Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism are not the same

Anti-Semitism is different from anti-Zionism. Zionism refers historically to the goal to turn the nation of Palestine into the nation of Israel and allow Jewish families to settle there, which did occur. Many Jewish people were against the Zionism movement at the time because the movement used harsh tactics and also possibly because many Jewish people preferred to live where-ever they were already living at the time and they didn’t want to move to Palestine. Some Jewish people at the time also preferred to continue working towards coexisting with other ethnic groups; as many Jewish people were being comfortably accepted within mixed communities at the time. These anti-Zionist Jewish people didn’t want the Jewish people as a group to be seen to be working towards becoming more exclusionary  by seeking a separate nation for a religious group – as that is the opposite of becoming more accepted and fitting in within a culturally mixed nation.

Anti-Semitism refers to discrimination and hate crimes aimed at all people of Jewish background which became more prolific during World War II.

Currently in the United States there has been increased interest and support of the anti-Zionist movement to Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) Israel for the maltreatment of Palestinian people. But there has also been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks of Jewish reporters and other Jewish people and Jewish topics in general which seems to have been brought out by the negative tone of the 2016 Presidential campaign.

This link discusses anti-semitism and anti-zionism: http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2016/10/03/why-are-we-discussing-fake-anti-semitism-when-the-real-thing-is-marching-around-in-jackboots-again/

And this link takes a closer look at the changes that have been seen during the 2016 political season: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/donald-trump-anti-semitism-young-jews-214314

I have a few posts on this website about anti-Zionism and the maltreatment of Palestinian people but It is not in support of anti-Semitism or in support of mistreatment of Jewish people simply because they are Jewish. That would be no better than mistreating Palestinian people just because they live in Palestine.

Here’s a link about a different group of people who have experienced both discrimination and the 2016 political season and they have some common sense to share with younger generations — no one, no candidate is perfect, and turning the clock backwards on civil rights would be worse than voting for someone who is just not perfect: http://fusion.net/story/352995/older-black-women-might-save-america-from-trump/

This is 2016 rather than 1945, we need to accept that people have differences and work together to share our planet’s resources instead of destroying the planet’s dwindling resources with bombs and pollutants. We as a species seem to be excelling at causing the extinction of other species; it would seem sensible to start worrying more about the longterm viability of our species and the planet and less about blowing each other up in the name of loving God. I don’t remember ever hearing that God said go forth and bomb but I do remember a line about going forth and procreating. Pouring poisonous chemicals on our planet is ruining the ability of many species to go forth and procreate — including our own. Eventually the policy writers will realize that money can’t really buy health or fertility — but will they discover it in time to save our species or other species from becoming extinct?

No one is perfect and that includes the policy writers — It’s time to rewrite how we’re doing things before the future arrives and we find out that it has been damaged in ways that we won’t be able to repair but will have to cope with anyway. Seven species of wild bees in Hawaii have been declared endangered. Hawaii has been used extensively for development of genetically modified crops that are resistant to herbicides. Citizens have been sickened by the large amounts of agribusiness chemicals that have been used on Hawaiian islands. Bees are a major group of pollinator’s for many types of wild plants and commercial crops. Rumor suggests that the agribusiness Monsanto has been working on creating genetically modified flying ants to become a replacement pollinator for the dying bees — wouldn’t not poisoning the original pollinator’s make more sense – especially as their health affects the health of the entire food chain — which we also depend on for our survival as a species.

Albert Einstein was Jewish and he was anti-Zionist and he cared about bees.

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” – Albert Einstein [goodreads.com]

Quotes of letters Albert Einstein wrote regarding the goals of Zionism to create a nation for Jewish people are available here: [http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/einstein-warned-israeli-mistreatment-arabs.html] He supported working with the Arab people rather than making a separate nation for people of the Jewish faith and he condemned the mass murders that were committed by Jewish terrorist groups during the formation of Israel from the nation of Palestine.

I am strongly in support of equal rights for all people and against discrimination and unequal treatment of some groups by other groups. The United States is borrowing money and blowing it up in the form of drone bombs and/or giving it to Israel for them to blow up in the pursuit of taking other people’s homeland in the name of religion.

God didn’t say go forth and bomb — he said go forth and procreate – if I remember correctly. The search engine suggests that the phrase has been translated in two ways, “Be fruitful and multiply” or “Go forth and multiply.” (Genesis 1:28) The following discussion suggests that the word “multiply” is not referring to a math term but is instead referring to increasing family or community size or amount of agricultural cropland, as the study of mathematics was not as valued during early Christianity as it was valued and advanced during the history of Islam:  https://www.laetusinpraesens.org/musings/multiply.php

Going forth and multiplying is a nice idea but at some point reality has to set in regarding the size of the planet and its supply of non-renewable resources — all living things can only grow as long as nutrients are available and toxins are removed. Humans are not above reality – if we don’t take care of our waste we will poison the ecosystem for all species trying to live within it not just our own. If the bees all become extinct and we are dependent on genetically modified flying ants that have to be purchased from Monsanto will we be obeying the command to “go forth and multiply” because we created GMO flying ants or will we have just killed off all the bees and put our own species and the rest of the food chain at great risk of also becoming extinct?

Is endangering all of the species of the planet worth allowing one ethnic group (European Jewish ancestry) to take the land of other people and to harass and murder them whether they are of Muslim, Christian, or non-European (the actual Semites are the people who were native to the area where Palestine is located and some of them are Jewish and others are Muslim or Christian) Jewish background? This is a he said/she said type of story with different versions of history being emphasized by different groups — Jewish version suggests the increased economy created by the settlement of Palestine by Jewish settlers brought more Muslim immigrants to the area who hadn’t been native. See this link for more information: http://www.israeladvocacy.net/knowledge/the-truth-about-palestinian-refugees/did-european-jews-displace-palestinians/#sthash.zgxJoOt6.dpbs

History is as clear as mud but the future is ours to write — let’s write one that has fewer bombs and more cooperation (and hopefully that future will end up having more wild bees and fewer genetically modified flying ants – that part is likely as the GMO flying ant story was a fake news story that got picked as real [link].)

Never fear – some Harvard researchers have been working on robotic bees to take over pollination if we do manage to kill off all the natural bee species. [link] — I still fear the loss of our planet’s natural species.

I would rather have an ecosystem that supports life rather than have an agricultural industry that supports mini robots and kills life (the purpose of food is to support life of living creatures, not robots, so a food supply that is deadly to small organisms seems like a food supply that might not be ideal for the supporting the health of larger organisms either. An industry funded study that looks at the health consequences of a food used for a few months in an animal based study is not really proof that it is safe for the health of someone who might be eating the food throughout an eighty year life span.).

Anti-Semitism is a term that generally refers to hate crimes and discrimination of Jewish people in general while anti-Zionism refers to a political movement that was against the takeover of Palestine by Israel.

Hate crimes are wrong. Genocide is wrong. Genocide of bees is not conducive to the health of most other species living on the planet including the human race. Religion does not make it right to kill other species or ethnic groups. Fear of people who are not the same as yourself does not make it right to harass or kill people who are different from yourself.

Fear of change is not a good excuse to continue ignoring the fact that human practices are killing many other species and poisoning the long term health or our planet’s oceans, soil and air. We only have one planet, if we poison it then we are not only poisoning ourselves we are poisoning every other living thins as well — and that is not just or right — The Bible does not say that God said  go forth and multiply exponentially. Species including humans have instincts to live sustainably within the environment and to not harvest all of a species so that it will continue to flourish in future seasons.

http://www.core77.com/posts/41403/Brilliantly-Designed-Inuit-Fish-Hook-That-Allows-the-Halibut-Population-to-Replenish-Itself

Sharks are an example of a natural predator that tends to only take the older, weaker members of group leaving the other species as a healthier group with greater odds of survival. http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/the-value-of-sharks/sharks-role-in-the-ocean/

By allowing groups of humans the right to pollute for profit or to bomb for territory disputes we are also providing ourselves and all the species on the planet with the right to increased rates of cancer, chronic and acute illness, and increased amounts of birth defects and infertility.

Bombing other people or building a wall will not prevent pollutants from vaporizing in warm regions and drifting on the breeze and condensing out over cooler regions. Bombing the Middle East adds pollution to the whole planet not just the Middle East. Is Zionism really worth poisoning our planet’s future?

The United States gives more money to Israel than any other nation and has pledged even more over the next ten years — is supporting Zionism more important than our own country’s or our own children’s future?

–Not to the 81% of Americans surveyed who opposed the $38 billion dollar promise to Israel:  http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2016/09/19/81-americans-oppose-38-billion-pledge-israel/

It’s time to try some new strategies instead of continuing to blow up money in the pursuit of increased global pollution (and support of Zionism). All Jewish people are not to blame for the crimes that some caused anymore than all Americans are to blame for the drone bombing of civilians throughout many areas of the Middle East — but if we aren’t to blame than who is? It is our military industrial complex and our tax dollars and borrowed debt that is being blown up and causing an increased rate of birth defects — so as someone who has paid a fair amount of taxes over the course of my working life I do feel that we are all to blame for how our nation is spending that money — poisoning children and poisoning bees is not something I’m proud of, it’s not humane or sensible or sustainable — it costs a lot of money to build a bomb and blow it up — ignoring the cost of  lost lives, clean up and repair — because that doesn’t seem to be important to anyone but the survivors.

Empathy exercise — think about the 9/11 bombing of the Twin Towers — now multiply that by bombings going on for many years in many cities — seems kind of a lot worse when you go forth and multiply the terror over decades, over an entire region.

/Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

End Citizens United and reform campaign finance and voting systems

My Presidential Platform is a plan to turn that “E” for Health and Wellness from a failing grade into an E for excellance.

  • Effective Health Care – a preventative healthcare, not-for profit single payer system.
  • Economy & more Green Jobs.
  • Environment & more Green Jobs.
  • End the War on Peace.
  • End Citizens United & reform campaign finance and voting transparency laws
  • Education — Repeal or rewrite the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top policies to create a public education system that promotes helping the child to maximize their own potential – whatever it is. — Require all under graduate education providers to teach evolution and a science based curriculum. — Reduce college tuition loan rates and work towards restoring public education subsidies for in state college tuition.

The Supreme Court Decision in the Citizens United case allowed nearly unlimited donations to flood elections throughout the nation without heeding state or local boundaries. Judicial elections have also been affected by increased donations or campaigning by PACs. Ending the Citizens United decision that created corporate personhood and allowed businesses to donate to political organizations would be the right thing to do because corporations aren’t citizens and don’t have the right to vote and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to donate to elections whether they are ‘people’ or not. I also don’t think nine humans should be allowed to create a new class of ‘people’  – but that isn’t up to me, so I’ll stick with the fact that corporations certainly aren’t citizens and they don’t have the right to vote.

Getting big money out of elections might help get more citizens elected who would be invested in helping create a sustainable government that supports a healthier environment and viable economy for current citizens and for the future rather than invested in lobbyist’s goals and prewritten bills. Reducing influence of  money and lobbyinsts could help effective health care by reducing risk of laws being influenced by profit goals rather than health goals.

Voting and election rules also need to be strengthened. Gerrymandered districts should be redrawn and prevented in the future. Voting by absentee ballot rules should be made simpler for working people or a national holiday should be scheduled in support of getting more voters out to vote. Transparency of electronic voting systems should be required in order to reduce the risk of voting machines being able to be hacked or otherwise tampered with.

Providing government and nonpartison funded forums for campaigns and restricting commercial advertising by campaigns could bypass the issue of money in elections by reducing the cost of campaigns. Less expensive campaign costs could allow a wider variety of candidates to run and provide a more fair representation of the voters.

To be con’t.

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.

The U.S. scores on the 2016 Social Progress Index have dropped

Compared to 133 other nations the U.S. ranked fifth for GDP per capita which would make the U.S. one of the richest nations however citizens may not be benefiting from the wealth as much as citizens in some other developed nations.

“Worse, the U.S. joins China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia in a group of countries that significantly underperform on social progress relative to their wealth. The U.S. is the only major industrial nation to significantly underperform in this way. By contrast, countries such as Costa Rica, Nepal, and Malawi have much lower levels of economic and social development than the U.S., but these countries are overperforming. They are doing a good job at turning their GDP into social progress; the U.S. is not.” [“Why Americans are So Angry Despite America’s Strong Economy,” Michael Green, Aug. 2, 2016, hbr.org]

The rankings for the 2016 Social Progress Index are based on the total group of 133 nations so fifth out of 133 for GDP per capita would be equivalent to 3.76 out of 100 or roughly 96% out of 100 which in the U.S. educational system would be graded as an ‘A’.

Other categories, reranked for grades based on percentage of a 100, would place the U.S.:

  • in the ‘A’ group for “Access to advanced education” (ranked 2/133 or 1.5/100) (2017 1/128) and “Shelter” (7/133 or 5.3/100) (2017 10/128)
  • and an ‘A-‘ for “Opportunity Total” (13/133 or 9.8/100). (2017 13/128)

The U.S. might get graded:

  • a ‘B+’ for “Personal Freedom and choice” (16/133 or 12.0/100) (2017 19/128)
  • and a ‘B’ for “Social Progress Overall” (19/133 or 14.3/100) (2017 18/128) and for “Access to info/communication” (19/133 or 14.3/100) (2017 27/128) and for “Basic Human Needs Total” (21/133 or 15.8/100) (2017 17/128) and for “Tolerance and inclusion” (21/133 or 15.8/100), (2017  23/128)
  • and a ‘B-‘ for “Personal Rights” (26/133 or 19.5/100). (2017 19/128)

And the U.S. might get graded:

  • a ‘C+’ for “Water and sanitation” (27/133 or 20.3/100) (2017 27/128) and for “Personal Safety” (27/133 or 20.3/100) (2017 21/128),
  • and a ‘C’ for “Foundations of Well-Being Total” (32/133 or 24.1/100), (2017 29/128)
  • and a ‘C-‘ for “Environmental Quality” (36/133 or 27.1/100) (2017 33/128) and for “Nutrition and basic medical care” (37/133 or 27.8/100). (2017 36/128)

And the U.S. might get graded:

  • a ‘D+’ for “Access to basic knowledge” (40/133 or 30.1/100). (2017 30/128)

And the U.S. might get graded:

  • an ‘E-‘ for “Health and Wellness” (69/133 or 51.9/100). (20177 34/128)

At some point the U.S.’s failing grade on Health and Wellness will make it difficult for the nation to continue to have enough healthy workers to pay for the care of the sick and disabled citizens let alone provide enough caregivers to continue to be able to take care of all of the people unable to care for themselves. Enforcing the purchase or provision of health insurance doesn’t automatically provide more health care professionals or provide more health care facilities — let alone assure that the care that is being provided is actually effective at resolving the underlying health issues rather than simply managing symptoms with treatments that might be exacerbating the underlying issues.

And what if the problem with the poor showing on “Health and wellness” isn’t just an ineffective or understaffed health care system but is actually a problem with excessive negative chemicals in our food supply and environment? It would be difficult to remain healthy in an environment that provides excessive amounts of toxins and insufficient nutrients to cope with the needs of detoxification adequately.

Or maybe U.S. citizens simply all started eating too much and exercising too little sometime around 1992 and the halving of male fertility is just a fluke (not quite halved – 1.7 children on average in 1992 dropped to 0.9 children on average between 2006-2010) *. Maybe. Coincidences do happen — and more and more often it seems in this modern era. But as I don’t believe in coincidences as much as I believe in evidence based science I’ll continue to avoid the toxins that I’ve become aware of and continue to work on sharing information about the underlying causes of health and wellness (the big secret is that functional bodies are made out of a balanced variety of all of the nutrients, {and a good night’s sleep and regular exercise and clean air and water}, rather than being made out of pharmaceuticals or toxins .)

*Excerpt from the last post:

  • Male fertility in 1992 was estimated to be at a rate of 1710 births per 1000 males on average (or 1.7 children per male aged 15-44) and 1960 births per every 1000 females (or 1.9 children per female aged 15-44). https://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0014.pdf
  • However either fertility has decreased or the desire to father children has decreased because the rate of children fathered by men aged 15-44 years in 2002 was at a rate of 1.0 children per male and the rate dropped yet more to 0.9 children per male aged 15-44 years between 2006-2010.  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf

A different excerpt (that was not included in the last post) suggests that fertility rates for females as well as males born in the U.S. may also have been affected because fertility rates were greater for Hispanic men and women who had moved to the U.S. compared to Hispanic women who were born in the U.S.:

“Looking at nativity, higher percentages of foreign-born Hispanic men and women had a child compared with those born in the United States. For foreign-born Hispanic women, 78% had a biological child compared with 51% of U.S.-born Hispanic women. The percentage of U.S.-born Hispanic women with a biological child is similar to that of white women.”  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf

The birth rate for Hispanic women and men was greater than for white women and men:

“Hispanic women are more likely to have had a biological child (65%) than non-Hispanic white women (52%), but there were no differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic black (62%) women. Meanwhile, a higher percentage of Hispanic men had a biological child (54%) compared with both white (41%) and black (49%) men.”   http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr051.pdf

If tradition is important to a person then it might be a good idea to start asking why our traditions are no longer working as they traditionally used to – maybe foreign born people have greater birth rates because their bodies are less full of toxins and less nutritionally depleted.

The primaries are finally over and I haven’t withdrawn from the 2016 presidential race – yet. I was waiting for the primary process before starting to campaign as an Independent candidate – but that was too long to wait. The current system favors the two main parties by spending so much time on the primaries. The timelines for ballot access are closing soon or have closed already in some states. [Utah] Write-in ballot access can be applied for in some areas within a month or two of the election. For a presidential candidate to apply for ballot access as a write-in candidate they need to file with the state and include a list of registered voters in the state who are willing to act as electoral representatives for the candidate and the name of the Vice Presidential candidate has to be given.

Writing in Bernie Sanders name on a ballot if he hasn’t filed with the state is most likely to get the whole ballot added to the ‘don’t count’ pile. Leaving a section blank and voting on other sections may reduce the risk of a ballot being added to the ‘don’t count’ pile.

My Presidential Platform is a plan to turn that “E” from a failing grade into an E for excellence.

  • Effective Health Care – a preventative healthcare, not-for profit single payer system.
  • Economy & more Green Jobs.
  • Environment & more Green Jobs.
  • End the War on Peace.
  • End Citizens United & reform campaign finance and voting transparency laws
  • Education — Repeal or rewrite the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top policies to create a public education system that promotes helping the child to maximize their own potential – whatever it is. — Require all under graduate education providers to teach evolution and a science based curriculum. — Reduce college tuition loan rates and work towards restoring public education subsidies for in state college tuition.

Effective health care and more Green Jobs for the Economy and Environment are all goals that reinforce each other — we can’t be healthy or very productive over the long term if our environment and food supply are too toxic to support health for us or our wildlife and farm animals and crops.

I will add links for more information regarding each of the platform categories.

Here’s the website with the page of 2017 data for the U.S.. Any of the countries can be chosen from a menu and displayed.  https://www.socialprogressindex.com/?tab=2&code=USA 

More about the organization and the Social Progress Index is available on another website. Collaboration and encouragement to make local level or special interest Indexes is part of the goal and examples of a youth index and regional index are available on the site.  http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/about-us-what-we-do/

Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes.