Revolution 2.0

The 7% Supreme Court Justice. President Biden promised that he would pick his VP candidate from a pool of only black women. From that pool, representing 7% of the  United States, he chose Kamala Harris. The same thinking that led to Ms. Harris being the Vice President of the United States is going to give us the next lifetime appointee Justice on the Supreme Court. With the 2020 nomination slipping through his grasp after a series of primary defeats, Biden turned to the powerful US Representative, Jim Clyburn, D-SC and the Majority Whip in the House to make a deal; Biden would appoint the black female Justice Clyburn wanted in exchange for Clyburn’s support. The rest is political backroom history. This 10 minute episode will help us in our lives, and help us to think through the issues surrounding us. N.B. This is a complete blog, also acting as a signpost, pointing you to this episode on both the new Revolution 2.0™ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5CDliD-PRQE_8bO4Eg98Q (YouTube) channel, and where you e

Passing as a POC. Rewarding people and groups because they are slightly or completely non-white is just as unacceptable as the previous wrong of punishing people and groups for having exactly that physical trait. Both are blatantly racist, and have no place either in our hearts or in our country. This 10 minute episode will help us in our lives, and help us to think through the issues surrounding us. N.B. This blog acts as a transcript and a signpost, pointing you to this episode on both the new Revolution 2.0™ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5CDliD-PRQE_8bO4Eg98Q (YouTube) channel, and where you enjoy your podcasts, e.g., https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolution-2-0/id1353135552 (Apple), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMi0wLm9yZy9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv (Google) and https://open.spotify.com/show/6rr6fi3AMW0GoAfYQ64lf9 (Spotify).   Continuing In the earlier, ugly days of racist America, if a person was in any way noticeably black, they were treated as all black. And e

Gratitude: Does The Left Have Any? Does The Right Demand It? We are busy politicizing everything, including science, law enforcement, religion, sports, medicine, history and education. Now we are doing the same thing with gratitude. We are making gratitude political. To our peril. This 10 minute episode will help us in our lives, and help us to think through the issues surrounding us.  N.B. This is a useful blog, a signpost, pointing you to this episode on both the new Revolution 2.0™ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5CDliD-PRQE_8bO4Eg98Q (YouTube) channel, and where you enjoy your podcasts, e.g., https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolution-2-0/id1353135552 (Apple), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMi0wLm9yZy9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv (Google) and https://open.spotify.com/show/6rr6fi3AMW0GoAfYQ64lf9 (Spotify, )as well as reading them here.  Continuing: It all starts with gratitude. Gratitude is the bedrock, the touchstone–cornerstone–for any effective philosophy, religious dogma, or

Victims and shared responsibility: There are many reasons that we take precautions even if we would be legally in the right had we not taken those steps. These reasons can be centered around personal safety, money, or legal or moral issues. These reasons apply to law abiding, contributing homeowners, as well as those in the criminal justice system. And everyone in between. We can avoid being victims by taking action even when we are “in the right.” This 10 minute episode will help us in our lives, and help us to think through the issues surrounding us.  N.B. This is a summary, a signpost, pointing you to this episode on both the new Revolution 2.0™ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5CDliD-PRQE_8bO4Eg98Q (YouTube) channel, and where you enjoy your podcasts, e.g., https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolution-2-0/id1353135552 (Apple), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMi0wLm9yZy9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv (Google) and https://open.spotify.com/show/6rr6fi3AMW0GoAfYQ64lf9 (Spotify).  Contin

The Dinner Table: Some of the most valuable and enduring lessons that we need to learn are best taught at home. Conversations at the dinner table is one way, but activities and conversations in the car, during exercise, or while just hanging out are all wonderful opportunities. I include all of it under “The Dinner Table.” Continuing: N.B. This is a summary, a signpost, pointing you to this episode on both the new Revolution 2.0™ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5CDliD-PRQE_8bO4Eg98Q (YouTube) channel, and where you enjoy your podcasts, e.g., https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolution-2-0/id1353135552 (Apple), https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yZXZvbHV0aW9uMi0wLm9yZy9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv (Google) and https://open.spotify.com/show/6rr6fi3AMW0GoAfYQ64lf9 (Spotify). The dinner table is where we share values, skills, tips and tricks–anything that if passed along might make a difference. The dinner table includes where we eat, in or out, traveling in the car, watching TV, hanging out

School Choice: Vital To America’s Future (EP. 380) At Revolution 2.0™, we talk about foundational principles, e.g., like having a moral compass, gratitude, personal responsibility, and often the critical issues of the day, using the Revolution 2.0 principles as a foundation for the discussion about the issue. Our last episode featured the timely issues of the Rittenhouse and Arbery self-defense trials. Today’s topic is about a far larger and lasting issue: School Choice. If we want to get our country back on track, and keep it there, the best possible education, starting early in life, is vital. That makes school choice my No. 1 political issue. Real school choice means that the national average of $15K per year per student spent on public school K-12 education would follow the student, to be spent as the parents see fit. Parents would be able to choose amongst freely available and equally funded traditional public, public charter and private schools via vouchers.  That is the subject of today’s 10-m

Rittenhouse innocent: Arbery killers guilty. Both correct. Our nation of laws, created in 1776 and refined over time, won and kept at terrible costs in blood and treasure, is in danger of devolving into a nation of warring cliches and uninformed biases. What began with a triumphant bang might well end with a selfish whimper. Stay with me and I will go over the why and the how of this. America was once arbitrarily ruled by King George, backed by his military, later arbitrarily ruled by the powerful in the Wild West backed by violence, and again by the Robber Barons of the late 19th Century backed by massive wealth and the willingness to use it selfishly. America, that’s us, is now in danger of being ruled arbitrarily by cliche-based biases, agenda and lies wielded by politicians, media, pundits and power brokers. “Whatever it takes is their motto.” The end justifies the means they say. Contining: As America grew and developed, rule by power and influence was replaced but the rule of law. Rule by King Georg

A complete immigration solution is one of the important issues facing our country today. And there is a clear, workable, fair and comprehensive solution set that has been ignored for decades. Why? Some groups want illegals flooding in to get voters, others want the same illegals for cheap labor. (N. B. With the weekly first Revolution 2.0™https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioLesnCIp_Y ( YouTube) video posted November 4th, and the podcasts continuing into their 4th year, this space is now a summary, more like my speaker’s notes, pointing to both the audio podcasts and the videos.) I want a complete immigration solution. I don’t want open borders. No nation can exist for any length of time like that. And I don’t want to be the State of America in the United Nations of the World. What I do want is a secure, prosperous, welcoming America; an America that can continue to be attractive to and lead the way for the rest of the world. Here’s how we get to a complete immigration solution: First, secure our borde

There are a lot of agenda-based partial truths and downright lies being tossed around about the capitalism v socialism discussion. With occasional self-serving comments about communism. A few episodes ago, we spoke about personal finances, and the need for personal understanding and discipline. Today we are applying the same process, understanding and discipline, to public finances. (N. B. With the weekly first Revolution 2.0™https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioLesnCIp_Y ( YouTube) video posted November 4th, and the podcasts continuing into their 4th year, this space is now a summary, more like my speaker’s notes, pointing to both the audio podcasts and the videos.) Capitalism v socialism. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode Continuing: Capitalism is the greatest wealth producing engine the world has ever seen. Out of poverty. A system wherein people, individuals or groups, including corporations, own the means of production and engage in voluntary exchanges of money for goods and ser

The founding of our nation, the United States of America, in 1776 included a stunning claim of the creator-granted rights of the individual by a pipsqueak country, hurled in the face of the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. A key part of America her heroes And our nation has been deeply flawed, and to a far lesser extent, still is. Yet it remains the last, best hope of earth. Lincoln and Powell. Christopher Columbus was courageous, and dedicated to the heretical notion that the earth was round, not flat. He opened the New World to Western Civilization. And he was deeply flawed. All nations, and every person was or is greatly flawed. We must not search for and punish imperfections; we must search for those entities whose contributions were far in excess of these flaws. (N. B. With the first Revolution 2.0™ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioLesnCIp_Y (YouTube) video posted November 4th, and the podcasts continuing into their 4th year, this space is now a summary, more like my speaker’s not

I often learn, including learning financial literacy, by teaching my children. The rules for understanding financial literacy,and financial success, like the rules for succeeding in life, are simple to understand, and hard to follow. And once you know both of these truths, financial success gets a whole lot easier. (N. B. With the first YouTube video to be posted November 4th, and the podcasts continuing into their 4th year, this space is now a summary, more like my speaker’s notes, pointing to both the audio podcasts and the videos.) That is the subject of today’s 15 minute episode. Continuing: Make more than you spend Spend less than you make https://revolution2-0.org/ducking-our-debts-student-loans-taxes-credit-cards-etc-ep-355/ (Debt) is a four letter word. Never finance anything that depreciates. Cars. Appliances. Vacations. 3a Car dealer information. Beater car. 3b Compound interest is the 8th Wonder of the Word. Einstein. Earn or pay interest on interest. Pay yourself first. D

Alec Baldwin pointed and fired a loaded gun on the set of the movie “Rust,” killing https://apnews.com/article/halyna-hutchins-cinematographer-dead-d5e1671e61d7b38e225489680f3f1901 (Halyna Hutchins), 42, the cinematographer, and wounding director Joseph Souza, 48. The answer to the posed question is clearly both. Mr. Baldwin is an actor, and he killed Ms. Hutchins with a bullet fired from the gun he pointed in her direction–and then pulled the trigger. The more important question relating to Baldwin is: Is Mr. Baldwin guilty of involuntary manslaughter? (N. B. With video coming in a few weeks, this space is now a summary, more like my speaker’s notes, pointing to both the audio podcasts and the videos.) That is the subject of today’s 15 minute episode. Continuing: Three basic rules for handling any gun. The gun used by Baldwin was a high caliber, Colt 45 revolver. In-store experience. Chain of events. Live rounds on the set. 500 live rounds on the set. Armorer. Inexperienced–low bu

(N. B. With video coming in a few weeks, this space is now a summary, pointing to both the audio podcasts and the videos.) Longtime friends are walking away from decades of affection and mutual enjoyment over vaccines. Families are split over who voted–or did not vote–for Donald J. Trump. Nobody wins any of these discussions; all that happens is that love and friendship are lost. We have completely lost sight of what is important. That is the subject of today’s 15 minute episode.

(N. B. With video coming in a few weeks, this space will become more and more of a summary, pointing to both the audio podcasts and the videos.) Introduction: A University of Michigan music professor is facing backlash after showing the 1965 film “Othello” with star Laurence Olivier in blackface. President Joe Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, lending the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of native peoples. Sanitizing, well, rewriting, history is deeply wrong and will lead nowhere but to the destructive–and intended–results. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing: 1984 Super Bowl.  “Professor Sheng’s actions do not align with our school’s commitment to anti-racist action, diversity, equity and inclusion,” David Gier,  dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, said last week, adding that Sheng has bee

Introduction: https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/barack-obama/ (Barack Obama) began his climb to the presidency by serving for three years as a community organizer.  The school boards that have a heavy hand in steering and managing our young are made up primarily of unpaid people who were elected in little-noticed elections.  Everyday our nation is changing, rarely for the better, by mob and media reactions to singular events. For example, George Floyd, a habitual criminal and drug user, was murdered in cold blood by an out-of-control cop. Mr. Floyd was a victim who has been made into a martyr for causes where the claim that he was martyred is one of their more logical arguments. If you have beliefs and convictions different from those that are taking hold in our nation today, then you must step up and get involved. Not just by voting, and certainly not just by posting on Facebook or other social media. The alternative is to allow the truly active people to control everyone’s futu

Introduction: The strongest teams are made up of strong people, with different strengths, who advocate strongly for their positions. And when a decision is made by their leader, they sit down in the boat and row hard in the direction that was chosen. Donald Trump’s style, in business and government, is to insist on his way, ignoring or even removing any dissenting voices. Blind loyalty above all. Joe Biden’s style has devolved into reading the teleprompter, with little knowledge–or care–about what is going on in his administration or in the world around him. In other words, abdication is Biden’s style. Neither President has a clue about building and leading strong teams. But such were our choices in 2020, and heaven forbid, may be yet again in 2024. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing: Today’s Key Point: If we want better candidates and better office holders, we need to be better voters. The “Team of Rivals” concept has been around at high levels in the US eve

Introduction: Joy Reid, an MSNBC Host, was exactly right when she dubbed the extensive and continuing news coverage of the disappearance of Gabby Petito a case of “missing white woman syndrome” and questioned if people of color involved in similar cases are given the same level of attention by the media. She correctly observed that when a white woman went missing, that missing person report received massive media attention. Women of color, crickets.  Ms. Reid missed the opportunity to report on the equally obvious and far more fatal “dead black man syndrome” where the 1% of black male deaths caused by cops are major and lasting media events, and the other 99% go unnoticed and  unmourned. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing: Most so-called news sources are focused on pandering to their target audience; “details” like real news and the truth are not merely lower priorities–they are seldom considered at all. If you want the truth, and who doesn’t, there is no one s

Introduction: I remember neighborhood parties, do you? In my neighborhood as a youth, we knew each other, the kids played and argued together. Parents looked out for all the kids. Hitchhiking was safe.  Halloween was cause for big neighborhood events, as was Independence Day. The Schumacher family would occasionally hold recitals, with family members playing different instruments. Dads would tolerate the kids shoveling snow back onto the road from snowy lawns when the sledding hill was cleared by the plows.  The first crack, the first disturbance in the force, came when we all heard and read about people hiding things like needles and razor blades in the kids’ candy. I was too young to understand the concept of random evil, so I just went along with it as my candy was inspected before I was allowed to chomp down. Working to put kids at risk of injury as they bite into a free apple or Fifth Avenue candy bar is an act of random evil. There is no purpose, no point other than injuring an unknown child, and be

I Am A Liberal* (EP. 367) Introduction: *Classical liberal, that is. Classical liberals were committed to individualism, liberty, and equal rights. They believed these goals required a free economy with minimal government interference. The first liberals won the initial levels of, well, liberalism, against the illiberal monarchy of King John in 1215 with the signing of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta (Magna Carta).  With that signing, the world took its first steps away from the illiberal monarchies and other dictatorships that covered the world toward the liberal democracies that appear in the world today.  Liberal meant free, as in free from autocratic rule, replacing that with a democracy where the people choose their leaders (not rulers). Liberal did not mean free as in most things ought to be free to the people who vote for certain politicians. Has the word liberal been hijacked to mean, “Free for you if you vote for me?” That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing:

Introduction: California is a one-party state. Democrats hold a supermajority in the legislature, and a 2-1 advantage in voter registrations. California elections rules allow for sending mail in ballots to all registered voters, and allow for vote harvesting, inviting low interest, low motivation voters to have a say in our democracy far in excess of their willingness to do even marginal research into the candidates and policies. And to be even marginally inconvenienced every two or four years in order to cast their votes The recent recall never had a chance. And the California model is how the Democrats intend to create a one-party nation, where a Republican will never again be elected to national office. And this from a registered Unaffiliated voter. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing: Today’s Key Point: The, “You are a victim and deserve to have everything as close to free as possible,” pitch has its greatest appeal with the uninterested and uninformed. Anyone who has done ev