Thanks. So, as I said, I am, that's cool. So, hi, I'm Meg Howey, and today I'm going to talk about Ask Away, which is a project that I've been working on for the last couple of years now. And it is a web app, which we designed for the general election in New Zealand last year, and designed it to help young people engage with politics. And today I'm specifically going to talk about all of the things which I did as part of my research and design process to help understand my users, but also to help understand all of the different stakeholders in the project. And I'll talk a little bit about why I think that helped make the project a success. So, next slide. Right, so this is me. I'm a designer. I'm not really a technical person. And I have almost finished my master of design at Massey University in Wellington. And this project has been my master's project this year. And last year, the year before that, it was my undergrad visual communication design project. So this is where I'm coming at it from. This is the design process. And I'm especially interested in what's sometimes called the fuzzy front end, which is all of the stuff that happens before you even get to the point where you have a concept way before you get to wireframing and interface design. So this is how you can use the design process in a really broad sense to fit everything together and figure out who's involved, how to get them on board, and where to fit your project in. And I hope that if there's anything that you guys take away from today, it's how useful design thinking can be at that early stage of a project. Because I feel like it worked. So I've been working as lucky to be working within the design and democracy project, which is a strategic research unit within the School of Design at Massey, looking at enhancing conversation and participation on social issues through design. So a lovely big broad scope there. But we've been looking specifically last year at voter turnout, youth voter turnout. And I've been working alongside On the Fence, which is another really cool web app with the same goal. So this is our problem. We have had steadily decreasing turnout in New Zealand since 1980 in elections. And that's something that's been seen all around the world in mature democracies, it seems like. The voting for the people that we want to govern us thing is sort of is losing its way a little bit. And the people who are especially affected by this are these guys, 18 to 24 year olds, often the people who aren't turning up at the polls. In 2011, somewhere between 40 and 60% of young people in New Zealand didn't vote, depending on which statistics you're going by. So a pretty serious problem for us here. And this is what we did about it. So here we go. This is Ask Away. It was built using Ruby on Rails with a bootstrap front end and we used Angular.js. And that's basically all that I'm going to say about the technical side of it. But what you can see here is a whole lot of questions from people. So anyone could log on, ask a question, vote for the ones that they thought were important. And you didn't have to log on to do that. And then compare answers. So there's more than 1,000 questions and more than 1,000 different answers on the site from various politicians. So we're really happy with the engagement that it got last year. So the approach that I took to this was user-centered design, which is basically putting all of your users' needs, wants and limitations right in the middle of everything that you're doing. And I did a little bit of user research for this talk by asking my dad what he thought user-centered design was to him. He's a sysadmin. And he said it means you have to listen to all of the boring stuff that your stakeholders have built. And I thought that was a bit sad because I really like user-centered design. And I did see a little bit of research. It's quite old now, but it was suggesting that one of the challenges that open-source software has with getting really mainstream acceptance is that it is often built for technical users. And sometimes it's hard to think about the poor struggling people who don't understand things first off. But it's so important if you want to be making something that is having big social change, if that's what you want to go for, then obviously user-centered design is going to help you get there. And I like human-centered design even more than user-centered design. So you can use those two terms interchangeably, but human- centered design is also often used in a broader context because it doesn't necessarily mean that you're just talking about an interface and a piece of technology. Your solution for a human-centered design problem could be anything at all. And also there's more people involved in something than just your end user. There's whoever's telling you what to do. There's your stakeholders. There's all your people you're collaborating with, all the people contributing and your users. And they're all humans. And it helps to think about them all as people with different needs and wants and motivations, all as part of the same holistic view. So that's why I like talking about human-centered design. And the other very important thing is that it's not just about usability. That's a very, very important thing that should happen towards the end of a process, but there's so much more that can happen at the start of a process or before anything else happens. Cool. So my goal for this project was to get more young people to engage with politics. And that's very nice. It sounds very nice. And everyone was, you know, that's a good idea. You know, you should do that. But it's a good start, but it's a really long way from actually getting anyone to commit any resources or support or contributions. So what I started thinking about doing was mapping out this political landscape, thinking about who was it and what they all wanted. So we've got the political parties and there's big ones and there's little ones. We've got activists and big groups and organisations who have issues that they care about. We've got political commentators who are interpreting everything that's going on. We've got the media that's collecting all this stuff up and being it out again. We've got universities and academia who are interested in this from a long term trend sort of perspective. We've got civic hackers and coders who want to do cool stuff. And then down here we've got the disengaged young people. And lots of them aren't interested, but even more of them don't even know that this is all happening. In a Massey University survey, a couple of months out from the election, 92% of the people they asked didn't know what the date the general election was. So, yeah, sometimes they're not interested, sometimes it's just completely off the radar. So the next thing to think about was that's everyone that's there. What is it that they actually want? So political parties, very easy, they want votes. And they want a really easy, convenient way of engaging because they're very busy at that time of year. But also these little guys, little parties, less media opportunities than the bigger parties. So they're willing to work a little bit harder for their votes. And that was something that was useful. Activists and organizations want attention for their cause, want to raise awareness and get as much leverage as possible. These political commentators were looking for these big meta narratives to put everything into. And I noticed that one of the things that people were talking a lot about was the way that social media was changing political communication. So it's like, okay, tie into that. Media wanted stories. Often lots of their stories were about how young people weren't voting, which is unhelpful actually because the research shows that the more that you talk about the fact that people aren't voting, the less likely people are to vote because we'll do something if we know that everyone else is doing it. But if we keep hearing that nobody's doing it, then we're less likely to do it. The universities have research themes. So Massey University, I noticed, had a research theme about 21st century citizenship. And the civic hackers were interested in ideas about transparency and accountability with government and with representatives and keeping things open. And so all of these different groups had something that I wanted from them. I knew that they could all help the project in some way. But now I'd sort of gone through all of us thinking, I could start to think about, okay, this is what they want. And the young people, probably the hardest ones to try and figure out what it was that they wanted because often it's just to be left alone, but I'll go into that a bit more. But my suggestion would be that it doesn't matter if it's a user or a stakeholder or a collaborator or a contributor, always try and make an offer when you're asking for something. And this, especially the first time, the first iteration of the project, we had no budget. We had no, well, I didn't have really anything to offer people, especially apart from, this would be cool. But it was great to be able to think that through. And I think people did get a lot out of it. And as an example of how that worked, second time round, by tying this project and with Massey's strategic research themes, we managed to get funding through them, through their strategic innovation fund. Because we made it clear how it tied into the themes and also how it was going to build their reputation for civic responsibility. So always worth thinking through that stuff. So that takes us back to what it is that the young people wanted. And how would we get them to actually use the site?  And I just asked them, what were you doing, thinking and feeling in the lead up to the election last time round? Where were you getting your information from? Who were you talking to? And where were you losing interest? Where are you getting interested again? And this was really just a way to structure a conversation. And we found out it's a really useful, well I found out really useful things. One was that people will really get their information through Facebook in this age group, even if it was just news article links that they're finding them because their friends were sharing them on Facebook. So that was important. Also people were getting really annoyed at the media about this point here. And that was because it was so, lots of the coverage is so conflict-oriented, so petty. And people really weren't enjoying that. But also that some people who were saying, I'm not interested, it's not that relevant to me. But yeah, I'm still going to vote because you can't have to. You know, everyone does, it's important. And that just showed to me how important that social pressure is, even if you're not interested. Cool. So the next thing I did was put together some personas. And these were based on some of that research that I just done. And also on some qualitative research that the Electoral Commission commissioned in 2007. So we had The Evangelist Cat. And I used cats because I didn't really want to focus on demographics like age and ethnicity. I just wanted to think about people's behaviour and the attitudes. And also people like talking about cats. So The Evangelist Cat is always engaged in issues even outside of election time. They've probably got a specific thing that they're really into. And they're looking for tools to help further their agenda. The Upstanding Cat is the good citizen. They're going to vote because they know they should. They're going to do their duty. They probably don't really like getting in heated conversations about politics. But they'll read up around election time. They'll make sure that they're informed because they know that that's what they've got to do. And they're pretty confident about how to do it. This is The Uncertain Cat. It might be a first-time voter. They're not sure about the process. It's all a bit scary.  And if something came up that meant they didn't have to vote, then they'd be quite happy about it. But if somebody really encouraged them or made it easy, you know, they'd probably do it. They'd probably do it. And talking to young people, they said, oh yeah, that one. That's the one that could really use some help here. The uninterested cat is probably never going to vote anyway. It's nothing you can do about them. But if you can get The Uncertain Cat, that's probably where you can do the most good. Yes. So what I did with the personas was put them together based on some observations and then show them to users and use them as a discussion point. And I was saying, do you recognize these? Are you one of them? Do you know people who are the other ones? And also, who's missing from this list? And it was a great way for me to check my assumptions. People figured out things that were missing, like the apathetic evangelist, the non-voter who's very passionate about non-voting and will give you a big speech about it. So that was good. It was a good way for me to sort and store all of my research. So everything that I was noticing about users, I could sort of file it under one of these things mentally. And if something came up that didn't fit in, then that was, okay, maybe there's someone I've missed here. And we used them to make decisions later on. So, for example, we were deciding which content to prioritize on the homepage. And we had this trending algorithm. And we were like, okay, do people want the newest, freshest, like just ask question or do they want the all-time favorite most voted for questions? And we thought back to those uncertain cats. And one of the people I interviewed had said, yeah, they'd want to make sure that, you know, they'd kind of covered their bases and they knew everything that they should know about. They'd want the top 40, if politics was a top 40. So we thought, okay, we'll make sure that the stuff on the homepage has some weight to it. It's not just the newest thing that you know that you're looking at something that other people care about as well. And it meant also that we could stay in touch with our users. So me and the technical lead, John Lemon, could have these conversations about what the uncertain cat needed. And it was a great way for me to take this sort of vague research that I've been doing and put it in a form that we could have conversations across the team about what users wanted. And I feel like this would help my dad when he was struggling to understand why stakeholders were telling him to build all this stuff if he knew about the cats. So they're really useful. They're really worth doing. Cool. So how to make them a couple of points missing off this list. But if you're interested in making personas, there are some good things online. I saw that usability.gov, which is the US government's usability website, have a good guide. But what I did was basically just talk to lots of users, helps to do some structured interviews, because then you've got, you can start looking for patterns and differences across different groups. Real quotes really help because that way they're authentic. They feel authentic. If you have any analytics or feedback from an existing platform, then definitely plug that into it because it's great. You know, if it's you've got real data to support what you're what you're observing and prioritise them. So when you make personas, it doesn't have to be every single different use case. It's just the main important user groups. So figure out who it is that is important and then show them to people, show them to your target audience and see if they resonate with them. And then show them to the rest of the team and make sure that everybody knows what an uncertain cat is. So once I'd done this research and also a lot more kind of mind mapping and messy design thinking stuff, we got to the point where we had three very high level user needs and that really guided the development from there and all the features. So we're thinking I need information to come to me where I am. And that meant on Facebook wasn't enough to hope that people might go to this website. We needed to get this content onto Facebook and Twitter. I need information that's easy to understand. Everything's really confusing and there's a lot of jargon around elections and politics. And along with it easy to understand we knew that the site had to be really easy to use because the more effort that your users been trying to figure out how the buttons work the less brand space they have to figure out what the difference in policy platforms are between the three center parties. So we really had to minimize the load on them there. And also it needed to be engaging. So people needed to feel like they had a role to play. It was relevant. They could use a voice and also that they could see that everyone else was also doing that. So this my map here is those three goals. And then we started brainstorming features relating to those goals. And from that we got onto our wireframes. So here we had pretty clearly defined concepts. Question answer platform and we knew why we were doing what we were doing. Which was great. And I'm not going to go into the wireframing stuff much because it was mostly John's really beautiful interface design. But he spent a lot of time going through and just refining and refining this. So it was really smooth. But we started out using both Sarmic to do our wire friends. Which was good because it really forces you to be lo-fi. You're not going to start getting caught up in colors and gradients and all of those things. And John also did a great job of managing our backlog. So once we had all the user tasks as Post-it notes on the walls he went through and put them on Pivotal Tracker. And this was really helpful. We had about half, he did about half the development work and the other half was done by volunteers mostly through Code for New Zealand. So they were able to just go in and really quickly see what it was that they could do. And that made it easy for them to contribute. So then we got to what I would call the rep workflow. And reps are what we called candidates or representatives. And it's a lot harder finding politicians to do user research on than it is to find young people. So what I did here was just try and think through as a politician what is that process going to be like. And that's what they looked like. I was thinking, okay, there's the party secretary. We've got their party hat on. They go and they do this and they do this. And thinking about again what they were doing, thinking and feeling all the way through that journey. And what the moments were where they might need encouragement, or they might need to be reassured that this was a legitimate thing, or they might need to be reminded or prodded to contribute a bit more. And I think that the participation from the representatives was one of the biggest successes of Ask Away. We had 60 different politicians from nine different parties. There were a few days where they were answering more than 50 questions a day. A few individuals who just go on big sprees and just do tens and 30 questions at a time. And I could see the answers coming in at 2 a.m. in the morning. So it was really cool. And in the last week, we had all the party leaders, except for John Key and Winston Peters, all answering a question a day. So that was cool. And yeah, it was just good to see how open they were to that idea. And there were a few things that we did specifically to get these reps on board. So the first is called the low ball or the foot in the door technique. And this is a marketing trick that people do, which is basically that if you get someone to agree to a small ask first, they're more likely to agree to a big ask later on. So when we were asking the reps if they wanted to take part, we didn't say you must answer this many questions a week. And you must have this many reps from each party. We just said, would you like to make an account and answer a question? And after that, if you want to do more, we'll make it easy for you to do more. But the first initial ask was a small one. A unique contribution. So the best way to get the most contributions to online communities is to make people feel that their contributions are unique and valued. So when we were inviting these candidates, often it was that we got a few people before the platform opened. But once it was live, I'd get a question about transport. I'd email all the transport spokespeople and go, hey, there's a really popular question about transport. You're the person from your party to answer this. You're the only one that can do it. And that worked quite well. Have a specific ask. So if you can make it really clear what you're asking, people are more likely to say yes. I found that too when I was asking developers for help really early on, when I had a vague, it'd be cool if we got people talking to politicians. People were like, yeah, come back in a few months. But when I said, OK, it's going to do this and this and this, I was like, OK, that suddenly sounds manageable. And the most important one was FOMO, Fair of Missing Out. So we really leveraged as soon as one party had signed up, we were like, yeah, this party is doing it. And if anyone was not answering as many questions as we wanted, I'd email them and say, hey, I just noticed that, you know, you haven't answered many questions. Every other party has been answering lots of questions and it's really noticeable that you're not there. So that was a very useful strategy. A few communications principles. So again, figuring out what people's motivations are and then articulating value. So basically making it really obvious what they're going to get out of it. Use the right language. Humans really like things that are familiar. So if you pick a few buzzwords or like bits of terminology that people relate to, and it's going to be different for every different group of stakeholders and different groups of users and then use that language. People will like it. Use multiple channels. So there's an advertising heuristic that we have to see something three times before we even notice it. And so with getting the candidates on board, I went firstly, sent a letter to the party secretaries and then I tweeted some of the reps and then I asked anybody I knew who knew any of them to talk to them and then I went to any debates that were on and then went up afterwards and said, hey, I'm doing this website. You should be on it. And even though it felt like, sometimes I was being, oh, and I called them all a lot as well. So even if you feel like you're being overly persistent, it does work eventually. And yeah, appeal to the identity. So the first people that we got signed up were the people who already had a reputation for being good at Twitter or interested in engaging online. And so we went to them and said, you're the exact kind of person. You know, you're so good at Twitter, you'd be great on this. And that works. Make it easy. So it's the same as giving a really clear thing that you're asking for. And sometimes the best way to make it easy to understand is to use visuals. So this, for example, is part of how I convinced Matthew and my supervisors that it'll be a good idea to open source the project. They were like, we don't know what that is and it sounds scary. So I made them this picture that just explained that there's different sorts of things involved and open sourcing doesn't mean that anyone can see all of the user data, which they were worried about. And so yeah, you make a nice picture and everything seems a lot less scary. And the other way that we used that, visualizing things, was with our media partners. So we ended up embedding the feed onto Radio New Zealand's website and also onto their youth platform, The Wireless. And they paid us to do that, which was awesome because it boosted us and it also gave us more exposure and more leverage. And this is a picture that we took right to the first time that we made this proposal. And we didn't read any code, I don't think at this point. We were just like, look, it'll be like this and it'll work.  So yeah, showing people a picture of things makes it way more tangible. And then user testing. So obviously we did usability testing. Firstly just, we just had a PDF with a couple of interactive bits and we got people to click through it and make sure that they could use it. And then we also set up a test instance and got design students to ask recent graduates questions because we wanted to see if the community behavior happened as well. And really, really important thing that we found out from that was that the upvote button was not at all obvious to people. So a very easy thing for us to fix, but we easily missed it. So always, always, always do user testing. And then tested it once it was live as well. And what I saw when we just went down to the market with an iPad and showed it to lots of people. And I could see lots of people really liked it. Lots of positive feedback. But also I could see some people going, oh, ETS, carbon emissions, capital gains tax. And it was off-putting to them. There's all of this jargon. And we couldn't control that, but I could see that they were having this negative reaction. Just from all of that kind of language. And that was something that there were hints about in the analytics, but it was so obvious when I was watching someone looking at it. So just worth seeing. So results. We had 22,000 people visit the site in the six weeks. 100,000 page views, lots of questions. 16,000 votes cast across all the questions. Fix the different reps. 100,000 answers, nine parties. And at least one question a day. From, at least one answer a day. From all of the different parties, which was cool. And people said really nice things, which is always really nice. And we were on the news, which is really exciting. And also. That was great. Oh, great. That was great. It also turned out, went up by 3% across New Zealand. But of course, that's a good thing that happened. Lots of cool initiatives going on. So I'm not going to claim that one just to ask away. But it was good that it happened. So what's next? So a huge thank you to Internet New Zealand at this point. Because they've just funded us to develop this into a resource for intermediate-aged school children. So we can put it in classrooms as a civics education tool. And what I hope is that having that restricted age group will make it way more accessible for the kids using it so they don't get that capital gains tax reaction. So I'm really excited. There were some schools using it already in the last election and enjoying it. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how that goes this year. So thanks very much. And if you're interested in talking more about this, get in touch. John Lemon and Womerton, who's Ron Crawford, were the main developers. Code for New Zealand is Rowan's open-source civic hacking brigade. And they're always interested in civic projects. And ask away some GitHub open-source as well. Cool. Any questions? Is this working? Oh, yeah. What do you know about the demographics of the people who actually use the site? Was it actually youth? Or was it people in their 80s talking about capital gains? Yeah. So it was actually the biggest age group with 25 to 34. That was 30% of the users. And the next, after that, were 18 to 24-year-olds. That was 20%. So not ideal, not perfect, but still a lot better than the average tenority at a debate in a hall, I think. Yeah. Well, it was interesting having the partnership with Radio New Zealand. We weren't sure if that was going against the Amelot Youth thing, but we figured better to make a conversation where everyone can join in rather than just young people. But we'll be interesting to see how that changes it, having it in a just young people context for schools. Do you know whether any mainstream open-source projects have done UCD documents and published them publicly? I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure. You spoke a little bit about some negative user reaction in relation to particular content. Is there a way that you think you can deal with that? Is it about posting like explanatory material on the website, or is it just that the user community is sometimes going to be exclusive? I think that it'll be really interesting to restrict the user group. I think that will help. But the other way of doing it that I'm thinking is like I'm five on Reddit, just a framing thing. So I think there's a way that we can make it. We tried to do it to some extent, but making it really explicit on the website. This is for really basic conversation. I think that will be a good thing to do. I'm not sure if you know about the IDO, the Human Center for Design, or something like that. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a great one. One question. What did you do about looking at the number of questions, the number of answers, the sort like greens were huge there? I'm imagining one of the issues that a really good tweet said in the New Zealand elections, one thing it showed us, is how little different groups of New Zealanders knew about other groups of New Zealanders. And I think we're siloed. And if I had a poll of all my friends, like the greens were one. So what did you do to maybe get past some of those biases? Or do you think that was an issue? It was a difficult thing. And it was also difficult because we were encouraging issues-based organizations as many diverse different ones as possible. But we were encouraging them to use and promote the site. So again, you're going to get a certain demographic of people. But all of the paid marketing, which I did on Facebook, was all aimed at. People from universities who like Corona and Glassons and Helen's Sons were like some of the big filters that you get to get at 18 to 24-year-olds in New Zealand. So in terms of marketing, as much as possible, we were doing it broadly.  Yeah, yeah. The other thing is, are you doing anything to try and promote this whole tool for oversight, like to use it in other jurisdictions? So like overseas? Not yet. But I'd love to see it used overseas. If anyone here from Australia wants to do it, yeah, yeah. I think we can talk about that. Did you collect any information to determine whether it was actually the politicians themselves at answering the questions versus the staffers? Do you actually care which one it was that was answering it? And do you think your users cared which one it was that was answering? That's a really interesting question. Because I wasn't sure when I first invited them, like, do I make it obvious? Do I say this has to be them? But what I kind of think about politics, because we also thought, should we just have it that it's the parties answering the questions and not individuals? Because again, a lot easier to get that buy-in. And I can tell you that I know that some of them were definitely the politicians, and I'm pretty certain that some of them were staffers. I don't feel like it makes that much difference, because if you put something out in public with your name on it, it doesn't matter who else wrote it. Like, you kind of have to stand by it. And that's sort of how political communications work. I mean, lots of speeches. Speeches aren't written by politicians. But it probably would be a good idea to maybe, I don't know, maybe have that a little bit transparent on the site. I was interested to see, I didn't specify whether I expected it to be staffers or the politicians themselves when I invited them. So I was interested to see who replied for themselves and who did it for staff members. What do you think would be the biggest issues in taking this to, say, Australia or any other demographic? Or what focus points would they need? Yeah, I'd say anywhere where you've got an MMP system or a multi-party political system, it's probably gonna work. It would be, I was thinking about the US and I think it would be quite difficult anywhere where you don't have as many voices in the conversation. Because one of the main things that this offers is a way to see lots of different viewpoints side by side. So that's obviously one thing. Other than that, I think it would work. I think it would probably work in a local body context as well. See the first prototype of this was for the Meryl Elections in Wellington and that worked. So I'd love to see it tried out in different places. Categories we haven't built yet and probably would be useful to be able to sort by categories. If it was anywhere where bigger than New Zealand, I think that would start to become really useful. Well, thank you very much for your talk. Good to everybody here. So thank you to make for a talk.


Jay Fidel, this is Think Tech. More specifically, this is Trump Week. We're back to broadcasting on a given Wednesday, and here we have Tim Apachele joining us by phone. And we're going to talk about what's happened, the amazing things that have happened in this past Trump week. Hi, Tim. Good afternoon, Jay. Yeah, good to talk to you. So let's talk about what happened. I guess primarily it's Iran. Let's get right into that. Here we are a few days after the assassination. There's been a lot of commentary about it, so maybe we need to clear the air and find out where we stand right now, Tim. Can you tell me? Well, I can't tell you where we stand right now because the gang of eight have not been briefed that I'm aware of, of the specifics of the assassination and whether or not it was an imminent threat. So the whole news media is doing a lot of speculation, not really knowing the details of why Soleimani was taken out. And we know why he was taken out, but why was he taken out at this particular time?  And they're having some kind of classified meeting with some committees in Congress this morning. And somehow I think that's going to creep out. That's going to leak out what they say. But let me make further speculation and say they really had no immediate reason. Judging from the remarks they've made, though, they were concerned that Soleimani was going to do another attack on other American embassies, Hither and Yahn. And they had some razor thin intelligence on that. That's what we know about it. There wasn't much intelligence. And they were trying to prevent another attack on an American. I think that's what they're going to say in this classified briefing, which will slip out by virtue of one congressman or another. But that's really not enough. And I don't think... Well, sorry. Go ahead. Well, I mean, let's look at all the speculation that this creates by not having the specifics of why at this time Soleimani was assassinated. The speculation is this is for the election purposes. You know, wartime president always does much, much better in the election when there's a conflict going on. So, I mean, all this has done is create a whole lot of speculation and conspiracy theories. And it would be nice to have a concrete reason or rationale of why this assassination took place when it did. Well, you know, it strikes me just in this discussion with you that if there was a real reason, an immediate reason to assassinate him, there would have been no significant downside in telling the world about it, or at least telling the American people about it. Because in that case, the whole media result would have been different.  Nobody, the retaliation would not have been appropriate if he had had a really good reason and enunciated it. But I think that he was being what he always is, a liar. I think he was holding back information still is. I don't think there's any good intelligence reason for this assassination. And he therefore created the situation we're in now with retaliation and with an ongoing war with Iran and the loss of relationships with our allies. So, I mean, there's so many bad judgment points in what has happened here over the past few days that it's clear again that as you say, you know, he's playing for his, he's playing for war. He's playing to use war as a way to improve his campaign prospects. And he's being a sole proprietorship president. He hasn't used his chiefs of staff. He hasn't used his secretary of state or state department. He just tells them what to do and they jump up. He hasn't told Congress except for Lindsey Graham in advance. And he hasn't told the American people.  I think we're going to be very concerned. On the other hand, right now he's playing to his base and he's telling his base he really needs to, you know, vindicate American interests in the Middle East and he's going to continue to do that. And they love a good fight. I think they're with him. I think, you know, if you look at his ratings here next few days, you'll see that actually he's going to be doing better among his base. But among the people who care about the Middle East and care about avoiding wars, endless wars in the Middle East, I don't actually think they're going to like it at all. They don't like it and the world doesn't like it. So the question is, where does that play in the election? Well, again, it's not coming out of my mouth that this is exactly what's going on. This is not necessarily the rerun of the movie, Tail Wags the Dog, but you're going to have a lot of people out there saying, this is exactly what it's all about. And so, you know, this could have been all avoided, the speculation, this kind of criticism, had he not just shared the information with these, you know, the intelligence committee or the security committee, the gang of eight. And that wasn't done. I mean, select members, Lindsey Graham and select members were notified of this pending assassination. Now, Lindsey Graham was told on the golf course at Verdevago. I really don't think that counts. Well, with the sole proprietorship of this presidency, I guess it does. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, the other thing is revealed by this is the lawlessness of the administration. It's completely lawless. The Constitution required in the circumstances and declaration of war.  I don't think the threat was imminent. They're never going to be able to establish that. We didn't have an imminent threat. And they... Well, that's the crux of it, Jay. That's the crux of it. That's the crux of the entire argument. Whether it's a valid assassination, was this, you know, I mean, obviously, this general, General Soleimani, he was, he was like number two in the whole country, number three. So when you take out the number two, number third person of a sovereign nation, that basically does constitute an act of war. So was the imminent threat worth the definition of an act of war, a question mark? Yeah. Well, and it's also, that's in the Constitution. I think he violated the Constitution. Well, they've been playing loose and fast with the, the Wars Power Act. They've been, you know, for many conflicts here, they've been playing, you know, Congress has advocated its authority and it's, it's right about enforcing that claim. And, you know, that's been, that's been misused for decades now. That's true. But this is the ultimate of it. Here we have a very serious action, an assassination of a second in command of a major nation in the Middle East. And, you know, there's no good reason for it. He does it all by himself. He does it because of what he had for breakfast. He does it without talking to his staff, without being thoughtful, without being, you know, and taking the extreme measure. And I, and I blame the Pentagon on this, too. They shouldn't have given that measure if they thought it was so extreme that it would result. Well, let me ask you this, Jay. I mean, I've just heard you list off a number of entities that probably did not get any kind of briefing. What about the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Right. I agree. I'm saying that. And I'm saying that, you know... So you don't think they had any clue this was going to happen? No, I think, I think they gave him a list of options. And the most extreme option, which I'm not sure they told him it was the most extreme option, was the assassination. And he took that option. I'm not sure he was advised it was the most extreme, but clearly to a reasonable person, it would have been the most extreme. He should have known that, or he should have asked him about it. After all, you know, after that drone was shot down by Iran a few months ago, he said, oh, the collateral damage would be 150 people. So I don't want to do it. That's what he said. He wanted to avoid the loss of life. Well, in fact, you know, there were dozens of 30, 40 people, some of them between 20 and 40 anyway, who were killed in the Soleimani assassination. There was collateral damage there. But apparently he didn't go through the same kind of examination. He chose the most extreme option. They didn't stop him. They didn't tell him, Mr. President, we don't think you should do that. And he rode right into the valley. So I think what we have here is a president out of control who doesn't care what they say, who doesn't listen to what they say, and who does not have any thoughtful policy in his mind. At any time in this administration, it's certainly going forward, we're going to see more of this. I think he's going to come out okay, at least with his base. That depends on what Iran does. That was very interesting what happened yesterday because, you know, Iran retaliated with a bunch of missiles, a dozen missiles, pointed at air bases in Iraq that had American troops on them. But apparently there was enough time, enough warning, whether it was by intelligence or some other way, they figured out what's going to happen. I mean, I would have been scared.  Particularly after the number two, number three, you know, most important person in Iran has been taken out by the United States. So they have to do something in safe face. So I'm actually surprised it went that well, to be honest with you.  I think, you know, part of the early warning system was the fact that they threatened they would do something. And it was incumbent on the American military to harden their defenses and to avoid being in the line of fire. I think that's what led them to leave those bases. It was an obvious way to ameliorate the risk, obvious. So there's no magic there. And I would suspect that Iran knew they were going to do that. They have intelligence too, you know. The bottom line is this was just a, you know, a show of face or a show that they don't really mean war, a show that, but at the same time, they want to show that they can fight back. Now, query, the really big issue is what happens now. So Trump wisely, I think, in the circumstances, he now is going to impose additional sanctions, whatever that may be, because he's already announced him this morning, economic sanctions, again, economic. So again, this is the saving face on both sides. So now we have to, you know, counter-respond. And how do you, how do you respond, saying there's going to be new additional sanctions? It probably won't be followed through or met. But that will de-escalate this, this big tension between these two countries. Right. Well, he said he's going to do sanctions and a query. What are those sanctions to the left, you know? He's been imposing maximum sanctions for years. So what else is he got? That's my whole point. And then when you take that, you know, and the fact that he's not, you know, using military force, he's, by saying he's doing sanctions, he's saying I'm not going to use military force. Iran, Ayatollah, your move next. And the Ayatollah is not, not going to be inclined to use force again. Rather, it'll be this hit-and-run thing that Soleimani was doing.  Every few months there's an attack on a base. And it's often through proxies, not the Iranians themselves. And so we're going to be back to the regular routine very soon. And it won't be at a level, you know, where Trump can use it to justify other extreme action. And so what have we achieved here exactly? Because if there were plans, Soleimani wasn't the only guy walking around with those plans in his head. They pointed another second to come in and, you know, became a Soleimani's replacement almost immediately.   I think they're coming down today, but the last few days they were very threatening. And in fact we're going to have a show later today about exactly how that worked, how the oil prices worked and how they will work in view of this tumult in the Middle East. Bottom line is the Middle East is now clearly unstable. That people have declared, countries have declared they're essentially at war. They're putting other countries in their gun sites. Everybody is jockeying around the world for position on this. Trump is not a hero.  So I, you know, I think this is a measure of the further decline of the United States. It was a huge error. Well, you know, you do shine a light on the credibility of the President of the United States. And that's why no one really is buying the fact that there was a quote unquote, eminent threat. He's liked so many times and so often and for the last three and a half years or three years that no one really believes that an eminent threat was the real deal because the credibility stopped. So now we have to see it in person before we believe it. Yeah. Well, let me take a short break. We can take a short break, Tim. And when we come back, I'd like to talk about our relationship with Iraq, which is getting very complex. And we'll have implications beyond Iraq in the in the days and weeks to come. That's Tim Appachella. I'm Jay Fidel. We're doing Trump week today on a given Wednesday. We'll be right back after this break. Hi, guys. I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health, and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you. And Aloha. Aloha, y'all. My name is Mitch Ewan. I'm from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. And I'm the host of Hawaii, the state of clean energy. We're on every Wednesday at four o'clock. And we hope that we have interesting guests who talk to us about various energy things that are happening in Hawaii all the way from PV, the windmills, the hydrogen, most of my heart, electric buses, and electric vehicles. So please dial in every Wednesday at four o'clock on Hawaii, the state of clean energy. Aloha. Okay, we're back. We're live after that break on the other side, so to speak, with Tim Hapichella, J. Feidele, that's me. We're talking about Trump Week. We're talking about the amazing week we've had over the past few days. It seems like all the news that you could have in months has been jammed into, you know, like 48, 72 hours. Anyway, so one of the issues I wanted to cover, Tim, was our relationship with Iraq. It's been declining. And in fact, you know, Iran has greater influence. It's been vying for influence with various proxy groups, militia, what have you. Those are the guys that attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in the green zone not too long ago, two days ago. And so, you know, we need to take a look at our relationship, U.S. relationship. And they said they wanted us out of there. And in response, you know, our Secretary of State, who really should never have said this, said, well, they don't really mean it, because the people of Iraq didn't, the legislature, government didn't really represent the people. And we were going to stay there, no matter what they said. Oh, well, you know, when you have the Iraqi parliament vote 179 to 0, they want the United States out. That's not just the people. That's the government that represents their people. Yeah. So, I mean, you have the government speaking, such as it is, telling us to leave. And we don't leave. We ignore them. What are we then? We're an interloper. We're an occupying force. The way I look at it, I mean, here we are allies, now suddenly converted to an occupation force. That's not a good status for us to be in. No. And we're going to lose that, because none of this means that Iran is less influential in Iraq. I think it becomes more influential in Iraq. And the U.S. is, you know, less in favor. So here, after spending trillions of dollars, you know, on liberating Iraq, from Saddam Hussein, what have you, and trying to rebuild their government and infrastructure, how much money we spent, how many lives we spent, do that, now they want us out of there. And instead, they're going to take Iran instead. What, what have you? So, Jay, my realness topic, did you have any comments about the Pentagon paper, the draft letter, the Pentagon saying that we were going to have, you know, two movements out of Iraq? How did that happen? It was only a draft. Now I've heard everything. They say they're going to... Well, yeah, the letter, I've never seen a draft with letterhead on it, but yeah, technically it was a draft because it was not signed. I've never seen a technique so obvious in a walk back. So all of a sudden, what appears to be a final statement is a draft, and it's 180 different than what they ultimately say. We are, we are totally incredible. Anybody watching the news on this, anybody reading the paper, even watching any of the TV stations has got to find us to be completely incredible. The government doesn't hold a truth on anything, and it makes things up from a dark place. But let's, in terms of that, let's talk about Trump's speech, his one speech the other day yesterday on what we should be thinking here. Well, I think what really floored me was the time and attention he has to, I mean, by compulsion. He has to bring Obama's administration back to the front, you know, three years later on how it's Obama's fault that he gave that money back, as far as the missile agreement, the give back, the money that he keeps saying it's the United States money, and that money is bought, these missiles, and those missiles are, you know, now attacking the air base and not lacking. Does he not know that that was Iran's money back in 1978-79 when we froze it for decades? Does he not realize that this was their money to begin with? It didn't come out of the IRS treasury or, you know, he just can't, he can't get himself straight on that point. And he made himself quite ridiculous when he keeps bringing Obama's administration in on this payment. And that takes us to the, you know, the peace agreement they made, which is now a sunder. You know, Obama's efforts at trying to bring peace to that area and trying to minimize the risk of nuclear war, those are a sunder now. In fact, you know, the Iranians said yesterday that they were not going to abide by any provision at all in that agreement, that they are proceeding with all due speed to build nuclear weapons. Well, thank you, Mr. Trump. That's certainly a step ahead. So here we are gaining nothing but losing any shred of a non-nuclear Iran. It's remarkable how much damage has been done, but he denies that. He thinks he tells us we should sleep well. It's very hard to sleep well when the Middle East is devolving into violence and when that violence will probably, you know, spread to other places in the world. And in any event, we look like we are declining. I'm having deja vu moments of my history classes of when Bismarck was trying to advise the Kaiser of how to avoid World War I or entering and stumbling into a war. And it just reminds me of those history lessons. Well, it's true. You know, there was a book, a very famous history book by a history professor at Columbia. Barbara Tuckman was her name. And she wrote a book called The Guns of August. And The Guns of August was a discussion of the factors that led to World War I. And what happened in the run-up to World War I was everybody had a war plan. And it was like programmed. It was triggered. So if this happened, then you responded with that. And if that happened, you responded with this. And everybody had a plan. And when the Archduke of Serbia was killed, those plans began executing all over Europe. This tit for tat, tit for tat, tit for tat. And before you know it, out of one single assassination, you got it, one single assassination, we have a world war. Because all those plans went ahead on their own, automated. Is there a difference? I mean, this is so reminiscent of what happened in 1914. Well, that's why I bring the point up. It almost appears very similar in a lot of ways. And the fact that in this case, I don't think there's plans. I think it's the lack of plans that can make us stumble into a complete Middle East crisis and all sorts of things that you didn't anticipate. That's what happens with wars. You don't anticipate that which could happen. Right. And things move so quickly these days with social media, with the news, with the media communication everywhere. So that whatever the plans are or the non plans are, these events can get away from you in no time. And let me add one other factor and see what your reaction is. You know, you have to, I think it's clear that we have to look at this two levels. One is what the media, what the leadership is saying. Because often, if not in Trump's case always, it's not true. And in Secretary of State, it's not true. And as Attorney General, it's not true. So you have this sort of level of lying. And then you have the reality. And so the level of lying does affect history as it moves forward. Because some people accept it, they or they look into it for truth. And that affects their countermoves going forward. Some countries affect their countermoves going forward. On the other hand, there is something under the surface. That is the reality. What really happened here? We can't learn it from the statements of the American government because they're not credible. But there is some remarkable, you know, undercurrent of facts and events, which we may or may not understand. I mean, I think the best, the best of our press tries to find out and tells us about that. But you have two sources of information. What do I say? Alternative facts. And you can pick what facts you like. Republicans are supporting Trump to the hilt in all of this. The Senate, mostly Republicans, are supporting Trump to the hilt in this.  And it's not limited to the base. It's not limited to the Republicans. It's the whole world. So what you get is very remarkable facts, very provocative facts. And you get two sets of them. Confusion reigns. And confusion is the, you know, is the mother of all wars, lying deception, misunderstanding, and confusion lead to war. Yeah. And I was saying that was the first bundle of war. And, you know, one thing that I'm reacting to is just when you're speaking, we haven't done much of the unintended consequences of the damage that's been brought upon our allies in Europe. You know, it's untold damage. They got no heads up.   So who's the main beneficiary of this, as usual? All of Trump's history. Mr. Putin is the huge beneficiary. And Mr. Putin is now closer to China than he was before. And indeed, they're having meetings and military exercises right now. So what's happened is we have marginalized ourselves yet again. We have made fools of ourselves yet again. We have created consternation and dissembling in the Middle East with threats to so many of our allies, including especially Israel, because there were threats about missiles and terror in Haifa and in Tel Aviv. So what have we achieved here? And the answer is nothing. And, you know, I gotta say that Trump has done a good job to try to walk back and correct himself, you know, to show that maybe there was some reason that he can't tell us about which we should rely on. But the fact is that he has dissembled the Middle East only to Putin's benefit. And I think we have to watch very carefully what happens. Yeah, I wanted to get your reaction to your thoughts about when he has been targeted, number one, and then your thoughts about what he said in a speech that the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, China all had to get in line with us as we try to forge out basically a new nuclear arms reduction for Iran.  Well, we're out of time. But let me answer it in a short way, is when I heard that, I didn't believe it. There was no information to that effect. And there was no confirmation from any of those countries. I think more likely they are still in wonderment about what in the world he's doing. Anyway, let's follow it this week, Tim. Let's get together next Wednesday. I look forward to our next Trump week, Wednesday, a week from now. Thank you so much, Tim. Thank you, Jay, for having me. Aloha.


Part 6 of The Highest Treason I don't understand it, said General Polon-Talus wordly. Where are they coming from? How are they doing it? What's happened? But Main and the four Karothai officers were sitting in the small dining room that doubled as a recreation room between meals. The nervous strain of the past few months was beginning to tell on all of them. Six months ago, Talus continued jerkily, we had them beaten. One planet after another was reduced in turn. Then out of nowhere comes a fleet of ships we didn't even know existed and they've smashed us at every turn. If they are ships, said Lupot, the youngest officer of the Shudo staff, whoever heard of a battleship that was undetectable at a distance of less than half a million miles, it's impossible. Then we're being torn to pieces by the impossible, Hoketan snapped, before we even know they are anywhere around. They are blasting us with everything they've got. Not even the strategic genius of General McMain can help us if we have no time to plot strategy. The Karothai had been avoiding McMain's eyes, but now at the mention of his name they all looked at him as if their collective gaze had been drawn to him by some unknown attractive force. It's like fighting ghosts, McMain said in a hushed voice. For the first time he felt a feeling of awe that was almost akin to fear. What had he done? In another sense that same question was in the mind of the Karothai. Have you any notion at all what they are doing or how they are doing it, asked Talus gently? None, McMain answered truthfully. None at all, I swear to you. They don't even behave like Earthmen, said the fourth Karothai, a thick-necked officer named Asif. They not only out-fight us, they out-think us at every turn. Is it possible, General McMain, that the Earthmen have allies of another race, a race of intelligent beings that we don't know of? He left unsaid the added implication and that you have neglected to tell us about? Again, said McMain, I swear to you that I know nothing of any third intelligent race in the galaxy. If there were such allies, Talus said, isn't it odd that they should wait so long to aid their friends? No odder than that the Earthmen should suddenly develop super weapons that we cannot understand much less fight against, Hoketan said with a touch of anger. Not super weapons, McMain corrected almost absently. All they have is a method of making their biggest ships undetectable until they're so close that it doesn't matter. When they do register on our detectors, it's too late. But the weapons they strike with are the same type as they've always used, I believe. All right then, Hoketan said, his voice showing more anger. One weapon, or whatever you want to call it, practical invisibility. But that's enough. An invisible man with a knife is more deadly than a dozen ordinary men with modern armament. Are you sure you know nothing of this, General McMain? Before McMain could answer, Talus said, don't be ridiculous, Hoketan.  With that secret, they stand a good chance of beating us in less than half the time it took us to wipe out their fleet, or rather to wipe out as much of it as we did. They got a new fleet somewhere, said Young Lupot, almost to himself. Talus ignored him. If McMain deserted his former allegiance, knowing that they had a method of rendering the action of a space drive indetectable, then he was and is a blithering idiot, and we know he isn't. All right, all right. I concede that, snapped Hoketan. He knows nothing. I don't say that I fully trust him even now, but I'll admit that I cannot see how he is to blame for the reversals of the past few months. If the Earthman had somehow been informed of our activities, or if we had invented a superweapon, and they found out about it, I would be inclined to put the blame squarely on McMain. But how would he get such information out, Talus cut in sharply? He has been watched every minute of every day. We know he couldn't send any information to Earth. How could he? Telepathy for all I know, Hoketan retorted, but that's beside the point. I don't trust him any farther than I can see him, and not completely even then. But I concede that there is no possible connection between this new menace and anything McMain might have done. This is no time to worry about that sort of thing. We've got to find some way of getting our hands on one of those ghost ships. I do suggest put in the thick-necked osef that we keep a closer watch on General McMain. Now that the Earth animals are making a comeback, he might decide to turn his coat now, even if he has been innocent of any acts against Keros so far. Hoketan's laugh was a short, hard bark. Oh, we'll watch him all right, osef. But as Talus has pointed out, McMain is not a fool, and he would certainly be a fool to return to Earth if he's leaving. It was a genuine act of desertion. The last planet we captured before this invisibility thing came up to stop us was plastered all over with notices that the Earth Fleet was concentrating on the capture of the arch trader McMain. The price on his head as a corpse is enough to allow an Earthman to retire in luxury for life. The man who brings him back alive gets ten times that amount. Of course, it's possible that the whole thing is a put-up job, a smokescreen for our benefit. That's why we must and will keep a closer watch. But only a few of the Earth's higher-up would know that it was a smokescreen. The rest believe it whether it is true or not. McMain would have to be very careful not to let the wrong people get their hands on him if he returned. It's no smokescreen, McMain said, in a matter of fact tone. I assure you that I have no intention of returning to Earth. If Karoth loses this war, then I will die, either fighting for the Karothai or by execution at the hands of Earthmen if I am captured. Or, he added musingly, perhaps even at the hands of the Karothai if someone decides that a scapegoat is needed to atone for the loss of the war.  If you are not, there is no need for your death. The Karothai do not need scapegoats. Talk, talk, talk, Tala said with a sudden bellow. We have agreed that McMain has done nothing that could even remotely be regarded as suspicious. He has fought hard and loyally. He has been more ruthless than any of us in destroying the enemy. Very well, we will guard him more closely. We can put him in our errands if that's necessary. But let's quit yapping and start thinking. We've been acting like frightened children, not knowing what it is we fear, inventing our fear caused anger on the most handy target.  After a moment, Hokuton said, I agree. His voice was firm, but calm. Our job will be to get our hands on one of those new earth ships. Anyone have any suggestions? They had all kinds of suggestions, one after another. The detectors, however, worked because they detected the distortion of space, which was as necessary for the drive of a ship as the distortion of air was necessary for the movement of a propeller driven aircraft. None of them could see how a ship could avoid making that distortion. And none of them could figure out how to go about capturing a ship that no one could even detect until it was too late to set a trap. The discussion went on for days, and it was continued the next day, and the next, and the days dragged out into weeks. Communications with Keros broke down. The fleet to headquarters courierships, small in size without armament and practically solidly packed with drive mechanism could presumably outrun anything but another unarmed courier. An armship of the same size would have to use some of the space for her weapons, which meant that the drive would have to be smaller. If the drive remained the same size, then the armament would make the ship larger. In either case, the speed would be cut down. A smaller ship might outrun a standard courier, but if they got much smaller there wouldn't be room inside for the pilot. Nonetheless, courier after courier never arrived at its destination. And the Karothai fleet was being decimated by the hit and run tactics of the Earth Ghost ships. And Earth never lost a ship. By the time the Karothai ships knew their enemy was in the vicinity, the enemy had hit and vanished again. The Karothai never had a chance to ready their weapons. In the long run, they never had a chance at all. McMaine waited with almost fatalistic complacence for the inevitable to happen. When it did happen, he was ready for it. The Shidos, tiny flagship of what had once been a mighty armada and was now only a tattered remnant, was floating in orbit along with the other remaining ships of the fleet around a bloated red giant sun. With their drives off, there was no way of detecting them at any distance, and the chance of their being found by accident was microscopically small. But they could not wait forever. Water could be recirculated, and energy could be tapped from the nearby sun, but food was gone once it was eaten. Hukatan's decision was inevitable, and under the circumstances the only possible one. He simply told them what they had already known, that he was a headquarters staff officer. We haven't heard from headquarters in weeks, he said at last. The Earth Fleet may already be well inside our periphery. We'll have to go home. He produced a document which he had obviously been holding in reserve for another purpose and handed it to Tallis. Headquarters staff orders Tallis. It empowers me to take command of the fleet in the event of an emergency, and the decision as to what constitutes an emergency was left up to my discretion. I must admit that this is not the emergency any of us at headquarters anticipated. Tallis read through the document. I see that it isn't, he said dryly. According to this, McMaine and I are to be placed under immediate arrest as soon as you find it necessary to act. Yes, said Hukatan bitterly, so you can both consider yourselves under arrest.  There's no point in it. General McMaine, I see no reason to inform the rest of the fleet of this, so we will go on as usual. The orders I have to give are simple. The fleet will head for home by the most direct possible geodesic. Since we cannot fight, we will simply ignore attacks and keep going as long as we last. We can do nothing else. He paused thoughtfully. And General McMaine, in case we do not live through this, I would like to extend my apologies. I do not like you. I don't think I could ever learn to like an anima- to like a non-Kuro-Thai, but I know when to admit an error in judgment. You have fought bravely and well. Better I know than I could have done myself. You have shown yourself to be loyal to your adopted planet.  My apologies for having wronged you. He extended his hands and McMaine took them. A choking sensation constricted the earthman's throat for a moment. Then he got the words out, the words he had to say. Believe me, General Hoketan, there is no need for an apology. No need whatever. Thank you, said Hoketan. Then he turned and left the room. All right, Tullis. McMaine said hurriedly. Let's get moving. The orders were given to the remnants of the fleet and they cut in their drives to head homeward. In the instant they did, there was chaos. Earth's fleet of ghost ships have been patrolling the area for weeks, knowing that the Kuro-Thai fleet had last been detected somewhere in the vicinity. As soon as the spatial distortions of the Kuro-Thai drives flashed on the earth's ship's detectors, the earth fleet, widely scattered over the whole circumambient volume of space, coalesced toward the center of the spatial disturbance like a cloud of bees all heading for the same flower. Where there had been only the dull red light of the giant star, there suddenly appeared the blinding blue-white brilliance of disintegrating matter, blossoming like cruel, deadly beautiful flowers in the midst of the Kuro-Thai ships, then fading slowly as each expanding cloud of plasma cooled. Sebastian McMaine might have died with the others, except that the Shudos, as the flagship, was to trail behind the fleet so her drive had not yet been activated. The Shudos was still in orbit, moving at only a few miles per second when the earth fleet struck. Her drive never did go on.  There was still air in the ship, McMaine realized groggily as he awoke from the unconsciousness that had been thrust upon him. He tried to stand up, but he found himself staggering toward one crazily slanted wall. The stagger was partly due to his grogginess and partly due to the Coriolis forces acting within the spinning ship. The artificial gravity was gone, which meant that the interstellar drive engines had been smashed. He wondered if the emergency rocket drive was still working, not that it would take him anywhere worth going to in less than a few centuries. But then Sebastian McMaine had nowhere to go anyhow. Tallis lay against one wall, looking very limp. McMaine half staggered over to him and knelt down. Tallis was still alive. The centrifugal force caused by the spinning ship gave an effective pull of less than one earth gravity, but the weird twists caused by the Coriolis forces made motion and orientation difficult. Besides, the ship was spinning slightly on her long axis as well as turning end for end. McMaine stood there for a moment trying to think. He had expected to die. Death was something he had known was inevitable from the moment he made his decision to leave earth. He had not known how or when it would come, but he had known that it would come soon. He had known that he would never live to collect the reward he had demanded of the Corothi for faithful service. Trader he might be, but he was still honest enough with himself to know that he would never take payment for services he had not rendered. Now death was very near and Sebastian McMaine almost welcomed it. He had no desire to fight it. Tallis might want to stand and fight death to the end, but Tallis was not carrying the monstrous weight of guilt that would stay with Sebastian McMaine until his death no matter how much he tried to justify his actions. On the other hand, if he had to go, he might as well do a good job of it. Since he still had a short time left, he might as well wrap the whole thing up in a neat package. How? Again, his intuitive ability to see pattern gave him the answer long before he could have reasoned it out. They will know, he thought, but they will never be sure they know. I will be immortal, and my name will live forever, although no earthman will ever again use the surname McMaine nor the given name Sebastian. He shook his head to clear it. No use thinking like that now. There were things to be done. Tallis first. McMaine made his way over to one of the emergency medical kits that he knew were kept in every compartment of every ship. One of the doors of a wall locker hung open, and the blue-green medical symbol used by the Karothai showed darkly in the dim light that came from the three unshuttered glow plates in the ceiling. He opened the kit, hoping that it contained something equivalent to adhesive tape. He had never inspected a Karothai medical kit before. Fortunately he could read Karothai. If a military government was good for nothing else, at least it was capable of enforcing a simplified phonetic orthography so that words were pronounced as they were spelled, and he forced his wandering mind back to his work. The blow on the head, plus the crazy effect the spinning was having on his inner ears, plus the kakai gravitational orientation that made his eyes feel as though they were seeing things at two different angles, all combined to make for more than a little mental confusion. There was adhesive tape, all right. Wound on its little spool it looked almost homey. He spent several minutes winding the sticky plastic ribbon around Tallis' wrists and ankles. Then he took the gun from the Karothai general's sleeve holster. He had never been allowed one of his own, and holding it firmly in his right hand he went on a tour of the ship. It was hard to move around. The centrifugal force varied from point to point throughout the ship and the corridors were cluttered with debris that seemed to move with a life of its own as each piece shifted slowly under the effects of the various forces working on it. And as the various masses moved about the rate of spin of the ship changed as the law of conservation of angular momentum operated. The ship was full of sliding, clattering, jangling noises as the stuff tried to find a final resting place and bring the ship to equilibrium. He found the door to Asif's cabin open in the room empty. He found Asif in Lupot's cabin trying to get the younger officer to his feet. Asif saw McMahon at the door and said, You're alive! Good! Help me! Then he saw the gun in McMahon's hand and stopped. It was the last thing he saw before McMahon shot him neatly between the eyes. Lupot, only half conscious, never even knew he was in danger and the blast that drilled through his brain prevented him from ever knowing anything again in this life. Like a man in a dream, McMahon went on to Hokoton's cabin, his weapon at the ready. He was rather pleased to find that the HQ general was already quite dead, his neck broken as cleanly as if it had been done by a hangman. Hardly an hour before, McMahon would cheerfully have shot Hokoton where it would hurt the most and watch him die slowly. But the memory of Hokoton's honest apology made the earthmen very glad that he did not have to shoot the general at all. There remained only the five man crew, the NCO technician and his gang who actually ran the ship. They would be at the tail of the ship in the engine compartment. To get there he had to cross the center of spin of the ship in the change of gravity from one direction to another, decreasing toward zero, passing the null point and rising again on the other side made him nauseous. He felt better after his stomach had emptied itself. Cautiously he opened the door to the drive compartment and then slammed it hard in sudden fear when he saw what had happened. The shielding had been torn away from one of the energy converters and exposed the room to high energy radiation. The crewmen were quite dead. The fear went away as quickly as it had come. So maybe he dosed himself with a few hundred rankins. So what? A little radiation never hurt a dead man. But he knew now that there was no possibility of escape. The drive was wrecked and the only other means of escape, the one man courier boat that every blaster boat carried, had been sent out weeks ago and had never returned. If only the courier boat were still in its cradle. McMan shook his head. No. It was better this way. Much better. He turned and went back to the dining room where Tolas was trust up. This time passing the null g-point didn't bother him much at all. Tolas was moaning a little and his eyelids were fluttering by the time McMan got back. The earthmen opened the medical kit again and looked for some kind of stimulant. He had no knowledge of medical or chemical terms in Chorothic, but there was a box of glass ampules bearing instructions to crush and allow patient to inhale fumes. That sounded right. The stuff smelled like a mixture of spirits of ammonia and butylmer captain, but it did the job.  McMan tossed the stinking ampule out into the corridor as Tolas tried to focus his eyes. How do you feel? McMan asked.  All right. I'm all right. What happened? He looked wonderingly around. Near miss? Must be. Anyone hurt? They're all dead, but you and me, McMan said. Dead? Then we better. He tried to move and then realized that he was bound hand and foot. The sudden realization of his position seemed to clear his brain completely. Sebastian, what's going on here? Why am I tied up? I had to tie you, McMan explained carefully as though to a child. There are some things I have to do yet and I wouldn't want you to stop me. Maybe I should have just shot you while you were unconscious. That would have been kinder to both of us, I think, but Tolas, I had to tell somebody. Someone else has to know. Someone else has to judge. Or maybe I just want to unload it on someone else. Someone who will carry the burden with me for just a little while. I don't know. Sebastian, what are you talking about? The Karothai's face shown dolly orange in the dim light. His bright green eyes looked steadily at the earthman and his voice was oddly gentle. I'm talking about treason, said McMan. Do you want to listen? I don't have much choice, do I? Tolas said. Tell me one thing first. Are we going to die? You are Tolas, but I won't. I'm going to be immortal. Tolas looked at him for a long moment then. All right, Sebastian. I'm no psych man, but I know you're not well. I'll listen to whatever you have to say, but first untie my hands and feet. I can't do that, Tolas. Sorry. But if our positions were reversed, I know what I would do to you when I heard the story and I can't let you kill me because there's something more that has to be done. Tolas knew at that moment that he was looking at the face of death and he also knew that there was nothing, whatever, he could do about it except talk and listen. Very well, Sebastian, he said, lovely. Go ahead. Treason, you say. How? Against whom? I'm not quite sure, said Sebastian McMan. I thought maybe you could tell me. End of part six. Part seven of the highest treason. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Highest Treason by Randall Garrett. Part seven, The Reason. Let me ask you one thing, Tolas, like Maine said. Would you do anything in your power to save Carols from destruction? Anything. No matter how drastic, if you knew that it would save Carols in the long run. A foolish question.  Your life? A mere nothing. A piton's. Any man could give his life. Would you consent to live forever for Carols? Tolas shook his head as though he were puzzled. Live forever? That's twice or three times you said something about that. I don't understand you.   That's a very melodramatic way of putting it, the Karothai said. But I believe I understand what you mean. Yes, I would consent to that if it would be the only salvation of Karoth. Would you slaughter helpless millions of your own people so that other billions might survive? Would you ruthlessly smash your system of government and your whole way of life if it were the only way to save the people themselves? I'm beginning to see what you're driving at, Tolas said slowly. And if it is what I think it is, I think I would like to kill you very slowly. I know, I know, but you haven't answered my question. Would you do those things to save your people? I would, said Tolas coldly. Don't misunderstand me. I do not love you for what you have done to your own people.  That's as it should be, said McMain. His head was clearing up more now. He realized that he had been talking a little wildly at first. Or was he really insane? Had he been insane from the beginning? No, he knew with absolute clarity that every step he had made had been cold, calculating, and ruthless, but utterly and absolutely sane. He suddenly wished that he had shot Tolas without wakening him. If his mind hadn't been in such a state of shock he would have, there was no need to torture the man like this. Go on, said Tolas, in a voice that had suddenly become devoid of all emotion. Tell it all. Earth was stagnating, McMain said, surprised at the sound of his own voice he hadn't intended to go on, but he couldn't stop now. You saw how it was. Every standard had become meaningless because no standard was held to be better than any other standard. There was no beauty because beauty was superior to ugliness, and we couldn't allow superiority or inferiority. There was no love, because in order to love someone or something you must feel that it is in some way superior to that which is not loved. I'm not even sure I know what those terms mean, because I'm not sure I ever thought anything was beautiful. I'm not sure I ever loved anything. I only read about such things in books, but I know I felt the emptiness inside me where those things should have been. There was no morality either. People did not reframe from stealing because it was wrong, but simply because it was pointless to steal what would be given to you if you asked for it. There was no right or wrong. We had a form of social contract that we called marriage, but it wasn't the same thing as marriage was in the old days. There was no love. There used to be a crime called adultery, but even the word had gone out of use on the earth I know. Instead, it was considered anti-social for a woman to refuse to give herself to other men. To do so might indicate that she thought herself superior, or thought her husband to be superior to other men. The same thing applied to men and their relationships with women other than their wives. Marriage was a social contract that could be made or broken at the whim of the individual. It served no purpose because it meant nothing. Neither party gained anything by the contract that they wouldn't have had without it. But a wedding was an excuse for a gala party at which the couple were the center of attention, so the contract was entered in too lightly for the sake of a gay time for a while, then broken again so that the game could be played with someone else, the game of musical bedrooms. He stopped and looked down at the helpless Karothai. That doesn't mean much to you, does it? In your society, women are chattel to be owned, bought, and sold. If you see a woman you want, you offer a price to her father, or brother, or husband, whoever the owner might be.  Adultery is a very serious crime on Karoth, but only because it's an infringement of property rights. There's not much love lost there, either, is there? I wonder if either of us knows what love is, Tallis? I love my people, Tallis said grimly. MacMaine was startled for a moment. He never thought about it that way. You're right, Tallis, he said at last. You're right, we do know. And because I love the human race in spite of its stagnation and its spirit of total mediocrity, I did what I had to do. You will pardon me, Tallis said, with only the faintest bit of acid in his voice. If I do not understand exactly what it is that you did, then his voice grew softer. Wait, perhaps I do understand. Yes, of course. You think you understand, MacMaine looked at him narrowly. Yes, I said that I am not a psychometric, am I getting angry with you proves it. You fought hard and well for Carol's Sebastian, and in doing so you had to kill many of your own race. It is not easy for a man to do no matter how much your reason tells you it must be done. And now in the face of death remorse has come. I do not completely understand the workings of the earthman's mind, but that's just it. You don't, MacMaine interrupted. Thanks for trying to find an excuse for me, Tallis, but I'm afraid it isn't so. Listen. I had to find out what earth was up against. I had a pretty good idea already that the Karoth I would win would wipe us out or enslave us to the last man, and after I had seen Karoth I was certain of it. So I sent a message back to earth telling them what they were up against because up till then they hadn't known. As soon as they knew they reacted as they have always done when they are certain that they face danger, they fought, they unleashed the chained down intelligence of the few extraordinary earthmen and they released the fighting spirit of even the ordinary earthmen, and they won. Tallis shook his head. You sent no message, Sebastian. You were watched. You know that. You could not have sent a message. You saw me send it, MacMaine said. So did everyone else in the fleet. Hokaton helped me send it, made all the arrangements at my orders. But because you do not understand the workings of the earthmen's mind, you didn't even recognize it as a message. Tallis, what would your people have done of an invading force which had already proven that it could whip Karoth easily, did to one of your planets what we did on Houston's world? If the enemy showed us that they could easily beat us and then hang the whole population of a planet for resisting, why, we would be fools to resist. Unless of course we had a secret weapon in a hidden pocket the way earth had. No, Tallis. No. That's where you're making your mistake. Earth didn't have that weapon until after the massacre on Houston's world. Let me ask you another thing. Would any Karothai have ordered that massacre? I doubt it, Tallis said slowly. Killing that many potential slaves will be wasteful and expensive. We are fighters, not butchers. We kill only when it is necessary to win. The remainder of the enemy is taken care of as the rightful property of the conqueror. Exactly. Prisoners were part of the loot and it's foolish to destroy loot. I noticed that in your history books. I noticed too that in such cases the captives recognized the right of the conqueror to enslave them and made no trouble. So after earth forces get to Karoth I don't think we'll have any trouble with you. Not if they set us an example like Houston's world, Tallis said, and can prove that resistance is futile. But I don't understand the message. What was the message and how did you send it? The massacre on Houston's world was the message, Tallis. I even told the staff when I suggested it. I said that such an act would strike terror into the minds of earthmen. And it did, Tallis. It did. But that terror was just the goad they needed to make them fight. They had to sit up and take notice. If the Karothai had gone on the way they were going, taking one planet after another as they planned, the Karothai would have won. The people of each planet would think it can't happen here. And since they felt that nothing could be superior to anything else, they were complacently certain that they couldn't be beat. Of course maybe earth couldn't beat you either, but that was all right. It just proved that there was no such thing as superiority. But Houston's world jarred them badly. It had to. Hell does more than heaven can to wake the fear of God in man. They didn't recognize beauty, but I shoved ugliness down their throats. They didn't know love and friendship, so I gave them hatred and fear. The committing of atrocities has been the mistake of aggressors throughout earth's history. The battle cries of countless wars have called upon the people to remember an atrocity. Nothing else hits an earthman as hard as a vicious, brutal, unnecessary murder. So I gave them the incentive to fight, Tallis. That was my message. Tallis was staring at him wide-eyed.  No, it worked. In six months they found something that would enable them to blast the Devil Karothai from the skies. I don't know what the society of earth is like now, and I never will. But at least I know that men are allowed to think again, and I know they'll survive. He suddenly realized how much time had passed. Had it been too long? No, there would still be earth ships prowling the vicinity, waiting for any sign of a Karothai ship that had hidden in the vastness of space by not using its engines. I have some things I must do, Tallis, he said, standing up slowly. Is there anything else you want to know? No, Tallis found a little as though he were trying to think of something, but then he closed his eyes and relaxed. No, Sebastian, nothing, nothing. Do whatever it is you have to do. Tallis, McMain said. Tallis didn't open his eyes, and McMain was very glad of that. Tallis, I want you to know that in all my life you were the only friend I ever had. The bright green eyes remained closed. That may be so. Yes, Sebastian, I honestly think you believe that. I do, said McMain, and shot him carefully through the head. End of part seven. Part eight of The Highest Treason. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Highest Treason by Randall Garrett. Part eight. The End and Epilogue. Hold it! The voice bellowed thunderingly from the loud speakers of the six earth ships that have boxed in the derelict. Hold it! Don't bomb that ship. I'll personally have the head of any man who damages that ship. In five of the ships, the commander simply held off the bombardment that would have vaporized the derelict. In the sixth, Major Thornton, the group commander snapped off the microphone. His voice was shaky as he said. That was close. Another second and we'd have lost that ship forever. Captain Vorensky's oriental features had a half startled, half puzzled look. I don't get it. You grabbed that mic control as if you'd been bitten. I know that she's only a derelict. After that burst of 50G acceleration for 15 minutes, there couldn't be anyone left alive on her. But there must have been a reason for using atomic rockets instead of their anti-acceleration fields. What makes you think she's not dangerous? I didn't say she wasn't dangerous. The Major snapped. She may be. Probably is. But we're going to capture her if we can. Look! He pointed at the image of the ship in the screen. She wasn't spinning now, or looping end over end. After 15 minutes of high acceleration, her atomic rockets had cut out, and now she moved serenely at constant velocity, looking as dead as a battered tin can. I don't see anything, Captain Vorensky said. The Karothic symbols on the side. Palatal unvoiced sibilant, rounded. I don't read Karothic major, said the Captain. I... Then he blinked and said, Shudos. That's it. The Shudos of Karoth. The flagship of the Karothi fleet. The look in the Major's eyes was the same look of hatred that had come into the Captain's. Even if its armament is still functioning, we have to take the chance, Major Thornton said. Even if they're all dead, we have to try to get the Butcher's body. He picked up the microphone again. Attention, Group. Listen carefully and don't get itchy trigger fingers. That ship is the Shudos. The Butcher's ship. It's a 10-man ship, and the most she could have aboard would be 30, even if they jammed her full to the hull. I don't know of any way that anyone could be alive on her after 15 minutes at 50 Gs of atomic drive, but remember that they don't have any idea of how our counteraction generators damp out spatial distortion, either. Remember what Dr. Pendrick said. No man is superior to any other in all ways. Every man is superior to every other in some way. We may have the counteraction generator, but they may have something else that we don't know about, so stay alert. I am going to take a landing party aboard. There's a reward out for the Butcher, and that reward will be split proportionately among us. It's big enough for us all to enjoy it, and we'll probably get citations if we bring them in. I want 10 men from each ship. I'm not asking for volunteers. I want each ship commander to pick the 10 men he thinks will be least likely to lose their heads in an emergency. I don't want anyone to panic and shoot when he should be thinking. I don't want anyone who had any relatives on Houston's world. Sorry, but I can't allow vengeance yet. We're a thousand miles from the chuteau snow. Close in slowly until we're within 100 yards. The boarding parties will don armor and prepare to board while we're closing in. At 100 yards, we stop, and the boarding parties will land on the hull. I'll give further orders then. One more thing. I don't think our AA generators could possibly be functioning judging from that dent in our hull, but we can't be sure. If she tries to go into AA drive, she is to be bombed, no matter who is aboard. It is better that 60 men die than that the Butcher escape. All right, let's go. Move in. Half an hour later, Major Thornton stood on the hull of the chuteau surrounded by the 60 men of the boarding party. Anybody see anything through those windows, he asked. Several of the men had peered through the direct vision ports, playing spotlight beams through them. Nothing alive, said a sergeant, a remark which was followed by a chorus of agreement. Pretty much of a mess in there, said another sergeant. That 50 G's mashed everything to the floor. What, anyone want to use acceleration like that? Let's go in and find out, said Major Thornton. The outer door to the airlock was closed, but not locked. It swung open easily to disclose the room between the outer and inner doors. Ten men went in with the Major. The others stayed outside with orders to cut through the hull if anything went wrong.  Sergeant, start the airlock cycle. There was barely room for ten men in the airlock. It had been built big enough for the full crew to use it at one time, but it was only just big enough. When the inner door opened, they went in cautiously. They spread out and searched cautiously. The caution was unnecessary as it turned out. There wasn't a living thing aboard. Three officers shot through the head, sir, said the sergeant. One of them looks like he died of a broken neck, but it's hard to tell after that 50 G's. After that, 50 G's mashed him. Crewmen in the engine room, five of them, mashed up, but I'd say they died of radiation since the shielding on one of the generators was ruptured by the blast that made that day in the hull. Nine bodies, the Major said musingly, all Karothai, and all of them probably dead before the 50 G acceleration. Keep looking, Sergeant. We've got to find that tenth man. Another 20-minute search gave them all the information they were ever to get. No earth food aboard, said the Major. One spacesuit missing. Hand weapons missing. Two emergency survival kits and two medical kits missing. And, most important of all, the courier boat is missing. He bit at his lower lip for a moment, then went on. Outer airlock door left unlocked. Three Karothai shot after the explosion that ruined the AA drive and before the 50 G acceleration. He looked at the Sergeant. What do you think happened? He got away, the tough-looking non-com, said grimly, took the courier boat and scooted away from here. Why did he set the timer on the drive, then? What was the purpose of that 50 G blast? To distract us, I'd say, sir. While we were chasing this thing, he high-tailed it out. He might have at that, the Major said musingly. A one-man courier could have gotten away. Our new detection equipment isn't perfect yet. But, at that moment, one of the troopers pushed himself down the corridor toward them. Look, sir, I found this in the pocket of the carrot skin who was taped up in there. He was holding a piece of paper. The Major took it, read it, then read it aloud. Greetings, fellow Earthmen. When you read this, I will be safe from any power you may think you have to arrest or punish me. But don't think you are safe from me. There are other intelligent races in the galaxy, and I'll be around for a long time to come. You haven't heard the last of me. With love, Sebastian McMain. The silence that followed was almost deadly. He did get away, snarled the Sergeant at last. Maybe, said the Major. But it doesn't make sense. He sounded agitated. Look, in the first place, how do we know the courier but was even aboard? They've been trying frantically to get word back to Carols. Does it make sense that they'd saved this boat? And why all the fanfare? Suppose he did have a boat. Why would he attract our attention with that 50G flare? Just so he could leave us a note? What do you think happened, sir? The Sergeant asked. I don't think he had a boat. If he did, he'd want us to think he was dead, not the other way around. I think he set the drive-timer on this ship, went outside with his supplies, crawled up a drive-tube, and waited until that atomic rocket blast blew him into plasma. He was probably badly wounded and didn't want us to know that we'd won. That way we'd never find him. There was no belief on the faces of the men around him. Why did he want to do that, sir? Asked the Sergeant. Because as long as we don't know, he'll haunt us. He'll be like Hitler or Jack the Ripper. He'll be an immortal menace instead of a dead villain who could be forgotten. Maybe so, sir, said the Sergeant, but there was an utter lack of conviction in his voice. But we'd still better comb this area and keep our detectors hot. We'll know what he was up to when we catch him. But if we don't find him, the Major said softly, we'll never know. That's the beauty of it, Sergeant. If we don't find him, then he's won. In his own fiendish, twisted way, he's won. If we don't find him, said the Sergeant stolidly, I think we'd better keep a sharp eye out for the next intelligent race we meet. He might find him first. Maybe, said the Major, very softly. That's just what he wanted. I wish I knew why. The End. The End of the Highest Treason by Randall Garrett


While the Sharing Bread Soup Kitchen in Brainerd recently received a record-breaking donation from an area business, Chad Schwenderman of Exit Lakes Realty Premier presented a check for over $31,000 to the Sharing Bread Soup Kitchen earlier this week. The donation was made possible through a fundraising effort by the Exit Lakes Realty team. They held a contest that motivated their employees to go out into the community and gather donations that were matched then by Exit Lakes Realty. When it comes to businesses and individuals, donations to support Sharing Bread Soup Kitchen, and I've been involved in this ministry for some 20 years. We've never had a single gift that was that large, so it was quite a celebration for us and we're just amazed and so thankful. Sharing Bread Soup Kitchen was founded in 1987 at the St. Francis Church in Brainerd and eventually moved to its own location on Oak Street. The Soup Kitchen serves a meal every day to anyone in the community no questions asked. Food is cooked and served by volunteers from different groups and organizations around the Brainerd Lakes area. For whatever reason people may find themselves falling through the cracks and we have great social services and tremendous support in our community but occasionally people will find themselves in need of you know just a daily sustenance you know what I mean they're hungry and that's what we're here for. The Sharing Bread Soup Kitchen is holding a Christmas dinner fundraiser this Sunday, December 9th at Prairie Bay in Brainerd. For more information you can visit the story on our website at lptv.org. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.