UNITED UTAH PARTY ANNOUNCES ANNUAL UNITER GOLDEN SPIKE AWARD FUNDRAISER
The UUP will be honoring former 2016 independent presidential candidate Evan McMullian
SALT LAKE CITY, UT-- On November 6, 2019, the UUP will hold its Annual Uniter Golden Spike Award Fundraiser from 12-1:30 p.m. at the Alta Club in Salt Lake City.
The United Utah Party’s Golden Spike Award honors Utahns who have worked hard to build bridges on the state and/or federal level. As uniters, Golden Spike Award honorees are well-known for getting people involved in the political process and bringing people together.
The 2019 Honoree is Evan McMullin, former 2016 independent presidential candidate. Evan is a Utah native, former CIA officer, investment banker and House Foreign Affairs Senior policy analyst.
The cost of the event is $100 per person, or $700 for a table of 8 people. Money raised by the fundraiser this year will further our effort to change the political landscape of Utah.
Please RSVP by Monday, October 27st, at this link should you choose to attend. If you are unable to join us, please consider donating to the United Utah Party or sharing your time with us by volunteering.
The United Utah Party is a new moderate party in Utah that seeks common sense, practical solutions to governmental problems rather than ideological remedies. The party has ran 19 candidates for office in 2017-2018 and received approximately 10 percent of the vote - far out polling any other minor party in the state. For more information, go to unitedutah.org.
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Dear Editor:
Please consider this unique and timely perspective from highly informed Kathy Kelly on the origins of some of the hate that produced extremism. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
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Camp Bucca, Abu Ghraib and the rise of extremism in Iraq
by Kathy Kelly
1187 words
Yesterday morning, President Trump announced the death of Abu Bakr Al- Baghdadi and three of his children.
President Trump said Al-Baghdadi, the founder of ISIS, was fleeing U.S. military forces, in a tunnel, and then killed himself by detonating a suicide vest he wore.
In 2004, Al-Baghdadi had been captured by U.S. forces and, for ten months, imprisoned in both Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.
I visited Camp Bucca in January, 2004 when, still under construction, the Camp was a network of tents, south of Basra, in an isolated, miserable area of Iraq.
Before our three-person Voices delegation entered Iraq, that month, we waited for visas in Amman, Jordan. While there, two young Palestinian men visited us and described their experiences during six months of imprisonment in Camp Bucca. Recalling the horrible experience, they remembered how fearful they felt, sleeping in sand infested with desert scorpions; they were paraded naked, for showers, in front of U.S. military women and told to bark like a dog or say “I love George Bush” before their empty bowls would be filled with food. Unable to communicate with anyone outside the prison, they could only hope for release when their turn finally came to appear before a three-person Tribunal.
Five of their friends were still in the prison. They begged us to visit these friends and plead for their release. All of them were Palestinians studying for professional degrees in Baghdad. Reluctant to lose their chances of eventually graduating, they took a risk and remained in Baghdad throughout the 2003 Shock and Awe bombing. U.S. marines arrived at their dormitory on Baghdad’s Haifa Street and systematically rounded up students with foreign IDs. They were tagged as TCNs, “Third Country Nationals,” and herded off to various prisons.
In Baghdad, our friends in the Christian Peacemaker Teams had already developed a data base of names and prison numbers to help Iraqis discover the whereabouts of missing relatives. They found the prison numbers for two of the young men we were asked to visit and advised us to ask for Major Garrity, a U.S. military officer who was in charge of Camp Bucca.
We traveled to the southernmost town in Iraq, Umm Qasr, and sat on a weathered picnic table outside of Camp Bucca, awaiting Major Garrity’s decision. Prospects were bleak since we learned, upon arrival, that we’d come after visiting hours and the next day to visit was three days later. There was no shade, the sand was coated with black grease, and we constantly spat small black flies out of our mouths. Camp Bucca was one of the most hellish spots I’ve ever encountered. Yet we felt quite grateful when word arrived that Major Garrity had approved our visit.
A military pick-up truck drove us across an expanse of sand, and soon we were witnessing a tearful, tender embrace between one of the prisoners and his brother, a dentist from Baghdad, who had accompanied us. With no prompting, the prisoners, all in their twenties, corroborated the grievances their previously released friends expressed. They spoke of loneliness, monotony, humiliation and the fearful uncertainty prisoners face when held without charge by a hostile power with no evident plans to release them. They were, however, relieved to know we could tell their relatives we had met with them. Later, Major Garrity said the outlook for them being released wasn’t very positive. “Be glad they’re here with us and not in Baghdad,” she said, giving us a knowing look. “We give them food, clothes and shelter here. Be glad that they’re not in Baghdad.” Later, in May of 2004, CNN released pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison. We began to understand what she meant.
The November 3, 2005 issue of the New York Review of Books quoted three officers, two of them non-commissioned, stationed with the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mercury in Iraq.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they described in multiple interviews with Human Rights Watch how their battalion in 2003-2004 routinely used physical and mental torture as a means of intelligence gathering and for stress relief... Detainees in Iraq were consistently referred to as PUCs. The torture of detainees reportedly was so widespread and accepted that it became a means of stress relief, where soldiers would go to the PUC tent on their off-hours to “f**k a PUC” or “smoke a PUC.” “F**king a PUC” referred to beating a detainee, while “smoking a PUC” referred to forced physical exertion sometimes to the point of unconsciousness.
“Smoking” was not limited to stress relief but was central to the interrogation system employed by the 82nd Airborne Division at FOB Mercury. Officers and NCOs from the Military Intelligence unit would direct guards to “smoke” the detainees prior to an interrogation, and would direct that certain detainees were not to receive sleep, water, or food beyond crackers. Directed “smoking” would last for the twelve to twenty-four hours prior to an interrogation. As one soldier put it: “[The military intelligence officer] said he wanted the PUCs so fatigued, so smoked, so demoralized that they want to cooperate.
A sergeant told Human Rights Watch, “If he’s a good guy, you know, now he’s a bad guy because of the way we treated him.”
The violence that brought the Islamic State into being has a long history.
In numerous trips to Iraq from 1996 to 2003, our Voices delegation members grew to understand the unbearable weariness and suffering of Iraqi families eking out an uncertain existence under punishing economic sanctions. Between the wars, the death toll in children’s lives alone, from externally imposed economic collapse and from the blockade of food, medicine, water purification supplies and other essentials of survival, was estimated by the U.N. at 5,000 children a month, an estimate accepted without question by U.S. officials.
U.S. assaults, from Desert Storm (1991) to Shock and Awe (2003) -- achieved through aerial bombings, children’s forced starvation, use of depleted uranium and white phosphorous, through bullet fire, night raids, blockaded medicines, emptied reservoirs and downed power lines, through abandoned state industries and cities left to dissolve in paroxysms of ethnic cleansing -- have all been one continuous war. Along with the abuses of prisoners in places like Camp Bucca, FOB Mercury, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo, U.S. warfare predictably led to the buildup of ISIS and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's commitment to "an eye for an eye."
Asked, in 2016, to talk about his favorite passage in the Bible, President Trump said “eye for an eye.” He didn't seem to realize that Jesus rejected this teaching.
“But I say unto you,” Jesus said, “love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.”
Rather than urge retaliation, Jesus spoke of dignified non-resistance through winning over the opponent.
We need not choose blindness, or the hatred that lets us be herded in fear. We can instead seek to pay reparations for suffering caused through our wars. We can work to abolish war, mourn the deaths of Al-Baghdadi’s children and question how conditions inside U.S. military camps, in Iraq, led to the extremism of Al-Baghdadi and his ISIS followers.
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Kathy Kelly, syndicated by PeaceVoice, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence.
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Hi Jim,
Please feel free to use the below article as is. For an interview or comments from Deni Sciano on this or related topics please reach out and I will be happy to coordinate.
Ashley
When The Creative Light Bulb Flips On,
Here’s How To Make Your Idea Take Off
Smart business ideas can pop into someone’s head just about any time and anywhere: While walking or jogging, when driving, before going to bed, while doing housework, or during a brainstorming session.
The idea is usually triggered when the person notices a problem or need. The exciting moment the idea springs to life may seem like an epiphany, akin to a light bulb flipping on brightly in the brain. But that doesn’t mean it’s always a good, viable business idea, and discerning whether it will work doesn’t happen nearly as easily as the idea originally came.
“Getting a business idea from zero to reality requires numerous steps, lots of important details, and diligence,” says Deni Sciano (www.ScoreGameDayBag.com), the founder of Score! Designs, LLC, a women-owned designer handbag company based in San Antonio, Texas.
Sciano got her business idea to design clear handbags when waiting in a long security line at a professional sports event. Her products are now sold in 100 stores across the U.S.
“When you have that ‘a-ha!’ moment of discovery, your passion for your idea can take over, but that passion doesn’t give you the pragmatic side of business that you’ll need to properly investigate its potential and make it work. Having said that, by taking the right steps, being persistent and figuring it out, your idea might really take off.”
Sciano offers five ways to turn your idea into a business reality:
Do your homework. “The idea person who’s basically new to marketing and selling really needs to self-educate as much as possible,” Sciano says. “Read books on sales and marketing. Learn the importance of trade shows and networking as well as online marketing. Research the market; you need to carry out a full analysis of your idea by investigating the target audience and its demographics.”
Plan to spend money. The dream-big side of a new idea is countered by — and sometimes ended by — the reality-check side of having enough money to invest in the project. “You have to ask yourself early-on, ‘Can I afford this?’ ” Sciano says. “That’s the No. 1 thing that can stop you. There are many money factors to consider — for a lawyer, an accountant, to hire staff, to get trademarks, do the marketing, etc. There’s a lot that goes toward building your brand and your market.”
Find mentors. “It’s crucial to form relationships with entrepreneurs who had an idea, believed in it, and made it happen,” Sciano says. “You need the knowledge and inspiration gained from them and their successful experience.”
Keep the faith. “The grinding day-after-day part of pursuing your idea and turning it into a business reality can be drudgery, overwhelming, and discouraging at times,” Sciano says. “Fear is a huge factor that stops people from following through. It’s like a chain on your ankle. But let your adventurous spirit and your continuing curiosity shine through. Keep the faith in yourself and your product.”
Learn how to juggle. Sciano says that if it’s done properly, dedicating oneself to a product investigation and launch is extremely time-consuming. The person with the idea needs to weigh whether following through on it is worth the personal sacrifices they must make. “You have to go all-out, and the first couple of years you have to give up some of those things you enjoy — spending time with friends, hobbies, etc.,” Sciano says. “Figure out what kind of work-life balance you need.”
“After you come up with a great idea, trying to make it work can seem like hitting a wall over and over again,” Sciano says. “You learn how to go over the wall, and going for it is worth it.”
About Deni Sciano
Deni Sciano (www.ScoreGameDayBag.com) is the founder of Score! Designs, LLC, a women-owned designer handbag company based in San Antonio, Texas. A former teacher and marketing director, Sciano’s created her company and products with today’s heightened security issues at sports stadiums and arenas chiefly in mind.
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Hi Jim,
Please feel free to use the below article as is. For an interview or comments from Stephen Hyduchak please reach out and I'll be happy to coordinate.
Have a great Monday!
Ashley
These Thieves Don’t Want Your
Entire ID; Just A Piece Of It
If people weren’t worried enough about protecting their identities, now comes “synthetic identity fraud,” the Frankenstein monster of ID theft where crooks cobble together bits and pieces of different people’s identities to pull off their crimes.
“One example of how it works is when a thief will take your Social Security number and blend it with someone else’s address and a fake name to create a fictitious identity,” says Stephen Hyduchak, CEO of Aver (www.goaver.com), an identity-verification service.
Synthetic identity fraud isn’t really new, but it’s been growing rapidly in the last few years to become the fastest-growing financial crime. While these identity thieves can use an adult’s Social Security number, they often target children because they aren’t currently using their Social Security numbers and likely won’t discover the subterfuge until the day, several years from now, when they accept their first summer job or apply for a credit card.
“The thieves will use these manufactured identities to apply for government benefits, open bank and credit card accounts, apply for loans or utility services, or even rent a place to live,” Hyduchak says.
And, unfortunately, many banks and businesses aren’t doing a good job of making sure they are actually dealing with who they think they are dealing with, he says. As a result, Equifax reports that synthetic identification fraud now accounts for 80% of all credit card fraud losses, and nearly one-fifth of credit card charge-offs.
Hyduchak says there are steps consumers can take to protect themselves and their identities, such as avoid using debit cards whenever possible and don’t put their date of birth and place of birth on social media.
With synthetic ID fraud, though, the onus largely falls on businesses, which need to do a better job of protecting their customers, he says.
Hyduchak says there are a few clues that could indicate to businesses something is amiss with the person they are dealing with:
Criminals often use common male names. In the United States, for example, you can’t get more common than a name like John Smith, and fraudsters use that to their advantage because it’s hard to distinguish people with common names from each other, Hyduchak says. “Using the data and statistics to play the odds, the criminals use this to trick reports,” he says.
Fraudsters don’t have much social footprint. Hyduchak says his team has noticed that fraudsters usually don’t take the time to build much of a social media profile with their fake identifications. “Linkedin profiles with less than two work histories and no college experience are immediate flags,” he says. “Many do not even have a social media profile of any nature.”
Applications lack birthdates. In some cases, identity thieves don’t like to give definitive birthdates. “That’s because a search of the common name they are impersonating turns up a lot of individuals with the same name, meaning the ages are all over the map,” Hyduchak says. “The bad actors try to play the odds and hope to get through compliance systems.”
Name and email addresses don’t match. Most adults use an email address that is some variation of their first and last names, perhaps with a number or a middle initial added if someone else already had the email address. “When a name does not match the email, it is something else that is a flag for identity fraud,” Hyduchak says.
“Even though each of these pieces can be ambiguous and subjective, they can be a strong indicator of fraud,” Hyduchak says. “It’s imperative that banks and businesses have some sort of identity-verification system in place to protect both themselves and their customers.”
About Stephen Hyduchak
Stephen Hyduchak is the CEO of Aver (www.goaver.com), an identity-verification service. Hyduchak worked in corporate finance for companies such as PRA Health Sciences before finding the entrepreneur bug. He began working on media and design for small businesses, which led him to consulting projects in the blockchain space, and eventually to founding Aver.
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Hi Jim
Please feel free to publish the following article or to pull quotes. If you’d like an interview or comments from Eduardo about this or related topics, please let me know and I will coordinate.
Best,
Terry
3 Guiding Principles
For Digital Transformation Success
Many companies have adopted digital technology to transform their business. But the transition can be a challenging process, and studies show that digital transformation projects often fail to reach company expectations.
This happens for a variety of reasons, says J. Eduardo Campos, co-founder with his wife, Erica, of Embedded-Knowledge Inc. (www.embedded-knowledge.com) and co-author with her of From Problem Solving to Solution Design: Turning Ideas into Actions.
“It’s often due to ineffective communication between the IT department and business teams,” Campos says. “But overall it really comes down to an inability to problem-solve and a tendency to lose sight of teamwork and the big-picture business plan.
“To have a successful digital transformation depends greatly on employees working together, but too many organizations are siloed, thus hampering the communication and creating obstacles in the process.”
Campos offers three ways company leaders can deal with problems in digital transformation:
Define the essential problem. Campos says digital transformational programs fail when company leaders don’t grasp the root of the problem they hope digital transformation will solve. “Beware of solving the symptoms instead of the problem,” Campos says. “To define the essential problem, you first need to step back, reflect, and clearly define what you are trying to address. Detaching yourself from a problem and trying to see it from a different perspective, you then will have a better view of how things interact with each other. There are often multiple layers to why a problem exists, so ask a series of whys that drill down to the answer.”
Design solutions. Once the problem is identified, setting goals and assessing options come next. ”It’s not unusual to find yourself in a situation where the problems you identified are part of a dynamic environment, affected by constant changes that require you to revisit your goals and options regularly,” Campos says. “This is where technology and software can be very helpful in making sure everything is being tracked appropriately without any information getting lost. in addition to technology, using risk management concepts can be a very effective way to help keep consistency throughout the solution design process.”
Engage stakeholders. Digital transformation often represents a massive change for personnel. Campos says it’s vital for the decision-makers to craft a stakeholder engagement plan that addresses all aspects of a recommended solution. “Clearly identify whom will be impacted by the solution, either positively or negatively, and how to handle stakeholder reactions,” Campos says. “You want them to be willing to commit to your recommendation because they indeed want it, not because you are selling it to them. And when you are influencing the decision-making process, be sure to show your stakeholders your appreciation of varying opinions.”
“Achieving success in digital transformation brings together people, process, and technology,” Campos says. “Many businesses never get far past the launch point of their digital transformation because that triad of people, process and technology isn’t in sync, and problems that could have been solved were not.”
About J. Eduardo Campos
J. Eduardo Campos is co-author with his wife, Erica, of From Problem Solving to Solution Design: Turning Ideas into Actions. Campos spent 13 years at Microsoft, first as a cybersecurity advisor, then leading innovative projects at the highest levels of government in the U.S. and abroad. His consulting firm, Embedded Knowledge Inc. (www.embedded-knowledge.com), works with organizations and entrepreneurs developing customized business strategies and forming partnerships focused on designing creative solutions to complex problems.
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Dear Editor:
Please consider this illuminating commentary by social scholar Dr. Lawrence Wittner, who gives the current accurate picture of the growing gap between rich, uber-rich, and the rest of us. For PeaceVoice, thank you,
Tom Hastings
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The widening gap between the super-rich and other Americans
by Lawrence Wittner
965 words
Despite the upbeat words from America’s billionaire president about the “economic miracle” he has produced, economic inequality in the United States is on the rise.
In August 2019, the Economic Policy Institute reported that, in 2018, the average pay of CEOs at America’s 350 top firms hit $17.2 million―an increase, when adjusted for inflation, of 1,007.5 percent since 1978. By contrast, the typical worker’s wage, adjusted for inflation, grew by only 11.9 percent over this 40-year period. In 1965, the ratio of CEO-to-worker’s pay stood at 20-to-1; by 2018 (when CEOs received another hefty pay raise and workers received a 0.2 percent pay cut), it had reached 278-to-1.
An AFL-CIO study, released in June 2019, had similar findings. Examining compensation at Standard & Poors 500 companies, the labor federation reported that average CEO pay in 2018 had increased by $5.2 million over the preceding 10 years. This resulted in an average CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 287-to-1.
These figures, of course, are only averages, and at numerous major corporations, the economic gap between boss and worker is much greater. According to the AFL-CIO, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio at Walmart (America’s largest private employer) is 1,076 to 1, at Walt Disney Company 1,424-to-1, at McDonald’s 2,124-to-1, and at Gap 3,566-to-1. At 49 S&P 500 firms, noted an Institute for Policy Studies report, half the work force―that is, 3.7 million employees―received wages below the official U.S. poverty line for a family of four.
Thus, despite the soaring incomes of top corporate executives and other wealthy Americans, the median household income in the United States grew by only 0.2 percent during 2018―a decline from the three previous years. Commenting on U.S. wage stagnation, Sam Pizzigati, co-editor of inequality.org, observed that “average Americans have spent this entire century on a treadmill getting nowhere fast. The nation’s median―most typical―households pocketed 2.3 percent fewer real dollars in 2018 than they earned in 2000.”
Although President Donald Trump has claimed that “inequality is down,” federal data released this year show that, in 2018, the nation’s income inequality reached the highest level since the U.S. Census Bureau began measuring it five decades before.
U.S. economic inequality is even greater in terms of wealth. During the Democratic presidential debate in late June 2019, Senator Bernie Sanders reminded Americans that just three U.S. billionaires (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett) possessed as much wealth as half the people in the United States combined. And the three richest U.S. families―the Waltons (owners of Walmart), the Mars candy family, and the Koch family (owners of a vast fossil fuel conglomerate)―possessed a combined fortune ($348.7 billion), which is 4 million times the wealth of the median U.S. family.
Although the median net worth of U.S. households has declined (after adjusting for inflation) since the late 1990s, the fortunes of the wealthy have skyrocketed. The American billionaires sharing their ostensible wisdom at the World Economic Forum in Davos at the beginning of 2019 made enormous gains in wealth over the previous decade. They included Jamie Dimon (275 percent), Rupert Murdoch (472 percent), Stephen Schwarzman (486 percent), Marc Benioff (823 percent), and Mark Zuckerberg (1,853 percent).
According to computations made by Forbes in October 2019, the ten wealthiest Americans (with riches ranging from $53 billion to $107.5 billion each) had combined wealth of $697 billion―or an average of $69.7 billion each. Assuming that, henceforth, they had no further income and had limitless longevity, they could each spend a million dollars a day for approximately 191 years.
Most other Americans possess far fewer economic resources. In 2018, 38.1 million Americans lived below the U.S. government’s official poverty threshold, including many people working at multiple jobs. Furthermore, another 93.6 million Americans lived close to poverty, bringing the total of impoverished and near-impoverished people to nearly 42 percent of the U.S. population.
Naturally, economic deprivation has serious consequences. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 14.3 million households in America have difficulty providing enough food for their families. Low income families are also plagued by inadequate education, alcohol and substance abuse, and poor housing, health, and life expectancy. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in September 2019 that poor Americans die at an earlier age than rich ones. Indeed, in 2019, for the first time in a century, life expectancy in the United States declined for three consecutive years. Suicide rates, which closely correlate with poverty, increased by 33 percent since 1999. Even what is left of the dwindling middle class faces the crippling costs of health care, college education, and debt payments.
This situation bears no resemblance to that of America’s ultra-wealthy, who, in addition to pouring money into the campaign coffers of politicians that safeguard and expand their fortunes, continue purchases like one multi-billionaire’s acquisition of a $238 million Manhattan penthouse―a supplement to his two floors at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Chicago ($30 million), Miami Beach penthouse ($60 million), Chicago penthouse ($59 million), and additional apartment in Manhattan ($40 million). Other recent purchases by the ultra-rich include a $100 million, 305-foot “super-yacht” (complete with helipad and IMAX theater), private jet planes ($65 million), and (of course) gold toilet paper.
The latest attraction for America’s ultra-affluent is Manhattan’s 131-floor Central Park Tower building which, when completed, will become the tallest, most expensive residential dwelling in the United States. It will feature 179 luxury condos ranging in price from $6.9 million to $95 million and a seven-story Nordstrom flagship store with six restaurants, plus three floors of “amenity space” (dubbed the Central Park Club) spanning 50,000 square feet, with an outdoor terrace, pools, a wellness center, and a massive ballroom. The immense height of the structure will underscore the vast power of the super-rich, as well as enable them to avoid noticing the many “losers” left behind on the teeming streets below.
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Dr. Lawrence Wittner, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press).
