2. Remember to put any event into historic perspective, a framework of events over time which will give a frequency, level of degree of intensity of the event, and a sense of how the people will evaluate the event in one year and five years and ten years and fifty years and one hundred years. Any event will end up on a list of events that only interested people will study. 

See Wikipedia’s, “List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States” and click on the 1967 Detroit riot. The scale of the Detroit riot measured as the worst in the United States since the 1863 New York City Civil War draft riots and was not surpassed until the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Rodney King, April 29-May 4, 63 deaths, 2,383 injuries, 12,111 arrested, over $1 billion in property damage and with finally 10,000 California Army National Guard and 1,000 federal tactical officers and 3,500 federal troops. As for the 1967 Detroit riot, Governor George W. Romney (Republican) ordered the Michigan Army National Guard into  Detroit, however the Guard could not stop the riot. Governor Romney asked President Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat) to send in the army, and President Johnson sent in the United States Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The riot ended in two days. From July 23-July 28, 1967 more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed, 7,200 people arrested, 1,189 people injured and 43 people died. All of this started when the Detroit police raided an unlicensed, after-hours bar known as the “Blind Pig.” See Wikipedia’s “1967 Detroit riot.”

The “List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States” yields the following results:

• From 1970-1979 only 1972 had no listed riots. 

• From 1980-1989 only 1981 and 1983 and 1984 and 1985 and 1987 had no riots. 

• From 1990-1999 only 1993 and 1994 and 1995 and 1998 had no riots.   From 2000-2009 only 2008 had no listed riots. 

• From 2010-2019 only 2018 had no listed riots. 

Number of riots by decade from 1960-2020

• 1960-1969 - 63 riots

• 1970-1979 - 33 riots

• 1980-1989 - 7 riots

• 1990-1999 - 10 riots

• 2000-2009 - 15 riots

• 2010-2019 - 33 riots

• 2020 - 2 riots

So from 1960-2020, 59 years and 5 months, the list shows a total of 163 riots which equals an average of 2.7 riots per year. 

Why don’t rioters attack small towns and rural areas? I grew up in Perry, New York population 4,500 in Wyoming county which had more dairy cows than people. We students hunted, shot skeet and did target shooting with our rifles and shotguns. Many adults hunted. Perry is 30 miles from Rochester, New York, and we could see the Kodak building from Perry. July 24, 1964 Rochester experienced a race riot that required the New York National Guard to end the riots. The riot resulted in 4 dead, 350 injured, over 1,000 arrested and over 204 stores either looted or damaged mostly in the certain wards near Nassau Street and Joseph Avenue and downtown. We could see the smoke from the burning buildings from Perry. As a 21 year old who was going to get married September 5th of 1964 was I concerned that the riots would come to Perry? No! Why? Perry had two full time police men and one part time police man, but Perry had at least 2,000 plus hunters and sport shooters of the 4,500 residents, and this number does not count the people in the surrounding areas and even nearby towns who would have come to Perry the help defend the village and who would stop any gangs of looters. The news media and some Rochester leaders blamed the riot on “outside agitators,” however almost all of the 1,000 plus rioters arrested were from Rochester and only 14 were from outside Monroe county. We residents of Perry knew the village, every ally, path, patch of woods, bridges, creek beds, short cuts and many of the buildings, we knew the woods around Perry where we hunted. Do you really think outsiders operating as a mob would have any real chance to disrupt our village without a response from us. The average gun owner according to certain estimates owns three guns. We Perry gun owners could have armed the entire village adult population, but having been trained in gun safety, we would not have given guns to people who had not been trained. 

From 1950-1959 at total of 13 people were killed in school shootings, 4 adults and 9 students, and 8 people were injured. From 1960-1966 up July 31, 1966 a total of 9 people were killed in school shootings and no on was wounded. On August 1st, 1966 the University of Texas tower shooting ended with 18 killed and 31 wounded. Removing the University of Texas tower shooting event, the total killed in school shootings from 1960-1969 was 23, 13 were adults and 10 students,  and a total of 9 wounded. See Wikipedia’s “List of school shootings in the United States (before 2000).”

I now live in Collier County, Florida, the largest county of Florida’s 67 counties by land area and fourth-largest by total area with 2,305 square miles, 1.5 times the size of Rhode Island, of which 1,998 square miles is land and 307 square miles is water. The southeast portion of the county lies within the Big Cypress National Preserve and in the northernmost portion of Everglades National Park which extends into the southern coastal part of Collier County. Collier County has a population of 384,902 (2019) and with only two incorporated communities with their own police forces: Naples (incorporated city) population of 22,039 (2018) and 16.46 square miles and Marco Island population 17,947 and 24.66 square miles (12.16 square miles of land and 12.51 square miles of water). So take out 16.46 plus 24.66 square miles or 41.12 square miles of incorporated areas  from 2,305 square miles leaves 2,263.88 square miles for the our elected Collier County Sheriff, Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, and his 900 deputies, of which 300 are ex military, to protect and serve us. Add Naples city 22,039 to Marco Island’s 17,947 for 39,986 people and subtract that from 384,902 equals 344,916 declared residents under Sheriff Kevin Rambosk and his deputies. This population number in winter season grows by 100,000 or more.  Naples city has about 40 police officers and Marco Island has 28 officers for its 22.79 square miles jurisdiction. Who backs up our Collier County police forces:

• Police forces from other Florida counties and the Florida Highway Patrol officers.

• The Florida Army National Guard of approximately 10,000 soldiers.

• The 82nd Airborne Division of 10,800 soldiers. 

• The 101st Airborne Division of 29,000 soldiers with over 100 aircraft. 

The only thing lacking in cities experiencing civil disturbances daily is the will of the mayor of the city and/or the governor to call up the state Army National Guard, and if the state Army National Guard is not able to restore law and order, the governor may ask the President for federal troops like the 82nd Airborne Division and/or the 101st Airborne Division or both like in the July 23-28, 1967 Detroit riots. 

How Florida Maintains Civil Order

The following 2019 Florida Statutes present the laws regarding the Military Affairs regarding Militia and the duties and responsibilities of the Governor of the State of Florida: https://sb.flleg.gov/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm$vid=html:cur

250.02 Militia

(1) The militia consists of all able-bodied citizens of this state and all other able-bodied persons who have declared their intention to become citizens.

(2) The organized militia is composed of the National Guard and any other organized military forces that are authorized by law.

(3) The unorganized militia is composed of all persons who are subject to military duty but who are not members of units of the organized militia.

(4) Only persons exempt from military duty by the terms of federal law are exempt from military duty in this state.

History.—s. 4, ch. 8502, 1921; CGL 2015; s. 1, ch. 25112, 1949; s. 1, ch. 73-93; s. 2, ch. 2003-68.

Note.—Former ss. 250.04, 250.05.

250.28 Military support to civil authorities.—When an invasion or insurrection in the state is made or threatened, or whenever there exists a threat to security, a terrorist threat or attack, a riot, a mob, an unlawful assembly, a breach of the peace, or resistance to the execution of the laws of the state, or imminent danger thereof, which civil authorities are unable to suppress, the Governor, or in case the Governor cannot be reached and the emergency will not permit awaiting his or her orders, the successor as provided in s. 14.055, or, if the appropriate successor cannot be reached and the emergency will not permit awaiting his or her orders, the Adjutant General, shall issue an order to the officer in command of the body of troops best suited for the duty for which a military force is required, directing the officer to proceed with the troops, or as many as necessary, with all possible promptness, to respond to the invasion, insurrection, threat to security, terrorist threat or attack, riot, mob, unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, or resistance to execution of the laws of the state.

History.—s. 32, ch. 8502, 1921; s. 5, ch. 9337, 1923; CGL 2044; s. 1, ch. 25112, 1949; s. 5, ch. 91-139; s. 105, ch. 95-148; s. 23, ch. 2003-68.

Note.—Former s. 250.38.

The Duties of the Governor 

14.01 Governor; residence; office; authority to protect life, liberty, and property.—The Governor shall reside at the head of government, and the Governor's office shall be in the capitol. The Governor may have such other offices within the state as he or she may deem necessary. The Governor may employ as many persons as he or she, in his or her discretion, may deem necessary to procure and secure protection to life, liberty, and property of the inhabitants of the state, also to protect the property of the state.

History.—ch. 1660, 1868; RS 68; GS 69; RGS 83; CGL 104; s. 1, ch. 65-54; s. 32, ch. 95-147.

14.02 Governor may preserve peace and order by military force.—The Governor may, in cases of insurrection or rebellion, violence, disorder or insecurity of life, liberty and property, support and preserve the public peace and order by the military force of the state.

History.—s. 1, ch. 1745, 1870; RS 69; GS 70; RGS 84; CGL 105.

14.021 Governor; promulgation and enforcement of emergency rules and regulations.—

(1) The Governor of Florida is hereby authorized and empowered to promulgate and enforce such emergency rules and regulations as are necessary to prevent, control, or quell violence, threatened or actual, during any emergency lawfully declared by the Governor to exist. In order to protect the public welfare, persons and property of citizens against violence, public property damage, overt threats of violence, and to maintain peace, tranquillity, and good order in the state, these rules and regulations may control public parks, public buildings, or any other public facility in Florida and shall regulate the manner of use, the time of use, and persons using the facility during any emergency. These rules and regulations shall have the same force and effect as law during any emergency and shall affect such persons, public buildings, and public facilities as in the judgment of the Governor shall best provide a safeguard for protection of persons and property where danger, violence, and threats exist or are threatened among the citizens of Florida.

(2) Whenever the Governor shall promulgate emergency rules and regulations, such rules and regulations shall be published and posted during the emergency in the area affected, in addition to any other notice required by law.

(3) The Governor shall have emergency power to call upon the military forces of the state or any other law enforcement agency, state or county, to enforce the rules and regulations authorized by this law.

(4) The powers herein granted are supplemental to and in aid of powers now vested in the Governor of this state under the constitution, statutory laws, and police powers of said state.

(5) The provisions of this section shall continue in full force and effect until otherwise amended.

History.—ss. 1-4, 6, ch. 31389, 1956; s. 1, ch. 61-239; s. 1, ch. 65-95; ss. 10, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 18, ch. 78-95; s. 33, ch. 95-147.

14.022 Governor; emergency powers to quell violence.—

(1) The Governor of Florida is hereby authorized and empowered to take such measures and to do all and every act and thing which she or he may deem necessary in order to prevent overt threats of violence or violence, to the person or property of citizens of the state and to maintain peace, tranquillity, and good order in the state, and in any political subdivision thereof, and in any area of the state designated by the Governor.

(2) The Governor when, in her or his opinion, the facts warrant, shall, by proclamation, declare that, because of unlawful assemblage, violence, overt threats of violence, or otherwise, a danger exists to the person or property of any citizen or citizens of the state and that the peace and tranquillity of the state, or any political subdivision thereof, or any area of the state designated by the Governor, is threatened, and because thereof an emergency, with reference to said threats and danger, exists. In all such cases when the Governor shall issue a proclamation as herein provided she or he shall be and is hereby further authorized and empowered, to cope with said threats and danger, to order and direct any individual person, corporation, association, or group of persons to do any act which would in the Governor's opinion prevent danger to life, limb, or property, prevent a breach of the peace or the Governor may order such individual person, corporation, association, or group of persons to refrain from doing any act or thing which would, in the Governor's opinion, endanger life, limb, or property, or cause, or tend to cause, a breach of the peace, or endanger the peace and good order of society, and shall have full power by appropriate means to enforce such order or proclamation.

(3) The Governor, upon the issuance of a proclamation as provided for in subsection (2), is hereby authorized and empowered to take and exercise any, either, or all of the following actions, powers, and prerogatives:

(a) Call out the military forces of the state (state militia) and order and direct said forces to take such action as in the Governor's judgment may be necessary to avert the threatened danger and to maintain peace and good order in the particular circumstances.

(b) Order any sheriff or sheriffs of this state, pursuant to a proclamation as herein provided, to exercise fully the powers granted them, and each of them, under s. 30.15(1)(f) (suppress tumults, riots, and unlawful assemblies in their counties with force and strong hand when necessary) and to do all things necessary to maintain peace and good order.

(c) Order and direct the State Highway Patrol, and each and every officer thereof, to do and perform such acts and services as the Governor may direct and in the Governor's judgment are necessary in the circumstances to maintain peace and good order.

(d) Authorize, order or direct any state, county, or city official to enforce the provisions of such proclamation in each and every and all of the courts in the state by injunction, mandamus, or other appropriate legal action.

(4) The Governor is hereby authorized and empowered to intervene in any situation where there exists violence, overt threats of violence to persons or property and take complete control thereof to prevent violence, or to quell violence or any disturbance or disorder which threatens the peace and good order of society.

(5) The powers herein granted are supplemental to and in aid of powers now vested in the Governor under the constitution, statutory laws and police powers of said state.

(6) The provisions of this section shall continue in full force and effect until otherwise amended.

History.—ss. 1-6, ch. 31390, 1956; s. 2, ch. 61-239; s. 2, ch. 65-95; ss. 10, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 18, ch. 78-95; s. 2, ch. 91-95; s. 34, ch. 95-147.

Hunters and Guns

According to the US Fish And Wildlife Service National Hunting License Data Calculation Year 2019 California has 279,248 paid hunting license holders, Florida 189,038, Minnesota 563,127, Michigan 688,185, New York 564,612, Ohio 376,435, Pennsylvania 956,163, Tennessee 679038, Texas 1,162,430 and with a national total of 15,544,849. Estimates of 300 million firearms in the US held by about a third of the population which means over 100 million Americans own firearms and the average number of owned firearms is three.  Do not worry about the spread of violence outside of certain areas in certain cities. The 100 million Americans who own firearms will not let people threaten their families or loot their homes or burn their homes. There are an estimated 18.8 million veterans living in the U.S. which equals 7.6 percent of the population. Veterans bring discipline and commitment to law and order and to a stable society. 

According to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics of the total number of injury deaths of 243,039 all firearms deaths numbered 39,773 while drug overdose deaths numbered 67,367, and of the firearm deaths of 39,773 firearm suicides numbered 23,854 out of 47,173 total suicides leaving 14,542 firearm homicides or 5.9% of all the injury deaths compared to 40,231 motor vehicle traffic deaths, 36,338 unintentional fall deaths, and 64,795 unintentional poisoning deaths out of the total of all unintentional injury deaths of 169,936. As far as violent crime including murder don’t live or travel in certain neighborhoods in St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Oakland, Kansas City, Stockton, Cleveland, Chicago, New York City or Indianapolis. Know your neighborhood and your city. 

Riots present a reaction to events. Riots grow and take on a life of their own. One could say for some people riots present a “fashionable”, seasonal (summer) and trendy and a life style, a link to a personality predisposition and almost a part of a person. A riot style person may simply wait for the riot to begin before joining in and participating.   

So what should you do to deflate and minimize “The 2020 George Floyd Civil Unrest Stressor?” Research the stressor and put the “threat” into a perspective that effectively removes it and follow the suggestions below regarding media. 

Use The Television/Video Effect to minimize stress and its effects on peripheral neuropathy and other chronic symptoms: 

1. Monitor your media messages that increase your stress level. Avoid negative effects by avoiding the media messages.

2. Research the current stressor events. List the tools society has to face the stressor events.  

3. Build a researched historical perspective to put stressor events into context. 

4. Build a picture of where the stressor events will be in six months, one year and in five years. 

5. Use these techniques to defuse stressor events.

When “riots” are looked at through this perspective, they might as well be taking place in a country thousands of miles away. Some “riots” have profound effects and force citizens to take sides: 

• Our American Revolution from 1775 to 1783 changed the American world.

• The French Revolution from 1789 to 1799 and Napoleon and his wars lasting until 1815.

• Our American Civil War from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865 with its 616,222 to 1,000,000 dead. 

None of our current riots present a prospect for an American Revolution or and American Civil War. So face your fears with “facts.” 

When faced with fears, confront those fears with “facts.” Many “generous minded  people,” who share their thoughts too often, have a horror of “facts.” The “generous minded” would rather choose to gather an audience by “crying wolf” and even “claiming the sky is falling” like Henny-penney. “Facts,” the brute beasts of intellectual discourse, end discussion of many topics. We do have a thin blue line of police of 697,195 full time officers,  between us and the rioters, but behind the police are Federal Law Enforcement Officers about 132,000 and behind them is the U.S. Army of 472,595 regular soldiers and 331,881 trained Army National Guard and  191,007 Army Reserve for a total of 995,483 and 186,00 active duty US Marines. 

Remember “This business of conversation (24/7 “News” Coverage) is a very serious matter. There are women and men that it weakens one to talk with an hour more than a day’s fasting would do.  Mark this that I am going to say, for it is as good as a working professional perdson’s advice, and costs you nothing: It is better to lose a pint of blood from your veins than to have a nerve tapped.  Nobody measures your nervous force as it runs away, nor bandages your brain and marrow after the operation.” 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. “THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.” The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Http://Www.gutenberg.org/, 1858, www.gutenberg.org/files/751/751-h/751-h.htm. 

China and Russia - Fears Addressed

 China and Russia - Fears Addressed

October 31, 2020

Henry T. Hill

The nations that control the oceans control seven-tenths of the surface of the earth and the air above and the resources below. 

 

How big are the oceans?

The Pacific Ocean at 63.8 million square miles is bigger than all the land masses on earth (see the map) and is 9,600 miles from Antarctica to the Bering Strait and 12,000 miles wide from the coasts of Columbia to the Malay Peninsula. The Atlantic Ocean at 41.1 million square miles is 5,500 miles wide between Mexico and Spain and 11,000 miles from Greenland to Antarctica. The Mediterranean Sea is 965,300 square miles and is 2,300 miles long and 500 miles at its widest. The only ocean exits from the Mediterranean Sea are the 8 mile wide Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal. The Arctic Ocean is 5.4 million square miles and borders the United States, Canada, Greenland (Denmark), Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Russia and is the smallest of the world’s five major oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean extends from Antarctica to a line of latitude of 60 degrees South according to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as proposed to the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000. 

Russia has one major port on the Pacific at Vladivostok and is linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Vladivostok is 121 miles from the Chinese border, 141 miles from North Korea and 478 miles from Japan and 5,772 miles by train from Moscow. Russia has one ice-free harbor on the Arctic Ocean at Murmansk. Murmansk is 1,200 miles from Moscow. Archangel, another Russian port on the Arctic Ocean is 600 miles from Moscow. Russia has a major port in Saint Petersburg on the Baltic Sea bordered by Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Denmark. Baltic opens into the Kattegat through the Danish Straits into the North Sea. Russia has a large naval base in the Black Sea at Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. This Black Sea is bordered by the Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia and covers 168,500 square miles and is 730 miles long.The Black Sea empties through the Bosporus into the the Sea of Marmara and then the Dardanelles into the Mediterranean Sea. The Bosporus is 19 miles long, 2,330 wide at the narrowest and is straddled by the city of Istanbul with its 17 million inhabitants. Below the Bosporus is the Sea of Marmara and then the Dardanelles at 38 miles long and 0.75 to 3.73 miles wide and empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Together the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles form the Turkish Straits.  Russia has two overseas naval bases: Syria and Vietnam. Russia puts nuclear submarines at sea. If war came, the US and our allies would close Russia’s access to the world’s oceans. Their submarines without overseas naval bases would face a massive challenge to survive. Russia is also faced with the problem of having more than 120 ethnic groups many with their own territories speaking some 100 languages comprising one fifth of the Russia’s population. Russia also has long land borders (12,577 miles) with 14 neighbors that must be controlled. 

China stretches 3,200 miles east to west, 3,400 miles north to south, has a long frontier of over 13,000 miles and a coast line of 8,700 miles. China borders 14 countries: North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Napal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Not counting Alaska and Hawaii the United States is 2,800 miles east to west and 1,582 miles north to south. The continental United States general coastline is: Atlantic 2,069 miles, Gulf Coast 1,631 miles and Pacific 1,293 for a total of 4,993 miles. Alaska adds 5,580 in the Pacific and 1,060 in the Arctic and Hawaii adds 750 miles. The Tidal shoreline is much greater. 

China has one overseas base in the African country of Dijbouti located on the Horn of Africa bordered by Somalia and Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with 8,958 square miles (the size of New Hampshire) and a population of 921,000. 

China faces problems the United States does not face.

According to  Favel, M. Taylor in “Securing Border: China’s Doctrine and Force Structure for Frontier Defense” China contains a core region populated by an ethnic majority (1.2 billion) that is surrounded by periphery of minorities (105 million). Members of the Han Chinese group constitute more than 90 percent of the country’s population, but reside in roughly only 40 percent of the landmass along the coast and river valleys, an area known as ‘inner China’ (neidi) or ‘China proper’. By contrast, a variety of ethnic minorities such as Tibetans or Uighurs account for less than 10 percent of the population, but they live mostly on the other 60 percent of the PRC’s landmass in regions known as ‘outer China’ (waidi) or the ‘frontiers’ (bianjiang).Importantly, many of these minorities, some of whom have pursued independence in the past, are strategically located. They live along 90 percent of China’s borders and many of them have kinsmen who reside in neighboring states. As a result, border security supports efforts to maintain internal stability by limiting the influence of external actors within large parts of the country. Almost half of China’s infantry and armored maneuver units participate in the defense of China’s borders in addition to approximately 225,000 army and paramilitary border guards. 

Favel, M. Taylor. “Securing Border: China’s Doctrine and Force Structure for Frontier Defense.” Mit.edu, The Journal of Strategic Studies, Oct. 2007, web.mit.edu/fravel/www/fravel.2007.JSS.securing.borders.pdf. 

The United States has the longest (5,525 miles) undefended border in the world with Canada and our border with Mexico (1,954 miles) is secure from military threats although the US maintains approximately 4,000 troops, most coming from the National Guard, down from the 5,500 on the Mexican border to assist the Department of Homeland Security. China has to maintain significant military forces in its own country to control its 105 million minorities and its land borders.  

Our ten nuclear-powered Nimitz Class carriers can carry 130 F/A-18 Hornets or 85-90 aircraft of different types such as Super Hornets, Hornets, Growlers for electronic warfare, Greyhounds for logistics, helicopters for submarines, and others. The carriers have their own armament and protection such as  2.5 inch kevlar armor, Sea Sparrow and Phalanx, Sippican (chaff bloom), torpedo defense and countermeasures, radar jamming and deception. The carriers travel in a strike group of six or more other ships such as guided missile cruisers and guided missile destroyers and guided missile frigates, one or two attack submarines and supply ships. Our carriers also carry nuclear weapons.   

We control the oceans with our navy, with our friends, with our overseas bases. China has 1.3 plus billion people, but thanks to China seizing Tibet and threatening other areas in India, India and China are not friends, and India has 1.3 billion people. Now lets add up the populations of democracies starting with the US with 328 million with the European Union's 513 million with Japan's 126 million with South Korea's 51 million with Canada's 37 million with Taiwan's 23 million with Australia's 24 million, with New Zealand's 4.8 million and with Israel's 8.6 million for a total of 1.115 billion not counting India, the world's largest democracy. Now with China's "insensitive" treatment and "reeducation" of their 6 to 50 million Muslim population, China has alienated a percentage of the 1.8 billion Muslim world population. China’s actions in Hong Kong have not made friends. With China's expansion into the South China sea, China has created disputes with Brunei, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. I could add these countries as potential friends. If push comes to shove, who will these countries look for support? See the Sino-Vietnamese War  of 1978-1979. And then COVID-19 China's latest gift to the world. The average daily death rate for the world is 7,968 with about 900 a day for the US according to Statista.  

The United States has naval bases in Bahrain, Cuba, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom. The United States has air force bases in Germany, Guam, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The United States has army bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea.  

Add up GDPs for each of our US friends. Add up and measure the military might and add more to those countries that  "punch way above their weight" like the British people have shown, as have the Germans, the Japanese, the Canadians, the South Koreans, the Israelis and others. 

The United States offers the world something very different from Russia and China. The US conquered Mexico (1846-1848) and gave it back, conquered the Philippines (Spanish-American War 1898) - lost it to Japan - took it back - and gave it back to the people of the Philippines, we conquered Japan and gave it back, North Africa, Italy, South Korea, etc. Does anyone believe that China will, without threats or force, give Tibet its freedom? China is the new bully on the block. They advertise it daily in Hong Kong, Tibet, with their own Muslim population and with their own people and by supporting North Korea and other governments such as Iran.   

So can Russia and China defend their own countries? Yes. Can Russia or China take over the oceans of the world namely the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Indian or the Mediterranean Sea? No. Russia and/or China present a challenge to US naval dominance, but that is a challenge we can face.  

When faced with fears, confront those fears with “facts.” Many “generous minded  people,” who share their thoughts too often, have a horror of “facts.” The “generous minded” would rather choose to gather an audience by “crying wolf” and even “claiming the sky is falling” like Henny-penney. “Facts,” the brute beasts of intellectual discourse, end discussion of many topics. 

Remember “This business of conversation is a very serious matter.  There are men that it weakens one to talk with an hour more than a day’s fasting would do.  Mark this that I am going to say, for it is as good as a working professional man’s advice, and costs you nothing: It is better to lose a pint of blood from your veins than to have a nerve tapped.  Nobody measures your nervous force as it runs away, nor bandages your brain and marrow after the operation.” 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. “THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.” The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Http://Www.gutenberg.org/, 1858, www.gutenberg.org/files/751/751-h/751-h.htm. 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/6eoghu/all_the_continents_fit_in_the_pacific_ocean/