Ho, ho, hum

Like many of us in the Northern Hemisphere this solstice time, I’m suffering from the oh so aptly named SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. The nights grow long. For some reason, instead of sugar plums dancing round my head, I have the holocaust, slavery, and the endless war inflaming North Africa and the Middle East. Add some racism, police brutality, mass incarceration for Christmas dinner dressing.

Terrorism is down on the list. All violence is terrorism. A crazed couple killing 14 people is terrorism, but the bombing of Iraq killing a million civilians – that’s not terrorism? Really? No, that’s just war.

It’s looking like Bernie could win this thing. As of the winter solstice, it looks to me like 50-50, and it all depends on the ground game, especially in Iowa and Nevada. It would seem that the superior number of volunteers for Sanders could trump Hillary’s advantage in traditional media advertising. If Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire, people will finally notice him, the MSM will have to start covering his campaign. The very energy, the anger, that Trump is mining is also fueling Bernie’s campaign.

So, suppose he wins the nomination, then what? I think we can beat Trump, who is all but certain to be the Republican nominee, with our army of volunteers. But then what? What do we do when Bernie sits his butt down in the Oval Office?

The next step would be rectifying the Democratic Party and electing a progressive congress. We can keep the Sanders machine alive for that and focus its formidable energy on congressional races. If we do the work, we can make it happen that by the end of Sanders’ first term, most of his domestic policies will be implemented.

But the wars in the Middle East and North Africa will continue. Bernie’s idea of an Arab-led coalition to destroy ISIS? I don't think so. ISIS is a horizontalist organization with no head to cut off. Trying to destroy ISIS is like playing Whack-a-Mole.

All violence is “terrorism.” Instead of a war against “terrorism,” we need a war against violence, and I don’t mean broken windows, I mean killing. We could start by dismantling our nuclear arsenal. Let’s get rid of the most lethal stuff first, that will set the tone. Then maybe we could actually empower the UN to carry out its peace-keeping role. Arm it. Democratize it. Portion out votes in the Security Council by world population. The most populous nations should have the most say in how the world moves forward. Allow the UN to facilitate a world-wide distribution of resources… It could be done.

Peace on Earth, goodwill to humanity.