THE ENTERPRISE—FINDING OBJECTIVE “TRUTH" IS TOUGH ANYMORE--BUT ITS WORTH THE EFFORT—TO STAY WELL INFORMED
LOTS TO COVER
BIGGEST LOOMING DANGER: HOUSE RETIREMENTS (gridlock frustrations) AND TRUMP-RELATED ISSUES COULD CAUSE GOP TO LOSE CONTROL OF THE HOUSE IN 2018—SENATE IS A LONGER SHOT, LOSING EITHER ONE WOULD BE A BIG PROBLEM, BOTH WOULD BE A DISASTROUS
Find out who’s running where you live. Study the candidates, and choose the best, then support them and tell your family and friends.
GUN CONTROL AND MASS KILLINGS VS. SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS
There’s no easy answer. The framers of the Constitution were revolutionaries in different times and the right to bear arms was critical. I pray that it doesn’t become that way again—but that’s why the NRA is so vehement about gun rights. Guns don’t kill people, people using guns kill people, but it is far too easy to get military style automatic, rapid fire guns.That needs fixing. Reinstall the “assault rifle bans” of the past. Make it harder. Stop the sale of weapons to anyone with any hint of mental issues or past problems. Profiling does work—use it. Make gun sellers equally liable for the actions of mass murders like these school shooters. That will dampen the lax sales to just anybody.
OPIOD ABUSE IS RAMPANT—START WITH DOCS, AND PHARMA COMPANIES THAT CREATE A NEW CLASS OF CRIME TO PUNISH CHRONIC ABUSERS.
Opioid deaths now exceeding car deaths & still growing. What to do & how to limit use to restricted medical places and usesIllegal drugs like fentanyl are so lethal anyone pushing those without proper rigorous licensing should be punished severely. Regular opioids need the tighter possible controls, and disincentives for prescribing and selling them.
IMMIGRATION—A COMPREHENSIVE LAW WILL NEVER PASS. TOO MANY DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES
Take the problem apart and go after it piece by piece. FIX Border control. Secure the borders...more than a wall.. Start ID control. Use Employer impact. Enforce limits on chain migration that are currently in the law. We need immigrants in the USA—but we want good ones. Figure out how to profile those and screen the bad ones out. Pass DACA...no more political football…but with a rigorous path to full citizenship in a reasonable time (5 yrs.). Using profiling constructively to enhance border security. (Israel model). Tracking visa overstays hard. Strictly limit benefits offered & paid by government for illegal immigrants. Wipe out sanctuary cities (and states).
CRACK DOWN HARD ON NCAA SPORTS—AGENTS, COACHES, ETC.
Paying Goodell $50mm is insane. Somebody needs to say so ...and do something about it. Many NCAA (Basketball and Football) changes needed now: eliminate "one & done.” Go to school or go pro. Insist NBA to cooperate with a 3 year rule like the NFL uses. Create a "no-contact rule" for proven abusers, and a ban for coaches and corporate sponsors when proven involved. Blame the adult abusers not the youthful offenders, but punish them too if egregious violations discovered. Mandate use of latest technology in football helmets too.
FACTOID—HEARD ON A (SEEMINGLY) RELIABLE NEWS REPORT—CHICAGO SHOOTINGS
In half a year in Chicago, over 2000 people (heavily minorities) were shot and killed. The number shot by police was 12, less than 1%. (So much for the myth that police kill so many people.)
SCOTUS PUBLIC SECTOR UINON DECISION COMING WILL IMPACT MANY THINGS.
Upcoming SCOTUS decision on whether public employee unions can charge dues to workers who do not wish to belong, will have a huge influence on the power of these unions. The power was shown in the uprising against OH SB 5 a few years ago, but that law, repealed by referendum, was an overreach. It went too far by including police, fire, emergency workers and teachers, and those groups slapped it down. The principle that matters is whether public employees and their unions can assess fees, collect them whether the employees want to belong or not, and use those fees in political contests to elect sympathetic legislators. If it sounds incestuous, that’s because it is.
RIGHT TO WORK VS. UNIONS
I’m a open right to work advocate and these public unions fly in the face of my beliefs. Unions were formed to protect workers against unfair or overly powerful employers' bad behavior, and give groups of employees, collective power to bargain (regardless of whether that agenda is doing good or bad things for its members and in the case of public employees, for the general population. One of the most egregious outcomes of public employee union clout is the negotiation of outsized and unaffordable pension plans sinking the economies of several states, notably CA and IL saddling those citizens with crushing obligations that simply cannot be funded and sustained.
CHINA’S GLOBAL DOMINANCE CONTINUES TO GROW
CHINA’S GLOBAL DOMINANCE CONTINUES TO GROW
China is the global behemoth trying to take over the USA’s dominate position in most areas. Sometimes China’s way of doing it is successful. At others its not. After poisoning its people for decades it is trying to clean up its air, water and land—but with only modest success. Now China’s Orwellian society is growing thanks to networks and all sorts of recognition—facial, information, and human, which now allows the central government to accumulate ratings of people who are for or especially against government preferred policies and actions. Who they know and associate with can blackball people and punish offenders who barely realized they did anything wrong. “Big Brother is watching—everywhere—but most of all in China! US worries: China’s control positions in raw materials for electronics (rare earth metals), computer chips, and the South China Sea, and Space?
WATCH FOR LOTS OF NEWS ABOUT A NEW SPACE RACE, COMING SOON…
US vs. China. Many innovations came from the decades old space race. The same will likely happen again.
E-MEDICINE IS COMING ON FAST. GO ONLINE TO “SEE THE DOCTOR.”
As sensors on smartphones get better, you can almost take a complete physical with a sensor laden iPhone and FaceTime. Makes sense. Quality can be maintained. Ease of use is better. You no longer go to a travel agent or the airport to plan and ticket a trip involving air travel…and many other things…like ATMs, etc. etc.
BUT FIRST, FIX THE DAMN INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE USA, AND GET THE NAVY SHIPS (AND SAILORS) THAT WORK!
American roads and bridges, power grid and water (critical to life) delivery systems are decades old. Raise gas taxes, to keep from running up the insane defect even further.
So are the controls on our Nuclear arsenal outdated, as are the scientists who know how they work..
DO YOU KNOW WHO RAY KURZWEIL IS? IF YOU DON’T, GOOGLE HIM. (HE WORKS THERE, TOO)
He’s one of the most brilliant futurists/scientist/inventors alive. He coined the term “the singularity” which is the point where machine intelligence (computers, etc.) surpass human intelligence. He offers a lot of cautionary notes, but believes that the growth and power of robotics, social networks, computing power and AI (artificial intelligence) will actually make the world a better—but very different place. That’s why we all need to understand more than we do about today’s technology. It’s also why cyber threats are so scary. Go Here and click through this: https://securityplanner.org/#/
THE PATH TO POSITIVE CHANGE = CHANGING SOME OF THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE & THEN ENABLING THEM TO ACT DECISIVELY, EVEN IN THE FACE OF HUGE MEDIA BIAS. Written in response to a friend’s great concern:
CHANGING THE DIRECTION OF AMERICA AND ITS ELECTED LEADERSHIP WITH PERVASIVE MEDIA BIAS AND MISINFORMATION
We have a problem; many of us we know too much, many of us know too little and many more know things that aren’t so, thanks to ignorance, misinformation, disinformation and outright propaganda. Thus different factions (political parties, especially, and minorities of all sorts too, believe and consider things from much different perspective, which only increases anxiety about the direction things are going—whichever way that is.
As in any situation, the only way to change it is to change the people in charge. (However as appointed head of the VA have learned, a deeply entrench contingent of the old miscreant, do all they can to subvert or undermine or resist the new leader’s initiatives.)I wish I knew a good way to change what’s happening, but its very difficult to alter such a huge movement—mainstream media + liberal Democrats + post Obama influence. The intrigue Newt Gingrich’s novels (Treason, Duplicity and Vengeance—read them in order) depict probably contains more truth and realistic scenarios than many other things we read. They are scary.
Real change still depends on who’s in power.
Redistricting is coming up and will change things, but perhaps not for the better for conservative beliefs.
House turnover: Over 40 GOP members of Congress resigning/retiring will make holding onto the House dicey.
Senate is only a little better, because Dems have 2 dozen seats up for reelection and GOP only has 10—but several of those incumbents are leaving (McCain, Corker, & others)
Remember, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead and "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke
The question is whether incumbent president Trump’s coattails are positive or negative for the 2018 mid-terms (seems more negative than positive) because the mainstream media focuses on the most negative possible way to report anything Trump or his administration does and blows it out of proportion. Nothing good that he does gets much coverage. And he’s his own worst enemy, providing a target rich environment for a loaf/liberal, socialist press.
I worry a lot about the activist liberal bias in college faculties and even in high school teachers). I’ve been told by students that they just keep their head down and don’t disagree for fear of reprisals or worse. The senior school administration is about as bad, having come from mostly faculty ranks. This is as worrisome as the media issue, but way under most folks radar.
AN EXCELLENT SUMMARY OF A TROUBLING SITUATION (From The Week Magazine 23 Feb. 2018)
The campus takeover of our culture Andrew Sullivan NYMag.com
Whenever I bemoan the culture of “safe spaces” and “micro-aggressions” on college campuses, said Andrew Sullivan, people argue that “the real world isn’t like that.” But that’s no longer true. More and more of our public discourse is now shaped by the neo-Marxist Left’s “identity-based, ‘social justice’” worldview, in which all interactions are defined by a hierarchy of power and oppression. Free speech itself is falling into disrepute, as a tool of the patriarchy. When some feminists recently got wind of a forthcoming Harper’s essay criticizing the #MeToo movement, they not only personally vilified author Katie Roiphe, they also tried to force the magazine to drop the piece before publication—a “real-world echo” of students shouting down speakers. Writers, like students, now know that one “incorrect” opinion on sensitive issues of race and gender can result in “instant social ostracism” and demands they be fired—so they remain silent. Men cannot discuss sexual harassment; whites cannot talk about racism. The goal of our society is not “the emancipation of the individual,” but permanent placement of the individual in the proper identity group: white, black, brown, female, gay, etc. “We used to call that bigotry. Now we call it being woke.”
THERE’S JOBS AND THERE ARE JOBS
In the sharing economy which is exploding with growth (think UBER, ETSY, AIRBNB, LYFT) employ lots of people who make not much money (under $500/mo.) This distorts all the economic ideas about job growth, income/earnings and work in the USA—and elsewhere.
HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE CHICKENSHIT CLUB? AND WHY EXECUTIVES DON’T GO TO PRISON ANYMORE!
Go read about it here: http://fortune.com/2017/06/27/executives-prison-financial-crisis-criminal-justice/ You will be astounded and appalled.
WHAT TO DEERE TRACTORS AND IPHONES HAVE IN COMMON?
The rights of owners to repair them is severely restricted. There’s a lawsuit in Nebraska challenging this idea. it might make a big different in future trends.
DOES EVERYTHING CHANGE SO MUCH AFTER ALL? CONSIDER TOYS.
The top selling US Toy Properties in 2017 and the year they were launched says, NO! Here’s the ranking. Surprise!
Pokemon (1998), Nerf (1969), Star Wars (1979), Barbie (1968), Batman (1966), Hot Wheels (1968), Little Tikes (1970), Shopkins (2014), Paw Patrol (2014), Lego Star Wars (1999)
THAT’S PLENTY FOR THIS ISSUE
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, CHALLENGE OR OFFER NEW INFO
JOHN
PS: ON TH4E SUBJECT OF FAKE NEWS, I RECENTLY MET A MAN AT A “FAKE NEWS" CONFERENCE. HERE ARE HIS CREDENTIALS AND WHAT HE’D DOING.
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, Disaster Avoidance Expert and Science Communicator
- Speaker and Consultant, for businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities on avoiding disasters through decision-making science and emotional and social intelligence
- Author, of the Amazon bestseller The Truth-Seeker's Handbook: A Science-Based Guide and several other books, with bylines in Time, Scientific American, CNBC, and Newsweek
- President and Co-Founder, at Intentional Insights, a nonprofit advocating truth-seeking, rational thinking, and wise decision-making
- Co-Founder, of the Pro-Truth Pledge, an initiative to fight misinformation and advocate for truth
- Assistant Professor, at the Decision Sciences Collaborative and History Department, Ohio State University
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