Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Over a decade ago, there was a science fiction film called Serenity. It was based on a brief television series call Firefly. While its time ‘on the air’ was short, in comparison to other properties like Star Wars, Star Trek, and others, it still had the ability to provoke some serious questions about the real world it took it cue from. One of those questions was bluntly asked by one of the side characters (a stand in for most religious clergy around the world) to the main protagonist (an archetype anti-hero ‘space cowboy’) when he was having a moment of crisis: Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: “Ah hell, Shepherd, I ain't looking for help from on high. That's a long wait for a train don't come.” Shepherd Book: “When I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?” Later in the story, as the Shepherd was dying in the arms of the Captain, he uttered these words with his last breath: Shepherd Book: I don't care what you believe in, just believe in it. As much as some would like to believe otherwise, we as humans are defined by ability to have faith, whether it be in each other or some other intangible purpose. The adage that ‘Faith moves Mountains,’ is very much true, as it also alters the course of rivers and allows us to observe and harness the very fabric of the Universe we live in. Moreover, it is the underlying principle that defines every civilization that mankind has founded – from People’s Republic to Republic, and Monarchy to Democracy. So when there appears ‘cracks in the civil structure’, one has to make sure that the underlying faith is merely strained or bruised, and not shattered and broken. No amount of fear and suppression, or bread and circuses, will be able to replace that lost faith. I have been reminded of that these last few weeks here in the U.S., as folks at places like CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and others appear to be perplexed at the state of political affairs. They seem to not understand why ‘their people’ are not revered as they once were and why they cannot seem to sway the general populace as they once had. They act as if they were able to ban certain ‘heretics’ from speaking in public or private forums, people would ‘come around’. I do believe that they will be asking that question, time and time again, after the November 2018 and 2020 elections here in the U.S., and in other places in the world. Yet, I do have trepidation as to what will come of groups like this, as they attempt to hold on to what power they perceive to have. If nothing else, we could see a spike in political violence, as evidenced in Brazil earlier this week. But viewing it from the long lens of history, it could be like the last few Emperors of Rome, fighting to retain some sort of ‘order’ as the barbarians sweep into Europe. The last emperor could only watch as the Seven Hills of Rome were sacked, for the faith of general populace had long faded, and the treasury was exhausted from the last vestiges of bread and circuses. Much could be said for the Emperors of China, from their seat in Beijing and elsewhere – whether it was the Mongols, the Manchu, or simply a host of foreign invaders. So as the Dawn 21st Century fades to the mid century, what will be said about the powers to be Beijing, Moscow, Washington D.C. and elsewhere will every much hinge on how much faith they are held in by the people that they are supposed to govern. Woe to those that say out loud, “Why don’t they believe us?” st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}This is never a substitute for any government that wants to stay in power. It either has the faith of the people or it does not. There is no in-between.

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 What is the old quote from Mao that has been misconstrued by a good deal of ‘Progressives’ over the years? “Women hold up half the sky.” I am reminded of this after seeing articles about the ‘humorous’ t-shirt from an American store called ‘Old Navy’ (picture included with this article). As the picture implies, there is an attitude with a good deal of progressives in the western world that the ‘Nuclear Family’ (i.e. one father, one mother to raise a child) is a standard that must be torn down to usher a new utopian Marxist society. However, when it comes to Chinese Society, and the powers to be in Beijing, there is a sense of disgust when witnessing the multigenerational results of such attitude in Europe, North America, and elsewhere in the world. For if only women are holding up the sky, and the men are allowed to so what they please, then the ‘skies are falling’ for the children raised in such chaos. What were once prosperous societies are nothing more than shells of themselves, utterly dependent on a dwindling group of responsible adults to maintain a level of comfort that would be considered no more than ghettos by Chinese standards. So to all fathers that are reading these words, stand tall during this day and in all days that your children live, from their birth to your death. Raise your children to understand the responsibly that come with being a parent, so that they can raise their children with confidence as well. Do not be deterred by fools, especially fools with no children of their own, that claim that men are not needed to raise children. Many societies over the years have tried to do so, and they have all crumbled as the sky collapsed over them. So, as you look into the eyes of your child or children, make sure they see a man who is willing to hold back the very heavens itself to make sure they have at least of modicum of a good life. st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}"Humor" T-Shirt on being a Dad

If it has not been too apparent, I have not spent a good deal of time here at the China Daily BBS the last couple months. Not going to lie, I have grown curious about another website called Minds.com, which has been quietly gathering a good amount of content creators and quite a good sized audience. It has been interesting to see the reaction of some of those there to my archive of old articles that I have published over the years at various sites, like this BBS. Suffice to say, I am not going to be abandoning the China Daily, as others are doing with Facebook. However, it is always good to have more than one basket to store one's eggs - as the old saying goes. Will be interesting to see how much of a Chinese Footprint is left on Minds.com in the next few months. When looking me at Minds.com - look for the handle "MerrimanDevonshire" or "MerrimanDevonshite"

What is the limit of human imagination? Depending on the era and location, some would say, “It is as limitless as there are stars in the sky.” It was a saying that I took to heart as a child. More often than naught during night trips, I would stare out of my back window, looking as the various constellations, occasioning glimpsing a ‘shooting star’. While my father did not care much for ‘too much stargazing,’ he did understand the underlying sentiment. As much as I was a child of the 1970s with the likes of Star Wars and Star Trek, he was a child of Buck Rogers, all based on imagining ‘what was out there with those celestial lights?’ So it was no real surprise in the summer of 1985 that he brought home from work a company branded ‘SCI Astro Disk’ that I could use to track Halley’s Comet that fall, winter, and spring. As seen in the photo for this article, it is an item that is still being made and sold to this day (minus the comet tracking). Yet, even then living in the ‘farthest suburban outskirts’ of the Detroit back in those days, it was not hard to see the creeping issue coming over the horizon, as a traditional night was slowing being replaced by a pale glow of ‘progress’. Fast forward a few decades to where I currently live and work in the Chicagoland area, and I am lucky on a good night to catch a faint glimpse of Orion, Ursa Major, or any other sign of the Milky Way. To my kids, the only time they ‘see stars’ is through a few school books or web searches, with my father’s gift looking more like a museum piece like the astrolabes they see during their museum trips. In some ways, the stars are not the only thing that is being consigned to the history books. Looking at the breath and scope of what is being offered to children to stretch their imagination, it has been more and more defined and limited to the computer screen in front of their face. The concept of ‘what lies beyond’ has slowly faded from the collective conscious just as much as the stars in the night sky – to which has given rise to a great malaise. Why reach when everything has been given? Why explore when everything has been defined? If nothing else, it reminds me of the story ‘Nightfall’ by Issac Asimov, in which a civilization that is bathed in constant light is left utterly dumbfounded once confronted with its first true night. To quote a Klingon Proverb, “If there are gods, they do not help, and justice belongs to the strong: but know that all things done before the naked stars are remembered.” I shutter to think what would happen if my children were subjected to such a fate.A Relic of Another Age? I would hope not...

What defines a nation - its people, or its leadership? It is a question that many of a country through human history have faced, just as much as today. If a leader rules with a ‘lifetime fiat’, is that nation merely an extension of the leader’s will? What happens to that nation once that leader passes away, or actually steps down? These are the sort of questions that come up when looking at the developments that have happened in Russia with Vladimir Putin. Yet, there are similar issues being talked about when looking at the political scene in the more ‘Democratic’ of areas – with examples of Angela Merkel in Germany or the Bush and Clinton Families in the United States. Lord knows, more than a few jokes have been used to describe the “family business” that has governed DPRK, Cuba, Zimbabwe, and dozens of other nations for the last half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st Centuries. While more of the prominent pundits will either espouse the praises or curse the actions of such leadership, I have to give pause for the underlying populations that have given ground to allow this to happen to begin with. More often than naught, there seems to be the attitude that if there is the perception that “the trains run on time,” the people will allow a great and many terrible thing to occur. It is this perception that has allowed the likes from Caesar to Mussolini to rule without resistance. Yet has there ever been the case where the ‘bread and circuses’ never ended? One only has to look at the length and breath of human history to know that answer, whether gazing upon the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt, or the Great Wall of Imperial China. For a nation to not only survive, but to thrive, there needs to be notion that its leadership are not entrenched lifetime positions. Love or hate him, George Washington set precedence as a founding father of a nation when he stepped down after a couple of terms and trust the nation to his fellow party members. It was unfortunate that it took more than 100 years to codify that precedence as the 22nd Constitution Amendment, but after what happened with Franklin Roosevelt (death in office during his fourth term as World War II raged), there was no choice. To some degree, the CCP in P.R. China learned this lesson after the disastrous fight for succession that came after the death of Mao. Similarly to the U.S., Article 79 was placed in the P.R. Chinese Constitution to deal with the issue. Whether that article will be enforced in the next few years remains to be seen.Will history be a reverse mirror of itself?

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 It has been a while since I posted an article here at the China Daily. I would like to say it has been because I have not been able to find my muse, but that would be a very big lie. Events have been occurring in my real life at work that have reminded me too much of past shows of ‘Corporate Armageddon’ that I have had a front row seat for the performance. It is times like this where people with sharp tongues can find them hacked off in order to keep ‘harmony’. If nothing else, it does gives appreciation to those poor souls that had to suffer the ‘troubles’ of the 1960s and 1970s in P.R. China. However, there are other topics that can be covered that those in the supposed cubicles of power in my neck of the woods cannot really penalize people for commenting on, such as the on going soap opera that is the Cook County Sugary Beverage Tax. For those that are not familiar with the ways of the U.S. Tax Policies – I will describe a short summary. Where I live, tax laws can be written at the local, state, and federal level and for various things, such as amount of money earned working a job or the sale of a particular good or service. It is reason you may here from relatives visiting the U.S. that same thing sold in one part of a place visited can have a higher cost than in another location. As of a few weeks of the publishing of this article, a tax was set on the sale of ‘sugar laced beverages’ in the County of Cook, which compasses the City of Chicago. To say this tax has been sensitive issue would be an understatement, as very powerful organizations for and against this tax have paid millions of dollars in advertisements before the tax was written into law and even more millions of dollars since in an attempt to go forward or to stop a repeal of it. At the heart of the matter is the idea that too much sugary drinks have been main factor in the contribution to the large amount of obesity in the U.S. population, and a large tax on those drinks will help in reducing that amount, and the money raised from those still buying those drinks will pay for treating those with obesity. In short, this is what people like myself would call a ‘Sin Tax’, where the ‘sinful acts’ that are legal are taxed for the ‘greater good’ of society. It is nice idea in theory, but in real life they tend to be another story. Much like the attempts to prohibit or control alcohol, gambling, drugs, and other activities over the decades – there is always the issue of governmental entities siphoning funds initially raised from these efforts from their original goals of stopping the use of an item or the practice of an activity to the day to day activities of other government functions. In the end, a said ‘sin’ is still practiced at a lower level or away from a tax’s particular reach, while said government is now desperate to find another ‘sin’ to keep their programs running. To make matters worse, ability for a local business to comply with one government tax law for one program can mean it will run afoul with another government law for another program – as it was quickly evidenced with the Cook County Tax and the U.S. Federal Assistance Program (SNAP) - https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2017-08-10/feds-cook-county-soda-tax-a-threat-to-food-stamp-funds. It is when this faux-pas came up, it exposed a nasty little truth. Those folks on federal assistance that buy sugary beverages are exempt from the very efforts to stop them from becoming obese and thus requiring further federal assistance from medical programs. If there was a real effort to stop the obesity issue, then SNAP rules would be rewritten to prevent recipients from buying these items to begin with - https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligible-food-items - but that has not happened. So, what will the future hold? Most likely than not, the tax will remain in Cook County for the next few years, as those with the ability to avoid the tax will do so. What ever funds that are raised from the tax will eventually be moved from paying for the local county hospitals to various other projects, or not outright pocketed by corrupt officials in Cook County. Eventually, once this ‘vast source of revenue’ dries up, someone will have the bright idea that some other activity or item is now a ‘Sin’ and thus be taxed in order to preserve the ‘Greater Good’. However, by that time comes, swaths of Chicago and ‘inner ring’ suburbs will be mere shells of themselves, in term of population and taxable business entities. So there will be a call for adjacent counties to Cook, if not the entire state of Illinois, to pay ‘their fair share’. Given my experiences with the politics of the City of Detroit and Counties of Macomb and Oakland, and the rest of the state of Michigan in the 1980s to 2000s, those efforts will be laughable at best. For when you start attempting to drive away ‘all of the sinners’, more often than naught you are left alone when the real evil appears. st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}The Idea Behind the Current Cook County Beverage Tax

A few weeks ago, the editors at the China Daily asked if I could quickly type up an article about China’s ability to innovate. They touched on items such as e-commerce, mobile payments, artificial intelligence, and so on – and were hoping I could comment on my opinion on how China will advance as the 21st Century moves on. However, at the time I was in the middle of getting some very complicated designs completed at my place for the project that I am working on, and that I would comment as soon as I could. While the staff was disappointed, they did not press too further on the topic. It has been pretty much an ‘open secret’ that the project that I work on, the LBNF (Long Based Neutrino Facility)/DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) has reached a critical moment, now that the groundbreaking ceremony in Lead, South Dakota has occurred (http://news.fnal.gov/2017/07/construction-begins-international-mega-science-experiment-understand-neutrinos/). For those that are curious what this experiment is going to do, in the most basic terms Fermilab will produce a steam of Neutrinos that will be aimed through the Earth’s crust towards a detector that will sit in a tank of Liquid Argon that will be as high as a 5 story building, buried 4850 Feet (~1478 Meters) below the hills of South Dakota. That stream of Neutrinos will created by using a particle accelerator to direct between 750 kW to 4 MW of power at a target. Suffice to say, this target has to be engineered with the utmost degree of safety for the folks at Fermilab, but the surrounding neighbors ‘downstream’ of the target. For those neighbors, much like the general population in the Chicagoland area, it is very much an ‘open secret’ of the consequences of the early days of experiments with ‘Atomic Power’. I am of course referring to one of the more unique features to the City of Chicago and the surrounding tri-counties (Cook, DuPage, and Will) – the massive forest preserves. 100s of square kM prime real estate that was left to become a series wooded areas and rough/semi-rough trails since the late 1950s. While there have been more than a few debates about how to renovate neighborhoods or what public positions need to be eliminated, there has been zero discussion about selling the preserves to make up costs, or trimming the police force that specifically assigned to patrol these areas. Then again, when one visits these areas, and sees markers like the ones that sits on Plot M and Site A in Red Gate Woods, near Argonne National Laboratory, it is much easier to understand why folks do not want to advertise that before Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima – there was Chicago. Make no mistake, China’s attempts at innovation is going to be its 21st Century Long March. For what is it is worth, as one that lives in the shadow of a country’s previous campaign, and is engaged with another, please take care to remember what mistakes are made, and what was done to correct them. Given the lack of viable inhabitable spaces in China, legacies like Plot M/Site A need to be kept at a minimum – regardless of what technological innovations are developed.Tombstone Marker at Plot M in Red Gate Woods

For those ‘old China Hands’/American Expats that have been posting on P.R. Chinese websites over the years, there has always been a bit of amusement about how Western Media Outlets, like CNN, like to take the ‘Moral High Ground’ when it attempts to address P.R. Chinese officials about affairs of state. Whether the occasion or incident, there is this attitude that the powers of Beijing are not ‘righteous’ enough when dealing with the citizens of P.R. China, to which a theme of ‘Big Brother’ is not pleased used. However, in light of recent events here in the U.S., in which Donald Trump has yet again shown how much of a master manipulator he truly is, CNN has performed an action that could not have been better performed by the Red Guards seeking to root out ‘Counter Revolutionaries’ back in the 1960s/1970s:http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/kfile-reddit-user-trump-tweet/index.html Quote: “The Reddit user who initially claimed credit for President Donald Trump's tweet that showed Trump tackling CNN issued an apology Tuesday for the video and other offensive content he posted -- one day after CNN identified the man behind the account and attempted to make contact with him. […] After posting his apology, "HanA**holeSolo" called CNN's KFile and confirmed his identity. In the interview, "HanA**holeSolo" sounded nervous about his identity being revealed and asked to not be named out of fear for his personal safety and for the public embarrassment it would bring to him and his family. CNN is not publishing "HanA**holeSolo's" name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same. CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.” To the say the reaction has been interesting in the Western World would be an understatement – with more than a few folks on all ends of the political spectrum (like myself - https://youtu.be/wG8QJcWW17Q) calling this a very boneheaded move by CNN, and rightfully so. This action has handed every government deemed “Authoritarian” around the world, including the powers to be in Beijing, a very large brickbat to use with all Western Media outlets about how they handle ‘dissenting option’. No matter what occurs for the next few months, if not years, CNN will feel the sting of that weapon as it attempts to talk to any P.R. Chinese, or Russian, official about any matter of state. CNN attempted to expose the person that created this meme...

Some time ago, in the forums of the China Daily BBS, there was a request from the management for folks like myself to take some time to talk about the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. It is a rather ambiguous project for the powers to be in Beijing, much like the ambiguous projects the old powers to be in London, Paris, and elsewhere had over the last couple of centuries – an attempt to establish a secure trade network with the world (i.e. the Suez Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad, and so on). I had my reservations talking about this topic – given the amount of ‘chest-thumping nationalism’ that can occur with projects like this. However, in light of the incident in Pakistan a few days after I typed this article, there is a need to talk – to avoid the narrative of “the Yellow Man’s Burden” creeping into the collective conscience of the Chinese public. This term is a play on “White Man’s Burden” which had its origins during colonial periods that a good deal of the super projects that built the trade networks which still stand today (like the Suez and Panama Canals) – to which said builders viewed the lands used as ‘untamed’ and the local people living there as ‘savages’. It was up to the colonial powers to ‘educate’ these peoples so that they could contribute to the ‘greater good’ that was whatever that colony had to serve. Suffice to say to this day there are many areas around the world, China included, that have very bitter memories of what these actions really meant (slavery, plundering of resources, introduction of drugs, etc.). Along with those bitter memories, however, are memories like the ‘Long March’ and other struggles to drive the ‘White Devils’ out. It is those that defined the last half of the 20th Century, along with a sense of self determination. Now it is the early quarter of the 21st Century, and the former colonies/savages are now the upcoming powers to be in this very uncertain world. Yet the tropes, like ‘<insert group here>’s Burden are playing out as they always have in human history. These powers are attempting to establish their reach in the world, but are for the most part helpless at the ground level if they cannot exert overwhelming firepower. The locals are viewed as ‘savages’ that need to contribute, while they view these ‘devils’ as something to be driven out. Some will be crushed and barely remembered, others will resist and eventually to become what will come after the current crop of powers to be. So… what is the answer for the powers to be in Beijing and the people of P.R. China? I would be a fool to say I had a complete answer, but I can serve some basic warnings from parallels in the past. In the age of nuclear weapons, the ability to emulate the tactics of former colonial empires like the Romans and Mongolians (i.e. slaughter and enslave everyone and simply grab territory) is not an option. ‘Educating the locals’ is very much a risk, but a necessary evil if more people are supposed to buy your goods and services. If nothing else, there may be the need to make alliances with previous ‘devils’ and like minded ‘former savages’ to collectively punish those that are trying to make trouble (i.e. establish themselves as another up and coming power). As with all things involving Harmony, there is the ever delicate balancing act between needs and wants. However, once achieved, I do not have a doubt in my mind that ‘Road and Belt Initiative’ can go down in human history as a worthy project.Will there be a similar political cartoon of P.R. China and India in the history books of the 21st Century?

As you can see from the attached graphic below - the official election results for the County of Cook for the April 7, 2017 elections (http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/results/Documents/SummaryReport40417.pdf) have recorded that the 4th position for the Hinsdale Library Board was elected with only 23 Votes. While I did predict that the position would be had for less that 400 votes in my previous article - I am not too happy to see the threshold to be much, much lower. Suffice to say that the Hinsdale Village Caucus has its work cut out for itself for the 2019 Elections. Then again, if the villagers of Hinsdale were more interested in how their local government taxes them and what amenities they provide for said funds, then the vote turnout - if not the turnout for candidates - would have been quite more substantial to begin with. As for myself – it appears I need to find my muse again, given my lack of output of late. Not that there is not a good deal of topics involving China that I can espouse upon. Any suggestions from the readership? With just 23 Votes - One Person will have the ability to affect a population of 17,000