RIP: Kriss Alexander Lambert

Kriss Alexander Lambert died unexpectedly at home in Puyallup, Washington this week. He was 57. 

Kriss was born on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and lived & worked in Lake Placid NY, Florida & the Carribean, Oklahoma, Japan, Maui, the Kona coast, the Pacific Northwest, etc. He was a serial entrepreneur with many licenses & professional qualifications. He worked many years as a ship's captain, and held a US Coast Guard 100 Ton Master license w/ 100 ton Sailing & Towing endorsements. Kriss was an accomplished musician, with many other hobbies & skills (such as woodworking), but is best remembered as outstandingly open-hearted. Friends recall "He gave good hugs!" 

Kriss worked for the International Olympic Committee as the Official Mascot of the 1980 Winter Olympics (XIII Olympic Winter Games) at Lake Placid, New York, USA. He did many months of prior promotional work at venues such as the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Orange Bowl, etc. in character as Roni Raccoon, and was rinkside for the historic "Miracle on Ice" hockey game when the USA team beat the USSR (actively directing assorted cheers while officially neutral). His photo and uniform hang in the Lake Placid Olympic Museum.
  
Kriss leaves behind his beloved & gracious wife Pam, many friends around the world, and close family in Puyallup & Washington state, in Hawai'i, on Cape Cod, in Sweden, and elsewhere. He was proud of family, and his comforting, lively home was always inviting. We each share shock & great sadness, but Kriss wanted us all to Celebrate Life. 

Friends of Kriss Lambert, thank you for your prayers. Please Share in coming weeks or years if you recall stories involving Kriss or Kriss-themed anecdotes: inspiring, funny, loving, goofy or otherwise. Welcome!

Military Playgrounds

Do you try to ignore unpleasant places? Afghanistan has been an imperial boneyard for millennia. Korea is well into its second century of being occupied, abused, divided, and further despoiled. Common folk in too many other places suffer terribly, controlled by militarism.

The population of the USA is partly at fault. Our costly adventurism overseas crippled what might have been. We now choose to watch dancing cute cats on the internet, believing a warm & cozy feeling proves we're kind & good, regardless of the bullets and hellfire we rain on innocent people, and the deadly corruption and tortures we fund round the world.

Keep American forces home.

Militarism is only one of many possible economic engines. Militarism is painful and dirty; with a corrupt entrenched system. We could be investing in creating a better living environment, or in housing, or in better health for all. But American citizens are suckered persuaded to invest endlessly in a huge & wasteful military.

This week we're told taking away DACA from 800,000 undocumented or illegal migrants (link) is "absolutely counter to what we stand for as a nation." But rhetoric is cheap as we continue to dodge fundamental injustices. Can you handle the truth?

What does the US Government stand for as a nation?
-- USA stole lands from native people, without compensation
-- Military bases (incl. golf courses) occupy ancestral lands
-- Extraction industries now rape our homelands
-- Yankee "owners" of our resources fund agents to subdue us

Protecting the Robber-Barons

The US military is posted around the world to further expand American influence, and to protect extractive industries.

We the People don't directly profit from empire. We should not foolishly pay the high costs of overseas "defense" ... Let the richies pay themselves.

We should not pay for fancy alarms on their many homes and yachts. They should pay more in taxes.

Our American armed forces should be based at home, on continental USA.

Basic Lessons for the TMT

TMT: Just Say No?

Lessons from the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope
Major construction for Hawai'i's great mauna?

-- Tactics 101: Don't give-up the high ground!

-- Astronomy 101: We know Edward Snowden was working in Hawai'i, so how many installations now monitor us earthlings under cover of science?

-- History 101: On O'ahu, concession of a coaling station at Pu'uloa quickly morphed into the sprawling Pearl Harbor US military complex. Public access strictly controlled.

-- Economics 101: Technological spillover effects are promised, yet still now thousands in nearby Puna have almost no public infrastructural services: no public running water, poor internet, some without mains electricity, no public roads to their home. This is 21st century Hawaii - the astronomical colony at the top of Mauna Kea (and of course the US military installations on the island) have modern infrastructure, as common people root in the mud with guard dogs, roosters, little fire ants & rat lungworm disease.

-- Religion 101: When Yankee claims unique insight, it's bullshit.

Apex Predator ?

Capitalism sales pitch claims "Nothing's better"...
But violence & deception are basic to capitalism.
Let's invest in a more peaceful, sustainable system.
Oversight has a cost, but surrendering law is more costly...

Are you The Apex Predator ?
Otherwise you're part of the food chain ... 

Rotten in Seoul

Samsung's Lee Jae-yong (이재용 often "Jay Y. Lee") will undergo a sentencing hearing later today in Seoul for assorted counts of corruption. It's being widely argued his conviction could be costly for both the company & for Korea.

Surely corruption has been part of the system under the previous regime of former President Park Geun-hye. And it's highly probable systemic corruption was rife in Korean political economy from long before that as well. Samsung's Lee Jae-yong is somewhat unfortunate to have been nabbed at a time of transition.

But this case is nasty because of both criminal detail and lack of remorse. Among other transgressions, Samsung secured an expensive show horse in Europe for Korean President Park's buddy's daughter (정유라), and then attempted to hide details when the purchase was linked to administrative oversight of Samsung's corporate amalgamation favoring Mr. Lee.

Claiming aides and associates were wholly responsible for any transgressions, Lee has thus far evaded all responsibility in these affairs.

President Park was vindictive and anti-democratic. She interfered in the livelihood of thousands of artists and entertainers by reportedly placing them on a blacklisted enemies list (link). Her right-wing government declared the 60,000-member Korean Teachers’ & Education Workers’ Union (KTU) illegal (link), and systematically sought to destroy it.

Who were the strategists forcing Park's dark right-wing regressive agenda?

Park was partly propped-up by her crony Choi Soon-sil (최순실). But corporations such as Samsung also supported the regime, and perhaps steered it. Others may be at least partly responsible... What did Yankee know and when did they know it? America's key position in Korea requires knowledge of all such dirt.

Are there any lessons here that might be relevant to the corrupt overlap of business & politics now developing around Donald J. Trump and his family? As Korea moves forward toward more transparency, America becomes more opaque -- allowing collusive relationships to take root.

It may be Lee & Samsung had little choice but to payoff President Park and her cronies. Lee's defense, that he's a poor little rich boy who knew nothing, is incredible. In Korea, gestation adds a year to one's age - he's 50 years old. He studied at Seoul National University (backdoor admission?), Japan's Keio University for a Master's degree, and Harvard Business School. Few Korean people will believe he's absolutely uninvolved & innocent. Let's hope the search for justice finds proper answers, but long-suffering Koreans know: the innocent often suffer most.

We hijack inheritance NOW

Colonizers stupefy with New World imagery
("New" world?) to overlook genocide of natives and violent theft of local homelands!

The continent was not NEW, nor was it empty. Colonists killed the native peoples. Many decades later, those profiting try whitewashing history. It's unacceptable.

Please disallow inheritance hijacking & condemn those denigrating "redskins" / native peoples!

Hundreds of Tribal Nations are native to North America
- see map by Aaron Carapella (.pdf link)

Let My People Go

America's people are corrupted & beggared by the global munitions industry and militarism. It's past time America's soldiers are returned home where they belong.

American politicians & generals hold the world hostage at too high a price. Many decades of overseas adventurism cost trillions of dollars while America's communities starve for funding.

Each wounded warrior is part of an injured family. Every combat fatality, at home & abroad, does violence to harmony. Peace!

Trump Hates Us

Trump promised VIOLENCE

"In the Good Old Days they used to treat them Very, Very Rough!"

"Knock the Crap out of Them ... I Promise You, I will pay the legal fees."

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Has Donald Trump has been racist all his life?

One disturbing article lists at least two dozen well-known cases (link) where Trump mocked or belittled minorities prior to being elected US President in 2016, thus asserting Trump supporters decided "racism isn't a deal-breaker"...

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Now ultra-right TRUMP® people threaten lives & property. Minorities are unsafe. Tourists are targeted for harassment by both government & racist American terrorists. America disintegrates under the BLOOD & SOIL solution of Republican Donald J. Trump, King of neo-Nazi resurgence and Made in America hate crime.