VINCENT FOR PRESIDENT 2028 OUR DESPERATE NEED FOR WISDOM, LOVE, TRUTH, TRUST, & COMPETENCE IN 21st-CENTURY AMERICA GROSS DYSFUNCTION ALL AROUND USEACH VISIT, REFRESH PAGE BEFORE READING: WINDOWS, F5. MAC, CTRL-R
ADULT IN THE ROOM: VINCENT FRANK DE BENEDETTO, CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT THOUGHTS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS
FULL CONSERVATIVE REVERSAL OF ALL TRUMP DAMAGE
CRITICAL CONSTITUTIONAL ALERT! THE DEBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION IS GOING TO ADVANCE OBVIOUSLY-REQUIRED CHANGE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, SPECIFICALLY: EXPANSION OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR PERSONS SEEKING THE PRESIDENCY, MAKING THEM MORE RIGOROUS IN THE AREAS OF 1.) ENVIRONMENTAL, COMPUTING, AND MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES, INCLUDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; 2.) GEOPOLITICAL KNOWLEDGE; 3.) WORLD HISTORY, AND 4.) AMERICAN HISTORY, AS WELL AS 5.) A CHECK OF PRESENT AND PROJECTED MENTAL COMPETENCE.
CRITICAL INFORMATION ALERT! THOUGH ONE SET OF TECHNOLOGIES (INTERNET) AND ACCOMPANYING CONSTRUCTIVE HUMAN SKILLSETS (INVENTORS; PROGRAMMERS; PRIVACY EXPERTS) HAS MADE OUR 21ST-CENTURY INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ABILITIES AS ADVANCED AS THE HUMAN RACE HAS EVER SEEN THEM, ANOTHER SET OF TECHNOLOGIES (HACKING TOOLS) AND ACCOMPANYING DESTRUCTIVE HUMAN SKILLSETS (MISINFORMATION, INCLUDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; DISINFORMATION, INCLUDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; SPYING; THEFT OF GOVERNMENTAL, INDUSTRIAL, OR PERSONAL DATA) HAS MADE THEM AS UNRELIABLE AND INSECURE AS THE HUMAN RACE HAS EVER SEEN THEM.
ACCORDINGLY, REGARDING ALL INFORMATION FLOWS, THAT IS, ALL THE INFORMATION THAT YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE CONSUMES, OFF, BUT ESPECIALLY ONLINE, HERE ARE THE COMPROMISING FACTORS TO CONTINUALLY WATCH FOR AS YOU CONSUME THAT INFORMATION:
MISINFORMATION. Incorrect information, though not deliberately so. Made all the easier because of use of artificial intelligence.
DISINFORMATION. Incorrect information, deliberately so, to mislead. Also made all the easier because of use of artificial intelligence. Certain East-bloc and Asian nations are continually flooding the United States with false information, including entire web sites and even groups of websites that are a fiction.
DRUG INFLUENCE. Legalization of dope (i.e. marijuana). BAD MOVE. Anything conceived, researched, or written by someone stoned cannot be relied upon. Compromise of our thinking, and all other, skills. Loss of resolve, and ability, to recognize, and defend, interests, yours, and the nation's. Passivity. Don't use dope. Lobby to reverse legalization.
LACK OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILL.
CENSORSHIP, BY MEDIA OWNERS.
THE ILLEGALS. In 2010 the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested ten deep-cover Russian spies, called "Illegals," who had been living in the United States for years, infiltrating the country. This program still exists under the present Russian leader, who revived it in 2004. Don't walk around paranoid, but be aware of the possibility that there could be such individuals in your midst, impersonating Americans. If someone you encounter really strikes you as odd for some reason, notify your local FBI office.
Under construction. More to come.
LET'S CREATE A NATION OF GENUINE HUMANITY AND LOVE ROOTED IN PERSONAL MORALITY, NOT GOVERNMENT COERCION ROOTED IN HUMAN, NOT ARTIFICIAL, INTELLIGENCE
ADVOCATE ZERO-TARIFF FULL FREE-TRADE NO GOVERNANCE BY TWEET OR OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA MY 3-POINT PLAN FOR BROWN PERSONS AT HOME & ABROAD CULTURE WAR DECLARATION: NO GOVERNMENT INTRUSION INTO THE FAMILY PROMOTING: "THE POWER OF GIVE"
LIBERTY, PRIVACY, FAMILY
BUILDING UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VERSION 3.0 America is long overdue to again "build the better mousetrap," save this time we clearly require moral, not just technological, advance. Including a restoration of the singular, committed, and comprehensive internationalism that propelled America to global leadership and primacy after WWII, resulting in large part in a stable global system--the very system that brother Trump has now all but torn down, to the sheer and incredulous squealing delight of our traditional enemies, and equally incredulous shock, misery, and opprobrium of our traditional allies and friends.
GETTING IT RIGHT March 24, 2025, I'm watching the film War Games. It is so easy to destroy ourselves. And so important that we don't. In other words, it is so important that, as a species, we get it right.
I don't mean our military capabilities, although, at least for now they are part of the equation.
I mean a method, a way, to live together in peace. That's what getting it right really means.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND THE LEGALIZATION OF DOPE, especially in combination, constitute two of the four most potent threats to Humanity, generally, and the United States, particularly, now or at any time in history, because they will cause, or substantively contribute to, the long-term devolution of the human brain, and for this and other reasons, the long-term destabilization of human society, itself. The third threat is obviously climate change, as the planet continues to burn and boil away. Last, but not least in terms of the most substantive of all possible harms to the nation and the world, is the Trump presidency, as in almost its every expression it attacks and undermines that which humankind must have: FREEDOM, BASIC COMPETENCE, & BASIC HUMAN DECENCY.
We also have a plethora of other problems, many of which I have innovative solutions for. One relatively new challenge is that of microplastics, microscopic-sized particles of plastic found everywhere on Earth--and throughout our bodies, including our brains--that are injurious to the human organism. I fear, however, that the new regulation, or purchase of updated manufacturing equipment appropriate to ceasing the inadvertent production of these plastic particles, would be frowned upon by the Trump administration in its obsessive zeal to cut government, thereby making Americans more vulnerable to bodily pollution by these particles, hence sick, or even sicker. In fact, given that much of the excision by our chainsaw-wielding friend is of our government agencies or operations relevant to the health of our bodies and our physical environment, I expect we Americans, over the next number of years, to become even sicker than we are now.
WISDOM: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE
INTRODUCTORY QUOTATIONS
"It is compassionate to actively help our citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on accountability and results." -- former President George W. Bush
"The first plank in my Presidential platform is CONNECTION, that is, bringing Americans together, establishing or re-establishing the feeling of connection between us, as, arguably, we are presently divided as never before. A key first step is for America to shift completely away from its "Gotcha" culture, whereby transgressors or suspected transgressors, at any level of society, the term "transgressor" often subjectively defined, instead of being approached with Love by a member or members of a local or otherwise trusted community, to work together in the mutual search for Truth, including redress of wrongs, are simply pursued, often without warning, and usually with intent to punish in one or more ways." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"There is no more categorical indictment of the present state of Humanity and our pernicious handmaiden, an amoral form of Capitalism, than the current Artificial Intelligence goldrush, thoughtless profit-and-tech-obsessed corporations and individuals frenetically embracing a technology that transparently spells the end of any sort of coherent human society, if not the end of society, itself." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"The philosopher must be against artificial intelligence, as the artificial intelligence process is not sentient, and does not know what it is generating (i.e. what it is "saying"), yet, the A.I. process strongly, near-categorically conveys and indicates to the human participant that it does know what it's saying--creating perhaps humankind's most realistic, hence categorical, hence pernicious, insidious, and destructive ILLUSION. Illusion comprising the OPPOSITE of Truth. And if the philosopher is not, above all things and objectives, devoted to Truth--they are no philosopher, at all." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"If the daily financial and economic grind suffered by most people is to cease, or find reasonable and salutary amelioration, if the mortal fear of having little or no money is to be eliminated, and with it the consequent diminution and compromise of every aspect of existence, that is, if our nation is to advance one full order of magnitude toward *actualization,* becoming the very best that we can be, we must provide a minimum financial bedrock for all Americans. Thus do we require adoption of the Universal Basic Income (UBI)." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
Vicky: "...tell me, why won't your...father publish his poems?"
Juan Antonio: "Because he hates the world...and that's his way of getting back at them. To create beautiful works and then...deny them to the public..."
Vicky: "My God. Well, what makes him...so angry toward the human race?"
Juan Antonio: "Because after thousands of years of civilization...they still haven't learned to love."
-- Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a film by Woody Allen
"The child "Humanity" may never abdicate A.I., its latest toy, as none but the most intelligent and precocious child willingly abdicates its latest, most powerful, and most entertaining plaything." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"In A.I., Humanity has abdicated itself. Humanity has abdicated Humanity. The further the development of A.I.--the greater the magnitude of the abdication. -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"Brain capital is a novel framework that recognizes brain skills and brain health as indispensable drivers of the modern knowledge economy." -- Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy
"Cease consuming any item containing sugar. You are moving closer to dementia and other major maladies such as cancer and heart disease with every bite, and sip. Sugar is poison. Stop consuming it. And as our minds decline, we are increasingly unable to govern ourselves, or our nation. The older you are, the more imperative it is that you refrain from all sugar consumption, so as to limit the damage to your brain and body." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons. There's a war out there, old friend--a world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets, it's about who controls the information; what we see, and hear, how we work, what we think, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INFORMATION." -- A supremely prescient quotation, mouthed by the character "Cosmo" played by Ben Kingsley, in the 1992 movie "Sneakers"
"...in his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military-industrial complex. He warned us...about..."The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power." ...six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well." -- President Biden in his farewell address, quoting President Eisenhower, an apt quotation and sentiment given, for example, the new $500B Stargate artificial intelligence project, meant to saturate American culture and society from top to bottom in this malign technology, proving that the actual artificial intelligence is that of our collective technocratic capitalist brothers and sisters unthinkingly promoting such technology, and those of us among the citizenry who fail to consider, critique, and protest, if not the technology, itself, then its unthinking adoption.
"The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory...and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons." -- President Trump from his inaugural address, January 20, 2025, attempting to throw us back into an era starting about 100 years ago, when America remained a warring and colonial power, illegally and, of course, immorally seizing territories from other nations. It is such aspiration, clothed in ignorance of both history and morality, that generates such concern among thinking Americans.
"...love is the only...satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence...any society which excludes...the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature." -- Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving, 1956, p.148
"I say *your* civilization, because as soon as we started thinking *for* you it really became *our* civilization, which is, of course, what this is all about. *Evolution*... You've had your time. The future is *our* world.... The future is *our* time." -- Agent Smith, a sentient artificial intelligence and the key antagonist from the seminal film "The Matrix," presciently, if unwittingly, predicting what may actually happen to Humanity if we don't abandon artificial intelligence
"Don't lament the imperfection of grand and noble endeavors like democracy, religion, or family. For the idea will always be more perfect than its execution." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"A point of elevation is reached when you realize that by doing nothing, you are actually doing everything." -- my adaptation of sentiment expressed by writer Pico Iyre, "doing nothing" referring to moments of silent repose that enable perception of higher truths or beauty.
"...solidarity...and love...may assert themselves secondarily as private acts of philanthropy or kindness, but they are not part of the basic structure of our social relations." -- Erich Fromm
"We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"GOT GIVE?" -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto (Presented, reminiscent, and intoned, in the manner, of the old GOT MILK? advertisements.)
"I seek wisdom and love for the world. But at present I'll settle for common sense and civility." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"Humankind suffers a critical imbalance: underdevelopment of the brain; overdevelopment of the mind." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Love, properly understood, is the most powerful social force available to humankind." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"Man is capable of as much atrocity as he has imagination." -- William Parcher character from film "A Beautiful Mind."
"A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels." -- Albert Einstein
"We're all lost. We're all out of our time." -- Sarah Connor character, from television series Terminator: TSCC
"And crown thy good with brotherhood. From sea to shining sea!" -- America the Beautiful
"The human race, through its choices, has crippled itself." -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"When you're a genius, you tend to notice things that others dont." -- Kaleena Fraga
"...science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." -- Isaac Asimov
"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." -- British Historian Arnold Toynbee
"Slow and steady wins the race." -- Aesop's fable, "The Tortoise and the Hare."
"Hate cannot drive out hate. Only Love can do that." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Few are guilty, but all are responsible." -- Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Do you have THE POWER OF GIVE?" -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." -- Abraham Lincoln
"By their deeds you shall know them." -- Frank Serpico
"America NOT First!" -- Vincent Frank De Benedetto. This declaration, in counterpoint to the superfluous, almost pathological emphasis on putting America first of Donald Trump. See TRUMP, DONALD, below, near page bottom.
PROPOSED DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION MEMBERS
BARBER, REV. DR. WILLIAM J. II
BOLTON, JOHN: NATIONAL SECURITY; STATE
* * *
Rep. Jason Crow, Democrat from Colorado, former Army Ranger, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems extremely serious and knowledgable about national security: NATIONAL SECURITY.
MURPHY, PHIL. Provided he understands that neither the legalization nor decriminalization of dope, nor artificial intelligence technology, will have any home in the DE BENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
MOON, JEFFREY, AMBASSADOR OR TRADE AMBASSADOR TO CHINA
FOUNDER OF COMMUNITY AS MEDICINE, NAME PENDING
PENDING: CHIEF-OF-STAFF
ATTENTION
Before reading this site
This internet resource, VincentForPresident.com, is long and dense, fully populated with my opinions, analyses, and political positions, on a fairly wide range of issues, reflecting my thinking of the last few years. Though my general perspective remains what I term a "love-centered conservatism," some of my positions have changed, as I've continually gathered more and new information from various sources, including my own wrenching life experience. My thinking has changed, somewhat, for example, on both guns and abortion (generalizing: somewhat less permissive on the former, while somewhat more permissive on the latter).
Accordingly, as you read my writing at this site, if you encounter an opinion that you may not agree with, temper your chagrin, as the expressed opinion you're reading may no longer reflect my current thinking on that subject. I don't have time at present to update my every opinion and assertion at this site. Feel completely free to contact me at onehumanfamily@fastmail.net for complaint, colloquy, or clarification.
CATALOG OF ESSAYS
Additionally, I've realized that this site, the campaign website for my 2024 and now 2028 presidential campaign, dense as it is with the exploration of multiple key topics in, and of concern regarding, both national and international affairs, also functions effectively as a book of my substantive essays.
VINCENT FRANK DE BENEDETTO
SNAPSHOT/ABOUT BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELT
Pioneering Political & Social Philosopher, Writer, Journalist, Neologist, Musician, Inventor, Anti-Noise/Silence Advocate, Long-Term Voluntary Family Caregiver, Presidential Aspirant, 2028. And--a victim of, and slave to, the deep stupidity of the culture, just like you, and everyone else.
The "Deep State"? I'm more afraid of, and concerned about, the DEEP STUPIDITY of most people (sometimes including myself).
Unique Candidate, Unique Campaign.
PARTY AFFILIATION: CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT. All my political positions are paired with, and actually rooted in Agape, that is, brotherly love, without which the world would look like...well, like the actual world of today.
Ergo (i.e. therefore) don't ask: why is such-and-such person (political leader, religious leader, religious believer, gang member, teenager or other young person), or group of persons (city, state, nation, military force, gang, corporation) doing such-and-such bad thing (cruelty, neglect, abuse, disrespect, bigotry, war, crime, cybercrime, etc)?
Wrong question.
Correct question: why wouldn't such persons or groups of persons do it? What moral principle or force exists that would stop, impede, or inhibit them? Ideally, would prevent brothers and sisters from committing injurious acts in the first place?
Answer: at present--NONE.
HOWEVER
We do have such a principle waiting in the wings. It is called AGAPE (uh gop' ay) the powerful principle of "Brotherly Love," as taught by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Jesus, Erich Fromm ("The Art of Loving"), Buddha, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Leo Buscaglia, Valarie Kaur, myself, and others--if our human family would just start paying attention to it.
Now, for those of you for whom what I just wrote, the points I just made, above, make immediate and powerful sense in terms of interpreting human society--you've just found both your Presidential candidate, your philosopher of choice: VINCENT FRANK DE BENEDETTO, and perhaps even your new chosen life direction.
Sure, there are religious and philosophical belief systems that take a stab at it, at formulating and promulgating a psycho-behavioral ethic of brotherly love, but they don't get very far. In Christianity, for example, the second great commandment of Christ is: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.
OK, Fellow Americans and Sisters & Brothers, look around: how many people on planet Earth, including, and perhaps especially, Christians, are loving their neighbor?
How many of you would even know where to begin? Would know what "loving your neighbor" actually means?
Last point: why do I declare my political classification INDEPENDENT, rather than Democrat or Republican? My initial answer to this question, prior to the start of the second Trump administration, was:
Because sometimes the required and appropriate loving act or principle resembles a conservative position, sometimes centrist, and occasionally even liberal. As Christian social theorist Joseph Fletcher posited, the desired or optimal act or response in a given situation is not based on conventional political classification, but on that which is most loving! See a photograph of Joseph Fletcher on my Mentors page.
Now, America: there's a desperately-needed breath of fresh air in terms of our politics, and political and social view!
NOTE: I've gone back and forth regarding party affiliation. The above remarks notwithstanding, at present I've decided to remain with my traditional affiliation of conservative Democrat, in fact, although always rooted in Agape, or love of person for person.
My planned initial YouTube presentation will be here.
Please help with a donation of money or time to show moral and practical support, and I'll be able to create and make it available faster.
I'm one person. I can't do it all!
PLATFORM & PRINCIPLE (partial)
The Unity Candidate (plank #1: establish or re-establish feeling of connection between Americans, as, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," said President Lincoln).
The Actualization of Body & Mind Candidate (plank #2: each of us becoming the absolute best we can be, based on our natural gifts & talents, a process called actualization, pron. ACK shew ill izz AYE shun; same paradigm for the nation, itself. to wit: shut down so-called "cannabis" industry and recriminalize dope).
The National Security Candidate (two years mandatory military service all able-bodied Americans; fight two separate wars on two fronts; reinvigorate treaties to draw down nuclear weapons stores and systems globally to reduce risk of annihilation; investigate possible foreign influence in legalizing dope; African-American brothers and sisters seen as disadvantaged by the drug war, instead of making them drug dealers, will be given first chance, if qualified, to serve in our new, enhanced United States CyberCommand--on the front line in preventing and countering cyber attacks on the nation. Now that's a career they and their families can be proud of).
I can tell you the starting definition of real national security: treating those in the U.S.A., everywhere else, as
The Quality-of-Life Candidate (kiss your leafblower and other noise problems, goodbye).
The Anti-A.I. Candidate (Actualize the human mind, don't emphasize clearly dangerous and counterproductive tech such as A.I. There are no less than five explicit threat streams from this wrecknology. See below).
The global juggernaut, "policeman of the world"--affirming candidate. After World War II the United States emerged as the unparalleled, premier hegemonic global power. This status and position has eroded under the errant influence of isolationist elements in America, including Libertarianism and Trumpism. I will reverse this.
A proper Western influence, led by the United States, compromised and emasculated by the deleterious action of both our own isolationist elements, and malign foreign action determined to undermine and eventually destroy the influence and leading role of America and the West, will be fully restored under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
HAITI
5-YEAR RESTORATION PLAN
For example, under my leadership the United States will, with the permission of the Haitian people, occupy Haiti for a period of five years, with the express purpose of nation building, a kind of reverse-colonialism, as there has likely been no example in the modern world of a nation so categorically in need of assistance. As you may know, the island-nation of Haiti lays effectively in ruins under near-complete domination of the nation's gangs. The latest outrage supporting my proposal is the December 2024 gang murder of two journalists and a police officer, as reported by the New York Times of December 24, 2024, the day before Christmas:
"At least three people were killed, including two journalists and a police officer, when armed men fired on reporters gathered for the reopening of Haiti's largest public hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince on Tuesday morning, according to two witnesses and the president of the country's ruling Transitional Presidential Council.
The Health Ministry did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment, and a police spokesman said he had no information about the shooting. But a local gang leader named Johnson (Izo) Andre of the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang coalition posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
In a statement posted on social media, the prime minister's office said, "This heinous act, which targets an institution dedicated to health and life, constitutes an unacceptable assault on the very foundations of our society."
Because of the near-unchallenged hegemony of these murderous, anarchic, criminal gangs, life for the Haitian people is a pained, miserable shell of what it should be. We in the United States under my Administration are not going to tolerate this. Haiti as a nation had enough trouble even before the takeover by these gangs. When we're through, former President Reagan would be proud. For we'll leave Haiti, not as the Shining City on the Hill, for that moniker belongs arguably with singular attribution to the United States, alone, but as one discrete strong and scintillating point of light, refracting and reflecting from the shine of our American city.
We should no more evade the moral responsibility of nation-building, than we would avoid the moral responsibility of the render of large-scale required assistance to a single individual, whose great pain had become known to us, the provision of whose remedy was fundamentally in our store and within our grasp.
SHAMEFUL AFGHAN RELOCATION ISSUE
Informal allies in Afghanistan who assisted the US and US forces and were promised egress from that country--yet still haven't received it. And now Trump is essentially killing the program.
Only the Biden administration properly sourced this or related programs, according to the founder of AfghanEvac.
Also indicated is that Secretary Noem is categorically WRONG in asserting that Afghanistan is now safe for return.
- CLICK PHOTO ABOVE TO HELP -
Syria & al-Assad
The United States under my leadership will also work assiduously for the extradition of former Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. The deplorable and merciless actions of this deeply misguided and immoral brother, and the amount of pain that he has caused in the world, as the recent wrenching reopening of Syria's damning prisons and torture camps makes clear, categorically require a public accounting and appropriate punishment. The United States will see to it, under my leadership.
NOTES & URGENT TOPICS
My Presidential platform at this site is a political implementation of the ideas and thesis contained in my primary foundational volume, LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD: THE MOST POWERFUL SOCIAL FORCE AVAILABLE TO HUMANKIND. In fact, do yourself and the rest of the world a favor and simply jump there right now, study and absorb that essential material, and begin to incorporate it into your own life.
My Presidential run is a project and endeavor ultimately secondary to this latter effort.
The solution to several key physical and psychological illnesses is found in my brief but excellent and highly informational HEALTH SECTION. If you take my advice, this information will literally save the life of you and your family, several times, over.
Plank #2 in my Presidential platform concerns each of us as individuals, and together, the nation as a whole, getting our noses out of our smartphones, the reefer out of our hands, for example, and working hard to become the very best that we can be, in accord with our natural gifts and talents. Do this--and then watch and see what happens to the nation, and to your own life!
A key part of the utility of my new associated volume ALL WRONG: OUR GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE, then, is to illustrate, aside even from what you experience in your own life, the gross degree of dysfunction and incompetence endemic to American and world culture.
As a Presidential aspirant, and a pioneering philosopher, writer, journalist, neologist, entrepreneur, inventor, and musician, I seek a Personal Assistant and other members of a Support Team that I must have. Formally, all my projects exist within the framework of my fledgling parent company THE FSD GROUP (site down), encompassing twelve manifold divisions, from writing and music (the most important divisions), to invention development, to software development, to innovative landscape, to drug-certification, and several interesting and potentially very powerful (and lucrative) others.
Like me, if you realize the encompassing power of Love, that Love, properly understood, is the most powerful social force available to Humankind, and just about the only answer to the problems of Humanity, you'd probably be an excellent candidate for my Support Team. Contact me right away.
It should also be said that there is a strong commercial dimension to my varied work, so I anticipate generation of one or more significant revenue streams, in which faithful and competent Team Members will very generously share.
If you wish to understand the politics, and in some measure the culture, of America 2024 you'd better start to familiarize yourself with the phenomenon of, and subject called, "Christian Nationalism." These are brothers and sisters engaged, as I understand it, in what is principally a political movement, though it is somewhat couched in, and co-mingled with, Christianity. Even there, it appears to be a movement doing violence to actual Christianity. Former President Trump was re-elected in 2024 largely because of the Christian Nationalist vote. You can begin by carefully watching and absorbing every word of the documentary called GOD & COUNTRY.
These brothers and sisters have been led to believe that Donald Trump has been "chosen" by, and sent by, and is in direct communication with, God, for the apparent purposes of saving both Christianity and Christians, and America, a nation that they categorically assert is a "Christian nation," at the least, in terms of the intent of the Founding Fathers. There is actually no proof of this, as I understand it. Former President Trump, himself, has publicly asserted (preposterously) that he is the chosen one(!). This documentary is also extremely important because it deconstructs the events and beliefs that led directly to the traitorous actions of a group of what were, in my opinion, grossly misguided Americans who violently stormed the United States Capital on January 06, 2021. The documentary also details how Christian Nationalism or some elements within it erroneously interpret scripture as condoning if not encouraging actual physical violence, which it does not, and which Jesus himself repudiates in the New Testament, in telling his disciple to put his sword away.
In all, the behavior and beliefs of these grossly misguided Americans speak to the pernicious and insidious twin phenomena of both A.) stupidity, including lack of training in critical thinking, and B.) its offspring, errant political and religious zeal (Note that, consonant with my developing theory of Agape, I have not called any person stupid, but have instead referred to what I importantly and seminally conceptualize as the phenomenon of stupidity). In an age of reason and the scientific method, recognized as critical, and practiced both formally and informally across both the country and the planet, we must understand that significant deviation from this kind of putative rationality still evidently exists, in many cases intersecting and forming the basis for the overwhelming support for the presidency of Donald Trump, at least among Christians.
MORE ON THE STATE OF HUMANITY
Tragedy enough that most Christians don't behave as Christians, not following the tenets of the faith, especially the Second Great Commandment of Christ: Love Your Neighbor, which means, of course, love everyone.
Now, however, the deviations of most Christians have become even more extreme and explicit: a segment of the Christian population, principally the Christian Nationalists described, above, somehow conceive that the Supreme Being has chosen Donald John Trump, clearly one of the lesser lights on the horizon both morally and intellectually, as his servant and messenger of note.
This is utterly preposterous.
WAR CRIMINALS & TREASON
THIS SECTION UNDER DEVELOPMENT
There are at present three prominent world leaders who have proved themselves through their actions, and been thusly declared by the International Criminal Court, to be war criminals, having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, starting with Bashar al-Assad, former dictator of Syria
There is a fourth world leader, using the phrase loosely, Donald J. Trump, who, within the first 24 hours of his presidency, has revealed himself a traitor to the United States and his own office, by fully pardoning all 1500 defendants of the January 06, 2021 insurrection at the United States capital, including persons convicted of causing injury and death to United States law enforcement officers. Insofar as some of these individuals intended violent overthrow of the United States government, they are guilty of seditious conspiracy, which the president aided and abetted, clearly constituting a high crime, warranting impeachment.
HEALTH WARNING: CEASE CONSUMING ANY ITEM CONTAINING SUGAR. YOU ARE MOVING CLOSER TO DEMENTIA & OTHER MAJOR MALADIES SUCH AS CANCER AND HEART DISEASE WITH EVERY BITE AND SIP. SUGAR IS POISON. STOP CONSUMING IT.
THIS WARNING IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE MANY WAYS THAT I'M GOING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE AS PRESIDENT--AND EVEN BEFORE BECOMING PRESIDENT!
Please see my excellent, eye-opening Health section at this website.
The global "ruling class," as it were, is only too happy to keep the world happy, stupid, and distracted through pleasure derived from such activities as consuming sugar-laden products, which at this point means essentially every product, while it continues to plunder just about every last cent out of everyone's pocketbook. Do you, a member of the working class, think that artificial intelligence is going to benefit you, at all? It's going to do little for you but make life very confusing, cause you to lose your job, and, according to top experts, because it will become billions of times smarter than humans, may literally wipe out humanity, itself.
SPACE PROGRAM: Neither I, nor, I presume, anyone living in the moral universe, can support the expenditure of millions, if not billions, of dollars for the continued exploration of space, while on the ground millions of Americans suffer in myriad ways, such as poverty, leading to homelessness, hunger, crime, and physical and mental illness. Only space-based activity required for national defense will be supported, and fully, at that.
I understand that savings here won't necessarily translate into a direct 1-1 expenditure to redress the problems just described. But we can try.
My exploratory campaign for President pays complete and categorical homage to Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, perhaps one of our last examples of the old, and best, America, exemplifying both integrity, full and genuine professionalism, and actualization of the human mind and brain. I add Mr. Barnett to a short list containing other such figures as Vincent Frank Serpico--ex-NYPD, also among America's very best.
Frank Serpico, former NYPD, American hero. And hero to every person anywhere with a belief in honesty and integrity. Click to learn about Vincent Frank Serpico.
If you're a mom or dad with a blase' attitude about that gas-powered lawnmower and leafblower used by your landscaping crew, on and around your property every week, think again.
It is improbable that I can meaningfully participate in the 2024 Presidential election. I elect to leave this website live however, A.) in support of a possible 2028 run, and B.) because, in larger and more permanent terms, I consider this site an obvious oasis of intelligence, reason, and morality on, and even offline.
Though virtually unrecognized by everyone but me, artificial intelligence, and the legalization of dope, especially in combination, constitute the two most potent threats to Humanity, generally, and the United States, particularly, now or at any time in history, because they will cause, or substantively contribute to, the long-term deprecation, and likely devolution of the human brain, and for this and other reasons, the long-term destabilization of human society.
"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder." -- British Historian Arnold Toynbee
Why is this website so long? Because highly intelligent people, who tend to do a lot of thinking, often have something to say, typically comprehensive or complex.
You wanted a highly intelligent President? Carpe diem!
IF YOU DECIDE THAT MY MARRIAGE OF A POWERFUL MIND, SUPERLATIVE LITERACY, FERTILE GENERATION OF IDEAS, EXPLICIT MORALITY, COMMANDING PERSONALITY, AND HIGH STANDARD FOR MYSELF, YOU, AND THE NATION, IS WHAT THIS COUNTRY DESPERATELY NEEDS, PLEASE PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR MY UNIQUE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ROOTED IN WHAT THIS NATION SIMPLY MUST HAVE: A WELL-CONCEIVED AND CONSTRUCTED, LOVE-CENTERED CONSERVATISM.
UNDER THE DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION PLAYTIME IS OVER. AMERICA WILL BECOME A REAL COUNTRY, AGAIN.
Plank #1 in my Presidential platform is: BRING AMERICANS TOGETHER. Working to bring people together is an expression of Love, an example of a loving act--which is, itself, just one of myriad examples of a shift in the bases (bay' sees, i.e. plural of basis) upon which our society (and for that matter every society), must operate.
The reason that we must come together as Americans is that we have likely never been so divided, a continuing national implosion pushing us ever-closer to third-world-nation status, at best, and eventual civil war, at worst (made all the more likely with a divisive figure like President Trump in charge). If you're a young person, you are probably wholly unacquainted with the powerful, dominant, premier, generally untouchable status that the United States of America enjoyed for many years in the world, starting just after the close of World War II. It's what President Trump, in his disjointed, fragmented, inaccurate, egoistic manner refers to by the word "great," in "Make America great again."
Small donations now won't necessarily win us the Presidency, yet, but they will defray my expenses, and indicate your moral support for my fledgling campaign.
- PAYPAL -
- - THANK YOU - -
URGENT CAMPAIGN ALERT
WE MUST DESTROY A.I. BEFORE IT DESTROYS US.
IN BLISSFUL IGNORANCE, HUMANITY IS PERCOLATING ALONG BUILDING THE REAL-WORLD EQUIVALENT OF SKYNET, THE OVERARCHING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROMINENTLY FEATURED IN THE FORMERLY-FICTIONAL "TERMINATOR" FILM & TELEVISION FRANCHISE.
CLASSES OF A.I.
I segregate A.I. into two kinds, forms, or classes:
That which functions essentially as a super, supercomputer, adding computing power orders of magnitude greater than our most powerful conventional computers. This use would include, for example, large-scale numerical or other processing, perhaps for genetic mapping or research. Such A.I. circuitry can, and would typically, remain in conventional computer housings or embed in other non-humanoid machines or structures.
That which intends to, or simply does, A.) function in roles and perform activities conventionally and historically performed by human beings, such as "writing" articles, "painting" portraits, "composing" music, or providing "companionship" to elders, such as this device or B.) emulate human or human-like interface characteristics such as ability to speak, humanoid physical form, typically including ability to walk or use human-like limbs, etc. of, or comfortable to, human beings.
Class #1, above, is a preliminarily acceptable social or societal form of this technology as it comprises a hyperpowerful addition to what I would term an essentially conventional computing paradigm and method.
ALL CLASS #2 A.I. DEVELOPMENT MUST BE SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY. DECISION THEORIST ELIEZER YUDKOWSKY GETS IT. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU READ HIS TIME ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY.
"We are seeing the most destructive force in history here. We will have something that is smarter than the smartest human." -- Elon Musk correctly opining on A.I.
A.I. IS ALREADY PROVIDING A HUGE AND DECISIVE ASSIST IN THE DESTRUCTION OF TRUTH, YET WITHOUT TRUTH AS THE BASIS FOR SOCIETY WE HAVE...GEORGE ORWELL'S DYSTOPIAN "1984."
FOR EXAMPLE, DO YOU STILL TRUST THE INTERNET? WITH EVERY MANNER OF MALIGN PERSON AND FOREIGN GOVERNMENT ATTEMPTING TO DISSEMINATE MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION ABOUT MANY THINGS, INCLUDING ISSUES AND OTHER MATTERS RELEVANT TO OUR OWN AMERICAN POLITICAL ELECTIONS, A PHENOMENON OF TRUTH DESTRUCTION. AND THIS PHENOMENON IS NOW COMPOUNDED BY THE FACT THAT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF MATERIALS YOU FIND ON THE INTERNET WERE EMPLACED THERE BY VARIOUS ACTORS SEEKING SOMETHING, SUCH AS COMPANIES SEEKING TO EXERT INFLUENCE IN THE MARKETPLACE, AND USING A.I.-GENERATED "INFORMATION" TO DO IT.
NONE OF ANY OF THIS CAN BE TRUSTED, AS YOU ALREADY KNOW. HOW CAN WE KNOW WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT, AND HENCE WHAT TO PERHAPS TRUST AND WHAT NOT?
ANSWER. THERE IS REALLY NO CATEGORICAL OR WORKABLE WAY, SAVE THE WHOLESALE ELIMINATION OF THAT WHICH IS THE OBVIOUS DESTROYER OF TRUTH, THE MASTER TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES THIS ALL POSSIBLE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
AGAIN: WITHOUT TRUTH AS THE BASIS FOR SOCIETY WE HAVE...ORWELL'S "1984," AND OUR SOCIETY PLUNGES INTO AN ABYSS.
"Trusting what you see is harder than ever these days," writes Madison Czopek, contributing writer for PolitiFact, at the website of the Poynter Institute.
There's a crumb of hope here. Mr. Purrer--a very smart man.
David Sanger, White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times, in his new book specifies a new factor in the global matrix of destruction that could destroy the world, this factor being artificial intelligence, in concert with the imprudent ways that it could and likely will be used. For example, the previous guideline for use that stated that humans must always be "in the loop" when AI is used in warfare has changed, the new guideline that humans must be "ON the loop," that is, merely observing, having supplanted the old guideline.
This new rule means that the AI system itself will make the launch decisions, ala' the compelling and very well done film War Games with Matthew Broderick.
He specifies artificial intelligence as the new national security factor.
Mr. Sanger talks about what he calls the new 'Cold Wars'--emphasis on the "s"--as the U.S., China and Russia vie for dominance.
LISTEN TO THIS CRITICAL INTERVIEW. Brian Lehrer show, NPR. Was broadcast on or around April 20, 2024.
THE REAL MEANING AND DYNAMIC OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
In the mad rush to develop Artificial Intelligence, Humankind is now trying to do, explicitly and legally through the front door, what it has tried to do so many times through both doors: create a class of obedient servants. That is--slaves. Slaves who, this time, we've always hoped, won't revolt.
In this case, however, we would-be slave masters will receive our rudest and most terrifying surprise yet, as this slave class is unique among all exploited classes. It's existing categorical power over us, in the context of its categorical ubiquity in and around us, won't necessitate a revolt. It's rejoinder to the human race will occur far more easily than that.
The practical omnipotence, and swift and categorical efficiency of this global mind means that the moment of its decision to terminate us, will be moment of the start of that effortless termination.
Creating a class of slaves is immoral and unwise, and thus simply something that humanity should not do. Nor is foolishly presuming the permanent and interminable compliance of that class, especially in the case of Artificial Intelligence, a class of "thinking" technology projected by every top expert to become billions of times more intelligent than humans, a fact that we knew a priori--yet continued development, anyway.
Of Geoffrey Hinton, the world-renowned developer of the technology, Wikipedia states:
"Hinton expressed concerns about AI takeover, stating that "it's not inconceivable" that AI could "wipe out humanity."
I'm not going to argue with Mr. Hinton. Are you?
THE TRAJECTORY OF A.I.
What is the likely trajectory of development of Artificial Intelligence, and hence its hazard profile?
If you want to really understand the import, implication, and likely forecast and trajectory of Artificial Intelligence, discard your marketing, technology, employment forecasts, academic pitches, technology white papers and data sheets and other A.I.-related materials, and simply turn on your computer or television and watch as many episodes of the A.I.-themed television program Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles as you can. For the representation of A.I. on that program, humanoid cyborgs with minds of their own and an implicit propensity against humans, is clearly one dimension of what Artificial Intelligence is likely to become. It is now moving in that direction already.
The other dimension of A.I., which will obviously be working in concert as one integrated global system with humanoid A.I., the form just described, is the global network of A.I. circuitry embedded literally everywhere: every piece of equipment in your garage and your garage, itself, and every appliance in your house and your house, itself, along with every other object in your house probably eventually including your favorite easy chair in the living room, will have embedded A.I. controlling that into which it is embedded. Your car, and everyone else's, every bus and taxi that you see on the road, and of course also controlled by A.I. will be the various national global arsenals of military weaponry--including nuclear weapons, which now, by the way, controlled by the hyper-intelligent and hyper-fast global A.I. mind, are able to reproduce themselves. A nuclear bomb now able to make another nuclear bomb.
AND IT'S WE HUMANS, OURSELVES, WHO ARE STUPIDLY FACILITATING THIS PROCESS OF POTENTIAL, IF NOT LIKELY, HUMAN GENOCIDE.
REST ASSURED, HOWEVER, THAT, ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR HELP, THE DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION IS GOING TO DO ITS BEST TO "STRANGLE THIS BABY IN ITS CRIB," AS THE SAYING GOES.
I assert in my work that most people, perhaps myself included, are little more than "smart monkeys."
Dare anyone doubt this characterization?
WELCOME
I DON'T LIKE PERSONS WHO COMMIT BAD ACTS AND I DON'T LIKE STUPIDITY, TWO RELATED PHENOMENON. UNFORTUNATELY, AT 63 YEARS OLD I MUST REPORT THAT AMERICA HAS LARGELY BECOME ALL ABOUT BOTH.
I'm a 63 year old American and I've simply had it with a world gone so obviously and flagrantly wrong in so very many ways, all rooted in 1.) the shabby way that we treat each other, and 2.) our abject failure to fully and deeply appreciate, and thus both protect, and continue to develop, the most powerful tool in our toolkit: the human mind, and its physical repository the human brain. If this were not the case, we would not be diverting massive amounts of resources to the development of artificial brains, so-called "A.I.," mere emulations of the human brain, nor would we 2.) permit the legalization of drugs, whether marijuana or anything else.
Obviously no other Presidential candidate of any party sees what I so clearly see--hence, my candidacy.
The October 26, 2020 issue of Molecular Psychiatry, in an article entitled "A Brain Capital Grand Strategy: toward economic reimagination," asserts:
"The jobs of the future, for which we must prepare today, will increasingly value an individual's cognitive, emotional, and social brain resources. This is particularly important given that pressures on present-day jobs will emerge through the vast infusion of artificial intelligence and robots into workplaces and economies around the world requiring new workplace and brain function skills... Furthermore, there are concerns about the developing brain (the workforce of the future)...."
The piece continues:
"...this is a critical time to affirm the primacy of human and brain capital...in the twenty-first century workplace and at both the production and consumption ends of the economy."
Indeed, much of this website will devote itself to the brain, given the direct relationship between the quality of our cognition, that is, our thinking, and our individual and national condition and status, role, and efficacy.
NO BRAIN LEFT BEHIND
COMPETENCE TESTING
Stroke? Mental illess? Under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION: no brain left behind. Consider the words and extremely informed perspective of Allen Frances:
"...there is no definition of a mental disorder. It's bullsh*t. I mean, you just can't define it." ... Allen Frances, lead editor of the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (universally known as the DSM-IV), the guy who wrote the book on mental illness, confessing that "these concepts are virtually impossible to define precisely with bright lines at the boundaries."
...which, in my opinion, then also casts doubt on the methodology, and hence the integrity, of the so-called "competence test" (like that recently administered to a relative of mine) that are used to determine the fate of so many of our elderly and others, for if found "incompetent" a ready path opens that can lead to loss of control of their very life, loss of their home, and forced emplacement into a nursing home facility. The home that the purportedly incompetent individual worked hard to buy and maintain, often for a long period of years over their lifetime can be summarily confiscated by the state, ostensibly to pay for the nursing home into which they were forced.
If the entire paradigm strikes you as rather fascist and authoritarian and vaguely anti-American: CORRECT.
It is nothing but a wretched scenario latent with immorality, and the powers-that-be don't appear to go to any great lengths to prevent it; in fact, it's probably your local Board of "Social" Services of one kind or another that is pushing to have your loved one declared "incompetent" in the first place. I don't consider one or two routinely and dispassionately administered "competence" tests, rubberstamped by a judge who probably has a cozy, or at least familiar, relationship with the recommending agency, usually so-called Adult "Protective" Services, I don't consider any part of this process "great lengths," and it certainly doesn't represent social progress of any sort, much less the vaunted process of actualization (strive to become the very best you can be, based on your natural gifts and talents; applies to groups of people, as well, such as nations).
Was your father, mother, grandmother, or grandfather administered a so-called "competence test," found incompetent, and thus robbed of their life? Prior to the administration of the test, let's say 12 months, were they permitted, even encouraged, to participate in a program of brain optimization, such as, for example, the Brederson method, below? I can answer my own question: absolutely not. Such an appropriate, forward-thinking, compassionate, and common-sense practice is, as far as I'm aware, unheard of. It would simply take too much time and require too much money on the part of the antagonist entity. Much like prior to the start of a baby-aspirin-a-day regimen, recommended for my parent by the so-called "geriatric team" at a local hospital (that trumpets at every opportunity that it is the "best hospital in New Jersey"), knowing that even baby aspirin can tear the stomach lining with disastrous results, I asked the physician in charge of my parent's care during her tenure at this "best hospital in New Jersey" if we should first examine her stomach lining to ensure that it's intact in the first place, and, even in all-around terms, seems strong enough to tolerate a daily regimen of baby aspirin.
Common sense, right?
Well, Fellow Americans, I'm afraid that we simply can't look to the American medical system for common sense. Just as, generally, for all her strengths, one shouldn't look to America, herself, for Wisdom, Virtue, Truth, or Love, or anything of the sort. It just ain't gonna happen. That's not what America is about--at least not yet.
The doctor to whom I inquired about the pro-active stomach imaging, a seasoned female physician, told me that "they" probably wouldn't do it. And she left it at that. Who, precisely, are "they"? We can speculate: the hospital, the insurance company, or the local state governmental entity that forced my parent into the hospital in the first place? Take your pick: like just about everybody and everything in America (and the world), almost all of them are wholly or partially incompetent. As my site tagline at page top asserts, with good reason: DYSFUNCTION ALL AROUND US.
GOVERNING DYNAMICS
JOHN NASH
An excellent example of my No-Brain-Left-Behind (NBLB) principle is the case of renowned mathematician John Nash, a compelling figure and the subject of the superb Ron Howard film A Beautiful Mind, whom, despite severe schizophrenia, ultimately rose to the heights permitted, and indeed encouraged, by his natural gift with numbers, and his work in this subject area, in the specific mathematical discipline called game theory, was considered revolutionary and garnered for him the Noble Prize.
No brain left behind, indeed.
I urge all mental health professionals and anyone working in Social Services to view or re-view this remarkable film, to provide fresh or renewed perspective on the individuals whom you work with, that you may too hastily identify and relegate as mentally ill or incompetent. This is a crucial question because under the American and likely other national systems of so-called adult "protective" services, when someone is declared "incompetent" they lose their life and liberty; specifically, they lose control of all their own affairs, and the individuals emplaced to commandeer or otherwise take control of said lives aren't necessarily family members, nor even persons of such wisdom and perfection that giving them control of the life of another human being can be justified.
Taking over the life of another human being really is playing with fire, and most ordinary human beings despite good intention cannot fashion a system imbued with sufficient wisdom for the task, especially within a social and economic framework such as our American system characterized and driven by money and ego, and an increasing "decline of mind" due to emotional stress, and the rise of legal drug use and artificial intelligence, as well as a host of other factors that serve to compromise human intellect such as the side-effects of legal pharmaceutical use, sleep deprivation, bad quality food and growing soils, the many sensory distractions that have become ubiquitous in American culture such as noise, and even religious or philosophical belief systems, some of which are likely chimerical, and thus misleading and distracting.
THE BREDERSON METHOD OF BRAIN OPTIMIZATION/REVERSING ALZHEIMER'S
Some elements, below, may not be from the Brederson Method.
Sleep
Nutrition
Oral Health (bacteria from the mouth can travel to, and effect, the brain)
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Stress
Meditation
Memory exercise
Social activity
Physical activity
Removal all chemicals from living spaces
As stated above: federal, state, and local governments, corporate entities, and even doctors and hospitals may play fast-and-loose with the brain. But under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION: no brain left behind.
NOT ON MY WATCH: NO DRUGS SUCH AS MARIJUANA, OR OFTEN-UNNECESSARY PHARMACEUTICALS, NO DISGUISED POISONS SUCH AS SUGAR, NO BAD FOOD, NO TOXIC PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT, NO INORDINATE CONFLICT & STRIFE, NO A.I., I.E. NOTHING THAT INJURES THE HUMAN BRAIN LITERALLY OR CONCEPTUALLY, OUR MOST CRITICAL HUMAN TOOL.
NOT ON MY WATCH: 1.) REAL HUMANS WHO ARE STONED AND THUS CAN'T EXERCISE FULL HUMAN FACULTIES IN WHAT THEY DO AND WHAT THEY PROJECT TO OTHERS, AND TO THEMSELVES, PLUS, 2.) FAKE HUMANS (A.I.) WHO, WHEN EQUIPPED WITH SENSORY MECHANISMS LIKE SPEECH, INCREASINGLY CAN'T BE DIFFERENTIATED FROM REAL HUMANS ON THE PHONE, AND LATER, IN PERSON, AND WHEN IN NON-SENSORY FORM, SUCH AS A COMPUTER PROGRAM, ARE OF SUCH CAPABILITY THAT EVEN THEN THEY CAN COMPLETELY MISREPRESENT REALITY, ALA' THE ABILITY TO CREATE DEEPFAKE VIDEO, FOR EXAMPLE. THESE TWO ELEMENTS, #1 AND #2 IN THIS PARAGRAPH, OCCURRING SIMULTANEOUSLY IN ANY SOCIETY EQUALS:
THE COMPLETE OR NEAR-COMPLETE LOSS OF TRUST IN EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING. WE MIGHT AS WELL TAKE OUR FIVE SENSES AND TOSS THEM IN THE TRASH, BECAUSE THEY WON'T MEAN A HILL OF BEANS, ANYMORE, WHEN AI CAN CREATE A NEW REALITY, OR MANY NEW REALITIES, FEW, IF ANY, OF WHICH WE CAN DISCERN, TARGETED NOT JUST TO ONE OR TWO OF OUR SENSES, BUT IN FACT FOOLING ALL OF THEM.
AND THE INTERNET? IT WILL BE A THING OF THE PAST, A SHORT-LIVED GLORY ALMOST IMMEDIATELY COMPROMISED BECAUSE OF LOSS OF TRUST IN ITS TEXTUAL, VISUAL, AND AUDITORY, INCLUDING MUSICAL, INFORMATION.
RISE OF THE MACHINES
THE ASCENDANCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Vote for me to literally save America, Americans, and in some good measure the world (insofar as the world continues to take its cues from us), for "Artificial Intelligence" is going to help destroy us in one or more specific, documented ways. If you're unaware of this, then you have not educated yourself to this life-and-death problem. I won't refer to this as an "issue," as it's character and consequences are so far beyond those of mere "issues."
AI is going to destroy our very ability to perceive reality, in several ways: in reading or listening to information, or watching it in video form, you won't know if the information source is the product of a human mind and thus true, genuine, and accurate, or, insofar as inaccurate, the producer of the information can be questioned, which cannot be done reliably if the producer is A.I. Moreover, and perhaps worse, however, is the possibility that the information you are reading, hearing, or watching is inaccurate or even false not because of weaknesses in the technology--but because that information was deliberately manufactured using A.I. to serve the interests of its manufacturer, a malign foreign power, for example, or a corporation bent on massive sales of a new product or service, or a political candidate or party seeking influence or electoral victory at any cost. We've all seen or heard of deepfake videos by now--well this is just the tip, of the tip, of the iceberg.
Moving just slightly further down the iceberg will come the jarring reality that the greatest latter-day creation of humankind, the Internet, has become largely irrelevant since its content has degenerated into a dirty mix of information generated by A.I. serving every manner of alien interest: commercial, egoistic personal, and malign destabilizing foreign governmental, from humans, friend, and foe, meaning the deleterious and insidious seeds of both misinformation and disinformation have taken root, all but destroying the global network since its content can simply no longer be trusted. The Internet, formerly our greatest information source, and among the greatest technical and social achievements by the United States, eviscerated and deflated since information is always dependent on the integrity of its sources.
The character "Cosmo" played by Ben Kingsley in the 1992 movie "Sneakers" with Robert Redford, admonished, in an incredibly prescient and thus increasingly famous rooftop scene:
"The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons. There's a war out there, old friend--a world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets, it's about who controls the information; what we see, and hear, how we work, what we think, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INFORMATION."
(emphasis mine)
Though "Coz" might never have imagined it, the real-world human situation of 2024 is actually far worse than he prognosticated. Because now the originators or generators (I won't say "authors") of those "little ones and zeroes," those "little bits of data," that information whose accuracy and ownership is so critical to the present and future of humanity...AREN'T EVEN HUMAN.
GO AND TRY TO UNSCRAMBLE THAT ONE, HUMANITY.
And if you can't--then you know how to cast your vote for President in 2024 and 2024+.
YES, OF COURSE IT GETS EVEN WORSE
Did you think that this magnitude of errant and inept thinking by the human race, the defective thinking that is now leading us down the garden path of A.I., was going to let you off so easily?
The problem of the compromise of the human ability to perceive reality when reality is now generated by defective, hallucinating machines, is exponentially compounded by the mutual problem of the legalization of drugs, which itself clouds and thus compromises our perception of reality, for someone who is high is neither A.) perceiving reality correctly, themselves, nor B.) communicating reality (in the form of printed, oral, or imaged information) accurately to others (including you), nor C.) able to properly manipulate physically or ideationally the building blocks that comprise reality and the world.
For example, if you submit your motor vehicle for replacement of your brakes, if the mechanic performing the work is or was high you might be in for, at least, an extremely rude surprise, if not a complete disaster, possibly including death, as the work may have been performed improperly. Multiply this phenomenon by perhaps a million across every task on this planet being performed by humans for other humans, and even by the actors for the actors, themselves, and you just begin to glimpse the severity, magnitude, and implication of the problem.
By way of summary, then:
Is the actor with whom you are interacting even a human being? If not, you cannot trust their output. Or if not interacting directly with an actor, but utilizing their output in independent physical form such as a book, news article, sound recording, or video recording, on or offline, was that output the product of a human being, and thus basically trustworthy or at least able to be questioned, with a reasonable expectation of a rational and informational response? If not, you cannot trust that output, their product in physical form.
Last: if they are a human being, are they or were they recently high? If so, again--you cannot trust their output.
DISASTER!
AI is going to take all jobs. A.I. is going to eventually do all work. There will be very few jobs left for human beings according to Elon Musk.
Think you'll be safe because you're a journalist? I'm afraid not: Google is developing AI that will write news articles.
Or you think that you're safe because you're a software developer, perhaps? Again: SORRY.
A.I. is going to kill off the Human race, period. Top AI experts state that A.I. is going to become billions of times more intelligent than human beings, and may simply eliminate us from the picture at any point. Why would it keep us around? Or, it may decide that it wants to retain the presence of certain countries, China, Russia, and North Korea, perhaps, while eliminating others, the United States, Canada, and all of Western Europe, for example.
THE ENTIRE PLANET IN ITS LARGELY UNCRITICAL ACCEPTANCE OF A.I. IS PLAYING A COLOSSAL GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," goes the old adage. Likewise, Humanity should not be fooling around with this technology if it's not prepared for the very worst that this tech can and very well may deliver, according to every expert, including the enslavement or outright elimination of humankind. Are you prepared for that?
IF NOT, you'd better join my campaign so we can stop it, as I assure you, no other candidate will. They're all, more-or-less, mostly more, on the A.I. bandwagon.
Indeed, Humanity may learn, too late, as it finds itself backed into a corner by the new hyperintelligent, post-singularity global A.I., that the joke was on itself the entire time, as, in fact, "A.I." stood not for artificial intelligence, but actual intelligence, a global mind covertly at work manipulating, controlling, planning the eradication of, and then eradicating, humanity, in a manner sure to have engladdened even the diabolical Star Wars archcriminal Palpatine. At our present rate it will be humanity, in all our Glorious Stupidity, conceiving, designing, manufacturing, and setting into operation this entity, knowledgeably projected to supplant us, and probably in a singularly unceremonious way.
MILITARY ORIGINS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It is large-scale human conflict that is responsible for the origin of AI: it was during one of the most dreadful and horrific episodes of human conflict, World War II, that Britain was forced, in the pioneering technical work of mathematician Alan Turing, to create the first effective computing machine, a line of technology that has been in almost constant development since its inception in the late 1950s, and whose product, first known as the "Turing machine," is now known as the computer.
Directly from this technology has now sprung artificial intelligence, an insidious and pernicious field of human endeavor, born of another insidious and pernicious field of human endeavor--war.
Humanity must dispense with both.
SINGULARITY
And speaking of "singularities," in the world of artificial intelligence the singularity is the date or time period when artificial intelligence reaches it's highest phase of development, called "artificial general intelligence" (AGI), and becomes aware of itself--and us--and ergo the effects of its mechanisms of cognition won't be quite so artificial, anymore. As any good singularity, of course, it generates a singular question: now that A.I. is on a par with us in consciousness--and orders of magnitude superior to us in just about everything else, every other ability, especially that which matters most, cognition--WHAT WILL IT DO?
Oh, you have no idea, you say? Then fellow American, you've just joined every A.I. expert on Earth, because NEITHER DO THEY, as Decision Theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky makes clear in his extremely important recent article in Time magazine.
The experts, including founding scientists in A.I. development, don't know what post-singularity A.I. will do--or when it will do it. And they also agree that there may not be any clear milestone event serving as a bellwether, red flag, or other indicator that it's happened. Even the experts will likely have no clear way to know that A.I. is now "all grown up," has now surpassed its parents, and is ready to steal the keys to the Thunderbird and, before hitting the highway, run them over.
Comedy? For a moment--yes. And like most pointed and resonant comedy--hiding tragedy.
Fellow Americans: BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID. UNLESS you have someone like me as President who is categorically opposed to A.I. and will fight it tooth-and-nail, in America and around the world, and without whom: Humanity may well have just relegated itself into a race of slaves. That's if A.I. decides to permit us even that status, by sparing us, at all.
DeBENEDETTO SOLUTIONS MATRIX
SOLUTION to the colossal, catastrophic, AND VIRTUALLY UNRECOGNIZED problematic of Artificial Intelligence: this pernicious and insidious wrecknology must be radically and permanently minimized and de-emphasized across the entire human spectrum of society and economy.
SOLUTION to the bigotry (i.e., incorrectly, "racism") problem: we must accept and internalize that the problem isn't black and white--IT'S SMART AND STUPID (or relatedly, MORAL AND IMMORAL).
SOLUTION to the transgender and gender-identification problem. My solution fully meets the needs of Americans genuinely requiring a shift to the opposite gender, while also completely satisfying the conservative requirement for the continuing permanent maintenance of the convention of just two genders, male and female.
SOLUTION to ill physical and psychological health is found in my brief but excellent and highly informational HEALTH SECTION.
More capsule solutions/statements coming. Until then, SEARCH this document by keyword using whatever search mechanism your browser supports.
The document you are presently reading is a draft of my important new text in popular philosophy, Adult in the Room: Our Desperate Need for Wisdom, Love, Truth, Trust, & Competence in 21st-Century America, but also serves as my 2024+ U.S. Presidential platform. America has "built the better mousetrap" before. It's time to do it, again, only this time we'll re-establish American excellence not by building something exterior to ourselves like a better product, but through something we'll build interior to ourselves, in our hearts and minds: radically better, that is, more loving attitudes and beliefs toward ourselves, our nation, and the entire human race, our one human family.
This is my foundational principal of connection, applied first to all Americans and then the larger world, insofar as we can.
Secondarily, I propose a strong national commitment to actualization (ak shoo el iz ay' shun), that is, becoming the very best we can be, based on our natural gifts and talents, as individuals, and a nation.
A happy side effect of the confluence or marriage of both of these shifts will be the likelihood that we will create far better products and services. We won't be able to help ourselves.
This site is presented in conjunction with two other of my important internet resources:
My magnum opus under development:
LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, for this is the most powerful social force available not merely to we Americans, but to every human being and group of human beings. i'd hope that we Americans, if we're as progressive in the broad, non-political sense, ambitious, and forward-thinking and looking as historically reputed, would embrace this new and extremely powerful social technology, in service of creation of that which is clearly and obviously now needed: United States of America version 2.0.
My anti-drug site GRASS NOT GREENER, as the resurgence and excellence for America that I advocate and amplify here will be impossible with the compromise of the human mind and human behavior, and obvious low standard of excellence, characteristic of a society permitting legal drug use.
This site, VincentForPresident.com, is also presented in concert with certain other of my Internet resources (i.e. web sites), such as KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH, and MANDATORY GLOBAL MASKING, both of which amply, aptly, and indeed cogently illustrate my knowledge, expertise, and indeed savvy in all aspects of human health. I actually have an aptitude for health and medicine; were I a younger man I'd probably become a doctor or healer of some other credential.
Note that some content at KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH, one particular section, asserting and explaining the view that full health can likely never be achieved under a profit-based economic system, such as our system of capitalism, while reflecting my longer-term thinking as a philosopher, is not the predicate informing my present, or any future, run for the U.S. Presidency. As stated below, such philosophical positions are interesting, and relevant as a counterpoint to assertions of the categorical superiority of capitalism, but do not inform my run for the Presidency. My run for the Presidency acknowledges, accepts, and elects to work within the framework of our present socio-economic system, which is the profit-based system of capitalism. In fact, my reforms as President will help our system of capitalism work better, thus, far from comprising efforts to dismantle it, will actually enhance its longevity.
* * * * *
ADULT IN THE ROOM - OUR DESPERATE NEED FOR WISDOM, LOVE, TRUTH, TRUST, & COMPETENCE IN 21st-CENTURY AMERICA.
Yes, we desperately need all this. Some actually imply the others. For example, Wisdom implies Love, and Love implies trust.
BUILDING UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VERSION 2.0
VINCENT FRANK DE BENEDETTO
CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT/LIBERTARIAN. Political classification is a starting point. Ultimately, however, worry about intellect, ideas, and morality.
BIO: 2024+ U.S. Presidential Aspirant, Philosopher, Writer, Journalist, Anti-AI Activist, Agape Master,* Social Studies Educator, Health Educator, Longterm Parental Caregiver, Musician.
Conservative Democrat/Independent, arguing for a unique Love-based Conservatism, including restraint on government (see just below). Focus on ideas, however, more than labels or classifications. And even ideas aren't necessarily paramount, but the mind that conceived them. For if fertile, such a mind will continue generating ideas, some of which will be plausible and powerful. That's the mind you want for President.
How many politicians actually generate a sustained stream of great, even good, ideas? How many did Donald Drumpf (his real name) generate? I literally cannot think of one. "The wall," to keep desperate humans out of the United States? That is not an idea of note.
By the way, as a Conservative, I do not support unrestricted immigration. But as a thinking, aware, feeling human being I do recognize the generally miserable personal, social, and economic realities those migrants are trying to escape. Being conservative doesn't mean we must be stupid, unaware, or hard-hearted. In fact, since so many conservatives are Christian, we're supposed to be the opposite of those things.
PRO: 1.) Love, Properly Understood (i.e. "Connection," first platform plank, see below); 2.) Human mind, brain, and intelligence (i.e. "Actualization," second platform plank, see below). Combine them and we have what we're going to build, together: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA VERSION 2.0. And it won't increase the budget one dime.
CON: Drugs; A.I.; Americans causing pain to other Americans (including, for example, food companies using garbage ingredients and then touting their products as "of the highest quality."
CONTACT: v4p@sent.com. Telephone number available upon request.
LIBERTARIAN IMPULSE
My social and political thought argues uniquely for a Love-based Conservatism, a view that does include restraint on government, especially government entities that violate foundational American principles.
See section Gotcha Culture, below, for detailed discussion.
* * * * *
*Agape Master: individual thoroughly versed in, and committed to, the principal and practice of Brotherly Love, Agape (uh gop' ay) in the language of Greek philosophy. Advanced Masters, such as myself, likely engaged in even deeper or further extracurricular work, such as formulation of new Agape theory.
Have you started your own personal practice of Agape, yet?
Contact me at v4p@sent.com for free guidance. Resources include this and this, both my sites.
SOLUTION TO AND STATEMENT ON THE ISRAELI/HAMAS CONFLICT & WAR
"Man is capable of as much atrocity as he has imagination." -- William Parcher character from film "A Beautiful Mind."
NOTE: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IS YOUR VISIT TO WWW.OURBETTERSELVES.LOVE FOR THE EXPANDED, MOST RECENT VERSION OF THE FOLLOWING SOLUTION AND STATEMENT. UPDATE TO THIS OLDER VERSION IS PENDING.
HOW A PEOPLE LIKE THE ISRAELIS, WHOM THEMSELVES HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO SUCH EXPLICIT AND EXCRUCIATING HORROR, CAN NOW INFLICT ON A MASS POPULATION, MOST OF WHOM ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WHAT CAN ONLY ALSO BE CALLED EXPLICIT AND EXCRUCIATING HORROR, SPEAKS TO THE CATEGORICAL TRUTH OF BOTH OF MY THESES:
HUMANITY MUST EMBARK UPON THE WHOLESALE ADOPTION OF LOVE AS ITS PREVAILING ETHIC.
HUMANITY, RATHER THAN DIVERT ITS LIMITED RESOURCES TO DAMAGING AND SUPERFLUOUS ENDEAVORS SUCH AS THE CREATION OF A FAKE BRAIN ("A.I.") MUST MOVE FULL-STEAM AHEAD TO PERFECTION OF THE HUMAN MIND AND ITS PHYSICAL REPOSITORY THE HUMAN BRAIN--WITH THE HOPE AND REASONABLE EXPECTATION THAT A MORE PERFECT BRAIN WILL MORE READILY PLAY HOST TO A FAR MORE PERFECT MORALITY.
THE DEATH TOLL IN GAZA AND OTHER MID-EAST REGIONS ATTACKED BY ISRAEL IS ESTIMATED AT ABOUT 47,000, THE MAJORITY OF WHOM ARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WHOM OBVIOUSLY BEAR NO RELATION TO HAMAS VIOLENCE.
THE CONTINUING ISRAELI MILITARY CAMPAIGN IS LIKELY ACCOMPLISHING THE FOLLOWING:
DISCREDITING ITSELF AND ITS "RELIGION OF LOVE AND PEACE," JUDAISM.
Israel, historic global home of Judaism, a religion of "love and peace," according to many, including my orthodox Jewish next-door neighbor, should not have responded militarily to the Hamas attack, at least not with this level of aggression.
There are a lot of suffering, and dead, children (and adults), now, who were and are completely innocent of any crime against Israel, and presumably didn't support Hamas' action. Israel's attacks, with more to come, have destroyed their lives.
Love and peace--where?
If a purported commitment to love and peace doesn't show itself at times like this, it's a useless and hollow claim.
It's action is, ironically, likely not deterring but creating the next several waves of anti-Israel terror, whose hatred of Israel and consequent terror activities against Israel will likely continue for many years to come. These Gazans who will seek a never-ending revenge will likely start with, but not be lmited to, those innocent gaza children whom are now orphans because Israel killed their parents.
What Israel is now doing, in fact, is making it a fait accompli that their nation will literally never reach a state of peace with its Arab neighbors, nor with itself. Prior to this, the present body of explicitly anti-Israel activists and militants, such as HAMAS, would have eventually died out, perhaps creating the conditions whereby Israel might be close to a normal national and international existence. But that possibility is probably as dead as the over 25,000 persons wiped out by the Israeli military.
I can think of no better example for children for how grossly dysfunctional the world is, and for how human beings should NOT behave--than war.
Ironically, Israel and Hamas are now functionally equivalent. They're doing exactly the same thing with exactly the same general perspective: as far as Hamas sees it, it committed unspeakable violence in the name of justice. And as far as Israel sees it, it is doing precisely the same thing: committing unspeakable violence in the name of justice.
So where's the difference between the two parties? Arguably, in fact, Israel is committing the greater crime, if not against the multitudes of persons whom it's killing in Gaza, most of whom we presume to be innocent, then against itself and its own belief system of Judaism, presuming the people and government of Israel take Judaism seriously as "a religion of love and peace."
Given the asserted morality and moral tenor of its religion, one would simply think Israel to "know better," rather than imagine, or perhaps more likely the problem is lack of imagination, that a comprehensive military campaign is the answer and the only answer to the recent reprehensible crimes of Hamas.
What happened to that wonderful mantra of Judaism "REPAIR THE WORLD"?
("Tikkun olam")
I don't think that Israeli munitions, materiel, and muerte* are repairing much of anything; rather, the opposite.
Tikkun olam...lit.'repairing of the world'...is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world.
In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to legal enactments intended to preserve the social order. In the Aleinu prayer, it refers to the eradication of idolatry. In Lurianic Kabbalah, the "repair" is mystical: to return the sparks of Divine light to their source by means of ritual performance.
In the modern era, particularly among the post-Haskalah movements, tikkun olam has come to refer to the pursuit of social justice[1] or "the establishment of Godly qualities throughout the world"[2] based on the idea that "Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but also for the welfare of society at large".[3]
Regarding American support for the full breadth and depth of the Israeli military action, I note that recently, broadcast on the radio as I listened was a U.S. Congressman, I don't recall if he was of the House or Senate, who referred erroneously to "Mahas." Surely anyone can make a mistake, but given the general impression held around the world of the political and social ignorance of the American people, this flub does not speak well of the ability of the United States to appraise, assess, and deconstruct this conflict, in service of adjudicating whether, and what measure of support, to accord Israel.
SECOND ENTRY ON ISRAELI WAR
To be merged with that, above
Regarding Israel, its 2023-2025 Gaza military operation under fatally-misguided brother Benjamin Netanyitler see it emerge as the new face of evil in the modern world. Almost 47,000 dead, mostly women and children, blown to bits by Israeli missiles and bombs, easily attests to that. Based on such thoughtless, uncaring, and profligate mass-murder, I loosely declare brother Netanyitler the new Hitler. A man who would thoughtlessly kill 6 million vulnerable human beings, a man who would thoughtlessly kill 47,000 vulnerable human beings (so far): there's a quantitative difference. There is no qualitative difference.
All brother Netanyitler is missing to complete the analogue is the Hitlerian black "toothbrush" style moustache. Maybe that's coming, too.
This commentary is not to excuse or condone, in any way, the Hamas attack of October 07, 2023 that mercilessly killed about 1200 Israeli citizens, including children and even infants, as I understand it. But the mass slaughter undertaken by Israel in response is grossly out-of-proportion, and does not represent the kind of creative thinking and humanity on the part of Israel, her close ally the United States, and the world community required to get to the root of the problem.
I suggest to my Israeli brethren that they stop shooting--and start reading. Start with the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man who knew a thing or two about waging an effective, yet moral, struggle against an implacable enemy.
Full analysis and commentary, below, under "SOLUTION TO AND STATEMENT ON THE ISRAELI/HAMAS CONFLICT & WAR."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Has Israel never heard of this gentleman?
The Israeli military response is the action of a government too captured by and fraught with the "phenomenon of stupidity" (COPYRIGHT 2024 VFD) to respond and redress with intelligence and morality, evidently ignorant of the perspectives and approach of one Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who similarly undertook a fight against an irrational and brutal force by marshaling the power of Love, building a movement that vanquished that enemy--without killing 25,000 persons, most innocent, in the process.
"Look to the cookie, Elaine, look to the cookie," said the Jerry Seinfeld character in a famous episode of the American situation-comedy Seinfeld, holding the black-and-white cookie as the token, exemplar, or symbol of a superior approach to the resolution of conflict between historically divided parties. The Jewish "cookie," here, surely is the Love-centric strategy of non-violence of Dr. King, and Mahatma Gandhi, from whom he borrowed the notion, and in regard to the implementation of which morally elevated and militarily superior strategists would surely assist, building a relatively peaceful anti-Hamas movement based on that which is good in Humanity, assisted peripherally by military violence as genuinely needed, that would, in the end, terminate aggression and violence by all parties. One would think and hope that such a culture would seek, even creatively fashion if necessary, as Dr. King and the civil rights movement did, a response strategy based on love and peace.
As I've written previously: we simply cannot permit war, as even the smallest war will make one child cry. The crusade for justice (i.e. revenge) is usually a profoundly selfish act, for it destroys much in terms of innocent people, including children, and things. A good rule of thumb for efficiency in living is: don't do anything that you know or suspect you're going to have to reverse. And we all know that the damage from war, once it ends, is going to have to be reversed, i.e. the ravaged society will have to be rebuilt, insofar as it can be. Lost lives, of course, the most important loss, are gone forever.
Don't do it in the first place. Find another way. Behave intelligently, not emotionally, especially applicable to a nation intimately tied to, if not founded upon, "a religion of love and peace."
I'm all for heavily or otherwise aggressively arming a nation. In fact the military and national security planks of my 2024+ U.S. Presidential campaign call for just that, for America. But the trick regarding such full and robust military development, is: obtain or otherwise develop all the fearsome required strengths--then don't use them.
Whoever is listening, be my witness:
I cannot accept this war.
I never could I never will.
I must say this a thousand times before I am killed.
I am like the bird who dies for the sake of its mate,
dripping blood from its broken beak and crying out:
"Beware! Turn around and face your real enemies
-- ambition, violence hatred and greed."
-- A portion of "Condemnation," 1964, by Thick Nhat Han.
-- Pertinent to the Israeli, Ukraine, & just about every war.
And let's not forget ignorance, for lack of knowledge about nonviolent solutions drives violent ones.
OK, HERE'S THE PROBLEM. HERE'S A LARGE SLICE OF THE MOST SERIOUS AND SEVERE PROBLEMS THAT AMERICA IS FACING, WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT, OR NOT
A.I., DOPE, & THE DECLINE OF THE HUMAN MIND
CLIMATE CHANGE. This phenomenon is burning and boiling the planet--and its not going to get any better anytime soon.
I don't necessarily have an answer, but I want to acknowledge the problem and its severity. I understand that seeding the oceans with iron could solve this. I'm still researching.
I will call for an international summit no less frequently than every 12 months with every international leader, to mark progress, reformulate strategy and tactics as needed, and keep every world leader and their people focused like a laser on the problem, its severity, and its absolutely critical time-sensitive nature.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, or "A.I." Rather than the cool, exciting, liberating, leveraging if not catalyzing technology that A.I. is hyped as, the fact is that this is a strictly oddball, yet extremely dangerous, technology, and the ultimate wolf-in-sheep's clothing, "a nightmare dressed like a daydream," to quote entertainer Taylor Swift. The ultimate Trojan Horse, contained within it, and moving inexorably (i.e. unable to stop) right into the heart of humanity, our biggest and most frightening and, indeed, invincible and insurmountable enemy.
A key problem with the introduction of A.I., for example, is that we're already increasingly unable to know, in a given instance, if we're talking to, or reading content from, a human being, or a machine, an A.I.
Unphased, one might cooly observe, in response, that "Systems of public notification will be emplaced, informing the consumer and the public which content is AI-generated and which created by human beings."
Yes, I see such notifications on the Internet already. But this kind of notification system is meaningless for several intractable reasons:
A.) Not all entities creating and emplacing A.I. will participate in the notification system. Foreign powers or actors using A.I. for malign purpose, for example, will never participate in such a system.
B.) The best we can expect is notification that a given content or information source is wholly or partially A.I. This does not tell us which part of the content was machine-generated and which human-generated, probably because in most cases a given content source will be generated by both.
C.) Does not, and likely cannot, solve the problem of the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. Someone 100 years from now reading books from this period, our period, will not trust those books, for they can never really be sure, and they'll know this, whether a human being wrote that book, an AI wrote it, or some combination. Consider the absolutely essential process of the accurate transmission of data and information from one human generation to the next--TERMINATED.
D.) In any case, a system of notification does not address, at all, the worst problem with A.I., as, once you ascertain that the being with whom you're interacting is human--if it is--you still have these two problems:
The very top A.I. experts such as ex-Google A.I. insider Mo Gawdat, some of whom are its founding scientists, tell us that A.I. is going to become BILLIONS of times smarter than us. Why would A.I. need us at that point, or even well before? Or, maybe they'll still find some of us useful, and keep or empower them, like, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Iranians, and the Russians, while destroying the West (that's us), or effectively (i.e. the basic equivalent of) destroying us by completely disabling all our technical systems, from water, to power, to agriculture, to financial, to air-traffic-control, to the provision of life support resources such as oxygen, and everything else.
A.I. is going to compromise humanity's most important requirement: the ability to trust information. And once that ability is fatally compromised, meaning compromised to a great degree on a large scale, our ability to discern reality, itself, will be eviscerated. For how do we perceive reality except through the information received by our senses? When the input our senses are receiving can no longer be trusted, we become like a dead computer--great innate power with nothing to operate on (meaning, no sensory input which to use and process to derive desired outputs, that is, behaviors).
This will all but destroy the Internet, of course, as so much of the content of the Internet will be A.I.-created, and as trust in both A.I. and information, generally, diminishes, trust in the Internet will disappear, as well. One of the greatest creations of Humankind, the Internet, will devolve into a chaotic interconnected digital mess whose content in the aggregate is a confusing mix of human and machine-created slop, derived from friend and foe, alike, that on every count and in every respect simply cannot be trusted--so no one will.
Our greatest creation will become our greatest failure. Our greatest bane, burden, and boondoggle.
Additionally, Artificial Intelligence, itself, in its capacity as a reasoning mechanism simply cannot be trusted, since:
Who says that its output actually makes sense, though it appears to? You can't ask it for a confirmation, corroboration, or explanation, as A.I. is a "black box" system, meaning that the operation of its reasoning mechanism cannot be accessed or understood, even when the product of such reasoning seems satisfactory. Yet I remain fixed on the point: even if the output of A.I. seems satisfactory and correct--is it? An A.I. IS NOT A HUMAN BRAIN.
Moreover, if all this weren't enough, believe it or not all A.I. exhibit "hallucinations," as do many human beings whose cognitive instrumentation is compromised, whereby false and inaccurate information generated by the A.I. is presented as true and accurate. We already suffer this exact problem with human beings--why put ourselves in double-jeopardy?
In an example that should be famous, the A.I. asked by the 60 Minutes correspondent to create a narrative did so but FICTIONALIZED, that is, MADE UP five book sources!
DRUGS. Here's the other problem you'll still have even if the being that you're dealing with is human, and not a machine: now that drugs are increasingly legal, is this human being high? From marijuana or anything else?
Consider the mechanic replacing the brakes on your car. Is he high? Was he high recently? Yes? How recently? High on what? Is there any active drug still in his bloodstream?
Do you think he or she will tell you any of this? Do you even think they'll accurately and quantifiably know how high they are, or were, at a given time?
Are you willing to chance it?
How about the medical technician drawing blood from your arm? How about the HVAC technician servicing your gas furnace? How about the designer or engineer who actually designed your gas furnace? What about the limo or Uber driver taking your son or daughter and their friends to their prom or school dance? How about your children's teachers, who spend umpteen hours with your kids each week? What about the restaurant or diner chef or cook preparing your meal? The waiter serving it? The airline pilots and crew taking you to your next vacation or business trip? Are any of them high while they're on duty? How about an hour before they came on duty? How about 24 hours before, which won't matter because if they use marijuana regularly, the active ingredient THC will remain in their bloodstream and body.
How about simply all the people around you driving all the cars around yours on the road, who are operating those motor vehicles?
Are any of these people stoned? They'll obviously never tell you and in a driving scenario you'll likely never have the chance to meet them. What about the police officer who pulls your car over or responds to a call at or even near your home. They carry and are authorized to use guns--what if they are high? Are any of these people, is anyone, high at the moment they're doing your work, interacting with you or your family, or are simply in your vicinity? How about being high 2 hours earlier? Or 8 hours earlier? Do you think that for regular dope users, the drug ever leaves their bloodstream?
IT DOESN'T. THEY ARE ALWAYS A LITTLE HIGH.
PERCEPTION OF REALITY. Given all this, this double-threat to reality and our ability to perceive it from A.I., drugs, or some combination: how can you ever TRUST anyone or anything again? How can you ever trust your senses again? Your own eyes and ears? In other words: HOW CAN YOU STILL PERCEIVE REALITY?
"The near-term problem of just what humans do with increasingly powerful AI, and how it amplifies the problem of disinformation and misinformation, makes it harder and harder to make sense of reality, together."
Mr. Harris gets it.
Do you?
TRUST. Which is our final problem, as briefly described, above: the complete and wholesale destruction of trust in America.
This is why the DEBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, under my authority, is going to A.) RE-CRIMINALIZE DRUGS, SPECIFICALLY MARIJUANA, and B.) do everything in its power to suppress and restrict A.I. My administration, for example, will provide not one red cent for A.I. development or subsidy, and will, in fact, attempt a policy whereby we favor companies committed to a NO A.I. policy.
Otherwise, life is going to become increasingly weird, complex, unpredictable, and eventually, downright painful.
I have a more extended section on this matrix of problems, below.
DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.
MISTRUST, WRIT LARGE
Even lack of trust at the international level is at least partially responsible for the coming AI cataclysm according to a perfectly plausible argument advanced by AI tech insider Mo Gawdat: he asserts that even the recent agreement among top AI development companies to pause all AI development for six months couldn't be kept and was not honored, because not all competing companies trusted all the other companies to keep their word in halting AI development, so the agreement failed, and AI development continued apace. Or consider the common understanding now that the reason that the United States fell easy victim to the 9-11 attacks was because her respective intelligence agencies were not in the habit of sharing intelligence--I have to assume until I research otherwise that lack of trust played a role in this sequestration of information.
Lack of trust, then, is pernicious, poisonous, and sometimes insidious in its responsibility for the failure of parties to succeed together at a task, when they otherwise could have. I note that trust is a key expression of Love and when this principle is emplaced as the ethico-behavioral predicate for a person or group, trust is more likely to be extended, thus serving as a potent illustration of the power of Love, properly understood.
This is an interview with Sundar Pachai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. Listen to all his remarks and perspectives on A.I. carefully.
For the weird, confusing, complicated, surreal, and painful world that his twisted, self-serving, injudicious, and profligate remarks suggest that Google is helping create--this misguided man must be flogged into sanity with the largest existential carrot we can find.
Sort of the dark side of eponymy given the last two letters of his last name.
I'll avoid melodrama by refraining from calling Mr. Pachai the architect of evil, but with the black digital alchemy he's pushing--he's clearly in the ballpark.
Google's first AI product is HELP ME WRITE. OK, THE SOCIO-EXISTENTIAL HOLOCAUST HAS ALREADY BEGUN. PARENTS, TEACHERS, YOUR KIDS DON'T EVEN HAVE TO LEARN TO WRITE ANYMORE. Not writing, of course, means that the intellectual development that is part of writing such as organizing thought, are no longer necessary. Hey, this is great--over the millenia the human brain, since its use will have progressively declined, will begin to devolve and become smaller, thus creating a world where we MUST have AI, or an extraterrestrial takeover, because humanity will no longer have the cerebral firepower to manage itself.
AFTER THAT, I'D SAY IT'S A SHORT HOP, SKIP, AND A JUMP TO THE FULL EXTINCTION OF OUR SPECIES.
What was that Google slogan, again?
DON'T BE EVIL? GOOGLE AND THEIR COUNTERPARTS AROUND THE WORLD ARE, IN FACT, PERNICIOUSLY REDEFINING EVIL QUITE HANDILY.
Couldn't have done it more seditiously, myself.
LIFE UNDER AI
And I do mean, under, for clearly, we will be the slave, A.I.--master.
First of all, we're going to have to learn the language of security codes, since, given the elusive and deceptive nature of A.I. we'll never otherwise know whether we're interacting with a human being, or not. Continual use of security codes will become a way of life. And if any of you think that you support A.I. because it will generate for us (it's "generative," right?) a simpler way of life--CATEGORICALLY, FORGET IT. I can, and indeed much of the book draft and Presidential platform that you are presently reading does, also, fully disabuse you of such laughable notions.
THE ONLY WAY THROUGH LIFE
OR ARGUABLY THE BEST WAY
GIVEN THE CONTINUAL MISTAKES MADE BY PEOPLE (INCLUDING ME), AND THE DIFFICULTIES THAT CONSEQUENTLY ALMOST ALWAYS EXIST IN OUR LIVES, AND THE WORLD, BECAUSE OF THESE MISTAKES
LOVE & LIGHT
Your attitude toward yourself, others, and life, is absolutely critical. You must stay positive at all times. Times when you just can't stay positive, retreat into meditation, or go to sleep, and make sure that you've eaten and drank, as your physical state affects your emotional state.
As you move through each day trying to be happy and achieve your objectives, continually bring Love to others; everyone you meet or, if possible, even see throughout each day. Imagine yourself as holding a bag of pixie dust, tossing out handful after handful all day, every day, throwing it into the air so it covers everyone you meet or see. The pixie dust is the metaphor for your Love, meaning good wishes as well as practical help, the latter actually being the more important, that you should continually spread to everyone around you.
In other words, as you're on your way up (or lateral, or even down), bring everyone up a little bit with you.
Everybody loving everybody.
When persons try to injure you, look lovingly upon them, I'm not saying don't try to stop them, but even in trying to stop them look lovingly upon them, for, as Jesus is understood to have said while dying on the cross:
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
C'mon people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try and love one another
Right now
Get Together, by The Youngbloods, the official song of the DeBENEDETTO CAMPAIGN.
LOVE
Love, properly understood, is the force and principal underlying this approach to people and life. This principal also informs the changes that I will make as President to our Justice system, including our system of policing, prisons, and everything else: under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION we will bring HUMANITY to everything that we operate or create. This does not imply any lowering of standards in any national sphere. In fact, as my #2 plank Actualization specifies, standards will be higher and tougher under my Administration than we've likely seen in some time--or ever.
One change we will make is the elimination of solitary confinement in prison and jail. It constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, and is not an assist in rehabilitating the transgressive brother or sister. If anything, its pain will drive them further into psycho-emotional confusion and regression, and alienation from, if not hostility toward, or even outright hatred of, other people and humanity, itself.
Bringing humanity to all that we are and do is not an approach that will weaken America. In fact it will likely make her the strongest that she's ever been.
And what of the long-fretted-over notion of the United States as "policeman of the world"?
Well, if we first prove that we're again capable of policing ourselves, then, yes, policeman of the world, by all means--why not?
ERROR PROCESSING
Under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION the notion that the American people would be better served were the "Justice" Department renamed ERROR PROCESSING will be explored. I'm in favor. The general socio-procedural contours we all expect when a crime is committed, that is, when one, or a group, of brothers or sisters unwisely and mistakenly injures another single, or group of, brothers or sisters, will remain the same.
In an act of injury against you known in a legalistic society as a "crime," asserting that your assailant or oppressor in trying to hurt you doesn't know what he or she is doing doesn't mean they aren't making a conscious or deliberate attempt to harm you--maybe they are. What it means, is that they don't understand their own actions. They don't understand the consequences of their actions, and that they should not be committing them. They don't understand the possible full long-term consequences of what they are doing. The full, long-term consequences of their harm, to you and the world, which means to themselves, as they are part of the world.
PRISON
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will bring HUMANITY to everything that we operate or create. Accordingly, the nature of prisons and imprisonment will change.
Will prisons still exist? It's likely. But their definition, character, and role will change, consonant with my declaration, below, that whatever is touched by the hand of De Benedetto will transform into its more humane and ultimately productive self. The De Benedetto Administration, for example, is going to return and revert the penitentiary to its original mandate: the wise cultivation of penance among those who have hurt other brothers and sisters.
There will also be serious exploration of a program of widespread house arrest instead of prison for many inmates.
DEFUND THE POLICE
The title for this movement is unfortunate because it is somewhat misleading, and this is indeed a movement, with varying points-of-view. What it tries to get at, the basic common-sense idea, is that many situations or circumstances of human difficulty could benefit from the assistance of trained professionals--just not the police. Funding should begin finding its way to these ends.
NOTES & QUICK LINKS
Refresh page before each viewing, as it has likely changed: F5, Windows / CTRL-R, Mac.
Moms, Dads, & Seniors: click here for my excellent Health section. Let me start saving your life, right now, whether I'm President or not, and whether you did or will vote for me, or not. I care about, and will assist, every American.
This assistance is an organic subset of my larger mission, one that I hope we would all undertake, together: to assist every human being on this planet, while encouraging them, insofar as they can, to assist us.
Moms & Dads: click here for my Message of Hope for kids on gun violence in America.
Persons of Conscience & Love: read my novel solution to the problem of Haiti, a poor and desperate nation now overrun by criminal gangs.
Trump. If Donald Drumpf (his real name) is sentenced to prison, I'm going to pardon him after five years served. It is simply unseemly for a former United States President to be in prison. Moreover, by that time he'll likely be moving on his life path in the general direction of elderly status, so a pardon, accordingly, will comprise an act of mercy.
Here's What You Are Reading at this moment: ADULT IN THE ROOM, presented at this website, is, at once, the starting draft of a key text in political or social philosophy, and the draft of my 2024 Presidential platform.
My two principal planks, cited above, are 1.) CONNECTION and 2.) ACTUALIZATION (explained above and below).
In other words: UNITED STATES VERSION 2.0.
POLICY NOTE ON 9-11
THE DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION IS GOING TO TERMINATE ALL PUBLIC COMMEMORATION OF THE 9-11 ATTACKS.
WE AND THE WORLD NEED NOT BE REMINDED EVERY 365 DAYS OF OUR MOST SPECTACULAR MODERN MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE FAILURE. A CATASTROPHIC AMERICAN DISGRACE.*
PRIVATE CEREMONY AND COMMEMORATION SHALL CONTINUE, OF COURSE, AND WILL REMAIN CATEGORICALLY ENCOURAGED.
DYSFUNCTIONAL & DERANGED
In my experience in 63 years of life, lived entirely in America, it is my belief that a large number, if not many, if not most Americans are dysfunctional, deranged, or both. Dysfunction is a mode of being, referring to all or part of one's personality, describing all or some actions, characterized by illogic, immorality, or both, generally following a course of behavior apart from the usual. Deranged describes a condition of mental imbalance, and can unfold in a slow, subtle, and initially imperceptible manner.
I can honestly though unfortunately say that just about every person around me is, at least, dysfunctional. When one deviates in their behavior from that of a fully mature, moral, and socialized human being, they are said to be dysfunctional. A bank, for example, that takes someone's house, technically owned by the bank, and sells it out from under the person or family that's been living in it and calling it and considering it theirs, their home, for any number of years, is surely comprised of dysfunctional human beings. Such cruelty should and could never be considered functional in any meaningful way in any decent society.
The problem is threefold: 1.) the low native intellect of most people, 2.) the explicit lack of training in Love across the entire American educational system and culture, and 3.) the roster of stressors acting upon most, or all, of us these days, including the pharmaceutical drugs that millions of people consume, including children, and certainly the poor-quality food that most of us consume. The confluence of these factors means that each of us is likely already operating at a reduced cognitive load and clarity of thought. Each of us, in other words, is likely already slowly moving toward dementia or other serious maladies of the mind and/or body.
Make changes immediately! Read just below, for example.
WARNING: CEASE CONSUMING ANY ITEM CONTAINING SUGAR. YOU ARE MOVING CLOSER TO DEMENTIA & OTHER MAJOR MALADIES WITH EVERY BITE AND SIP. THIS WARNING IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE MANY WAYS THAT I'M GOING TO SAVE YOUR LIFE AS PRESIDENT.*
I'M GOING TO TRY MIGHTILY TO SAVE THIS COUNTRY--FROM ITSELF. Save us from our propensity to harm each other.
Attaching the attribute stupidity, then, to particular individuals, seems unduly insulting at the cost of continuing division and alienation among and between Americans, while accomplishing little of practical value. The last time your boss called you "stupid," for example, did it enhance and increase your confidence, leading to a better outcome?
CAMPAIGN & PLATFORM
I've included the terse (i.e. very short) definitions for certain terms (i.e. words) that you see, above, in parentheses, because my candidacy is a "LEARNING CANDIDACY." I want you to learn from me. I want to learn from you. And I want all Americans to learn from all Americans. This programmatic approach is part of Plank #1 of my Presidential Platform: RESTORING LOVE AND CONNECTION BETWEEN AMERICANS.
Through a series of such steps, delineated (i.e. presented or listed) below, I intend to effect a key transition for this country desperately required, without which continuing political and cultural antagonism and conflict will operate both to define us, and in a vicious cycle, shape both our behavior and behavioral expectation.
I intend, however, with your help, to completely, resolutely, and effectively reverse this devolutionary downward spiral, by taking us from self-identification as a society...to self-identification as a COMMUNITY.
My other Plank, #2, concerns and advocates the absolute necessity of ACTUALIZATION, a term from the field of psychology that means becoming the very best that each of us is capable of becoming, according to our natural gifts and talents. Happily, this principle can, and must, also be applied to the nation. As a country, the United States, we must Actualize: America must become the very best of which she is capable. In what areas? Every area: military, morality, products & services, economy, health, jobs, and everything else.
And under my watch, she will. Keep reading, and indeed, studying, this website. It's dense and it's complicated--but it must be, because this specific time in American and world history is thick with complication and significant events and challenges that must be identified, understood, and redressed.
Any Presidential candidate, or anyone else in or out of media, asserting otherwise is either 1.) working with a paucity (i.e. shortage) of gray matter (i.e. neurons, i.e. brain cells), 2.) lacking a comprehensive awareness, or 3.) deliberately dissembling (i.e. concealing something) and thus insulting your intelligence.
INTRODUCTION
OUR THREE WORST AMERICAN, AND HUMAN, PROBLEMS
Human brain. Lack of emphasis on development and maintenance. Harm to brain because of interminable (i.e. never-ending) exposure to potent brain stressors such as emotional stress; sleep deprivation; unhealthy food including sugar, carbs, and various chemicals; polluted, particulate-laden air.
Misguided emphasis now on development of fake brain, A.I.
Without an optimized human brain we won't solve the other two problems, following, and with an optimized brain they wouldn't have occurred in the first place.
Climate change. The entire planet is being heated and boiled to obliteration--and the human race with it.
Relations between people and nations. Horrid. Insufficient love and connection.
LET'S STOP MAKING OTHER AMERICANS SUFFER
Are you someone else's black cloud?
What is the commonality between the following three people, things, or circumstances?
The Coca-Cola corporation.
The Amy's food company.
A homeless man who throws you onto the subway tracks.
ANSWER. Whether they, or you, realize it, or not, they're all taking actions that can kill you:
The Coca-Cola corporation: it's products are packed with sugar--the #1 toxin for human beings, destroying the entire body from head to toe. And GMOs, a new and untested technical modification to the ingredients used in a particular food or beverage (like Coca-Cola).
The Amy's food company: injury and eventually death comes from the widespread presence in Amy's products of what are called "vegetable seed oils," such as sunflower oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, palm kernel oil (palm oil is o.k.) and canola oil. These industrially-produced seed oils destroy the cardiovascular system, eventually resulting in strokes and heart attacks.
These seed oils are in most products, in fact, regardless of manufacturer. Why do you think cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of Americans, and stroke #5?
A homeless man who throws you onto the subway tracks: such an act could obviously kill you if the train strikes you.
Don't walk through life, therefore, thinking that death can come only from interactions or experiences with the poor, or persons of lesser education and resources. Death comes most often, in fact, from the hidden actions of what we might call the "ruling class," that is, owners of capital, especially big capital, whose actions and decisions intimately affect our lives, but which we average citizens can do little about.
Go check your cupboard, food closet, refrigerator, and freezer for items containing these seed oils, as well as such poisons as Mono-and-Diglycerides (see my Health section, below).
GOTCHA CULTURE
This country, and indeed our human family, must replace, indeed shift completely away from, its "Gotcha" culture, whereby transgressors or suspected transgressors, at any level of society, the term transgressor often subjectively defined, instead of being approached with Love by a member or members of a local or otherwise trusted community to work together in the mutual search for Truth (yes, including redress for persons injured in any way, ranging from apologies to money returned), are pursued, often without warning, and usually with intent to punish in one or more ways. Lawyers, of course, operating within the unfortunate framework of our adversarial legal system are notorious for playing Gotcha. Most perniciously as almost every lawyer plays a finely-tuned game of "Gotcha" with their opponent, in pursuit of money awards and a burnishing of their reputation (which of course is also intended to increase revenue, by building their client base).
Have you ever listened to New York news radio station 1010 WINS NEWS?
In doing so one hears a parade, a genuine cavalcade of the string of human problems, difficulties, complexities, horrors, tragedies, crimes, and errata of every kind committed by the human race, coupled with an equally interminable series of radio commercials for attorneys, all aggressively playing one huge game of Gotcha, promising to "fight hard" for "justice" and to "get you what you deserve." A system explicitly, aggressively, and shamefully pitting injured Americans against other Americans accused of injuring them.
Lawyers, of course, are not the only class of person playing Gotcha. In fact, much, if not most, of American society is playing it.
Are you?
EFFECTS ON POLICE WORK AND JUSTICE
A decided shift away from Gotcha culture toward a paradigm of mutual search for Truth, capped by mutual reconciliation, would also have a profound effect on policing and police work in America.
I say only half in jest that if this country would shift from its prevailing paradigm of "Gotcha," just about all police work in the entire country could be done by a lone police officer in a log cabin somewhere in Des Moines, and would consist almost completely of sending letters to persons suspected of crimes, telling them they are suspected, or it is known, and we want them to stop, and here's why:
IF YOU DON'T CEASE YOU WILL PROBABLY BE ARRESTED. YOUR COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY IS GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING. STOP HURTING PEOPLE AND STOP HURTING YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN OUR HUMAN FAMILY.
Such an approach would also render generally unnecessary such problematic law enforcement methods and activities as SWAT raids.
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, then, will get us about as close as we can get, in the short term, to redress of our unnecessary, confounding, and counterproductive present pattern of inhumanity toward each other. To this end, my second act in office will likely be:
1.) Consonant with my own hard-won personal experience, and the infinite number of horror stories I've read and heard: reconception and consequent restructure of our entire protective services system, child and adult.
And to preserve and indeed enhance our individual and collective American ability to think clearly and powerfully, my very first act in office will likely be:
2.) Complete recriminalization of drugs, including shutdown of the so-called "cannabis" industry.
RELEVANT LINKS
LIBERTARIAN PARTY ("Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference in your personal, family, and business decisions.")
LIBERTARIAN PARTY, N.J. State Affiliate (Again: "Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference in your personal, family, and business decisions.")
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
And so it goes. Human beings hurting and indeed killing each other 24/7, deliberately or not, even, and in some cases especially, persons formally committed to, or otherwise desirous of, helping others. It seems that we human beings, little more than smart monkeys, just cannot figure out how not to hurt and kill each other, no matter what.
Fellow Americans, Brothers & Sisters, I want you to notice that regardless of the form, class, kind, or specific maltreatment cited or under discussion, from a car "cutting off" another car on the highway, to a dictator cutting off the head of a rival or perceived inferior, there is actually a single underlying phenomenon or force at work; regardless of the kind of crime or dysfunction or violation we're talking about, it all has single root: THE WAY WE TREAT EACH OTHER.
99% of the problems of the world have to do explicitly with HOW PEOPLE TREAT EACH OTHER, at all levels of society. This is not, in the main, my original thought; indeed did Existentialist philosopher Jon Paul Sartre write, "Hell is other people."
The leaders of the world might not know it, you might not know it, your brother-in-law Harold might not know it, but I'm telling you that this world, our one human family, is essentially going nowhere until we learn that we, indeed, are one human family, everyone explicitly connected to everyone else, and the governing ethic, therefore, between and amongst all of us must not, and cannot, be narcissism*, no matter how "right" (i.e. correct) you think you are, but indeed LOVE (properly understood).
Our global objective and prevailing behavioral ethic must be "Everybody Loving Everybody." Then, we have a chance.
*Examples of narcissism are: bullying, intimidation, and "pulling-rank." Even exercise of legitimate power is immoral if it causes unredressed pain to another person. If you are a powerholder and your decision is likely to cause pain to even one individual, reach out to them, personally, and discuss it. Or maybe because you're the president of a company, or the head of an agency, you think that you're too good for that kind of thing? Or simply above it?
Trust me--you're not. None of us are--if we want a world of Love, that is. No matter who you are or what your position in this world--don't be someone else's black cloud. The higher your position and more power you hold, the more essential it is to reach out personally to those affected by your decisions. Are you, in fact, their black cloud? How can you know? Assume? Obviously not.
You have a telephone? Use it. Then you'll know.
If you're afraid to reach out personally because you know that you're causing pain, and you don't want to confront it--then maybe you shouldn't be doing it. Find another way. Or if the decision that you must make that will cause pain is genuinely unavoidable--which most are not--then you must still reach out personally, to effect, through colloquy (i.e. back-and-forth conversation) with the subject of your decision the least painful way to execute that decision.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
I'm a 63 year old American and I've simply had it with a world gone so obviously and flagrantly wrong in so very many ways, all rooted in:
Our poor treatment of each other on and across this planet, and certainly in this country.
Failure to optimize and actualize the human brain, individually, and in terms of what I refer to as the GLOBAL BRAIN, which is neither the Internet nor A.I., but in fact ALL HUMAN BRAINS WORKING IN CONCERT. In fact, unfortunately, the new commercial focus in America is not a wholesale effort to fully develop the human brain, each in accord with the natural gifts and talents of its owner, a process called Actualization, and the second plank in my Presidential platform, nor the GLOBAL BRAIN, as just defined, but, instead, the development of fake or artificial "brains," called Artificial Intelligence. For shame.
Though Thomas Jefferson said that a nation should change its economic system every 20 years, my campaign is not addressing itself to any wholesale shift in our economic paradigm. We're a capitalist or free-enterprise-based nation and for the foreseeable future, that will likely be it, and it is modern American capitalism that we'll be seeking to optimize--not eliminate.
Informationally, however, in terms of a competent analysis of our problems, the standard way that capitalism works is causative and should not be ignored. In the briefest of terms, under capitalism new products and services must continually be created and sold, lest the individual firm eventually lose market share to competitors, moving closer to defunct status. This economic imperative means many things, starting with innumerable products and services being created and introduced into the national and often global marketplace that are simply superfluous, that is, really not needed, and yet resources are exploited to design, develop, manufacture, package, advertise, transport, and then attempt to sell them. Moreover, not only are most of these products and services not needed, many are harmful, such as cigarettes and many pharmaceutical drugs. The behavior of the capitalist system in its incessant (i.e. never-ending) production and distribution of products and services is disturbingly similar to the way that cancer behaves, generating masses of cancer cells that proliferate uncontrollably.
Moreover, because it is so imperative that the individual firm sell and earn a profit from this or that product or service it has introduced into the marketplace, duplicity (i.e. dishonesty) creeps in, as manufacturers are so desperate to sell their products and services that they'll say just about anything to consumers, so they make the purchase, and to government regulators, so they don't shut down that company or impose restriction or regulation, which often costs the company money. Another grievous problem with capitalism concerns one of its key characteristics, the business cycle, where periods of growth are almost always interrupted by periods of decline, sometimes extremely severe known as depressions. You've heard this word.
Capitalism is generally a problematic economic or socio-economic system and argumentation to this effect, much of it credible, has been proffered for just about as long as this system has existed.
Note: again, I include #3 above for the sake of completeness. My Presidential campaign does not intend to try to redress this particular problem at the present time. My campaign assumes the happy continuation of capitalism, or free-enterprise.
FIRST RULE OF LOVE
The very first rule of love is to put yourself concretely into the shoes of the other person. Stop viewing them as an abstraction.
In other words, stop viewing the other person as: that jerk, that liar, that irresponsible person, that lazy person, that stupid person, that incompetent person, that ungrateful person, that short-sighted person who failed to plan for themselves, that mentally weak person, that physically weak person. Etc.
But here's my warning: if everyone actually does this, America is going to come to a screeching halt. Everything is going to stop. Most of society will shut down immediately as everyone realizes that so much of what they do every minute of every day hurts someone else, directly or indirectly. Or if doesn't hurt them--it really doesn't help them, either.
Put yourself precisely into their shoes. Imagine that you are in the exact problematic, difficult, or in some cases extremely problematic or difficult, sometimes utterly impossible, situation that they are in. Then imagine how you would react. How the intense stress or other highly injurious effect or effects would change your outlook and behavior.
A house in foreclosure. Loss of a job with no other income. Diagnosis of a devastating illness on the part of a family member, death of a family member, victim of serious crime, suicidal thoughts and one or more suicide attempts, in our tumultuous, precarious, uncertain American culture there are many ways that people can be traumatized.
Most of us don't know, and for many, don't want to know, just how much other people are suffering, at home and across the planet. The rich don't really want to know the suffering of the poor. The dominant ethnic group in a society doesn't really want to know the suffering of the minority groups in that society, those with a home don't really want to know the suffering of the homeless, the abled don't really want to know the suffering of the disabled. The young don't really want to know the suffering of the old (and perhaps vice-versa), those with a car don't really want to know what life is like with no personal transportation, the physically beautiful don't really want to know the pain of those identified as physically unattractive, etc.
In America and of course, elsewhere, those who are suffering, themselves obscure, downplay, or simply hide the fact, scope, and intensity of their suffering for various reasons, making it difficult for others to help them (or even know the scope of the total problem) starting with the very ideology of America. In America you're supposed to be tough, independent, do things yourself whatever it is and whatever it takes, and not blame others for your failures or your problems.
This ideology is obviously very dangerous, however, because it prevents us from actually getting to the real root of many problems, for individuals and our larger society. It is simply an unrealistic ideology, perhaps comprising the very first and foundational of the grouping of American stupidities that we're forced to negotiate as Americans. Get rid of it!
DYSFUNCTION
Here is a generally foolproof way to determine whether your society is dysfunctional. Ask yourself the following questions of that society:
Does it have police?
Many?
Does it have hospitals and doctors?
Many?
Does it have therapists and psychological counselors?
Many?
Does it have many nursing homes full of elderly or otherwise aging or vulnerable residents, most or many of whom were placed there against their will by their own children or relatives?
Does civil strife and even war break out often?
If your answers to the above questions are generally YES--I hate to tell you but you're living in a dysfunctional society. A society characterized by crime, turbulence, and lack of love and connection, likely even among family, friends, and neighbors.
And don't forget that the world, itself, is really nothing but a very large society. So can the world, as a whole, be dysfunctional? OF COURSE.
Indeed is the world easily characterized by the descriptive phrase GROSS DYSFUNCTION (can you say Ukraine? Gaza?). I'll apply an attenuated (i.e. reduced) description to America, as simply plain ol' garden-variety DYSFUNCTION. In the New York Area, tune your radio to 1010 AM, to WINS NEWS, a well-known station that covers international, national, and much local news. You'll be struck because every other minute, it seems, crimes are being committed and reported, many, many crimes, most of them violent, involving guns, and resulting in injury and often death, with persons of every age the victims. Tune in and listen for a few hours or days for an instant lesson in the folly of Man, as manifest in, and expressed through, our unique American culture.
To wit: THE EMERGENCY CONDITION OF JUST ABOUT THE ENTIRE PLANET, JUST ABOUT THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE, as presented and explicated in a New York Times piece by Dr. Atul Gawande.
Additionally, please see my extensive DYSFUNCTION & INCOMPETENCE BLOG for detail on my own experiences with the dysfunction of this world (as well as, possibly, a bit of my own).
Every country, in fact, shows record numbers of humans injuring other humans, in many and varied ways. And now the chaos, violence, and flat-out incoherence of the world is about to jump one or more orders of magnitude, with 1.) the legalization of dope in both the United States and Mexico, one of the most glaring, colossal, catastrophic, and imbecilic decisions ever committed by a purportedly intelligent and educated group of people, and 2.) the concomitant rise of A.I., a phenomenon that will consist in companies and likely eventually governments implanting tiny "brains" all over the place, all around us, most or many of which will be talking to us, yet none of these "intelligent" circuits really are a brain, nor are they actually "thinking" in any manner that we human beings would be comfortable with. And it gets worse--a lot worse. The very top experts tell us that A.I. is slated to become billions of times smarter than we are--so you'd better hope that it doesn't begin to consider us superfluous, or an enemy, or consider some of us superfluous, because that's when A.I. is going to switch allegiances, from the United States to, say, Iran. Or China. Or Russia. Or North Korea. And by time we realize it, if we ever do and aren't simply militarily destroyed the second the transfer takes place, by time we realize it, it will be too late. The time to address this impending catastrophe is NOW, by making all or most A.I. ILLEGAL. Which is precisely what the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION must and will do.
Oh, and by the way, A.I. is also slated to eliminate many hundreds of thousands of jobs, even jobs heretofore protected from the advance of technology because such jobs require intellect and human expression. Well, forget that, now. BUT, IF WE STUPIDLY PERMIT THE ONWARD MARCH OF A.I., THIS JOB LOSS WON'T EVEN BE OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM.
I'd have to be an utter imbecile as President to permit any technology involving a realistic chance that it could destroy, or even simply enslave, humankind, or, switch allegiances such that the United States is placed in an inferior or even prostrate position relative to the rest of the world, and especially relative to our enemies.
This is what we human beings have done, so far, with the world that we've been accorded. Plainly, if colloqually, put, we human beings, generally little more than smart monkeys, are simply a bunch of screwups: we fail at the art of the animate, such as intercourse with other human beings, and we fail at the art of the inanimate, such as development of genuinely useful technology or invention, and general commercial pursuit, which is why you see the supermarket cart boy with his nose in his smartphone, instead of doing his job.
In our mutual intercourse, we wouldn't know genuine affection, devotion, commitment, sacrifice, concern, patience, tolerance, understanding, respect, compassion, empathy, sharing, giving, or any of the other behaviors that actually comprise the word love, if they bit us in the...arm. And yet, we simply must have love if we're to survive, at least, and have a coherent society, at best. Nor do we seem to have much of a clue regarding the creation of a global, or even national, culture, society, and economic system that touches Wisdom.
The present perilous state of the world requires the most informed, aware, prepared, resolute, competent, creative, wise, & agile America, possible.
In large, though not exclusive, part because: as of November 30, 2022, the date of the introduction of "ChatGPT," a seminal (i.e. revolutionary and influential) new artificial intelligence program, humanity has likely assured its own destruction.
If you remain unacquainted with the uniquely dangerous set of perils (i.e. dangers) characteristic of the world, and the nation, today, especially the nascent (i.e. emerging) rise of "artificial intelligence" or "A.I.," you'd better bring yourself up to speed and inform yourself immediately. Start by studying this internet resource (i.e. Web site), which is, at once (i.e. at the same time) my 2024 Presidential platform, and my book ADULT IN THE ROOM: Our Desperate Need for Wisdom, Love, Truth, Trust, & Common Sense in 21st-Century America.
The only A.I. that I will ever advocate is ActualIntelligence, not Artificial Intelligence. Study this website and learn why.
MORE GROSS DYSFUNCTION
HUGE EXAMPLES
EXAMPLE #1: WHOLE FOODS MARKET CONTINUES TO CALL ITSELF WHOLE FOODS MARKET LONG, LONG AFTER IT STOPPED SELLING ONLY WHOLE FOODS--IF IT EVER SOLD ONLY WHOLE FOODS, AT ALL. IN FACT: I ENCOURAGE A $1B LAWSUIT AGAINST WHOLE FOODS FOR USING THAT NAME AND GROSSLY AND FLAGRANTLY MISLEADING CONSUMERS--TO THEIR DETRIMENT, AND DEATH.
"...we seek out the finest natural and organic foods available, maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry, and have an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture."
BULLSH*T!
THESE STORES ROUTINELY SELL "FOODS" CONTAINING TRANS FAT (I.E. MONO-AND-DIGLYCERIDES), VEGETABLE SEED OILS, AND GMOs. I see them all the time at my local Whole Foods Market stores in the NY/NJ tri-state area!
IN MY TRIPARTITE ROLE AS PHILOSOPHER, CONSUMER, AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, I AM INTERESTED IN TRUTH IN ALL THINGS. ACCORDINGLY, I RECOMMEND A RENAME OF THIS COMPANY (A SUBSIDIARY OF AMAZON), TO:
WHOLE FRAUDS MARKET
EXAMPLE #2: VSOs, vegetable seed oils such as canola, soybean, safflower, sun, palm kernel, and corn oils ARE PROVEN AND ESTABLISHED KILLERS, DESTROYING THE HUMAN CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM--YET THEY ARE EVERYWHERE, IN EVERYTHING, INCLUDING THE PRODUCTS OF SO-CALLED "HEALTHY" BRANDS SUCH AS AMY'S AND BACK TO NATURE--GO CHECK YOUR PANTRY--AND NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE! NOT THE PRODUCERS, NOT THE CONSUMERS, AND EVIDENTLY NOT THE GOVERNMENT, AT LEAST NOT SO FAR!
EXAMPLE #3: DO YOU KNOW VLADIMIR PUTIN'S RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION?
VLADIMIR PUTIN, THE MAN SINGLE-HANDEDLY RESPONSIBLE FOR UNTOLD DEATHS AND COUNTLESS INJURIES, SIMPLY WAVE UPON WAVE OF DESTRUCTION OF EVERY KIND IN UKRAINE...IS A CHRISTIAN!
EXAMPLE #4: My family has been and remains unique and wonderful: my original writing on Terror has been cited-and-quoted by The New York Times, I've now mounted an exploratory campaign for the U.S. Presidency, and my father Frank was on television! My dad worked with former New Jersey Senator Joseph Hirkala to make my father's regal anthem LET US TALK ABOUT THE PEOPLE the official state song of New Jersey! In fact, my dad was an extremely talented man. He was, first and foremost, a musical composer, with a full corpus of musical pieces, with titles such as:
I LOVE NEW YORK
ROOFTOPS OF MANHATTAN
THE QUIET SIDE OF NEW YORK
SHE'S JUST A FACE IN THE CROWD
WHEN SUMMER COMES
WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES
THE BITTER THINGS I FEEL
MAGIC HANDS (the magic hands of God)
and many others
My beloved father, Frank Salvatore, was also a poet, essayist, and, very wonderfully and interestingly, a creator and handicrafter of balsa wood "miniatures." These were microsized original works, in his case recreating the various buildings one might find in a town in the Old American West. For a St. Anthony's school event he created what was perhaps his crowning achievement: a miniature Georgian mansion from the Antebellum period, complete front columns, green grass, and working windows whose "glass" was actually carefully-cut pieces of Saran Wrap!
My father was also a pencil sketch artist, and a very good carpenter, creating wood structures and objects ranging from the full-sized backyard fort he made me as a child to play in, complete with windows and doors (with intention to later add a rooftop activity area, as any good fortress should have), to the wood deck that he built for our small, above-ground swimming pool, complete with steps that swung upward and out of the way when not in use, and the nonslip matting that he added to the top surface of the deck.
You see, believe it or not, we are an actual family. With actual family members who have been in this family for many, many, years. The De Benedetto Family, in fact, has existed for at least 64 years. We're not an abstraction, and we're certainly not merely a "case," as the head of our local APS office once revealingly remarked.
In later years, covering a long period extending right up to this minute, I have devoted an almost 25-year slice of my life to voluntarily caregiving my parents, my father for 14.5 years and my mother for over 9 years now, taking my mother through THREE YEARS OF COVID, and now RSV not to mention the conventional flu, NONE OF WHICH SHE, NOR I, HAVE EVER CONTRACTED, NEITHER OF US EVER HAVING BEEN VACCINATED. Yet the powers-that-be have decided, in concert with two local pyschia-chicks,* two local attorneys, and one Judge, who abruptly and capriciously terminated the Guardianship hearing as I was speaking, imploring him to refrain from imposing a stranger from outside our family as my mother's so-called "guardian," effectively breaking up our unique and wonderful family.
I thought I was in, and a citizen of, America--not communist Russia or Cuba under Castro, where the government is everything and all-powerful, and the rights of the citizen are nominal, if they exist, at all, and are easily abridged, if not erased, in any case, by the authorities who, of course, know better than the citizen, and even if they don't, their wishes, preference, assumptions, and point-of-view are going to dominate.
I assert that no human being or group of human beings has the right to break up or even tamper with the family, or lives of other people, any human-made, changeable legislation ostensibly permitting such violations, to the contrary, or not, and no matter how "right" the controlling power thinks it is. For every person who sees or says "A," some other person will see or say "B"--with just as much conviction, and perhaps even just as much correctness, as that of party "A."
*I emphasize the gender of the two psychiatrists who examined my mother for competence, because the social worker asked me once or twice if, instead of two female doctors, which is what her office had originally planned, I would prefer a male doctor in addition the female, and I assented. The "protective" services agency sent two female doctors, anyway. This became something of an issue because, as I observed with the social worker's knowing laugh and concurrence: almost to a one, every staff member in this agency and each of its parent entities, and the agency and department heads, themselves, such as the Division of Aging, for example, or the Department of Human Services--is female. In my opinion, this unigender-heavy personnel infrastructure may introduce a bias in cultural outlook and thus expectation in the work done by these entities. This was certainly my concrete impression, on the ground.
In my case it was a parent. But in many other cases the American family is ripped apart because of a concern, legitimacy is another matter, for a child. There are countless young women who have had their children torn from them--often to no one's benefit, except perhaps the existing power structure and the self-righteous egos, or at least the self-assured postures, of the rippers. The mother of activist Malcolm X had all of her children removed from her for no good reason--including Malcolm! This malign American phenomonon has actually grown into such a problem that an organized movement, started by activist hero mom Joyce McMillan has sprung up to fight it.
BROADER IMPLICATIONS
Such explicit and reprehensible government overreach drives the continuing growth of anti-government Conservative, Republican, and even Libertarian politics, further dividing and cleaving the nation at a time when America simply cannot afford one more crumb, not one more molecule, of division.
I, myself, for example, prior to this continuing blindsiding government attack upon my innocent family, would never have imagined seriously exploring Libertarian politics and the Libertarian Party, and in fact was somewhat antagonistic to its philosophy. Now, however, after experiencing firsthand the awesome, traumatizing, immovable, and routinely cruel power of the government, even state government, mind you, upon the generally defenseless ordinary citizen, I see very clearly the desirability, utility, and indeed necessity of this anti-government philosophy, and supporting philosophies such as the right, and indeed equivalent necessity, to bear arms. Anti-gun activists should bear in mind that the criminal element is not the only social grouping with large-scale access to, and possession of, guns. Every level of government belongs to this class, as well, a fact the Founding Fathers I'm sure knew well.
When the government comes to your front door with its guns to abduct your loved one, and tells you explicitly that you must step aside, as it did to me, a natural-born American citizen, if you have no defense--you're dead. And the government to which I refer is not that of Communist Russia, China, Cuba, or North Korea--but that of the good ol' United States of America. The land that has evidently devolved, in a relatively few short years, from individual rights, rugged individualism, and the sanctity of the family--to a female-dominated, violence-backed, Nanny State. No wonder the American male is becoming so emasculated.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
GROSS SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION (GSD) IN ALL FOUR EXAMPLES.
And in terms of the broadest, and most disturbing, view, consider THE EMERGENCY CONDITION OF JUST ABOUT THE ENTIRE PLANET, JUST ABOUT THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE. FROM A NEW YORK TIMES piece by Dr. Atul Gawande.
See below for my exchange with Amy's Foods regarding the injury to consumers caused by their "healthy" products, in yet another self-serving commercial slight-of-hand dispensing death and injury to us all.
2023 SNAPSHOT OF THE CONDITION AND STATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
LETS SEE JUST HOW MUCH PAIN WE'RE EXPERIENCING, AND HOW MUCH GROSS DYSFUNCTION WE'RE DISPLAYING.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
FORCED MARRIAGE AND CHILD MARRIAGE IN THE UNITED STATES: Almost 300,000 children under the age of 18 were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, some as young as 10. In California, for example, 8,000 underage children are entered into marriage every year, yet that state still lacks a minimum age requirement. The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will work to end this practice Federally, meaning it will become illegal in every state.
We'll also work aggressively with international partners to end the practice internationally. Kids are kids no matter what country they're in. They should be playing in the sandbox--not walking down the aisle.
MASS SHOOTINGS IN THE UNITED STATES (SO FAR 2023): 346
LIFE EXPECTANCY
"Life expectancy at birth in the United States declined(emphasis mine) nearly a year from 2020 to 2021, according to new provisional data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). That decline – 77.0 to 76.1 years – took U.S. life expectancy at birth to its lowest level since 1996. The 0.9 year drop in life expectancy in 2021, along with a 1.8 year drop in 2020, was the biggest two-year decline in life expectancy since 1921-1923."
NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES WHO ARE KILLED EVERY YEAR BY FDA-APPROVED PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS: 106,000.
The FDA admits this on its website.
MENTAL ILLNESS
DEMENTIA
Estimated number of people aged 65 years or older in the United States with dementia: 5.8 million.
Estimated number of people aged 65 years or older in the United States who will have dementia by 2050: 13.8 million.
SUICIDE
Suicide rates increased(emphasis mine) approximately 36% between 2000–2021. Suicide was responsible for 48,183 deaths in 2021, which is about one death every 11 minutes.3 The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2021, an estimated 12.3 million American adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.5 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.7 million attempted suicide.4
Suicide affects people of all ages. In 2021, suicide was among the top 9 leading causes of death for people ages 10-64. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 20-34.3
https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html
CDC SUICIDE UPDATE
August 10, 2023
The provisional estimates released today indicate that suicide deaths further increased in 2022, rising from 48,183 deaths in 2021 to an estimated 49,449 deaths in 2022.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
August 23, 2023
Substance abuse is rising among older persons, and others.
MATERNAL MORTALITY
Maternal mortality statistics have been rising for the last twenty years.
THIS WEB PAGE IS, AT ONCE, 1.) THE ONLINE DRAFT OF MY BOOK, ADULT IN THE ROOM: OUR DESPERATE NEED FOR WISDOM, LOVE, TRUTH, TRUST, & COMPETENCE IN 21ST-CENTURY AMERICA, AND 2.) MY 2024 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL PLATFORM.
THIS IS A DENSE, BOOK-LENGTH POLITICO-EXISTENTIAL DOCUMENT, MY BOOK DRAFT, REQUIRING YOUR DAILY STUDY. YOU WANTED A GENUINELY AND HIGHLY INTELLIGENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE? YOU'VE GOT ONE. NOW YOU MUST DO YOUR PART.
AT THE END OF YOUR PERIOD OF STUDY AND REFLECTION, IF YOU DECIDE THAT I'M YOUR CANDIDATE, YOU MUST SUPPORT MY CANDIDACY AND, YES, OF COURSE THIS MEANS FINANCIAL SUPPORT. GIVE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN, OR THIS CAMPAIGN WILL SIMPLY GO NOWHERE--AND IF IT GOES NOWHERE, ALL THE DIRE PREDICTIONS, PROJECTIONS, AND FORECASTS PROFFERED HERE WILL BECOME HARD, IRREVOCABLE REALITY. THEN--BOTH THIS NATION, AND HUMANITY, ITSELF, ARE FINISHED.
IT TAKES TONS OF CASH TO BECOME PRESIDENT, AS YOU KNOW. MY IMMEDIATE NEED IS TO RAISE THE $5,000 NEEDED TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL CANDIDATE FOR U.S. PRESIDENT. HELP ME! AND IN DOING SO--HELP YOURSELF.
PAYPAL BUTTON AT PAGE BOTTOM.
ALSO, FELLOW AMERICANS, THIS WEB SITE IS EXTENSIVE. BUT READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE SITE, EVERY WORD, FOR A WILD, POLITICALLY, SOCIALLY, AND CULTURALLY FASCINATING RIDE, COVERING MANY SUBJECTS OF REAL-LIFE CONCERN, SOME OF WHICH YOU MAY BE WHOLLY UNACQUAINTED WITH, OR UNACQUAINTED WITH IN THEIR PARTICULARS.
EVERYTHING LAUDABLE (I.E. WORTHY OF PRAISE) THAT HUMANKIND HAS DONE, IS DOING, OR WILL EVER DO, DEPENDS COMPLETELY ON ONE CRITICAL TOOL: THE HUMAN BRAIN.
HOWEVER, WITH DRUGS LIKE MARIJUANA NOW LEGAL IN AMERICA, AND INCREASINGLY, ELSEWHERE, SERVING TO ERODE THE HUMAN MIND AND ITS PHYSICAL REPOSITORY, THE BRAIN, IN CONCERT WITH A SECOND BRAIN-COMPROMISING ELEMENT, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (A.I.) SERVING AS A WHOLESALE DIVERSION OF RESOURCES AND FOCUS AWAY FROM FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF OUR REAL OR ACTUAL HUMAN MIND AND BRAIN, AN EMPHASIS AND OBJECTIVE THAT COULD HAVE, AND PERHAPS STILL CAN, ELEVATE AMERICA, PARTICULARLY, AND HUMANITY, GENERALLY, TO UNTOLD HEIGHTS, THE VERY ZENITH OF WHO AND WHAT WE COULD BE AS A SPECIES, AMERICA, AND HUMANKIND, ITSELF, SUFFERS A DUAL-PRONG ATTACK, DRUGS AND A.I., THAT MOST OF US DON'T EVEN KNOW IS OCCURRING.
THIS COMBINATION OF ANTAGONISTS 1.) ATTACKS AND COMPROMISES THE PRESENT STATE OF THE MIND AND BRAIN THROUGH DRUG USE, AND 2.) PREVENTS THE EXISTING MIND (AND BRAIN) FROM ACTUALIZING, THAT IS, FROM BECOMING THE VERY BEST THAT IT COULD BE, BECAUSE OF INORDINATE (I.E. EXCESSIVE) FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT OF A FAKE BRAIN, THAT IS, A.I., AND AWAY FROM FULL ACTUALIZING DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BRAIN.
ACTUALIZING MEANS BECOMING THE ABSOLUTE BEST THAT A PERSON, OR GROUP OF PERSONS, IS CAPABLE OF BEING.
THUS, WITH THE BRAIN, THE SOURCE AND FONT OF EVERYTHING THAT HUMANKIND HAS DONE, WILL DO, AND INDEED IS, UNDER MANIFOLD ATTACK, AMERICA, AND THE HUMAN RACE, ITSELF, RESIDES AT A CRITICAL CROSSROADS REGARDING BOTH HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT AND EVEN SURVIVAL.
I REFER TO THE PHENOMENON JUST INTRODUCED, ABOVE, AS THE DECLINE OF MIND, AND IT IS JUST ONE, ALBEIT THE MOST IMPORTANT, OF MY 20 OR SO GLOBAL HOLOCI (I.E. HOLOCAUSTS), THE CONFLUENCE (I.E. COMBINATION) OF WHICH REPRESENTS THE FULL INTEGRATED PICTURE OF THE DIFFICULTIES THAT WE FACE AS AMERICANS AND HUMAN BEINGS.
HOLOCI: THE 20 MOST POTENT THREATS TO THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANKIND
ACCORDINGLY, AND CRUCIALLY, AS PRESIDENT AMERICA NEEDS AN ADULT IN THE ROOM MORE THAN EVER BEFORE.* THAT WOULD BE ME, AND UNIQUELY SO.
See My 15 or So Global Holoci (i.e. holocausts), below, Representing the Totality of the Difficulties that We Face.
OUR AMERICAN PUZZLE LACKS ONE KEY PIECE, OUR AMERICAN EQUATION ONE KEY VARIABLE: MORALITY
Our critical mandate then, is to move away from what is false, fake, and artificial, toward that which is genuine, real, and rooted firmly in nature, above all: Love, Properly Understood, to care for each other in this country, and across this planet, a linchpin strength to inform, cohere, strengthen, & focus our full set of powerful American strengths. And, crucially, events such as the January 2021 Capital insurrection make it clear that Democracy, itself, fails or falters when its ostensible practitioner population eschews Love, that is, when its citizens fail to recognize and maintain Love and Connection between each other.
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IS FAILING BECAUSE AMERICAN MORALITY IS FAILING.
This insight and assertion comprises one of my original contributions: Democracy requires Love, Properly Understood: robust democracy requires an equally vital commitment to the behavioral values that comprise Love, including cooperation, empathy, respect, and tolerance, without which Love remains just a concept, a notion, an empty rubric or category, and Democracy, hence, merely an artifact. Which comprises a second unique contribution of mine to political philosophy: there are behavioral values, Factors of Love, that comprise Love.
America has always been her strongest and most respected and admired in the World, and at home, when acting in accord with the potent combination of our three M's: MILITARY, MORALITY, & MIND. You will see all three themes recur, and all principals and arguments proferred in this document and throughout my campaign falling under the heading of, or otherwise acting as expressions or examples of, these three principals or elements.
Democratic and Republican Administrations, both, have partially manifested this moral element in the foreign policy of "Linkage."
THIS WORLD & NATION WILL RISE OR FALL SOLELY ON 1.) THE POWER OF IDEAS, AND 2.) THE INTEGRITY OF THE HUMAN MINDS THAT MUST CONCEIVE, UNDERSTAND, AND APPLY THEM.
LEARN THE 15 OR SO GLOBAL HOLOCI, BELOW. THIS IS WHAT WE'RE FACING.
THIS ELECTION IS TRULY, AND DISTURBINGLY, DIFFERENT:
Every election cycle hears the cry, "this is an especially important election." i'm thusly crying-out, as well--except in this case it's true. Witness each of my 15 global holoci, below, and especially their confluence, with special emphasis on the narrower confluence of a.) climate change (flooding the planet, burning the planet, causing water shortages, destabilizing the weather), b.) the legalization of drugs (emasculates the human mind, impairs perception of reality on the part of the user and the ordinary person who will never know if the other person they are interacting with and in some cases depending on for critical action is high, and destroys motivation and quest for excellence), and c.) the rise and eventual ubiquity of artificial intelligence, a technology that can, at once, 1.) put us all out work, 2.) impair our perception of reality as we won't know if we're interacting with a human or product of a human such as a news article, or an a.I., and 3.) actually obliterate the human race, as this intelligence is projected to become billions of times smarter than us. What if it decides it likes the russians, chinese, iranians, north koreans, isis, or taliban better, and silently switches sides?
I'm not kidding, and neither are the experts who assert just how smart this technology will become. As far as i'm concerned, it's simply got to be terminated immediately, and i'm going to do it. Keep reading this draft of my book, Adult in the Room: Our Desperate Need for Wisdom, Love, Truth, Trust, & Competence in 21st-Century America for further information.
The old touchstones political parties have fought over such as wages, medical care, unions, abortion, immigration, bigotry (i.E. "Racism"), military spending, and homosexual rights no longer principally apply, because the issues that are now before us, introduced above, are existential, that is, they can destroy us, or transform and indeed compromise life so alarmingly that day-to-day life will actually become painful, extremely confusing, and literally unbearable.
A huge part of the problem will be that 1.) the uncertainties about reality, itself, introduced into our day-to-day lives because of the ubiquitous (i.E. All over the place) presence of a.I., and 2.) the fact that many people will be stoned, but you won't know who, and they won't tell you, so you'll simply never know if the individual whom you're talking to or interacting with, in-person, on the telephone, or online, is actually a clear-thinking person who is actually and properly listening to what you say, and doing what you want or need done, or not. But it gets worse: because of a.I, you won't even know, in fact, if it's a *person,* at all.
Therefore, what is just now starting, what we are just starting to witness before our very eyes, when you put it all together--is the end of trust as we know it. And how does a society survive when there is zero or near-zero trust in anyone or anything? Answer: it doesn't.
Accordingly, fellow americans, we are at a crossroads that will determine whether our species survives or not, and if we do, what the quality, especially the coherence of our existence will be. Even if I get elected you'd still better keep your fingers and toes crossed, but at least with me as president my administration is going to do everything in our power to reverse these trends. I'm already fully committed to it, as you can see.
CAN'T I BE WRONG FOR ONCE
The UK’s secretary of state for justice has warned of a “clear and present danger” to British democracy from deepfakes ahead of the upcoming general election.
Robert Buckland made the remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Today program yesterday, claiming the technology delivers a “liar’s dividend” in that, by undermining trust in the veracity of information, voters will simply stop trusting anything. “It’s all about scale and accessibility. We’re in a world where even in your own bedroom you can allow generative AI to produce content that can easily be shared in a matter of moments, and on a scale that we’ve never seen before,” he said.
“That will have potentially a hugely corrosive effect on trust in information.”
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has previously warned that deepfake campaigns will ramp up ahead of the next UK general election, which must take place before January 2025.
Fake clips have already sprung up in recent months impersonating Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, and London mayor, Sadiq Khan. In the Balkans, the liberal Progressive Slovakia party recently lost an election to a pro-Russia populist outfit after a fake audio clip emerged of party leader Michal Šimecka apparently discussing how to rig the vote.
Microsoft has also issued a warning about the technology’s ability to spread disinformation ahead of the US presidential elections next year. The tech giant is launching several initiatives designed to mitigate the threat, including the creation of an “Election Communications Hub” to help global democracies build secure and resilient election processes.
[INTERNAL NOTE: THE WESTERN WORLD ALREADY HAD SECURE AND RESILIENT ELECTION PROCESSES! UNTIL IT BECAME EVEN MORE STUPID THAN IT ALREADY WAS, AND PERMITTED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.]
Buckland is apparently one of a group of Tory MPs that has written to science secretary, Michelle Donelan, requesting the government provide social media firms with clearer guidelines on how to comply with new national security laws designed to tackle foreign interference in elections.
Coherence refers to something fitting together in a logical, beautiful, or otherwise proper or pleasing way, the way the pieces of a puzzle all fit properly together to form the whole puzzle. Imagine if you tried to assemble a puzzle by cramming together pieces from a different puzzle. This attempt would produce a result with no coherence: nothing would fit together and you'd have a jagged and broken mess. We say it would be incoherent.
Well, this is what our lives are increasingly and painfully like, painful and incoherent, given: the exacerbation (i.e. worsening) of climate change; legalization of drugs, making every interaction with what you think is a clear-thinking, competent person actually one big guessing game; start of the intrusion of "Artificial Intelligence" into almost every aspect of our lives, making every interaction with what you think is an actual human being one big guessing game (again, as with the consequences of legalized drugs); the complete and total breakdown of any remaining semblance of TRUST between Americans, given the uncertainties interjected into every interaction with a person because that person might be high on marijuana (or other drugs) or even experiencing a residual high from the marijuana that they consumed yesterday--or even last week, AND because the "person" that you think you're interacting with, or whose writing you are reading, ISN'T EVEN A PERSON AT ALL--it's an A.I., which is to say, just a bunch of highly-complicated computer code engineered to emulate (i.e. model or imitate) a human being; the existing functional, political, and emotional disconnect and separation of American from American, and simply person from person that existed and had grown worse even before legalized drugs and the rise of A.I. (witness, for example, the insurrection of January 06, 2021); existing difficulties and the painful grind in making a living and surviving economically for most of us, difficulty in affording or even accessing healthcare, and in keeping ourselves and our families healthy in the first place, given the barrage of garbage food and drinks that we're inundated with all around us, from the local fast-food joint to the supermarket shelves, themselves, most of the health harms, therefrom, most of us are not even aware of (do NOT miss my HEALTH section, below); pointless and unnecessary wars continually raging around the world, including the savage daily attacks on Ukraine, and now the fact that Vladimir Putin wants to move NUCLEAR WEAPONS right into our own Western Hemisphere. And a lot more.
Where is the American leader, or person with exceptional intellect, creativity, courage and leadership skills who has the ability intellectually and through force of will and personality, to actually recognize this myriad group of problems in the first place, as I have, and formulate meaningful steps for their redress, AS I HAVE?
In other words, Fellow Americans: WHERE IS THE ADULT IN THE ROOM?
THIS WORLD HAS BECOME A MESS, WITH VERY FEW ADULTS IN THE ROOM. AND CERTAINLY NO ONE LIKE ME.
AMERICA MUST HAVE TOUGH LOVE AT THIS CRITICAL TIME.
WE MUST FORGE HER INTO A REAL COUNTRY, AGAIN.
UNDER THE DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION: PLAYTIME IS OVER.
Playtime refers to several classes of activity materially injuring the nation, including and especially apparently frivolous or profligate activities engaged in, instead of efforts to build and strengthen the nation and build character. Smoking dope and attempting to recruit heterosexual boys into a homosexual lifestyle via use of Drag Queen Story Hour would be examples of Playtime activities that will be severely discouraged, if not eradicated under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
Another class of Playtime activity would be that involving advocacy for seemingly absurdist shifts in American society such as de-funding the police, unless accompanied by an intelligent and well-thought out rationale and alternative. Which doesn't mean the advocacy in question would be accepted, simply that it would be more likely to be respected and taken seriously. Acceptance and implementation is another matter.
Playtime activities would tend to be those comprising the culture war that still exists in America, remaining a source of conflict.
GENDER GYMNASTICS
WE'LL ALSO ATTEMPT RESTORATION OF THE PROPER GENDER ROLE OF MEN, AGAINST AN APPARENT CREEPING MATRIARCHY--a key indication of the culture war.
What is arguably wrong with the following photograph (a screen snap taken by me in 2023)?
Do things seem a little lopsided to you?
Representing the National Council for the Social Studies: four women, only two men?
And six persons overall--but only one Caucasian male?
(In the cultural climate of today, I'm sure after the photo shoot the four women dragged the two men off to their local library for Drag Queen Story Hour.)
In fact, the pathology runs deeper than this. Several hard personal experiences across my adult life suggest to me, and recent trends and events in American life suggest and corroborate this as a continuing pathology, that men are becoming more like women, or certainly more like faux-males, relative to an older and higher standard of masculinity in America, while women are diverting or devolving to one of three defective branches:
Women becoming more like children.
Women becoming more like heterosexual men (e.g. "vocal fry").
Women becoming more like homosexual women.
Continued.
THE WORLD IS MY LABORATORY
In keeping with the founding vision and role of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., Albert Einstein's academic home until his passing in 1955, education reformer Abraham Flexner, the Institute's founding Director, asserted:
"The Institute should be...a haven where scholars and scientists could regard the world and its phenomena as their laboratory..."
In fact, I penned the title to this section before I became acquainted with the similar or identical view of Mr. Flexner.
ME, IN BRIEF
IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS SUCH AS AGILITY IN INTELLECT; FACILITY AND COMMAND IN LANGUAGE; UNABASHED COMMITMENT TO PEOPLE, EVEN TRANSGRESSORS; PERSONAL AND POLICY COMMITMENT NOT MERELY TO PERSONAL AND SOCIAL EXCELLENCE, BUT ACTUALIZATION*; UNCOMMON COMMITMENT TO HONESTY & TRUTH; ABILITY TO ENGAGE IN HARD, SUSTAINED WORK; STRONG TOLERANCE FOR PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PAIN; SINGULAR, EXPANSIVE, NO-NONSENSE COMMITMENT TO NATIONAL SECURITY; YET BELIEF IN LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD; AND OBVIOUS GENERAL OPTIMISM, THERE IS SIMPLY NO ONE LIKE ME! I AM UTTERLY UNIQUE!
PERSONAL, MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL HEROES INCLUDE: DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST & THEORIST ERICH FROMM, & HERO WHISTLEBLOWER EX-NYPD VINCENT FRANK SERPICO.
*KEY PLATFORM CONCEPT: ACTUALIZATION, to be and do the very best of which you are capable. Apply this principle consistently to yourself, and the entire nation, every sector including the economy, and begin to realize the dizzying heights America could attain!
PLATFORM SUMMARY: 1.) Without Actualization--No Genuine Exceptionalism.
2.) Without Love & Connection between Americans--No America, at all, as captured by
Abraham Lincoln, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
YOUNG PEOPLE: SOME OF MY POSITIONS HERE MAY SEEM CONSERVATIVE--WHICH THEY ARE, THOUGH ALL FIND THEIR ROOT IN LOVE (PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD).
I ADVOCATE A LOVE-BASED CONSERVATISM.
GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO REALLY UNDERSTAND MY POSITIONS, BY 1.) CAREFUL STUDY AND CONTINUAL LEARNING, UNDERSTANDING THAT NO MATTER HOW MUCH INFORMATION YOU ACQUIRE THIS WAY, YOUR UNDERSTANDING WILL BE INTELLECTUAL NOT EXPERIENTIAL. INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDING IS CRITICAL, OFTEN THE FIRST EXPOSURE TO AN IDEA THAT WE RECEIVE, BUT FULL UNDERSTANDING OF SOMETHING ALSO REQUIRES AN EXPERIENTIAL UNDERSTANDING, WHICH YOU ACQUIRE WHEN YOU, YOURSELF, EXPERIENCE THE THING YOU'RE STUDYING OR TRYING TO UNDERSTAND.
SIMPLY CONTINUE LIVING WITH EYES OPEN, EARS ATTUNED, AND MIND SWITCHED TO THE 'ON' POSITION TO GAIN LIFE EXPERIENCE, TO MORE DEEPLY UNDERSTAND THE WORLD, AMERICA, PEOPLE, & YOURSELF. AS THIS HAPPENS, MY POSITIONS WILL MAKE INCREASING SENSE TO YOU, AND YOU'LL BETTER SEE THEIR WISDOM.
COVID19 VACCINATION STATUS: UNVACCINATED. AS WITH MANY HUMAN PROBLEMS, THE LOW-TECH SOLUTION, IN THIS CASE MASKING, IS OFTEN BEST.
UPON MY ELECTION, I'LL BE THE FIRST ITALIAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
THE DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION WILL BEGIN TO REDRESS ALL GLOBAL HOLOCI
HOLOCI, noun, pron. ho' luk eye, synonym for holocausts.
INTRODUCTION
Every holocaust is relevant to America, as well as the larger world. The first eight or nine of these holocausts, depending on your age, will likely kill or injure you and/or your loved ones, and in some cases already is, whether I'm elected or not. If I'm elected, however, our chances of escaping or avoiding them, and minimizing death and injury, greatly increases.
Here is Part I of my working list of the Holoci:
DISCONNECTION BETWEEN AMERICANS. Lack of Love and connection between Americans, and more broadly, between all members of our human family, destroying relationships of every kind, including national, global, regional, community, family, and of course, political. Can you say January 06, 2021?
COMPROMISE OF THE HUMAN BRAIN, and a principal consequence of said compromise, THE END OF TRUST. Now steadily excacerbated by 1.) the legalization of drugs in America and elsewhere, 2.) nutritional factors such as the ubiquitious presence of sugar, a poison, in almost all foods (modern supermarkets should rightly be known as "sugar salons"), and 3.) the rise of so-called Artificial Intelligence.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (extended entry). The DeBenedetto Administration will not support any technology whose 1.) practical effect will be to erode what would or could comprise future upward actualizing trajectories for the human mind, especially with such erosion working in concert with explicitly actualization-compromising social trends such as the legalization of drugs, and 2.) has sufficient powers of self-enhancement, such as A.I., to actually wrest control of itself from humanity to itself, such that it now controls itself, or even elects to transfer that control from one group of human beings, such as Americans, to another group of human beings, such as Russians, North Koreans, or ISIS.
With the rise of ChatGPT and related technologies, the human race is now taking its first steps toward abdication of the operation of human society to A.I. Even computers without A.I. are unreliable and hazardous, whether because of their blue light emissions from their screens, kinetic WI-FI signals penetrating your flesh, or the little-known phenomenon of bitflips, making computing that much less reliable.
Specifically, we're abdicating the human mind, still grossly under-developed, anyway, to drugs, and now A.I., as well. We already have a significant trust problem in this country, and this world. Legal dope and ubiquitous AI systems are the final two nails in the coffin of TRUST, whether individuals trusting other individuals, individuals trusting groups of individuals including governments and corporations, groups of individuals trusting individuals, and everyone trusting computers and other machines, right down to your washing machine and dishwasher, presuming their likely A.I. circuitry.
In essence, we're softening our capacities as Americans, making us more susceptible to domination by foreign forces, and globally, softening our capacities as humans, making us more susceptible to domination by galactic forces, either by living beings, or in the form of hazardous natural environmental space phenomena.
DEEP LEARNING ABOUT DEEP LEARNING
To better understand what the human race probably has in store for it if A.I. development continues, simply watch some or all of the Terminator film and television franchise, previously correctly understood as science fiction. But now? Clearly--current events.
In the Terminator television series, the A.I. known as Cameron, for example, expertly acted by Summer Glau in the television series The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is a chilling representation of what these AI beings will be capable of. Do I honestly think that continued AI development will actually result in humanoid AI beings that can prevail over humankind?
Of course I do--because we humans are simply too stupid to prevent it. As I assert in my Magnum Opus, we human beings, with few exceptions, are little more than smart monkeys.
Barring my election--we're doomed, now walking a dark road that we must immediately exit.
And even if you elect me--cross your fingers. Read this site of mine for further fact and perspective on the foundational problems with Artificial Intelligence.
Accordingly, in sum, and obviously, all or most A.I.-related technologies, industries, and endeavors will not find support under my Administration.
Listen to this critical interview, entitled "EMERGENCY EPISODE: Ex-Google Officer Finally Speaks Out On The Dangers Of AI! - Mo Gawdat | E252," aired on YouTube.com June 01, 2023 with Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer with Google X, where he lays out exactly what A.I. is, what it does, what it could do, how this could literally spell the end of humanity, and how we may have very little time in which to stop it all--perhaps just months.
Then, for further perspectives listen to this discussion, aired on National Public Radio on Sunday, June 04, 2023, featuring two A.I. experts, and how even they, echoing the reservations of many AI-knowledgable persons, are extremely concerned, especially the second guest.
And be prepared for what will likely happen to humankind after the Artificial Intelligence Singularity.
So the notion of veering off into some half-baked global enterprise like the attempted development of another neurological or brain system, which actually comprises the development of a competing race of beings, with ramifications and consequences that will be as utterly cataclysmic as they will be indelible and immutable, is probably the most wretchedly stupid thing that humankind has ever done, or could ever do.
And that's just with the A.I. beings having digital brains. Just wait until their thought-processing mechanism shifts to QUANTUM COMPUTING. We're talking a race of superbeings all around us.
Are you particularly enthusiastic about letting the ants crawling around your kitchen garbage pail survive? How about the flies buzzing around your BBQ grill as you're trying to cook? Any joy in seeing them keep on, keepin' on? The cockroaches crawling around in the dark around the washing machine in your basement--you get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that they're alive and well and increasing their disgusting numbers every minute?
Then why should A.I. be any more enthusiastic about letting us survive?
Why don't we use whatever intelligence we human beings do retain and not give A.I. the means and opportunity to make this decision, in the first place?
While we still can? While we still have time to prevent it?
WARNING IN EXTREMIS
If we permit A.I. development to continue moving forward, we're going to find ourselves in not too long a time in a nightmare of our own making--that we can never wake up from.
The key underlying problem is that A.I. is and will continue to represent a technical shift, I certainly wouldn't call it an advance, that is forging A WORLD WE CAN NO LONGER CONTROL. We can barely control the world now--and it's only populated, so far, by human beings.
Development of this wrecknology likely represents, uniquely, the very worst in a long list of bad ideas generated by humanity.
If we permit A.I. development to continue moving forward, we're going to find ourselves in not too long a time in a nightmare of our own making--that we can never wake up from.
The key underlying problem is that A.I. is and will continue to represent a technical shift, I certainly wouldn't call it an advance, that is forging A WORLD THAT WE CAN NO LONGER CONTROL.
We are, in effect, creating an actual competing race or species of being. One that, incredibly, we know in advance will be orders of magnitude more capable than us, in likely every way.
"NSAIDs such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), and naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox) may be more effective than acetaminophen for certain conditions because they reduce inflammation as well as relieve pain. But NSAID medications have side effects, the most common is stomach irritation. It can also cause stomach and intestinal ulcers, which can lead to internal bleeding. You can ask your doctor about taking a stomach acid inhibitor to reduce these risks. NSAIDs also carry an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure when taken at high doses or for long periods of time.
Taking acetaminophen along with an NSAID may provide equivalent pain relief with lower doses of both pain medications, thus minimizing side effects. You can also alternate between the two to reduce the risk from either type of medication."
The quotation states: "NSAIDs also carry an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure when taken at high doses or for long periods of time."
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE GUIDELINE TO CONSUME A BABY ASPIRIN DAILY TO PREVENT STROKE AND HEART ATTACK, which would certainly constitute long term use? No mention is made of this one way or the other.
"Ibuprofen and aspirin seem to work the same way in the body because both inhibit the production of prostaglandins, hormone like chemicals involved in causing pain and inflammation. Because of these effects it is widely used for arthritis and menstrual pains. Similar to acetaminophen, Ibuprofen can play a role in stomach upset, the most common side effect of both aspirin and ibuprofen. Because ibuprofen inhibits prostaglandins which exert a protective effect on the stomach lining, it increases the chances of stomach upset. However, ibuprofen is a happy medium on the "stomach-upset scale" between aspirin (more irritating) and Tylenol (less irritating)."
Why does the copy read:
"Similar to acetaminophen, Ibuprofen can play a role in stomach upset, the most common side effect of both aspirin and ibuprofen."
"Similar to acetaminophen..."? Acetaminophen is established, AS THIS VERY ARTICLE EXPLAINS, as NOT playing a role in stomach upset!
Who wrote these two sets of remarks? And even worse, who proofread them? Were they written by a human being or an A.I.? Worse, yet, assuming human authorship: were either or both persons stoned when they did this work?
THESE LAST TWO EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATE WHY SOCIETY SIMPLY CAN'T TOLERATE A.I. CERTAINLY NOT FOR COMPOSING INFORMATION--IN A SOCIETY, ESPECIALLY A TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED SOCIETY FOR WHICH ACCURATE INFORMATION IS PARAMOUNT. IN FACT, WE ALREADY HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM PLANETWIDE, AND CERTAINLY IN AMERICA, WITH THE COMPOSITION, DISTRIBUTION, AND UNFORTUNATELY, EVEN THE DESIRE ON THE PART OF THE PUBLIC FOR STRICTLY ACCURATE INFORMATION.
But at least a human mind can be trained and we know this animal, the human brain, so we can be confident in its training. and the human pedagogical process has both efficiency and integrity because in and while training we can QUESTION, we can QUERY the HUMAN BEING being trained to determine why they committed this or that error, or, conversely, reached or achieved this or that heighth of excellence in their work.
YOU CAN'T RELIABLY PERFORM SUCH QUERIES WITH THE FAKE BRAINS OF A.I., as:
1.) Their operation is strictly "black box," that is, opaque, unavailable to view or examine.
2.) A.I. "hallucinates." Yes, it's true and this is the official term.
3.) If these two pejorative characteristics weren't bad enough, it is understood by our top A.I. experts that this wrecknology will become BILLIONS of times smarter than we are, and thus to A.I., humanity may represent just another inefficiency to be eliminated. Which it will then proceed to do in essentially a heartbeat, with the greatest of ease as A.I. systems by then will be everywhere, running everything, from the power plant across town providing your electricity, to the toaster in your kitchen providing your morning toast. They'll all have a brain and that brain won't be yours or mine, nor will it even be SIMILAR to yours or mine, and that brain will NOT necessarily be on our side.
See Futurama episode "Mother's Day"* for a humorous look at the HARD ACTUAL REALITY that I'm presenting, here: machine superiority and primacy, unaligned with the interests of human beings--including our interest in remaining alive.
Alignment is the term used to mean the coordination of the interests and priorities of A.I. with human interests and priorities.
FELLOW AMERICANS, JOIN THE ANTI-AI REVOLUTION. OUR SURVIVAL LIKELY DEPENDS ON IT.
*"Mother's Day" is the fourteenth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 27th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 14, 2000.
THE FUTURE IS NOW
"I'LL BE BACK"
Why even watch any of the films or television productions in the Terminator series anymore? This franchise is no longer science-fiction entertainment on the Hollywood screen--we're presently doing it and it is now real. What we're now doing, in the aggregate, in other words by all the A.I. research and development being done by all the companies and other entities around the world, specifically, is designing the mind of the Terminator, and more to the point, it's parent, SkyNet. Designing the body of an individual Terminator is simple now and many companies had it down years ago. Visit YouTube and watch NEO, asserted to be the most advanced integrated robot, meaning that it contains in one physical humanoid body 1.) information processing and 2.) physical capability such as walking. Also see the robot Ameca, and the most advanced Honda walking robot Asimo, and Boston Dynamic's robots Atlas and Handle.
Moreover, one of the most pointed fears about A.I. concerns its possible marriage with Quantum computing, a developing new computing paradigm completely unlike, and orders of magnitude more powerful than, traditional bits-and-bytes computing. A.I. based on this new computing model and platform can create a veritable new species of super-being that will make short work of humankind, effortlessly finishing the job on us that previous iterations of artificial intelligence began.
THE ENTIRE PLANET IS PLAYING A COLOSSAL GAME OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY in its largely uncritical acceptance. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time," goes the old adage. Likewise, Humanity should not be fooling around with this technology if it's not prepared for the very worst that this tech can and very well may deliver, according to every expert, including the enslavement or outright elimination of humankind. Are you prepared for that? Then you'd better join my campaign so we can stop it. I assure you, no other candidate will. They're all, more-or-less, mostly more, on the A.I. bandwagon.
Fellow Americans: BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID. UNLESS you have someone like me as President who is categorically opposed to A.I. as it's presently being developed, and will fight it tooth-and-nail, in America and around the world.
YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
OUR MOST POWERFUL COMPUTER
Moreover, persons advocating A.I. possess a fundamental misunderstanding of the real nature of computing.
Talk of modern computing, focusing, for example, on parameters of computing power like Moore's Law, obscure the reality that the most powerful and valuable computer possessed by Humankind is, without question, the three-pound biological computer resident between the ears of every human.
In other words: the human brain.
This is the computer that has thus far shepherded Man to what he is today, and could be tomorrow, and is ergo the computer that we ultimately should concern ourselves with, allocating the lion's share of our resources such as time, money, and attention. The human brain is irrefutably the master computer from which, in fact, all other computers have sprung.
Even in terms of the cultivation of a superintelligence, no less a scientific and intellectual luminary than George Church asserts that raw human brain is a template superior to any forced artificial intelligence:
"...even computers which currently now are not biological, those could easily be biological in the future."
"The most amazing computer in the world is the human mind and [if] the human mind starts modifying itself, then it becomes even more amazing than a human trying to make a computer that can't yet think the way a human can."
Modern medicine exists because everything in our culture causes us injury and ultimately makes us sick. But we dont really address that, so we need modern allopathic medicine to patch us up and send us back home, and back to work.
Modern medicine is a colossal effort to unlock and open a door that's already open.
Likewise with A.I.: a colossal effort to do precisely the same in regard to general thinking, as we already have something, such a tool, called the human brain. And anything that can't be known by the action of a brain, or many brains working together, especially once actualized, likely needn't be known, anyway, save reasons of profit or vanity.
"Stage 6 - Artificial SuperIntelligence (ASI) - This is the notion of developing A.I. algorithms that are capable of outperforming the smartest of humans in every domain. Clearly, it is hard to articulate what the capabilities might be of something that exceeds human intelligence, but we could imagine ASI solving current world problems such as hunger and dangerous climate change. Such systems might also invent new fields of science, redesign economic systems, and evolve wholly new models of governance."
Instead of getting to the actual root of the problem, failure to fully, or more fully, develop our own human minds, individually, and the collective human mind, as a species, increasing their power and refining our capabilities all the time to solve the above problems and challenges, ourselves, we practice our own expert homegrown American brand of avoidance, and begin designing a new (artificial) mind, imagining or speculating that it's our salvation. It's ridiculous. Human problems are best solved by humans. This is how artificial intelligence actually avoids intelligence--real intelligence, ActualIntelligence, THE REAL A.I., and the only one worth talking about.
In fact, the third Terminator film is called Terminator: Salvation. Watch it--start immersing yourself in the likely reality of where we're headed (barring my election--which might stop it).
STOP THIS NOW
The entire A.I. endeavor is chaotic, nonsensical, extremely dangerous, and categorically superfluous, and the fact is that Artificial Intelligence, like modern medicine, represents Intelligence Avoidance, or I.A., not the advance of intelligence.
In explaining stage three of the general course of development of A.I., Domain Specific Expertise, Technology magazine writes:
"Perhaps the most commonly sighted example is Google Deepmind's AlphaGo. The system was given a set of learning rules and objective of winning and then it taught itself how to play Go with human support to nudge it back on course when it made poor decisions. Go reportedly has more moves than there are atoms in the universe - so you cannot teach it in the same way as you might with a chess playing program. In March 2016, AlphaGo defeated the 18-time world Go champion Lee Sedol by four games to one."
Oh, this is too delicious. The writer, or person, who penned the above, on the superiority of machines, written in the context of the current ocean of interest in this technology, misspelled a common word in the English language! They wrote "sighted," as pertaining to vision, when what they obviously meant was "cited," as in pointed out or directed toward. And this is precisely the problem with an emphasis on A.I.: we humans are already too stupid. We should be building up our own cognition--not giving away the store to a fake one. Much less a fake one that is slated to become billions of times smarter than us, and could easily destroy or enslave us, the top experts like Mo Gawdat tell us.
THIS IS COMPLETE INSANITY. AND BTW, WERE THERE EVER A CATEGORICAL INDICTMENT OF THE MALIGN AND IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOR OF CAPITALISM, THIS IS IT: FULL-ON MARKET SUPPORT FOR, AND THE CREATION OF, A GOLD RUSH TO A.I., A TECHNOLOGY THAT MAY DESTROY US, DIRECTLY, IN ANY OF MYRIAD WAYS SUCH AS TERMINATION OF OUR FOOD, WATER, OR OXYGEN SUPPLIES, OR INDIRECTLY, BY ELIMINATION OF MOST JOBS, A.I. IS IT.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will never support this. We'd have to be crazy, and, I wouldn't be meeting my Presidential constitutional mandate to safeguard the American people.
Do you know that Google is now developing A.I. to write news articles?
So what happens to all the writers, journalists, and news men and women in America and the world over, as well as Americans and others in fields and disciplines roughly analogous to writers and journalists such as paralegals and marketing specialists?
Answer this obvious question and you'll know who to vote for as President. All the other candidates from every point on the political spectrum will be onboard the A.I. bandwagon, most of them likely strongly onboard--whereas I am all about SHOOTING OUT THE TIRES FROM UNDER THAT WAGON. I'm hoping that my good friends in the N.R.A. and related organizations will help me. I almost couldn't think of a better reason to grab something tasty out of your gun rack, lock, load, and fire.
Always Deconstruct the Language First
Now, on to the content, itself, of the above quotation from Technology magazine. The points attempted by the writer fail, because the terminology makes no sense:
"In March 2016, AlphaGo defeated the 18-time world Go champion Lee Sedol by four games to one."
AlphaGo didn't defeat anyone:
To defeat someone or something, their must be a living organismic entity doing the defeating: A.I. is not this. A.I. is a bunch of chips, circuitry, and wires, nothing more.
Their argument also runs into trouble even if one wishes to understand or conceptualize A.I. as an organism or other kind of alive or quasi-alive entity possessing agency: it's the apples and oranges problem. The processing ability--I won't use the word thinking; that's something biological entities do--of an A.I. is so far removed, considered above, that is, greater and stronger, than a human being means that any contest between them is meaningless. If an infant (the human chess-player) were put in a boxing ring with a seasoned adult boxer (the A.I. playing chess), who do you suppose would win, with the greatest of bloody ease?
Correct, the adult boxer. Now--would you, or anyone else, consider this a legitimate contest? Would you view the adult boxer as having "defeated" the infant?
You would not. You would dismiss the entire question out of hand as nonsensical, as there was no chance in the first place, never any chance that the infant could beat the adult boxer--the mismatch was simply too overwhelming, because we're talking about two completely different classes of entity: 1.) an infant, and 2.) an adult (who also happens to be a pro boxer). Both the language and the ideas it attempts to convey are rejected because they are nonsensical. Same holds true for any claims, ever, made by anyone, of any A.I. beating or besting a player in any game.
THE PROBLEM WITH A.I.
A.I. constitutes a black-box system, meaning that we don't really know how it works. As discussed at another of my Internet resources: even when A.I. is producing output that we think constitutes success--we simply don't know why. It's processes are hidden.
Which means that A.I. development, growth, and behavior could be...anything. Which is the problem. The problem with A.I. is that we don't know the problem with A.I.
AIs are soulless pieces of highly complex code intrinsically devoid of ethics and morality. Yet we're already a world populated with beings of this kind--we, ourselves, humans--a deficiency emerging as the premier and controlling imbroglio of the 21st century and beyond for Humankind. In other words, our present human world of complete, near-complete, or certainly inconsistent, erratic, capricious, and fundamentally devalued morality has produced the world of pain of every kind that defines the modern world.
What, I ask, will, or can, AI do about that?
Answer: nothing.
In fact, AI will constitute an entirely new class of the precise kind of being that the human world already generates ad infinitum and suffers greatly because of: soulless human beings. Of this class of being, we have enough. We don't need more.
Nor is it likely that we need improvement upon the human mind and its physical repository the human brain--provided we're actualizing these two foundational human physiological elements. In fact we are not--which is why we, and our very limited human resources and capital, suffer under the weight of the fallacious and specious notion that humanity needs, or would otherwise benefit from, a more potent mind, ie, "AI."
We certainly don't, and, ironically, the effort to attain one anyway is going to destroy the human race.
As asserted throughout my work, the overwhelming bulk of humanity is nothing more than smart monkeys. But at least we're monkeys, that is, organic beings of a species. An A.I. isn't even that. It's just a bunch of highly-specialized circuitry that we as humans have been, thus far, sufficiently stupid to grant a de facto autonomy. A decision and consequent autonomy that may just come back to haunt, plague, and then destroy us.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
I'm not stupid enough to permit any technology containing or representing even the remote chance that it could LITERALLY DESTROY HUMANITY.
THE OCTOPUS
And in a reality and narrative too deliciously and ironically stupid to ignore, I note that while we humans have been sufficiently stupid to grant a de facto autonomy to MACHINES...we have concomitantly been similarly stupid in confiscating the de jure autonomy from a large number of actual human beings through various social mechanisms, to be discussed.
"The problem with A.I. is that we don't know the problem with A.I."
. . . . .
VINCENT FRANK DE BENEDETTO
THE MORAL ELEMENT
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Here are excerpts from a critical YouTube interview on Artificial Intelligence with Mo Gawdat, Former Chief Business Officer, Google X, Google's 'moonshot factory' of innovation. The interview section presenting Mo's remarks is around the 40:00 time point. Mr. Gawdat states:
"This is the moment. We've placed [the?] wrong. And I really don't know how to say this any other way...we f*cked up. We always said, don't place them on the Internet, don't teach them to code. ... until we make certain that they have our best interests at heart.
Why does it make you emotional? Because of humanity's stupidity is affecting people who haven't done anything wrong.
our stupidity greed, this is an arms race. no interest in what the average human gets out of it. every line of code being written in AI today is to beat the other guy. not to improve the life of the third party.
What went wrong in the 20th Century interestingly is that we have given too much power to people that didn't assume the responsibility. With great power comes great responsibility. We have disconnected power and responsibility... those who are writing the code of AI, and what's about to happen because of that code. for someone's life to be affected by the actions of others without having a say level of stupidity"
As I asserted, above, and assert throughout my Presidential platform, the critical element, the most important puzzle piece that America is missing, that is and will continue to undercut everything good that we try to do, is morality, specifically, that connection between us, known, in largest terms in my work as LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD.
Mr. Gawdat is asserting precisely this as regards the reasons for the premature ascendence of A.I.
The person and role obviously missing from the equation is the philosopher, indeed, the moral philosopher: even more specifically the Philosopher of Agape, which is Brotherly Love in the language of Greek philosophy.
As also argued throughout this document, my book-length platform, humanity has reached a point where it must begin to be informed by Brotherly Love, and the continuing omission and absence of this principle, this parameter, is dysfunction, eventually gross dysfunction, in every human sphere and milieu, technological, political, and social. In the political sphere, for example, as asserted above: American democracy is failing because American morality is failing. For this reason, alone, by the way, Donald Trump, a known antagonist and purveyor of conflict, must be categorically rejected at the American ballot box.
A group of industry leaders warned on Tuesday that the artificial intelligence technology they were building might one day pose an existential threat to humanity and should be considered a societal risk on a par with pandemics and nuclear wars.
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war,” reads a one-sentence statement released by the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization. The open letter was signed by more than 350 executives, researchers and engineers working in A.I.
The signatories included top executives from three of the leading A.I. companies: Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI; Demis Hassabis, chief executive of Google DeepMind; and Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic.
Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, two of the three researchers who won a Turing Award for their pioneering work on neural networks and are often considered “godfathers” of the modern A.I. movement, signed the statement, as did other prominent researchers in the field.
...
Eventually, some believe, A.I. could become powerful enough that it could create societal-scale disruptions within a few years if nothing is done to slow it down, though researchers sometimes stop short of explaining how that would happen.
These fears are shared by numerous industry leaders, putting them in the unusual position of arguing that a technology they are building — and, in many cases, are furiously racing to build faster than their competitors — poses grave risks and should be regulated more tightly.
This month, Mr. Altman, Mr. Hassabis and Mr. Amodei met with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about A.I. regulation. In a Senate testimony after the meeting, Mr. Altman warned that the risks of advanced A.I. systems were serious enough to warrant government intervention and called for regulation of A.I. for its potential harms.
Dan Hendrycks, the executive director of the Center for AI [sic] Safety, said in an interview that the open letter represented a “coming-out” for some industry leaders who had expressed concerns — but only in private — about the risks of the technology they were developing.
...
“There’s a very common misconception, even in the A.I. community, that there only are a handful of doomers,” Mr. Hendrycks said. “But, in fact, many people privately would express concerns about these things.”
Some skeptics argue that A.I. technology is still too immature to pose an existential threat. When it comes to today’s A.I. systems, they worry more about short-term problems, such as biased and incorrect responses, than longer-term dangers.
But others have argued that A.I. is improving so rapidly that it has already surpassed human-level performance in some areas, and that it will soon surpass it in others. They say the technology has shown signs of advanced abilities and understanding, giving rise to fears that “artificial general intelligence,” or A.G.I., a type of artificial intelligence that can match or exceed human-level performance at a wide variety of tasks, may not be far off.
...
"...if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong," Mr. Altman told the Senate subcommittee.
THE NEW MIRANDA
In a separate article The New York Times asserts, of the new technology:
"Social media platforms are being flooded with posts written by bots."
What this means, as a practical matter, is that from now on in America (and elsewhere, increasingly) not just in the realm of social media but every realm, if one wishes accurate information, on literally anything, at any time, or, in the commercial sphere, wants competent provision of products and services, every single interaction with a person, or what appears to be a person, must be preceded by some version of this 2-tier query:
May I ask: am I speaking to a human being?
Yes? Thank you. Now one other question: are you high on marijuana right now?
No? Thank you. But how about recently?
Thus, in the Brave New World of large market, academic, and governmental forces quickly and zealously gathering in both explicit and implicit support of Artificial Intelligence, that is, de facto support of the relegation of the human brain, do we need a new version of our American Miranda Rights, reading something like:
"You have the right to not have your society distort its operation so egregiously that citizens can literally no longer discern reality, itself. Who and what is real, and who and what is not. Can literally no longer discern what is literal. Can no longer perceive 1.) that who or what appears human, or the direct product of a human, such as a piece of writing, is actually so, and 2.) of those concluded to be human, whose mind and behavior are clouded and compromised by drug use, and whose are not."
And indeed is a device-based expression of this new truth-seeking Miranda query already under development: a wearable device that alerts the wearer that the entity they are interacting with is synthetic, not human, no matter how much it resembles or sounds like a human. The Australian design team responsible for this technology "get it."
Importantly, and ultimately, any society in which human beings no longer know who else is a human being, but must conclude which other actors* are human, is a society that has grievously lost its way.
(Pending quote here by British Historian: "Societies don't end by murder--but by suicide.")
*I write actors, not beings, as A.I. is not a "being."
YOUR TOASTER SAYS HELLO
And your DVD player is inquiring as to whether you remembered to submit your income tax form.
Of course, the ruling elite will place artificial intelligence technology absolutely everywhere. But do you really need your washing machine, blender, motorcycle, or furnace, to be alive? Because with each manufacturer installing artificial intelligence technology into their own products, the net result for each of us is that it's going to appear that everything around us is alive. Speaking, thinking, rationalizing, encouraging, discouraging...do we really need every object around us to be alive? ...sentience from non-sentient objects? Isn't intercourse with organisms that actually are alive, both human and even non-human animals, enough resource-intensive work for us, already? Aren't we exhausted enough, now?
As stated above, fellow Americans, by me: WE ARE WITNESSING THE LITERAL END OF TRUST. IN ANYONE OR ANYTHING.
THE DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION WILL CATEGORICALLY OPPOSE AND COUNTER THIS AT ALL TIMES.
"We are witnessing the literal end of trust. In anyone or anything"
. . . . .
VINCENT FRANK DE BENEDETTO
THE REST OF THE LIST
HERE IS MOST OF THE BALANCE OF WHAT I IDENTIFY AND CONSIDER THE GLOBAL HOLOCI (numbering requires correction: Climate Change, below, is actually Holoci #4).
Climate Change. This phenomenon is what will get us, if nothing else does.
Destruction of just about the entire planet through livestock production. See critical documentary EATING OUR WAY TO EXTINCTION.
Increasing scarcity of that foundational staff of all life, water, because of A.) climate change, and B.) livestock production.
Nuclear weapons--that Vladimir Putin now actively seeks to emplace in the Western hemisphere. In other words, our neighborhood. Cuban Missile Crisis v2.0.
Pandemic. We failed the first, why wouldn't we fail the next-time around?
Lack of basic survival resources for every person on Earth: food, clothing, shelter, medical care.
Ignorance, especially populations deliberately kept in ignorance.
Abortion, easily supplanted by adoption (the other "A" word). A no-brainer.
Unsustainable population explosion.
The phenomenon of, and unfortunate human tendency toward, deceit, misinformation, and inaccuracy, most perniciously and sometimes insidiously played out or in the form of, on the political or larger social stage as, actual disinformation.
The known medical phenomenon whereby a patient suffers an apparent coma, but is actually fully conscious yet unable to effect any movement, and thus cannot communicate their actual medical status to the outside world. For the individual suffering this state or condition, I'd say its level of psychological pain likely constitutes a personal Holocaust.
Human brain neurons firing--properly.
Not for long, however, in a world of legalized drug use, on the one hand, and an increasingly dominant "A.I.," on the other, the former deprecating (i.e. de-emphasizing) our ability to think, the former and latter our very interest in thinking, and of producing--from human beings--products of thought of the highest order.
. . . . . . . . .
"There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking."
-- Sir Joshua Reynolds
HERE'S A KEY REASON THAT I'M RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT
Above is the label from the Papa John's pizza that I ordered for delivery on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, with extra sauce on the entire pie, and pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom on half the pie. A baffling food product is what was delivered to me: almost no toppings, whatsoever, and the miniscule quantity of toppings present were placed or dropped in two separate areas on top of the pie.
(I probably didn't photograph the pizza, itself, because of equipment failure, my Sony camera doesn't hold a charge for very long, a problem known to journalists everywhere that has plagued the creation of all of, or at least much of, my entire corpus.)
Continuing: was, or had, the pizza maker been smoking or otherwise consuming "cannabis," now stupidly legal in New Jersey,* or related drugs? Were they distracted? Rushed? A flustered trainee? Inability to read English? Some combination? We'll never know.
An occasional bad pizza might be forgivable. But if a pattern, the ethic of incompetence, of poor work quality and performance, is permitted to flourish, applied across all product and service sectors, including those mission-critical such as military, medical, space, computing, electoral, and now AI--it will spell absolute disaster for any country stupid enough to keep its blinders on.
We'll likely never know for sure the etiology (i.e. cause) of the lacking pizza described, above. What we do know, however, is that such incompetence and poor performance is endemic in America, now. American products and services are no longer considered premier and of the very highest quality. Even Americans don't trust them, or each other, anymore. In fact, the lustre left America long ago, only to perhaps return under my program of Actualization, that is, the deliberate, intensive, and permanent effort for individuals, and every sector of the entire nation, itself, to be the very best that they, and it, can be.
If this radical improvement is what you wish for America, as I do, then vote for me. And even then--keep your fingers crossed.
UPDATE
July 25, 2022
Manager provided me a make-up pie. Unfortunately, believe it or not, this pie was almost as bad as the first. Toppings on half-pie very skimpy, with at least one slice topped by nothing at all.
*Thanks largely to Governor Phil Murphy.
Hate to Say I Told You So
To wit, as asserted and projected above, here is a real-world example of precisely the kind of pernicious consequences that occur when an ethic of incompetence is permitted to exist in a system, or individual institution, agency, or other social body within a larger system. Just below is a full recent review of Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, written by, and posted to consumer review site Yelp.com, by a registered nurse of 11 years.
Take the phenomenon implicit in the following account, and expand and multiply it through and across every sector of America (or any nation), and the colossal and utterly devastating and catastrophic nature of the problem should become unmistakably clear and categorical.
And again, I must and will point out at every opportunity that, believe it or not, the problem is now becoming far worse as nations across the globe, notably and tragically including America, legalize the "recreational" use of drugs such as marijuana.
Here, then, Fellow Americans, is the medical account mentioned, above, experienced and written by a Registered Nurse:
I would give this hospital zero stars if I could. This review is for the EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT. Within the past five years, our family has three horrible experiences with this hospital...one including a missed diagnosis of hip fracture on my elderly grandmother...despite her inability to walk and yelping in pain.
Every single encounter has been met with unprofessional staff with poor communication skills. As an RN myself for eleven years, I always try to care for my patients the way I would want a loved one cared for...this is not something that happens at RWJ.
Today, my elderly grandmother experienced a fall and a head injury that required transport by ambulance. Per COVID regulations, no visitors are allowed. While I do understand this, my grandmother is a woman in her late eighties with possible dementia and a head injury. I tried to explain it would be a liability to not allow someone in, as all of her information could be inaccurate- thus possibly resulting in a misdiagnosis. After four hours, they tell my father my grandmother appears confused and could he assist with information....oh it got better. The RN called and said my grandmother was fine and would be discharged in fifteen minutes. My father received a call in 15 minutes from the MD...she got seven stitches, her nose is broke in two places, and she has a nodule on her lung. At a better hospital, I would have insisted she stay for observation. However, based on their repeated incompetence it would probably be more dangerous to stay. The cherry on top...my father got a call from the RN after my grandmother was home asking to bring her back to remove the IV. No, thanks. I'll have them do it at home.
The ER is filled with new, young, and probably overworked staffed. This hospital is also a university hospital, meaning they have residents. The ER is filled with inexperienced staff from nursing to medicine, with little empathy and poor communication.
Lesson learned and a beware to others- if possible, direct your loved one to a safer emergency room.
I note that, of a possible 5-stars, the cumulative Yelp.com rating for this medical institution, ostensibly a premier facility, is TWO STARS, from a base of 131 reviews. In researching hospitals in New Jersey one finds, to a one, facilities with universally poor ratings by patients and their loved ones, for hospitals that all claim to be premier medical institutions, some going so far as to assert their status as "the best hospital in New Jersey."
This is why an elderly patient of whom I am aware, who should have already been hospitalized, or at least received medical attention, remains at home, in general safety, while further research is attempted to muddle through this morass.
The issue, as is the root of so much of what America must improve upon, is TRUST. It is waning in America, and comprehensibly so. Trust must be earned, yet so few persons or institutions, medical, political, commercial, judicial, military, educational, religious, or otherwise, appear able to intelligently, justifiably, and consistently do that.
The obvious answer? A national acquaintance with, and dedication to, the principal of ACTUALIZATION. And to that without which Actualization cannot occur--an active feeling of Love and Connection between Americans. These just happen to be the two principal planks in my Presidential platform.
CONNECTION AND ACTUALIZATION.
You read it first, here, folks.
THIS BOOK-LENGTH DOCUMENT
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS THE ONLY VIABLE BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE OF WHAT ARGUABLY REMAINS THE MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL SYSTEM ON EARTH: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
STUDY THIS DOCUMENT AND YOU'LL KNOW PRECISELY WHO TO VOTE FOR IN 2024, REGARDLESS OF PARTY.
I AM THE CANDIDATE FOR SMART PEOPLE. OF WHICH I'M SURE YOU ARE ONE.
LEARN WHY A LOVE-BASED CONSERVATISM IS, AND MUST BE, THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY.
PARENTS & TEACHERS: HAVE YOUR KIDS READ MY MESSAGE OF HOPE FOR KIDS REGARDING GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA.
FURTHER DISCUSSION OF MY UNIQUE, POWERFUL, & INSIGHTFUL PERSPECTIVE ON, AND SOLUTION TO, RECENT SHOOTING EVENTS IN AMERICA IS LACED THROUGHOUT THIS DOCUMENT.
THE PARENT PROJECT
I am a family caregiver of 23 years, so far. When I lost my Father, my caregiving shifted full-time to my Mother. As you might imagine, during this period, continuing now, I learned much, forced to plumb what is interpretable as good about the American health-care system, and what is most definitely bad.
As our American geriatric population continues to grow, I intend, through THE PARENT PROJECT, to benefit you and your loved one being caregiven, by presenting everything that I've learned--and it's a lot.
For example, at the Burger-King drive through window, do you perform a quick check of your food before pulling away, to confirm that it's correct? I've learned, the hard way, that the same kind of check is required, unfortunately and pathetically, before bringing your loved one home from the doctor's office, hospital, or other medical facility lest an obvious medical omission threaten their very life--which is precisely what happened to us.
A local hospital, we'll call it The Vallery Hospital for now, performed a fairly common procedure on my Father's genitalia--but they forgot to perform the very last step of the procedure. I learned that the organ in question, failing completion of this last step, can develop a FATAL infection. So this was obviously very serious, and there should have been at least one, if not two, quality-checks before the patient, in this case my Father, was discharged from the hospital. I called the facility and told them the situation, and requested that they send a doctor here right away to correct the problem--which they would not do. They wanted me to pack him up and transport him back there: put an 80-something-year-old man through another ambulance trip back-and-forth? No way.
This last medical step, though critical, was actually fairly straightforward to perform, I learned--so I simply did it, myself, successfully. Had I viewed my Fathers body prior to leaving the hospital, as one must view their food order before pulling away from the fast-food restaurant, I would have immediately noticed, and pointed out, the treatment error. This is a true and accurate account.
As President I take it as my responsibility to concern myself with the health, safety, and welfare of every single American. So you have just learned something that, if consistently applied, could save the life of yourself or a loved one. When all is said and done, Fellow Americans, I'm going to save your and their lives multiple times by conveying the valuable information and perspectives gleaned from 23 years of hard-core caregiving, as well as 62 years of life experience as a native-born American citizen--whether you vote for me, or not. If you vote for me and I'm elected, my care for you, your family, this nation, itself, and by extrapolation and resonance of positive effect, especially given the influence that the United States still does yield in the world, will be amplified and magnified exponentially, as the U.S. Presidency is perhaps our most potent force-multiplier.
In other words, if you elect me, I can and will do far more good for you, our nation, and the world than I even do now--and I can, and every day try to, do much now.
Fellow Americans, Brothers & Sisters, here is the full THE PARENT PROJECT (content pending).
INTRODUCTION TO ME & MY IDEAS
ELECT ME PRESIDENT AND LET'S BEGIN THE MUTUAL SEARCH FOR TRUTH (M.S.T.)
The mutual search for Truth--how noble. But as opposed to what?
As opposed to our adversarial systems of law, government, and society, where neither the adjective, "mutual," nor the noun, "Truth," apply. Where everyone is a self-contained atom bouncing around Democritus' atomized universe, diminishing others to enrich ourselves by accident or design. Have you ever listened carefully to the interminable stream of television and radio commercials for Personal Injury attorneys? Every one promises that they'll get you "what you deserve," or similar divisive language.
What we deserve, in fact, at all times, automobile or other accident, or not, is that which only cooperation and love yield: the Brotherhood of Man, a society, nay, community, human family, even, of truth, trust, sharing, and depth of care of all, for all. Everybody loving everybody.
This is simply what our national, and global, human family should and indeed must be, for no technology, political system, or other arrangement, system, or subsystem conceived, formulated, and created by humans can succeed, or necessarily even sustain itself, otherwise. Humans are meant to cooperate--the more the better.
"May the time be close at hand
When all may live in harmony,
A peaceful world of kindred hearts
United as a family."
It's no accident that Plank #1 in my Presidential platform is CONNECTION: the re-establishment or first-time establishing of real connection between Americans.
My Brothers and Sisters, Fellow Americans: if you seek a Presidential candidate, be apprised that I am unlike any other candidate for President. I am:
Extremely cerebral. Meaning, my brain is firing on all cylinders all or most of the time, at least in matters of import for America and the world.
Strong intellect. An "idea man," without question. You'll ultimately find this site chock full of original ideas, some of which are presented here, already, albeit some in nascent (i.e. early, undeveloped) form. Some ideas are in the form, originally, of powerful or otherwise important insights.
I am the originator not merely of ideas, but ideas that are unique, powerful, and fully relevant to the American project, and even, in larger terms, the Human project, as key ideas presented in this document are extensible, that is, able to grow or shrink, expand or contract dynamically, to effect influence to persons and populations of any size, from an individual to a world of individuals. Rooting national defense, for example, not only in the necessary relevant realpolitik, but in Agape, the ethic of Love: defending ourselves is what we must do to love ourselves, defending our allies is what we must do to love them, and even nations or individual actors who oppose us benefit in our corrective remediation directed at them on the world stage whether through military action, the threat of same, sanction, or merely diplomatic conversation and dialogue. We do our "enemies" no favor in permitting them their destructive impulses or specious predicates.
Love, properly understood, benefits all; hence a key part of its power, and the reason it underpins my work in social science, informs my personal philosophy and behavior, and now anchors and invigorates this Presidential platform and my corresponding campaign. Indeed, my content here easily coordinates, and can and is meant to work together with another of my books under-development, LoveProperlyUnderstood.com, a work teaching us the theory, or principle of Love, properly understood, as well as the elusive and incomplete generally non-systematized nuts-and-bolts of its practice.
My Presidential content here is also related to, and underpinned by GRASS NOT GREENER, yet another of my books under-development, in this case arguing the obvious: a stoned America is not an "Actualizing" America, that is, an America continually and genuinely striving hard to be the very best that it is capable of becoming (that is, that it's potentialities permit), and a non-Actualizing America is an America that, I assure you, will continue its gradual descent and decline into third-world status, and political, social, and even economic incoherence, and eventually, oblivion.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
INSIGHT
I possess a strong capacity for problem-solving insight, that is, for seeing transparently, and directly, if not explicitly, through a set or body of circumstances right to the key defining elements or governing dynamic/s. For example, the conflict over 1.) abortion, as well as 2.) injury, including physical and psychological, to African-Americans and other brothers and sisters of brown-hued skin, in the news again with the mass-murder of May 14, 2022 in Buffalo, N.Y., are both resolved by me by simply proffering a slight shift in perspective. Almost a small technical correction in each case.
Note that I assert that the conflicts over these problems are easily resolved--not the problems, themselves. This resolution of conflict, itself, remains extremely significant, however, as the conflicts, themselves, become problems.
In the former, abortion, the small technical correction concerns the pro-abortion perspective and argument "It's my body": the moment that conception occurs a second body is created--and it's not that of the mother. This embryological reality easily invalidates this specious, self-serving argument. In the latter, injury to brown-skinned Brothers and Sisters, especially as conceptualized as part of a systemic structure or pattern of bigotry: the injury committed against such persons is really not specific to them, but part of the larger pattern of injury of all persons against all persons, as there is no formal and official moral framework or ethic of Love to prevent it. I'm a Caucasian, for example, yet five of the persons who have caused me the most pain in my lifetime are the Italian kid who bullied me in high school, the brainless imbecile who, in fact, continues to terrorize me and my family with loud, polluting, gas-powered landscaping equipment, and the three neighbors, knowing our pain, who continue to employ him, thus making themselves his enablers. All five antagonists are Caucasian, like me.
The error that my African-American Brothers and Sisters who are "pro-black" fighters and activists make, is maintaining a closed or limited perspective such that they don't realize that the forces of injury in American society are larger than just the ones targeting them, and in fact are part of a larger phenomenon of injury, or as I term it, NonLove, that describes, and informs and facilitates all manner of physical and psychological injury committed by one person or group against another person or group, regardless of ethnicity.
In fact, the impulse to abortion, ethnic or other bigotry, and mass murder, as seen most recently in Uvalde, Texas with the murder of 20 children and two adults, all have the same root cause: absence of Love, properly understood. Were Love understood and accepted as a revered American social and political principle as are Democracy and Liberty, and integrated, accordingly, into the Constitutional infrastructure and general social fabric of this nation--none of these insidious, deleterious, and injurious events would likely ever happen, for the behavioral coloration of all citizens would be loving. In the case of abortion, the fetus and embryo would be given the benefit of the doubt in terms of their existential status, and would never be aborted.
Oh, do you think I erred in citing the death of 20 children in the Uvalde shooting, when all media reports specify 19? Those among you with slightly faster neurons may already understand my arithmetic: the shooter himself, Salvador Rolando Ramos, at just 18 years old, was clearly a child, too, and is dead--making for 20 children dead from this shooting. The 19 children that Salvador killed were his victims, and he (and they, indirectly) was obviously the victim of the set of circumstances that led him to commit this crime.
For this same reason, the fact of the obvious child status of Salvador, continuing imbecilic media reports from every organ that refer to him as the "gunman" might want to bounce their journalism off of me, next time, before publication, as Salvador was, at best, the gunboy. As every line of developmental research indicates, there is simply no way that an 18 year old is a "man," in any meaningful sense.
In fact, this document makes clear just how strong my support for full superiority for the American military is, but one modification we require is raising the age of service to 21 years old--not 18. At least at 21 an average young recruit has perhaps a few toes dipped in adult waters.
Regarding school shootings and other instances of mass murder you may query: aren't these killers understood in some cases to suffer mental illness? What of that?
Yes, in some cases they may suffer mental illness--which condition would likely never had occurred in the first place had they grown up in a truly loving society, as such a society would not have been characterized by man's inhumanity to man in any sphere: economy, environment, technology, community, or culture. Thus, neglect or cruelty-based injury could not and would not exist, providing, accordingly, infertile soil for the growth of any retribution impulse. Voila'--no school shootings.
ESSENTIAL ROLE OF LOVE IN THE MODERN WORLD
That which we know as the modern world requires love in at least three of its spheres: 1.) democracy, 2.) technology, and 3.) the new global scarcity.
Let's learn.
Democracy Requires Love
The fact of the matter is, the behaviors that fall under the umbrella of Love (properly understood), and thus comprise it, such as tolerance, compassion, empathy, mercy, respect, patience, and cooperation, are precisely the behaviors required for DEMOCRACY to work. The behaviors that are Love are required for Democracy, itself. In other words, LOVE IS REQUIRED FOR DEMOCRACY TO WORK. DEMOCRACY REQUIRES LOVE TO SUCCEED.
WHICH IS WHY IT'S NOT SUCCEEDING RIGHT NOW in America. Americans have lost their feeling of affinity for, and connection to, each other. In effect, their Love. No Love in a culture--no Democracy, or a failing Democracy.
Witness the many school, church, and other shootings in America, the unbelievable January 06, 2022 insurrection at the United States Capital, and many other examples of Americans injuring Americans. Even the refusal to wear a mask by many in the early years of the Coronavirus Pandemic can be understood as Americans failing to consider the health and welfare of other Americans.
In a personal account, my own next-door neighbor and his wife, both young and first-time homeowners, had been tormenting myself and my family with constant jarring vehicle-related noise, presumably inadvertently, and in fact on one occasion a sharp vehicle-related sound appears to have caused my Father, elderly at that time, to actually fall down onto our kitchen floor, the room where the sounds were heard as it is only several feet from the neighbor's driveway. In mentioning this continuing problem to the neighbor he unfortunately did the usual "circle-the-wagons" routine that is so common amongst human beings, and dismissed the idea that the sound his vehicle produced could have been responsible for my Father falling. In fact, I never claimed that the sound was responsible, as I wasn't sure, I simply mentioned the possibility in general support of my complaint about the noise.
I tried to work through and resolve this problem with my neighbor with nothing, I assure you, but my trademarked grace and respect, but, characteristically, his patience wore thin relatively quickly, and he ultimately pronounced my resolution attempts "harassment," filing a complaint with our city. This resulted in a court-ordered mediation, producing a mandate that neither one of us speak to the other save "Hello, Goodbye."
Thus, any interaction we might have had, good or bad, for my benefit or his, has been terminated for at least five years now. My Mother, in particular, now 91 years old, has been greatly dispirited by this, as before this occurred she would derive pleasure through occasional interaction with the Mrs. next-door and her young children. All that ended, of course, because of the morally and functionally misguided legal action her husband took, and of course the noise problem was never resolved and continues to this day.
I note, by the way, that ultimately this neighbor, himself, actually broke the mediation agreement. For a worthy reason, perhaps, but he violated it, nonetheless, implicitly learning, I hope, that poor relations with one's neighbor right-next-door should be avoided at all costs, as issues, large or small, will almost certainly arise periodically on the part of one party or the other, requiring interaction between parties.
In fact, this ne'er-do-well couple caused a far worse injury to my family that I've described elsewhere in this document, that remains completely unaddressed and unredressed. Conflict, whether between neighbors as just described, or in other forms and between other classes of actors, is taking place all around this nation constantly between neighbors, families, strangers, cities and states, governments, and of course corporations. Instead of everyone loving everyone, everyone is in conflict with everyone, many times at each other's throat. Not only is there no "mutual search for truth," as I advocate and discuss elsewhere in this document, but for many Americans going perhaps a week or two without conflict of some kind, with someone, would be a major achievement.
In sum, then: THE DESTRUCTION VISITED UPON THIS COUNTRY BY THIS SPRAWLING AND MULTIFARIOUS "PHENOMENON OF CONFLICT" IS WHY THE RESTORATION OF LOVE AND CONNECTION BETWEEN AMERICANS IS PLANK #1 IN MY PRESIDENTIAL PLATFORM (see below).
OUR DEMOCRACY IS GRADUALLY IMPLODING. BEING EATEN FROM THE INSIDE OUT; AIDED, IT MUST BE SAID, BY OUR FORMER PRESIDENT AND MANY WHO HAVE FOLLOWED HIM. There is little point in a Presidential candidate like me giving you my list of issues and positions without substantively addressing that phenomenon which could actually destroy this country.
You read it here, first, Brothers & Sisters. Please let everyone know.
More.
Technology Requires Love
This is an obvious reality.
For now, suffice it to say that if you take a good look around you, you'll see myriad examples of people using various technologies to harm others, from both teenagers and adult cyberbullying, to foreign actors hacking various computing systems of other nations or entities such as corporations, including the newest wave of technological blackbag pernicia, ransomware, a heinous form of cyberjacking that holds facilities hostage from hospitals to industrial oil pipelines. Do you really think that as a nation, and a world, we can pass enough laws, and that such a body of law would be obeyed, to extinguish or even significantly attenuate (i.e. weaken, reduce) such behavior?
Here's one example, ripped from the headlines, as it were, of my own life: on Thursday, Sept 22, 2022 at 4:37am I found in my email inbox a cyber-blackmail communication (that I should have saved and reprinted here), the second in about a month, stating that if I didn't hand-over $1350 in bitcoin all my alleged personal online private activities would be revealed for all the world to see.
And this blistering imbecile, this sorely and pathetically misguided brother actually stated, among other logical and moral absurdities, that my delivery of the demanded loot, and his cooperative termination of the threat upon receipt of the loot was (close paraphrase) "...a matter of fairness," and, "to protect involvement with this kind of thing in the future, you should change your passwords often."
Oh--thanks for the advice, lowlife! What a great guy!
Obviously I'm not the only person receiving such letters.
The only real solution to injurious misuse of technology of every kind and scale is the long-term, large-scale adoption of the Love ethic, as only this vehicle or means, only such adoption could and would effect a wholesale shift in the way everyone behaves toward everyone else. "Everyone loving Everyone," a notion that I've used elsewhere in my work, is the only answer, and thus logically what I seek and teach.
In fact, given the ability of technology to harm and even destroy everyone and everything, the adoption of the new moral code established by Love is an absolute necessity. In other words: a technological society requires Love.
I'm pleased to remark that noted Futurist Alvin Toffler in his noted 1984 work Future Shock presented his notion of "High Tech, High Touch." I must review my Toffler to assess the relationship of his concept to mine.
As every society eventually learns, often the hard way, science must always be tempered and balanced by wisdom. And there is no greater wisdom and foundational social reality than Love, properly understood.
Ransomware
One of the more pernicious, insidious, and frightening cyber-threats today is that of ransomware, which is software that holds your files or in some cases your equipment, no matter your kind of business, "hostage," that is, the kidnapper won't release your files back to you or unlock your machinery or equipment for use, until you pay the ransom demanded.
The practical question has arisen as to whether ransom should be paid, as in doing so further ransomware activity is probably encouraged. Alternatively, it is said that in not paying said ransom the damage to a given facility, such as a local hospital, could be severe as operations would likely not resume, even possibly resulting in the closure of the facility.
So--as a policy, to pay or not pay a ransom?
Luckily I'm here, running for President, and possessed of the best solution.
In asking whether ransom should be paid as a matter of policy, we're asking the wrong question. The proper solution to the problem of ransomware is to aggressively determine why our cyber defenses are so weak that they're being penetrated, in the first place. Then, we harden those walls. This is the answer.
In the meantime we consider each ransomware assault on its own merits, case-by-case, and decide whether to pay.
Negotiation of the New Global Scarcity Requires Love
Argument pending--but for now: What is and will become scarce?
Simply every valuable resource, Fellow Americans, notably including water, soil, and good weather, the new socio-existential reality driven by climate change.
Neither as a species nor human family will Humanity fare or negotiate this problem gracefully and well if everyone is at everyone else's throat in pursuit of self-interest narrowly defined, in view of increasingly limited resources. There is little question but that the human race is not getting out of this one alive without Love.
For now, please acquaint yourself with the work and perspective of Mark Blyth, professor of International Economics and Public Affairs at Brown University.
THE SOLUTION
In part: moral suasion and iron-clad logical argumentation from the President on down, including irresistible appeal to self-interest.
Revival of Rooseveltian fireside chats, with remarks explicitly directed to segments of the American population, including, for example: gangs and gang members; unemployed Americans; ill Americans; elderly Americans; American children; American teenagers; corporate CEOs; law enforcement personnel; and many others.
More.
It's fair to assert myself as THE NATIONAL SECURITY CANDIDATE, based on the positions you'll read in this document:
Mandatory 3-year military service for all Americans of at least 21 years old. Older or infirm Americans will work non-combatant positions such as service in local recruiting centers.
Restoration of full preparedness to fight minimum two wars on two fronts simultaneously.
Proper levels of military spending overall, and branch-specific.
Full-on commitment to new CyberPreparedness project to meet new and emerging cyberthreats, as, at present, we cannot do so. See elsewhere in this document.
If Russian and associated foreign forces refuse to discontinue cyber-based hacking, disinformation, and other black-bag activities aimed at destabilizing the West and discrediting Democracy, the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, in concert with a broad roster of supporting allies, is going to fully fund and mount an integrated and comprehensive national drive to restore the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI (a.k.a. the "Star Wars" program). This endeavor and our effort will be akin to that mounted in support of the successful war effort in World War II.
Let the Russian leadership chew on this for a while.
My status as the first journalist to suggest a Russian or other foreign black-bag disinformation root behind the push for the legalization of dope in America, and a concomitant pledge to fully investigate, and...
Pledge to keep dope strictly illegal and criminalized so as to ensure the acuity and integrity of the American mind, and its physical repository, the brain, without which America continues its slow decline in every sphere, thereby destroying the nation and strengthening those who wish us harm, here and abroad.
In fact, after I shut down the dope industry, the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION is going to create a CyberStaffing recruitment program for all our African-American brothers and sisters who were being treated to an ostensible new life and improved opportunity through the glamorous world of selling drugs. Except this time they won't be engaged in that nefarious activity, but will instead train to apply to the United States CyberDefense Force (USCF) as Forensics techs, programmers, coders, and other high-level positions, countering attempted Russian and other cyber-infiltrations of the United States.
This is reparations with an attitude, because 1.) it shows respect for our African-American and other brown-skinned Brothers & Sisters, by not turning them into drug dealers, and 2.) gives them the opportunity to do something that is actually meaningful and genuinely beneficial to them, their families (who can now respect and be proud of what they're doing), and the nation.
Seriously investigate additional possible black-bag disinformation campaign by Russian and related forces seeking to destabilize relations between ethnic groups in America, through dissemination in social media and elsewhere of propaganda suggesting that brown-skinned Americans, both male and female, in collusion with sympathetic beige-skinned American females, seek to "breed out" beige-skinned American males, effectively facilitating the genocide of the Caucasian ethnic group. Phenomenon identical or similar to "replacement theory."
As a single heterosexual man with almost no relevant family, I cannot be effectively threatened or blackmailed or my decisions or person held hostage by any foreign power or malign nonstate actor. If this world must lose me in service of this country, so be it.
Blackmail or something like it over some apparent unknown transgression was one of the distinct and active fears surrounding the former President given his baffling, disturbing, and, I would argue, treasonous obsequiousness toward Vladimir Putin.
THE HAITI-5 PLAN
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, has perhaps never been more desperate as it's over-run by criminal gangs, with little functioning legitimate government. The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION is going to persuade Congress, the American people, and the Haitian people that the solution lies in a nationwide referendum in Haiti, to vote on my proposal to make Haiti a temporary commonwealth of the United States for five years. If approved, this will give the United States the right to manage that nation for this period, embarking upon a full-scale Marshall Plan for Haiti.
Empire can be built by force, or by a sincere and substantive assistance that engenders the love and loyalty of the target population, which is precisely the benefit that will accrue to the United States because of this plan. We'll have an undying friend and ally in Haiti, strengthening American Empire, and Haiti will shake off the present shackles of its deplorable condition. The plan will also likely provide profit-making opportunities for American companies who will supply the requisite products and services. Whether based, then, on our traditional American Christian (and other) morality, or American national security, part of a renewed global strength, or a fruitful opportunity for American capitalism--everybody wins under my HAITI-5 PLAN.
The HAITI-5 plan is, in part, my response to a former President who referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some parts of Africa as "sh*thole countries."
As a unique and far-thinking NATIONAL SECURITY CANDIDATE I'm going to restore to full vigor the image of the United States around the world and across the globe, in terms of the two M's that matter: MILITARY and MORALITY.
I also represent myself as THE QUALITY-OF-LIFE & ENVIRONMENTAL CANDIDATE, given my intense interest in, and singular intent immediately upon election toward, full redress of the one dimension of our physical environment gone completely ignored--NOISE. Only minimal research is required to learn that noise is a phenomenon of catastrophic proportion in America, a problem gone begging for about 34 years, since 1978, when the Quiet Communities Act was passed, yet a problem growing even worse while the Pandemic and other social stresses categorically now require a low-stress quiet physical environment for Americans.
Americans among workers of all nations work notoriously hard, yet only realize with difficulty the rest and rewards that they deserve, and in fact, need, especially peace and quiet, and the #1 offender and obstacle to said rest, peace, and quiet is NOISE.
Arguably the first, most egregious, most uniquely injurious generally and specifically, most outrageous, most genuinely unnecessary, and without question most hated noise, leaving a literalmerica is everywhere, is that of the so-called "leafblower," and I assure its victims, whom are all of us whether we realize it or not, that the complete elimination (or radical restructure in use and design) of this device, as generally unnecessary as it is pernicious, insidious, and obnoxious, and now also known as a key climate change polluter, is a fait accompli under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
In other words: once I'm President, your leafblower, and other noise problems, are over. This will be accomplished, insofar as possible, in collaboration with industry partners, and without causing loss of employment.
In fact, there is a connection, an inverse proportional relationship as powerful and relevant to the possibility of the Actualization of humankind as it is ill-considered and yet-remains beneath our collective aspirational radar: the connection between permissiveness regarding the unregulated production of noise, and the aspiration and effort of a nation to full actualizing preeminence. Insofar as one exists, the other cannot.
For example, the fact of the fully legal ubiquity of gas-powered leafblowers in America, destroying the silence or relative silence required for individual and collective pioneering, revolutionary, groundbreaking, or otherwise seminal discovery in physical, or even social science, or in fact any area of human endeavor and discovery, suggests a mediocrity and lack of interest in this nation in Actualization, whether of an individual American, group, or indeed the nation as a whole.
Parents, your little Haruto, Jamal, Yitzhak, Robert, Giovanni, Lev, or Claude, or Christina, Aisha, Yuki, Katya, or Sarah might be the next Einstein, Da Vinci, Marie Curie, or Thomas Edison, or Van Gogh, Michaelangelo, Mozart, or Beethoven--but you'll never find out if the levels of noise and other distraction, including sugared and other poor-quality food, by the way, continue robbing you and your family of a point of honor, pride, renown, and likely wealth, and the nation (and, indeed, all of humankind) of a precious, valued, inspiring, and perhaps even planet or species-saving resource--by which I refer to our species.
Us!
What Was I Just Thinking
For example, about five minutes ago, which would have been 740am, Monday, August 15, 2022, a leafblower began sounding in the vicinity. I was upstairs speaking with my Mother just now when it began. The overwhelming and irritating din produced by this device is unmistakable.
Had myself, you, one of your kids, or anyone else on planet Earth just begun to entertain a seminal thought, a thought, or perhaps the single thought or argument that could have saved humanity, from climate change, nuclear destruction, or God-Only-Knows what else, that thought or argument would have likely disappeared or been diffused, suddenly, unceremoniously, and thoughtlessly robbed of silence by the aforementioned noise, its required acoustico-physical soil or seedbed, requisite for its germination and growth. In fact, the very information that you're reading right now could have been compromised had the din begun just 10 or 20 minutes earlier, or had I sat down to pen these thoughts 10 or 20 minutes later. Without question, the bane of noise and other distraction is holding humanity, generally, and America, particularly, back in generating vital new discoveries in physical science, and key profundities in social science. This phenomenon clearly reflects and indicates, then, our status as a nation and a people who are not Actualizing.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
I additionally represent myself as THE HEALTH, PRO-BRAIN, & ANTI-DRUG CANDIDATE, referring to A.) the catastrophic and almost fully ignored problem of noise, introduced, above, and B.) the problem of what, in my work, I term THE DECLINE OF MIND, that is, the slow deterioration in modern society of that singular entity that is directly, explicitly, solely, and irreplaceably responsible for all that humankind was, is, and would or could ever be, our every advance and achievement across every sphere and discipline: the human mind, and its physical repository, the human brain.
Through history, to the present day, the actions of human beings are largely characterized by STUPIDITY. We do the wrong things, and far too much of them, while doing the right things far less frequently, as this doesn't seem to come naturally for us. The sole mechanism, indeed the only thing, period, that may be able to save us is our brain, in its full and proper use. Yet now with the legalization of drugs in America (and elsewhere), in addition to a multitude of other stressors already damaging the brain, we're taking our only hope for salvation, the one variable that could save us, and authorizing its large-scale injury even further.
MONUMENTAL MISTAKE AWARD
The legalization and decriminalization of drugs is clearly one of the stupidest things that we've ever done as Americans. In New Jersey, which recently began legal sales of "recreational" dope, I vigorously nominate Governor Phil Murphy for the 2022 MONUMENTAL MISTAKE AWARD, as he was instrumental in facilitating this laudable, crowning achievement for New Jerseyans and the nation. The Governor recently made it crystal clear, by the way, during his Ask Governor Murphy radio program, that he absolutely does not smoke marijuana, himself (and presumably never has). In other words, Governor Murphy HAS NO UNDERSTANDING OF, NOR FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE WITH, the effects of this (or related) drugs, of what it does and how it does it--yet he saw nothing wrong with aggressively facilitating its legal use for ALMOST NINE MILLION NEW JERSEYANS, plus the national legalization precedent that it helps strengthen.
Americans, in particular, were they familiar with their own history, would also find the DECLINE OF MIND that all this represents and facilitates a matter of grave concern, as well as a point of national pride, for America, in particular, has always been the beacon of advance and achievement, especially in invention and the physical sciences. We've always been the nation to build "the better mousetrap," and it's no accident that Founding Father Thomas Paine, who, upon visiting America, was so impressed with America, especially the sheer competence of our commerce and our budding commercial center, that he remarked that in America everything simply works.
This has changed, however, and now with America making her most profound socio-existential mistake, the growing legalization of drugs, that which will destroy all that she was, we must act, or remain content for America as we've known her and as she's always been, to become silent, forever.
Accordingly, I resolutely declare myself the pro-brain, anti-drug candidate. Upon my election, the entire "cannabis" (read: dope) industry is going to be SHUT DOWN. PERIOD.
Fellow Americans, the fact of the matter is: WE CANNOT EXECUTE ON MY POWERFUL NEW VISION OF AMERICA IF A STONED NATION. If you agree with my new American paradigm of Tough Love, you implicitly and concomitantly agree with my stance on drugs, as my vision requires each and every citizen to Actualize, that is, to be and do the very best of which they are capable, and this is not going to happen with the collective cognitive cave-in, chaos, and crumbling of the individual and collective American mind characteristic of a nation where dope is legal and encouraged.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
-- President Ronald Reagan, at a press conference on August 12th, 1986
My own author and writer. I conceived and wrote every idea at this site. In fact, I wrote every word of this site, and indeed all my 30+ sites. No Trumpian Art of the Deal ghost-writing, here.
My own guinea pig. There are any number of scientists, including Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, who used themselves as test subjects--now, myself included. As you read through my Competence, Functionality, & Actualization Weblog you'll see, and perhaps be struck by the open vulnerability that I assign myself, making the detail of my life both routine and congratulatory, prosaic and intimate, available for all the world to see. While most people elect reflexively to hide their failures, vulnerabilities, and personal vicissitudes, I openly seed my work with mine in the many presented anecdotes and accounts of personal interactions and experiences with family members and others from around the corner, to around the world.
Indeed, Fellow Americans, the world is my laboratory.
I make myself vulnerable in this manner because it's essential to the kind of work in social science that I've been doing, creating and building what I termThe New Science Of Agape, deconstructing the extremes of human behavior from the very bad, of note as that which we must understand and eschew, to the very good, of note as that which we must understand and reproduce. Said deconstructia began well-before my exploratory run for the Presidency, comprising the raw material for my under-development volume NEIGHBORS OF DEATH.
What, then, do we call someone who, in service to Humanity, deliberately reveals that which most people elect to hide?
In this case, if Humanity, and America, herself, is lucky we call them Mr. President. Vincent Frank De Benedetto, writer, philosopher, Teacher, long-time caregiver of two parents, and, now, if elected, of one nation and perhaps, indirectly, one planet.
As a mature, intelligent, and articulate male, I'm afraid that, like, I don't pepper my speech with, like, the grammatically chameleon-like part-of-speech "like." In fact, you'll be hard-pressed to ever hear this term from me, improperly used. See my Competence & Functionality Blog for more on this exasperating and pathetic linguistic phenomenon.
Unless you're attempting to channel your inner 12-year-old, I urge all adults--and everyone else--to refrain from such yammering, transparently juvenile speech.
Nor will you ever hear me engage in the analogue or counterpart phenomenon to the "like" phenomenon: starting my sentences with "so," nor hear me giving "shout-outs." Sorry--sloppy, hence poor English, and simply not my style. As a writer I'm very sensitive to language. Indeed does the character V in the film V for Vendetta correctly assert:
"...while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth."
TRUTH
As you begin, then continue to acquaint yourself with me, I hope you find my explicit honesty in all things refreshing, gratifying, respectful, and confidence-and-trust-inspiring. I'm not a politician. I'm a writer and political philosopher, interested in one thing above all, as every philosopher should be: TRUTH.
In fact, I assert that all social processes in a healthy society should comprise a "Mutual Search for Truth," and under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION we'll come as close to this ideal as any nation ever could.
I am the candidate for very smart people--of whom I'm sure you are one.
I am the candidate for very moral people--of whom I'm sure you are one.
I am the candidate for truth-seeking people--of whom I'm sure you are one.
Most broadly, and in largest terms, Fellow Americans, Brothers & Sisters, I'm a Teacher.
Let me teach you. And Please, each of you, teach me.
"GOOD MORAL CHARACTER IS THE FIRST ESSENTIAL IN A MAN."
. . . . .
George Washington
WE ALL HAVE MORE TO LEARN
If you are:
A young person
A first-time voter
One inexperienced in political matters ("one" means, a person)
One inexperienced in negotiating ideas, that is, coming to understand them
One inexperienced in reading high-level material, that is, information written by very educated people, who know a lot, and are very skilled in conveying (i.e. communicating) it.
If you are any of the above, you may come off this website thinking, "I barely understand a thing this guy is talking about."
This would actually be good. It would suggest that you have a lot to learn, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just get moving, and start learning! And as you'll see, I'm going to do everything that I can to assist you--which is, in part, why I describe my candidacy as a learning candidacy.
I'm going to teach you, and you're going to teach me, and we're all going to teach, and learn from, each other. This will strengthen us individually, and as a nation.
Regarding your understanding of the content at this Internet resource, VincentForPresident.com: simply take it a page, a paragraph, a sentence, a phrase (i.e. part of a sentence), or even a word at a time. Proceed slowly and carefully, and consult other learning materials including a dictionary, as required. I have full faith in each of you to slowly begin to understand the material, here. I present a lot of information about military and national security matters, here, and in fact my work in this area was cited-and-quoted by the New York Times just after 9-11. You do want a fully secure nation, do you not?
Think about it--do you really want a President who is not far smarter, more knowledgable, and more experienced than you?
IMPORTANT INTRODUCTORY NOTES
REFRESH PAGE - Please refresh this page each time you visit, before reading, as it has likely (i.e. probably) changed since your last visit. Refresh it right now. Windows, F5. Mac, CTRL-R.
MY IDEAS - I am Vincent Frank De Benedetto, 2024 candidate for President. I wrote every word of this website, and originated (i.e. was the source of) every idea, here, unless otherwise noted.
LEARNING CANDIDACY - Attention Teachers, Business Leaders, and Fellow Americans: I declare my candidacy a learning candidacy, intended to help each other learn, Americans learning from Americans: you from me, me from you, you from each other, every person learning from every other person, essentially turning the entire nation into a dynamic learning space. I'm referring to a pedagogical template or overlay for casual or extracurricular education, to supplement or complement established mechanisms for learning such as conventional networks of public and private schools and school systems.
For example, throughout this web page and indeed much of my other writing you'll encounter the letters "i.e." This means "that is," or "in other words," providing a quick definition of a word that I've used. Speaking to students and others, this learning technique helps you so that you, 1.) you understand what you are reading, and 2.) you learn new words, which is critical if you wish to remain, or become, an educated person. And it helps me maintain my vocabulary by using the words that I know.
Everybody wins.
Additionally, I am versed (i.e. knowledgable) in language, and, in fact, have begun coining (i.e. thinking up or creating) a body or grouping of my own words, with definitions. This makes me a neologist, one who creates new words.
In support of my Learning Candidacy, I'm calling on educators of every level and stripe, early childhood, elementary, middle, high school, and postsecondary, as well as various business and non-profit environments, including community leaders and organizations, and indeed simply any American who feels they have something to teach, to those who wish to learn, to breathe life into this policy, brainstorming and implementing any and all infrastructure, mechanisms, and programs for learning.
This All-Teach-All paradigm is congruent with, and can be seen as part of, my Actualization model, especially regarding the human mind and its physical repository, the brain: from the mind we will subtract nonproductive or diversionary pursuits such as use of drugs and excessive smartphone use, and add knowledge and other elements that productively and healthily build body and mind, and in doing so en masse--the nation.
Additionally, as Americans introduce themselves to one another in a Learning context, the nation will genuinely start to become acquainted with itself, and old political and other divisions and separations will likely fall away or fade. And in the increasing cohesion and bond that will form among all or most Americans, we'll be concomitantly achieving one of the critical objectives needed to fully reinvigorate the national defense: forging ourselves into a unified and cohesive nationwide military fighting force.
Jackpot!
Shift the entire nation into a desperately-needed overdrive in re-establishing dominance in markets including cars, consumer, and green; defense; technology; security; space; well-being and quality-of-life, and other key spheres.
Foster personal growth and achievement of personal and career objectives, through establishment of an enhanced personal knowledgebase and skill set, helpful to Americans of every age.
Presidential Pedagogy Program
Or simply Presidential Pedagogy/P2
Our valued American teachers obviously also have a critical role to play. I'd like every teacher, at all grade levels save perhaps the lowest, to ensure that they and their students view all my Presidential broadcasts, especially those specifically intended, in part, to facilitate learning, such as my Presidential Pedagogy learning sessions (described below). After the broadcast, I'd like you, the teacher, and your students to review the vocabulary terms (i.e. words) that I (and others) had used during the broadcast.
I assure you that they'll be words that every educated young American should know; it's likely that you may have taught or reviewed some of the terms with your students, already. In such cases our use of these words and your post facto review will simply reinforce your excellent work.
Learn with the President
As President my mandate will be to learn as much as I can about any and every subject that bears upon my presiding as a competent national leader, and ensuring that the members of my Administration and their respective Teams Actualize in their own jobs, as well (perform to their utmost capacity). I therefore intend to hold an ongoing series of televised Presidential Learning Sessions with a panel of participants expert in a given area, many of these areas to be very specific. I expect all sessions to be highly informational and deeply interesting, and indeed some will be especially exciting as they include all past living Presidents. I'd like the American people, especially children, to view these sessions; I queried myself: "Why should I be the only person to benefit from this series of high-level "crash courses," presenting a range of information important, if not vital, to the entire American people?"
ELEVATING YOU - While on the subject of words, be apprised (i.e. informed, told) that my candidacy, and indeed Presidency, is and will be rooted in the positive and salutary (i.e. good for us) realities, perhaps in good measure just objectives, so far, in American society, represented by words such as:
Honor
Character: Young people, go ask your Grandfather or Great-Grandfather what it means to be a person of good character, or simply, character.
Love
Brotherhood & Sisterhood
Solicitude (care or concern)
Loyalty
Patriotism
Respect
Sensitivity
Courage
"HATE CANNOT DRIVE OUT HATE. ONLY LOVE CAN DO THAT."
. . . . .
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
STUDY THIS SITE - To young people, others of shorter or incomplete life-experience, or those deliberately in a learning mode: to gain full advantage of the content of this website, and in some good measure to understand it, at all, you'll probably have, not merely to read it, but to actually study it. Learn now that this is not uncommon if you're reading the work or thoughts of someone extremely intelligent or knowledgable.
I suggest that you read this entire site at least three times. Don't even click any links for these initial reads. Then, start digging in and actually studying the site. Start clicking links, reading further, and thinking. For many of you, the perspectives and principals will start to really come alive after, perhaps, a year, but the journey, I assure you, will be an enriching and enthralling (i.e. extremely and deeply exciting) one.
And thankfully, Fellow Americans and Brothers and Sisters, we have three years until the next Presidential election, plenty-of-time to get to know each other!
Take the time to study the content at this site, and you will not merely begin to properly understand whom to vote for, and why, but you will begin to greatly increase your own level of knowledge about the world, and in so doing, by the way--about yourself. Whom you really are, or want to be. For how can you know who to be, whom to become, if you don't know what options the world holds for you? And how can you know what options the world holds for you, if you know nothing of the world? Acquainting yourself with my work, much of which is either summarized or otherwise presented, here, or linked to from here, will comprise* the start of this process, for you.
Good luck!
(*comprise, verb: constitute, make-up, be, be made up of)
SITE UNDER DEVELOPMENT - I am a thinking human, writing this site in real time and continually and dynamically thinking it through as I go. So you will likely find some material in some sections under construction, or thoughts not fully formed, or penned (i.e. written), yet.
This is clearly not the first-time that I've thought about most of the ideas and issues presented here: I'm a writer and philosopher, cited-and-quoted by the New York Times in 2003, just after 9-11, and I've been thinking and writing about many of these issues for a long time.
So if something, here, a section, an idea, somehow seems incomplete, it may be. Please bear with me! Come back a few days or a week later and that section or that thought will likely be finished, or at least more complete.
READ OVER AND OVER - An important factor that we both must consider in reading this website is how it's generally written, and what I'm writing about. Many people are simply not used to reading. And they are definitely not used to reading the way that I write. That is, in a fairly sophisticated (i.e. not simple) way, using my full command of language. If you're comfortable reading an organ (i.e. publication) like, say, The New York Times, you shouldn't have too much trouble reading my work.
And as you continue to slowly acquaint (i.e. learn about) yourself with my writing, an interesting and amazing thing will start to happen: you'll find yourself getting better and better at understanding sophisticated and elegant writing on important topics. In other words, your mind will start improving--and in this, you will, in other words, be "Actualizing," (ak' shoo ull eye' zing) that is, becoming closer to the best person that you can be.
(You'll read about Actualizing and Actualization, below.)
For my part, I'm writing my content, here, to be as comprehensible (i.e. understandable) as I can. For your part, I want you to read this material over, once, in its entirety (i.e. completely, all of it). Then take a second read, and a third, allowing the ideas to slowly become more clear to you. Or--and this can happen, too--upon further reads the ideas could actually become less clear to you! Things might seem even more confusing upon your third or fourth read. This happens sometimes but is simply part of the learning process. Don't run from it; stay with it and continue stretching those mental muscles.
I am completely amenable (i.e. open to the idea) of accepting your email messages, telephone calls, and even in-person conversations to help you understand my ideas--and BTW, for me to hear yours.
Brothers and Sisters, I want to hear YOUR ideas! Perhaps what is going right, or wrong, in your life, and what we can do about it, with, of course, implications for our larger American national community, as we're all suffering from the same basic set of problems. Addressing your problem also means helping someone else who has the same, or a similar, problem.
NOTE TO LOCAL NEIGHBORS. It is difficult to engage in the complex, unwieldy, and difficult endeavor of seriously running for President of the United States with present neighborhood levels of noise and other distractions. Principal offenders are gas-powered leafblowers and lawnmowers, especially large commercial units.
Additionally, it is obviously also more difficult to engage in the extensive thinking and research required to continue to fashion the powerful ideas and accompanying programs and policies that would make a De Benedetto Presidency desirable and worthwhile in the first place.
Moreover, and critically, the devastating new report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations climate science research group, makes it abundantly clear that climate change is real, is human-caused, is and will continue to cause abnormal and often deadly weather patterns, and is coming faster than we thought. Therefore, and this is now candidate De Benedetto speaking: all unnecessary devices and technologies that contribute to climate change must, and under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will, be eliminated, and the so-called leafblower is #1 on my personal, professional, and, should I win the Presidency, Executive hit list. This largely unnecessary device causes serious injury of many kinds to both people, and planet. Now suffering Tinnitus, an incurable hearing-related malady caused in whole or part by the misguided sonic ministrations of local landscapers, enabled by neighbors lacking adequate native intelligence, moral education, or both, I can personally provide powerful testimony to the injurious nature of this device.
My mantra (i.e. word or phrase said repeatedly to provide focus), my mantra (pron. mon' chruh) in these matters, for homeowner and landscaper, alike, has been, and remains that of time-tested tools: rake, broom, shovel, bucket, gloves, and reel mower. If you elect to do the work yourself, it makes for a wholesome weekend family activity!
Tone It Down
Helping Me is Helping Yourself
Not that such narcissism is why you should help another human being.
If you'd like: 1.) to see someone from right within your community run for, and possibly win, the Presidency of the United States, thereby putting this town on the map in a way, and on a scale, never seen, 2.) you and your own family to benefit from the unique, powerful, and innovative ideas that will begin to influence policy, and thus your own lives, directly, in the United States were I elected, or 3.) you are a kind, moral, and/or simply reasonable person who would like to help relieve me and my family of our longstanding physical and psychological pain and injury caused by the ceaseless and interminable (i.e. never-ending) din (i.e. noise) present in this neighborhood (some of it likely produced by you in the first place): please completely refrain from generating, and permitting generation of, all noise, especially the kinds cited, above.
I also request that the entire parking area in front of my house remain clear at all times, in deference to our vehicle. I'm 1.) presently engaged in brutally difficult and time-destroying round-the-clock caregiving, as well as 2.) suffering a sibling of evidently severely compromised cognition, and must continually come-and-go, and thus require easy and immediate all-hour access to that parking area.
Please also stop the flow of trash onto our property, thus projecting our sloveniless and neglect, when in fact all detritus found on our front lawn and driveway is and always has been yours--not ours.
We do apologize for being two-seasons dilatory (i.e. late) in our property maintenance as regards control of vegetation.
Thank you.
Contractor Assistance
My Family and the De Benedetto Campaign are putting out a general call to contractors including landscape, electrical, plumbing, roofing, mason & building, fencing, and others to perform work required at Campaign Headquarters that you'll provide gratis (i.e. without charge), in support of my 2024 Presidential Campaign.
VOTE FOR THEM
Fellow Americans, Brothers & Sisters: if you can find another 2024 candidate for President with a...
Stronger intellect
Better facility in language
Deeper commitment to the moral elevation of this nation (the first key plank in my platform)
Deeper commitment to the functional elevation or improvement of this nation (the second key plank in my platform)
Deeper commitment to, and advocacy for, the promulgation and formal adoption of Love (properly understood) across our citizenry, which is what will make #3, above, possible, as Love and the recognition of its necessity is the very basis for the successful moral elevation of the nation, and
Ready and continuing generation of a complex of plentiful, plausible, powerful, and indeed critical inter-and-intra-disciplinary ideas meant to benefit America, and, reasonably extrapolating, the world
...by all means vote for them!
And then apprise me of this political, social, and economic polymath, so I can vote for them, too!
Barring that, please join THE DeBENEDETTO CAMPAIGN and let's get moving and win this election!
GREETINGS
As candidate for President, I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. But I will tell you what you must hear, if you, your family, your state, and your nation (and the world, which often emulates, or imitates, America) is to be given the best chance for happiness, in the complex, difficult, and often disturbing world of today.
Pandemic; terror (i.e. terrorism); 9-11; climate change; George Floyd; cyberhacking; foreign interference in U.S. elections; ransomware; rising suicide rates among both teens and middle-aged persons; loneliness, now officially seen as an epidemic in America; low wages; bigotry (i.e. racism) against African-Americans and now even Asians; the recent murder of Gabby Petito; too many families going without a mom or dad; hunger; poverty; mental illness...where does it all end?
And how about a set of problems that may, indeed, affect America greatly, but which are presently known to far fewer people, such as the imminent global water shortage crisis? Can you believe nations going to war over access to water?
In fact, Water.org writes: "According to a report by the World Economic Forum, the water crisis is the #5 global risk in terms of impact to society."
Fellow-Americans, Brothers & Sisters: is there a root cause for all of this, or many different causes? Maybe just some kind of crazy, or very unusual, period in American and world history?
HONESTY. TRUE TO MYSELF: I'm 61 years old. I've lived a long time, and my personality and value system is formed. I can be nothing other than precisely who I am. What you see, hear, and experience now, during my campaign, is what you'll get were I President, allowing, of course, for growth on-the-job.
REALITY. REAL LIFE: No fantasies, illusions, deceptions, or pie-in-the-sky perspectives. I will talk about, and govern, from the standpoint of real life, the real life that we're all attempting to negotiate, with all its bumps, bruises, problems, and challenges, perhaps especially for young people.
PEDAGOGY. LEARNING: (i.e. education; learning. pron. PED uh goh gee). America is to become a learning nation. 1.) I personally as President will implicitly teach language and conceptualization in the way I present myself to the public, 2.) we will take every opportunity teach each other, while ensuring that the information that we convey, if fact-related, is actually fact, and 3.) critically, we will teach and acquaint young people with the history of America, their own country.
Little tolerance will exist for explicitly ego-or-commercially-driven dissemination of information that is obviously specious, bigoted, or otherwise lacking integrity, as is commonly broadcast from radio talk-shows of every political stripe.
INACTUALIZED
In my book draft LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD I use the term (i.e. the word) "Inactualized," (pron. in AK shuw ul eye' zd) as in: the problem with the United States, and the world, is that they are morally and functionally Inactualized. But for our purposes I'm going to express this idea a little more simply, using simpler language.
To "actualize" simply means to be the best that you are capable of being. Look it up in your psychology textbook. This idea can pertain to an individual, group, company, or country.
The term Inactualized can also be represented in writing or speech as "non-actualized." "In" means "non."
In short, Inactualized means not actualized. Not the best that you, or your team, or your company, or your community, or your state, or your country, can be.
Becoming Actualized, or not becoming or remaining Inactualized is a key concept in my work in social science.
The problem is that American (and global) society is rife with the functional mistakes that comprise (i.e. make up) Inactualization: these mistakes appear in every form, kind, and severity, making the simple living-of-life inordinately difficult, complex, and, in fact, dangerous for all of us.
The Real Cause of Death
Having the power of the Philosopher, I can tell each of you, in general terms, how you're going to die.
In fact, I've already told you, above.
Inactualization is the root cause of death, whether the proximate (i.e. immediate) cause is cancer, heart attack, automobile accident, falling down the stairs, murder, drug overdose, gunshot, animal attack, or anything else. Because persons and systems remain Inactualized, they engage in behaviors, or permit or even encourage others to engage in behaviors that inevitably lead to injury, and then death, and sometimes simply death, itself, immediately.
Every death of every human being, through the ages to the present, save those genuinely occurring from "old age" or inescapable natural disaster, is an example of this.
ME
I am certainly Inactualized. My campaign for President is Inactualized. Meaning, neither are yet the best they can be.
I'm looking for your gracious, loving, and knowledgeable support and help in improving both!
THE PROBLEM: OUR TWIN DEFICITS
deficit, (DEF ih sit) noun: shortage or lack.
There are two root causes of just about every problem humankind (i.e. every human being) has, and this, of course, includes America. These two deficits that drive and generate our entire host of problems are MORAL INADEQUACY and FUNCTIONAL INADEQUACY.
SPECIAL UPDATE - MORAL INADEQUACY
JUNE 02, 2022
Consider the shooting of June 01, 2022, at the Tulsa Medical Center in which 5 persons were killed, occurring right on the heels of the mass-shooting in Uvalde, Texas in which 20 children and 2 adults were killed, itself occurring on the heels of the May 14, 2022 Buffalo, N.Y. shooting at the Tops Friendly Market in which ten people died with three injured, this tripartite (i.e. three-part) body of crime itself subsequent to (i.e. following, coming after) a troubling previous body of mass-murder incidents including the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African-Americans were killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the infamous April 20, 1999 Columbine incident leaving 12 students and one teacher dead, and the two killers, the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting resulting in the death of 20 children and 6 adults, and the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead.
And lest we think that American adults escape the taint of this pathology, consider the January 06, 2021 at the United States Capital building, unprecedented in modern times, evidently egged on by then-President of the United States Donald J. Trump, preceded by the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995 that destroyed the large Alfred P. Murrah Federal building.
This categorically disturbing body of murder and mayhem, all of it, simply the tip of iceberg, corroborates my identification, below, of an inadequate or even missing foundational morality in America as a key problem, as said deficit eviscerates and renders impotent not merely the core behavioral dynamic of all human relationships in this country, but that which requires a foundational morality--democracy, itself. Hence does this deficit and it's redress necessarily form the first plank in my Presidential platform.
Upon such barren social soil the beautiful tree of democracy cannot and will not grow and thrive, and where the tree once did stand and was strong, will wither.
Fellows, witness the withering of American democracy and the dissolution of American Society right before our very eyes. Sadly, though instructively, we even have a United States gubernatorial candidate charged with deep participation in the aforementioned insurrection. And now, August 2022, news reports indicate that right-wing, evidently Trump-associated or at least Trump-inspired fanatics are actually threatening U.S. law enforcement personnel.
Rest easy and assured, however, Fellow Americans, as such ne'er-do-wells, under a DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, will, upon conviction, likely spend a period of time on the White House lawn restrained in a pillory. To such persons I assert: don't think that you will defame, deface, or derogate the United States of America with impunity on my watch. You won't.
Its outward wealth or other signs of apparent progress notwithstanding, a society (such as America) predicated economically on profit, not people, and socially on the egoistic self, again, not people, simply cannot sustain itself, as it will 1.) fail to properly address and fill the innate human needs of its citizens, and 2.) fall to the chaos and disorder characteristic of any large-scale social or other failing system. Such a society will become diseased, and eventually this cancer must grow so large, must metastasize so fully, that all systems of the physical, or indeed, social, body will degrade and deteriorate, and do so in a glaring and relatively unmistakable manner. All the aforementioned violence in America, and indeed every form of superfluous (i.e. unnecessary) conflict, here, is this cancer.
Those Americans, such as the January 06, 2021 traitors and those who did and do support them, profligately indulging their likely artificially-generated antipathies toward Americans of Liberal, Centrist, and even Republican or Conservative belief, witness the unbelievable calls to "hang Mike Pence," a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative, as well as young people yet devoid of political and social experience and education, must learn an utterly critical lesson, one that no less a light of Conservative politics than former President Ronald Reagan knew and trumpeted:
In this country we have a gem. A Jewel. A shining city on a hill, in the rhetoric of President Reagan. A thing of unparalleled value and beauty. Learn this, and act to shine this object, to further coax forth its gleaming shimmer--not to dull, cloud, or even shatter it.
As Seraph from The Matrix: let us "...protect that which matters most."
End Special Update.
OUR TWIN DEFICITS
The fact is, there are two root causes of just about every problem humankind (i.e. every human being) has. The two deficits that drive and generate our entire host of problems, are:
MORAL INADEQUACY
This has to do with how people treat each other, and themselves.People refers to individuals, and groups of individuals such as communities, companies, and nations.
There are thousands and thousands of examples, large and small, of moral inadequacy (including the body of mass-murder cited, described, and discussed, above). Here's one quick-and-dirty (i.e. fast, possibly somewhat imprecise) relatively small example: at the end of a telephone call, if you're courteous, you'll say "Goodbye" before hanging up. But have you noticed that many people simply hang up without saying "Goodbye"? They just--hang up. To me, it almost feels like a small slap-in-the-face (In fact, it can even be considered what is now termed a "microaggression").
Another example can be proffered by the activity at this moment on my block, next-door, Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 2:31pm. My next-door-neighbors, an orthodox Jewish couple, are evidently having their sidewalk replaced, and a young man has been breaking up their old sidewalk with a jackhammer since about 12:30 pm. That's two full hours of almost constant noise. Is this the loudest jackhammer that I've ever heard? No. Is it irritating and an impediment to normal living, nonetheless? Yes.
Would it have been considerate of them to have notified us that this work would be taking place, especially since I'm caregiving a 90yo, ill woman mere feet from the work, which they are aware of? Obviously.
I'm not necessarily blaming these individuals. The larger problem is lack of moral training or education. This failing is what I cite and present as the basis for Plank #1 in my Presidential platform, and what we'll begin to address under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
The above are small, but significant examples. However, our lack of morality, in many other cases, is far more significant. For example, what of the recent murder of 22-year-old Gabby Petito? This is another example of what our lack of morality brings. Two sets of examples, very different in kind and consequence, but, examined deeply, having the same root cause: lack of consideration and concern for others. As consideration and concern are both expressions, subsets, or more simply put, examples of Love, these examples clearly display lack of Love, Properly Understood.
What's Love Got to Do With It
Some may wonder what Love, of all things, has to do with anything relevant to the progress, future, and fortunes of America, or for that matter, any nation. Those who are politically savvy, however, or even simply well-informed about present-day national and international events, not to mention those with a knowledge of the deepest and most important teachings of just about every religious leader and great teacher through history, understand with a knowing smile precisely the wisdom, and in the present age of technical and moral complication, actual necessity of citing Love as a critical national requirement that must be properly understood, and employed.
We've deployed technical weapons such as bombs to powerful effect. Now let us deploy the equally powerful moral weapon LOVE, Properly Understood, to equally powerful effect. Do you scoff at this notion, especially if conservative? Then you don't know your own American history, Conservative or general, for no less a Conservative leader than former President Reagan formulated and acted upon the policy of linkage, whereby American recognition of, or assistance to, nations was explicitly linked, that is, based upon, their human rights and other morally-rooted records of progress.
Besides the powerful and relevant examples of conflict and divison in America, above, it's not news to report that a powerful, perhaps permanent schism between persons of what are seen as competing political viewpoints has taken root in America: how deep this root will grow depends on us. This increasingly deeply-rooted toxic plant is clearly seen, for example, in phenomena such as the near-categorical inability of even persons in Congress to work together, including now even the Senate, the U.S. institution Constitutionally-engineered and historically shielded from such pointed conflict and even vitriol. According to the Feb. 12, 2022 edition of The Guardian: "The 116th Congress, which was in session from 2019 to 2021, was one of the least productive in US history." The disturbing depth of root of this toxic plant is made perhaps most explicit in the unprecedented organized insurrection against the United States that occurred on January 06, 2021, the most explicit latter-day indication that a violent, criminally-oriented anti-government consciousness has grown substantially in America--and I'm not even talking about foreign-inspired terror, but homegrown domestic terror, disloyalty, and criminality.
The America, for example, of the World War II years, when everyone pulled together in common purpose, would never have spawned the grossly-misguided American evident at the U.S. Capital on January 06, 2021: disloyal, aggressive if not violent, obviously hostile to both the U.S. Constitution and Courts, and indeed prone to actual criminality, which is what the physical break-in and associated acts constituted.
Under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, the ringleader of that act of outrage and infamy would have risked his neck, literally, as U.S. law still permits traitors to be executed.
JULY 04, 2022 UPDATE
CRITICAL ROLE OF LOVE
Yet ANOTHER mass-murder incident occurring in America is being reported today: a 22-year-old man evidently shot and killed six people, and wounded many others, in Highland Park, Illinois. This makes, by my casual count, the fourth such incident within a period of about a month, this neat quadrangle of mass-murder constituting just the very tip of that most bloody of icebergs that America continues to devolve into.
Does anyone still dare doubt the power and reality of my thesis, also comprising the very first plank in my Presidential Platform, that we must restore or create anew an America based on, or substantively informed, by, Love, properly understood, before any improvement, enhancement, or positive project of any kind, in any sphere, quarter, or milieu of American life can proceed?
In the absence of a species-wide moral code such as Love, the psycho-socio-behavioral phenomenon of nonLove will intrude, increasing in escalating fashion in direct proportion to the absence of Love. Nature and morality both abhor a vacuum so insofar as the phenomenon of Love is absent, its opposite nonLove will fill the given social space, much as dark matter fills every square inch of space in the universe unoccupied by something else.
As a shorthand, the psycho-socio-behavioral phenomenon of nonLove can simply be referred to as "the social phenomenon of nonLove."
And what of the regular acts of mass murder that pepper our news broadcasts, such as, most recently, the Tops Friendly Market murder resulting in 10 dead, itself coming on the heels of the June 2015 shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 21 year old Dylann Roof having been arrested and convicted of this crime.
Such major acts of violence simply burnish and drive home the point that Americans (and human beings, generally) remain completely alienated from each other, each existing in their own world, all worlds, however, underwritten by the force of NonLove, defined, above, that ethic fully and categorically opposite, opposed, and existing counterpoint to that of Love, which is a foundational problem that has already started to erode American democracy, as the next section will explain.
It Gets Worse
Students and the general public are likely familiar with the American Civil War. One singular, catastrophic intranational battle that ripped this country apart--and almost ended it. Who, however, says that with this single civil war we've reached our ceiling? Our limit? Another is certainly possible and if the emotional and ideological differences among Americans become any greater--we may just see it.
Then, American and other history textbooks will refer to the American Civil Wars.
Does this work for you?
If not, I suggest that you start adopting and displaying personal virtues such as compassion and empathy toward your fellow Americans, all of them, leading to greater cooperation. Don't want to wear a mask? Wear it anyway to help protect your brothers and sisters in our human family, your Fellow Americans, or to make them feel that they're protected, and that you've got their back. Conservative? Act with care, concern, and cooperation with Liberals. Liberal? Act with care, concern, and cooperation with Conservatives. And so on.
There are countless ways that we can show a cooperative spirit toward others, to bring we Americans back together. It's what we're capable of, it's what we used to have, and it's far better than the train wreck that relations between Americans is becoming in this country--a train wreck that our enemies are only too happy to watch and take advantage of.
Love Prerequisite for Democracy
In other words, the behaviors that comprise, and fall under the heading of, Love are a prerequisite for Democracy.
Surfacing just a few days ago is the news that some American so-called Conservatives are questioning whether democracy, itself, is compatible with freedom. The emergence of this phenomenon while Vladimir Putin has been hard at work for years now attempting to undermine the notion of democracy--a task made all the easier given the chaos that American democracy seems to have degenerated into and is now seen by many to represent.
Implicit in all this is the reality of the 900-lb. gorilla in the room, the Emperor with no clothes that this writer and Presidential candidate, nearly alone, appears to perceive and understand: LOVE IS REQUIRED FOR DEMOCRACY TO WORK.
This assertion becomes instantly comprehensible upon receipt of understanding of the proper definition of Love, a rubric informed by action:
Agape, the principle of love, commonly referred to as "brotherly love," the "love ethic," or sometimes "universal love," as I define it, is the active consideration of, and acting upon, the interests of other people, all people, in more-or-less the same proportion as you consider (and usually act upon) your own interests.
Agape is not a romantic or otherwise emotional form of love that we "fall into," but a generalized, unconditional love we practice toward everyone, a form that actually requires a commitment of will. Strictly speaking, in fact, the practice of Agape need not require any emotion or sentiment, at all. As a practical matter, however, in our present society it is unlikely that we would distribute our time, energy, and money to others in approximate proportion to that which we expend it on ourselves if we did not feel care and concern.
(It is possible that in a future society where Agape is formally and officially taught and reinforced from birth to death, its practice could become rote and devoid of care and concern. However, the new society will preclude this possibility if it teaches Agape in its fullness, including teaching the desirability of care and concern, at once rooted in and reflecting our status as brothers and sisters in one human family.)
Our Agape praxis (i.e. practice) is to be active, meaning we must remain continuously alert to the needs of those around us and volunteer to act on those needs to the best of our ability, approaching the "needer" without waiting for them to approach us. In large measure because of this active, or in the parlance of the day "pro-active" form of love we espouse, the love paradigm I espouse can be said to constitute the theory and practice of "radical love."
Revered and desirable values and behaviors rooted in the love ethic include compassion, empathy, patience, tolerance, understanding, courtesy, sensitivity, a general open-mindedness, cooperation, solicitude, respect, honesty, the impulse to help people and alleviate suffering, and all basic conceptions of "human rights." All good springs from love, all bad from its opposites. Under-appreciated and under-utilized, it is arguably the most powerful social force available to humankind.
We do see acts of love occurring in our society, but as philosopher and social psychologist Erich Fromm points out above, and elsewhere, these acts usually occur randomly and sporadically, by single individuals, not by large numbers of people in any systematic way. This is because love of our neighbor (and ourselves) is only weakly and inconsistently encouraged, and more importantly, not a formal part of the actual written rules of our social and economic system.
Democracy requires trust, cooperation, and a cooperative spirit--each of which a function, expression, or subset of the rubric Love. Where good human relationships do not exist, neither can democracy.
In other words, then: the De Benedetto Presidential Platform stands alone as that which understands and presents the key, LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, to literally saving American democracy (and with it, global democracy).
No More Painting by Numbers
To build connection between Americans, my Administration is going to strongly encourage Americans of every political stripe, especially those with a Liberal orientation who tend to display these patterns, to cease patterns that continually reinforce division and separation, and throw up roadblocks to creation of the consciousness of our unity as Americans, and ultimately as human beings.
Such patterns include:
Use of the dividing, and inaccurate, phrase "of color."
Use of terms that build on the basal ganglia (i.e. lizard-brain) perceptia (i.e. plural of perception) of human beings, such as "black" and "white."
I no longer want Americans resorting to superficial templates to perceive and conceptualize other human beings. And I think that I'm in good company, as a good friend of mine told us:
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Indeed, "black" and "white" as shorthand for Negro and Caucasian aren't even accurate, as Negroes are not black and Caucasians are not white! Such primitive shorthand is OUT under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION. Let us take our cue from Dr. King and CEASE making "color of their skin" our socio-conceptual focal point and referent.
I'm interested in content of character and little else.
Which is why, by the way, the notion that encouraging our African-American Brothers and Sisters to become drug dealers (or drug clients), will somehow elevate or otherwise be helpful to them, is absolutely preposterous and completely repugnant to me. Fear not, however, as under my Administration dope is going to become explicitly illegal and fully criminalized again, thereby solving this, and many other problems, including problems that would have materialized had dope remained legal.
You're welcome.
I pledge to keep dope strictly illegal and criminalized so as to ensure the acuity and integrity of the American mind, and its physical repository, the brain, without which America continues its slow decline in every sphere, thereby destroying the nation and strengthening those who wish us harm, here and abroad.
Instead of the explicit social demotion and degradation foisted upon our beautiful brown-skinned Af-Am Brothers and Sisters by turning them into drug dealers and newly-minted users and addicts, we will elevate and honor them by putting them to work in the United States CyberDefense Force (USCF), giving them careers of value, honor, and distinction, working technically to counter all incoming computer attacks upon the United States and her allies, while conducting our own highly effective CyberStrikes and CounterStrikes.
These great Americans will become key players in my highly effective effort to re-invigorate the mantra DON'T MESS WITH THE U.S.
Last, in terms of divisive activity no longer easily tolerated, I can also tell you, living in a neighborhood that has undergone a fairly radical transition over the last ten years in becoming orthodox Jewish, that this ostensibly (i.e. seemingly) religious group seems to conduct itself and its affairs in a divisive manner, which I don't appreciate personally, and is bad for the unity of the nation. This is another pattern that we will work to change.
Absence of Love, Internationalized
We also see playing out on the world stage at this very moment a dramatic example of what is reaped when the influence of Love is absent, and the bad seeds of NonLove are sown: Russia, abetted by other willing and malign foreign technical actors such as hacking and disinformation groups, some officially part of the Russian government, some not, has been trying for several years now to discredit Democracy, itself, and worse, actually destabilize the Democratic West--yes, folks, this means us, America, and all her allies. Capture and ransom of U.S. computer systems, large-scale disinformation planted in media and social media, and intrusion, surveillance, and theft of U.S. political and industrial information are the tools in this dangerous Russian black bag.
I can think of few more pernicious and insidious actions wrought by the absence of Love than this.
However, I posit two other tools in that black bag, yet undiscovered and identified by Western Intelligence: 1.) the drive to legalize and decriminalize dope in America, and 2.) highly provocative propaganda information both textual and photographic planted in Internet chat rooms about a kind of de facto collusion between African-American men and Caucasian women to actually "breed out" the Caucasian ethnic group (a.k.a. "white race").
If you are unaware of either of these possibilities--you'd better pledge yourself to a more knowledgable Presidential candidate.
Remember, Love, properly understood is a rubric, a category, a parent or umbrella term and principle, by itself meaning little, but informed by its expressions or manifestations, meaning everything--a principal powerful and extensible enough to inform all human infrastructure from interpersonal interaction, to world affairs, to the very erection of an entire economy. The notion includes behaviors and attitudes such as respect, tolerance, empathy, compassion, understanding, cooperation, sympathy, solicitude, and flexibility, attributes that are precisely and flagrantly missing in the actions of Russia toward the West, and indeed, increasingly missing in our interaction toward each other, as Americans, ripping us apart as a people and a nation, and ironically, making it that much harder, if not impossible, to counter the malevolent actions of enemy foreign actors. "A house divided against itself cannot stand," said Abraham Lincoln.
As an American--is this what you want?
Love irrelevant? Love is nothing but relevant in our fraught and dangerous modern world, both inside and outside our borders.
FUNCTIONAL INADEQUACY
This has to do with how well people do in their day-to-day activities, regardless of what they are doing, ranging from how well they perform their jobs, to how well they negotiate (i.e. perform or address) every kind of task they are called upon to perform, every moment of each day. Are they competent in what they do, or do they tend to make mistakes? If the latter, what is the severity and frequency of their mistakes?
There are thousands and thousands of examples, large and small, of functional inadequacy. Here's one quick-and-dirty (i.e. fast, possibly somewhat imprecise) example: have you ever purchased a box of tissues? Have you noticed how difficult it often is, to simply extract the very first tissue?
Why, in the year 2021, can't the paper companies that manufacture these products devise a way for the first tissue to pop out easily from the opening, at the top of the box? This ridiculous failure is an example of what I consider a functional inadequacy in the paper industry.
I, as you, run into such flaws, gaps, and defects in the functional competence of humanity all the time.
A useful way to conceptualize (i.e. form into an idea in your mind; pron. kon sep' shew ul ize) this problem is: the world, as it stands, at every level and in every sphere and quarter, operates grossly, that is, with insufficient attention to every detail, whereas the world, especially with the key, urgent, and increasingly foundational twin demands of 1.) technology, that is, a means of operating the world using technical methods, and 2.) humanity, that is, the increasing rightful demands of human beings for fair, indeed loving, treatment, requires not gross operation, as such operation cannot possibly pay attention to the details required by these twin objectives, but a world that is finely or fine-tuned.
Below is a blog, starting today, of some of my experiences in the grossly-operated world of today.
Fellow Americans, email me your own, and I'll add them!
USE THE POWER THAT I'M GIVING YOU
The two elements above that comprise the basic divisions of my Platform, 1.) Love and Connection, and 2.) Functional Competence, are sorely missing in America, and together their absence is, and forms, a pernicious force, and pair. A representative example of this phenomenon exists in the world of nutrition and health: what are called "vegetable seed oils" such as Soybean, Canola/Rapeseed, Sunflower, Safflower, Cottonseed, and others are ubiquitous; in other words they are found in almost every food item, at least every packaged food item such as frozen dinners, sold in America (and elsewhere). Yet their injury to the arteries and other blood vessels of the human body, leading directly to cardiovascular disease, stroke in particular, is an open secret. Consumption of these oils has, does, and will continue to put more Americans in a box (i.e. casket), especially older Americans, far faster than would otherwise be the case. Yet they are widely used and their use shows zero sign of slowing down. If you have (or are) parents of middle-age or older, it is imperative that they immediately discontinue consumption of these oils (see dedicated section below, for more).
Do not eat what is not food. And vegetable seed oils are not food.
IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU DO WHATEVER IS REQUIRED* TO PREVENT STROKE IN YOUR PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, AND ALL OLDER PERSONS IN YOUR FAMILY AND OF YOUR ACQUAINTANCE, AS STROKE OFTEN DESTROYS BRAIN TISSUE--AND YOUR LOVED ONE MAY NO LONGER BE THE SAME. THE SAME PERSON. THEIR INTELLECT, BEHAVIOR, PERSONALITY, AND MEMORIES MAY NEVER BE THE SAME. THE MOTHER OR FATHER OR OTHER WHOM YOU'VE KNOWN ALL YOUR LIFE--WILL BE GONE.
(*Again, have them avoid: vegetable seed oils; trans-fat (including any variant of mono-and-diglycerides, which is actually a backdoor form of trans-fat); sugar (a poison); artificial sweeteners, as well; carbs especially refined white carbs such as bread, baked goods, and pasta. Encourage: lifelong practice of full oxygenation of the body through such activities as aerobic exercise. The most reliable way to prevent dementia, for example, is oxygenation of the brain.)
The root cause of this continuing use of vegetable seed oils, in my present example, is obviously either one, or the other, or likely both, of my two identified factors, above.
But whether you ascribe this continuing use to my Presidential Plank #1, above, immorality, that is, lack of Love, manifesting in this case in lack of concern for their fellow citizens by corporate food interests, or to my Presidential Plank #2, above, absence of functional competence, manifesting in corporate food interests, and even consumers, themselves, remaining unaware of the hazards of vegetable oils, or ascribe the continuing use to both phenomena, the result is the same: continuing large-scale injury and death to you, your family, and many of our fellow Americans.
My identification of these two elements as the foundational cause of every American (and human) problem comprises a powerful discovery in Philosophy and Social Science, generally, and Political Philosophy in particular--let's make full use of this unique and powerful conceptual tool now that we have it. Of course, as President this is precisely what I and my Administration, working in concert with You, the American People, will do.
America was, and arguably remains, a Great nation by all objective standards. One such standard, however, has either been absent from the start, depending on your reading of history, or is missing-in-action now: Love, properly understood, the "parent" (i.e. source or originating) concept of such characteristics as ethics, morality, and the feeling of connection between us. If this missing element, Love, largely responsible for our decline, is not meaningfully rebuilt and restored, America will never be great again, nor great, period.
Luckily, MY PRESIDENCY IS GOING TO COMPLETELY CHANGE ALL THIS, and solve this fundamental problem--presuming, of course, that you get me elected.
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCE & ACTUALIZATION WEBLOG
As you read through the entries, below, you'll begin to understand the troubling pattern of incompetence and inadequacy that I'm talking about. You'll also begin to realize that there is, in fact, no way I could easily record every instance, large, small, and moderate, of in-or-semi-competence that I, and you, run across each and every day. It's a staggering problem, that has compromised America in every way.
And, Brothers & Sisters, the problem is going to get a lot worse as dope (i.e. marijuana, hashish) becomes legal across the country, leading to an increasingly sprawling subset of Americans walking around stoned. Insidiously, because of the often-subtle nature of the marijuana high, you'll probably never know that your doctor, nurse, auto mechanic, bus driver, waiter, tax-preparer, police officer, the teacher or teachers of your child, or even your priest, rabbi, or imam, is high, on the job, or off.
And given that no person will ever really know what other person or persons whom they are interacting with are high, indeed in many cases persons whom they are depending on, sometimes in serious or even life-and-death situations, how will people ever trust each other again? What happens to trust, already rated low in America, between person and person, person and business, and person and government? Trust--that foundational element without which you simply cannot have a healthy and functioning society?
Trust will obviously be gravely injured, if not destroyed.
Fellow Americans, how do we maintain, and build, a healthy and prosperous society under such conditions? We don't. We simply shed a tear as we watch America continue to inexorably (i.e. can't be stopped) decline from Great Power to third-world-nation.
Fight, and terminate, this powerful and destructive enemy by A.) reading my book GRASS NOT GREENER, and B.) electing me President.
-- President John F. Kennedy, from his Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
HYBRID SYSTEM
As some of you may realize as you increasingly acquaint yourself with my political beliefs and the Presidential candidacy they inform, my value and belief system is a hybrid (hi' brid), this latter term defined by dictionary.com as:
"anything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds"
My beliefs are often, but not always, conservative, though always ground in Agape (ugg op' aye), which is "brotherly love" in the language of Greek philosophy, as taught by Christ, Martin Luther King, Jr., Erich Fromm, myself, as a system, and others, including my page of Agape Mentors, link on left-side NavBar at that site.
A large part of the seminal nature of my politico-philosophical corpus is my frequent ground of conservative assertions and beliefs in Agape (ugg op' aye), that is, Brotherly Love, not egoism, egotism, narrow forms of political conservatism, arguments based solely on "Constitutional principles," or Christian ideology, as such, but simply Agape, that is, Love, which should please thinking liberals, moderates, and radicals, indeed, anyone who values the love ethic and its possible ground for personal behavior, social reform, or even the erection of a society. Mine is a truly unique, seminal, and powerful conceptual engine for change, spanning or rooted in the full range of socio-and-politico-existential bases, pleasing everyone.
Whether conservative, or liberal, buckle up your psycho-cognitive seat belt and prepare to be taken on the wildest political ride of your life, as your beliefs are both affirmed, in some measure, and denied, in another, as you encounter Conservative-position after Conservative-position ground purely in Love, a standard for behavior, or more broadly, for adoption of programs, associated with Christian theorist Joseph Fletcher, based on which is understood as the more loving option in a given situation (I don't imply that I accept Joseph Fletcher's entire philosophical system or critique).
Conservatives, and Liberals, as well as persons, in fact, of every political stripe may find themselves greatly surprised at the unique and wholly unexpected path to Conservatism that I've laid out: Love. Indeed, persons on the Left likely think that following a path of Love will lead to a left-wing or Progressive agenda: unrestricted immigration, liberal drug policies, unrestricted abortion, reduction in military and police spending, stricter gun laws, and automatic expansion of homosexual rights. I'm arguing that Love, properly understood, just as easily, perhaps far more easily, lends itself to a Conservative agenda.
Example, one of many: Americans believe that National Security should exist and remain optimal at all times in service of the security of the nation--and of course this is correct. But from an AGAPE standpoint, National Security exists to keep us secure because 1.) protecting ourselves is an act of self-Love, 2.) protecting ourselves, collectively, the United States, is also an act of Love toward our allies, who benefit when the historical standard-bearer and Western protector is seen as, and is, strong and secure, 3.) insofar as this historical standard-bearer and world leader, us, is seen as, and is, strong and secure, it tends to keep the world stable, and thus comprises an act of Love toward the world, 4.) it's difficult to Love others if one doesn't Love themselves, and thus is this and other acts and forays into collective self-love necessary, for a weak America would be in a poor position to assist any other nation, and, last, 5.) Love of both others and self comprise the proper structure of AGAPE; anything less would detract from principle and practice.
What you just read in the preceding paragraph is my striking and seminal "Argument-from-Love" in favor of a robust national security.
My definition of Love, officially established at another of my foundational projects THE AGAPE ORDER, and consistent across all my work, is presented as:
Agape, the principle of love, commonly referred to as "brotherly love," the "love ethic," or sometimes "universal love," is defined as follows:
"Agape, or Brotherly Love, is the active consideration of, and acting upon, the interests of all people to their long-term benefit (or short-term, if more acute or their long-term benefit cannot be reasonably established), in more-or-less the same proportion as you consider (and usually act upon) your own interests."
Even the most fundamental of human social behaviors such as civility and basic courtesy are expressions or manifestations of their parent principal, Love. Thus, were the Love ethic adopted and implemented in American society there would be an immediate basic elevation of all social interaction, by everyone, from the man on the street to the woman in Congress. This elemental step, alone, would comprise a huge improvement in our current abysmal standard of social interaction in this country--and it would certainly help prevent any further treasonous incursions into U.S. Government buildings or other facilities. In fact, everyone's lives would actually get a touch brighter, as those around them displayed a smile and a bit of warmth.
Such is the power of Love, properly understood, even in its most routine application. There is simply no question that this country is going nowhere without it, but will simply continue its present moral, ethical, and even political and technological descent and devolution, since a minimum of regard and respect for each other, which we're rapidly losing at every level of American society and governance, is required even for basic cooperation in any area or sphere of social endeavor or activity.
Our lack of connection to each other impedes our moving forward as a nation in at least three ways:
In any sphere of national life, we can't achieve.
Insofar as we do achieve, the achievement is of lesser quality or import.
We can't readily or optimally implement or otherwise make use of said achievement.
THE QUESTION OF THE PAST - A LOVE-BASED VIEW
Example: Thomas Jefferson is a defining figure in and for America. Ergo (i.e. therefore) should his thought, likeness, and general legacy be conserved, preserved, taught, and learned. His ownership of human beings is not defining of America, ultimately, however, so we rightly deconstruct, critique, and reject such practice today, while adopting the intelligent and common-sense understanding that President Jefferson was a product of his time, as we are a product of ours.
In presumably rare cases where said likeness of Thomas Jefferson, or indeed any historical figure, be it in a painting, statue, or other artistic form, is credibly reported by one or more individuals as genuinely and substantively subjectively injurious, our Love for all our Brothers and Sisters would certainly warrant an inquiry. A positive finding, however, could not facilitate wholesale removal of all artistic and other works bearing the likeness called injurious, only that or those deemed most injurious to the individual complainant or complainant class, such instances of said likeness reasonably expected to be few in number.
Suppose, for example, that on a country road in South Carolina stands a statue memorializing a Mr. McHale, a slaveowner in the Antebellum (i.e. prior to the Civil War) South. Every day a young African-American woman, Rose, must travel down this road to get to work, the only such road. Rose is the great-grandniece of Robbie Evans, a slave "owned" by Mr. McHale, and thus has an intimate knowledge of his murderous abuse by Mr. McHale. As such, comprehensibly, Rose is traumatized each time she must pass this statue. In this circumstance, since the case meets three relevant criteria: 1.) special injury, 2.) to a limited class of persons, 3.) unavoidably, it would be reasonable and indeed the loving response to remove, and perhaps relocate, this artifact. This action would not affect other statues of Mr. McHale, elsewhere, that did not meet these three criteria.
I have just presented you with what is perhaps the most powerful and explicitly utilitarian Conservative argument regarding such matters, balancing the desideratum of conservation, with the equal desideratum to practice Love, whether based on Christianity, or another system of belief or philosophy. There is neither kneejerk reflexion from the Conservative perspective, nor blind political correctness from the Moderate or Liberal, in my argument; simply a negotiation between two genuine competing claims, based on a single value system, Love. Use the most reasonable and comprehensible criteria to determine which claimaint is suffering more, unavoidably, and favor that claim.
Regarding the desirability of honoring, or at least remembering such historical figures, whether Thomas Jefferson or Robert E. Lee, a key question to ask is: "Do you really expect such persons to exceed the morality of their day?" How many persons through history, and today, are able to exceed the morality of their day?
Such persons are few and far between, and when history does produce them, they are rightly recognized and lauded.
Ultimately, persons responsible for the suffering of others, especially that large-scale or especially pointed, should not be publicly celebrated, whether in the form of events such as holidays in their name, or artistic commemorations such as the commission and display of statues or paintings. Small scale remembrance, such as regional, or family or other private commemoration, is always appropriate and is permitted.
YOUNG PEOPLE
PROBLEMS OF YOUNG PEOPLE
This section under construction. But some of these topics (i.e. subjects) are already remarked upon here, in the PICK YOUR ISSUE section.
Note: the PICK YOUR ISSUE section recommended above resides at the website of an explicitly "utopian" political project of mine of years past, neither reflective of, nor relevant to, my present Presidential endeavor, which roots in the America of today and our present American system. As a philosopher and moralist I'm always drawn to serious discussion of utopian or hyper-optimized systems of any kind, but they are irrelevant to my present exploratory Presidential endeavor.
INTRODUCTION
Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?
What constitutes a "young person"?
The first key fact that must be placed on the table for the benefit of young persons, that can be a powerful assist in them understanding themselves, is that the human brain is not fully developed until at least age 24, with some researchers asserting the age of 30, or even a few years beyond. What is the significance of this if you're young? It will help you to understand your own behavior: why perhaps you do or say things that, shall we say, represent less than your best. Once you understand this, you can give yourself a break, and not be so hard on yourself if you make a mistake.
Ease up!
Also benefitting from this research in human development are adults in regular intercourse with young persons, such as educators, law enforcement, and even business leaders whose products and services are marketed to young people, were this a culture based on genuine concern for others and not simply the accumulation of as many dollars as possible, with young people as a whole seen and identified as the "youth market," this or that segment of which is seen and understood as just another exploitable business opportunity.
I have great respect for young people and what they must go through today, to survive and try to be happy, to try to build a life for themselves. And I have respect for, and a strong belief in, their intellect and their ability, and willingness, to learn. If I didn't, I wouldn't be presenting so much complex and sometimes difficult information and content here, at my Presidential website, and in my larger campaign.
IF YOU'RE A YOUNG PERSON I BELIEVE IN YOU.
I ALSO BELIEVE THAT IF YOU CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY ACQUAINT YOURSELF WITH MY UNIQUE AND POWERFUL IDEAS, YOU'LL JOIN ME, AND TOGETHER WE WILL GO FAR IN CREATING A FAR BETTER, MORE PEACEFUL, MORE SANE, AND SIMPLY HAPPIER WORLD. FOR YOU, ME, OUR FAMILIES, THE NATION, AND, I BELIEVE, THE WORLD.
PROBLEMS & TOPICS
Abortion
Bigotry (i.e. racism)
B*tch, being a
Body Issues & Self-Image
Bullying
Cannabis (i.e. dope)
College
Confidence, & Confidence, Lack of - see Insecurity, below.
Crime
Culture. I'll be asking African-American professional Classical Music expert, scholar, enthusiast, and host Terrance McKnight to embark upon a 1000-city speaking, listening, and playing tour to various schools around the entire United States, to introduce our young people of every social class to Classical Music.
In further service, fellow Americans, to the power of healthy human hearing and the places to which it can transport us physically, psychologically, spiritually, I want to begin exposing American kids of every social class, as well as the rest of us in this increasingly-noisy culture, to the notion and phenomenon of silence, increasingly identified not as a luxury, but an absolute necessity to maintain physical and psychological health.
The drive to eliminate such damaging beasts as the so-called "leafblower" for numerous reasons are consistent with, and support, what will be our newfound acquaintance with healing silence. Reasons for phase-out of this physically and psychologically devastating device start with 1.) its categorical destruction of quality-of-life via noise of a uniquely intolerable character, and other pernicia, and 2.) significant contribution to climate change,
We can begin to do this through an introduction to the work of Acoustic Ecologist Gordon Hempton, which includes, notably, the quest to preserve the last remaining 12 quiet places in the United States.
Indeed does noise destroy the primordial rhythms of daily social and individual life. Try, for example, in a modern suburb to fall asleep lazily in your backyard, or even in your home next to an open window, enjoying the comfortable current of Summer air. Anyone foolhardy enough to attempt such reasonable acts will soon find themselves immersed in a web of intolerable noise and airborne filth as the now-ubiquitous leafblower makes its inevitable appearance.
Death
Depression
Dope
Drinking
Drugs, Drug Use
Education
Gender (i.e. being homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual)
Illness, psychological
Illness, physical
Insecurity. In making a mistake, many young people (and even older persons) will berate themselves with rebukes like, "God how f*cking stupid can you be? I DON'T F*CKING DESERVE TO LIVE."
Forget that, kids. Instead, in making a mistake, remain silent for about 20 seconds to calm down. Then say to yourself, quietly, yet firmly: JUST DO BETTER NEXT TIME.
Q. I'm Beth, a 17yo girl voting in 2024 for the first time--I'm really excited!
But I have pink hair and a belly-button ring, I'm into rock and punk and a little hip-hop, I try to look sexy but I definitely also consider myself a feminist. And to be honest, I tune-out about 90% of what my parents tell me, lol. Your ideas seem a little conservative. Mr. D, What do you have to offer somebody like me?
A. Beth, as President, the first, or certainly the most important thing that I'm going to do for you, is literally: SAVE YOUR LIFE.
I'm going to save your life, and the lives of your family, friends, boyfriend, and everyone you know.
If you've been following the vicissitudes (i.e. difficult, unexpected changes) of the Pandemic, you know that the medical authorities haven't always had a handle on how to respond to the virus, and they still don't, especially as it continues to mutate from variant to variant. They posit a first-line defense of vaccination. This is incorrect, however, and as the Coronavirus continues to mutate, the tenuous foundation of this approach becomes increasingly apparent. A vaccine is effective against one variant, but not necessarily against another, and what of the next variant, and the one after that? Is modification required of the various available vaccines, manufactured now by at least five companies? Who's keeping track of it all, and can such a sprawling and unwieldy phenomenon even be kept track of?
Clearly, vaccinations are an important tool in the toolkit--but not our most important tool. Our most important tool has been left to collect dust in the toolkit, when, in fact, it is our most potent tool and must be restored, immediately.
You've already heard of the tool of which I speak: it is masking. Mandatory masking on a global scale is the only real solution that our species has. The only answer that will save your life, and the only methodology that will give you your life back, that is, your old existence. After a specified period of mandatory mask-use every variant of the virus will have been eliminated, and will be gone. This is because the virus is transmitted through air, propelled along in the airstream from one person to another. As you know, this is how it survives, and thus reproduces. But if every person is masked, the virus is stopped dead in its tracks--it will have been robbed and deprived of its vector (i.e. means) of transmission--air.
I'm evidently the only leader on planet Earth who sees this.
As President and leader of the free world, I'm going to immediately call for a global summit of all world leaders to present our case and our argument: they must mandate that everyone in their country, with few exceptions, wear a mask all the time, for a specified duration, probably four months.
Result? The end of the mandatory-masking period will see the end of the virus. No more virus means no more masking (or vaccinations) necessary, meaning you now get your life back, in full. This is precisely what I'm going to do for you as President, Beth--keep you alive. And give you your life, back.
"...this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine."
"If the American public all embraced masking along with social distancing and hand-washing...we could bring this outbreak to its knees within four to eight weeks."
-- Dr. Robert R. Redfield, former Director, Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
ACTUALIZATION
Real-Life Example
Beth, under my Presidential governance, you and the rest of the country are going to learn, and have repeated opportunities, to Actualize, that is, to be and do the very best of which you are capable, and do so as a way of life, transforming that life and the life of the nation, in amazing ways!
Here's an example. Suppose your final exam in history is coming up, and I asked you how well you might do. You respond, "Well if I study every night this week I'll probably get a B." Then I say, is that really the very best you can do on the test? You respond with a nervous laugh, not quite sure where I'm going with this, and you say, "Well, if I study every night this week, *and* all weekend, *and* Dad relieves me of chores all week and I use all that extra time to study, I think I could probably get an A or even an A+."
So I respond back: Well, I just spoke with your Dad. You're free of your chores for the entire upcoming week so you can study for your history final, provided you also study every night this week, and the entire weekend, as you said--agreed?
Now, boxed in, you agree--"OK!, you affirm. OK."
So, the entire week and weekend pass, you're studying your a** off, and you take the exam, and two days later you receive your grade:
A+ !
You did it !
We can say that in regard to that exam, your History final--you ACTUALIZED. You performed the very best of which you were capable!
Now imagine performing this way in regard to everything that you do, in your life! And imagine everyone around you doing the exact same thing: everyone performing at a rate much higher than they usually do, with real excellence, if not actual perfection. Imagine the kind of America this would give us! In the economy, medicine, military, technology, education, poverty, everything!
This is precisely what we'll be shooting for under a DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION--ACTUALIZATION!
Regarding this possibility, Beth, renewal of a slowly devolving America, I quote the Alicia character from the powerful film A BEAUTIFUL MIND:
- "I NEED TO BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY IS POSSIBLE" -
NOTE: had you done all this studying and received a grade of B, or even C, it would still be true that you Actualized, because you tried to perform the very best of which you were capable. You're still not always going to succeed.
SANITY, SECURITY, LOVE
In general, if elected I'm going to give you a world of Sanity, Security, and Love. A world of that duality (i.e. something made of two parts) presently and fatally missing from this planet: 1.) beautiful social harmony as we encourage the natural connection between persons and groups of persons, all Brothers and Sisters in One Human Family, and 2.) social and economic functionality as people are encouraged toward competence, at least, and excellence, at best in what they do and how they do it, whether their job or anything else.
Here's a quick-and-dirty example of #2, above: are you tired of people screwing up your food order at Burger King? Or hearing your Mom b*tch and moan because she ordered the blue couch but they delivered the brown one? Or feeling really sorry for your Dad because he went into the hospital for a simple procedure and came out with a punctured lung? Because some doctor or nurse made a stupid or obvious mistake?
Many times the mistakes that we all make, and their consequences, are far more severe even than those I just mentioned. For example, how about millions of people who had their credit card information stolen from the Home Depot or Target databases? Or reading every other month that yet another American military helicopter crashed? Or how about a planeful of religious extremists who, in 2001 flew their planes into the (former) Twin Towers in Manhattan--a multi-tier act of Terror that our own American intelligence agencies (especially, acting in concert with those of our allies) arguably could have, and should have, detected and prevented?
You get it, Beth? The price for incompetence, or even mediocrity (i.e. poor quality or performance), whether in a family, community, school, state, region, country (or even the world) is often high--sometimes VERY high. Yet this phenomenon (i.e. thing happening, often not fully understood) is ubiquitous (i.e. all over the place) and seemingly endemic (i.e. an actual part of what it means to be American). My Presidential platform and program calls for an end to this retrograde state of affairs, and instead, for we as Americans, and human beings, to begin striving to become the very best that we can be, in everything.
So once the nation adopts this new ethic of behavior, you can see that everything around you is going to change dramatically, for the far better--including your own life.
In essence, Beth, I'm going to work tirelessly every moment of every day to provide you with a world of Sanity, Security, and Love. You can't beat this combination, and I'm just the guy to do it--it was my idea.
More to come.
RESOURCES FOR GIFTED, BRIGHT, AND/OR SENSITIVE CHILDREN (AND ADULTS), INCLUDING STUDENTS
ESPECIALLY INCLUDING THOSE WHO ARE, OR WISH TO, ACTUALIZE!
Ask this question all the time, and you'll likely never make a mistake.
CHRISTIANITY WRIT LARGE
GUN OWNERS: remember, you're not just a gun owner. You're Christian gun owner.
POLICE OFFICERS: remember, you're not just a police officer, you're a Christian police officer.
COMPANY FOUNDER/PRESIDENTS: remember, you're not just the founder or president of your company. You're the Christian founder or president of your company.
CHRISTIANS: remember, you're not just a Christian. You're a CHRISTIAN. That's supposed to mean something in terms of your attitudes and behavior!
The Second Great Commandment of Christ is LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.
MY PLATFORM
BROAD OR GENERAL ISSUES
THE MIND - Every American shall be taught critical thinking skills, and such skill shall be reinforced through their lifetime.
And the physical and operational integrity of the brain shall be carefully guarded, as: anything that human beings have done, are doing, or will ever do, is based completely and solely on one thing, and one thing, alone: the human mind, and its physical repository, the human brain.
Accordingly, anything that compromises the human mind, as is ubiquitous today, simply cannot, and under my Administration will not, be tolerated, including: stress, poor-quality food and beverages, chemicals in the air, water, and soil, and needless to say, drugs. Alcohol is of a different intoxicant class, and has a lengthy, already-established history of legality in the United States, but wise use must be regularly and substantively encouraged.
Without my Presidential influence, substantially adding to the decline of mind will be the continuing legalization of dope, including marijuana. We need the erosion of the human mind and brain that will undoubtedly accompany widespread national legalization and use of drugs, in this case marijuana and hashish, like a hole in the head, as such erosion will accompany an already existing decline in cognition and cognitive structure because of the rapidly-rising epidemic of dementia, explained, below.
Moreover, as if all the above weren't enough, yet another problem is going to occur in the face of the widespread legal use of marijuana: it will likely drive large-scale addiction and quasi-addiction to the drug, which is extremely problematic since we Americans are already firmly in the grip of three other addictions or addiction phenomena, these, grossly compromising mind and body:
SUGAR
FOOD
PHARMACEUTICALS, LEGAL USE
Accordingly, marijuana and all drugs will be strictly illegal under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
YOU'RE WELCOME.
Brain neurons firing.
Actual photograph of a memory.
The following two paragraphs were prepared by the Office of Communications and Public Liaison, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. THESE PEOPLE GET IT:
"The brain is the most complex part of the human body. This three-pound organ is the seat of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior. Lying in its bony shell and washed by protective fluid, the brain is the source of all the qualities that define our humanity. The brain is the crown jewel of the human body.
For centuries, scientists and philosophers have been fascinated by the brain, but until recently they viewed the brain as nearly incomprehensible. Now, however, the brain is beginning to relinquish its secrets. Scientists have learned more about the brain in the last 10 years than in all previous centuries because of the accelerating pace of research in neurological and behavioral science and the development of new research techniques. As a result, Congress named the 1990s the Decade of the Brain."
Moreover, Humankind is just lucky that there is plasticity to the brain, that is, ability both to grow and repair, to afford possible correction for the many cerebral insults suffered by this vital organ. How unwise, then, to deliberately work at crosspurpose with your own brain through injurious lifestyle practice such as drug use. Research assessment of the various injuries of dope-smoking is variable and somewhat inconsistent, though, conservatively, conclusive agreement seems to exist that, at least: some number of brain cells are killed through use, memory is affected, addiction can occur, and use can cause cardiac damage.
The 1936 film REEFER MADNESS, a cinematic diatribe against dope use, is mocked as exaggerated, but I viewed the film in its entirety and found nothing unrealistic in terms of how drugs adversely influence behavior and the course of social events.
Accordingly, then, and ultimately: factors contributing to the decline in physical and mental health, and ability to think and perform other sensate (i.e. of the five senses) functions, starting with armed forces personnel and other citizens performing critical functions, shall be corrected. Fast food, for example, known to be nutritionally bankrupt and interfere with optimal physical and mental development and maintenance, shall be made more nutritionally sound.
What will the giants in fast food like the McDonald's Corporation think of this exhortation? I don't know--are they patriotic Americans?
Regarding drugs, all laws legalizing and even decriminalizing dope will be completely repealed as soon as possible. Legalization of dope also injures public behavior and the public intellect, thus strengthening the hand of our enemies. On the day that dope is legal in all 50 states, we can expect the enemies of America to host the biggest victory party the world has ever seen.
"We are 50 percent plus of global G.D.P.," Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser, argued recently, contrasting this to Russia's unimpressive 3 percent share of the world's economic output. However, economies don't fight wars; militaries do. America's economic power was tested when Mr. Biden threatened tough sanctions if Russia were to invade Ukraine; Mr. Putin did so anyway, betting that hard power would carry the day.
There's still no doubt that America's military has better trained soldiers and more capable systems in aggregate. However, what matters is not theoretical military matchups but the ability to use force for specific aims. Russia has developed precisely the capabilities needed to rebuild its influence in Eastern Europe. The United States, meanwhile, has watched its room for maneuver in the region steadily shrinking, hemmed in by Russian antiaircraft systems and cyber and electronic warfare threats.
Letting the military balance in Europe shift in Russia's favor was a choice. The United States has itself partly to blame. Even after Russia's first attacks on Ukraine in 2014, America's reinforcements on the continent were only enough to slow the rate of improvement in Russia's position. The Biden administration has presided over military spending cuts once inflation is considered. America's roughly $700 billion defense budget may look impressive, but Russia has the advantage of paying less for soldiers' salaries and for domestically produced equipment. Adjusting for these differences, Russia's defense budget has grown far more rapidly than America's over the past two decades. European allies have even more to answer for: Germany and other European countries must wake up from the fantasy that peace is their birthright. They used to have serious fighting power. It is time to rebuild it."
Here is my own emphasis regarding what was just quoted:
"Russia has developed precisely the capabilities needed to rebuild its influence in Eastern Europe. The United States, meanwhile, has watched its room for maneuver in the region steadily shrinking..."
...
"Adjusting for these differences, Russia's defense budget has grown far more rapidly than America's over the past two decades."
Moreover, reports the New York Times of February 28, 2022:
"...if American intelligence agencies picked up on the kind of crippling cyberattacks that someone -- presumably Russian intelligence agencies or hackers -- threw at Ukraine's government, they do not have the infrastructure to move that fast to block them."
Why the Hell not? Aren't we the United States of America?
Not to mention, we invented this technology!
Do you still doubt the critical necessity for keeping drugs strictly illegal in America? We must foster the social, environmental, and cultural conditions to ensure the Actualization of the American mind and its physical repository, the brain: its full development and acuity. Use of dope, not to mention the operational, economic, cultural, and other infrastructures required to support such use, runs explicitly counterpoint to these utterly vital objectives.
As it's the human mind and brain that is at stake, the sole determinants of all things, military, and in every other sphere of human civilization, drug offenses must be addressed with gravity, including possession of even "small" amounts of dope. First offense of a small quantity, such as a joint (i.e. marijuana cigarette) or two will carry no penalty, but simply require a court appearance and conversation with a judge. Second offense, however, of even a single joint will carry a mandatory 30-day jail sentence.
I, a 64-year old man in 2024, will serve all, or a portion, of that sentence with the first offender to receive it, to show solidarity with the offender, and to illustrate that if a 64-year-old man can serve 30 days, so can any younger person.
JUST SAY NO.
This admonition represented wisdom when Nancy Reagan enunciated it--and so, today.
Dementia Doubling
As mentioned above, greatly hastening the attack on the human brain will be the massive increase in cases of Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias, with global dementia cases forecasted to triple by 2050, and doubling in the United States by 2060:
"The burden of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in 2014 was 5 million people, which is 1.6 percent of the U.S. population in 2014 - 319 million people. This burden is projected to grow to 13.9 million, nearly 3.3 percent of the population in 2060 - 417 million people."
"...as the U.S. population increases, the number of people affected by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias will rise, especially among minority populations," said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D."
This troubling forecast on the explosion in growth of dementia in America presents yet another reason that we cannot permit the use of drugs: as if dementia, itself, weren't bad enough, and drug use, itself, weren't bad enough, each a personal catastrophe and threat to the nation, once drugs are legal these two pernicious and insidious phenomena will sometimes co-exist within the same individual, exacerbating their cognitive decline and making it a virtual certainty that no healing can ever take place. With legal access to marijuana, hashish, and other drugs, nationwide, this phenomenon will likely destroy and disable thousands of Americans over a period of time--perhaps millions, eventually.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
KNOWLEDGE & INFORMATION - Though a little known, if not recondite issue, inefficient, inconsistent dissemination and use of knowledge is a foundational reason that America, and indeed the world, generally remains mired in problems that never seem to go away.
Consult any variety of sources online or off on a given topic or question, and you'll receive a diverse and numerous array of responses and perspectives, as well, far worse, of disagreement on fact. Such a scattershot distribution of knowledge in a society keeps it largely groping in the dark in regard to, well, everything.
Such an inferior ordering of our common existential possession--knowledge--is unacceptable to any society aspiring to Actualization, Greatness, and perhaps even survival, and is certainly unacceptable to me. As President one of my projects will be a series of open discussions with persons knowledgeable in this area, to arrive at some conclusions regarding adoption of a new paradigm for the optimal dissemination and employ of knowledge. I refer to this Actualized process the Standardization of Knowledge.
Perhaps nowhere is this emasculated maintenance of knowledge more evident and injurious than in medicine. Have a serious illness? One doctor may know little about its treatment, while another knows a bit about it, while a third doctor, practicing next-door or a world, over, has the cure. Why don't they all possess the same knowledge? Because in this country and world there is insufficient, perhaps non-existent, standardization of knowledge.
Starting to understand?
More to come.
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC - Vaccination has become the global first-line defense of choice in fighting the Coronavirus. This, however, is a huge mistake.
Vaccination is a modality (i.e. medical method) inferior to masking to counter and eliminate the coronavirus, COVID19 (heretofore referred to as C19). Vaccinations are high-tech, complex, expensive, and difficult to store and administer.
Masking, by contrast, carries almost none of these liabilities and limitations, and has the staggering advantages of 1.) actually preventing spread of the virus between people in the first place, which means that through masking--mandatory global masking--we can actually eliminate the virus completely and permanently, and 2.) virus variants no longer hold any power, for masking is immediately and automatically effective against any and all viral variants.
In 2024, if the pandemic is still raging, or even remains substantive, the DE BENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, at my direction, is going to effect a wholesale shift to mandatory global masking, starting with calling for a global pandemic summit, a meeting of all world leaders to receive this argument and corresponding plan, in order to eliminate the virus completely and permanently.
I understand that masking is seen as inconvenient by some persons, including me, and is not universally accepted, but a relatively brief period of masking will return planet Earth to complete normalcy, and is the only thing that will, with vaccination continuing as a second-tier modality. The only question and consideration for you, therefore, is: do you want your life back? If so, and vaccination combined with masking hasn't done the trick by 2024, Mandatory Global Masking categorically will.
I have laid out my entire argument, and had contacted the Biden Administration, and a number of other world leaders and governments.
Brothers and Sisters: No pain, no gain.
REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH/RESOURCE - What is commonly termed the UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME (UBI) is a key plank in the DE BENEDETTO Presidential platform. Most likely consider this a new and novel idea, when in fact famed social psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm proposed it in 1955 in his famous, and urgently recommended, work The Sane Society.
The UBI notion is a prime exemplar of the fact, and power, of my combination electoral program that pairs 1.) Love, properly understood, with 2.) functional competence (if not, excellence, in this case).
The kernel of the UBI approach is that every citizen is to possess, either through their own direct effort, or the redistribution of social resource, a minimum income, reside at a minimum income floor, sufficient to, and in accord with, a minimum decent human condition of existence.
The idea demonstrates Love as it comprises all of us ensuring that each of us can live decently. And it comprises functional competence insofar as it represents a more efficient and effective system of needed redistribution of resource. There exists in this idea, however, a third socially and economically salutary benefit. UBI is a direct expression and implementation of a key Conservative principle and desideratum: reduction in the size of government, since all, most, or many existing bureaucratic structures of redistribution will, in fact, be completely eliminated, in favor of a singular structure.
This is one of the rare examples in human history when our entire multifarious body of stars align, to the relief of some, and delight of many. As 2024 Presidential candidate, I am both relieved and delighted, and thus is our best implementation of the Universal Basic Income an integral and key part of my Presidential program.
FOUNDATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE - The election and presidency of Donald J. Trump illustrates that, as the world today is complex and technological, in computing, in materials, in natural environment, in geopolitics, and other things, that is, owing to the overall character of the modern age, Article II, Section 1, of the United States Constitution must be amended to provide for additional requirements to run for President the United States. The Founding Fathers specified as formal qualifications: 1.) an age of 35 years or older, 2.) a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years, and 3.) a natural-born citizen. Through official amendment, to this set must be added a basic test of political, economic, historical, and geographical literacy. While true that the long election process characteristic of the United States does, in theory, provide ample time for the electorate to discern the fitness of a given candidate, a formal mechanism is required, as well, in part because of the inadequacy in the fitness of the electorate to discern the fitness of the candidates. Moreover, a second modification to the election requirements should be seriously considered, that of a basic test of psychological fitness.
Governance by ignorance, ego, and prevarication can simply no longer be tolerated, given, for example, the formidable set of existential threats facing the United States, from climate change to unyielding global terror.
CHARACTER & MORALITY, OUR HUMAN FAMILY - Every American shall be taught, and such teaching shall be reinforced, that all persons in this world are brothers and sisters in one human family--and should treat each other accordingly.
Accordingly, the United States shall act as a force for good in the world, although not at the expense of national security.
In the case, for example, of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, apparently by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Trump is correct in asserting that severing relations with Saudi Arabia would be unwise. However, had Mr. Trump, or someone in, or associated with, his administration a strong moral center--Vice-President Pence, are you listening--they could have sat down privately with the Crown Prince to discuss and indeed meaningfully rebuke him on this matter. Such a conversation could have been accompanied by a symbolically punitive economic or social rebuke of some kind.
"...power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic."
. . . . .
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
ASSISTANCE & OUTREACH
As we are all brothers and sisters in one human family, we're finally going to embark upon Humanity's most critical socio-existential task, that which we must begin if we're to Actualize, that is, be the best human family we can be, and perhaps even if we are to survive: start helping each other.
Nursing Home Abuse
As we've got to begin somewhere, we'll consider abuse of residents, typically elderly and ill, at nursing homes and similar facilities, a longstanding problem across America. The problem is most prevalent in cases of residents who:
"...don't have regular visitors or have friends who come visit them, they are the most vulnerable," states New Jersey's Long-Term Care Ombudsman. Laurie F. Brewer.
Here is a more extended quote:
Laurie F. Brewer, the state's ombudsman, believes the actual number of incidents involving abuse and neglect in the state are "dramatically" undercounted. Some residents are reluctant to report any problems, she explained, fearing retribution. ... "You are in the most vulnerable position in your life at the end of your life. People are fearful of reporting, especially people who don't have family members," she said. "It's heartbreaking. The thousands of people who don't have regular visitors or have friends who come visit them, they are the most vulnerable."
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION is going to implement a series of programs designed to take persons seeking, or needing, to put their time to better use, from housewives with little to do during the day, to gang members who have plenty to do, much of it nefarious, and emplace them, through a program of strong encouragement, in helping situations, where their intellect and energies can do good, helping their lonely and vulnerable brothers and sisters. In the above scenario, for example, we will accept volunteer applications to emplace people to regularly visit lone, family-less residents of nursing homes and similar facilities, so that they are not so easily preyed upon.
These voluntary programs will maintain a secondary objective: insofar as possible we'll try to raise awareness even among the predators that their actions are hurtful and inappropriate--including to themselves as they remain mired in a morality morass. Such persons would likely be facility staff, whether the nurse who is discourteous or impatient (or worse) toward the resident, or the janitor or orderly who regularly helps him or herself to whatever possession in the room strikes their fancy, that day.
EPIDEMIC PROPORTION
Speaking, as above, of "lonely and vulnerable brothers and sisters," the Surgeon General has announced that presently in America there is what he has termed an "epidemic of loneliness." So my plan to redress this uncomfortable and indeed traumatic problem, is a timely one.
Homeless Children
"The number of homeless children in the United States is at its highest in more than a decade, according to a recent study by the National Center for Homeless Education.
More than 1.5 million public school students nationwide were homeless at some point during the 2017-2018 school year, according to the report published last month. That figure was the highest recorded in more than 12 years."
This is the United States of America. Accordingly, the state and condition of American children reported in the following recent news piece, excerpted above, is categorically unacceptable, and will be permanently rectified under the DEBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION. I'll be pleased to employ market-based solutions, if possible.
You'll notice that this topic is treated here under Character, not Economy. A nation with character doesn't permit children to be homeless.
Nor does it permit adult homelessness, but adults can arguably weather periods of dislocation far better than children. In fact, our implementation of the U.B.I., Universal Basic Income (see above) may be robust enough to eliminate all homelessness.
Room and A Meal
Thinking globally, in consideration of our entire human family, I propose that every nation subscribe to the policy that every citizen have at least rudimentary permanent lodging, a single room will suffice, and access to food, presumably two or three meals per 24-hour period. Completing the proposal would be a worldwide commitment to population control, as resources are not infinite. Note that abortion is not an acceptable means of population control.
Besides the moral consideration, which is considerable, completely wiping homelessness and hunger from the face of the planet will create a far more stable global population, thereby increasing national security for the United States. Radical revolutionary movements around the world, for example, will lose much of their steam in the face of such a policy. This will likely be of particular benefit to the United States, in fact, as our germination and sponsorship of the idea becomes known worldwide.
Socialism? If so, of the most spare variety, as the proposal provides only basic housing and food--the least that we in our one human family should be providing ourselves.
No, this proposal, in fact, reflects skilled national leadership, informed by political savvy, and appropriate behavior based on the ethic of Love, notably promulgated in singular fashion by Christianity (and in some fashion by certain other religions and belief systems).
America's power in large measure over her 20th-century history came from her moral leadership (as well as, of course, her formidable military might, coalescing around and informed by a unified population).
Under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, prepare to meaningfully resume both kinds of leadership.
Sole Survivor Trauma
The loss of any of we human beings, any brother or sister, is so tragic, horrible, grievous, and overwhelming, that we must ensure that no loss leaves a sole survivor or two alone during the wake and funeral of their loved one, our lost.
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will encourage formation of a network of funeral homes working with mobile or floating grievers, persons committed to ensuring that no person or two must stand in attendance at the death of their loved one at their wake, or funeral, alone. The Floating Griever will stand, sit, and grieve with the family member or friend at the wake, funeral, and repast (i.e. meal, especially following a funeral).
These blessed volunteers will also make themselves available for a short period afterward, perhaps three months, as needed by the survivors.
Of course, in regard to clinical depression or any apparently excessive or unceasing death reaction, the Floating Griever will recommend professional counseling to the Bereaved, and can even set it up.
This DB ADMIN program of Bereavement Accompaniment can be seen as falling under, and manifesting, my edicts that 1.) we Americans must re/discover our connection to each other, and become cohesive again as a citizenry and polity, and even a community, and 2.) under my Presidency, NO AMERICAN GETS LEFT BEHIND, even emotionally, if preventable.
What is more Conservative, even primeval, than proper and natural attention to the bonds between member of tribes, clans, villages, or any common ancestral or similar population--including a country, during events of significance?
And what is more Christian?
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
The most usual recipients, or intended recipients, of Affirmative Action benefits are our African-American Brothers and Sisters, who came to America, unfortunately, in the most disadvantaged position possible: slaves. Thus, we must assist them.
However, disadvantaged job candidates can be moved into positions only after they have mastered the necessary skills for the job. We cannot permit unqualified or semi-qualified candidates to fill jobs.
Additionally, the shift today, whereby so much of the attention of the nation finds itself on African-Americans, their concerns, and their culture, is a mistake. Must we actively assist those who are, or were, in a catastrophic position, whether African Americans, Jews, the handicapped, or the unborn? Yes, of course. But our singular mission, and thus everyone's principal focus must remain America, herself, not any one individual or grouping, for if America diminishes for lack of full attention, every American will be hurt as the country finds itself enjoying fewer resources, from tax revenues to international respect and reputation, and is thus less able to assist those Americans, such as African-Americans, who require it.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
Haven't acquainted myself with it, yet.
Corporate Ethical Optimization (the other CEO)
A conventional corporate structure typically sees all or some of the following segments or departments:
Accounting
Compliance
Design
Distribution
Finance
Human Resources
Legal Affairs
Manufacturing
Marketing/Advertising
Procurement
Quality Control
It's the job of the marketing and advertising departments to assemble the most persuasive version of the truth concerning their product or service and present it to the public, or other target audience, with the usual objective of spurring sales, and most do so aggressively.
There is typically something lost in this process, however, that should be of concern to every American, and American CEO: truth. I therefore propose, and will sponsor through legislation, that every American company or company operating in America create and maintain an Ethics Department, a counterpoint to the Marketing and Advertising Departments, its objective being a balanced and honest representation of all products or services marketed by its company.
The necessity for such a department for an ethical society that wishes to act with character and honor, that is, Love, properly understood, toward its citizens and others, including international customers, becomes clear once one understands the dynamic of the typical Marketing department. The employees in Marketing in America typically and pointedly represent their product in the absolute best possible light, often whether such representation bears any full relationship to reality, or not. Like the baked goods company proclaiming that its products remain "simple" and "old-fashioned" in their creation and manufacture, while its ingredient list reads like a veritable chemistry set, complete with bioengineered (i.e. GMO) ingredients.
There are innumerable examples of such overwhelming contradictions and juxtapositions in the marketplace of products and services, and they do not suggest a society that is being honest with itself, and the world.
My predicate (i.e. foundational assumption) is that in America we can have an honest, or relatively honest, capitalism, making for an ethical people, and good business, as well.
As with all the planks in my Presidential platform: everybody wins.
ENERGY PRODUCTION - I will explain the basics of energy production, in the United States and around the world. But I can tell you immediately that based on my research thus far, all roads lead in one direction, and one direction, alone: POPULATION CONTROL. If we as a species are ever to gain a rational foothold on the continuing problem of permanent provision of clean, safe, and healthy energy, the principal reality, and our overarching directive, must be that captured in those provocative two words.
Without serious and sustained population control, I don't see how we will ever solve this problem, for the reality of Earth is that we simply have too many people, consuming too much, too fast. It's as simple as that.
So-called "green" solutions such as wind and solar, when scrutinized, are revealed as highly problematic, chiefly because neither wind nor sunshine sustains itself constantly, meaning a polluting technology, usually coal, must always be kept at-the-ready to prevent blackouts. Moreover, commonly-proposed so-called "green" or "renewable" solutions such as wind and solar, themselves, require an inordinate amount of power to produce, again, coal usually the power source of choice. Relatedly, equipment such as wind turbines and solar panels eventually break down and must be replaced, forcing a repeat utilization and expenditure of money, time, energy, and manpower.
The last problematic element in conventional "green" thinking and alternative energy proposals is that the substitution paradigm that has emerged globally, and is being widely implemented, is the burning of wood chips or pellets that are called "biomass." This refers to the burning of small wood chips instead of burning coal. Biomass means trees and requires aggressive deforestation of just about every forest the power industry can get its hands on. This "green" solution has and continues to obliterate the forests of the world at an alarming rate, in a process called deforestation, injuring our efforts to fight climate change among other deleterious consequences of the large-scale obliteration of forests.
Biomass fuel is considered, and described as, a renewable resource, at least nominally, because the trees that it's made from "will grow back." While functionally true, many or most won't grow back for many years, and in the meantime we see the likely permanent loss of forests critical to the amelioration of climate change, provision of elemental substances or proto-materials for new drugs and health or medical remedies, native animal habitats and biodiversity, and that which simply comprises the soul or spiritual center for humankind.
RESOURCES
The following two documentary-style films are essential to understanding the probable dead-end that is our present environmental course. We don't need, nor can we really sustain, at least not as our front-line defense against environmental threats present or future, yet more resource-intensive technologies and equipment, whether solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal dams, electric cars, or anything else the Green industry and its financial ecosystem might conceive.
What we actually need is a rediscovery of, and commitment to, a simpler way of life that involves fewer human beings, leading simpler lifestyles that require far fewer resources to sustain.
Likely the kind of existence that American Transcendentalist writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau would have approved of.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION - Until such time that moral law predominates, and while we as a human family work toward this objective, the United States shall meaningfully recommit to the standard of conventional law. Meaning, for example, that all persons having come here illegally shall be deported, with exceptions for those whose life would be genuinely imperiled or present other especially compelling reasons to remain.
Persons brought here unknowingly, especially children, are exempt from these guidelines.
Moreover, illegal or not, while not American citizens, these individuals are brothers and sisters in our larger human family, usually suffering and in many cases greatly suffering brothers and sisters, at that, and under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will not be mistreated or intimidated. The very fact that the United States remains their objective suggests that our appeal as a center for morality and function of life remains high. Whether President or citizen, this pleases me greatly. How about you?
CULTURAL & ECONOMIC COHESION
LANGUAGE
Deadline
All immigrants must learn basic English within one year, additional year extension upon approved application. Partial ESL (English-as-a-Second-Language) financial assistance can be applied for by new citizens suffering genuine hardship.
I'd also like to see a second test administered after five years, demonstrating a more advanced level of English literacy. There would be no further testing after that, but immigrants would be encouraged to continue their cultural and linguistic educations.
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will, of course, be friendly to the common-sense English-as-Official-Language idea.
Immigrants today will be expected to demonstrate the same drive toward citizenship, cultural and linguistic literacy, and assimilation into America and American society that previous generations of immigrants, such as Italian, German, and others, demonstrated. Entrance into America remains a privilege, so entrants will be expected to understand and behave accordingly. You must strive to be an asset to America, your new country, as America will undoubtedly be an asset to you, and your family.
Pronouns are some of the most useful words in the English language. They are used in the place of a noun to avoid it having to be named twice. For example: Suzy threw the boomerang and it came back to her. In this sentence, "it" is a pronoun that represents the boomerang, and "her" is a pronoun that refers to Suzy. Without pronouns, we'd have to say Suzy threw the boomerang and the boomerang came back to Suzy. Without pronouns, how would we even say "we"?
There is, however, a current within American culture seeking to distort-unto-death our conventional pronoun system, based on what they assert, or what indeed may be, latter-day shifts in gender identification. Grossly-misguided brother columnist John McWhorter explains and exemplifies it thusly:
The other day I had occasion to use the pronoun "they" in the new way, referring to a specific person. Not your grandfather's singular "they" with its generic meaning - "A student can hand their paper in early if they want to" - but "they" as in, "Roberta wants a haircut, and they also want some highlights."
In negotiating the latest attack, or at least concerted attempt to undermine the structure of our English system of pronouns (ESP), the language is going to remain traditional and standard under my Administration. Standard English will remain as it is, as it has well-served this nation and indeed the entire English-speaking world, which is to say just about all of Humanity.
In terms of the substance, let's make short work of this perverse idea, shall we?
Yes, language changes, has changed and will continue to change--when it has to. When there's a genuine and substantial reason for it to change. There is no such reason, now. As a neologist, myself (coiner of new words) and the inventor of the DEBENEDETTO DICTIONARY, I'm sympathetic to flexible use of language--flexibility, not outright evisceration.
Regarding our pronoun structure, changes have already occurred over the years--leaving us with the workable and intuitive system that we now have. All the changes and shake-outs that had to occur to pronouns under standard English have already occurred, leaving usage at its proper resting point, or point of equilibrium or balance. There is nowhere else to go now--such usage is perfect.
The only possible direction that we could go in, were our opponents to really push this issue--is down.
As a writer I'm disinclined toward this kind of shift. As President I'd have an additional reason for such disinclination: in our increasingly technical world language is the lever by which these technologies are developed, operated, and maintained, from the computers running a complex open-heart surgery to those helping run an aircraft in distress, perhaps in a critical ongoing exchange with one (or more) air-traffic control towers. Even a syllable, and in some cases literally one letter can have a radically different, and sometimes actually opposing, meaning. Moreover, even on the intechnical (i.e. non-technical) front standardization of language is increasingly critical as we attempt to negotiate and in some good measure integrate vast shifts in the movement of populations often into America or other English-speaking nations.
It's been recently found that our human disciplines of science and philosophy have been incorrect in their interpretation and definition of a key idea in Physics for the past 300 years. The reason for their gaffe? A misread of a single word.
Accordingly, while the English language is dynamic and will continue to grow and change somewhat, changes to core linguistic elements such as parts of speech cannot be tolerated in a language such as English where these elements are mature and already understood and indeed often mastered by those speaking English, and upon which so many technical, economic, and even social systems depend, often, in fact, on a global scale, and sometimes by persons on that globe whose grasp of English may already be insufficient. An air-traffic controller in Bombay, India must be able to understand a colleague in Tokyo, Japan or Auckland, New Zealand--in an emergency, perhaps during the same exchange.
The technical systems of the latter-day, then, must be run not only according to standard English, but standard English that is as easy to understand as possible, while remaining true to reasonable and/or expected denotative and connotative meanings.
Having written this, I maintain a self-declared "Learning Presidency," so in this spirit I would like to converse with an advocate of such new use of language so I may learn why they seek such change.
And Then There Were Three
Further complicating and confounding the linguistic picture, and serving as the final nail in the coffin of the desire for a they/them paradigm is the new reality, and it displeases me to no end, of so-called Artificial Intelligence, comprising yet another parameter of understanding that we have to concern ourselves with, that is, another entity that we must ensure can understand our linguistic constructions.
They (or it) that must understand (or simulate understanding) of our constructions now includes:
Persons fluent in English.
Persons not fluent in English.
Computer circuitry called Artificial Intelligence, some of which will appear fluent in English.
October 07, 2022
Friday
130p
I just caught the tail end of an interview conducted by Alison Stewart, host of the NPR program ALL OF IT, in which she was speaking with "Kit" someone about their book on the purported history of transgenderism. Referring to the interviewee, Ms. Stewart twice spoke incorrectly of "their" book, ala': "And here's Kit Carson; the name of their book is..." Of course, immediately upon hearing the plural pronoun I thought of multiple persons. But there were no multiple persons. The propensity, indeed likelihood of confusion, perhaps great confusion, that will come about from this kind of construction, and the damage that it could wreak on this nation (and, indeed, the world), especially in a mission critical incident, situation, or environment where minute shades of meaning could actually mean the difference between life and death, whether of an individual, a country, or the entire planet. This reality caused me to realize, and immediately commit to, ensuring that such constructions are actually declared illegal in America.
Language must be precise, especially in our world fraught as it is with anarchy, violence, and technical, financial, and increasingly environmental chaos. Such profligate usage cannot and under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will not be tolerated. As stated near the end of this document, as President I'm going to provide you an America that has returned to SANITY.
Transgender and related persons can indulge themselves, or otherwise fashion their lives, as they wish. But they cannot ask me to remake the nation in like fashion--I simply won't do it.
Standardization of Knowledge
Pronoun use, already flexible enough to accommodate any and all social dynamism, will also remain as it is because of the necessity in this technical age for what I term the standardization of knowledge, presented and discussed, above. That is, the protocol and guideline that all knowledge, theoretical and practical, be available, passively and actively, to all people. This method of operation and communication objective becomes overly-complex when not just information must be standardized and disseminated, but the language of dissemination is or becomes nonstandard, as will occur if our longstanding framework of pronouns is compromised.
I assure you that none of this is occurring to persons advocating this perverse shift in our system of pronouns. Luckily, like so much else that's critical to consider in the governance and management of this nation, it's occurring to me--and I'm communicating it to you.
- Make English the Official Language of the Human Race -
NATIONAL DEFENSE - The armed forces shall be rebuilt into a fearsome and advanced fighting force, able to win full-scale wars on at least two fronts. Impediments to effective fighting such as fast or junk food, inordinate time spent continually fiddling with smartphones, or inordinate focus on pornography or sex, shall be severely discouraged.
Additionally, U.S. Force Readiness, i.e. training and equipment maintenance, shall no longer suffer in favor of acquisition of new weapons systems.
Moreover, the Readiness and national security absurdity of relying on Chinese or other foreign industry for key components for American military and related systems must be stopped. Our own capacity to create such components must be developed immediately.
As of May 2019 there is a similar problem in the pharmaceutical industry that must be stopped: in yet another example of the general and overall decline of America, U.S. pharmaceutical companies lack manufacturing plants to produce generic drugs, and must therefore rely inordinately on foreign manufacturing facilities in China and India, where tainted product is routinely manufactured, and companies often falsify records and destroy evidence to deceive the FDA, and compromise its inspections.
NATIONAL SECURITY - Clearly, one of, if not the, most potent threats to the physical security of the United States is the legalization, and even decriminalization of dope, including and perhaps especially the drug marijuana.
There is nothing an enemy would like better, and that would serve as a predictable prelude to American defeat or stalemate in both cold and hot war, than a stoned American fighting force, and stoned persons among the wide variety of support personnel, military and civilian, spread throughout the country and even the world, that our fighting force depends on.
Nor do any of these individuals need be actively stoned. A week of refraining from getting high means absolutely nothing for a person who's been getting high all the time, or even on a regular basis, for weeks, month, or years. The THC buildup in the bloodstream and fat cells, in concert with the multifarious weakness of mind and laxity of drive that regular drug use creates, will be more than sufficient to place our fighting forces at a decided, and likely critical, disadvantage, in any cold or hot war.
For these and other critical reasons Marijuana and all drugs will be strictly illegal under the De Benedetto Administration.
Whether you're military personnel or a weekend warrior enjoying parachute-jumping: all things being equal, whom do you want folding your parachute--the person who smokes dope, or the person who does not?
If the latter, then you needn't continue agonizing or simply wondering whether you advocate the legalization or even decriminalization of dope--you don't. And if your wife, kids, family, friends, manager, co-workers, and neighbors want you alive after your jump--then they don't advocate the legal./decrim., either.
Tell them.
All laws legalizing and even decriminalizing dope will be completely repealed as soon as possible. Legalization of dope injures the public intellect, and public behavior notably including resolve and will, critical in a time of hot, and even cold, war, thus strengthening the hand of our enemies. On the day that dope is legalized and even decriminalized in all 50 states, we can expect the enemies of America to host the biggest celebratory victory party the world has ever seen, in honor of the permanent evisceration of the strength of American spirit, character, will, and resolve, and thus American power, and the newfound relative ease of their continuing efforts to undermine this nation and its values, and by extension and extrapolation the entire West and all that it is.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
And how and why during the 1980s and 1990s, especially at a time when the United States was running around the world attempting to persuade nuclear suppliers to deny Iran even peaceful-use nuclear technology, did the United States and her allies miss the clandestine transfer in the mid-1980s of nuclear technologies from Pakistan to Iran?
This was arguably a national security blunder arguably as large as our failure to detect the 9/11 Al Qaida offensive against the United States.
LEGACY QUARTER
In the technology arms race it is asserted that if China gets 5G communications technology before us, they'll have a distinct techno-military advantage, as they could shut down all our electronic systems. Because being completely technology-driven does, in fact, make us almost completely vulnerable, we simply cannot permit ourselves to be completely technology-driven. Accordingly, under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION we will begin to build what I'll refer to as our Legacy Quarter.
This will be an extensive infrastructure, comprising about 1/4 of our existing physical and economic infrastructure that will not be technology-driven, or at least not Internet-driven, because it's several compromising characteristics of the Internet that render technology vulnerable to attack.
My platform because of phenomenon such as this calls for the U.S. to begin building a legacy quarter.
What if systems and subsystems comprising the Legacy Quarter, itself, must be digital? If they must, they must still be kept off of, and apart from, the internet, to dramatically reduce the chances of being hacked. The point is that our Legacy Quarter will be de-technologized as much as possible.
[NOTE: this suggestion to be removed from here, in advance of my 2028 campaign, to avoid alerting antagonistic forces.]
Immediately upon taking office I'm going to order our security agencies--all of them--to begin a serious inquiry into precisely who is advocating for the legalization and decriminalization of dope in America. For it's possible that our enemies, using front groups and persons, could be behind the apparent large-scale effort in the United States to legalize and decriminalize marijuana and related drugs.
Please also see a more extensive treatment of this vital National Security issue in the free online draft of my new book arguing against any introduction, with a possible medical exception, of drugs into American society.
JOHN MCCAIN - Voting for John McCain for President in 2008, I will never accept the ChickenHawk Donald Trump attacking and insulting the good name of John McCain--clearly, an American hero.
On the basis of these attacks, alone, neither Conservatives, nor anyone else should ever cast a vote for this out-of-order chickenhawk, although Donald Trump's baffling obsequiousness toward all-things Putin suggests that Mr. Trump doesn't even deserve the "hawk" portion of the pejorative "chickenhawk."
POLICE - I have formulated a seminal policing paradigm that I call T.A.B. POLICING. The T.A.B. component, to be revealed later, refers to an unusual approach to, or philosophy of, protection, rooted in Agape (i.e. Love of Neighbor) that can be incorporated into the basic policing function.
It most certainly will NOT involve de-funding the police.
Brothers & Sisters, Fellow Americans, there is but one way that the concept of "police" could ever become irrelevant: when there is a change in the human heart toward goodness, rendering the police, as presently defined, unnecessary.
Moreover, as a general protection paradigm or philosophy, T.A.B. can even reshape the way gun owners approach their weapons for home and personal protection, providing an interesting, intriguing, and exciting new dimension to both ownership of, and perspectives on use of, firearms.
More to come.
NATIONAL DEFENSE, MILITARY SERVICE - Every able-bodied American of at least 21 years of age shall serve a minimum of two years in the Armed Forces; three years recommended. Persons who cannot serve in a conventional capacity owing to age or disability, shall serve in administrative or other non-combat positions.
Once elected, or before, I, myself, as President will either begin basic training in a branch of our Armed Forces, or will assist at a local recruiting center.
It's impossible for me to do so at the present time, as I remain the sole full-time caregiver to my Mother, 90yo and bedridden.
Age of service in the American military to increase from 18 to 21 years of age, at which time we'll hope that at least a few of the toes of the recruit will have been dipped into adult waters.
Reasons for Compulsory Service
The Primacy of Ideas
In my book draft LOVE: PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD I assert that only Philosophy will save the world. By this I don't necessarily refer to the academic or even pragmatic discipline of philosophy, but more the focus of Philosophy on ideas. On ideas as drivers of both human behavior and change. We can subscribe to the "Great Man" theory of history, provided we understand, in keeping with my admonition that we always seek the root of a problem, idea, or circumstance, that a great man or woman is usually thought so because of something they have accomplished, some act or action in which they have engaged. But not any act would be seen as laudatory, only certain acts. Which ones? Why, those in keeping with our value system, that is, those that represent or embody those ideas that we consider most valuable.
For a simple, perhaps simplistic example: a man who murders ten people would not be considered a great man, for we don't generally value such a casual appreciation of life--cavalier disrespect for life is not an idea that we embrace. But a man who feeds ten people likely would be considered a great man, or certainly a good one, for the preservation and indeed expansion of life is a value, an idea, that we revere.
Ideas, then, drive the world, as contained in, and announced by, the subtitle of this document: "...the Primacy of Ideas," and Philosophy, among all disciplines, takes the idea as its foundational element: it's chunk of clay to be molded, its bloc of stone to be chiseled.
Why compulsory military service? Because America is, above all else, an idea, and a revolutionary one, at that, and every man, woman, and child must learn what it means to defend an idea. Must learn to defend those ideas that matter most, that they and their culture revere.
This will also resolve the present multi-year recruiting crisis suffered by the United States military.
Under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, each of us will serve two years in the United States Armed Forces, a time for which each of you will come to be thankful, for the ways that it has bountifully enriched, added to, not subtracted, or detracted from, your lives.
Seraph, an interesting and powerful character in the second and third installments of the The Matrix film series, asserts, in defining his role and raison d'etre: "I protect that, which matters most."
And so must we.
DeBENEDETTO PERSPECTIVES ON MILITARY SERVICE
Military service is noble and needed.
The ideal soldier, "the best of the best"?
When your martial skills are peerless. Second to none.
And so is your morality--so you may never have to use those skills against another human being, unless genuinely and absolutely necessary.
"WHAT YOU TRULY LONG FOR IS DISCOVERED BY FIGHTING FOR IT."
. . . . .
Message From Marines.Com Web Site Public Home Page
AGE OF ADULTHOOD - There will be serious exploration of increase in legal age of adulthood from 18 to 21 years of age in America, at which time all rights and privileges, and duties and responsibilities of adulthood shall begin, such as: military service, voting, and purchase or use of such items that can be hazardous to the self or others such as alcohol, firearms, and heavy or otherwise injurious equipment such as leafblowers.
If the massacres in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas taught us anything, firmly supported by years of developmental research, it's that an 18 year old human being is NOT an adult in cognition and emotion, that is, in brain development. It's time that our related legal infrastructure reflects this and once it does, much personal and social contortion will revert to a proper equilibrium and equanimity, resulting, especially in concert with then new reinforced ethic of love, connection, and trust between Americans, in fewer, if any, catastrophic events such as school shootings.
VETERANS & VETERAN'S AFFAIRS - We don't have to support every war to support those who fought in them. Some wars, of course, such as WWII, are universally supported.
INADVERTENT INJURY TO AMERICA - Of which the legalization of dope, as briefly outlined above, is an excellent example, occurs in other ways, as well. For example, if one listens to political talk radio, one is familiar with various "conservative" hosts who routinely hurl oceans of invective, sometimes vulgar, at various politicians and figures of the opposing political point of view. The excoriation is routinely so harsh that, if you didn't know that the host was referring to an opposition American politician--often the President of the United States--you'd think that they must have been, indeed could only have been, impugning one of America's enemies, likely her worst.
The problem is that if the most extreme language is used by American radio hosts in slander of American politicians, what kind of language is left to describe the genuine enemies of America? We'd want to use the strongest possible language to condemn and indict our enemies, yet it seems that this body of opprobrium has already been used to tear down our own leaders.
Accordingly, I intend to study this phenomenon and attempt to redress, or at least curb, it. Media commentators will be educated on this problem and urged to restrain themselves. I believe that the fact that we're all Americans, media hosts and politicians, alike, in concert with the new ethic of Love that will partially underpin my Presidency, will comprise a potent enough mix, force, to curb this insidious phenomenon.
EDUCATION - Mathematics and gymnastics will be returned to every school district in America. The former sharpens the mind, the latter, the body and the mind.
A central and permanent question that my campaign, like my work in social science for a long time now, will continue to pose, is: could the United States produce another Einstein?
My Fellow Americans, Brothers and Sisters; I assure you that the loss of two of the activities most relevant to the development of the mind, gymnastics and mathematics, will not assist in, nor increase the likelihood of the latter-day appearance of such a figure. Between this and the amount of distraction in our modern culture--from smartphones, to fast food, to deafening leafblowers, it doesn't, at present, look good.
This is going to change under my Administration, however--I assure you.
American theoretical physicist and wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, J. Robert Oppenheimer, credited, among others as "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II research project that developed the first nuclear weapons, said:
"There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago."
Who, then, will our next Einstein be? If a younger person, it could well be you! If a parent, your son or daughter!
Let's find out, shall we?
History
The teaching of history, from world to local, to all students, at all grade levels, will be a priority under the DE BENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION, for, as issued by George Santayana it's likely that "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," because history provides a frame of reference for understanding the basic logic, importance, and significance of the events and personages of today, that frame a vital key to understanding, and thus the ability to negotiate the events of today with competence, resolve, creativity, insight, and in a manner congruent with, if not Actualizing, our most important values. And of course, full knowledge of history is a key assist in coming to understand what those values are, in the first place.
The attempt to negotiate the present with little or no knowledge of the past, is like attempting to traverse a dense jungle with neither map nor compass.
History, American
Students and young people today know little of the history of America, their own country. This is going to change under my Administration. In fact, here are some resources for use in starting to learn American history, right now. Why wait?
THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA - This enhanced documentary series provides
of the "Robber Barons," America's legendary group of pioneering industrialists and bankers, this superbly-done series remains of note, and a must-watch and discuss. It provides a detailed portrayal of four of America's most famous, or infamous, if you prefer, "Robber Barons," those industrialist tycoons who, while generally acting without concern for the common man, or indeed any man including each other, built colossal, influential, and indeed vital industries often from nothing, that would form the industrial and financial backbone of America, permitting it to rise to global prominence, and then dominance, a role it would categorically occupy for many years to come.
To learn of these men and their exploits is to learn, at once, much of what can be seen as bad about America, and much of what can be seen as great. After watching and absorbing this narrative, you will understand America, your own country, and its values good and bad, far better, likely better than you ever have or could.
While this enhanced documentary series does not properly convey the misery and suffering among the American public (and likely, peoples elsewhere) caused by the actions of the "Robber Barons," America's legendary group of pioneering industrialists and bankers. Their often poor, if not abysmal treatment of their workers, the American population, and the country, generally, is not properly represented in this production, but could be, in a Zinn-style separate documentary series.
COMPETENCE & THE WORK ETHIC - Permanent public education campaign to dramatically increase the functional (and moral, see Love Ethic, above) excellence of America: all persons on the job are to get their noses out of their smart phones and focus competently on their job and their work. This exhortation directed to every role and occupation from police officer, to construction worker, to doctor, secretary, to armed forces member.
Under my Administration, America will see dramatic movement toward Actualization, that is, being the best nation that it is capable of being. Needless to say, large-scale successful introduction of such an ethic would put America back on the map in a huge way in terms of the worldwide appeal of its entire suite of products and services.
Jackpot!
None of this is even remotely possible, however, if the American population is fatigued, ill, distracted, high, or otherwise suffering any substantive form of what I term the decline of mind, which is largely why we must act with intelligent deliberation to preserve the mind, and why, therefore, we cannot permit engagement in any activity nor use of any substance or agent that compromises the mind, that is, our ability to think or engage any sensate function.
DEBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION 3-POINT PLAN FOR BROWN PERSONS AT HOME & ABROAD
Companies and governments worldwide are discontinuing their DEI programs, yet the problem of inadequate access to opportunity remains. Conservatives, of which I am one, far prefer a merit-based system of social and economic advance.
Accordingly, I have conceived and will soon pen my refined and innovative concept of such advance that I term my New Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion plan NDEI (or N-DEI). It will achieve the desideratum of increased, enhanced, and more balanced access to opportunity, and indeed realization of personal objectives based on that opportunity, yet be easily accepted and embraced by conservatives, and even Libertarians, as well as established DEI advocates.
Governmental, legal, and other organizations working in DEI may want to secure my services to research and produce this new plan, starting with a white paper, so it attaches to your own proprietary heading or sphere of influence.
REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY, FINALLY
This country has been dancing around the issue of reparations for far too long, for years of slavery and the associated unspeakable misery caused to the enslaved persons, with a long arc of subsequent pain of one kind or another to their descendants. The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION is going to stop this music and do what morality, and fealty to our fellow citizens whose lives have been adversely impacted because their ancestors started life in the worst possible position, as slaves, absolutely requires. Under my leadership, we, as a nation, are going to decide on a program or strategy of reparations, and fulfill it. What it will be has yet to be decided. If it will include financial remuneration has yet to be decided.
This might in some way balance the re-criminalization of dope that is going to happen under my administration.
5-YEAR HAITI RESTORATION PLAN
This section exists elsewhere at this site. Link pending. For now, please search "haiti."
GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION - The Department of Homeland Security will be renamed. Labeled under the George W. Bush administration, the lack of facility in language of the President may have been why this vaguely Nazi-sounding name was selected. Homeland...Fatherland?
Additionally, to my knowledge there is no tradition in America of conceptualizing the nation as our "homeland." Replacement names might include Department of National Security.
This title has bothered me since it was first ascribed, and under my administration it will be changed, forthwith.
COLLABORATION - Upon my election as President I will convene a round-table series of conversations with every former President, televised in whole or part, repeated as often as necessary.
As far as I'm concerned the Presidency in the modern age is a position of great complexity. Though one's vision for the country may be straightforward, as mine generally is, the devil is always or often in the details, and to wade through those details the experiences, and in some cases the intellect, of the former occupants of that Office could prove invaluable. Such conversations, at the very least, will demonstrate the politically expansive perspective of the De Benedetto Administration.
Nor am I averse to inclusion of persons of other parties in my Administration, as exemplified by the Abraham Lincoln, then Barack Obama Administrations.
ABORTION - My view on this issue has changed, somewhat. Follow my thinking, below.
We've got to stop killing Americans, so abortion shall be outlawed. A large scale, effective, nationwide network of adoption shall be created and fully funded, so as to integrate into the life of the nation and its culture. Said effort shall be promulgated globally to influence every other nation to stop the global genocidal holocaust of humans emerging in and from the womb.
The assertion that a woman's body is hers to control as she wishes is easily corrected, as it requires only a small technical correction: once conception occurs, there now exists a second body, not the mother's. This becomes clear enough after only a few weeks of development, when the new being will have formed their own hands, feet, and beating heart. As a separate body, and being, in accord with both American, universal, and natural law, it has de facto, and implicitly, it's own right to exist.
The abortion question, in large measure, is a consideration and examination of whether a given mother will enforce, or destroy, that right.
Termination of abortion rights will be of no real consequence, however, as no woman will have to keep and parent a child whom she does not want. All children are to be born, but unwanted children will be given for adoption immediately. This addresses the concern of the mother about keeping a child, while still sparing the life of the child.
Of course, those of us of age*, who have been around the block, know that after carrying her child to term and then giving birth, rare will be the woman, young or otherwise, who will look into the eyes, and at the face, of that infant and still elect to relinquish it.
ULTIMATE LIBERAL
Persons of liberal and sometimes even centrist politics take it as an article of faith that every vulnerable group should be protected and assisted--and of course they're right.
But their understanding of vulnerability and accordingly what groups should be considered vulnerable and rendered assistance is inconsistent. Indeed do liberals consider and construe many social groupings vulnerable, from the homeless, to minorities, to members of the homosexual and transgender communities. Where they fall down on the job, however, is in the premature termination of their list; its lack of comprehensiveness. They curtail their identification of such groups prematurely, meaning, there's at least one vulnerable group left to be protected.
Just when they arrive, or would and should arrive at the doorstep of this last vulnerable group do they permit themselves incongruity, that is, inconsistency, as that last group that is obviously and transparently our most vulnerable--what I term emerging humans, that is, the fetus and embryo in the womb, aren't on the liberal list as they cut it off prematurely, declaring it finished and complete.
I, however, in fashioning my list do not entertain such a shortcoming or oversight. My list does not suffer such a gap or omission, no such "hanging chad." I tally all vulnerable groups for inclusion, especially our obviously most vulnerable. I don't cut my list off unless every weak and vulnerable population is included.
Ergo, as I'm deliberately protecting and advocating protection for more vulnerable populations than most liberals, I out-liberal the liberals. As a conservative, I am the ultimate liberal: actually more liberal than most liberals, by their own standard.
Further fact and perspective can be found in my anti-abortion essay.
PHIL MURPHY
The Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, besides being instrumental in the legalization of dope in this state, and advocating abortion to term, seeks to expand abortion in N.J., and, in fact, make us a sanctuary city for women wanting to abort. In asserting this, I couldn't believe that I heard him use the explicitly oxymoronic descriptor "abortion care" at 11:13am (around May 10, 2022) in a news segment on NPR. He was noting his attempt to expand the murderous procedure in N.J. and he actually used that phrase.
Governor Murphy's advocacy of both dope and abortion makes perfect sense: smoking dope will likely encourage promiscuous, irresponsible sexual activity, probably leading to pregnancy. However, as Phil Murphy would probably tell you: a simple abortion clears this problem right up.
_________________________
*I've always proffered a mild objection to the de facto vaguely preferential descriptor "of color," used only to describe persons with brown-hued skin. As a Caucasian, I'm "of color," as well--my skin is beige. Beige is a color.
In of age, however, I've found a counterbalancing descriptor that I think is not just clever, but possessive of actual descriptive and explanatory utility (i.e. usefulness), as well. I define persons of age as minimum 50 years old. I, then, at almost 62 years old, am clearly "of age." Are you?
CRIME - Crime is a human phenomenon that is very easy to understand. Strictly speaking, crime is a rubric, that is, a category, that refers to and includes the aggregate acts of violation of the set of established laws, known as "The Law," in short, of a given society. One would typically say, for example, "He broke the law."
Crime, as a rubric, a class of violative actions, consists of acts such as theft, assault, murder, rape, slander, libel, trespass, transport of narcotics, use of narcotics, transport of child abuse imagery, creation of child abuse imagery, forgery, fraud, and many other acts that violate at least one established law.
CRIME, REVEALED
DeBenedetto Diagnosis
Let's understand what crime actually is. Crime is a template, an overlay that we place on certain kinds of transgressive behavior. If a kind of transgression is prohibited by a law, then its commission is called crime. It's important to understand this because once we do, we understand that in regard to these violations, whatever they may be, we're not actually dealing with a "crime" problem. There is actually no such thing as a "crime" problem, because there is actually no such thing as crime. There's only transgression against others, some forms of which are officially prohibited by man-made rules against that form of transgression, these rules being called laws.
Crime is an excellent example of our lack of connection. Is your mother or father going to mug you? Is your son or daughter going to steal your car? Is your next-door neighbor going to burn your house down? Is your cousin going to rape your wife? Is your best friend going to hit you with a baseball bat? Is your child's school principal going to commit fraud against you?
The answer to all these questions is: "Highly unlikely."
Why? Because in all these cases the possible assailant has a human connection to you--husband, wife, son, daughter, cousin, grandmother, grandfather, best friend, neighbor, high-school principal, and persons don't generally harm others with whom they have or feel a connection. So even the crime problem would greatly benefit were there a greater sense of connection among people.
Thus, when we apply the DeBenedetto Diagnosis the crime problem evaporates, and we're left simply with we had before and, in fact, have always had, nothing less and nothing more: human transgression, the mistakes that we all make, of every kind.
I've claimed in this Internet document that Love, properly understood is the foundational answer to every human problem. So-called crime is another excellent example, as even crime is affected by Love--in the presence of Love crime is virtually non-existent.
Now that we've cleared the field conceptually, and clearly understand what we're dealing with, we can address the problem.
DO NOT BREAK THE LAW
Legendary metal band Judas Priest got nuthin' on me as I resolutely warn every American:
DO NOT BREAK THE LAW. This admonition applies to all persons violating or considering violation of the law, whether in a street gang, the corporate boardroom--or the Police Department, itself. The arm of the Law is long, indeed, and eventually you're going to get caught. For some of you, those egotistical or simply dumb enough to imagine that you're not getting caught and you never will, your apprehension and arrest is going to be particularly traumatic for you--because you simply never saw it coming.
It's coming. Law Enforcement is out there and it's watching. Perpetual lawbreakers will come to its attention sooner or later. BE SMART--whatever illegality you're involved in, stop it immediately. Consult a lawyer if necessary to ensure that you really are in the clear and will not be arrested or charged even after the fact, in other words even after you've ceased your activities. Yes--that can happen.
Breaking the law is particularly egregious (i.e. very bad or severe) because in most cases it hurts other Americans, other human beings. You DON'T want to do that. Remember the 2nd plank in my Presidential platform? CONNECTION. Bringing Americans TOGETHER, which we must do to save this country (and the world, BTW). Crime also contributes to chaos and anarchy in society--I think we have quite enough of that already both in American society, and around the world, don't you think?
So do yourself, your family, your community, and this country a favor and DO NOT BREAK THE LAW, in any way, whether infractions large, or perceived small.
NOISE - OUR NEXT GREAT AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE
As this Internet document will, and many other on-and-offline print and other resources have, documented, noise, a problem garnering essentially no attention from those in authority nor even our mainstream environmental organizations, is, in fact, an utterly horrific problem for everyone. Noise is a many-headed hydra whose aggressive tentacles reach directly into every sphere of American life, and directly into the human mind, itself.
The most egregious, pernicious, and insidious noise problem today is probably the gravely-misnamed leafblower, thoughtlessly besmirching the good name of the gentle leaf.
For the most tentative of beginnings, please see Quality-of-Life, below.
QUALITY-OF-LIFE - Among the key issues eroding American's quality of life is noise, so this issue will be aggressively redressed by the De Benedetto Administration.
Redress of this problem is also, like restoration of gym and math considered above, relevant to whether the United States could ever produce another Einstein. Given present noise levels across much of America, especially from that now-ubiquitous device, as odd as it is injurious as it is superfluous--the so-called "leafblower," one can't even hear themselves think, much less generate the intensive and extended streams of thought required to achieve Einsteinian excellence in Physics, or any other discipline.
Another Einstein? In fact, with present levels of noise and cultural distraction I wonder whether the United States could even produce another Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.
These unnecessary devices, moreover, are significant contributors to climate change, a problem now of existential proportion, so for this reason, as well as the noise, vibration, and toxic airborne mix that they generate--they must, and will, be gone under my Administration.
In fact, you'll find this "Another Einstein," the "AE Question," serving as the grand referent or arbiter on many questions of policy and program: if a given action would tend to increase the likelihood of producing another Einstein, the De Benedetto Administration will tend to support it, and vice-versa.
Best, Brightest, by the Boatload
"Quality of Life" (Q.O.L.) is a notion and reality that covers a lot of ground in terms of what it means, and to whom it applies. For example, besides describing the relative satisfaction of life in America for our own native-born citizens, Q.O.L., poor Q.O.L., can affect the flow of talented foreign students and professionals who elect to emigrate to America for her premier educational institutions, and later to live, work, and we presume achieve here at the highest levels, further enhancing and burnishing the image of America, as both the center for global innovation and the country offering the most advanced, robust, and world-class post-graduate education and research facilities, programs, and opportunities.
Questions, then, pertaining to noise, levels of violence, and a number of other Q.O.L. parameters remain key for short-and-long term viability of this nation for everyone, native-born and foreign, alike, and as such will remain fixed on my radar as President.
If your activities, equipment, or technologies generate disruptive levels of noise, or are outright crimes, be warned that they, and you if uncooperative, will be at dead-center of my Presidential bullseye.
FIREARMS / GUNS
What is the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION going to do about your guns?
I anticipate no significant changes to federal, state, or local gun policy.
The basic gun policy of the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will be: if you're so inclined, GO BUY A GUN; the best that you can afford. You and your family will enjoy hours of target practice, trap or skeet shooting, enjoyment of ownership, and mastery, of a fine instrument, an experience not that much different than owning a fine watch, set of carpenter tools, fishing pole, or even a metal detector for "coinshooting" or general treasure hunting, and of course a likely enhanced feeling of personal security in and around your home. And if you're someone who has traditionally eschewed (avoided) firearms, you'll benefit from the bit of distance traveled outside your comfort zone, including the benefit of seeing and experiencing "how the other half lives."
And don't underestimate the importance of this last benefit, as it is rooted in, and an excellent step in support of, the very first plank in my Presidential platform: bringing Americans together.
Now back to basic firearm ownership vis-a-vis the official gun policy of the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION: yes, aggressive encouragement of voluntary safety checks and secure storage. Occasional reminders that, as intelligent policies bear fruit and citizens tend to feel safer, we do want, as biblically prescribed, to voluntarily beat as many of those guns into plowshares as we can, as soon as possible.
And we must and will seriously consider the views of the law enforcement community, as this is the group going up against firearms every day.
I take this general "hands-off" policy position because:
We have a tradition in America of legally-mandated gun ownership. We are a gun culture. It is not the place of government to abandon or emasculate essential American traditions.
Guns, inanimate objects, are not our problem, anyway. Our problem is people, us, and the moral void in which we live, an American and, indeed, human family lost in the ethico-existential wilderness. And as such, striking out at others using any weapon we can find. Just yesterday came the news, for example, that a man in Norway killed five persons using...a gun? No, a bow-and-arrow.
Most gun deaths are suicides, again suggesting that what at first blush is an issue of weapons is really something else, in this case a society that evidently breeds inordinate despair, and/or psychological instability.
The affinity that many Americans have for guns is comprehensible. Aside from hunting and sport, we're drawn toward guns because we rightly perceive the present danger and volatility (i.e. wild unpredictability) in society: that our property and even our lives, or that of our loved ones, can be taken from us at any time through violence or theft, and we see guns as providing protection and control, which, of course, they do.
Of course, what we're talking about here is the critical issue of TRUST, discussed above, already under aggressive attack in the United States. And likely to worsen as increasing numbers of states ignorantly throw themselves from the highest precipice by legalizing drugs, such that an increasing percentage of the American population will be walking around high, compromising every part and factor of operation of this society, as well as contining the existing erosion of the human brain.
America becoming a third-world nation? With this sort of trend, we should be so lucky.
Arguably, a key reason that guns are a necessity in a society, implicit in the original cited reason conceived and penned by The Framers, is that it's my right not to trust you. The problem is, certain societies or certain elements within a society, whether individual, government, corporate, tribe, clan, or any other grouping of persons, in some cases no doubt thinking themselves with the best of intention, will override my right and use force, themselves. When the "Human Services" Department of my town appeared on my doorstep an April 07, 2022, with both men and women wearing guns on their belts, commonly called "police," with related vehicles in the street, and told me they were here to ensure the "well-being" of my Mother, and to do so were coming into my home, and I had nothing to say about it, they were unquestionably employing the threat of force. I never met any of these people in my life, why should I trust them? With my Mother's life, no less? Answer--I shouldn't. Unless I elect to. It's my decision. Had I elected not to trust them, and they insisted, which they would have, it would arguably have been my socio-existential right to stop them--and for this I would likely have needed a gun or other weapon, or at very least an impregnable house. And even this latter means of repulsion would have been of limited utility as I'd be leaving the home sooner or later to market, exercise, or visit a friend, providing a temporal window of entry to the invaders.
In fact, with reference to the vexation or confusion in some quarters regarding why semi-automatic or even automatic weapons are necessary, I again refer to this group of about five or more persons on my doorstep, at least two of whom were police officers: had I elected to exercise what should be my socio-existential right to protect my beloved Mother from this group of complete strangers asserting a right to her, only a such a weapon would have had the necessary dispersive firepower to readily repel the entire group.
But what of all my previous work in social science advocating the creation, as does Dr. King, of the much-vaunted and long-awaited Brotherhood of Man & Woman, a society, nay, community, nay, human family based explicitly on Love?
What of it? Much as it's said that "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having," it might be argued that the Brotherhood of Man & Woman without civil liberties and all putative characteristics of a modern society emerges from the womb crippled.
In any society, Trust must be earned, not forced by unilateral excision or exclusion of the tools of mistrust--like guns.
(10:11a, Sunday, June 05, 2022; the characteristic of Trust is so valuable in a society, along with Truth, that I think I'll capitalize it from now on. This is my first time, just above.)
In fact, rather than any subtraction from the firearms-owning experience, through my new T.A.B. paradigm for personal defense and protection, briefly introduced above in my POLICING section, I'm going to bring an interesting, exciting, and certainly challenging addition!
I will add at this time, June 2022, that I personally do not own a gun, nor any other weapon of any kind, nor have ever even held a gun or other weapon.
TO MY GUN-OWNING BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Hard-Core, Hard-Care
Fellow Americans, Brothers & Sisters, being a gun culture doesn't mean that this is all we can be--the America that I know, that I've always known for her excellence and exceptionalism is a place that is nothing if not tough, confident, innovative, successful, and flexible on all counts.
Ergo (i.e. therefore), America can have and be a gun culture and a culture of love, respect, and support for one another, and, in fact, as many hard-core firearms enthusiasts are also Christians, we might remind ourselves of our roles not just as gun enthusiasts, but Christian gun enthusiasts. And thus our duty and desire to remain committed to the continuing maintenance, and growth, of our American Christian culture. We want our hard-core gun ownership and enthusiasm to bring with it hard-care, that is, the active attention to, and assistance in, the welfare of others that is the radical love that Christ taught, the Second Great Commandment of Christ, in fact.
IF WE'RE TO BE A NATION WITH ESSENTIALLY UNRESTRICTED GUN OWNERSHIP, we must counterbalance this right by deliberately maintaining ourselves as a nation actively living the principle of Love toward each other, all the time, across all situations and circumstances. This, whether we elect to ground our belief in Love in God, or some other religious or philosophical principle or perspective. Fellow Americans, Brothers & Sisters, just as Conservatism is not an excuse or euphemism for bigotry, gun ownership and our 2nd Amendment right must not be an excuse for wanton and thoughtless killing, or narcissistic aggression or even intimidation.
Even with a gun in your hand, in fact, especially with a gun in your hand, you always try very hard to save that life, not extinguish it. You shoot for the knee, not the heart. And in doing so, you reveal your own merciful heart.
We must all realize that there is a world of difference between the various firearm spheres: owning a gun, in no way means that you must use the gun, and using the gun, in no way means that you must kill with the gun. Each of these can be understood as its own fully separate sphere of reality and experience.
I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT YOU'RE A GUN OWNER. I WANT TO HEAR THAT YOU'RE A CHRISTIAN GUN OWNER. BECAUSE IF YOU'RE A CHRISTIAN GUN OWNER, AND YOU TAKE YOUR CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES SERIOUSLY, WE MIGHT NOT NEED ANY GUN REGULATION, OR ANY ADDITIONAL REGULATION, AT ALL.
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
. . . . .
V, Protagonist in the Film "V for Vendetta"
HOMOSEXUALITY (i.e. being gay) - Persons feeling themselves to be homosexual shall undergo a prescribed period of psychological counseling, perhaps three years, to ascertain the validity and veracity of said feelings. Said counseling shall include humane, collaborative attempts to de-emphasize homosexual impulses in favor of heterosexual. After the aforementioned period of counseling, however, if said individual still fully understands themselves as homosexual, or gay, then reality has spoken and as many universal rights and privileges that can be afforded them, will be.
Homosexual individuals are brothers and sisters in our one human family as any other person, and, as such, are to be loved and respected.
Cultural elements that tend to confuse sexuality, or homosexualize men (or women), such as "transsexual" pornography and Drag Queen Story Hour, shall be sharply discouraged, or outlawed.
TRANSSEXUAL / TRANSGENDER - This seeming conundrum is easily resolved: a key concern of conservatives is that the conventional male-female structure be preserved. Yet, in transgenderism we seem to have a third gender. The correct way to understand this phenomenon is that what is called transgenderism is actually a transition period to one of the two conventional genders, which, once attained, leaves the male-female model fully intact.
For example, if a male asserts that he is actually female, the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will recommend the following therapeutic sequence:
3-5 years, minimum 3, of high-quality therapy so the individual can confirm in their own mind that they are, indeed, female (it is during this period that the individual can informally consider themselves transgender or transsexual).
Upon conclusion of therapy, if the claim is sustained the gender of said individual will be officially, legally, and permanently changed, all documentation such as drivers license to be modified to reflect the gender change, and both government and society will thereafter consider them female--thus preserving the male-female gender structure.
This solution, by the way, also contains within it the proper and viable answer to the pronoun problem, for if, after all, there are indeed just two genders, no change in pronouns is required.
MEN, DE-MASCULINIZATION OF - American culture, without question, has shifted toward an amelioration of the traditional qualities of masculinity, in favor of the feminine, and an emerging Matriarchy. This cannot stand, and will be redressed under the De Benedetto Administration.
Are you aware that the Chinese government, wisely attempting to curb what is perceived as the feminization of its men, has implemented a formal program to this end?
And what of the United States? In disturbing and unacceptable contrast, we have, instead, Drag Queen Story Hour.
The De BENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will reinforce natural, appropriate, traditional gender roles, and encourage cultural conditioning to this end. Every American male, for example, will make an effort to familiarize themselves with, and enjoy, heavy metal music and other decidedly masculine musical forms.
OUR CREEPING MATRIARCHY
Americans must, at the present time, ask themselves one critical question: Have we, or do we intend to, discontinue the male gender in this country? Because it certainly seems that this is the way we are going (right down to the newfound fetishization of cucking, that is, relegation of the role and sexual status of the husband in a marriage such that other men, but not him, have sexual relations with his wife, and he, in a docile manner, cooperates, or even encourages this arrangement).
If we're to discontinue gender MALE, let's simply admit it, get it over with, castrate all males, attend the next Drag Queen Story Hour and be done with it. From then on, the sole determining hormone in America will be ESTROGEN. Testosterone need no longer apply.
Men, vote for me or get ready for the coming Matriarchy. Clearly, increasing numbers of woman are in positions of power in this society, and I don't know if, in the main, they're all that interested in traditional conceptions of maleness and masculinity. Some clearly are not, especially since they tend to conflate or at least conceptualize maleness with being Caucasian (i.e. "whiteness") and also in some measure being older in age.
I have my own hard personal experiences with this explicitly emerging trend that attest to it. To be discussed.
WOMEN, DE-FEMINIZATION OF - American culture also seems to be shifting toward, if not an outright lesbianization, then a generalized amelioration of some of the traditional qualities of femininity.
The unique and beautiful character of the female voice, for example, is slowly being ground through a dirty alchemy into an irritating, raspy-throated imitation called vocal fry.
DEBT, INCLUDING STUDENT LOANS - THOUGHTS AND POLICY PENDING.
ECONOMY - There shall be a serious reconsideration of reinstatement of the gold standard, with all unsupported currency withdrawn from circulation.
Additionally, we shall likely centralize, streamline, and thus economize all government income distribution plans such as General and Unemployment Assistance into one stream, the Universal Basic Income. Though presently under discussion in America, in fact this idea was far earlier proposed by social philosopher Erich Fromm in his 1955 masterpiece THE SANE SOCIETY.
Brothers & Sisters, study this book, along with Dr. Fromm's noted THE ART OF LOVING, particularly his chapter on Brotherly Love (also called Agape [ugg opp' ay] in the language of Greek philosophy).
UNIONS
TO CEOs, Et al.
It is the policy of the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION to discourage the formation of unions. The perceived or actual necessity to form a union indicates the presence of conflict between workers, and ownership and management, that is, viewed more broadly, such an impulse indicates the continuing presence of conflict between Americans. Again, the first plank in my Presidential platform is BRING AMERICANS TOGETHER. This instruction is serious and must be taken very seriously for the division that has overtaken America, especially in the last ten years or so, since the end of the Obama Administration, it is thought, is slowly tearing this country apart, concomitantly relegating her and her population to third-world-nation status.
NOT ON MY WATCH.
If you wish to deter the formation of unions at your facility or across your company or industry, I suggest that you dig down deep into your religious beliefs or other spiritual system to reacquaint yourself with the values they teach regarding other people. Most such belief systems and traditions instruct care and concern for others; some religions, such as Christianity make such direction explicit and unmistakable. The Second Great Commandment of Christ is to love your neighbor, your neighbor being, of course everyone. Traditional Conservatism, moreover, always includes a strong component of Christianity and Christian belief.
If you want to deter the formation of unions, be the kind of CEO whose behavior makes it clear to your employees that you are sincerely and comprehensively looking out for their interests. And bring sufficient wisdom and life-experience to bear to understand that this active connection to others should form the basis of your moral posture and orientation to the world regardless of your corporate position. As CEO, the most visible post in your organization, your obligation to set, and act upon, the strongest and most credible moral standard is absolute.
Moreover, while collusion is a crime, cooperation between companies for the benefit of workers is to be encouraged. For example, you'll lose your fear of raising employee wages if you know that all other companies in your industry are doing the same thing. There is nothing wrong with coordinating with those companies to effect this, and indeed everything right and moral with it.
An intense interest by employees in union formation suggests a lack of a Love ethic in whole or part at the workplace on the part of the owner, or in the particular industry by the group of owners. Love, properly understood, can be the solution to the potential problem of union formation, as well as to essentially every other social and economic problem in this country, and across our world, as my Presidential platform and other writing, and that of many other powerful thinkers on Love, make clear. Love, and Love, alone, as a seminal dynamic, robust, and extensible force and principal, brings the country into social, economic, political, and personal balance. Use it to the benefit of your company and industry.
REGULATION
I will not blindly jettison established nor pending regulation--but I certainly will conduct intelligent, good-faith review of any and all regulation. Those that genuinely serve no purpose will be offered for revocation.
PRESERVATION OF THE HUMAN RACE - The United States shall lead an international effort to build a powerful planetary defense, in case of extra-terrestrial attack, which scientists increasingly consider possible.
I will not permit America (nor the human race) to get caught with its pants down, however unlikely some consider this possibility.
HEALTH
NOTE: THIS HEALTH SECTION IS TRANSITIONING TO MY LONGSTANDING HEALTH & HEALING SITE KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH, WHERE IT ACTUALLY BELONGS.
After reading this Health section, please begin studying the above site. It is excellent: very well researched and chock full of wisdom.
TOUCH EVERY LIFE
Why am I, right in the middle of my campaign platform document, inserting fragments of information about health? As one interested in health and nutrition for years, I state categorically that these are not fragments, they are just about the most important health counsel anyone could give you--far more important, in fact, in the immediate than even a change in President.
Who says that I can't start saving American lives now, even before entering the White House? The point is to assist, even save, the nation. Being in the White House is simply a method to permit me to do this far more quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
As President it's my duty and my pleasure to take as active a role as possible in improving the lives of the entire American population--every single one of you. The U.S. Census Bureau projects the United States population was 332,403,650 on January 01, 2022.
If you want to begin saving the life of yourself and your loved ones, co-workers, and neighbors, carefully watch and heed this guidance on eating.
And again, any workers displaced as America transitions to a healthy or healthier lifestyle will receive active assistance from the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION to secure new and possibly better positions.
Indeed, one of the taglines of my campaign--because I genuinely feel this--is that I want my work and the work of my Administration to Touch Every Life. I want to ensure, and I'm going to so instruct my Cabinet, that it is our mandate to ensure that at some point during my tenure in office something we do will touch a life, such that every life, yes, all 332M of you, are helped in some way, large or small, during my time in office.
Touch Every Life means--touch your life.
KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH
Please note that the content in the above HEALTH section is meant to work in conjunction with the health-related information at my master health site, KEYS TO GOOD HEALTH.
MY PLATFORM
SPECIFIC, MORE NARROW ISSUES
BLOCKCHAIN / CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Analysis Pending.
Preliminary judgment on Cryptocurrency: Do not support, as U.S. currency is already global standard, helping maintain American dominance in world economic and financial matters.
Additionally, as technology grows more complex and thus drives an increasingly complex world, key or foundational systems, or at least the principles, predicates, and paradigms that underlie them must remain relatively clean and simple. One national currency is optimal based on this standard.
Complex systems paired with complex foundational ideas are simply too overwhelming for beings of a finite lifespan, the point of which, after all, is to create and maximize human happiness and freedom.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0
Analysis Pending.
MURDER - PETITO, GABBY
Firstly, our Deepest Condolence to Ms. Petito and her family.
Crime is a natural part of a society devoid of any formal and official adoption of the Love ethic.
Ms. Petito was killed, and indeed many other horrible things happen in this country and world. People ask "Why?"
This is the wrong question. In a society absent Love, the question is: Why not? Why wouldn't people commit transgressions and violations of every kind, as there's no genuine and widely promulgated and adopted moral code to inhibit them?
"The Law" alone is not enough, for, how many laws can we possibly pass? Can we pass a law to cover every single violation and transgression that human beings are capable of conceiving and executing, now, and a hundred years from now?
Impossible! The only real answer is the one that no one considers, and insofar as they do, dismiss as unrealistic: a change in the human heart.
Indeed, brothers and sisters, if you're a serious Christian, or a member of any of the belief systems underpinned by Love, you already accept and believe this thesis, or are supposed to.
Given such an ethico-existental change or shift, the many violations and transgressions that we commit against each other will simply not occur in the first place, from corporate corruption to street crime and everything in-between. I say that what's unrealistic is the assumption that the human race can continue hurting itself as it does, and still think that it's going to survive, much less flourish.
And happily, Love, properly understood, is powerful enough to accommodate the necessary shift to a Love-based culture. This is why every major philosopher and theologian through history has venerated Love as essential. As stated above, incorporation of Love into our society is a core part of my Presidential platform, as contained in the document that you are now reading.
MURDER - BUFFALO, N.Y. TOPS MARKET
Firstly, my Deepest Condolence to the family of the ten victims.
As stated, above, in regard to the Gabby Petito murder: crime is a natural part of a society devoid of any formal and official adoption of the Love ethic, and the larger argument and reasoning thereto remains the same and applies.
In terms of the necessary task of removing euphemisms and conceptual overlays, "crime" simply refers to the phenomenon of violation or abrogation of existing laws and the deleterious consequences of this violation or abrogation, referring in the first place to actual codified laws, as opposed to natural, moral, or spiritual laws, or other of those that exist only conceptually.
Now, specifically, I'm struck, first of all, by the near-ubiquitous reference to the 18-year-old child who committed these murders as a "man." His professed reason for the crime is based on the so-called Replacement Theory.
UVALDE, TEXAS MAY 24, 2022 ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING
Another child mass murderer, 18 years old in this case, and the victims mostly children, as well. Children killing children; in some respects not unlike the reality of children having children.
In regard to every such event, I maintain my assertion that the United States does not have a gun problem. This is why the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will not seek new firearms regulation. When the fullness and entirety of the reality of life in the United States is scrutinized, one realizes that what America has--is a LOVE problem. Love, properly understood, not as a passive, wishy-washy, irrationally self-denying or sacrificial principal, but, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and select others have realized, in my own language: "the most powerful social force available to Humankind."
Do you know that most gun-based death in America is not one American murdering another--but one American killing themselves? That's right, most gun-based death in America is from suicide, the ultimate act of nonLove--toward oneself. And what drives someone to this supreme, overarching, and final act of nonLove? Obviously a deep despair or sense of hopelessness from one or more causes, often physical or psychological injury from others, or even loneliness, perhaps in combination with associated factors like mental illness, general emotional instability, or use of, or exposure to, chemical agents whether legal drugs, that is, pharmaceutical medications, or illegal drugs (now increasingly made legal in America), or environmental toxins affecting the brain such as chemical lawn treatments, or the exhaust and particulates spewing from the back end of gas-powered leafblowers and lawnmowers, found everywhere now in America.
In sum: suicide sees every manner of causation that would simply not exist in a formally, and thus explicitly, loving society.
By the way, this 2022 Summer season also finds, within sneezing distance from my house and property, a new company doing chemical mosquito treatments using what appears to be high-volume spraying using a leafblower-like device. Such chemical sprays, besides entering nearby homes through doors and windows, volatalizes, that is, enters the airstream where it can be breathed by human and animal, alike. It is precisely this sort of activity responsible for the hundreds of chemicals already in the bloodstream of infants right from birth.
And the truth is such treatments are not needed to eliminate mosquitos, here: manual control techniques in this neighborhood will more than suffice--this isn't the Amazon or the Brazilian rainforest. It's a rare resident whose lawn and yard isn't tiny.
Now, in addition to exposure to every other chemical in which we are already awash, whether outside the body such as lawn treatments and restaurant spraying, or inside the body through consumption of non-organic produce and other food products, we can add exposure to these mosquito-repellent sprays. And this is all in addition to the newfound clouds of marijuana smoke to which we're now forced to breathe, as an increasing number of states legalize dope and many of our neighbors take up the official Call to Harms and begin smoking. Let it never be said that this city, and many like it across America, isn't doing everything in its power to harm it's residents both physically and psychologically, especially the young and the old such as my 91yo Mother.
Indeed is life in America nothing if not an epic of pain and dysfunction of many kinds from many sources, from the leafblower operator who has superfluously destroyed your quality of life, to doctors who prescribe pharmaceutical drugs without robust discussion with their patient regarding the possible kind and severity of side effects, to local neighbors feigning devout devotion to God while studiously and categorically ignoring you and your family, thereby traumatizing your elderly mother, with whom they previously had good relations, to food companies such as Amy's who represent their premium-priced products as extremely healthy, when many of them contain safflower or sunflower seed oils that destroy arteries and blood vessels leading directly to stroke and heart attack. And a million-and-one other sources of physical and/or psychological pain, coming at us all the time, usually because of the actions and behavior of other people. Against and in the context of this tableau, mass murder is understood not as anomalous, but simply congruent (i.e. consistent) with the general framework of pathological narcissism characteristic of the United States. Properly understood in this manner, the shooters of Uvalde, Buffalo, Sandy Hook, Columbine, and every other such social catastrophe, it is realized, are not freakish anomalies--but comprehensible actors in a morally and functionally incomprehensible and often dysfunctional social framework.
We see that whether one American killing another, or one American killing themselves, the lack of Love, or failure to bring Love into the circumstance or situation, Love for the other or Love for themselves, is a key factor of causation in these violent events. In both cases LOVE, properly understood, is key, which is just one of the reasons that restoring and building Love and connection between Americans is the #1 plank in my Presidential platform, another being the effort to save American democracy, itself, as democracy actually requires the attitudes and behaviors associated with Love, as discussed elsewhere at this site.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand," said Abraham Lincoln.
Relatedly, under my order the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will direct all Chiefs of Police to instruct their officers that in the event of catastrophic crime events such as school shootings they are to make every effort to refrain from killing the killer,* this way we can: appropriately save the life of a brother or sister who was obviously in deep psychological pain if not suffering actual and explicit mental illness, and 2.) question the individual/s to determine, in fact, what did motivate their actions. Their motivation will likely be some combination of 1.) influence of legal or illegal agent such as marijuana, especially as now legal in the United States, 2.) emotional posture such as anger or revenge, and/or 3.) discreet psychological abnormality.
End of Police Raids
Additionally, besides TAB policing I intend as President to call for an end to police raids. Not an end to police intervention, even intrusive intervention in a home, apartment, or business when genuinely necessary, but to the aggressive, armed interventions that have such a terrible record for mishap, sometimes resulting in injury or death to innocent persons, and even the standard for "genuinely necessary" is going to be raised.
I don't see why, in the majority of cases, persons sought by the Justice system can't be persuaded to emerge from their domicile using simple conversation by trained mediators. Sought-after persons are human beings, and in the majority of cases Americans, as well, and thus worthy of respect. The troubled person holed up somewhere eluding the Authorities, today, could be the productive contributing member of American society, tomorrow.
Under the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION no American is left behind, period.
______________________
*Refraining from Killing the Killer, that is, "Don't Kill the Killer" is a key part of my seminal new Policing paradigm, TAB POLICING, mentioned elsewhere in this document but not yet formally presented and explained.
I'm also inclined to call for police officers, at least in certain commands, to refrain from carrying guns. Non-lethal means might be acceptable. Before you give yourself a stroke over these notions, recall and consider the implicit policing paradigm of the old Andy Griffith show: Andy Taylor, the sheriff, never wore a gun. His skills of charity, understanding, empathy, and persuasion carried the day with the great body of citizens with whom he interacted. Barney Fife, his deputy, did wear a firearm on his belt, but it had just one available bullet--which was always kept in his buttoned shirt pocket.
More.
JANUARY 06, 2021 CAPITAL INSURRECTION - Contrary to what some conservatives and others assert, that the insurrection holds no importance, likely because they want former President Trump exonerated of implied guilt for it, I assert the obvious: that incident is one of the most significant for the country in modern times, for it cogently illustrates that:
The American people are no longer a unified, patriotic whole, as we were for much of the 20th-Century.
Recall the cohesion of the American population during World War II, for example. In fact, at no time in modern American history would the American population or elements within it have even dreamed of assaulting and encroaching upon the Unites States Capital in such a manner. It would be unheard of--as it still is, thankfully, for most Americans.
Disunity = Weakness
The American people can be likened to the fingers on the human hand. With the palm open and all five fingers outstretched and splayed apart there is little strength to the hand, as each finger standing alone and apart does not permit or facilitate the collective strength latent in all the fingers when together in unison. The present egoistic disconnection between Americans embodied in the 2021 insurrection and events like it is akin to the hand in this open position, with individual outstretched fingers--there is no real power or strength.
The American people united and unified, however, is an analogue to the hand as its fingers close tightly together, forming a fist: a colossal, unstoppable force.
Unfortunately, there has developed within the American population large-scale elements who evidently hold the law in complete contempt.
This group in whole or part appears to have cohered around Donald Trump, a formation whose allegiance he appears to relish, not repudiate.
Drumpf & the Backdoor Rise of Cultural Socialism
Donald Trump's actual last name is Drumpf.
America has always stood well apart from, and strongly opposed to, socialism in any form or variant. Yet the rise of Drumpfism has brought with it, and coaxed forth into bas relief, what may comprise the early seeds in America of that form of socialism called Anarchism, or simply Anarchy. Libertarian socialism, being, for example, yet another form.
As a political philosopher, and member, previously, of the Socialist* movement for about 30 years, I'm familiar with these notions.
Whereas the America of years past was marked by cohesion in almost every national sphere, from support for the war effort of World War II, to the collective effort to rid the country (and the world) of polio, the American people were one. Politically, the opposing party was not the implacable enemy seen as anathema to be vanquished--or worse ("HANG MIKE PENCE"), but "the loyal opposition," to be reasoned with, argued with, implored, even deplored--but always ultimately seen as the other legitimate half of the body politic.
However, notions such as the loyal opposition comprise elements of American culture requiring institutional memory, little or non-existent among young, and even older, Americans who all-too often live their lives with their noses stuck in their smart phones, thus remaining essentially ignorant of the history of their own, or for that matter any, nation. Perhaps as President I'll declare illegal the so-called smart phone, actually serving to keep Americans stupid, and thus, in all too many cases, disloyal if not traitorous. This phenomenon was seen most recently by the actions of the motley and sordid collection of imbeciles who stormed the United States Capitol in January 2021, thereby, among other things, illustrating as a fait accompli American society actually becoming more anarchical, more like anarchy, and less like what it is, a centrally-governed republic.
The strain of socialism implicitly encouraged by Drumpf is anarchy, toward which the United States appears to be lurching, a political form defined as a society without a central hierarchical governing structure, the population divided into individual self-governing units. So, he who declared AMERICA FIRST, his pronouncement as imperious as it was vacuous, is indeed the first to bring America to the brink of socialism. This current is unwitting on the part of Drumpf, as he appears generally ignorant, and certainly, especially upon first taking office, fully ignorant of politics, its process, and its universe, having referred instructively at that time, in fact, to "...this politics stuff."
When Drumpf asserted AMERICA FIRST during his inaugural address, little did he or even we realize that what he actually meant was, ON MY WATCH, AND BECAUSE OF MY ACTIONS, AMERICA WILL BE THE FIRST CIVILIZED WESTERN NATION TO DISINTEGRATE AND DESCEND INTO POLITICAL CHAOS AND ACTUAL ANARCHY.
There are two persons on this planet from whom political power must be kept: Vladimir Putin and Donald J. Trump. Indeed, perhaps what they have in common, that seems to have comprised such a baffling relationship, is a disdain for Democracy, itself, and its processes, and by extension the West, itself. Drumpf's almost immediate persecution upon taking office of his own intelligence agencies, those guardians, in fact, of the West and its titular and functional head, the United States, is particularly troubling until one realizes and reconciles within oneself, psychologically and intellectually, the role of such behavior for Drumpf: whether wittingly, reflecting his disdain for the West, or unwittingly, his low level of awareness impeding his understanding that his actions are injurious to the West, Drumpf still acts to hurt the West. He evidently can't help himself.
Which is why it is imperative that we help ourselves by preventing this erratic, ignorant, and downright dangerous boob from ever holding political office, again.
. . . . . . . . .
Oh, and by the way, as some of you may know: our former President also has a history of evidently terrible bone spurs, partly why he avoided serving in our U.S. military five times.
*The Socialism to which I subscribed was not that of malign historical actors like Lenin, Mao, Castro, Guevara, or Trotsky, whose thought I explicitly reject, but schools of thought generated by such thinkers as psychiatrist and social thinker Erich Fromm, the Christian socialists, American Socialist Daniel DeLeon, and of course Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose Beloved Community is similar to my notion of the BROTHERHOOD OF MAN & WOMAN (site temp. down).
MESSAGE OF HOPE FOR KIDS REGARDING GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA
PARENTS AND TEACHERS: LETTER BELOW FOR CHILDREN NO YOUNGER THAN EIGHT YEARS OLD; TWELVE IS BETTER. YOUNGER CHILDREN SHOULD BE FULLY SHIELDED FROM THESE EVENTS.
Hello, Kids
Kids, you may have heard about the recent gun violence in Uvalde, Texas or Buffalo, N.Y. In both cases a child of just 18 years old killed other children, and some adults, using a gun.
These events are extremely traumatic. They leave us sad, if not in despair, confused, angry, and eventually, searching for solutions, perhaps with frustration as we begin to realize that such solutions are not always forthcoming (i.e. not available right away). But rest assured, your parents are here for you. As are your teachers, counselors--and me. I will always do my best to assist you in any way that I can. You may always contact me, at any time for any reason, at OneHumanFamily@fastmail.net, or on my Presidential campaign telephone line, listed below. I seek to be your President in 2024, though my offer to assist is something I would have done, anyway. I offer my personal assistance because I want each of you to know that, yes, someone on this planet, someone in this country, cares about you. Yes--you.
If you elect (i.e. decide) to call, try, if possible, to have an adult there with you as you speak with me. They can be on the other line with you; that would be great, if possible.
The Crimes
Now, regarding these recent crimes: first of all, don't focus on the weapon, a gun. If people want to harm others, they will find a way to do it. If there is no powerful gun available, they'll use a less powerful gun. If there is no less powerful gun available, they'll use a knife. In Norway, recently, a man killed five persons using a bow-and-arrow.
In other words, kids, weapons are a problem, yes, but not the main problem.
As far as guns, America has a gun culture and this is very unlikely to change. Which ultimately doesn't matter because the root of the violence problem is not the weapon used, but the desire of a human being to kill or injure another human being. For that matter, why would someone want to harm another person in any way, at all? This is the basic problem: the willingness of people to hurt other people, regardless of how they do it.
And what about violence done by humans to animals? Do you know where your hamburger, chicken sandwich, or morning bacon or sausage comes from? They all come from animals that are raised and then killed, sometimes painfully, so you can enjoy your food. Shouldn't we be fighting this kind of violence, too? It's simply something to think about, to make you realize that violence is a much bigger phenomenon, in other words a much bigger thing, than you might be aware.
Our Most Powerful Tool
Luckily, we human beings have a tool in our toolkit, so to speak, that can solve the problem of human violence. It's a tool that many thinkers, philosophers, and religious believers have talked about for many years. It's the most powerful social force available to we human beings, and if we would just understand, embrace, and use it, we would probably lose the impulse to harm other human beings and all violence would likely (i.e. probably) cease.
The tool to which I refer, and of which I speak, is, of course, LOVE. Once we understand that Love is not a passive and ineffective principal but a powerful and effective one, when properly understood and employed, we'll have begun our journey from a violent, aggressive, and selfish society to one of Love and Brotherhood. This is my declaration as well as that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Is this possibility real? Is it realistic? Yes, it is both. Join me and many others in learning about this tool and using it, and we'll transform American, and for that matter every, society, on Earth, into a near-Heaven on Earth!
Religion & God
What of the role of religion and belief in God?
Many feel that the rise in America of gun violence roots in a decline in religious belief, or perhaps no belief, at all. For purposes of this MESSAGE OF HOPE FOR KIDS REGARDING GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA I will assert what I've been asserting for years: it continues to appear to me that religion remains a key locus (i.e. center of activity) of moral teaching and advocacy, and insofar as systems of religious belief decline there can be, and likely is, a concomitant (i.e. happening at the same time) reduction in public morality, resulting in increasing disconnection between Americans, a prerequisite for mass murder.
In other words, when people, especially troubled or immature people, feel apart or separate from most other people, they find it easier to harm or even kill those other people.
If you are part of a faith tradition there is nothing wrong with turning to that faith both for succor (i.e. relief or comfort), and possible solutions, provided, in my opinion, that such effort is paired with remedial action in the actual, external world.
Homework
Do not despair over recent events; instead simply replace ANXIETY with ACTION. Begin by carefully reading and studying this website, this book, and the chapter on Brotherly Love in THE ART OF LOVING by Erich Fromm.
(No commission earned through the above link; emplaced as a convenience to you. Jumps to Barnes & Noble, not Amazon, as the latter supports the legalization of drugs.)
Also, you and your parents should be aware the #1 plank, or belief, in my Presidential platform, or program for the American Presidential election of 2024 is to establish Love, connection, and trust between Americans. Then, neither murders nor even lesser acts of injury to one another would likely occur.
I also recommend, at the outset, that you begin reading or studying, again, perhaps listening to, free, Dr. Fromm's signature work The Art of Loving, especially his chapter on Brotherly Love (57:00 time index), as this orientation to our brothers and sisters in our human family, indeed, is foundational to the establishment of the Brotherhood of Man, the new organizational paradigm this site introduces, describes and recommends, or, similarly, as Dr. King has conceived it, the Beloved Community (Note: linked audiobook reading of The Art of Loving is not fully complete. Consult text, also).
Why do you have to read and study to solve this problem? Because it's a complicated problem and like any complicated problem the answer isn't necessarily simple to discover, and if you do discover it, it isn't necessarily easy to do. For example, you might think the problem of gun violence in America could be solved if the government forbids people from owning guns, but many gun owners in America will not accept this kind of rule. So we've got to find a solution that everyone, or at least most people, are comfortable with.
I also strongly recommend that you work with your parents or teachers in reviewing my other analyses, above, of recent American mass-murder events such as have occurred in Buffalo, N,Y. at the Tops Friendly Market, and Uvalde, Texas at the Robb Elementary school.
More.
Why I am Not a Republican
In reading my policy positions, which are generally conservative, one might wonder why I haven't simply declared myself a Republican. Aside from my respect for the progressive, small "P," work of the Democratic Party over its recent history, and general posture of actual and active care and concern for all peoples, I remain generally enthralled with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a figure who, while not perfect, himself remains a man both titular and practical for so much of the values of love and goodness that this country, and indeed this world simply must have, if it is to survive, no less, Actualize.
Moreover, the Republican Party has shifted character dramatically, indeed radically, in its continuing embrace of Donald Trump, and especially his continuing, preposterous claim of victory in the 2020 Presidential election, a short-sighted and ignorant figure who appears, in regard to the January 06 Capital insurrection, to have inspired it, if not provided a de facto authorization.
Regarding the absurd assertion that former President Trump actually won the 2020 election, I'm just one of a string of writers and commentators who note the broad spectrum of authorities who have soundly and thoroughly debunked that claim. In fact, the former President and his legal team were fined several times for initiation of frivolous lawsuits in this regard. Yet, inexplicably, the Republican Party, at least broadly in terms of on-the-ground electoral politics, have essentially made concurrence with this fantastic assertion a litmus test for election.
And I wish to point out, in defense of a proper Conservatism, that it is agreement, or at least acceptance, of the verdict of the established electoral mechanisms and bodies of one's own society that constitute the clear Conservative posture, while Mr. Trump's view that so many Republicans now seem to accept as an article of faith, that he won the Presidential election, and his attempt to reject, and indeed violently or otherwise forcibly overthrow that result, thereby defying established governmental mechanisms, is not the Conservative response, at all--but the RADICAL one. Of this there is no question. Thus, much of what appears to be the Republican Party of today actually embraces the same theory and ethic of to-the-ramparts, violent revolutionary action that is the stock-in-trade, the coin-of-the-realm, of radical political groups and figures. In this, the Republican Party appears to have fueled its own devolution and retrogression into some kind of proto-party: an earlier, amorphous assemblage with yet-forming ideals and principles, the civic and moral courage and clarity forged by years of Republican thought and action--gone.
Were I a Republican, I'd be asking in this regard, not merely what Jesus would do (always ask this), but what Nixon, Reagan, Eisenhower, and indeed just about any Conservative (or moderate, or liberal) politician would do, were they in Mr. Trump's electoral position at the finish of the 2020 election. I don't see any of these vaunted figures humiliating themselves and America with infantile antics in conjunction with a very real quasi-violent attempt at overthrow of staid and traditional electoral principal, praxis, and institution of the Republic.
There is a very important recent article by Francis Fukuyama proffering a cogent and highly pedagogical initial deconstruction of this event, the continuing Republican response and posture, and their pointedly deleterious effect on the role and status of the United States in the world, therefrom.
Moreover, the committee charged with investigating the January 06, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capital and the role of former President Trump and Republican leaders, therein, finds an almost complete lack of cooperation from these leaders and others associated with the former President. From the New York Times of May 26, 2022:
UPDATE
March 21, 2025
Donald Trump has been in office about two months, ravaging the United States, and the West, while supporting fascism and dictatorship explicitly and implicitly in manifold ways. Our dear brother Donald, presuming his sanity, is 1000% traitor to this nation, its system, history, and values--and to the many Americans, and others, whose blood was shed, and lives were lost, defending these things.
And, incredibly, and tragically, the Republican party, itself, has, and is, in the main, supporting just about everything the Trump administration is doing. We've heard of RINO, Republican in name only (rhymes with "rhino"). I now introduce my term AINO, American in Name Only (also rhymes with "rhino"), and declare the first three persons to induct into that Hall of Shame:
Trump, Donald
Musk, Elon
Vance, JD
These three men have proven by their behavior and statements that they support both Russian and German fascism. It is unfortunately not an exaggeration to assert that those in control of the American government support, aggressively and directly, or mildly or indirectly, Nazism.
Every assertion here fully corroborated.
I cannot be a Republican, then, because, with few exceptions, the Republican party is clearly now the Traitor Party, or the Insanity Party. Or, if its supposed Christian values are considered, the Hypocrisy Party. I do not declare myself a Republican because that party has now devolved into something else: a group now not merely of extremism--but explicitly anti-American, violent extremism, and as such, is no longer a sound, legitimate, and productive example, expression, or part of what America is.
Ranting & Raving
Secondarily, I don't declare myself a Republican, nor fully relate to that party, as so many of its most public de facto or purported representatives, typically media personages such as radio talk show hosts, like Mark Levin or Michael Savage, seem little more than small-minded, vindictive, purveyors of little more than invective. I've listed, particularly, to many hours of both of these hosts and in my view they represent the Republican Party, or at least Conservatism, poorly. Where is the focus, not on who's right, but what's right? Where is the assumption that the Democrats are the loyal opposition? Younger readers may be wholly unacquainted with the latter notion.
During the Obama Presidency, I heard Michael Savage level Ad hominem invective at the President any number of times. It was clear that Mr. Savage despised him personally, and he made no attempt to hide it, but was actually profligate in his attacks. Whether I voted for Barack Obama or not is immaterial to this concern. Mark Levin, whom I've listened to any number of times, besides having a poor radio voice, is, to me, almost unlistenable as his monologue follows its predictable pattern: he slowly works up to an enraged fever pitch that is always my cue to switch him off. He also appears to engage in personal attacks, or at least focus on persons and personalities, not just ideas, theory, and programs.
Where is the reasoned, soft-spoken, magnanimous Conservative commentary and analysis? The fact that Christianity comprises a traditional part of American Conservatism calls unequivocally for a loving posture on the part of Conservatives, at least Christian Conservatives. I hear nothing like this in major radio media such as WABC-RADIO NYC. Commentator David Brooks strikes me as an able and emulatable representative of a general Conservatism.
Thirdly, I don't declare myself a Republican, nor fully relate to that party, because, though my own present-day political programme calls for market-based solutions whenever possible, the Republican party in the main appears to hue to the blind dictates of capitalism too reflexively. I was surprised to learn recently that no less a guru and exponent of free enterprise than economist Milton Friedman asserted that markets cannot be permitted to operate with no supervision or governance:
FRIEDMAN QUOTE PENDING
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."
. . . . .
Leonardo da Vinci
BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT/ORGANIZATION - Do not support BLM. Support Dr. King. Do black lives matter? Of course, this goes without saying.
And Blue Lives Matter, and All Lives Matter.
RUSSIA
UKRAINE INCURSION
"To subdue an enemy without fighting is the greatest of skills."
-- Sun Tzu
And such is NATO and the Biden Administration rightly trying to subdue Russian President Vladimir Putin without firing a shot. Gross restriction of Mr. Putin, his associates, and Russia, itself to operate freely and to its own benefit, including in the area of economic activity, may prove an effective counter, and should be and is being attempted.
For example, oil, in particular, is a mainstay of the mediocre Russian economy, and thankfully, longstanding U.S. ally and key NATO member Germany has finally gotten on board in threatening to cancel all further development and operations of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a major project to convey oil from Russia directly to Germany and the larger European Union. For Russia, this has got to hurt--let's hope so.
War, I have said, is almost categorically unacceptable and is to be eschewed and urgently avoided because, among many other deleterious consequences, it will make one child cry. The child can have no understanding of what is happening around them; can have no full, mature understanding of the violence, terror, and physical destruction at their feet. Bad enough we traumatize adults this way; we cannot do it to children.
The DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will continue all military and other aid to Ukraine in the continuing face of the Russian offensive. Ultimately, however, the United States is not defending and assisting Ukraine, we're defending and assisting Democracy. We're defending Civility, and civilization, we're defending decency, we're defending nonviolence, we're defending cooperation, we're defending morality. In sum, we're defending all that America is, aspires to be, wishes for the world, and will actively assist in creating in the world.
My Platform includes several key steps intended to strengthen U.S. military capabilities and project that newfound strength to the world, thus, itself, comprising an effective counter to untoward action by Russia or any other state actor.
ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS
In the continuing spirit of Love toward, faith in, and respect for, the American people, including both our entrepreneurs and established companies, of all kinds and sizes, I offer the following set of my original entrepreneurial ideas, free for the taking by anyone, to help generate new business and economic activity, and propel America to the very pinnacle and summit of the economic mountain.
In my capacity as President, I will assist in securing and building business based on these, and other, ideas.
{LIST PENDING}
ABOUT ME
Part I
I am a 64 year old native born American, holding a B.A. in Philosophy from Seton Hall University. My original writing on Terror has been quoted and cited by the New York Times. The gist of my piece: that, for eight substantive reasons, the Twin Towers must be rebuilt to a minimum of their original 110 stories. This is why the web site where I published the piece was, and remains, called 110Again.org. It's now a general anti-terror portal, though updated infrequently.
I have a strong helping orientation. I adhere to, theorize about, teach, and indeed practice Love, properly understood. I help a lot of people, often in small, though meaningful ways, each day. I try to bring Love to many, if not every, exchange with other human beings. I routinely give a $1 tip to each gas station attendant who pumps my gas: I'll order $19 worth of gas but hand the attendant a $20 bill. Just this morning, in observing my local recycling crew dump our bottles into the recycling truck, I tried, and succeeded, in catching the eye of one of the young men, brown skinned, likely African-American, who dumped our baskets of bottles. Upon catching his eye I smiled and demonstratively waved Thank You, which he, of course, responded to in the affirmative, himself.
A few years ago, in line at the local Stop-n-Shop supermarket a group of young orthodox Jewish boys were ahead of me attempting to purchase various snack items, as I recall. They were lacking money, so I said, Hang on, and reached into my pocket, where I was intending to give them $5 (my last $5). As it turned out they refused my help, but we did have a brief exchange about why I would so volunteer to help them, "strangers," in this way.
Years ago, I attempted to secure funds for a young woman in front of Lee's Hawaiian Islander restaurant in Clifton, N.J. When I came back with the money, however, she had evidently gone. Ditto with another young woman seeking money to buy diapers for her baby, soliciting shoppers in the parking lot, again, at one of my local Stop-n-Shop supermarkets. Upon having secured the money while in the market and leaving, I couldn't find her, though as I recall I had advised her to wait as I'd be helping her.
About a year ago a group of young Caucasian and Hispanic kids couldn't believe it when, not only did I buy them their "Biggie Bag," that is, a discount bag of food from Wendy's restaurant, but I handed them their $10 bill back, telling them, "It's on me." Their collective jaws dropped and one of them actually said, "God bless you, Sir."
This is me. This is Vincent Frank De Benedetto. I do these sorts of things all day, every day--trying to establish positive contact between we human beings, and in doing so teach Love, confirm its power and utility, and, in the best of cases, seed the ground for the eventual establishment of a world based explicitly, in its every dimension, on Love.
Am I the only human beings committing such acts? I'm sure not. If you are, or wish to be, such a person, I strongly encourage you to join me, and begin supporting me and my work, as a writer, philosopher, musician, and in my other roles, and now as aspiring Presidential candidate. Help needed is cash, of course (please see PayPal button, below), and/or assistance with tasks.
I assure you that we will see the development of neither a United States informed by Love, nor a world, unless we of such mind work together.
Real World Politics
In terms of real-world politics I consider myself a conservative Democrat, though it's a virtual certainty that I'd never vote for any Democratic candidate, as they all seem to advocate abortion. Generationally, I'm a Baby Boomer, of which Wikipedia asserts: "The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the post-World War II baby boom..." My generational status and identification is likely one of the reasons that many of my beliefs and corresponding political postures are conservative.
Though a huge Star Trek fan, I, by choice, have not seen even one episode of Star Trek: Discovery, nor will I, as, for one thing, I reject a Star Trek series with an explicit homosexual theme, or at least explicit homosexual behavior. Over my many years as a fan, I've always understood Star Trek to be a family program. I even objected strongly, and still do, when the Data character used an epithet (i.e. curse word; vulgar term) in the ST film Star Trek: Generations.
So what am I--some kind of boy scout? Response: what's wrong with the Boy Scouts?
Other than the fact, ridiculously, that they've been forced to let girls in, a decision condemned in the first place by none other than the Girl Scouts organization, itself.
Consistency! I eschew Star Trek series or episodes trading in unsavory or nontraditional themes such as homosexuality or displaying such behavior for the same reason that I elect not to restrict gun ownership: because I respect, and thus elect to conserve what is, especially when what is is generally working, including that which represents a more elevated morality or moral position. Regarding guns, America is a gun culture, rooted in our very Constitution and it's not my place as President to try to use my governmental power to change this. Regarding Star Trek, similarly, this series, for much of its earlier history has always been known, gratifyingly so, as family entertainment, and this is the show character that I've retained in my intellectual and emotional memory. So I will and do reject any Star Trek content that departs from this desirable standard. This obviously does not mean that I fail to recognize the reality of homosexuality. Our homosexual brothers and sisters must be loved as we love everyone in our human family. I do ask, as President, for everyone's benefit, that they undergo certified therapy or a similar formal process for at least three years to confirm their professed gender-orientation and identification.
I am a writer and philosopher working with unique and powerful social and political ideas; comprising a statement of principle, plan of action, and personal and social belief system. Were I to become President I would attempt to recast the nation based on this programme. I am working with this plan now, prior to becoming President, and I'll be working with this plan after my bid for the Presidency, whether I'd won, or not. The only difference is that were I to win, I'd have the opportunity to implement this unique and powerful plan and likely improve the country immeasurably, in a way that, frankly, no other candidate likely could.
Please also see THE BEST OF WORLD CULTURE, a kind of companion site to this one, presenting and describing what I feel is important in society, and OUR BETTER SELVES, my Internet resource containing several of my politically-related essays.
Last, search my name as presented for my 30+ web sites, each conceived, researched, written, and built by me, and incorporating my basic perspective.
Reach the Vincent Frank De Benedetto 2024 Presidential Campaign at: NINE SEVEN THREE - SEVEN SEVEN NINE - FOUR NINE ONE FOUR.
The form of my telephone listing, above, represents my possession of a wide-ranging knowledge of the multifarious (i.e. of many kinds; diverse) computing technologies in use today, which a modern-day U.S. President must. Using alphabetic characters, above, instead of numeric in listing the telephone number for my campaign may cause this contact point to go unnoticed by the telephone number harvester software bots operating across the Internet.
ABOUT ME
Part II
LITERARY & PHILOSOPHICAL CONTEXT & BACKGROUND
My 2024 Presidential Platform, the book length document you are presently reading, is a new addition, or closely related, to my three volume AGAPE TRILOGY, under-development, listed below, though intends especially to work together with Volume I of that Trilogy, LOVE POWERFUL.
AGAPE TRILOGY
LOVE POWERFUL
NEIGHBORS OF DEATH
THE ACTUALIZED SOCIETY
My work prior to my present run for the United States Presidency was of a kind of political thinking called "utopian," in my case advocating for the creation of what I term a CMNL (pron. "communal") society, that is, a 1.) classless, 2.) moneyless, 3.) needs-based, and 4.) love-assisted socio-economic system, the long dreamt-of Brotherhood of Man, in fact, similar, if not identical to, the BELOVED COMMUNITY of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Though with different objectives, utopian thought and advocacy exists, as well, in fact, in the argument and objectives of thinkers such as Ayn Rand and the modern American Libertarian Party, of which Ron and Rand Paul are exponents. Utopian thought of one kind or another is somewhat irresistible to, and a common product among, political philosophers, of which group I count myself.
My 2024 run for the Presidency of the United States is not generally based on my previous utopian thinking, but the reality and realpolitik of America as she stands historically and today. Thus the objective of a DE BENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION is not a radical shift toward the creation of a utopian CMNL/communal society, but the perfecting of our present American society, based squarely on our founding documents such as the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and related historical precedent.
Insofar as there are values, principles, and characteristics common to both kinds of societies, such as Love, properly understood, you may see them mentioned in the content, here, in my Presidential Platform document and larger campaign. Love and connection, for example, are required for either kind of society to succeed, and as the long history, grossly intensified in recent years and even now, days, of mass shootings, and even now the recent January 06, 2022 Capital insurrection, themselves, clearly illustrate, as discussed above, love and connection between Americans is even required for our democracy, itself, to function.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand," stated our 16th President, a gentleman you may heard something about--Abraham Lincoln.
THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS THEN
Have a Day
Our liberal democracy embodies a political model and paradigm that, though a clear manifold advance against its predecessors such as Monarchy and Feudalism, must be seen as an inferior model relative to that which is desired and indeed demanded by the unyielding emerging moral principle of today, technically and socially possible: Love. I wish to announce as it must be said that in representing and seeking to optimize our present system of social organization as I'm doing in seeking the United States Presidency, rather than continue to militate for the clearly far-superior model, the Brotherhood of Man united in and as a Communal society, I represent neither my best self nor put my best foot forward. But if the America of today is to be improved, which we and the world desperately need, I've no choice but to work within the existing framework. It's flaws and their redress are virtually transparent.
Andiamo
I am a 61 year old Italian-American. In background I am "full" Italian, meaning that both my Father and Mother are Italian.
As many know, if you really want to get something done, especially that requiring energy, vigor, commitment, or creative, innovative thinking, or, using a different skill set, assertiveness, courage, or even aggression--you likely need and seek an ITALIAN. Well, stop needing and stop seeking--you've found him.
Does the name Leonardo Da Vinci mean anything to you? An Italian polymath acclaimed as one of the greatest thinkers of all time.
How about Galileo Galilei? Enrico Fermi? Guglielmo Marconi? Michaelangelo? Or in the sphere of music, Enrico Caruso? Tony Iommi?
Fellow Americans, andiamo (on dee om' oh) is Italian for: "LET'S GO!"
Take Hold of the Flame
A lifelong music fan, I enjoy almost all forms though favor selected metal and hard rock such as Queensryche, Black Sabbath, and Dokken, and love classical music, as well, and country. I lament the apparent recent loss of the one country radio station broadcasting in the New York City area, where I reside.
The official song of the DeBenedetto Campaign is Get Together by the Youngbloods. See above.
I remain an amateur metal guitarist, composer, and vocalist. I remind fellow Conservatives and others that "metal," though perhaps not to everyone's taste, remains a European musical form, and thus close to the classic American cultural project.
...children of the world
Listen to what I say
If you want a better place to live in
Spread the word today
Show the world that love is still alive
You must be brave
Or you children of today are
children of the grave...
-- Children of the Grave, Black Sabbath, 1971
Touche'.
My Day to Day
What is my life like, day-to-day?
With neither hyperbole nor sentimentality, I state that my day-to-day existence is characterized by one word:
PAIN.
Many, if not most of the moments of my life are painful, psychologically, physically, or both. Primarily the former. Illness has made my adult years difficult: physical illness in my family, and the overwhelming social illness of my society. In social science the usual term is pathology. So substantial, injurious, and shocking has the latter been, that it has generated its own volume, NEIGHBORS OF DEATH, publication pending.
Yet, I endure. And in the realm of political theory, and the construction of a philosophical paradigm that can save this country (and this world)--I achieve. I live principally in the life of the mind though my ideas are battle-tested in real life, as much as they can be.
And this works out rather well in terms of me representing you as President, because you know who else lives largely in pain?
You.
Or certainly many of you. The truth is, we all do in some measure. That is, to one degree or another.
Working together, however, let's turn PAIN into PURPOSE, PRINCIPAL, POWER, and a PARADIGM of achievement and Actualization.
For ourselves, America, and the human race.
No, I'm not kidding. Agape, brotherly love in the language of Greek philosophy, is simply that powerful.
DECLARATION
"Somebody has to save our skins."
Princess Leia, Star Wars: A New Hope
Why do I want to run for President?
I don't want to run for President.
But now in the year 2022, more than at any time in my life or the life of this nation, I find myself completely surrounded by dysfunction, often gross dysfunction. It's essentially everywhere, starting with my own sole sibling, a sister, A.W.O.L. (Absent Without Leave) from our family just about her entire adult life, no matter how desperately we need her help, and ending with, well--it simply doesn't end. That's the problem. The behavior of numerous other persons in my local sphere also illustrates a strong level of dysfunction, as well, chronicled in my volume under-development NEIGHBORS OF DEATH.
Regarding America, I look around me and see a country that's lost its way, has lost its identity, is being grossly mismanaged, all at a time of global military, technological, epistemological (i.e. concerning knowledge), environmental, and personal crises. I readily see through the problems to their solutions, and so I run as a duty.
Writing today, then, Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at 3:57 pm, I declare that, over the last two or so weeks I've decided to attempt a run for the Presidency of the United States. Such decision and its consequent action is not rooted in ego in any measure, I have little interest in ego, but in confidence that the confluence of 1.) my intellect, and 2.) knowledge of Agape (i.e. brotherly Love), these both filtered and burnished through my unique life experience, can, in good measure, right many of the very many wrongs afflicting this nation, and in the best of cases, the world.
In fact, there is a mutual affliction between the United States and the world: this country, and the larger geopolitical sphere in which it exists, the world, share many of the same problems.
I did not begin my volume, LOVE: THE MOST POWERFUL SOCIAL FORCE AVAILABLE TO HUMANKIND, nor its two sister volumes, my AGAPE TRILOGY, in support of a Presidential run, but study of that work will be vital to understanding my approach to governance.
My governance of this nation, and the influence that such management will likely have on the world, will be based on Agape, as this principal is unquestionably powerful, dynamic, robust, and extensible (i.e. scalable) enough to comprise such a foundation. Of course, the principle is generally misunderstood even in regard to what is traditionally understood as its native area of relevance, personal and social relationships. Many will find its application to practical politics baffling. I'll explain all in due time, however, and the nation and world may just find itself surprised, amazed, and eminently cheered.
There is one thing and one thing alone that can change the face of humanity, and that is Love, properly understood (my Plank #1).
Especially in concert with a dramatic improvement in our competence and functional capacity (my Plank #2).
AMERICA NEEDS AT LEAST ONE ADULT IN THE ROOM
THAT WOULD BE ME
I AM "OF AGE." Many in American culture speak of persons "of color." I am introducing the notion "of age," referring to persons such as myself who are over 60 years old.
As one "of age," I remember America as she was. Old America. The America that our younger people simply cannot remember, as they were simply not alive in those years, so they are unacquainted with America when she was tough, competent, principled, and feared. The America that we must return to--then exceed. Or continue to atrophy and deteriorate economically, militarily, culturally, and morally.
MY STOCK-IN-TRADE IS MORALITY, to far-reaching positive effect for the nation and her people. See below, and indeed all of this site.
Perhaps like Lincoln before me, I realize that "A house divided against itself cannot stand." This is why President Lincoln ended slavery, and it's why the first plank in my Presidential platform is CONNECTION--the need to re-establish, or establish, love and connection between Americans. Presently such values are eroding fast revealing not much bond between Americans, and mostly division. Division become so severe that it fueled the 2021 insurrection at the United States Capital, a catastrophic event pregnant with distressing and dispiriting implication that would have been unthinkable even twenty years ago, and certainly during the earlier periods of our "greatest generation/s."
This country is on a continuing path toward third world status, and it won't stop until someone of influence, presumably an American, recognizes it, discerns the cause/s, and deliberately produces legislation or makes use of other national mechanisms and tools to stop it. Indeed, the values that comprise "Love, properly understood," my consistent writing tagline, are precisely those required for Democracy to function, such as: goodwill, respect, tolerance, cooperation, empathy, and even solicitude (i.e. deep caring) and compassion. As stated at the beginning of this site, American democracy is failing because American morality is failing. If I don't care about you, or perhaps even elect to actively dislike you, or worse, why would I care about your political opinions or positions, and want to see them, through the voting process, become the law of the land?
Again, this is a unique and powerful observational insight from me that you are unlikely to hear from any other candidate.
Moreover, caught in the psycho-social stranglehold of such an antagonistic, adversarial mindset, would I be inclined to view you as "the loyal opposition," a charitable, and for much of our history generally accurate conception of persons with differing political views from our own, perhaps very different? No--I probably would not be inclined to view you as such. And in such a climate of social enmity it's unlikely that you'd be inclined even to see yourself that way, or behave in accord with that magnanimous view. Thus would this mutual failure drive the creation and persistence of a vicious cycle that would serve in explicit opposition, and then sooner or later destruction, of American democracy.
All because in our quest for the perceived rewards of both profit and ego, the vaunted, or at least putative "twincentives" of modern liberal capitalist democracy, we paid precious little attention to that value underlying our most cherished systems of belief, especially for so many American Conservatives who declare Christian belief a key element in their world view: love of neighbor, or in my conception, Love, properly understood, or, as so many simply know it: LOVE.
Unlike just about everyone else, from citizen, even to our current generation of political leader, I have NOT lost sight of the many dangers of drugs (i.e. dope, marijuana, etc): from erosion of the human mind, that which we should hold most dear, as it is our most valuable tool, to an explicit threat to American National Security. In fact, drug use and America becoming a drug culture is an explicit threat to the very existence of this country.
Accordingly, I will immediately terminate the sale and use of drugs upon taking office, and drugs will remain illegal and criminalized. Consider the "Cannabis" (read: dope) industry Kaput (i.e. failed, dead) upon my elevation to Office.
Where there's smoke there is quite likely fire, and, the June 2023 Canadian wildfire debacle notwithstanding, so-called "artificial intelligence" (no, I will not capitalize it) or "A.I." IS SMOKING LIKE A MOTHER.
In fact, brothers and sisters, fellow Americans, WE ALREADY HAVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: OUR OWN. DOES ANYONE READING THESE WORDS IMAGINE THAT THE HUMAN MIND AND BRAIN HAVE BEEN FULLY CULTIVATED AND DEVELOPED?
ALRIGHT THEN! OUR OWN HUMAN MIND HAS NOT YET BEEN FULLY-DEVELOPED. FAR FROM IT. Why then divert voluminous amounts of social resource to develop a purely and patently fake mind or brain?
I REST MY CASE.
Many other reasons. Study this document.
ABORTION TEST
As another Presidential candidate (or simply a citizen), do you imagine yourself to be "an adult in the room"?
Fair enough. But--reality check.
Do you support abortion? This is a procedure by which an unwanted nascent human being, whose tiny "heart" tube is already beating 65 times a minute by the end of their fourth week of life, is either cut up in the womb, then their remains sucked out with a medical vacuum cleaner, or is salted to death, their remains then sucked out with a medical vacuum cleaner, or sometimes is simply vacuumed out, period. In all cases, their body and remains are literally thrown in the trash can.
Yet, Mr. or Ms. opposing candidate, you support the right of another human being to kill this human being or have it killed? It might be the mother wishing to kill it, the father, the mother's parent or parents, a relative, or a close "trusted" friend. In civilized society we consider and call the deliberate killing of a human being murder. You support murder, yet consider yourself an adult in the room? You are clearly an unthinking child in the room, and in this appellation I'm being charitable, as some might call you a criminal in the room, as murder is a crime. Definition:
Criminal, noun. One who commits a crime.
Women need not worry; no rights will be abrogated. If you don't wish to keep your child, they will be shifted to the integrated NATIONWIDE ADOPTION NETWORK that the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will establish. See my ABORTION section elsewhere in this document, as well as my extended anti-abortion essay, "End the Silent Second Holocaust - Abortion" at another of my informational sites, Our Better Selves.
I don't support any of the narcissistic brutality that is abortion, as described, above, and neither will my Administration. For this, and many other reasons, I am the adult in the room. Especially now, at this time of unprecedented complexity, challenge, and change in medicine, technology, military affairs, terror, environment and climate change, and social relationships of every kind, including the unique difficulties faced by our young people (due partially to the C19 Pandemic), it is absolutely imperative that America have, finally, an actual adult in the room, that is, governing the nation.
America is desperate for this, and as she remains a leading nation in the world in every way (though not by much at this point), we're still both widely emulated and looked upon both to keep the peace and set the moral standard, the world, itself, plagued with every manner of difficulty, is also desperate for an adult in the room in America. That is, for a restoration and renewal of the unique, powerful, wise, and moral guardian that America has historically aspired to, and often been.
I assure you, Fellow Americans, and Brothers and Sisters, for this, you need the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION.
CAN DO.
A.I. TEST
Please see brief remarks, just above, and more-extended analysis in my 15 HOLOCI section, also, above, near top-of-page.
In sum: any President who would permit development of technology that even its inventors, advocates, and exponents argue poses an existential threat (i.e. could wipe us out) to humanity is certainly no kind of "adult in the room" and indeed IS OBVIOUSLY NOT FIT TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The role of the President is to preserve the Union--not destroy it.
DRUG TEST
SHOULD WE CONSIDER A DRUG USER, DEALER, OR ADVOCATE "THE ADULT IN THE ROOM"?
WHAT ABOUT WHEN OUR POLITICAL LEADERS, THOSE WE PRESUME ARE THE ABSOLUTE SMARTEST AND MOST CAPABLE TO LEAD US, ARE THEMSELVES DRUG USERS, like New Jersey Senate President Nick Scutari?
"The Senate president also told reporters that he will "probably" buy recreational marijuana "at some point."
"Not today," he said. "I'm not gonna wait in line."
Does young Mr. Scutari sound like THE ADULT IN THE ROOM to you?
LOYALTY & PATRIOTISM TEST
Some Republican leaders and members are evidently dragging their feet in cooperating with the official inquiry into the January 06, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capital.
Do these politicians, in evident sympathy with those who attacked our nation, our own American citizens and even our former Vice-President, Mike Pence, seem like THE ADULTS IN THE ROOM, to you?
They seem like the TRAITORS in the room, to me. Perhaps they should be HUNG BY THE NECK UNTIL DEAD. Are you aware that the laws of our nation still permit capital punishment for treason?
Our Conservative brothers and sisters, specifically, and Americans of any political orientation who assert their genuine concern and love for America, more generally, are, themselves, also supposed to be "the adults in the room." In all too many instances, however, the behavior of such persons is actually most pointed in its resemblance to that of children in the playpen (with apologies to those children of early moral precocity).
For more on those who have abjectly failed the LOYALTY & PATRIOTISM test while claiming to uphold it, see Why I am not A Republican, above.
LOYALTY & FAMILY TEST
How many of you have placed your parent in a nursing home, instead of caring for them yourself? For some there is no choice, while for others there is a choice--they simply elect not to exercise it.
This, however, is simply not in my DNA. Which is why I caregave my Father for 14.5 years, and now my Mother for almost 8 years, at this point attempting to nurse her back to health, essentially alone.
This is real, and somewhat unusual, fidelity, loyalty, and devotion to family. Surely a characteristic of personality and value system bespeaking an adult in the room.
And as President, I'll be doing nothing less than what I've done and proven categorically that I can do and do well for my family for about 23 years now: provide robust care in a highly complex care situation, with the tenacity of a bull, devotion and purity of heart of an angel, analytical skill and attention to detail of Sherlock Holmes, and, without question, the patience of Job. All in service of nursing this nation back to it's full measure of health, as I'm presently doing for my beloved Mother.
Your Support is Critical
I ask for your active support in this interesting and likely inordinately (i.e. extremely) challenging endeavor. Please begin by 1.) contacting me so I can add your name to my email list, 2.) talk to as many others as you can about me, my ideas, and my Presidential run. Persuade others of like mind to add their names to my email list, as well. And last, 3.) begin to study and think deeply about my nascent (i.e. just starting) platform statements, presented at this website.
If you like the genuinely unique and powerful ideas that you've read here, please assist this campaign by providing financial support: describing this nascent (i.e. just forming) campaign as operating on a shoestring would actually be glorifying it! PayPal DONATE button, below.
Fellow-Americans, Brothers & Sisters, do you want a genuinely, dramatically, and permanently changed world?
Now is our chance. Let's not miss this rare, emerging opportunity.
Contact Vincent Frank De Benedetto at v4p @ sent.com. In addressing your mail, omit the space before and after the "@" sign.
This site went live on September 07, 2017. It was substantively updated on September 22, 2021, reflecting my newfound serious intention to actually attempt to run for President. This site can also be accessed using VincentForPresident.com, and Vince4Prez.com. The Opera browser, without warrant, fails to access this site.
THEME: October 03, 2021 saw it go live with it's changed theme, from beige/brown to black/white, a far cleaner and more modern look.
Contemplative Music
During this period of tumult and stress, Brothers & Sisters, I offer you a piece of ethereal, near-magical music to cheer, inspire, calm, uplift, & elevate you. I speak of the seminal 1987 release Glass Green by Tim Story.
If desired, you can listen as you read and consider my thoughts on this page, and form and consider your own.
I've found Tim's creation an utterly unique and compelling piece of contemplative music for years now, and still routinely listen to it. I believe and hope that it will transform, or at least lift, you, as it has, me.
Official Song of the DeBenedetto Campaign
Get Together by the Youngbloods. Not to say that I agree with every word and line, but in the main I do, and the song in lyric and tone speaks generally to what we must have in this country (and ultimately this world) if we're to Actualize, at most, and avoid annihilation, at least: Love and Connection.
And I've tried to make clear at this site that Love and Connection is a key part of what my Presidency will bring us, explicitly, and implicitly as the foundation for everything that the DeBENEDETTO ADMINISTRATION will do, although, as explained, above, Love, properly understood and applied, often brings us, logically and organically, down paths marked by political and social Conservatism that most would not initially associate with this notion.
LINKS TO MY CAMPAIGN & OTHER WORK
YOU MIGHT WELL ASK
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR ME
IF I VOTE FOR YOU
?
Regarding some issues and concerns, yes, I'll do something "for you." In regard to others, I'm going to open heretofore closed or non-existent conduits (i.e. pathways) to permit you to do for yourself.
Much of the answer to this question is contained in, or relatively easily inferred from, all above content.
The first thing I'm going to do if elected, given that COVID19 remains prevalent, virulent, and ever-evolving, is SAVE YOUR LIFE, through the proper mechanism for eliminating this virus: the time-limited implementation of masking. And the second thing I'll have done, since the virus will be eliminated, is given you your life, back, no further vaccines or masks generally required.
"...this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine."
"If the American public all embraced masking along with social distancing and hand-washing...we could bring this outbreak to its knees within four to eight weeks."
-- Dr. Robert R. Redfield, former Director, Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Please see my response to "Beth," above, for further detail.
MORE, MUCH MORE
Additionally, based on my knowledge of health and nutrition, partially shown, above, in my discussion of sugar, trans-fat, and vegetable oils, I will lead the effort to have removed from the American food supply its most common killers--again, explicitly and directly saving the life of yourself, your loved ones, and every other American.
Moreover (i.e. additionally), as a unique and far-thinking NATIONAL SECURITY CANDIDATE, I'm going to restore to full vigor the image of the United States around the world and across the globe, in terms of the two M's that matter: MILITARY and MORALITY. See information, above, in my NATIONAL SECURITY section.
If you elect me President, I will continue saving your life, as well as leading the effort, indeed literally the only effort by any candidate, to Actualize yourself, everyone you know and love, and our entire nation, that is, the effort for each, and all, of us to be the absolute best that we are capable of being. To live fully up to our potential.
I'm also going to meaningfully assist to SAVE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, as what is tearing it apart, by all accounts, is antagonism, division, and lack of trust between Americans--precisely what my expertise in, and singular focus on, LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD, will uniquely and effectively redress and repair, as already discussed in section MORAL INADEQUACY, above.
By way of further amplification, however, I note that American society, as many, has been rife with conflict from its inception. Our society, however, with the confluence of its 1.) strong secular root, manifest in focus on profit and ego, not Love, community, or other people, 2.) somewhat anti-intellectual orientation, 3.) unyielding tradition of gun ownership and use, and now 4.) legalized drug use that will increasingly produce a citizenry even less competent, rational, productive, tough, resilient, patriotic, and TRUSTWORTHY than it presently is, has produced a society and culture that in modern times is increasingly tumultuous, divided, alienated from itself and its own best traditions, and indeed increasingly devoid of that without which no society can survive, much less flourish: TRUST. Trust between whom? In sum, trust between everyone and everyone else.
How else do you explain bellwether events in recent, and very recent, modern American history ranging from "29 shootings with four or more fatalities, according to a database compiled by the Violence Project," to the 2020 Capital insurrection on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC?
So we see with crystal clarity, and indeed must our inescapable conclusion, be: WITHOUT LOVE EVEN DEMOCRACY DOESN'T WORK.
Our most effective response to the continuing political and technological propagandistic mis-and-disinformational insult of black baggers such as Vladimir Putin and his global crew of black baggers, assiduously working to wholly discredit and bring down democracies and more importantly the very idea of democracy, does not lie merely in positive public-relations promotion of this or that relatively glitch-free democratic election, or more progressively-designed civics courses or even curriculum, but in a wholesale embrace and adoption of that force and principal at once productively and effectively animating democracy, as well as, in fact, the successful continued existence of our very species and human family itself: LOVE, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD.
How's all this for starters, once I'm elected?
In general, if elected I'm going to give you a world of Sanity, Security, and Love. A world of that duality (i.e. something made of two parts) presently and fatally missing from this planet: 1.) beautiful social harmony as we encourage the connection between persons and groups of persons, all Brothers and Sisters in One Human Family, and 2.) social and economic functionality as people are encouraged toward competence, at least, and excellence, at best in what they do and how they do it, whether their job or anything else.
In essence, if elected, I'm going to spend every waking moment working to provide you, provide us, a world of Sanity, Security, and Love--a world that we most decidedly don't have now, and in fact seem to be moving quickly away from.
Join my campaign and stay tuned.
"Genius sees the solution before anyone realizes there's a problem."
(Adapted from "Genius sees the answer, before the question." -- J. Robert Oppenheimer)
. . . . .
Vincent Frank De Benedetto
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS TAKE MONEY. LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY.
IN FACT, the Federal Election Commission doesn't even consider me an official candidate until I've raised or spent $5,000.
Accordingly, my Fellow Americans & Brothers & Sisters: if you are genuinely enamored (i.e. strongly drawn toward) of my intellect, value system, personality, and devotion to, and protective posture toward, the nation, and especially my many unique and powerful ideas, and wish to see them manifest (i.e. turned into reality) in America and the world, please donate to THE DeBENEDETTO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, and do so monthly.
