Russian Influence-za

The U.S.-Russian saga is the most interesting (and terrifying) thing going on in the world today. And if it's seemed too piecemeal and confusing to follow, I totally get it. But even if you think it doesn't affect you, I promise it does. Therefore, we need to understand even just the basics.
So here we go...

Where to start? Let's begin with:

Putin
He believed the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the century. As a KGB officer he was humiliated by the fall of the USSR and blamed the west- specifically the United States. He's made it his mission to bring Russia back to its former glory and will do anything it takes to humiliate the U.S. and vindicate his homeland.

Watch Putin's Revenge the two part series from FRONTLINE to understand why Putin hates the U.S., despises Hillary Clinton, and desperately needs to have a way to protect himself and his wealth.



In order for Putin to get revenge he needs two thing: money and power. 

Money 
Putin needs money: one to maintain his power and two to ensure his safety. But it does him little good to hoard all his money in Russia so he needs to launder it out of the country. He was doing that successfully by building up oligarchs' (beholden to him) fortunes until lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, working for an American-born British financier, Bill Browder, was tortured and killed while in a Moscow prison. 

Browder vowed to avenge his lawyer/friend's death and lobbied and passed the Magnitsky Act which: 

authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S. 

Hear more about Browder and Magnitsky in this Stay Tuned with Preet podcast or this interview. It ties in why Putin was desperate to get sanctions removed and why the Trump Tower meeting which invoked "Russian adoptions" was really codeword for getting the U.S. to remove these financial restrictions through a back channel. 

Active Measures
If the oligarchs, and therefore Putin, are prevented from laundering money out of Russia they are backed into a corner and feel provoked to do ever more desperate things. 

What they did was accelerate ongoing active measures:

Active measures is a term for the actions of political warfare conducted by the Soviet and Russian security services (Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, KGB, FSB) to influence the course of world events.

These measures included calling in favors from the likes of Paul Manafort and Donald Trump to the Russian mob that had aided in money laundering and suspicious dealings over the years.  



So how will Putin ensure sanctions are removed and maintain his power and wealth?

Roger Stone
Well, before we get to the how we need to introduce Roger Stone into the picture. It's easy to think Roger is just a bad joke and write him off as a would-be-Batman-villain, but in actuality he is one of the most important back-seat political drivers of the last 40+ years.

Watch Get Me Roger Stone to see how one man messing around behind the scenes and blatantly in front of the camera can alter an election in front of our very eyes. See how his ties with Paul Manafort (they were business partners from back in the 80's); his 30+ year relationship with Donald Trump; his dirty-trickster ways; and his ties to WikiLeaks effected the 2016 election.



For the logistics of the how, we check in with Steve Bannon and the Cambridge Analytica folks. Their manipulation of our data through Facebook and in conjunction with Russian active measures was a perfect storm which blew Trump into office. 

The Great Hack


This accomplished several things for Putin: took down Hillary Clinton, stirred chaos with Trump and U.S. allies and got our fellow citizens to turn against each other.  

Putin has been successful using active measures so much so we are now in a place where Republicans who were until recently staunch Russian opponents are now either doing his bidding or at least not preventing him from waging a cyber/disinformation war on the American public. 

Are our politicians infected with Russian influence-za? Do they not know what is going on beneath their very noses? Or are they choosing to surrender our elections and our very democracy to save their careers and their power? Is this Putin's dream come true or are we going to wake up and unite behind securing our elections, holding accountable those who betrayed our country and defending our nation from foes foreign and domestic? 

Pronoun Power: The Quest for Singular "They"

When I was writing my book I had my dear step-Mom read a draft and when I asked her for her thoughts she said she loved all but two things: my grammar and my punctuation. My reply was that I was lucky enough to have a brilliant editor who'd fix all my errors so she could rest assured the world would not know how atrocious my actual writing is. 

Most of the time I agreed with the changes that were suggested to me but one particular back-and-forth I do remember having with my editor was how they is a plural and I could not use it in the singular for a sentence I was trying to include. I was annoyed but eventually acquiesced 😒

Fast forward to today when we are trying to be a more inclusive non-gender-biased world and well meaning folks who are guarding the rules of grammar are torn about how to use a plural pronoun in a way that can be adopted by individuals who would prefer not be identified as either he or she. 

Well, finally my quest for using singular they has risen to include a social component that makes it ripe to be embraced. Still I thought why not avoid the grammar wars and instead forge a new frontier. 

So today I take the bold step of suggesting we create a new pronoun that can stand in singular non-gender form but include all people: thay / thair. 

Pronounced the same but used to represent "a" singular person instead of a plural.

Pronouns are simply words but when someone is disempowered by having to identify themselves as one that does not fit these words can wound. They can be used by ignorant people as weapons of division. Let's keep the meaning they has held but add thay as a sign of the times and a pronoun that gives power to our communication that we can all back.

Power to the Pronoun! Power to ALL the People: he, she, thay!

Creating 2019

ME Mapping: Creating Your Year from Joy Meredith



Wishing YOU a fabulous 2019! 

Cheers to creating your most JOYfull Year Ever :)



And... if you're interested in mapping with ME please come join us for the next ME Workshop on the January 19th. 



*SlideShare doesn't allow editing or updating decks anymore so this version is through 2020 in case you're wondering 😉

QUESTION 45

There is only one question ...

Ask Pence, the Cabinet, GOP Leadership, and any Trump supporter? Question 45 

Get them ON THE RECORD now-- for they must choose on which side of history they will stand. 🇺🇸

Immigration Reform: Building on America's Greatness! 🇺🇸

via: CNN

People like a good theme- something catchy and simple- like: Build the Wall!

Not sure who came up with the phrase that is chanted at every Trump rally, although it does have a Roger Stone whiff to it. But I digress... the point is that even though immigration was THE topic of the 2016 campaign and the hot topic of 2018 it is not something that has surged to the point most experts are concerned. And the Central American "flood" is balanced by fewer Mexican immigrants coming here to stay. 

Today the costs are almost the least to be concerned over-- what's at stake now is whether we stay united as a country or as latest Twitter trending meme alludes to start a #SecondCivilWar?!

Since something clearly needs to be done and while I don't have a perfect solution a few things seem obvious, non-partisan and doable so let's at least start building on America's Greatness*:

1. Family Separation: Stop separating families and reunite ones that already have been. Only deport folks if their children have been located and are able to travel back with them to a safe drop point.
2. Registering: Register all immigrants with reason for entry and asylum request when applicable. Finger print and ID everyone as way to help prevent smuggling/sex trafficking of minors/women.  
3. Freedom Anklet: Release family as unit with one person per family agreeing to wear an ankle monitor. (Yes, I understand this is degrading and it is not my preference as well but better than separating families and also quashes the reason not to allow entry while in process). Intensive Supervision Appearance Program already has protocols in place. 
• This keeps families together and children with parents.
• Savings: ~$5/person/day vs. $300. Should be easy for Rs to support.
• If they break rules of monitoring then are permanently banned from US.
• The anklets can be different color- lets say gold or rwb- vs criminal black ones to signify awaiting immigration status so as to be a bit less stigmatizing.
4. Guest Worker: Finally establish a guest worker program where compromise is needed.
• Criminalize all employers who willfully break laws.
• Allow folks to travel back and forth as long as they are following rules.
5. Home Sanctuary: Instead of the super controversial and unsustainable sanctuary cities in the US, establish sanctuary zones in the countries of origin so folks are not fleeing the violence of their preferred home.
• Take the $750 million in development aid for Central America (Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) and establish safe zones in the countries so their citizens do not feel need to flee for their safety. 
• Not necessarily a military-led base but create a full package that would include economic opportunities, education, military security zones, and infrastructure support for struggling areas.
• No cooperation, no aid.

Immigration is a tough problem to completely solve but we are dividing ourselves as a nation when we should be protecting our borders and laws while showing we are still a melting pot that welcomes those who are willing and able to keep Building on America's Greatness!  

* 🇺🇸 Granted way less catchy, but way more humane, hopeful, and American! 

Due Gooders: What to Do with Bad Men

When Alfred Nobel's brother, Ludvig, died the obituary accidentally named Alfred and stated Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead"). It went on, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." An inventor with 355 patents he was most well known as the creator of dynamite.

Appalled that this is how he would be remembered, his last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.

117 years later a Nobel Prize is known as an honor and as a contribution to humanity.

So why do I bring this up you ask? Well, because the state of our world in the last year has left me in a whirl. I have been heartbroken that many of the men I most admired have turned out to be asses and abusers. But unfortunately it's not just a few... everyday we find out more who have abused their positions (and privilege) and have had an entitled, destructive, power-hungry way of being in the world. 

Yet most are not complete sociopaths* but jerky guys behaving very badly who need to evolve. And why should we care? Because we need them to lead a revolution to clean up their messes, redeem themselves, and show generations to come that the boys-clubs-ways are truly unmanly. That, and there is just simply too many men involved to isolate them all.

My idea 💡...

Due Gooders: Men who have done bad ready to evolve and pay their dues and do good. 

I envision a non-profit that starts out with some of the high profile men we see in the news who come together to form a kind of Assholes Anonymous organization where they get help for what caused their behavior, work to make amends for any damage they've done, and then find a way to repay to society their debt by doing good in the world. 

It could be thru charity work, or they could create a documentary, book, PSAs or lecture series exploring toxic male culture, or any other way of transforming their destruction into good. 

There is The Good Men Project, A Call To Men, and various religious and other male focused organizations, but I think that the Due Gooders needs to be a separate conversation about how in this new millennium masculinity needs to evolve by men owning their own past. Even though there is a range of behavior, all men caught up in #MeToo movement bear responsibility to take this on. 

Bottomline: It would be a waste to not at least try to salvage the good in this reckoning and help facilitate a full-blown culture shift. Women shouldn't have to bear the burden to transform male culture-- the men who did the bad now need to pay their dues and man up to do it themselves! 
What's in it for them is a possibility (if they do the work) to leave a legacy- and obituary- of more then just their worst sins but a story of redemption and inspiration for their children, society and for themselves. Now that would be a good next act and great ending.     

[*Note: I feel it goes without saying but will state clearly that some of these guys are irredeemable and are not capable or willing to change- this is not for them. Only for the guys who feel shame, want to clean up their messes, and are willing to do the work.]

We Don't Need More Babies, We Need More Adults

I can't believe this clip is not all over ever Sunday show and not getting more attention. It sums up what is wrong with Speaker Ryan specifically and current Republicans in general: old ideas, archaic solutions.

Take the real issue of aging Boomers- facts are facts- but we don't need more babies in the world or in the U.S. to solve this issue. The last thing a world of 7.5 billion needs is more people adding to an already exploding, unsustainable population. Instead we need healthier citizens, collaborative technology, and less wasted resources.

Here are some solutions we should try instead of becoming breeders for Boomers:

• More Peace 
• Hire Diplomats: The State Department has cut the budget for diplomats under Rex Tillerson. We need more diplomatic efforts and deals cut in the world vs saving pennies and spending billions on another war or defending escalating aggression on foreign soil. 
• Military Contracts: War is profitable for many. The Military-Industrial Complex is incentivized to keep us on war-footing in order to secure their lucrative contracts. Want to save money: war less. 

• More Wellness
• Healthier Citizens: Everything from the food and water supply, environmental pollution, and healthcare options need to be our focus if we want to keep the aging and current population as well and active as possible. When we over-work, over-stress, and under care for folks it costs us far more than a wellness based approach would.  
• Better Research: Alzheimers alone can take down the U.S. healthcare system if we don't get a handle on it. Not only is it a devastating disease for the patient but the family is often stuck between raising their children, working, and caring for parents. It's depleting their work, community involvement, and quality of life. We need to fund research and have better programs to care for those affected.

• More Equity
• Fair Taxes: Wealthy Americans need people to buy their goods and services, educate their kids, clean their homes, wax their boats, and keep their lifestyle going. If they hoard their wealth the middle class will dwindle and not only will it be un-Christian and bad for business, it is bad for the general welfare of the country that allowed them to prosper. 

• More Freedom
• Healthcare Rights: Restricting birthcontrol, abortion, and a safety-net for women to choose what works for their families cost our country. To be clear: more babies aren't free.
• Death with Dignity: Put the fact that most costs are incurred in the last few months of life aside and just allow folks to decide what works for them and their family. Have restrictions in place so that abuse is minimized but not only would it save billions but what speaks more to our freedom then let us decide when and how we want to die. 

• More Smarts
• Better Education: Education investments have priceless ROI: keeps kids safe, advances prospects for a better society, makes kids more employable for future, and could spark the next technology wave. 
• Better Infrastructure: High speed transportation is a key to everything from jobs and the environment to how to provide a better quality of life for our citizens. 

I could go on and on... immigration reform, prison reform, election reform. There are endless issues that can be solved if we came together as a country. The Republican taxcuts are about to give corporations and the 1% billions of dollars... or we could make all of the above investments and not only help The Boomers but invest in our entire society. 

We don't need more babies, we need more adults who are willing to lead our country forward with smart solutions.

E-Z CA$H

Recently I've been obsessed with money. Not my normal area of interest, which might be the reason I'm now hyper-sensitive to it  😉  ...  but for various reasons I've been focused on the generation, flow, and exchange of money.

My friend Vickie and I even meet weekly for a Money Club that started after we read Jen Sincero's You Are A Badass At Making Money. I loved this book because it takes on money not as a heavy topic but more as a way to up your energy... a game... a Hi-Vibe way of being in the world.

And of course whatever you focus on expands, so in the last few weeks I've been fascinated with everything from digital and crypto-currency to money apps. 

There are currently several money exchange avenues but none have jelled and caught fire. Banks offer their programs and PayPal's Venmo is popular among the kids these days.

But what I want is an E-ZPass for the Internet where I can exchange money not just out in the world but also online without a big deal every time I want to do it.

I think the Cash App is almost there.

Simple, beautiful interface, and I think with this added game-changing feature it could be the new face of money...

My idea  💡 

Create a CA$H icon/button on social media bar (& 🛒 ) for websites that links to their account so you can micro-tip/spend until you want to CA$H out.

I suggested this idea first for Square but I think it's even a better fit under the CA$H umbrella.  Cash-tags can be used with url's for every site on web even if they don't want to sign up until there is money donated/sent to them. Imagine how it can transform the way charities, journalists, artists, politicians, etc. are funded.

We use E-ZPass to get around tollways, E-Z CA$H can be how we move money.