Will Starbucks And Its Chairman, Howard Shultz, Choose Profit Over Dying Oceans?

     Starbucks and its chairman, Howard Schultz, have made it clear that they want to make the world a better place. Racism is an issue they are placing front and center. It is not our intention here to address whether or not they are pandering, overreacting, or sensibly attacking racism.
      But it is impossible to understand how a massive, profitable corporation that prides itself on progressive values can be oblivious to the enormous harm that is being inflicted upon the Pacific and other oceans of the world. The huge amount of Styrofoam (polystyrene), plastic straws, other plastics and non biodegradable materials that pour into the oceans by millions of pounds daily comes from many sources, of which Starbucks is one. Starbucks is aggressively expanding into China. China is the number one source of plastic and non biodegradable material pouring into the Pacific. Starbucks are all over the world. They have to know that much of their plastic and other non biodegradable materials end up in the oceans. China, Indonesia, the Philippines, in that order, are the biggest sources of Pacific ocean plastic contamination. Starbucks is in all of these countries.
       Most countries lack the resources, ability, and in some cases the will to properly remove, collect and dispose of plastics, polystyrene and other non biodegradable contaminants. Even countries considered to have efficient waste management are having problems removing and disposing of plastics and other non biodegradable materials and preventing their entry into oceans and other bodies of water.
       Starbucks can be a leader in providing environmentally friendly alternatives to single use plastics, plastic straws and Styrofoam products. Starbucks in the developing world must ensure that their packaging materials stop ending up in the Pacific and other oceans.
        The oceans are dying. This is of enormous consequence to human survival. Dying oceans cause tremendous human and animal suffering. Will Starbucks prove itself to be a truly people oriented, environmentally concerned corporation, or will it be business as usual as Starbucks and other corporations prosper and the oceans die?

Great White Sharks Not Helped By Scientists In Sea Of Cortez

     There is a news story concerning great white sharks that were tracked off the west coast of the United States. Scientists justified their expensive study - which included taking out a private high tech ship loaded with overpaid scientists and environmentalists that followed the great white sharks to their feeding grounds in the Sea of Cortez - by stating they were trying to find out why the sharks leave the waters off the west coast to go to an area in the Sea of Cortez. Satellite images of the area where the sharks go, according to the scientists, indicated it was an ocean desert area, not an oasis, Satellite images are not a reliable source of information regarding marine life beneath the ocean surface, so this is not an adequate excuse to justify an expensive trip. The average Mexican fisherman in Baja California knows there are rich feeding grounds in the Sea of Cortez (which unfortunately are being depleted by commercial fishing). Even though much of the world's oceans are desert areas, wildlife knows where are the deserts as well as the oases.
      If the great white sharks could speak, they would say, you just led every shark hunting (shark finning is still big business), unregulated fish depleting trawler to our location.
     A fun filled trip on a well stocked ship has to be justified in some way, and it beats doing real work.
     

Gaza, Israel, And The Jewish and Palestinian Arab Right Of Return

         The Palestinian Arab claim to the right of return, a right that many believe applies exclusively to Palestinian Arabs and to no others of the hundreds of millions of refugees that have been created around the world since the 1940's, condemns the region to endless war.
         If Palestinian Arabs have the right of return, it is only fair that the same right apply to everyone else. Many Palestinian Arabs and others insist this right never disappears, no matter how much time passes. Even if it is centuries or longer.
         More Jews from Muslim majority lands were expelled or forced to flee their homes (where many had lived for centuries before Islam came into existence), than the number of Arabs, now called Palestinians, that fled when the State of Israel was created. The Jews from Muslim majority lands and their descendants form the majority population of Israel. The lands they left behind, their homes, their properties, are of a far greater size than all of Israel.
          Do these Jews have the right to return to their homes and properties that were lost to them? Would Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and other Jew unfriendly lands welcome back the descendants of the Jews whose parents and grandparents fled from those hostile lands, and give back to the Jews their lands and property?
          Many people that insist Palestinian Arabs have the right of return are blissfully unaware or ignore the larger number of Jews from the middle east and North Africa that were forced to flee to Israel.
           Instead of the painful compromises that will have to be made to achieve peace between Israel and Palestinian Arabs, let us imagine instead what it means to universally apply the Palestinian right of return. Since the right of return has no time limit, then it is only fair that part of what is now Saudi Arabia be returned to the Jews (where Jewish tribes lived until the rise of Islam, at which time they were slaughtered and driven out), along with the more recent thefts of Jewish lands in places like Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, most of Europe, and elsewhere. Therefore, under the universal right of return, Saudi Arabia must return to the Jews what is rightfully theirs. Under the right of return, Jews must be given back all of the lands and properties that were taken from them in past and recent history, which includes vast areas of the middle east, North Africa, Europe and elsewhere. All of original Israel, which was a  kingdom of the Jews long before Islam came into existence, must be returned to the Jews.
           The Palestinian right of return, universally applied, means the native people of North America, Australia, South America, Central America and elsewhere reclaim their lands and former homes. This includes returning all of New York City, New York State, California and the rest of the United States, Vancouver and the rest of Canada, Sydney and the rest of Australia, to the native peoples and ensuring the evacuations of the existing non native populations. Arabs that now live in North America, where many have prospered, along with all Americans of non native American descent, (which is hundreds of millions of people), must go back to wherever they came from if the Palestinian right if return is applied to all displaced people.
            The millions of native peoples violently displaced from the often violent expansion not only of Islam, but also of Christianity, must have their lands returned.
            None of the aforementioned will happen. Instead, people must learn to live with each other and realize that the way to correct past injustices and wrongs, real or imagined, is not to wage war and terror and create new injustices and wrongs. This means people must learn to compromise and accept the existence of one another. If not, there is endless war and violence.
            Unfortunately, Jew hatred in the Islamic world, which many pander to, ignore or even like, demands that there can be no Jewish state. Until the day comes in which there is peace, made possible by painful compromises on all sides, it is the obligation of Israel to not give Islamic jihadists what they want - the blood of civilians on both sides. It is Israel's responsibility to exercise maximum restraint and do everything possible to limit civilian casualties. But people should not lose sight of the end goal of the Islamic jihadists, which is to destroy the Jewish state. Israel, like any nation, has the right to defend itself and survive.
           
             

North Korean Nuclear Weapons Summit That Trump Walked Away From

     Nuclear weapons and their proliferation are one of the major threats to human survival. It was doubtful that much would have come from Trump's meeting with Kim Jong-Un. However, any chance of reducing the nuclear weapons threat, however slim, is worth the effort. Maybe Trump believes that the summit would have failed, and that this would be a blemish upon himself. But walking away guarantees failure.

Abby Martin, Corbyn, And The Leftists That Support Maduro's Venezuela

      While the people of Venezuela continue to suffer, the incompetent and corrupt leadership that are incapable of running an ice cream shop continue to plunder and destroy the country. Maduro was reelected in another phony election. He and his cronies continue to live like kings and queens while poverty, crime and hunger continue to explode. The oil industry has collapsed from the incompetent, corrupt leadership and from the flight of skilled Venezuelans that found it impossible to live in their native country.
         It is time for the leftists that have supported this regime to put people ahead of their politics. Without enablers - including Iran, Russia, China, leftist supporters, Hezbollah, drug cartels- the criminal and corrupt rulers of Venezuela would not have survived. Average people in the west cannot control what Iran, China, Russia and other countries do in reference to Venezuela, but average people can and should shame Maduro's leftist supporters.

Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons Proliferation And Human Survival

     The nuclear weapons proliferation that is taking place before our eyes threatens to destroy all of humanity. The dangerous combination of nationalism or religion combined with nuclear weapons brings the end of mankind and most life on earth that much closer. If Iran pursues its dream of destroying Israel and obtaining nuclear weapons, it will not matter what is or is not negotiated  between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. Two states, one state; it will all be meaningless. There will be nothing left. A nuclear armed Israel and a nuclear armed Iran at war will mean the complete destruction of Iran, of Israel, of the middle east. The radioactive fallout will make the region, not just Iran and Israel, completely uninhabitable.
        Nuclear weapons do not make countries safer. Mutual deterrence is nothing more than the waiting period before leaders sufficiently unhinged or deranged use the weapons. Then when it is too late and the destruction has already occurred, there will be no one around to realize that nuclear weapons do not protect countries. They only destroy them.
         Walking away from the nuclear weapons agreement with Iran is unwise if it escalates nuclear proliferation. Iranians must also realize that the pursuit of nuclear weapons brings all life in the region closer to an end.
           The world is severely degraded and contaminated. Pursuing nuclear weapons is a senseless waste of resources to obtain something completely diabolical. In North Korea, many have already died from the radioactive contamination that resulted from their pursuit of nuclear weapons and by their nuclear weapons testing. The experience of the atomic bombs dropped over Japan towards the end of WW2 should have been enough to permanently deter mankind from ever going down that road again. Unfortunately, it did not. The nuclear weapons now are far more powerful and destructive. The nuclear weapons demon needs to be curtailed, not expanded. This is not about religion, politics and the other parochial interests of people. It is about the survival of humanity.
        
      

Nuclear Weapons Proliferation Must Not Be The Consequence Of Discarding The Iran Nuclear Weapons Treaty

     Nuclear weapons and their proliferation are one of the greatest threats to human existence. Trump needs to think wisely as to what comes next now that he has withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear weapons agreement. It is not enough to throw something away. There must be something better to replace that which is discarded. What comes next?

Trump, Nuclear Weapons and Iran

     Trump will announce today his decision regarding the Iran nuclear weapons agreement. The agreement has its flaws (which must be addressed), but that does not mean ending it and having no treaty is a better option. Nuclear weapons proliferation is a major threat to human life and most life on earth. Stopping nuclear weapons proliferation, not short term political considerations, are what must come first.