Current Events

Cause and Effect

Posted on September 11, 2025September 10, 2025 by simplebender

History wears many masks. To some, it is nothing more than a tidy chronology of people and events. To others, it is the triumphal record of victors praising themselves over the vanquished. But its critical purpose is deeper: a study of cause and effect, an unblinking analysis illuminating the consequences when we choose to forget.

Amnesia is accidental, an uncontrolled loss of memory. What we face today is not amnesia but willed forgetting — intentional oblivion, the deliberate distortion of our collective memory. History is not supposed to soothe or flatter. In its fullness, it unsettles even as it enlightens. It is conscience and compass, guide and warning. Once edited for convenience or neutered by policy, it ceases to be either. It becomes propaganda for the weak, a tool of control disguised as comfort and a noble past.

The danger of this willed forgetting is simple: when the past is edited, the future tends to repeat its horrors and evils. Obliterated memory opens the door to evil and foolish repetition. It allows reality to be twisted into fictions that serve those who want to manipulate and/or lack the courage to confront and learn from the past. We cannot forget that human beings were once legal property, subject, without recourse, to mental, physical, and sexual abuse at the will of their ‘owners’. It is too easy to forget that this country was built upon and continues to rely on the labor of immigrants. We cannot forget the mortality and misery of children before vaccines — iron lungs for polio, blindness and brain damage from measles, deafness from mumps, miscarriages from rubella. To erase these memories is to invite and hasten the return of these atrocities.

We must have the courage to stand in the breach against this intentional oblivion. To study history, its cause and effect, is to bear witness, to heed its cries so that the next generation is spared their toll. It is too easy to listen to policymakers who pander for power. Too easy to strip protections from the weakest among us. It’s too easy to erase artifacts, ban books, and redact textbooks, all in the name of comfort. We must not turn a blind eye or deaf ear to the cries of those lessons lest we allow the next generation to suffer the plagues that will insidiously creep in and take their toll.

But comfort is not progress. Memory, even painful memory, is the price of wisdom and freedom. If we genuinely want to move forward, we must resist the temptation to rewrite the past and accept instead the discomfort of truth. Only in remembering — fully, painfully, and honestly — can we avoid repeating what history has already judged too costly to endure. You must understand the past to plan your future. Don’t erase, modify, or twist history—learn from it. #NeverFearTheDream

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Current Events

Isolationism’s Price Tag: Self-Marginalization

Posted on September 6, 2025September 1, 2025 by simplebender

Isolationism is not simply folding one’s arms and turning inward. It is worse. It is an accelerant poured on the fire of realignments already underway. Today, American isolationist tendencies, packaged as “America First” or wrapped in tariff protection, are not just national policies; they are geopolitical catalysts. And those sparks are igniting a wildfire that pushes Europe and the BRICS nations closer together, while the United States drifts toward self-marginalization.

The European Union, long a stable and interdependent ally, is recalibrating. Reeling from broken treaties and facing generational tariffs on steel, autos, and manufactured goods _{(Financial Times, July 2025)}, Brussels is negotiating as if Washington is no longer a reliable partner. Free trade agreements with India and Mercosur are being revived, with trade deficits accepted as a form of diversification insurance_{(European Commission, 2024)}. Strategic forums like Weimar+ are asserting European security identity outside NATO’s shadow. EU leaders now warn against “lecturing” the Global South _{(European Council, 2025)}, recasting Europe as a multipolar broker rather than a U.S. dependent.

BRICS has seized the moment. Expanded to include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt, the bloc now represents nearly 47% of global GDP (PPP) and more than half of the world’s population _{(CFR, 2025)}. Intra-BRICS trade has surpassed flows with the G7 _{(BCG, 2024}), and new payment systems are being constructed to reduce dollar dependence. By mid-2025, dollar use in inter-BRICS trade had fallen to one-third of prior levels _{(AgWeb, 2025)}. China and India—the world’s largest food consumers—are securing long-term agricultural pacts with Brazil and Russia ^{_{(USDA, 2024)}}.

Once again, America’s rural farm belt is bearing the brunt. U.S. agricultural exports to China fell 17% in early 2025 _{(American Action Forum)}, while South American soy and Russian wheat dominate EU and Asian contracts _{(Financial Times, June 2025)}. Brazil alone shipped $106 billion in agricultural commodities in 2024, much of it bound for Asia under preferential trade agreements_{(USDA, 2024)}. The USDA forecasts a 25% decline in net farm income in 2025 _{(USDA ERS)}. Rural America, once the proud breadbasket of the world, is being replaced—collateral damage of shortsighted policies and shifting winds of trade.

It does not take much to project forward. The U.S., reliant on debt-driven consumption, faces narrowing options. If Europe deepens trade with BRICS, and BRICS solidifies internal financing systems, the U.S. risks exclusion from supply chains and capital flows. Dollar dominance will not collapse, but it will erode as alternatives gain trust. The industrial base is unprepared—hampered by high labor costs and neglected infrastructure. America risks becoming a secondary commodities market for EU and BRICS products while its traditional export advantages are sourced elsewhere.

Yet decline is not destiny. The U.S. still holds immense resources: the deepest capital markets, unmatched military power, and hubs of innovation in energy, biotech, and technology. But those strengths are not shields against mistrust. They cannot offset a strategy that drives allies and rivals alike toward new arrangements that deliberately exclude us.

America’s greatest risk is not sudden collapse but creeping irrelevance: farm towns hollowed, factories bypassed, financial hubs sidelined, and household debt climbing. Isolationism, sold as insolating protection, will instead isolate. In a world reorganizing outward, self-marginalization is the steepest price of all. #NeverFearTheDream

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Current Events

The Logic Trap of “Choice”: But Whose Choice?

Posted on September 4, 2025 by simplebender

Some communities insist no one has the right to tell you what goes into your body. Vaccine mandates for children? Eliminated. Parents, they say, should decide. Yet the same lawmakers ban abortion, declaring the state must dictate what goes into—or comes out of—a woman’s body. One breath they champion autonomy—“your body, your choice.” The next, they revoke it. That is the hypocrisy of their own making: a logic trap.

This is hubris—elevating choice above consequence until the reckoning arrives. By enthroning autonomy in one case and crushing it in another, political positions collapse under their own contradictions.

The deeper problem is not hypocrisy alone, but the refusal to face consequences. If a sick, unvaccinated child infects another and death follows, is that so different from a parent choosing to end a pregnancy? Both are questions of prevention—or its absence. Both end in the loss of life. Stripped of rhetoric, the moral arithmetic is the same.

Plato’s Ship of State reminds us that freedom without shared responsibility is not freedom but chaos. To let each untrained helmsman steer as he pleases is to wreck the vessel and drown all aboard. Vaccine “freedom” follows the same course: individual choice unmoored from collective duty imperils the innocent.

Abortion bans claim to “protect life.” Yet removing vaccine safeguards erodes the very protections that preserve the living. Both paths, meant to uphold life, may instead hasten its loss. Vaccination is not solely a personal decision; it is an act of care for the vulnerable child who cannot choose. To shrug it off is to clearly echo and exclaim the denial: “I am not my brother’s keeper.” That is tragedy—outcome born of blindness to consequence.

If morality is to mean anything, it cannot be applied with one hand and denied with the other. If a child who is unable to be vaccinated dies from exposure, who bears responsibility? The parents of the unvaccinated infecting child? The government that stripped safeguards? The community that endorsed it? Those who hold women accountable for abortion, especially those who are rape victims, cannot escape this parallel dilemma. Freedom framed as virtue but practiced as refusal to protect another is no virtue at all. Either the body is inviolable, or it is not. Either life is sacred in all forms, or it is not. Pretending otherwise is meant to satisfy a political base, but it cannot withstand the test of reason—or history. #NeverFearTheDream

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Current Events

Federal Extortion Tax

Posted on September 1, 2025August 29, 2025 by simplebender

First Published in the Bend Bulletin 8/29/25

The world’s expectation of the United States has shifted—and with it, the nation’s business climate. In recent months, the U.S. has altered long-standing treaty commitments, reduced foreign aid, and extended cordiality toward governments once deemed global pariahs. But what’s unfolding domestically may be worse: an extortion tax on America’s innovators and businesses.

New Gatekeepers of Innovation: Universities—the cradle of U.S. invention—are under pressure not just to meet academic standards but to bend to the political and financial whims of federal funding agencies. The current administration recently invoked the Bayh–Dole Act to demand that Harvard disclose all patents tied to federally funded research and justify their use. Officials threaten to seize or relicense patents if unsatisfied. Harvard holds more than 5,800 such patents, making the scope of this action unprecedented in modern U.S. research policy. It also ignores the principles behind a patent, which is to protect the holder from infringement and allow unfettered use for their chosen purpose.

This follows similar disputes in which Columbia paid over $220 million and Brown about $50 million to settle federal claims tied to research funding. While the Bayh–Dole Act technically allows such interventions, the tactic has rarely been used to this degree and is viewed by critics as an intimidation lever—discouraging innovation rather than protecting the public interest. Federal funding for university research has already fallen 18% between 2011 and 2021, placing the U.S. 27th among OECD nations relative to GDP.

The result: private investors could increasingly control university-generated intellectual property, profiting when it suits them—or worse, foreign research entities could surpass U.S. capabilities entirely.

Corporate Pay-to-Play: The private sector is not immune. Under the Hart–Scott–Rodino Act, mergers above set thresholds must pay filing fees ranging from $30,000 to over $2.3 million. These fees are predictable; the new problem is the creeping insertion of ideological conditions into merger approvals.

In one recent case, the Federal Trade Commission considered requiring merging companies to pledge not to boycott platforms based on political content. The Federal Communications Commission has also been accused of pressing telecom firms to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in exchange for approval. Such moves transform regulatory review from market oversight into ideological enforcement.

Tribute for Trade: Meanwhile, domestic companies face conflicting regulations, shifting markets, and tariffs imposed without transparent justification. Tariffs—already a hidden tax—are now coupled with the specter of requiring companies to share a percentage of revenues or profits to secure an export license. While no such policy is yet on the books, the idea mirrors the royalty extraction models of state-controlled economies. It would not just reduce profitability; it could drive companies to cede markets to foreign competitors.

From Rhetoric to Reality: For an administration elected on promises of being “pro-business” and “cutting regulations,” these actions move in the opposite direction. They discourage innovation, deter mergers, burden trade, and concentrate control in the hands of government gatekeepers. This is not the free-market leadership America once championed—it is a pay-to-play extortion system closer to the state-ownership models of authoritarian regimes and organized crime—what wonderful examples to replicate for a government of the people. Just hope someone with integrity is keeping track of the extorted money. #NeverFearTheDream

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Current Events

America: The Debtor Consumer Nation

Posted on August 29, 2025August 28, 2025 by simplebender

Perfect storms don’t appear overnight. They brew over years, with shifting conditions that slowly build into turbulent waves and headwinds. Our financial storm is no different. Patience and persistence—not quick fixes for political gain or to placate an impatient electorate—are the only means to weather it.

After World War II, America emerged as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. In 1950, four in ten workers were employed in manufacturing or farming. Today, it is fewer than one in ten. Urban centers now dominate public policy, with four urban residents for every one rural—compared to 1.4 to 1 in 1950. Over the same period, private debt ballooned from $142 billion to nearly $49 trillion, while our national debt-to-GDP ratio climbed from 0.9 to 4.0—among the highest in the developed world, worse even than Greece before its IMF bailout. By IMF criteria, the U.S. now checks multiple distress boxes: soaring debt, accelerating accumulation, vast unfunded liabilities, and a widening deficit. We are a nation of consumers, not producers, and we have run a trade deficit every year since 1960.

The irony is stark. In 2001, the federal budget posted a $128 billion surplus, with forecasts indicating that the national debt would be entirely retired by 2009. Two decades later, we face a $1.7 trillion deficit and a $33 trillion debt. Tax cuts have increased the debt-to-GDP ratio by 37%, boosted spending by 33%, and added another 28% to COVID-era responses. Seventy-seven percent of the debt increase is attributed to bipartisan legislation, as federal spending rose from 17% of GDP to 23%, while revenue fell from 19% to 16%.

These are the numbers. They reveal a storm that has been decades in the making. The U.S. is unlikely to reverse course quickly, as we lack the necessary manufacturing infrastructure, globally competitive wages, or political appetite to balance spending with revenue. If 2001 tax and spending levels had been maintained, the debt picture would look radically different. But we didn’t, and we can’t go back. We’ve now doubled down, and Congress has passed legislation that is projected to add another $3 trillion to the debt while concurrently cutting social and international support programs. The cost of these programs is now the burden of each state. Some will shoulder their share, others will opt not to, at the detriment of their citizens.

The way forward will not be painless. Gutting agencies or waging trade wars won’t solve structural imbalances. We will face difficult choices, including the scope of social welfare programs, military commitments, and global engagement. To remain respected, we cannot retreat behind walls of protectionism—we will need cooperation from allies while we put our house in order.

Ultimately, the national problem mirrors the personal one. Our culture of instant gratification and debt-driven consumption cannot be sustained. Just as households must learn to live within their means, so too must the nation. It will take time, sacrifice, and discipline to undo decades of drift toward becoming a debtor nation of consumers that we are now. #NeverFearTheDream

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Current Events

Faceless Justice:

Posted on August 24, 2025 by simplebender

When did masks shift from villains to “authorities”?

If you're doing good you shouldn't have to hide behind a mask....

When I was a kid, masks were for the bad guys. Bandits in Westerns, bank robbers with bandanas, the Klan hiding under white hoods, and the muggers in dark alleys. A mask meant you didn’t want to be recognized because you were doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Evil hid its face. Goodness walked in daylight.

But now? Somewhere along the way, the script flipped. Those we were told to trust—law enforcement, federal agents—have adopted the mask. Acting with impunity, ICE officers are staging “operations,” Homeland Security agents are sweeping into neighborhoods, even U.S. Marshals and Border Patrol units, all with faces hidden. They now resemble the masked members of Patriot Front or Blood Tribe. Once respected symbols of authority, they are now appearing faceless, anonymous, and interchangeable. Supporters argue that the masks protect officers from retaliation or online targeting, but to the rest of us, it appears to be a means to avoid scrutiny and shirk accountability.

The claim is they’re targeting “the worst of the worst.” That phrase is supposed to conjure violent criminals, cartel bosses, or human traffickers. Yet the data tells a different story: government data shows that the majority — often well over half, approaching 70%—of ICE detainees have no criminal record at all. They’re being seized at immigration hearings where they’ve come voluntarily, pursued through farm fields, even pulled from schools and churches. They are NOT gunmen. Not the “worst of the worst.” They are just the easy ones. The soft targets. The ones who won’t shoot back.

Which raises the uncomfortable questions: do the masks hide fear, or shame? Fear of retaliation if they went after actual hardened criminals? Shame at arresting the powerless in the most public and humiliating of ways? Or maybe the mask makes it easier to see human beings as quotas instead of neighbors. Is this about public safety—or about hitting administrative numbers?

It’s a bitter irony. The only true ‘good guys’ who still wear masks today are doctors and firefighters. Their anonymity is a sacrifice, not secrecy. They shield their faces not to hide, but to protect and survive, thereby shielding others. That’s the difference. One mask hides identity to avoid accountability; the other shields life in the service of it.

The lesson is as old as childhood morality tales: if you hide your face to do your work, maybe, just maybe, it’s the kind of work that shouldn’t be done in the first place.

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Current Events

The Next Workforce: Undocumented

Posted on August 17, 2025August 18, 2025 by simplebender

We stand on the edge, about to return to a dark period in our history—not the chains of the plantation, but a new form of labor, forged in law and sanitized by policy. Its roots are not in the Lost Cause but in Jim Crow, born of a single parenthetical phrase. It sits there in plain sight, unhidden, and dangerous—a legal justification waiting to be revived.

13th Amendment to the United States Constitution:
“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

That loophole was not an afterthought. It was demanded and defended to secure the Amendment’s ratification in 1865. Southern states then weaponized it through convict leasing and chain gangs. A practice some want to pretend didn’t happen and want to erase or bury in vague history—as if it never really happened.

The logic is chillingly simple. Every undocumented entrant violates Federal law. First entry: misdemeanor. Re-entry: felony. The 13th doesn’t distinguish — a crime is a crime. Increasingly, arrests occur without warrants, and detentions blur the line of due process, regardless of the circumstances. Traditionally, the punishment has been deportation. However, deportation leaves a labor vacuum in construction, agriculture, manufacturing, and other services. A clear economic disaster and ample justification for yet another ‘National Emergency.’ The temptation is obvious: why expel “criminals” when you can harness their labor?

Congress has never summoned the courage to erase this parenthetical. For 160 years, the loophole has endured. A handful of States have purged it from their constitutions, but the Federal version reigns supreme. If it is exploited again, it could be a mix of State and Federal sponsored incarcerated labor. We’ve lacked the fortitude to change it, and now may pay the price for our lack of conviction and foresight.

The path forward isn’t clear—it could be problematic, but it doesn’t have to be. Rather than arresting, deporting, or conscripting, let’s build America’s future upon the hopes, dreams, and passion all of us have to offer. But that isn’t history’s pattern. And history’s show never ends—it simply changes costumes.

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Current Events

Uniquely American: Civil Discord and Disobedience

Posted on June 10, 2025June 10, 2025 by simplebender

Ideas can wound more deeply than fists—their scars often outlast bruises. But dissent isn’t treason; it’s the American expectation. The audacity to voice a contrarian view without fear of punishment was once a defining feature of our national character. That freedom, that courage, is slipping.

A fundamental right is to stand, speak, write, or peacefully protest what you believe is wrong. It’s a moral responsibility at the core of our civic being. It is how we started. As Americans, it is who we are.

Yes, this right has been repeatedly abused and suppressed: during the Civil Rights Movement, LGBTQ advocacy, and Black Lives Matter protests. These weren’t our proudest moments—they were our failures. And yet, we are better than those moments. And we are better because of them. Just as we should be better than today’s attempts to silence pro-Palestinian and pro-Ukrainian voices, or to weaponize immigration enforcement.

Yes, public safety matters. And yes, misinformation can be dangerous, especially when weaponized at scale. But the line between protection and suppression is perilously thin. When fear becomes a rationale for silencing protest, we drift toward authoritarianism under the guise of security.

But let me be honest. I write this as someone of privilege—a white male in the dominant race and gender. I’ve never feared for my safety when expressing my views. I’ve never had to calculate the cost of speaking out to simply be heard. That insulation is not universal. And acknowledging that it is the least I can do.

The truly brave are those who speak anyway, knowing the risks. Minorities are demanding the rights that this country claims to guarantee. Immigrants who were escaping violence and chasing a future are thrust back into violence. And yet, their domestic complicit employers are not subject to the heavy hand of the law. The Pro-Palestinian voices speaking into the silence of global indifference as their homeland, their homeland of generations, is taken and broken, and their families are indiscriminately killed and starved. And even those supporting Ukraine as it fiercely defends its children and its homeland from slaughter by an invading army.

They are the ones carrying this nation’s conscience forward. They take the blows, not for fame or ideology, but for survival and dignity. The road to a better America is paved by those who get off the couch and speak out through civil dialogue, discord, and yes, disobedience.

This country grows not by force, but by engagement. We will be stronger when those in power trade masks and riot gear for open conversation—and when fabricated, non-existent, dystopian, national “emergencies” are no longer used to justify suppression. When we are afraid to speak out, the words of others fill the void, becoming all that is heard. When those of us who can speak don’t, we become complicit in the decay. The slide is ours to stop; or ours to be held accountable.

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Current Events

History Is Screaming—To Be Heard

Posted on May 31, 2025May 30, 2025 by simplebender

Never forget the long shadow of history….

The echoes of history serve as powerful lessons of the consequences of forgetting our past. Throughout time, humanity has faced recurring challenges that, when ignored, tend to repeat themselves in devastating ways.

History’s lessons are written in the experiences of those who came before us. The Holocaust victims’ voices scream to remind us that unchecked hatred and persecution can lead to unimaginable human suffering. And yet, some of their descendants are perpetrators of similar horror.

Similarly, the suppression of academic freedom, knowledge, and the rule of law under totalitarian regimes like those of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot warns us about the dangers of attacking educational systems, free thought, and the judiciary. Universities and professors aren’t the enemy–closed minds are. The constant drone of verbal assaults, threats, and misinformation is fueling the flames of unfounded fears, conspiracies, and vile responses. We, as a society, must value and protect our educational institutions. They play a key role in preserving the lessons of history and challenging minds with ideas they may have never considered. Each of us has a part to play in this preservation, making us all integral to the process.

Our democratic foundations were carefully crafted to balance power– to protect against excesses of powers by any of the three equal branches–and require constant vigilance to maintain. When we fail to understand or conveniently ignore these principles, we risk eroding constitutional values that have guided our nation. This becomes especially critical as we witness the rise of polarization, intolerance, and power grabs in modern politics, governance, and civil discourse. Our founders are screaming for us to pay attention and have the courage they had to stand up, speak out, and protect our representative republic, its Constitution, and the separation of powers. It’s our responsibility to uphold these values and engage in the democratic process.

Even in matters of public health, historical lessons prove invaluable. The victims of diseases like polio and measles are screaming to remind us of their pain and suffering, and why scientific advancement and vaccination programs are so crucial to public health. Forgetting these lessons puts us at risk of reversing decades of medical progress and witnessing once again the senseless spread of controllable illness.

Our global standing and leadership role depend upon our ability to learn from history. When we abandon our ideals and integrity for short-term self-interest, we risk losing our international influence and the core values that have defined us as a nation. The sacrifice of fallen soldiers for these values stands as a testament to what we stand to lose when we forget our history. Those who were injured or gave the ultimate sacrifice were never “losers” or “suckers”, they are heroes, and they too must be screaming in disgust at our division and loss of integrity. To those serving, those who served, and the families who lost loved ones, we should all say: ‘Thank you for our Freedom.’ Learning from history isn’t just about memorizing dates and events – it’s about understanding patterns, recognizing warning signs, and making informed decisions that prevent us from repeating past mistakes. Choose to forget and risk repetition, and the perpetuation of the retribution and retaliation cycle. When we ignore history’s lessons, we don’t just dishonor the past; we compromise our future.

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Current Events

Mental Health—Talk About IT

Posted on May 16, 2025May 15, 2025 by simplebender

Everyone knows someone suffering from mental health issues, yet we’re too afraid to talk about it—and may not even know it. There are no minor mental health issues—some may be more acute than others, but all can become dangerously serious. From depression to suicidal thoughts, from dementia to delusional episodes, from feelings of worthlessness to exaggerated ego driven narcissism—mental illness surrounds us in all its variations.

This health crisis extends far beyond individuals. It impacts every family, community, and nation, yet we discuss the 725 people with measles in Texas more than the millions facing mental health challenges. Perhaps this is because measles and other infectious diseases can be controlled with vaccines and common sense. Mental health, however, remains an insidious challenge with no simple cure and few willing to discuss it.

Mental health conditions are indiscriminate in whom they affect. They’ve silently taken down elite athletes, brilliant minds, and everyday people alike. The impacts rarely make headlines but invariably stigmatize both those affected and their families. Why can we freely discuss a broken bone but not a troubled mind?

We readily discuss curable conditions because we can envision their end. While science continues making remarkable advances in physical health and immune therapy, mental health issues remain stubbornly resistant to consistent solutions, despite ongoing research. Watching someone navigate life with a physical disability can inspire us. Yet watching someone struggle with mental illness often makes us uncomfortable and frequently goes unrecognized.

Starting today and every day forward, commit to facing mental health challenges openly and bravely. Don’t shy away, no matter how uncomfortable it feels. Whether confronting depression, Alzheimer’s, dementia, suicide, or any other mental health condition—approach it with compassion. It isn’t easy. People you love may change, and you’ll both struggle to find them through the fog. Don’t add to their burden—help lighten their load in whatever way you can.

If you notice someone with a semicolon tattoo, acknowledge their struggle or that of their loved one. This simple symbol gains profound meaning when understood—just as mental health does when confronted openly rather than hidden from view.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month….Step Up and Speak Out for those who struggle to……..

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