A letter to the legislative Representatives of our Government – be they Local, State or Federal

First an ask to all those who read this. Please share. I will start a personal campaign to send this to my senators and representatives through their contact page. Maybe even a few by snail mail.


To those that are empowered as the representatives of the “We the People”. As I write these three words I immediately think I need to hold true to what originalists would expect. This said I hope we can all agree that in the Declaration of Independence one word is out of place.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.”

The word “men”. This word I hope you all would agree should instead be “people”, “male or female” or “men and women”. I would also hope that when we think people or “men and women” we mean all entities that can be called Homo Sapiens,

no matter, their color

, place of birth, sexual orientation, age, religion or other descriptive variable.

If we are suggesting that we must read this literally! Then we have a major issue and this would explain why some of you explicitly exclude women from much of the deliberations. I do hope I am wrong, in writing this last statement!

The declaration then goes on to argue why we needed to declare our independence.

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

We are at a time in the history of this great nation when one must wonder if we should seriously considering altering the nature of our Government. The 45th President has no interest in representing “We The People”. He panders to his base, not the majority as demonstrated by the populate vote and the results of multiple polls since he took office.. You, the legislative branch of our government have divided yourselves divisively into two tribes and as have demonstrated an inability to to work together as one body. This might suggest a need to alter how our government operates.

I would plead with all of you to find a bipartisan way to restore the dignity of the various legislative bodies you are a member of.

This country stands divided and if it cannot restore unity it is at great risk. It is incumbent on all members of the legislative branches of our governments to restore balance, as one set of bodies and not as multiple sets of tribes and parties.

From Nothing is there Something

Recently I was reading a blog and ran into an interesting statement

“In the beginning, there was nothing, and there was something.”

The blog goes on to talk about the binary construct or what we know as the world of computers.  Three basic concepts are the foundation of all that a computer can do:

The most basic logic functions are the NOT, AND and OR gates.

IF something is FALSE, then it is NOT TRUE.
IF some OR another value is TRUE, the result is TRUE.
IF some AND another value is TRUE, the result is TRUE.

I immediately reflected back on a course in the Apologetics and remember the lecturer speaking the idea that SOMETHING cannot come from NOTHING.  Somewhere between these two discussions is a rift.  In that simple statement “In the Beginning” we immediately are drawn to think of the BEGINNING and the unimaginable be it “The Almighty” – “The Creator” – “God”.  For the apologetic his argument is that something, our universe cannot emerge from the nothingness of nothing.  There was something before call it the creator.  Like the Big Bang what was before it? a previous universe that had collapsed into a Black hole.

We then think about Binary logic.  It is built on the idea there is either nothing A Zero or there is Something A One.

There is something inherently missing from this

 

 

Naturally I assumed you had stolen the car

A man is being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard.  Suddenly, the light turns yellow, just in front of him.  He does the honest thing, and stops at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.   The tailgating woman hits the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she misses her chance to get through the intersection with him. As she is still in mid-rant, she hears a tap on her window and looks up into the face of a very serious police officer.  The officer orders her to exit her car with her hands up.

He takes her to the police station where she is searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approaches the cell and opens the door. She is escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer is waiting with her personal effects.

He says, “I’m very sorry for this mistake.  You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. ”

“I noticed the “Choose Life” license plate holder,
the “What Would Jesus  Do” bumper sticker,
the “Follow Me to Sunday School” bumper sticker,
the chrome plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. “

“Naturally I assumed you had stolen the car”.

Legacy the American disease

When we look at what this market have done my own journey parrallels.

The adoption of something new it is a human process influenced by culture.

1976 first programming job and exposure to OCR and timeshare

1978 cash management, electronic money transfer, ACH & Wire

1982 Digital, video and voice integration.

What happened to Marginal Satisfaction?

1986 fiber across the Atlantic

The wall

1994 Stir EMV, drive WWW payments, cryptography, MFA

1996 Convergence of leather and technology

2001

2003 EMV in Canada

2008 Lehman went bankrupt

2015 US EMV Liability Shift

2018 WebauthN Web payments Web of things

Now we think next. What next?

Sunday Sermon July 8

Ashley stood before us.

The life of a small town, 2000 plus the 1500 students attending the University 9 months of the year, sets a scene for a conversation.
A conversation about community and who we are.

Do those that knew us then, know us now?
The issue of going back is hard.
There is clearly a difference between those that have roots and those like me without.
Who, save family, do I still know from then?
Who knows me, where?

The story of Jesus Mark 6:1-6 as he emerges and his mission becomes clear this passage reminds us.
When he went home he was ridiculed by many,
People who had known him then did not appreciating who he had become.

The story teaches us that we simply need to  stand up and go forth.
As he did we simply must continue forward.
The power of Jesus, therefore what each of us must do, is exemplified in the next section mark 6-7-12.
He simply instructs his disciples out to go out into the world and share in the glory of God.

Do we fit in a box because others think so?
Or, do we like Jesus simply continue in the direction?

Constantly moving forward?

We all belong, yet where is it we belong?

Who is God calling us to be?
Is it who we know we are?
No, it is who we are here to be.
Who is God calling each of us to be?
Who is God calling me to be?

It is the discernment I struggle with.

Who Am I

Letter to the American President

President Donald John Trump
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
United States of America

July 6, 2018 Ref. Mine thoughts and Those of My Canadian Friend

Dear Mr. President, Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Mr. President as an American who had the opportunity to work in five states (NYC, NJ, Georgia, MN, & NC), four countries (USA, UK, Belgium and Canada), two super cities & three major cities (Manhattan, London, Brussels, Toronto and Atlanta); I have had the chance to see and hear about our great country from multiple angles and perspectives.

August of 2008, after 23 years away, I returned home, after spending 7 years in Toronto; in a 35-foot motor home. Parked across the river from the town of my birth, near Liberty State Park and with the Statue of Liberty as my morning view. I learned about and had to accept the misfortunate of the recession. A recession resulting from the creation of those mortgage backed derivatives. Compounded by the devious behavior and the greed of the speculators, I brand “Wall Street”.

I will remember September 15th 2008, the day Dick Fuld, who I had worked with while with Shearson Lehman, made that fateful announcement. Newly returned to the United States, I had to learn about what 8 years of Republican control of the Executive branch of our country had achieved, what the heightened religious fault lines across this country were and the anxiety of the terror emanating from the middle east had done to this nation. Like 9/11, we were swept into another spiral of despair and anger.

We have been a great nation; for most of my life, we were seen as the great white hope. A country willing to stand up to tyrants, bullies, jihadists and anarchists. A great nation capable of reaching any part of the world. Strength built on the military and diplomatic respect we established with both our enemies and most importantly our allies and friends. I will admit I am an urban dweller. I have lived a good life. I found success in the world of Financial Services and the application of technology. I do not appreciate the struggle those in the manufacturing and agricultural economy feel.

Words like labor arbitrate, outshore resources and outsourcing are familiar. What stands behind these words has much to do with the state of our nation and the situation in most of the developed world. It is the result of these actions so many people in middle America feel left behind.

In 1982, when I first began to build a Wall Street trading room for Bankers Trust, I saw how Shareholder value not Stakeholder value, had become the most important factor within our capitalistic system.

People, be they customers or employees, no longer mattered. What I learned and frankly was disheartened by is that the only thing that matters anymore is the returns, as seen from the superrich executives, the shareholders’ and the financial analysts’ perspective. We had become a nation focused on the balance sheet and the quarterly report.

Yes, I have my views and recommendation as to the state of this nation and what we need to do to make sure we remain the great nation we live and believe in.

If I think about the economy. We do not need to bring the manufacturing or restart coal mining. We need to embrace the fact that our nations wealth is now in our service economy. A national of American healthcare works taking care of the sick and wounded, American call center operators serving Americans, American programmers developing systems for our digital world, American innovators creating for all and American business leaders is what we need. Yes, we need to rebuild our infrastructure and address public transportation. Yes, since 2010 our economy is growing, I hope we can sustain that growth and assure the people good wages, good jobs and a bright future.

If I think about healthcare. I felt the most exposed when I returned to the USA and discovered I did not have healthcare. I was unemployed and did not have the funds to simply go out and buy an individual healthcare plan. Healthcare was a big topic on the news as Washington worked through what ended up being a terrible mess of a healthcare plan. In my immediately family there are 5 Doctors. four practicing and one just finishing med school. As you can imagine it has been a topic of conversation since I was very young. Now the conversation is about how broken our system is. I take the view of someone who has lived within multiple national health programs. It bothers me that this great nation cannot figure out how to assure the health of every American, affordably.

If I think about education. We as a nation should make sure that every person living in this country is WELL EDUCATED. There should be no excuses. There should be no bias. Property taxes tend to pay for primary schools. It is primary education we must make the best in the world. Unfortunately, the way our system works the poor get poor schools – the rich have great schools. We need to figure out how to assure everyone an equal chance with a GREAT PRIMARY EDUCATION. Your idea of apprentice programs is exactly what our primary education system should assure exist. Everyone should be able to walk into the world with a set of skills at age 18. Graduating from primary school everyone should be able to go our and find a job, join an apprentice program, join the military or decide to invest in higher education. A college degree should not be required to succeed. A University education should be there to allow those who are gifted the ability to excel.

If we think about the environment. Please listen to the majority of scientist who know we are affecting the environment. It is the pollution we create and the materials we inject into our environment that is responsible for the state of our environment. We the people and our corporations are responsible for all the islands of floating plastic, all the Carbon, Sulphur or who knows what we inject into the atmosphere and all those chemicals we pour into our rivers and oceans. We must continue the good work, you and I saw, when we cleaned up the rivers around Manhattan. Environmental work making it possible to breath the air in central park, swim in the Hudson river or taking a cruise from the East 23rd street mooring, you used all those years ago.

If we think about our military and our role as the defender of peace. We need a strong and well-funded military. Not too much and not too little. We need to make sure we have strong alliances. Frankly, Mr. President, I would hope we would discourage other country form investing in military hardware. Our goal should be to have the best. Our goal should be to watch and gain as the cost of maintaining the peace and avoiding war and conflict falls to zero.

If we think of our role as a global leader. What more is there to say. We need to be diplomatic. We need to pursue the growth of democratic societies. We need to focus on quelling violence and protecting human rights. We need to be the partner everyone wants to have on their side and the enemy those who seek to do us harm; do not want to enter into a conflict with the United States of America, because they know they will lose, before they start.

If we think about the Statue of Liberty. She stands proud in the harbor of New York beaconing people to our shores. Yes, we need to manage the flow of immigrates into this great nation. We must remember those that come seek the opportunity this nation promotes. We need to accept all with kindness, grace and dignity. When necessary only then should we return those, who have not followed the published policy, back from where they came, gently.

We must also remember they come because they know they can find work. As long as employers can hire people who do not have the right to work in this nation they will come. Stop American companies from hiring illegal immigrants and they will stop coming. Simple economics – reduce the demand will eliminate the supply.

If we think of our nation and its people. You must lead by example. You are the President of all of us. Whatever our color, race, religious views, social position, economic situation or sexual preferences you are the President and you must be an example for our children and our nation.

We do not want our children to believe lying is OK. We do not want our children to believe bullying is ok. We do not want our children to shun someone because they are different. It is your role to bring the parties together, to lead the left and the right back to the middle ground and restore civil discourse.

On these next pages is the note my Canadian friend wrote.

Given you are into social media I will also post this via Twitter, Facebook and on my own website.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Andreae


Dear Mr. President:

I am writing you as an outsider, someone who has always loved your country for the values it represents and has fought for.

I was going to write you to express my appreciation for your efforts to dial down the risk of nuclear war by meeting with Kim Jong-Un and initiating a peace process which should make life less stressful for our Asian neighbours as well as for us here in North America.

But the euphoria didn’t last long, only because of the children. The ones separated from their parents at the US/Mexico border. You see them on either the front pages of the major newspapers or on the various media outlets and you know, this is not going away.

Children are ever the fly in the ointment which disturb our individual and collective conscience. Riding in the back seat of a car downtown on any New York or Toronto street and they are the ones asking, ‘Why is that man sleeping on the sidewalk?’ or ‘See that military vet begging in front of Dunkin Donuts? Is that the way we treat our soldiers?’

The children are invariably the ones who ask how did we let our world become so uncaring that we confine the elderly to institutions where nobody visits them, or send our street youths to jail when they had no opportunity to succeed?

And now they are congregating at the border asking ‘why are we being separated from our parents?’ ‘Is that how America treats its most vulnerable people?” ‘Isn’t this the land of the free, the land of opportunity, the land who has inscribed on its Statue of Liberty:

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-lost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

However, it has occurred that there are now over 2000 children separated from their parents along your southern border, you are the one person who can fix this. It doesn’t mean you have to allow them all in – which would be my preference – or decide to send them all back home.

That’s not the issue. The issue here is the trauma your administration and by extension, all freedom loving grown-ups, are foisting on innocent children for which there are lifelong implications.

That is the issue which you alone can change.

Unzero the Zero in Attorney General Session’s Tolerance Policy, so the one thing that isn’t being tolerated is the confinement of children in cages and gymnasiums separated from the people who love them and who have risked everything, in the hope of a better life here.

Again, whoever is to be blamed for things ending up the way they are now is not the issue. The issue is – what is happening now is wrong, and you are the one person who can make it right.

I know as someone who relies on Christians of sincere conviction to help shape the bigger decisions one has to make in life, the one thing devout Christians all agree on is that God so loved the world, not that we would put our children in cages, but love them in such a way that regardless of who they are or where they are from, our treatment and care for them would reflect God’s thinking about them, that ’theirs in the kingdom of God.’

I can assure you, that kingdom does not include a cage. Nor should ours.

Thanks for hearing me out on this.

Sincerely,

John Deacon

What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings?

In a NYTIMES article “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer” the following statistic jumped out

Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world’s guns. From 1966 to 2012, 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American, according to a 2015 study by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama.

The article then goes on to show that most of the assumed contributor to why America has such a high rate of mass shooting. after demonstrating how none of these can be identifed as the contributor it makes th following statement

Rather, they found, in data that has since been repeatedly confirmed, that American crime is simply more lethal. A New Yorker is just as likely to be robbed as a Londoner, for instance, but the New Yorker is 54 times more likely to be killed in the process.

Our love of guns seems to be the major contributor.

More gun ownership corresponds with more gun murders across virtually every axis: among developed countries, among American states, among American towns and cities and when controlling for crime rates. And gun control legislation tends to reduce gun murders, according to a recent analysis of 130 studies from 10 countries.

The article relies on data to establish its argument. The net result, America is a culture unlike any other with a second amendment right, which one can argue, is the reason we are such a dangerous country to live in.

After Britain had a mass shooting in 1987, the country instituted strict gun control laws. So did Australia after a 1996 shooting. But the United States has repeatedly faced the same calculus and determined that relatively unregulated gun ownership is worth the cost to society.

The article concludes with the following statement that cause one to wonder who are we this country called the United States of America

“In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate,” Dan Hodges, a British journalist, wrote in a post on Twitter two years ago, referring to the 2012 attack that killed 20 young students at an elementary school in Connecticut. “Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”

A message unsubscribing to https://act.moveon.org

I agree with the actions you are all taking, yet. I am not a democrat nor a republican. Constantly begging me for a donation creates friction.

When a party emerges that is in the middle and represents

  • The fiscal values by focusing on the PEOPLE not the lobbyist, billionaires and companies with deep pocket.
  • The social responsibilities including but not limited to universal healthcare, the economy, equal education and the environment.

When these values which I hold dear become the focus on a party, then maybe.

All I see today is Greed, Pride getting in the way of common sense and mutual respect. All I hear is ugly noise from both parties. I see a city frozen. The election of President Obama created a racial divide. Washington now smelling like a cesspit, not just the swamp Trump spoke of.

We, through our electoral system, elected Donald Trump.

Am I happy

  • With the mess he has created with taxes, the economy, tariffs, immigration, the courts
  • With how he is treating Canada, Europe, Mexico and so many others
  • With what he has done to international treaties and trade
  • With his denial that humans have and do effect the planets environment climate Change is real

No!

Does it bother me that:

  • He is coddling the strong men of this world like Kim, Putin …?
  • The consequences of tariffs on Global trade are not part of the dialogue?
  • We do not understand the USA is no longer a manufacturer
    • We are a place where innovation drives invention.
    • We are a service economy and must focus on keeping these jobs here.

YES

Let him get on with doing his job. Yes the legislator must do its job and make sure we have a check and a balance. We must restore order and civil discourse.

That said, the press needs to spend less time talking about him. Yes, the press must do its job and be allowed and pushed to continue to do its job. They should highlight what is being done and what some think. But hours of talk only makes the divide wider. Today for any sensible individual to understand the reality one must watch BBC, CNN, FOX, CBS, PBS, NBC, and how many others to filter truth from spin.

We must restore respectful dialogue.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Romans 12:2

is this what it is really all about

June 25, 2018 I read this opinion piece –

White Extinction Anxietyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/opinion/america-white-extinction.html

And I reflected on the CBS News article my colleague sent me The message “86-ing” Sarah Sanders sent to conservativeshttps://apple.news/AFUXCTyw5RS668F_2_ElK0A

When he and I we spoke earlier today, the following statement created the impetuous to write. He said the Sanders incident was “the step to far” I would argue it is simply another step in the wrong direction. Have we stepped over the line? Maybe yet all we have to do is read @realDonaldTrump tweets to wonder where the line is. I then think about:

  • The incident in Colorado, due to a difference in religious beliefs.
  • What happened as a result of white supremacists marching in Charlotte last year.
  • What is happening in restaurants in the DC area.
  • What is happening along our southern and northern borders.
  • What has happened to our legislator and our two-party system.
  • Trump and other conspirators issue over Obama and his place of Birth.
  • Pro-life versus woman’s rights.
  • The puritan right versus the socialist left.
  • Urban versus rural dwellers
  • Globalists versus nationalists
  • The issues of Palestine, Jerusalem and the Sunni Shite divide.
  • Pakistan, Israel, India, North Korea, Libya, Iran and all those others who sought, acquired or are seeking the power of the Atomic bomb.
  • Capitalism gone terribly wrong, with off-shore labor arbitrate killing American Jobs.

Adam Smith, I think, spoke in respect to a village economy. What I will call a closed system. Yes, this village can be free market. It is the ability to separate and push, that which is not part of our village, out; that defeats the equity built into that village.

This is further complicated by the divide between the rich and the poor, between the haves and have not and now between the Republicans and the Democrats. I could have spoken of race: Angle Saxon versus African versus Asia versus Japanese or Chinese and I am sure we could add a myriad of other point of contention. The issue is we are becoming less divided not more

It feels like we have devolved into a world that thinks – “If you are not one of us you are not my neighbor. How then do we find and restore balance? How do we merge these two Christian thoughts into one?

“The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

“How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.”

Earlier I was going to use the word Jihad. When I looked to the definition I had to hold that thoughts and use it in a different and more informed way. If I look at the two definitions 1. is what I planned to speak of. While 2. is what all of this is about.

Definition of jihad

  1. a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also:
    a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline
  2. a crusade for a principle or belief

When Obama came into office our legislators found every reason not to work together. The Tea party emerged. The left drifted farther left.

Hillary divided this nation. There were those not willing to see the Clinton dynasty survive. There were those who wanted to turn inward, a protectionist state. There were those afraid of the future and the implications of the Fourth Revolution. There were those who did not believe in any form of social welfare, be it universal health, education or wealth.

All of this leaves me adrift.

Sunday, thinking of being in the boat in a storm

Listening to Brian our minister speak of today’s reading, he speaks of the challenge of the storm, we today, are surrounded by a storm set alight by division, fear and the confusion of what next.

Brian speaks of the love within. That love that rests inside each of us. He spoke if how we are turning away from religion.

This led me to ponder the demise of the gentle spirit Jesus tried to instill and restore in each of us. This thought often takes my heart to remembering how Jesus condensed the ten commandments down to two.

“The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

We have lost sight of this need to respect each other. We are torn apart by our differences. We are intolerant and believe we know better. We are divided as to our fiscal and social responsibilities.

The Lords and Masters who stand over us, insight dissension, foster racial attitudes, lie, and corrupt. Comedians, newscasters, authors and pundits make fun of the situation we are in.

Yet the sting of reality persists.

life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

When I received this video

I wondered if prudish Americans would appreciate the continental humor.

For me and now I speak from my heart, mind and soul.  I remember well going to Jones Beach with two special ladies.  They made it clear they would bath as they wished and I needed to accept and not be some leering male.  I then remember traveling to Paris and seeing beautiful people adorning those typical French round advertising pillars.  The French simply use the beauty of the human body to promote perfume or some other sensual thing.  After I moved to Europe and we venturing, children in hand, to the beaches of Holland, France, Spain and Italy we learned to simply accept.  Even more telling, I attended an ITUG conference at a 5 star hotel in Budapest and ventured down to the spa.

I wonder why Americans  are bound up in a moral turpitude.

We are either far to the right or fair to the left.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was interviewed today and argued our country must come back to the center.  Morality is key to why we are so far apart.  So many on the right so many on the left.  Little room to find accommodation in the middle.

We purport to be a country of law, a country of freedom and a country of choice.  Yet we are tangled up in imposing rules to govern choice.  I read of how in Virginia back in the 30’s they attempted to ban interracial marriage and discovered that most of the population had some of Pocahontas in them.  I then think about those that are marching today.  They argue that the friends who died, are more important than the rights of those who want to let anyone bear arms.  Yet that small minority, the NRA, seems to have control over the decisions of the peoples’ representatives.  If we believe we can ban the mixing of races, yet we are unable, as the majority, to ban the type of arms, weapons, people are allowed to own, what are we!

Arnold today spoke of education, health and the environment.

If we want to Make America Great Again then why do we allow our system of education  to stigmatize people based on where they live.  Why do we not assure each citizen the right to equal education.  He reminded the audience this country ranks 39th in the world.  He said that regulating diversity was ridiculous.  He argued that by offering equal education, we enable people equal opportunity.  His argument made perfect sense.  Using local property taxes to fund education, ultimately means where you live, hence your family income, defines who has opportunity to excel.  If we want to remain the greatest country in the world and assure all citizens equal opportunity, then, we must invest in education.

Bottom line Education is the key to Making America Great Again.

Health, there are 4 living doctors in my family.  Through my kinship to them, I have heard and listened to them speak of the issues with our system.  For my simple mind the problem begins with Capitalism.  It is all about big corporations wanting to profit from their skills.  It is about insurance companies wanting to minimize risk (expense) by minimizing the amount of care they have to pay for.  I am familiar with social medicine.  Three countries provided me personally with exposure to how it can and does work.

Yes, if you can afford care in this country, you will get the best care.

The challenge, every American cannot afford care, without insurance.  And, if everyone is not insured then those that are the least wealthy and healthy are without.  For me this graph tells the whole store. 

I am personally paying insurance under a Cobra plan.  For Selma and I, one household, it costs 1,291.43 a month $15,520.92 a year.

We all need universal care.  We need to require everyone to pay into our health system.  This is the only way will we assure affordable care for all.  How does one build such a system, I suggest, it must resemble what Switzerland has built.

Minimum care paid through taxes.  Supplemental care, each households responsibility.

Next is our environment.  Once, we worried about pollution and the quality of our air and water.  Now, we must expand our thinking.  We must remember we are stewards of this earth and realize our consumption of the earth’s resources will affect the balance of the earth and its ecosystem.  We are here to protect the earth for our children and for the children they will bring into this world.

We can argue all night long about the science.  What we do know is that if we change the balance of anything there is a result.  The classic appreciation of cause and effect.  We the USA, with less than 20% of the word population, recently were responsible for most of the carbon dioxide injected into the atmosphere.  Today this no longer is true.  But, we recently pulled away from helping to lead the world to a better place.  Instead our President wants us to return our sources of energy back to those non renewable earthly resources, coal and oil.  We all know they pollute!

Finding reusable means of generating energy, is good politics.  The Economist March 17th 2018 had an excellent special report on the politics of energy.

If we do not embrace renewable sources of energy and reduce our dependence on Oil and Coal, we will no longer be the great national we are and seek to remain.

As I write, I am remember learning about the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  As the first sentence so aptly says it

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing everything – from the way we relate to each other, to the way our economies work, to what it means to be human”.

We must properly harness technology.

  • Education is the key.
  • Our environment can only benefit.
  • Healthcare will simply become more efficient

In the end we will improve everyone’s life.

Yet?

As Adam Smith best explains, our global economy (yes we are a global economy), can only be successful when we view it as a closed system.

We must appreciate that we are all part of the whole.  Only when we each give to our own abilities, will we find balance.  If we allow labor arbitrage to take jobs away; then, those who lose their jobs must find new ways to contribute.  They cannot expect the system to sustain them!

Yet they should expect those that profit to help re-educate.

Why am I writing.  What am I asking.

Maybe to share.  Maybe to speak out.

There is one other topic on my mind.  Those who understand the loss of a friend in Parkland are speaking out, they are marching in Washington and around the country to get people to listen and vote to arrest the stupidity of how the second amendment is being mis-interpreted.

For me the key is found in the first part of that amendment

“ A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,

In my opinion, what resulted from  District of Columbia v Heller (2008) was an unreasonable interpretation of the second amendment.  I would suggest United States V. Cruikshank (1876) and United States v Miller (1939) are a better interpretations.  Those interpretations, in my opinion, are not influenced by the political influence of the NRA and gun manufactures’.  Their and the NRA’s focus is to market, sell and protect their right to profit!  They are not focused on assuring the free state has a well regulated militia.  If they were, they would insist on training, education and the formation of groups – in other words militias.

The second phrase

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

For me, this is why Switzerland ends up with guns in every home.  The people are members of the armed forces. They are “The Militia”.  They belong to a “well regulated” group of people focused on “the security of a free state”.  They are trained.  They understand the purpose of these weapons.  The militia, in other words the people, can determine if there are mental issues and exclude those individuals as they are evaluated and introduced to their responsibility as a member of the militia of the people.

Looking back on the histogram above many of you are or will be part of the upper 10%.  We are the ones most gifted.  We therefore must be the ones that are the most interested in making this world is a better place.  Simply accepting the way it is, means we are not working together to make the world, this country, a better and more equal place.

Going back to the video we must assure our freedoms.  We must focus not on how we expect people to live.  We must remember why we became a nation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

Our founders made it clear, we each have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The way I interpret what we attempted, as a nation, to establish; is a body of people, a society, that respects each of our individual rights and seeks to protect each individuals right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  If I want to expose myself in the comfort of a community that enjoys this way of life, as long as we do not imping on your rights, why not?  Slavery, Blue laws, various interpretations based on the desire to impose your will on me is not why we declared independence.  It is not what our constitution attempted to create.

I want clean air, clean water, not to see your litter in public view and be able  to drink alcohol and/or smoke marijuana.  I want the ability to see a doctor when I need to and not worry that I cannot afford to.  I want to be able to to see all children attend school, knowing they will get a great education.  I also do not want to worry that some lunatic will buy assault rifles and use these weapons reserved for a well regulated militia to kill children while they are at school.  I want to be able to attend a music festival and not worry that some person up in some hotel room is capable of buying an arsenal simply to kill people.

Yes we should have the right to hunt and protect ourselves.  Assuming we are trained and capable and more importantly are of stable mind and body.

We must each remember the ten commandments Exodus 20 or simply put the two found in Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:29-34 and Luke 10:25-37

Most importantly we must read, appreciate and be the Samaritan described in Luke 12:30-37.

Each of us is bestowed with skills and abilities.  We have the funds to be able to help drive policy we have the responsibility to assure each is given the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These are my beliefs.

I hope those reading my thoughts are willing to respect them and share theirs.  Only if we engage in discourse can we assure ourselves life, liberty and the ability to pursue happiness.

Obviously to avoid spam I do moderate comments.  As long as there is no profanity, I will not censor anyone’s comments.  I am also posting the existence of this Blog on Twitter and Facebook.  In those environments and as Cambridge Analytica has demonstrated, these thoughts will simply expand the public’s awareness of my habits, patterns and thinking.

Respectfully,

 

What scares me most

Tonight while preparing to listen to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra play a bit of Beethoven I have a moment to reflect on the Worldview.

Once upon a time one could turn on the news and get a glimpse of what is happening at home and round the world. One could pick up a newspaper and think this will provide me a glimpse of the truth.

Then! In emerged the capabilities of communications and the capacity to write and distribute anything to a vast number of individuals. Otherwise called the Internet.

Yet, what is different? In the past books were burned, history was rewritten and lies were told. The challenge,today we can manipulate what people believe, on a global scale, in realtime. We can spread disinformation and drive the masses to believe anything people with a voice and the power to thrill want to convince them to believe.

Starting in 2016 who would become the American President proved this to be possible. The media demonstrated that they can spin the truth in whatever direction they so desire.

This week the story is about how the DOJ and the FBI obtained warrants from one of the strictest courts in the land. Every 90 days bringing new information, they convinced the FISA court to allow them to continue to investigate the potential actions of our enemy, Russia, or, what was the USSR. What the Russians did was evil and manipulative. I somehow doubt the GOP’s version of the trutb.

Vindicated! Donald thinks he is. Yet, for those who take the minutes to read, one can only wonder what does this incomplete review of the facts actually prove? Nothing!

I wonder why I waste so much of my time listening, reading and worrying. Is there truly a risk? Are we so divided that it matters. Maybe!

Part of the challenge, many think President Trump is doing good. They accept his narcissistic personality and read his tweets with a simply, oh please stop. The rest of us cringe and worry. We consider the risks. We watch our leaders splinter and the divide expand, and we hope for a better day tomorrow.

Fir thise that seek out the truth, we explore and we become aware of the elements that are driving us into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It causes us to wonder what can we do to bring the masses, those unskilled workers, who have been marginalized by intelligent robots, programmers, engineers and managers out of desolate. We work to reduce the numbers of workers and expand productivity all while ignoring the realities of the human repercussion ahead.

When I started this note, the thinking was about those who do not accept science, believe the world is flat and maybe 9,000 years old. They do not accept, we human kind, are responsible for the wrath of our planet’s climate. They do not appreciate the dangers ahead, as we change the balance of our atmosphere and pollute the lands and oceans that sustain us.

What next?

Citizen Bill of Cyber Bill of Rights

Created in December of 2011 as I reflected on the emergence of the Cyber Risk

My identity is mine electronic or otherwise

I will be prudent in its use

I understand if I enter into an agreement that you can prove it was me
Then I am responsible

I will carry with me an object that can be kept safe from intrusion and can easily be remotely destroyed

You, those entities human and other that I enter into a relationship with
Can offer me anything I am willing to opt-in to

Using a defined set of cryptographic relationships
I agree that a digital contract can be signed and agreed and has the full force of the law behind it

You will recognize that I am your human equal and will,
Save for acts of God and Nature,

Endeavor to provide quality and service

 

Remove Volatility

Today I was confronted with volatility. In a two week period gas prices had gone from 2.395 to 26795, quite a climb of less than 14 days.

Volatility, this is what we must remove from peoples lives. Stability and comfort are what is important. Having gameful activity to allows us to contribute to the whole. Being idle is unproductive and only benefits the traders who prey on short term activity to enjoy profits from volatility.

Our President must accept that the Wall Street lobby must be squelched for a while as volatility is banded from the marketplace. This will take an acceptance on the part of the wealthy that they cannot take it beyond the grave and before that excessive income is not acceptable to the healthy grow of civilization.

Set a maximum salary of say 2 million.

Foreign exchange markets are another area of concern. Volatility based on war and famine must the mitigated out of the civilization.

Our civilization is global and provisional limitations such as food subsidies need to be removed.

Remember they are simply subsidies paid by the tax payer. Government should be limited to a percent of the population; remembering its role is to only assure the the primitive functions of justice, liberty, freedom and security.

Regulation is something that must be removed and a new form of peer review established with responsibility to maintain quality, service, stewardship for the planet, and a judicious use of nature resources. Free enterprise is encouraged by remembering that it is the relationship between the customer and proffer that ultimately decides success.

An interesting story as we think about health care

I met a man with a deep understanding of the Red Words, who told me a little of his life and how he spent $180,000 resolving medical issues associated with a stoke.  Little was done, given the amount spent and the available technology and medical sciences.

Today, he believes, based on sound medical opinion, that exercise, surgery or medication could eliminate the de-habilitating impact on his sight, mobility and hearing.

After spending his life, saving, my friend lives comfortably in a 250 square foot home with nothing but the bible and his spirit.

Where is the VA for a VIET NAM vet; there were provisions made under Nixon for long-term medical care?

What should a more balanced system do to afford my friend a comfortable retirement?

today on CNN – What about this idea

http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/05/unemployment-what%e2%80%99s-to-blame/

Unemployment: What’s to Blame?

Posted: 08:44 AM ET

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan predicts U.S. unemployment could hit 10%.  Currently the nation’s unemployment rate is at 9.8%.

So, what do you think is most responsible from the worsening employment picture: a failed stimulus package, an economy much worse than we knew, employers cutting deeper and hiring more slowly than expected, or something else all together.

Leave us a comment. We’ll share some of them on air in the CNN Newsroom, 11am ET — 1pm ET

 

So there we are.  A picture and a set of points on why we are where we are with unemployment.  Now what about this idea.

First, there is an issue of Greed.  A small percentage of the global population has accumulated a massive amount of wealth.  I am not here to judge the right or wrong of how they or their ancestors acquired the wealth.  I am here to suggest looking forward. 

  1. 100 million dollars a year as a salary to hedge the price of gasoline and contribute to raising the profits and consumer costs associated with oil.
  2. $17.2 million to successful sell Visa inc, to the market, earning bankers a significant return.
  3. Numerous excesses that programs like Nip/Tuck mimic for Wall Street millionaires.
  4. A stock market that has a curve that simply should not have been allowed.  Long term prudent economic management is essential.

 Ponder this.  If equities is suppose to represent the inherent stability of the corporations that employ our neighbors; what happened starting in 2000 and culminating in the bear Stearns collapse in 2007.  Is Wall Street unravelling the growth that began in 1982 and went into a hyperactive phase in 1995, and simply correcting itself. 

What next should represent a step change in how we think about governance, compensation, risk, responsibility and morality.

 What I think a lot of us forget is that our society evolved over millennium and here we are thinking we are so important.  What is important, is being faithful to a common morality, and making sure that we leave something better for our children. 

I agree with the Dali Lama, all we want is peace and happiness.

So what next?

  1. Cap salaries for the rich at 2 million per year.
  2. Institute a managed health system that still uses the concept of insurance and hedging risk to fund our healthcare system.  
  3. Introduce a health management system, with a basement for those that cannot afford even the most basic plan.
  4. Re-introduce exercise in the school system and subsidize community gyms and recreational facilities.
  5. Re-introduce the luxury tax for non essentials over $30,000 and on things that are not good for you or are excessive.  Say anything not associated with your food,  transportation and housing.
  6. Focus on better educating the family practitioners, gynecologists, internist and pediatricians so that they do a much better triage and assessment of appropriate care given available resources with fear of reprisal for taking risks.  If necessary, require an additional year of service at a teaching hospital earning a reasonable income say $120,000.
  7. Do a lot of what Congress is already talking about
    1. Strengthen the VA hospital and medical care system
    2. Do not mess with Medicare or Medicaid, until the new system is in place.  Let the people move to the free market approach.
    3. Do not create a Government run insurance system.  Yes to creating a open market, knock down state borders and promote re-introduction of the original Blue Cross Blue Shield concept of a co-operative not for profit solution
  8. Focus on regulating the quality of care with a no one left behind principle.
  9. Keep the insurance companies out of setting fees.  Manage thje cost of the healthcare system by focusing on competition.  The patient is the client and is to be saught after without offensive advertising.
  10. Mandate a National Id card keying off the social insurance number.  Combine it on the Drivers license, as a day one requirement.
  11. Focus as a corporate priority on employment being the key indicator of success.  Begin discussions on Right to Work legislation and stimulating more humane approach to managing down costs in a period of economic recession.  Reduce executive wages well before the first person can be let go, without cause.
  12. Merge all the work in the fields of governance, risk and regulation into a replacement bill.
  13. I could go on.

From Nothing Something

In an apologetics I was asked to question the idea that something came from nothing.

This is what I have to believe if I am going to listen to the Atheists and ACLU.

Then I thought about Creation and Intelligent Design. Oh how much simpler it is to believe than these Macro Environmental facts that cannot be backed up with data explains it all. There is much to accept if you are going to believe out of the Big Bang and Chaos; time would produce a single cell. Then from that single cell produce the abundance of life forms that have and do exist.

255 proteins must magically appear in one place at the exact right time,

Before we can start thinking about things like DNA

The Red Words

Someone once said
Read-only his words

My adaptations of the translation used, to keep you on track to accompany a lot of cut and paste. Not for anyone’s adulation. It is my work available for me to see and refer to.

Jesus Christ

Jesus’ Red Words

Matthew Mark Luke John

Extracted from the NIV

Time passes and we must be reminded to think back to how it was

2009 September Philip lived on an island during the flood

False Prophets and False Profits

Last night, 11 September 2009, I watched hours of material on 9/11. 

 

I saw the planes as the flaming arrow of the False Prophet. 

 

I saw the two towers as the symbol of the moral decay of the False Profit. 

 

Both clashed in a period of 102 minutes we will long remember.

 

The terrorist is acknowledged and the false prophet stands accused. 

 

Yet the False Profit continues to bring harm to many and shame to those of us who seek to know God and the work Jesus’ expects of us.

 

When will the False Prophet “Profit” finally be recognized as the work of the devil?