Revolution 2.0

Introduction We have a massive and inexcusable crisis at our Southern border. But the crisis is merely a symptom; the disease is in DC–and in us.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing I believe that America is a unique and exceptional place, and that you–you and I–have an equally unique and exceptional role to play in it. Yes, you have heard that from me before, and you will hear it again. That’s what drives this podcast. Your role, our role, includes knowing what is happening in our immigration system, how to fix it, and what our role is in fixing it. Yes, we all have a role to play here. Our government, both sides of the aisle, is failing us. The immigration solution is simple to understand, and very implementable. Personal and party gain are what is keeping our elected representatives from doing even the basics of their job with immigration. They feel, with some cause, that attacking and insulting will get them what they want; to be elected and to keep b

Introduction We need economic and financial sustainability. Sustainability is a concept much in the news these days. Sustainable fishing, energy and wood products, to name a few. We were told, without complete consensus among scientists, that we have 12 years, now a bit less than that, to live on earth without experiencing a complete climate disaster–announced to be an existential threat–a threat to our very existence. Unless, we are told, we immediately find radically different and sustainable ways to live.  What about economic and financial stability? All of the Green New Deal remedies start in the trillions of dollars. Add in the cost of social new deals like Medicare for All, All being defined as everyone currently residing in the US along with free college and many more trillions in spending are proposed. And that’s with a current federal budget of less than $5 trillion. How can that be financially sustainable? How is that not a clear and convincing threat to life as we know it? That is t

Introduction We need to stop using labels to either define ourselves or to categorize others. Labels like left, right, progressive and conservative are mindless substitutes for actual thought and productive discussion. Cliches like “Lock her up.”, “Trump the dictator.” “Baby killer.” and “You are against women’s rights.” are also not arguments as much as empty-headed claims that anyone who disagrees is an idiot or worse. Kinda makes me yearn for the return of the 20-second sound bite. By comparison, that was real discourse.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing I believe that America is a unique and exceptional place, and that you have an equally unique and exceptional role to play in it. Today’s podcast, and there are two a week, Tuesday and Friday each and every week, goes into more depth about how to fill that role. My last podcast had specific ideas about self-talk. Today it is about no labels and common goals. A Revolution 2.0™ subscriber, G. O. in Denver, was agreeing w

Introduction I believe that America is a unique and exceptional place, and that you have an equally unique and exceptional role to play in it.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcas Continuing The Declaration of Independence in 1776 (Revolution 1.0) was the Founders’ Love Letter to America. Revolution 2.0™ is mine. Dr. Martin Luther King called the Declaration’s breakthrough vision for a new nation “a promissory note”. I have called that vision a “statement of direction.” Whatever the descriptor, let these words sink in: “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 Constitution took the promises of the Declaration and gave us a set of rules, a path, to becoming a constitutional republic, with government having limited, enumerated powers. This path has led to the US being the world’s oldest free nation.  We are called

Introduction Subsidized self reliance is an oxymoron, a self-cancelling phrase. Like civil war, or jumbo shrimp. In yet another triumph of https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/literature/in-orwells-1984-what-isdoublethink (doublethink) (from Orwell’s 1984), over reason and integrity, it is being sold as being humane and compassionate. It is precisely the opposite.  That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing It has long been true that if allowed one false premise to build upon, then just about anything can be “proved” to be true. For example, when the prevailing belief was that the earth was flat, it was easy to “prove” that a ship going a distance in any direction would fall off the edge of the world. More recently, when 1930s Germany promoted the false belief that Jews, homoexuals, gypsies, etc., were not people, it allowed those who accepted that thinking to treat the people in these groups in horribly inhumane ways. With apologies to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert

Introduction Yes, hate speech, barring encouragement to physically harm others, is free speech. Otherwise, why have a First Amendment at all? That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire (-Voltaire) French Historian and Philosopher, and ardent defender of freedom of speech, and religion, 1694-1778. That justifiably famous saying should be the gold standard. Hate speech is speech you hate, or perhaps just disagree with. The solution is not to either shout it down or ban it should you have the power. The best response is to show the speaker up as a fool, to destroy the speaker’s argument. That will gain you converts. Shouting down or banning will gain the speech and the speaker you hate followers. Does anybody remember the phrase, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_in_Boston (Banned in Boston)? Once puritanical, in Boston the city officials took it upon th

Introduction The term “loyal opposition” was born in the parliamentary government system, meaning that those out of power, while still having many disagreements with the party in power, were still loyal to their country and the need for the government to get things done for the citizens they–all sides–serve. In any governmental system, including ours here in the US, opposition, if it is loyal, can be a huge plus. If the opposition is disloyal, it can be an equally huge minus. That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing Both Republican President Lincoln and Democratic President Roosevelt were justifiably well known for using a “Team of Rivals” as their Cabinets and senior advisors. Churchill did the same when he became Britain’s Prime Minister in 1940. He appointed the most two senior members of the opposition Labour Party to his 5-man war ministry. One of the two was Neville Chamberlain, then Prime Minister when disgraced himself by capitulating to Hitler with his infamous, “W

Introduction Career politicians serve themselves. Citizen politicians serve the citizens. The country’s successful founding depended on, and anticipated the continuation of, citizen politicians to serve the country. Today we have career politicians who serve themselves. We must return to the days of citizen politicians by voting in term limits.  Career politicians will fight us tooth and nail. That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing Passed by Congress in 1947, and ratified by the states on February 27, 1951, the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution (Twenty-Second Amendment) limits an elected president to two terms in office, a total of eight years. (There is an exception, but it is minor and does not matter much.) We have term limits with the presidency, the highest level of our government. Many state and local governments have term limits for some offices as well. It is past time for the US to have term limits for Congress. Geroge Wa

Introduction Laying out and following a sure path to a successful life is simple, hard, and oh-so-well well worth it. Politicians and government are preaching, promising and rewarding the opposite. For their benefit, and to our detriment. This deliberate and self-serving reversal of how things need to be is the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing The rules for succeeding in life are simple. If you merely do the basics; finish high school, hold a full-time job and don’t have kids until you are married, you will escape poverty and be self-supporting. Add further education focused on a vocation, anything from welding to brain surgery, and greater success will be yours. Work hard over time, start early investing 10% of your earnings in your future and don’t finance anything that depreciates and it gets even better. The rules are indeed simple. But these simple rules are hard to follow. Hard work by definition is hard. Investing rather than spending can also be challenging. Getting a real educa

Introduction Quoting my 18-year-old son, Joshua, after his third day of digging ditches, burying conduit and wires for a https://www.centurylink.com/home/?pid=P_C:T1:US_NATIONAL:42943488AP:CLRkeyword=keyword%257D&matchtype=e&utm_source=google&kbid=00000&campaign=G_Q_Brand_Footprint_T1&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclsrc=aw.ds&userguid=f021beaf-dd31-4160-9a7c-edef3fcbb707&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7pivt-7k4gIVlcpkCh3IDgZgEAAYASAAEgIZ5PD_BwE (CenturyLink) contractor this summer prior to attending college in the fall. He was recapping part of his day with me saying, “Dad, I spent $11 at McDonald’s for food. I had to break a $20. I hated it. It was always okay when you or Mom got me food there. Tomorrow, I am taking a lunch. Money you earn is harder to spend than money you get free, you know?” Yes, son, I know. But not everyone does. That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing Joshua was passing along a few important lessons–lessons that our politicians and many others need

Introduction In politics and life, we are all-too-often taught that we live in a world with a fixed amount of resources, a pie for example, and that if we want some it must come from someone else’s portion, leaving them with less. Even worse, we are told that if someone else, Jeff Bezos at Amazon or Sam Walton’s heirs at Walmart want more, that it must come from us, leaving us with less. That deliberately false and dangerous thinking is the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing There are parts of life where the resources, the prizes, are a fixed size. If you want yours, then someone else gets shorted. But those are the exceptions, not the way life is designed to be lived. Sports is an example of an exception. If you win, get the pie if you will, the other person or team must lose. That’s called a Zero Sum Game. Overall, this means that if you are going to win, someone else must lose. Like in sports or gambling. If you or your team is going to win, for example, a basketball game, the other pers

Introduction Some people call it your True North. No matter; the questions are Do you have one? If you have one, what is it? Why is that your True North/Moral Compass? Do you follow it? That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing Having a moral compass is a recurring theme for those of us at Revolution 2.0™. I refer to its importance frequently in my semi-weekly blog/podcast, so it is entirely appropriate for us to return to the subject from time-to time. The last time was over a year ago. If you don’t have a solid moral compass that you follow, then nothing else matters. Nothing. You will simply be a cork on the oceans of life, following the changing paths of the tides, currents and waves. I know; I have been there. And I still have to fight to stay with and strengthen my adherence to my moral compass. Pause for definitions. For purposes of this discussion, Moral compass and True North are interchangeable. I like the term moral compass because it means more to me, it anchors me

Introduction Don’t blame the other party, whether we are using the word party to mean political party, or simply another entity, like another person. The responsibility is always with us, never “them.” That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing Let’s begin today’s discussion with a couple of don’ts: Don’t blame the other political party. If you want to make progress, and don’t we all, make your party into what the country needs. Criticizing the other party will result only in them criticizing you and your party. This shouting contest will get louder and louder, and nothing will improve save the volume and intensity of the mutual accusations. Don’t blame the other person, whoever they may be. Be 100% responsible for what goes on between you two. Or for what happens in a group that you are in. When the others do the same thing, and they should, good stuff will happen. What we see and hear all of the time, on the radio, TV, social media and just about everywhere, is a constant flow, a

Introduction Character is 75% of life and leadership. Competence is the other 75%. And no, assessments of life and leadership do not have to add up to 100%. In fact, they rarely should. Note that I did not ask, “Does character count?” That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcast. Continuing When I was in grade school, we were given citizenship grades as well as academic grades. Citizenship, how you handled yourself in school and dealt with others, was how our teachers communicated their view of our character to our parents, as well as letting them know how we were doing academically The first time I heard the question about character mattering was when then President Bill Clinton got caught lying to his family, his administration, Congress and the nation about one of his affairs. The answer to the question “Does character count?” when applied to Bill Clinton was answered pretty much long party lines. That was not a huge surprise, but I did give some thought to the question of whether all Democrats t

Introduction Many of us have heard of the need to make a “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_of_faith (Leap of Faith)” in order to go from the evidence that we can take in with our senses and process with our brains in order to get to a belief in God in general or the specific faith–or lack thereof–that we hold. There is no clear and convincing proof of the existence of God, or of the validity, superiority if you will, of any particular religion. And atheists can’t prove their positions, either. No one on earth knows for sure; the assumption is that everyone who is no longer here–dead, that is–does know. Having faith requires a leap, a crossing of the irreducible gap, from where reason leaves off and belief begins. We use facts and reason to narrow the space that must be crossed by faith to the smallest possible gap. In purely earthly matters, it does not take a leap of anything to understand the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem (Pythagorean Theorem) that in a right

Introduction Most regions in the world have their favorite source for starches, that complex carbohydrate that supplies nutrition and needed calories. Leading favorites include potatoes, rice and yams; there are many more, but we’ll use these examples. They can be served up in a variety of ways. Potatoes can be fried, baked, and mashed, with each variation having many offshoots. Rice can be steamed or fried, and can show up on your plate as anything from risotto to sushi. Which starch is the predominant one for most people is pretty much due to geography rather than having been a studied choice. The same is true for religion. Most regions in the world have their favorite religion. Leading favorites are Christianity, Islam and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism (Hinduism). There are more, but we will use these examples in today’s podcast. As with starches, each religion is served up in a variety of ways. And the predominant religion for most people is pretty much due to geography rather than having been

Introduction The real and inherent danger of privilege is in giving others power over you, declaring that power, that privilege, to be unfair, then demanding compensation in the form of cash, preferential job or schooling treatment, or just the right to be self-righteously angry. Privilege is another word for advantage. Advantages are everywhere in our society; sports, education, business, military, etc., etc., etc. That’s a poor excuse for giving up and demanding that the advantages be eliminated before trying your best. The book, then movie, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball (Moneyball), by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, was about the relatively impoverished Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team’s analytical, evidence-based, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabermetrics (sabermetric) approach to assembling a competitive baseball team despite Oakland’s small budget. Other big-market teams, e.g., the Yankees and Red Sox, had 5-7 times as

Introduction Tariffs are a tax on consumers and businesses, and damage economies. When it costs more to import something, like appliances or smart phones, prices naturally rise. And the price of similar domestically produced items also rises. To date, the relatively modest 10% tariffs added months ago cost the average family almost $800 per year. What will happen if they go to the announced 25%? Tariffs are also a tax on businesses. When it costs more to export goods, fewer will be sold. For example, if a country, either retaliating or simply initiating a tariff, puts a tax (that’s what a tariff is) on American farm goods, the American farmers will be hurt. As they are being hurt now. And the government is subsidizing them to ease tariff pain. That hurts the taxpayers. Apple stock was down 6% on May 13th–a one day drop–due the announced increase in tariffs. (Apple smartphones are made in China.) Now we are hurting shareholders, including public and private pension plans and 401(k) individual ret

Introduction “Beat L-A!” “I love Tom Brady!” “My two favorite teams are the Broncos and whoever is playing the Raiders.” That is acceptable–even healthy–partisanship. I am a Broncos fan because of an accident of history. My step-father bought 2 tickets in 1960, the first year they existed, and I have been a fan ever since. A good friend of mine in the San Francisco Bay area is a Raiders fan because his father was a 49ers fan. An opposite motivation, but still a very acceptable one. Most of us who are loyal to favorite teams came by that loyalty in some unstudied way. There was no deep thought involved. No evidence gathering. No long-term study of character and methods of play. We just grabbed onto something and jumped in. And stayed jumped in. We shout at the other team at the games, yell at the TV, tease our friends who root for the “enemy”, and generally carry on. All good stuff. Increasingly our choice of political parties is just as casual. And our loyalties and actions, based on that ca

Introduction Life is simple. And hard. And well worth it. Let’s start with the good living part. Start with being grateful for everything. Have a moral compass. Always be personally responsible for everything in your life. Be your brother’s keeper for everyone in your life. Love. Nothing else matters without that. Now let’s build on this by adding the plan for sound politics. Remember that we are all the privileged inheritors of Revolution 1.0 in ‘76. Stop labeling ourselves and others and think. Look for the common goals. Look for the facts that pertain to those goals, and apply non agenda-based reasoning to those facts to achieve those common goals. I will repeat my offer to give $100 in cash for every issue, no matter how controversial, where we cannot come up with an overall common goal. Love. Nothing else matters without that. All of the above is simple and easy to understand. And very little of it is at all easy to accomplish. And every bit is worth it. That’s the subject of today’s 10-minute podcas