Just finished "Coffee: A Dark History" by Antony Wild.

I’m not sure of his intentions; criticism of colonialism or anti slavery but this book had more off ramps than the interstate.

I really don’t care how many cups of coffee Napoleon drank in a day and worst that it took 3 pages to tell the tale.

I enjoyed the chapter on Vietnam and how coffee exploits the economy, ecology, and indigenous peoples.

Spoiler alert! The product of coffee always has depended on cheap labor and that has taken many forms: slavery, ruined economy and colonialism.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/6547738-coffee

View all my reviews

Hubris

There are two trillion galaxies in the universe, and a 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way. 
Will ours be missed when it burns out?

There are 20 Septillion drops of water in  the oceans.

What is one more tear?

There are  15 trillion  cells in the human body and as many as 100 billion cells die in each adult each day.

Do you notice the passing of one?

Every day, up to 150 species are lost, about one species per every one million species per year.

Where are the other eight now-extinct species of human?

There are 8 billion people on the planet.

Will there be anyone left to mourn?

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about Biden's VP choices.

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about Biden's VP choices. Mainly because it's a lot more healthier than ruminating on the insanity of whether we should reopen the economy because black lives are expendable. I believe with Biden's age that he is a one term president and for him it's the Super Bowl ring that he longs for and needs to retire with. And for this race it a very desirable and maybe more than a bench warmer position. I've read many of the autobiographies and interview s written in the Atlantic and New York Magazine.

So, what is important to me?

1.       I agree that we need people who can push for a Roosevelt New Deal to get things moving, bring back banking legislation, and break up the monopolies.

2.       I agree with RBG that laws cannot be pasted before their time and the BLM movement seems spotlighted 'white privilege' and police violence.

3.       I agree that the young people feel a disenfranchisement with the political system and the economy, want a younger and liberal VP who will fight for their issues: student debt, jobs, gun safety, race and gender issues.

4.       I agree that Medicare for All time is NOW! And people finally see that we all need a safety net, probably more so than ever before.

5.       I agree that climate change is real and not a figment of scientific imagination and data.

6.       I agree that Democratic Socialism has worked in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands and we need to evolve.

And so without further ado!  My top five choices are!

1.       Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth

·         Pros: The Illinois senator has an incredible story to tell. She's an Army helicopter pilot and Iraqi  veteran who lost both of her legs when a helicopter she was piloting in Iraq in 2004 was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. She's the first disabled woman and American citizen born in Thailand with a Thai mother to be elected to the Senate. And she had a baby at 50, the first senator to give birth in office. She grew up in poverty, sacrifice, hunger and humility.

She will jump into the mud and sling it with the "cadet bone spur" and  "I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger,".

·         Cons: She is clearly in the moderate camp. "I don't think you can go too far to the left and still win the Midwest," she said after the 2018 elections. That cuts two ways — she might appeal to the middle, but likely wouldn't fire up the base.

1.        

2.       California Sen. Kamala Harris

·         Pros: The California senator is thought to have an inside track for a host of reasons. She ran for president, which means she's been vetted on the national stage; she's black, which would satisfy those who are urging Biden to pick a black woman; and there's a personal connection . She was close with Biden's son, Beau.  As Attorney Generals of their state they refused the settlement between five major banks regarding foreclosure abuse claims and fought on. 

The former prosecutor and state attorney general has a reputation as an incise questioner and being able to make a clear argument. Envisioning her holding her own in a debate with Vice President Pence is not difficult.

·         Cons: She doesn't necessarily fire up the progressive left, which doesn't love some of her past positions on criminal justice; she doesn't give any regional advantage — a ticket with an East Coast former senator and another from California doesn't exactly dispel the notion of Democrats not caring about the middle of the country; and it's not clear Harris has appeal to the middle of the electorate in places like the Upper Midwest.

3.       Stacey Abrams

·         Pros: I read her autobiography, "Lead from the Outside". It's a testament to her brilliance, ambition, tenacity, and sleepless work ethic; gradulating (BA) Spelman College, (MPA) University of Texas at Austin  and (JD) Yale University. The former Georgia gubernatorial candidate fires up progressives. For them, her close loss there in 2018 symbolizes what happens when the vote, especially of minorities, is suppressed. She's an outspoken African American, and unafraid to make the case. The argument for Abrams goes that if the country is as polarized as it seems, and Clinton struggled to get out the base at the margins, Abrams might be able to help. She tripled turnout among Latinos and Asian Americans in the Georgia governor’s race. The 40 percent jump in African American turnout was the highest such bump in state history.

·         Cons: But Abrams also presents potential risk. She's not currently an elected official, and she hasn't been vetted on a national stage. Things like her having owed more than $50,000 in back taxes are sure to come up. She had the opportunity to run for president, and for one of two open Senate seats in Georgia this cycle, and she passed.

She's also rankled some with what looks like open lobbying for the job. That irritated some in the old guard, including Rep. William Clay of Missouri, who called her lobbying offensive. "You can't show up at the winner's window with loser's tickets and demand anything," he said.

4.       Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 2020 presidential candidate

·         Pros: Democrats and the progressive left love Warren. She tops polls for who Democrats want Biden to pick and probably the most vetted. She knows the issues as well or better than anyone and would certainly be ready to govern. A Warren pick would indicate Biden wants to embrace the left and some of Warren's (and Bernie Sanders') policies and political approach. Warren would not be someone who sits back as vice president — she'd want a portfolio and to get to work on the things important to her right away.

·         Cons:  Warren has had problem with people of color and Trump would love to belittle 'Pocahontas' as a distraction for his base. And she does nothing to appeal to the middle, has no regional advantage, and isn't a woman of color. I think that the senate needs her there to push for economic and citizen rights bills that she has sponsored and she chairs many import committees.

5.       Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

·         Pros: If  any politician has the Joe Fraiser fighting spirit, it's the Michigan governor. She  has been thrust onto the national scene and into controversy: fixing Flint's pipes after the  toxic water crisis, the Edenville Dam  breaking and flooding; students sued for constitutional right to literacy and  reparations; BLM riots in Lansing, Grand Rapids and Detroit; and  her stay-at-home rulings during the pandemic, all causing economic free fall and historic financial crisis. Guilty of the verdict that she listens to her staff and scientific community, and handled crisis after crisis with competence. Crisis management experience is the most desired quality in a Biden VP.

·         Cons: But the controversy doesn't necessarily help Whitmer's chances. Michigan has seen some of the most fervent protests, with armed men taking to the state capitol, and Trump has tweeted, "Liberate Michigan." If she's seen as divisive and polarizing, that could hurt her chances of being selected. What's more, it's difficult to pluck a governor, who is currently dealing with a crisis, out of that post, and she would have to be taken out of her current role in handling the pandemic to be on the ticket.

The Second Wave

Just viewed The New Times animated article "How the Virus Won: Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs. We analyzed travel patterns, hidden infections and genetic data to show how the epidemic spun out of control."  

It is a very interesting chronological view of the infestation of the Coronavirus. There were really nine 'hotspots': Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Phoenix, San Antonio, Madison, Chicago, and Boston but 15 know cases initially. If they would have been contained them like China much of epidemic here could have been avoided. But 6 weeks went by without the government taking action except for banning flights from China, the horse was already loose. By February 15,  an estimated 2,000 hidden infections were loose through major cities. 

Another interesting fact, Madison has one of the 15 know initial cases. She is a student returning from China and returning to the UW Madison (UW Madison student undergrad population is 40,000+). She was diagnosed and the 25 people that she had contact with were but under 21 day quarantine. It worked!  Image if she had attended class lectures of 200+ students or meet friends in the student unions.

We, my family and I, are now 10 weeks into the self-isolation and still able to buy toilet paper. And the president and some governors are talking about a phase second and three of economic recovery. 

One should read the history of the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1917-1919. There were three waves with the second being the worst. Why? 

• The first was the initial infection spreading out across the global largely because of WWI troop, malnutrition, and refuges.  Panic and fear was prevalent. There was a lot of self-imposed isolation, because people were afraid of being put in isolation wards with other sick people and not getting the necessary care. 

• The second wave was the worst because the virus was now global and it was no longer necessary to be in contact with external carriers. They were right there in your home or community. The healthcare systems were overrun and millions died.

• The third wave was the smallest because hosts' deaths and recovery were high enough that there was a herd effect. Spaces large enough between the dominoes to stop the cascade.

Where does this leave us. The virus has been disseminated to probably 75% of the US except for areas of the mountain states and the arid southwest.  If people go back to business as usual we will see wave two like a flash fire. It does not need to creep along the interstate infecting contacts as you to family marriage, graduation or funeral, Every major air transportation is now a hotspot and the EU will not allow Americans into Europe.

The vice president Pence was asked today if it was irresponsible to hold a rally at the Cox Center in Tulsa when many of the secret service, party personnel and convention workers tested positive? His reply was that the First Amendment allow for freedom of speech ....
Well Freedom of Speech does not allow you to cause harm to others. Wasn't this why called out the riot police and the national guard?

We expect sound leadership from our elected and hired government not sound bites.

Now whether this administration likes it or not it was over in the beginning and its not over now.

Last thing, you need to read up on the secondary effects from COVID-19. 
Some people are showing longer term health issues. Since the disease affect the vessels, it seems to cause issues to the vessels to heart, kidneys, liver and lungs. 
You no longer reason well I am young and health and I will recover from this nasty flu, because it could degrade your health for years down the road.

Stay safe and healthy

Core concepts of theology and cosmology

I thought that I would begin blogging on this Father's day.  Not a lot going on except for the 2018 World Cup and I have enjoyed the Portugal vs Spain game so far. Today I am going to the Union South to view Mexico vs Germany.

Was sitting in the EVP coffee this morning was thinking about Chinese spiritual concepts.  Some fit in the realms of a particular religion, others do not. In general these concepts were uniquely evolved from the Chinese values of filial piety, tacit acknowledgment of the co-existence of the living and the deceased, and the belief in causality and reincarnation, with or without religious overtones.

The four spiritual, cosmological, and moral concepts:

• Tian (天), Heaven, the source of moral meaning; 
• Qi (氣), the breath or substance of which all things are made; 
• JingZu (敬祖), the veneration of ancestors; 
• Bao Ying (報應), moral reciprocity.

Tian, its li and qi

Confucians, Taoists, and other schools of thought share basic concepts of Tian. 

• Tian is both the physical heavens, the home of the sun, moon, and stars, and also the home of the gods and ancestors. 
• Tian by extension is source of moral meaning, as seen in the political principal, Mandate of Heaven, which holds that Tian, responding to human virtue, grants the imperial family the right to rule and withdraws it when the dynasty declines in virtue.
• This creativity or virtue (de), in humans is the potentiality to transcend the given conditions and act wisely and morally.
• Tian is therefore both transcendent and immanent.Main articles: Tian and Qi

Tian is defined in many ways, with many names, the most widely known being Tàidì 太帝 (the "Great Deity") and Shàngdì 上帝 (the "Primordial Deity"). The concept of Shangdi is especially rooted in the tradition of the Shang dynasty, which gave prominence to the worship of ancestral gods and cultural heroes. 

The "Primordial Deity" or "Primordial Emperor" was considered to be embodied in the human realm as the lineage of imperial power. Di (帝) is a term meaning "deity" or "emperor" (Latin: imperator, verb im-perare; "making from within"), used either as a name of the primordial god or as a title of natural gods, describing a principle that exerts a fatherly dominance over what it produces. 

With the Zhou dynasty, that preferred a religion focused on gods of nature, Tian became a more abstract and impersonal idea of God. A popular representation is the Jade Deity (玉帝 Yùdì) or Jade Emperor (玉皇 Yùhuáng) originally formulated by Taoists. According to classical theology he manifests in five primary forms (五方上帝 Wǔfāng Shàngdì, "Five Forms of the Highest Deity").

The qi 气 is the breath or substance of which all things are made, including inanimate matter, the living beings, thought and gods. It is the continuum energy—matter. Stephen F. Teiser (1996) translates it as "stuff" of "psychophysical stuff". Neo-Confucian thinkers such as Zhu Xi developed the idea of li 理, the "reason", "order" of Heaven, that is to say the pattern through which the qi develops, that is the polarity of yin and yang. 

In Taoism the Tao 道 ("Way") denotes in one concept both the impersonal absolute Tian and its order of manifestation (li).

Yin and yang—gui and shen

The concept 神 "shén" (cognate of 申 shēn, "extending, expanding") is translated as "gods" or "spirits". There are shén of nature; gods who were once people, such as the warrior Guan Gong; household gods, such as the Stove God; as well as ancestral gods (zu or zuxian). In the domain of humanity the shen is the "psyche", or the power or agency within humans. They are intimately involved in the life of this world. 

As spirits of stars, mountains and streams, shen exert a direct influence on things, making phenomena appear and things grow or extend themselves. An early Chinese dictionary, the Shuowen jiezi by Xu Shen, explains that they "are the spirits of Heaven" and they "draw out the ten thousand things". 

As forces of growth the gods are regarded as yang, opposed to a yin class of entities called 鬼 "guǐ" (cognate of 歸 guī, "return, contraction"), chaotic beings. 

A disciple of Zhu Xi noted that "between Heaven and Earth there is no thing that does not consist of yin and yang, and there is no place where yin and yang are not found. Therefore there is no place where gods and spirits do not exist". 

The dragon is a symbol of yang, the principle of generation.Yin 陰 and yang 陽, whose root meanings respectively are "shady" and "sunny", or "dark" and "light", are modes of manifestation of the qi, not material things in themselves. Yin is the qi in its dense, dark, sinking, wet, condensing mode; yang denotes the light, and the bright, rising, dry, expanding modality. 

Described as Taiji (the "Great Pole"), they represent the polarity and complementarity that enlivens the cosmos. They can also be conceived as "disorder" and "order", "activity" or "passivity", with act (yang) usually preferred over receptiveness (yin).

In Taoist and Confucian thought, the supreme God and its order and the multiplicity of shen are identified as one and the same. 

In the Yizhuan, a commentary to the Yijing, it is written that "one yin and one yang are called the Tao ... the unfathomable change of yin and yang is called shen". In other texts, with a tradition going back to the Han period, the gods and spirits are explained to be names of yin and yang, forces of contraction and forces of growth.

While in popular thought they have conscience and personality, Neo-Confucian scholars tended to rationalise them. 

• Zhu Xi wrote that they act according to the li. 
• Zhang Zai wrote that they are "the inherent potential (liang neng) of the two ways of qi". 
• Cheng Yi said that they are "traces of the creative process". 
• Chen Chun wrote that shen and gui are expansions and contractions, going and coming, of yin and yang—qi.

Hun and po, and zu and xian

To extend life to its full potential the human shen must be cultivated, resulting in ever clearer, more luminous states of being. 

It can transform in the pure intelligent breath of deities. 

In man there's no distinction between rationality and intuition, thinking and feeling: the human being is xin (心), mind-heart. 

With death, while the po returns to the earth and disappears, the hun is thought to be pure awareness or qi, and is the shen to whom ancestral sacrifices are dedicated.

Like all things in matter, also humans have a soul that is a dialectic of hun and po (魂魄), respectively the yang spirit or mind, and the yin animal soul that is the body. 

Hun (mind) is the shen (that gives a form to the qi) of humans, and it develops through the po, stretching and moving intelligently in order to grasp things.

Po is the "feminine" soul which controls the physiological and psychological activities of man, while the hun, the god attached to the vital breath, is the "masculine" soul that is totally independent of corporeal substance.

• The hun is virile, independent and perpetual, and as such it never allows itself to be limited in matter. 
• The po is the "earthly" (di) soul that goes downward, while the hun is the "heavenly" (tian) soul that moves upward.

The shen of men who are properly cultivated and honoured after their death are upheld ancestors and progenitors (zuxian 祖先 or simply zu 祖). When ancestries aren't properly cultivated the world falls into disruption, and they become gui. 

Ancestral worship is intertwined with totemism, as the earliest ancestors of an ethnic lineage are often represented as animals or associated to them.

Ancestors are means of connection with the Tian, the primordial god which does not have form. As ancestors have form, they shape the destiny of humans. Ancestors who have had a significant impact in shaping the destiny of large groups of people, creators of genetic lineages or spiritual traditions, and historical leaders who have invented crafts and institutions for the wealth of the Chinese nation (culture heroes), are exalted among the highest divine manifestations or immortal beings (xian 仙).

In fact, in the Chinese tradition there is no distinction between gods (shen) and immortal beings (xian), transcendental principles and their bodily manifestations. Gods can incarnate with a human form and human beings can reach higher spiritual states by the right way of action, that is to say by emulating the order of Heaven. 

Humans are considered one of the three aspects of a trinity (三才 Sāncái, "Three Powers"), the three foundations of all being; specifically, humans are the medium between 

• Heaven that engenders order and forms and 
• Earth which receives and nourishes them. Humans are endowed with the role of completing creation.

Bao ying and ming yun  (Bao ying and Ming yun)

The Chinese traditional concept of bao ying ("reciprocity", "retribution" or "judgement"), is inscribed in the cosmological view of an ordered world, in which all manifestations of being have an allotted span (shu) and destiny, and are rewarded according to the moral-cosmic quality of their actions. It determines fate, as written in Zhou texts: "on the doer of good, heaven sends down all blessings, and on the doer of evil, he sends down all calamities" (《書經•湯誥》).

The cosmic significance of bao ying is better understood by exploring other two traditional concepts of fate and meaning:

• Ming yun (命運), the personal destiny or given condition of a being in his world, in which ming is "life" or "right", the given status of life, and yun defines both "circumstance" and "individual choice"; ming is given and influenced by the transcendent force Tian (天), that is the same as the "divine right" (tianming) of ancient rulers as identified by Mencius. Personal destiny (ming yun) is thus perceived as both fixed (as life itself) and flexible, open-ended (since the individual can choose how to behave in bao ying).
• Yuan fen (緣分), "fateful coincidence", describing good and bad chances and potential relationships. Scholars K. S. Yang and D. Ho have analysed the psychological advantages of this belief: assigning causality of both negative and positive events to yuan fen reduces the conflictual potential of guilt and pride, and preserves social harmony.

Ming yun and yuan fen are linked, because what appears on the surface to be chance (either positive or negative), is part of the deeper rhythm that shapes personal life based on how destiny is directed. Recognising this connection has the result of making a person responsible for his or her actions: doing good for others spiritually improves oneself and contributes to the harmony between men and environmental gods and thus to the wealth of a human community.

These three themes of the Chinese tradition—moral reciprocity, personal destiny, fateful coincidence—are completed by a fourth notion:

• Wu (悟), "awareness" of bao ying. The awareness of one's own given condition inscribed in the ordered world produces responsibility towards oneself and others; awareness of yuan fen stirs to respond to events rather than resigning. Awareness may arrive as a gift, often unbidden, and then it evolves into a practice that the person intentionally follows.

As part of the trinity of being (the Three Powers), humans are not totally submissive to spiritual force. While under the sway of spiritual forces, humans can actively engage with them, striving to change their own fate to prove the worth of their earthly life. In the Chinese traditional view of human destiny, the dichotomy between "fatalism" and "optimism" is overcome; human beings can shape their personal destiny to grasp their real worth in the transformation of the universe, seeing their place in the alliance with the gods and with Heaven to surpass the constraints of the physical body and mind.

Ling and xianling—holy and numen

The notion of xian ling (顯靈), variously translated as "divine efficacy, virtue" or simply the "numen", is important for the relationship between men and gods. It describes the manifestation, activity, of the power of a god (靈氣 ling qi, "divine energy" or "effervescence"), the evidence of the holy.

In Chinese religion the concept of ling (靈) is the equivalent of holy and numen. 

• Shen in the meaning of "spiritual" is a synonym. 
• The Yijing states that "spiritual means not measured by yin and yang". 
• Ling is the state of the "medium" of the bivalency (yin-yang), and thus it is identical with the inchoate order of creation. 
• Things inspiring awe or wonder because they can't be fathomed as either yin or yang, because they cross or disrupt the polarity and therefore can't be conceptualised, are regarded as numinous. 
• Entities possessing unusual spiritual characteristics, such as albino members of a species, beings that are part-animal part-human, or people who die in unusual ways such as suicide or on battlefields, are considered numinous.

Main articles: Ling (Chinese religion) and Xian ling

The term xian ling may be interpreted as the god revealing his presence in a particular area and temple, through events that are perceived as extraordinary, miraculous. Divine power usually manifests in the presence of a wide public. The "value" of human deities (xian) is judged according to his or her efficacy. The perceived effectiveness of a deity to protect or bless also determines how much he or she should be worshipped, how big a temple should be built in his or her dedication, and what position in the pantheon he or her would gain.

Zavidovskaya (2012) has studied how the incentive of temples restoration since the 1980s in northern China was triggered by numerous alleged instances of gods becoming "active", "returning", and claiming back their temples and place in society. She brings the example of a Chenghuang Temple in Yulin, in Shaanxi, that during the Cultural Revolution was turned into a granary; in the 1980s the temple was restored to its original function because the seeds kept into the temple always rotted, and this event was attributed to god Chenghuang giving signs to empty his residence of grain and let him back in. The ling qi, divine energy, is believed to accumulate in certain places, temples, making them holy. Temples with a longer history are considered holier than newly built ones, which still need to be filled by divine energy.

Another example of Zavidovskaya is that of the cult of god Zhenwu in Congluo Yu, Shanxi; the god's temples were in ruins and the cult inactive until the mid 1990s, when a man with a serious cancer, in his last hope prayed (bai 拜) Zhenwu. The man began to miraculously recover day after day, and after a year he was completely healed. To thank the god, he organised an opera performance in his honour. A temporary altar with a statue of Zhenwu and a stage for performances was set up in an open space at the foot of a mountain. While the opera was being played, large white snakes appeared, not afraid of people and not attacking them, seemingly watching the opera; the snakes were considered by locals as incarnations of Zhenwu, who came to watch the opera held in his honour.

Within temples, it is common to see banners bearing the phrase "if the heart is sincere, the god will reveal his power" (心誠神靈 xin cheng shen ling). The relationship between men and gods is an exchange of favour. This implies the belief that gods respond to the entreaties of the believer, if his or her religious fervor is sincere (cheng xin 誠心). If a person believes in the god's power with all his heart and expresses piety, the gods are confident in his faith and reveal their efficacious power. At the same time, for faith to strengthen in the devout's heart, the deity has to prove his or her efficacy. In exchange for divine favours, a faithful honours the deity with vows (huan yuan 還願 or xu yuan許願), through individual worship, reverence and respect (jing shen 敬神).

The most common display of divine power is the cure of diseases after a faithful asks for aid. Another manifestation is the fulfillment of a request of children. The deity may also manifest through mediumship, entering the body of a shaman-medium and speaking through his or her lips. There have been cases of people curing illnesses "on behalf of a god" (ti shen zhi bing 替神治病). Gods may also speak to people when they are asleep (tuomeng 託夢).