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Musings on Masculinity

23 Jul

I’ve been wanting to write about masculinity for some time. I have a bunch of thoughts as a man myself, as a son, as a brother and as partner to a woman. 

I will share some thoughts I’ve had about women (Latinas) as well. These thoughts include a history based ambivalence I observe they have.

I have a lot to say about my relationship with my Dad.  He had an outsized role in my life. I worked hard on that relationship.  

These musings have to do with male gender conditioning as I know it.  This is the cultural side of masculinity.  However, as a biologist, I know that there is a biological side as well. I will do a bit of gathering info as Its something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I will mention some thinking about transgender identity…The most fuzzy area of my thinking.

All that said, I want to start out the discussion lightly with an idea that my friend and I came up with….THE MACHO GOD.  

I think it’s a funny but useful idea to show the way men adhere to a swirling set of masculinity ideas.  Masculinity as religion illuminates a lot of features of men’s lives.  Its over the top, but purposely so.  

Next post — the graven image of THE MACHO GOD!!!

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The importance of Truth

15 Sep

Mi gente,

Listening to the news these days, I am forced to reflect on one theme in all my posts. The theme, if you look at enough of them, is fundamentally (pardon the high mindedness), the evaluation of reality. How do you know what is true? A subtext of many of my posts is the importance of the scientific method as the avatar of discerning what we can approximate as the “Truth”. At the foundation of the scientific method is the critical role of quality evidence for claims.

I have to say that the presidential campaign is highlighting the danger of not being able to rationally evaluate evidence. We are seeing an infamous figure in American life routinely lie and say fantastical things and convincing half the voting populace that he deserves the most power a human can have in the world.

As horrible as this is, it is only a symptom of the problem of the decline of our society…. To list some others are …Zika denialism, climate change deniers, alternative health claims, vaccines, religious bigotry abroad and in the USA (gay, transgender issues), AIDs origins, gender role issues (women & high heels)… the list goes on.

In my view, this is part of an avoidable decline of our society…when people don’t know how to tell what is true or not and don’t even care. Trump success proves that. Millions and millions don’t know what he says is true and don’t care even though the consequences will bite them in the ass. Its the swirl of lies and half lies that get thrown in the public arena that most folks can’t tell what’s what. Telling what’s what is a key human endeavor.

Those of us who have a set of tools that include the requirement for quality evidence (eg. NOT national enquirer lead stories) have an advantage, but are not immune either. Confirmation bias is rampant. Truth discernment is an on-going struggle to figure out what’s what.

However, when you throw the need for evidence out the window, as someone progressive recently told me …(to paraphrase…”I don’t use evidence”), then we reap the whirlwind. As people of color we should be particularly sensitive to this. White supremacy has lies at its foundation…lies about biology, history so on. I would contend that we have to have a high standard, its not just their lies…but lies in general. People of color should strive to attain to the highest degree possible our best discernment of the truth. We shouldn’t even tell comforting lies to ourselves. We have to strive towards truth, or we and all our fellow citizens and humans are on a road to a lesser dark ages, where superstition, tyranny and oppression rule the day. All of this, truly has at its foundation lies, untruths and mendacity.

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National Sovereignty is dead! Part 6: Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): “Investor -State Dispute Settlement”

30 Aug

The “Investor -State Dispute Settlement” part of the TPP is what is currently being considered. It formalizes the stuff that was described in the John Oliver Video. I would draw your attention to the fact that most of the claims come from Developed countries. I would be that most of those come from the USA…so the USA is forcing developing countries (eg. an independent Puerto Rico) to abide by what profits its corporations most. Forcing them to do it by global treaty! Thus, what is the value of National sovereignty then?

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ISDS trends 2014 2

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National Sovereignty is dead! Part 3

8 Aug

As part of my “National Sovereignty is dead!” series, I wanted to share some feedback to my writings.

To do so, I present to you an exchange I had with someone who had recently read my latest blog posts. To protect the innocent, what I am at liberty to say is that this person is a regular, brilliant, creative, erudite patron of Camaradas who we’ll call Modesto Guerrero. The conversation started off with a bit of chatter and then M.G. got down to business….

—————————————

M.G.:
But what do you suggest instead of independence?

JFM:
That is part of the point…there are no good alternatives at this point in history
No one has them,

M.G.:
So… we’re screwed…?

JFM:
They are being born in the minds of activists and thinkers of how to ensure well-being when the state is a shriveled husk
We just gotta think hard!
Future generations depend on us!!

M.G.:
If independence is not the answer, and neither is statehood nor commonwealth, what exactly are you suggesting?

JFM:
I am not suggesting anything…that’s the thing. NO human has the golden path. Its being worked out around the world as I type

JFM:
All manner of fuckedupness happening there

JFM:
Hey, in the absence of a plan, a plan is THE plan.

JFM:
The left has nothing concrete to offer yet.

M.G.:
In lieu of golden paths, suggest some silver paths (I’ll take a bronze or leaden path). It’s frustrating to espouse that there is no answer.

JFM:
Fuck, give me dirt but a path

M.G.:
How productive is it to remind us that the situation is fucked without even the slightest semblance of a plan?

M.G.:
It’s disheartening.

JFM:
The thing is that in order to get the right answer, you have to ask the right question. People have been assuming that they have an answer. But its a 19-20th Century question. Yu’ll never get the right answer if you ask the wrong question.
I am proposing that we ask the right question.
That is my point
If its sad, boo hoo. Then think.

M.G.:
You don’t offer a replacement question.

JFM:
I’d rather deal with a disheartening reality, than a heartening fantasy. First one you got a chance, second will bite your ass in a big way anyhow.

Not yet, this is the set-up.

M.G.:
You have a question.

JFM:
C’mon, the set-up is implicit.
[OK] Kinda…how do you assure a populations well being in the absence of an effective state?
Might not be right…I like everybody else am sussing out possible questions.
However, you do see my point that the direction that the global 1% is taking us (in which the USA is like THE major player) is redefining the game? They are getting rid of effective states. You see my point right?

M.G.:
What is your definition of “effective” here?
And has there ever been a truly “effective” state anywhere?

JFM:
housing, jobs, healthcare education, basically delivering on the universal declaration of human rights
Some more, some less. Some good in some areas, not so good in others. Scandinavian countries have many good qualities.
Try Netherlands
Costa Rica has no army. Big plus!!

M.G.:
But trying to find a truly “effective” state in your wording is like trying to find the meaning of the word “utopia” (“nowhere”).

JFM:
please acknowledge if you get my point.

JFM:
No. Its like if the UDHR is a ten-point list, you want them 5 and up not 4 or down
4 and down.
A State that has 7 is better than 4.
We want more checks than less. Its measurable, there are many metrics.

M.G.:
But if you are suggesting that Puerto Rico not be independent (because it cannot do so at the moment), how can it ever get out from its current predicament? How can it become this effective state you are suggesting?

JFM:
How can countries measure the well-being of their citizens?
Watch this video from TED@BCG Berlin, a TED-curated event featuring a diverse group of speakers from across the BCG community.
https://www.ted.com/watch/ted-institute/ted-bcg/how-can-countries-measure-the-well-being-of-their-citizens

JFM:
I’m suggesting that independence is not an answer.

M.G.:
But what is, in place of independence? At least as we have known it.

JFM:
The whole frame of the political status is wrong. The whole thing of State, commonwealth, nation is wrong. We have to think out of that box.
NO HUMAN HAS AN ANSWER
Sad but true. The 1% is currently beating us.

M.G.:
Who currently thinks out of that box? You are postulating a paradigm heretofore never considered.

JFM:
They are ahead of the game, we have to think and think and think and be creative
I’m sure other people have thought about it…they get no traction because most folks are trapped in the box
In my view, you have to understand my argument to see that lots and lots of thinking is “in the box”.
All I can do right now is say we need the right question and try to formulate it. The right question will lead to the right answer.
Sorry that I can’t be the PR national Daddy, but I’m a kid like the rest of us.

M.G.:
Yes, but what’s outside the box in this scenario. An analogy would be to say that we live in this solar system. You posit that we think outside the solar system.

JFM:
Hey, some people think the destiny of humanity lies in the stars

M.G.:
Before we send boricuas into space en masse, this should perhaps have a better scenario than nothing works and come up with a totally new way that no one has ever thought up before.

JFM:
Here’s where emotions come in. If you can’t uplift, comfort, reassure people, then they frequently prefer fantasy. Understandable, but one thing my father’s death showed me is that reality wins in the end.

JFM:
You’re getting upset esteemed colleague, I get it. But we have to move past upset and do the work of figuring things out. The world isn’t here for our amusement and pleasure only, it offers lots of not cool stuff no matter how much we don’t like it.

M.G.:
I am not even remotely getting upset. I just don’t see the feasibility of expressing that all options are wrong and that you are suggesting that a whole new question should be asked, and then not have any semblance of a question formulated.
It takes you, the person suggesting this paradigm shift, conveniently off the hook.
I am confused as to why would you bring it up and then not even theorize or have a suggestion on what to do next.

JFM:
ok. You seemed a bit perturbed. Yeah, the question is like GIANT. I”m not fucking Einstein. IF I had the answer, I’d be fucking the head of the UN or something.
I’m just a Bx kid trying to make sure I ain’t poor when I’m old.

M.G.:
First off, you are aware that communication of this sort is often cold and impersonal. Please don’t assume you know what I am feeling based on the words I am writing.
And you are way more than your average Bronx kid. (Rafael can vouch for that as well.)

JFM:
My apologies. As you pointed out, I buy TP from Costco

M.G.:
Actually I believe I said that when you shit, you wipe your ass just like everyone else. (Pardon the crude, colloquial nature of my words.)

JFM:
My point exactly, I am but paraphrasing your insightful words

M.G.:
But it also sounds like you are not even looking for an answer. Just passing the buck elsewhere.
It would seem to an outside eye that you are obfuscating the entire issue.
(Which I don’t think you are doing.)
Q: What is better, independence or remaining a colony?
A: Broccoli.

JFM:
Why I bring it up? Its my responsibility to put my best thinking to a problem. It’s like in science, you don’t have all the answers to the questions you pose. You just got to stick with it.
BUT if you ask the wrong question, guaranteed you’ll get the wrong answer

M.G.:
How are you so sure that you have the right question?

JFM:
I’m not. I just know what the wrong question is. At least in my opinion.

M.G.:
Okay.

JFM:
How would you feel if I posted our dialog on my blog? I think it’s great!

M.G.:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

JFM:
You make me think and sharpen my wits. Anyhow more later as I gotta do some work. Let me know.

M.G.:
Thumbs Up Sign

National Sovereignty is dead! Part 2

5 Aug

My fellow progressive Boricuas,

As the argument I make is a bitter pill to swallow, I need to present additional supporting evidence so that you will consider the facts more and your emotions less.

———
Caveat: I am assuming that my fellow progressive Boricuas operate primarily based on reason and rationality and hence swayed by the best available evidence. Emotion is at best a back seat driver that annoyingly doesn’t give good directions, but your glad to have their company. That said, the job of a responsible colleague is to present a case. The case is not so much on emotion but again, the best available evidence. I assume this evidence will be evaluated on its merits and considered with the possible outcome of changing opinions if the preponderance of evidence is convincing.

HOWEVER, if on the other hand, no amount of evidence will sway you, please close your browser window as I am not speaking to you. If evidence is not part of your mental toolkit, then you are what I would describe as an unreasonable person. You are more religious-minded, closed to reason, rationality and evidence and no amount of persuading will impact your thoughts. Rather like current day Trump supporters I would argue …impervious to facts.

Yes, Yes, I know…. you may claim to make your decisions based on reason while you foam at the mouth at me, but deep down, past the raging tormenta of emotions roiling at the surface, you know you’re not listening and you know intimately whatever emotional reason you have that is driving you like Ben Hur on his chariot.

Sorry I have to say this, but I’ve been around the block enough to know my audience. I have to set the standard of this discussion. Don’t like the heat, kitchen door is to the right. Cuidate mucho.

————

Caveat’s aside, I present to you the words of one of the paragons or USA progressivism today, a widely loved and much respected woman who leads the charge on many issues of importance to progressives.

In her opinion piece “The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose” by the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren on February 25, 2015, she says as follows…

“The United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries. Who will benefit from the TPP? American workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations in the world?

One strong hint is buried in the fine print of the closely guarded draft. The provision, an increasingly common feature of trade agreements, is called “Investor-State Dispute Settlement,” or ISDS. The name may sound mild, but don’t be fooled. Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kill-the-dispute-settlement-language-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership/2015/02/25/ec7705a2-bd1e-11e4-b274-e5209a3bc9a9_story.html

I would argue that Sen. Warren is making a very similar argument as K.Wall in the previous article I cited. Economic globalization is adversely affecting national sovereignty.

An important point to make is not only is globalization affecting small developing countries and pseudo-countries (like PR), but it is doing the same thing on ALL countries!! EVEN G8 countries like the US and UK!!!

I would imagine that the degree of impact on countries is a gradient…the smaller the GDP, the higher the impact on sovereignty. Before globalization, sovereignty was more protected by GDP, after globalization, less. I’ve included a crude graph to show the relationship. I may have the scale wrong (this ain’t my area), but its more or less in the ball park I’d argue.

Curve

So as I see it folks… self determination, usually considered a prerequisite for securing the well being of a people, is being eroded for all human population groups! The smaller the group, the quicker the erosion. With the economic crisis and Zika, Borinken is getting smaller literally everyday!!

We have to find another MTAE than National Sovereignty. Towards that end, I’d suggest we look closely at the thinking of the global justice, anti-TPP etc. movements as in that cauldron is probably the best place a tasty answer will be served.

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Independentistas! To get your attention, here’s my message …. I know it hurts, but National Sovereignty is dead!

4 Aug

My fellow progressive Boricuas,

I’ve been promoting an idea that is not popular. However, I think it is based on the actual current global situation. I will continue to say more about it, but here is the message…..In the 21st Century, national sovereignty, the goal of european and american colonies starting in the 18th till the 20th century is dead. It is dead as a robust means to the end of the well being of a population.

I know its hard to accept, but sometimes the world just doesn’t go along with what you think. Independentismo is a 19th and 20th century idea. It is advocacy of a particular means to the end of the well-being of the Puerto Rican people. It has the longevity that it has had because of the relative similarity to the situation of other people’s. It also has currency, because its better than nothing. In my opinion, this century has not evolved for people’s around the world a new effective means to this end in the era of globalization. Basically, to riff on the golden rule of the Toxic Avengers, in the absence of a plan, the old plan is THE plan.

This old means-to-an-end, which I will henceforth refer to as MTAE, has many benefits. You have a relatively long tradition of heroic independence struggles especially in Latin America. Great emotional uplift. You have defiance against tyranny, sacrifice etc. All that really pumps up the emotional juices. Since humans are, borrowing a phrase from Peter Watts, “…feeling machines that sometimes think”, all this works well with a segment of the population.

However, the evolution of the global order has rendered those emotions sterile. I think people suspect this deep down, but want to have something to believe in in this increasingly fucked up world.

So why are these noble sentiments sterile? They just don’t mean much anymore. Why? Because, as far as the evidence indicates, national sovereignty doesn’t mean what it used to and probably never will again.

To quote a paper I’ve read recently….

“More explicitly, economic globalization, in its most recent form, has been limiting the capacity of states to determine their own policy outcomes in three main ways: through trade and economic integration; financial markets; and the competition for employment. Due to the increasing pressure of international competition in trade markets as well as the increased mobility of capital and multi-national corporations, states are incentivized to cut labour costs, to reduce the price of goods and services, reduce taxation to make their domestic market more competitive, and to decrease the size and scope of the welfare state. ….”

She goes on to ask the question which just underscores that, as hard as it may be to swallow, as depressing as it may be, there are no good answers! I would remind you that she is writing here about the UK!!

“If the state no-longer has the capacity to provide the economic and social rights its citizens demand, the question is, what or who will?”

http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/17/08/2012/end-welfare-state-how-globalization-affecting-state-sovereignty-0

So here’s my message….We can still be Boricuas who love ourselves and our people, but we have to take stock of reality as it is now. The reality is that the world has changed and our methods haven’t. The old MTAE isn’t reliable any more in these changed circumstances. We still have the problem of finding a reliable MTAE, but its harder now. That’s all.

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Boricua Futuristics: Part 6 – Renewable Energy

9 Jul

OK Gente,

A key part of the future of Puerto Rico is certainly getting out of debt. Like it or not, that has to be done w/in US economic system. Getting legislative change seems key.

I would contend that if restructuring can happen, one crucial item in the post restructuring phase is renewable energy. They have to replace the dinosaur electrical utility they have…The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).

Decentralized renewable energy would be a big help! If I did a plan, it would include no taxes for renewable energy companies for x years …tax breaks for those consumers who use it. USA govt. could subsidizing implementation through the Energy Department.

Let PR be laboratory for renewable energy instead of other crap. Lots of engineering strength in PR. Build on that! Could be important.

I would organize island wide folks from engineering departments and ex-NASA folks. They should be encouraged to start a bunch of renewable energy companies. These companies could get US govt and external funding (eg. Solera?) to set up a new grid for PR and then expand the Caribbean and then Florida. Further, PR could make deals to sell some of the electricity generated to northern US states in the winter.

Just a thought.

Sun, wind and engineering! The island has all three!

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Boricua Futuristics: Part 5 No if ands or BUTTS, Hedge Funds are the villains!

6 Jul

OK, modified protest suggestion number 1…

Shouldn’t all the people that protested the god damn fracking butts be out there protesting Fir Tree partners and company, the New York firm that heads a group of 35 hedge funds with a combined ownership of $4.5 billion in Puerto Rican debt?

• Appaloosa Management
• Paulson & Company
• Blue Mountain Capital
• Fundamental Advisors.
• Whoever Paulson sold to
• Charles Blitzer a former IMF official is advising the hedge funds

Since it might take more butts to get folks attention, here ya go!

Butt and Hedge Funds 2

They will determine the fate of Puerto Rico like few other human organizations will in the foreseeable future. THEY ARE IN FRACKING NYC!!! How about we crowdsource the investigation of these 1% Mother frackers and start showing up on their door step????

Occupy Fir Tree Partners!!

Response to Rafael Merino Corte’s comment

3 Jul

RMC: “Global gangster economics. We cannot fight it, but we should at least have a piece of the pie, and be allowed to become good earners for the house masters.”

To that I present the famous poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley

“I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Behemoths of one era bestride the land and the furry rodents scurry away, avoiding their crushing steps. However, in later era, the bones of those fearful monsters stand silent in the museum’s of the descendants of those tiny mammals as lessons of the passage of time.

Boricua Futuristics Part 2

3 Jul

OK mi gente,

Here is my strategic suggestion… Boricua activists out there have their hedge fund hit list….

• Fir Tree partners
• Appaloosa Management
• Paulson & Company
• Blue Mountain Capital
• Fundamental Advisors.
• Whoever Paulson sold to
• Charles Blitzer a former IMF official is advising the hedge funds

We find out all we can about them. Find out if there are Boricuas/Latinos,as in every level from partner to janitor. See if we can get intelligence about them. We can reach out to our Occupy Wall Street friends to get intel on how to do the corporate protests.

Then we have Teach ins about the Puerto Rican situation and about debt, municipal, state and national in general. There is the Greece, Argentina, Detroit, Naomi Klein forum.

Get our congressmen and women to hold hearings on these guys to get them into the light of day. Get our city council representatives to hold hearings on them to get them into the light of day.

Same time, start fleshing out the future. For example, get a congressional agenda together of all the measures that would benefit Puerto Rico in dealing with the crisis.

Then you get the presidential candidates starting with the Dems to come out publicly with their positions re the congressional actions and what they would do vis a vis executive orders.

Remember, this is really about the 1%!!

Then the butt activists target each of these Hedge Fund villains and hold demonstrations against them. Protest them in the hearings as well.

Then we get our sustainability friends & allies (WEACT, Rocky Mountain Institute etc.) to come up with alternative energy plans for Puerto Rico to replace in the market place the fucked up power authority with distributed wind and solar alternatives.

What do ya’ll think?
J

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