July 21, 2017

Phil Beaver works to establish opinion when the-objective-truth has not been discovered. He seeks to refine his opinion by listening when people share experiences and observations. The comment box below invites readers to write.

Note 1:  I often dash words in phrases in order to express and preserve an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth despite possible error. In other words, a person expresses his “belief,” knowing he or she could be in error. People may collaboratively approach the-objective-truth.
 
 Note 2: It is important to note "civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for the people more than for the city.
 
A personal paraphrase of the preamble by & for Phil Beaver:  Willing people in our state routinely, voluntarily collaborate for comprehensive safety and security: continuity (for self, children, grandchildren & beyond), integrity (both fidelity and wholeness),  justice (freedom-from oppression), defense (prevent or constrain harm), prosperity (acquire the liberty-to pursue choices), privacy (responsibly discover & pursue personal goals), lawfulness (obey the law and reform injustices); and to preserve and cultivate the rule of law for the USA’s service to the people in their states.
 
Composing their own paraphrase, citizens may consider the actual preamble and perceive whether they are willing or dissident toward the preamble.  
   

Our Views (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_19692fa4-6beb-11e7-81dd-efd908126917.html)

My purpose is to always envision and express a better future than what's evident.

“But service after the sale also ought to be on the minds of Broome and other officials. The long-term causes of blight must be addressed, with a focus on suppressing crime and building up community assets for residents — not least quality schools, churches and other social institutions.”

Churches may be on The Advocate’s agenda and Mayor Broome’s agenda, but I oppose the involvement of municipal funds in churches. Gods, as humankind knows them, are intellectual constructs people use to impose opinions on other people. (Beware Together Baton Rouge and other minister coalitions.)

Rely on people who are willing to mutually, iteratively collaborate for living according to the-objective-truth or better; and perhaps constrain public interests within the purpose and goals of the agreement offered in the preamble to the constitution for the USA. They are easy to identify, because they never lie to you and thereby you know the people who are willing to establish comprehensive safety and security.

Perhaps public-education funds would be better spent to motivate and coach students to learn rather than to satisfy adults who inculcate, administrate, and invest. Solid information is available on the Internet, and children are served better by determination to learn than by inculcation of dominant opinion. A better future is attainable.

  

Today’s thought, G.E. Dean (Revelation 11:7,15, CJB).

“When they finish their witnessing, the beast coming up out of the Abyss will fight against them, overcome them and kill them. The seventh angel sounded his shofar; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah, and he will rule forever and ever!’”

Dean says “Count on this. God wins!

The voices in heaven seem involved in a debate as to whether the Lord and “his Messiah” are mysteriously the same. But that point may be obscure or blasphemous to Dean’s purpose.

Letters.

Replacing monuments (Steingraber). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_0b7bcdc0-6bf5-11e7-883d-8b6abd15c51d.html)

To David Naccari: All four sites may be left as they are as a reminder of Mitch Landrieu’s perhaps immoral judgement. A cost-saving, more moral option is to restore three of the monuments with plaques that witness to the American people’s triumph over “more erroneous religious belief.” (Also, see Walter Williams’ column today.) After all, if by fiat the monument to Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken down, the people of New Orleans could restore it.

A couple points about Abraham Lincoln. History informs my view that he was a great orator and politician but not so moral. Like other politicians, he used God constructs to impose opinion on the public. Matthew S. Holland (thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/03/14580/) seems to like God constructs and Lincoln’s appeal to civic “bonds of our affection.”

I prefer appreciation as a precursor to both respect and affection. Thus, I appreciate my neighbor for living in concord with comprehensive safety and security. I do not feel inclined to encroach neighbors’ privacy in order to establish respect and affection. I work to preserve the privacy of my best friend and never repeat what is shared beyond public interest.

The awful results of the Civil War and his own tragedies wounded Lincoln so severely that his second inaugural addressed God more directly than the first. “God” appears thrice in the second and none in the first, which employs “the Almighty Ruler of Nations,” perhaps military power and, in the second inaugural, following reference to Christianity, “Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land.” Lincoln’s mysterious political correctness was amazing.

My choice of Lincoln words for 2017 civic morality are in the first inaugural:

“Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.”

This came one month after the CSA had seceded from the USA claiming the North held “a more erroneous religious belief.” The CSA attacked six week later despite a seven states to twenty-seven states and formidable military disadvantage. I think Lincoln could have been more explicit in stating the military advantage and in urging religious restraint.

  

Elected officials (Pulliam). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_b33c7b76-6bf1-11e7-ad60-e35034c31bb2.html)

I agree: big money should not be allowed. Contrary to Blackstone opinion and the US Supreme Court majority opinion, an institution is not a person. And their agents do not act with wisdom and “love of justice” to “best discern the true interest of [the USA].”

However, I do not support: Elected officials “are to vote the will of their constituents.” In the first place, the constituents are diverse and in conflict. In the second, democratic government is ruinous, and that is why the USA is a republic.
 

James Madison explained the American system in Federalist 10:

“The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest. The effect of the first difference is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose.”

Thus, the Federalist 10 expectation is that the elected official has wisdom and “love of justice” to “best discern the true interest of their country.”

   

Democracy (Mickey, July 20). (http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_e97efd52-6bf2-11e7-9190-3f818d0ed074.html)

To Matthew White: You express part of the problem; liberal democrats’ reading of the dictionary does not specify the USA. The preamble to the constitution for the USA reports the purpose and aims for willing citizens. The amendable articles that follow the preamble specify the branches of government and statutory law that constrains office holders in willing people’s ineluctable quest for civic justice.

 

Just now, Hillary Clinton serves in her rightful role as sovereign citizen, thanks to the Electoral College and candidate Donald Trump's strategic, arduous pursuit of the majority of states' representatives. Trump won at least 84% of counties. Liberal democrats brag that Clinton won 489 counties rather than 57---out of 3115! See factcheck.org/2016/12/clinton-counties/. I hope someday liberal democrats will comprehend and appreciate the USA's republican government more than the dictionary's idea.

 

It helps other countries' quests for civic justice for Americans to know that democracy propaganda touting the right to vote is no indication. A country does not advance justice merely because the citizens may vote. Not only may elections be rigged, but popular vote promises tyranny more than civic justice. Even George W. Bush spread the "vote means justice" propaganda:  I was incredulous. See ned.org/remarks-by-president-george-w-bush-at-the-20th-anniversary/ .

Civic justice answers to the-objective-truth, whether the people like it or not, and willing people collaborate to conform to the-objective-truth. For example, public smoking kills non-smokers, 41,000 deaths per year in the USA, whether the smoker likes it or not. The unwilling faction of the people are dissenters, intentionally or not. You express dissent.

 

However, ignoring the Electoral College, as you have in this thread, will not help dissenters. Nor will neglecting the almost identical democracy-spoiler in Congress help the liberal democrats.

  

To Matthew White again: Interesting. In a thread I did not expect, I've gone from dumbass to condescending in just five hours.

 

If by "condescending" you had meant "works hard to be understood," I'd agree with you. Alas, you don't realize I am only conversing based on hard-earned understanding (personal integrity). I seek to advance my understanding to public integrity, which requires collaboration---dialogue---conversation--talk.

 

I think there's value in exploring your "false dichotomy." Obviously, by virtue of the republican form of government, Donald Trump is President of the USA rather than the popular vote winner, Hillary Clinton: The democratic-vote lost. However, there seems to be something that is false: Perhaps it is not democracy.

Wayne Varnado · Phil Beaver "responsible liberal" is that even possible?

Yes indeed. A responsible liberal thinks like this:

He and friend are in the Gulf of Mexico with the shoreline in sight and three-foot waves breaking overhead. After twenty-minutes swim toward shore they agree they are being carried out. The friend gives lessons in floating, but the breaking waves interfere with the learning experience.

  

After about fifteen minutes coughing up salt water he envisions drowning a better option. Sitting on that sandy bottom seems mighty tempting. But he thinks: My friend will drown trying to save me. He learns to time the breaks for a quick, full exhale then inhale. A pilot spots them and picks them up.

  

That true story is a metaphor for living. The highest passion is to take care of your own life in civic justice. Fiscal conservative and responsible liberal go hand in hand.

In the interest of deeper understanding (more than preaching or condescension): I try to make the most of dialogue for comprehensive safety and security, in other words, civic morality. It is not easy. Your sincere question was creative. Iterative collaboration is constructive: conflict to establish dominant opinion is ruinous.

Perhaps the political-party system is ruinous. Perhaps the USA would improve if most citizens accepted the public agreement offered in the preamble to the constitution for the USA. Thereby, citizens divide: those who are willing to iteratively collaborate for comprehensive safety and security vs dissidents who battle for dominant opinion for reasons, some comprehended, some not.

Trump on “buy American” (Hinojosa). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_8a9912aa-6bf7-11e7-9269-07966ffc651f.html)

I agree in principle and bet President Trump agrees as well. However, entrepreneurs cannot and therefore do not revise operations suddenly. They make changes in increments so as to survive and so as to give employees time to adjust.

Walter Williams covers the principle respecting the USA recovering from the fact that Africa, Arabia, and Europe imposed African slavery on the colonies. When the thirteen British colonies changed their style to states, declared independence, won the war, and ratified the Treaty of Paris that named thirteen free and independent states, they discovered in three years time that they might not survive that way.

They were eight slave states with five slave states and needed to establish a nation. Some people wanted to emancipate the African slaves. However, neither returning them to Africa nor turning them out like orphans was feasible. Therefore, they compromised to end the African slave trade in 20 years, let Congress represent the slave at 3/5 per slave, and depend on future people for emancipation.

When the slave-states ratio lessened to 15:19 instead of 8:5, emancipation came. After the CSA's "more erroneous religious belief" that inspired them to fire on the USA, the god of emancipation was military power.

Politicians protect themselves (Theriot). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_8b7385ee-6bf6-11e7-acd7-6b91745e3e5d.html)

I agree. I don’t know the connections, but politicians act in their own interests. Thus, the favor to nursing homes traces back to politicians. Referring to McQuitty's post, political regimes bemuse the people so that they don't grasp collaboration for mutual civic morality. The people don't realize that much as a person must work for financial liberty, he or she must also work for comprehensive safety and security---for their own self-interest---so as to constrain the dissidents. Clearly we, the people is divided: the willing vs the dissidents.

Because most people are not willing to collaborate for civic justice, it is very difficult for the people who are willing to iteratively collaborate for comprehensive safety and security to elect statesmen: People with the wisdom and integrity to act in the best interest of the people in their state and for their nation, the USA.

Many Americans are influenced by the delusion that only God and government will deliver civic justice. The people who propose that justice can only come from the people are suppressed by the political regimes. (See Abraham Lincoln's claim about "ultimate justice" on March 4, 1861.)

The 2/3 of delegates who signed the draft constitution for the USA offered the agreement stated in the preamble that civic justice would be established and maintained by willing people more than by the states. That is, the Confederation of States would be replaced with Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 vision, governance of, by, and for willing people. One third of delegates were dissidents.

 
The first Congress, in 1789, reestablished governance under theism by hiring legislative chaplains. They advanced religion, an institution, rather than thought, a personal duty, in the First Amendment, ratified in 1791. Subsequently, regimes labeled the preamble “secular” whereas it is neutral to religion.

 
By traditional propaganda, July 4, 1776 is regarded as the nation’s birthday, and the celebration is used to impose theism on the inhabitants. However, on January 8, 1784, the Treaty of Paris was ratified in agreement that there were thirteen free and independent states.

 
Nine of those states established the USA on June 21, 1788. Four states then had the option to join the USA or remain free and independent, perhaps maintain a smaller Confederation of States to compete with the USA.

 
From June 21, 2017 forward, we plan to celebrate Personal Independence Day to commemorate the USA’s birthday. We hope many citizens will join this wonderful opportunity to promote iterative collaboration for mutual freedom from oppression so that each citizen may responsibly acquire the liberty to pursue personal preferences rather than ideals imposed by someone else, past or present.

Rising seas (O’Bryon, July 15). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_e7c0e582-6591-11e7-83ad-9b65a5595b32.html)

Phil Beaver You can count on using the actual data to make the best decisions. Your solution is to do nothing and hope for the best.

Jay Sellers Not at all. My solution is to take charge of personal future rather than count on God or government.

Maybe you missed my post with "People who live in known or predicable flood areas would be prudent to move to higher ground or elevate their home if access is elevated or drains fast after flooding."

Similarly, if temperatures do not typically cycle, prudent people will have shade trees in strategic locations and other such provisions.

My back yard, which is sloped, is washing after thirty-five years residence here. I am sprigging it with a grass substitute that has a thick, 2"-3" root system and likes full sun as well as shade. Because I am using only what I own, it will take perhaps five years to see the consequence of my work.

  

Columns. (The fiction/non-fiction comments gallery for readers)

  

Traitor or alien? (Walter Williams) townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2017/07/19/slavery-n2355971

President Barack Obama’s most egregious propaganda is that slavery is “America’s original sin,” whereas America is a victim of African slavery. He said the constitution “was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery.” constitutioncenter.org/amoreperfectunion/docs/Race_Speech_Transcript.pdf

Readers who would like to understand how wrong Obama seems may get a factual overview from Williams’ column.

Country deserves better (Eugene Robinson). creators.com/read/walter-williams/06/17/were-confederate-generals-traitors

I oppose Robinson’s premise. A people get what they work for. Americans work for dominant political opinion and the consequence is chaos.

I voted for candidate Trump in my state primary and wrote that it would take him three years to grasp how to get the job done. My perception was that the other GOP candidates had a plan: Same old same old.

My perception was that Barack Obama, Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton, Donna Brazile, and Hillary Clinton were so corrupt the people could not sustain another four to eight years of their dissident power.

 

Somalia nightmare (Michael Gerson) washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-look-inside-the-unfolding-nightmare-in-somalia/2017/07/17/aceb0ec0-6b12-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.01d70127789b

It is a relief to read Gerson with no more than a slight to President Trump: “The Trump administration is correct to insist that, in cases such as this, hard power is foundational.” The USA has not withdrawn from the United Nations, so I regard Gerson’s comment as willfully honest---no integrity.

He may have implied that the administration should regard Somalia with heart, passion and money.

The USA is a big contributor to the United Nations, and I am satisfied with two commitments: 1) to the UN and 2) to people in other countries to manage their local government. Also, I do not boycott companies that support philanthropy.

  

I urge the USA to stop abusing its own children. Our abuse of children is tops among industrialized nations.

  

Phil Beaver does not “know” the-indisputable-facts. He trusts and is committed to the-objective-truth of which most is undiscovered and some is understood. He is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, education non-profit corporation. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com.