(This low-resolution image is used only to celebrate the Chief Executives of the United States, Canada and Mexico. They recently gathered in Mexico City for a conference of the three nations. Their DNA is discussed below, with the admonition that views expressed are not necessarily those of the Socotra House LLC Management due to Article 88 restrictions on speech or typing or whatever).

We are still working on the Weather Report this week, and it is a bit of a zoo. The Crisis de Jour is constantly changing. In fact, it is so mutable that a daily update is a challenge. One that passed us by is a perfect example, and we had to hand the matter over to the members of the Writer’s Section who are not subject to restrictions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The ones who are still subject to such restrictions had to be fully compliant, of course. Thankfully, we have former academic professionals now in Emeritus Status who retain their First Amendment protections. Accordingly, we believe they can still say what they think and the rest of the circle remained compliant. There was a small but vigorous discussion about a recent trip by someone in the government who met with some other people in an American City on the southern border, and then proceeded to Mexico City.

The Legal Section indicates we can still have opinions about geography. At least for now. You will remember “Canada” is the nation to our north. It is a sprawling country without much in the way of population, but well qualified as “Dos Amigo.” The third Amigo, Mexico, has some challenges. One of those being the war in progress there between Cartels and the government. The point of the recent joint meeting was to demonstrate solidarity or something. You may not have heard about it, since there was a declaration of joint solidarity and dramatic action. For some reason, that wasn’t sufficient to get much media coverage. But the three nations announced some stuff that could have a couple slightly negative feedback loops.

The Legal Section was firm that anyone subject to UCMJ restrictions had to remain silent. Since you haven’t heard what the conference declaration included, we are restricted to the opinions of Buck, our Economist, and Melissa, our budget analyst. We thought you might be curious about their conclusions. Here they are, as published in a thing called the “Declaration for North America,” or what they call our collective “DNA.” Apparently it incorporates elements of a United Nations scheme called “Agenda 21.” That is something else we have not heard about, even though it has been a UN goal adopted (non-binding) in a 1992 conference in Rio de Janeiro.

The list of goals in the DNA document just issued are separated into six categories:

·      Diversity, equity, and inclusion;
·      Climate change and the environment;
·      Competitiveness;
·      Migration and development;
·      Health;
·      Regional security.

We naturally are in favor of all of them, but apparently these UN declarations are identified in the same way we name our gargantuan domestic spending bills. They are so long and so urgent that no one has time to actually read them. If the DNA is like our Congressional legislation, the beneficial titles are actually the opposite of the provisions contained within them.

The first segment in our DNA is apparently a commitment to make us diverse, inclusive and equitable. We like the first two words, but think there might be a typo in the third word. It used to be “equality.” That means everyone gets a fair and equal chance at things. The term “equity” used to refer to accumulation of cash value in our houses. Something that belonged to us. Now, it apparently means we are universally committed instead to an equal distribution of everything. The Government will be in charge of ensuring that we are equal at the end of things, whether we paid our mortgages or not.

The second segment is a firm commitment to whatever the Experts are saying about our weather. The Experts say changes to “Climate” are things that take thirty years to measure. We are thus a little confused about what we are supposed to do about the weather, which is transient and local. That means today’s weather won’t be “climate” until 2053. Based on the last thirty years (Ice Age Coming! Global Warming!) we expect to transition to some other weather pattern by then, whether it is “good” or “bad.”

The Experts could as logically declare our Earth is just spinning in the wrong direction and we should devote colossal amounts of money to have it turn in the other direction. There might be some inconvenience, but we want to save the planet, right?

Naturally, there is no word on exactly how such a thing would be done, but these things are super important and must be done immediately, so there is no time for discussion. And there is certainly no time for “disagreement.” We apparently are not supposed to question how many times the Experts have been confused about whether we are going to suddenly freeze or broil. Since their Expert projections have been proven incorrect every few years, they simply say now it “changes.” On that we are in complete agreement.

We have no idea what the Amigos meant by Competitiveness. If it means the reverse of the meaning of that single word, it would be something vigorous that would make Mexico competitive with the United States by shipping their surplus population north and exporting our industries south to their more efficient, smaller workforce for full employment.  It worked with China, right?

Migration and development? We can only assume that has something to do with open borders and developing something else after everyone leaves one place for another.

Health? Been sick lately? Some of us have, and are wondering if that vaccine we took had anything to do with it. But there is not much information available. Public Health matters have become another one of those closed social issues not subject to question. The Legal folks made us delete a couple sentences about how the current healthcare law was passed. We were advised that comments on legislation by private citizens are not as simple as ripping up a copy of the President’s State of the Union remarks on television while he is still giving it.

Regional security? Since Mexico is already in a civil war against enormous criminal cartels that have utilized unsupervised migration policies to set up shop all over the United States, that fits with the inverted title. Alberta, the province that is the natural resource star of Canada’s commonwealth, is about ready to quit the country. That is based on Ottawa’s decision to shut down energy exploration and export. Similar sentiments are reported from counties in some jurisdictions in the Western United States which would like to leave their coastal states and join Idaho. That doesn’t seem to be a matter for consideration in our DNA. Most of us remain committed to our leadership since the Legal Section says we have to.

So, there is a brief run-down on our collective DNA as announced by the Tres Amigos. We looked around the circle on the balcony and asked for a show of hands, pro and con, to determine what is appropriate to think.

There were no hands raised, either way. We think we might be in favor of all sorts of things and naturally support our wise leaders. We would just like a chance to understand what they are. We defer to the Legal Section to ensure our opinions are fully compliant with whatever the law might be at the moment. It seems to change fairly frequently and since no one has actually read what the law is, it just makes sense, you know?

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com