“Clear left” says the captain. “Clear right” says the first officer (co-pilot). These words are uttered by pilots communicating with each other when taxiing their aircraft on the airport, double checking to avoid the path of other aircraft, vehicles, tugs as they cross runways and taxiways, and get around in congested terminal areas. Each pilot has a better perspective of their respective side of the airplane and depend on the other pilot sharing their perspective (view) in order to gain a broader perspective that allows for making better, more accurate decisions for the movement of the airliner. Makes sense, right?

Imagine for a moment a pilot on the left side of the airplane only being concerned about their side of the plane, and not considering the perspective of the pilot on the right side of the plane? And similarly, the pilot on the right side of the plane not being concerned with what the pilot on the left was seeing? It would be idiotic for the pilots not to communicate and gain the perspective of the pilot beside them.

Now imagine the two pilots having their respective (left / right) political ideologies not talking, not sharing perspectives and not wanting to know and understand what the other pilot was seeing. A pilot deciding to make decisions based only on their limited perspective (view) of an otherwise much broader perspective that is needed to make good, safe decisions for safe operation of the aircraft. The risk of the aircraft hitting another airplane would be substantially higher. The lives of everyone on board, and possibly elsewhere (other aircraft, vehicles on the ground, people on the ground) would be in perilous danger. Well, welcome aboard USA Politics flight #2024.

A line in the book “The Meaning of Marriage” that most stood out for me stated: “90% of breakups occur due to a lack of understanding”. To expand further, this lack of understanding is largely due to a lack of communication. The lack of communication can be attributable to a lack of effort, commitment, and poor communication skills. While the book is about marriage, essentially the same notion about communication / breakups applies to most relationships – workplace, friendships, and even relationships with fellow Americans from a political standpoint.

Safe flights and successful, lasting marriages don’t happen by accident. Pilots are intentional about sharing information / perspective to avoid (plane) traffic conflicts to get 45,000 flights safely to their destinations every day. Spouses (in successful marriages) are intentional about consistent communication of potential conflicts and resolving them before they have the potential to cause grave harm to the relationship. Date nights, regular communication, praying together, playing together –  help couples see, be aware and address the litany of matters they encounter daily. Perhaps you have your own unique ways to nurture relationships with your spouse, friends, neighbors, fellow Americans. Feel free to share if you so desire!

My biggest observation / take away in life – at the airline encounters with coworkers, passengers, management personnel, and at the farm – perspective of employees, customers, and animals thus far is recognizing how perspective, or rather lack of perspective, impacts animal behavior, people as individuals, and collectively as a society. Just as humanity is impaired by greed, lust, sloth I consider people’s, including my own, inability to consider their own limited perspective relative often to a (much) broader perspective that ought to be seen / considered, being just as potentially harmful to them, and/or others. Just as one has to consider the consequences of acting on lust, excessive greed, excessive rest / laziness, one ought to consider both their own (limited?) perspective and those of others when making / acting on decisions. Just as a pilot’s failure to consider the perspective of the other pilot, a person’s failure to communicate and consider the perspectives of others is inviting a similar, potentially catastrophic fate.

A single gunshot ignited the revolutionary war. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 set off World War 1. When conditions are right, it doesn’t take much to ignite an inferno. Sparks from down power lines in overgrown brush can ignite wildfires. Whether it be providential or sheer lucky coincidence, recognizing the conditions ripe for civil war and a bullet coming only 1-2 centimeters away from potentially igniting such a war at the recent Trump rally, I hope this serves as a wake-up call for each of us to be thinking of ways to gain perspective and be intentional about what we can do to help save our country from a civil war, and our planet from a nuclear war. Failure to do so is a regret We the People will go to our graves with if we do not act while we still can.

United WE Stand. Divided WE Crash and burn.

Mark

During my flying years I had the opportunity to meet, work / fly with people from around the world. (Next year, 2025) – 10 years out of the flying gig is when I plan to share some of the cool experiences from the 16 year airline pilot career you may be interested in hearing. One experience, which I think of often, has some immediacy in timing to what is going on presently concerning "mafia" style government actions toward a smaller REAL food farm / distributor. 

Sometime around 2008-2010  I had the opportunity to fly with Igor. Igor, if you couldn’t tell already, is Russian. In fact, he was a former Mig fighter pilot in the Russian Air Force. Igor, was a typical Russian chauvinist man (demeaning statements about women, bragged how he could get (laid) with (any) women) with the cockiness of a fighter pilot, intelligent, brash, full of bullshit in one hand and unabashedly honest and direct in the other, to give you a picture of who I was working with this particular trip. (We had flown together several times prior).

Two stories that stick out in my mind from flying with Igor. The first is when I told Igor about how I was in the raw milk business, raw milk being illegal to sell in (most) of the USA. Igor exclaimed “you mean to tell me that in the United States of America – THE “leader of the free world” it is illegal to sell raw milk?! Heck, it is legal to sell raw milk in Russia! My grandma used to buy it from a local farmer.” I don’t know for sure if raw milk technically is or isn’t legal to sell in Russia, but a farmer in Russia is not going to have their farm raided for selling raw milk to locals, that is for darn sure, according to Igor. He said this more or less tongue in cheek, knowing that the USA is not the bastion of freedom it portends to be on the world stage / in the news.

A couple months later I'm crewed with Igor once again. Up at cruise altitude we got to talking as we usually did, this time about the (Russian) mafia. Being curious about it, I asked Igor, “so what is the mafia in Russia?” Igor wasted no time eagerly explaining to me what it is, how it works. The best I can recall he explained the mafia is a (thug) outfit an entity (business) pays for protection (mostly from competition). Usually that meant physical, deadly threats, and sometimes financial threats levied toward competitors – that helped alleviate said entity (a grocery store, a bar, car dealership, etc.) from competition in their vicinity. (He mentioned also that in Russian owned clubs / bars in USA there will usually always be a mafia guy in there, and it isn’t terribly difficult to pick out who they are. I’ve been in such venues and do recall seeing these fellers.)

What’s interesting is what Igor went on to say. Igor stated, “though Russia has the mafia don’t think that you don’t have same sort of mafia shenanigans going on in the USA. It is your EPA, FDA, CDC acting as the mafia - protecting the interests of big business. He failed to mention the USDA, but I can safely assume they are also part of the mafia protecting “Big Ag”. Igor further stated “the difference between Russians and Americans is, Russians KNOW the mafia exists and their government is corrupt while Americans are ignorant of how corrupt their government is.” Keep in mind, he said this 10-15 years ago. I believe most Americans today have at least some awareness that things with our government are not on the “up and up” as many once believed it to be. And if you, reading this, do genuinely believe the USA government can be trusted to be working in the best interest of the citizens of the United States, please explain to me how you believe this – tell me about our sources of information, what you read, listen to – I am genuinely curious and interested in knowing how any person alive and supposedly thinking coherently in today’s America can place blind faith in the government of the United States. Please fill me in on what I may be missing / unaware of. 

The following story about the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) going after the Amos Miller farm cooperative (Bird In Hand, Pennsylvania) is a great example of the political mafia protecting Big Ag interests.

YouTube video:

AMISH FARMER RAIDED (again) 2024 | Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture v Amos Miller Organic Farm

While I’m not terribly intimate with all the details and particulars of the Miller Organic Farm situation (I encourage you to do your own homework), what I am gathering is Amos Miller does his own meat processing. USDA regulations mandate spraying carcasses with some kind of chemical (citric acid / lactoferrin) to prohibit bacterial growth while in the cooler. Amos Miller has his reasons why he doesn’t think that requirement is necessary and/or a good idea, for processing / providing his customers a safe product. (don’t ask me, I don’t know). Here’s the thing, no one is forcing anyone to purchase meat from Millers Organic Farm. If people place their trust in the USDA’s practices / standards, that is their prerogative. Furthermore, people were opting into a private membership cooperative (not unlike a golf club membership that many of these Government mafia, and BIG Ag executive types belong to). Members of this Private Food Cooperative know the “rules” that meat they purchase through this cooperative does not conform to USDA oversight and regulations – particularly those that involve spraying meat with chemicals.

A couple additional takeaways from the video. Dual system of justice. Do you believe if Tyson, Cargil, JBS, or National Beef had a similar (portended) infraction that they would be shut down? Inventory seized? Or even not be allowed to conduct their own independent testing?

One of the assumptions that regulators use to justify themselves and their actions is food from unregulated sources is deemed automatically dangerous, failing to recognize the cognitive dissonance of the many food recalls from regulated operations and the relatively infrequent issues involving unregulated sources.

As a taxpayer, given all the pressing issues afflicting our nation – one of the most notable being the vulnerability of the power grid to EMP, solar flare, cyber warfare., do you believe it is wise for USDA to spending precious financial resources going after an Amish Farmer whose food has gotten no one sick – and even if it did, the market place would take care of business by doing business elsewhere if his products were to have  actually sickened people? Meanwhile many families, paying taxes, after being sickened through our food system (sources, lifestyle – getting away from gardens and fresh food), have to choose between buying Type 1 diabetes medication, and putting food on the table for their kids – and the USDA is worried about an Amish farmer? The gall of the USDA mafia! The USDA mafia is funded and enabled to get away with this un-American treachery so long as WE THE PEOPLE continue to enable the present day corrupt government of the United States to work against the ideals of that our country was founded upon. United WE Stand. United WE fall.

Let me know what you think!