Revolution 2.0

Introduction If we all started with the same facts, even if we applied different reasoning and logic, we would be far more unified and together on issues than we are today. And we could make substantial progress together. The catch is that we are being lied to on a regular basis. Most of the media and many politicians and influence leaders either intentionally give us a carefully edited version of the story, or they outright lie to us. We believe the misinformation, and take our positions in line with how we are being (mis)led. Whose fault is that? Ours. As always. We must dig for the truth. It is there for us to find. Revolution 2.0™ is here to help you find it. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Today’s Key Point. It is our responsibility to read, listen to and watch multiple sources of information–even the ones that make us upset–daily or at least weekly. There are no consistently reliable sources of the truth; we must distill that for ourselves. Q. Why do polit

Introduction You are a cop, running as hard as you can, chasing an armed, young male suspect. Your weapon is drawn, and your heart is pounding from more than just the running. You have been alerted to the sound of gunfire in the area. You see a gun in the fleeing suspect’s right hand; you are shouting for him to stop and show you his hands. In one fluid motion the suspect turns to face you. What do you do? That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Before continuing, tell yourself what you would have done.  Okay, now continue. In this case, the officer, Eric Stillman, white, a 6-year police veteran, fatally shot 13-year-old black Adam Toledo with a single bullet. Before becoming a police officer, Stillman joined the U.S. Marines; his service included a deployment to Afghanistan. He remains in the Marine Reserves as a Staff Sergeant. Frame-by-frame video shows that Toledo ditched the gun as he was turning to face Stillman. Stillman, you, had less than a second to decide what to do. Was

Introduction “Never take on vast projects with half-vast ideas,” is a fun way of reminding us not to take on big challenges with little ideas. And yet somehow still expect results. The biggest issues facing us as a nation, including inequality and poverty, gun deaths, and our widening divisions, all have simple, but terribly difficult to implement, solutions. None of them–not a one of them–can be successfully overcome with legislation and money. No matter if the legislation is bipartisan or along party lines, and no matter how many trillions we spend.  That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Deep seated, long term term problems require long term solutions, and these long term solutions require hard work, and lots of one-on-one hard work over time. Here are a couple of familiar examples. People who have gained a significant amount of weight over the years may seek an easy solution, e.g., diet pills or a quick, crash diet. But as we all know, those do not work long term. And

Introduction Entitlement culture will rule, and ruin, America unless we, you and I, act. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Let’s start with having fun with what some famous quotes would have looked like in today’s entitlement culture thinking: “Ask not what your country can do for you; don’t just ask, you must demand that your country deliver all of your entitlements.” Here’s the original. “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your county.” Democratic President John F. Kennedy set this standard in his 1961 inauguration speech. Poor Jack was mired in the age of patriotism and personal responsibility. Didn’t he know that all of that is passé, and that we are now entitled to harvest what was planted for us by those who practiced those outdated principles? “Give me entitlements, or give me death.” Patrick Henry in saying, “Give me liberty or give me death,” apparently did not know how to either demand something for nothing, or call down punishment on t

Social Justice is Weakening the US Military: Does That Matter? (EP. 321) Introduction The United States has the most powerful military the world has ever seen–no other country comes close. At least for now.  That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Let’s start by looking at what we want from our military. At one end of the spectrum we can have a military that is like a huge corporation, but with ranks and uniforms. At the other end, our military can be all Navy SEALS with the ability to handle paperwork in their spare time. Those are two very different visions of what our military should be. A wit once said that the job of the military is to kill people and break things. That’s not all they do, but if our military cannot do that, and do that better than any opposing military, it does not matter what else they may do well. Let’s look at the missions for the different branches: Air Force. “Fly, fight, win.” Army, “To deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars by providing

Introduction “One For All, And All For One,” the famous motto of the Musketeers, in Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers. Dumas, son of a French nobleman and an African slave, was a prolific and still popular French writer in the mid 1800s, having penned Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo among many others. I wanted to use the Latin, “Unus Pro Omnibus, Omnes Pro Uno” for this important phrase in the episode title because to most people the concept is as dead as the language. And I wanted to make at least some use of my mandatory two years of Latin in my first two years of high school. And yes, a public school–back when.  “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ. -Galatians 3:28 Dumas meets the Apostle Paul, with a vital lesson for all of us today. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Today’s Key Point: We have dramatically more in common than whatever it is that we use as wedge issue

Introduction The AR-15 is a small caliber, high velocity, semi-automatic rifle. No military in the world would be caught dead using ARs against a force using real assault weapons.  In fact, they would be caught quite dead if they engaged an opposing force using real assault weapons. “The overwhelming majority of all these deaths — suicides, accidents and homicides — are perpetrated with handguns. Mass shootings, while they may grab headlines for days or weeks at a time, make up a small fraction of gun deaths every year.” –Washington Post That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Today’s Key Point: If you believe that semi-automatic rifles, with the possible exception of the .22 used to kill rats and other rodents on farms and to train young people, then make that argument. Do not either intentionally mislabel the AR to make your case, or simply believe those who are misleading you without doing 30 minutes of independent research to find the truth. (Enjoy this podcast, and I

Introduction If your emphasis is on voting rights, to the virtual exclusion of any attendant responsibilities, then you would likely agree that the new Georgia voting law represents an unfair restriction of those rights. I am not in that camp. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Much of today’s conversation, in the media, on social media and in person, is taken up with rights, e.g., the right to healthcare, the right to housing, etc. Voting rights belong in this growing list. The only rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence are, “…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.” Those unalienable rights, by definition, have no corresponding responsibilities, save, perhaps, for staying out of jail to maintain one’s liberty. Today’s Key Point: When there are any responsibilities, hurdles to clear, prior to voting, no matter how obvious and neede

Introduction If all we do is fight over masks, social distancing and school openings, we have lost before we even start. And worse, much of the fighting is a struggle for political supremacy and the “fight to be right.” Cancel culture? Both sides, all sides, are trying to cancel the others. Cancel cancel culture by remembering that we have more in common than what appears, yes appears, to separate us. Far more. Concentrate there. That is the subject of today’s 15 minute episode. Continuing Today’s Key Point: Yes, we are going right to the Key Point today. We must concentrate, focus on, commit to, the vast array of things that we have in common, and stop exaggerating and weaponizing our differences. We were built in a way that what we have in common, physically and mentally, is the main course, with our many and useful differences being the spices that take the meal from being plain and boring, to being delicious and delightful. Worse, we actually manage to fight over the meal to the point where no one ge

Introduction As we navigate what we think is right in politics, finance, with COVID, and the many complex issues we face, let’s remember the place, the power, that intuition, our “gut feelings” have. We all have heads and hearts, and we are at our best when we allow our thoughts and actions to be determined by a careful blend of the two. At home, at work, in politics–in life. That is the subject of today’s 15 minute episode. Continuing In my life, I have been wrong every time–every time–that I allowed my intellect to override my gut instinct. Scientists and police detectives often say they were successful in achieving a breakthrough or catching a dangerous criminal because they, “Had a hunch.” Both scientists and detectives pour through a lot of data, but that is often not enough; they frequently rely on their instincts.  Christian theology believes in a triune God, which includes the Holy Spirit. Many religions make reference to the spirit or spirits which teach and guide us differentl

Introduction “Revolution 2.0–A revolution of the heart.” That’s how I start all the episodes. Does my implied honoring of Revolution 1.0 in 1776 make this a conservative podcast? Was the 1776 Revolution conservative? Am I a conservative? That is the subject of today’s 12 minute episode. Continuing To my surprise, I am encountering an increasing number of people who immediately label, dismiss in many cases, my podcast, Revolution 2.0™, as conservative because of the name. Really? Do these people see revolutions as inherently conservative? How about the French, Russian, and Cuban revolutions; were they conservative movements? Or does this view hold that the American Revolution was the rare conservative revolt? I work to avoid the use of labels like conservative, liberal and progressive, but sometimes there is no way around them. Now for the question: Am I conservative? My youngest, a few years ago when he was in high school, in an attempt to understand my political thinking, said, “So, Dad, you are a

Introduction Some Republicans are fond of labeling their fellow party members who are not sufficiently pure in thought and deed as being Republicans In Name Only, RINOs. As a Registered Unaffiliated, I can’t be a RINO, because I am not an R. I see myself as RIPO, Republican In Policy Only.  That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Thinking in black and white, the, “You are with me on all things or you are against me in everything.” thinking is inherently lazy. It also smacks of a certain arrogance, but the point that I am focusing on today is the lazy part.  Of the 17 candidates for the Republican nomination in 2016,  Trump was my 18th choice. I was a Trump voter, not a Trump supporter, when he ran against Clinton. I became a bit more of a supporter as well as a voter in the 2020 election. I even published two pre-election podcasts promoting Trump’s policies as superior to Biden’s–making the usual apologies for Trump the man.  I believe that Trump shamed himself and his party

Introduction Broke is a financial condition. Being poor is a mindset. A choice. And the poor mindset is being taught, even encouraged. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Broke simply means that you don’t have any money. Thinking of yourself as poor means that you have accepted not being able to make or hold onto money. Broke is temporary; poor is a lifestyle choice. And that choice is being taught as inevitable, as one’s fate, as being part of victimization, in more and more places, including schools, the media and by an increasing number of politicians. More accurately–and diabolically–the poor way of thinking is being presented as a fait accompli, Calvanistic, with victimhood and the related “I’m poor.” determination being set in stone by uncontrollable circumstances.  People can consciously take vows of poverty; some religious orders require it. When an individual takes the vow of poverty, he or she chooses to renounce personal worldly possessions and instead enga

Introduction A Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts over four years and almost graduated this June near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, 62nd out of 120 students. The single Mom blamed the school. “The school failed at their job. They failed. They failed, that’s the problem here. They failed. They failed. He didn’t deserve that,” she said after learning that her son was being sent back to 9th grade to give high school another try. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Let’s jump right in and list, in order, the entities responsible for this student having to repeat all four years of high school: Mom. No other choice for the top spot. Parents have the primary–not sole–but primary responsibility for raising their kids. This includes education, food, clothing and housing, medical care and instilling a firm grasp of right and wrong, a work ethic, etc. It is more than a

Introduction President Biden is calling for national unity. Former President Trump is calling for GOP unity. As different as the two men are, both of them define unity as get in line with what they want, or you can go suck a rock. I want a national unity of purpose, a unity of common goals and rational and honest ways of achieving them–together. That’s unity. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Biden, Trump and others, whether or not they are calling for anything resembling unity, to include actions like “reaching across the aisle”, and “reasoning together” are simply choosing up sides. What they are clearly communicating is, “You are either on my side, or theirs.” and, “You are with me or you are against me.” Here is yet another instance where we the citizens and voters must lead. As always, if we want to have better candidates and better office holders, we need to be better voters. Not just more voters as in get out the vote campaigns, but better voters, as in become be

Introduction The almost two trillion dollars to be allocated is being promoted as the third COVID Relief Package. How much is going to COVID relief, and how much is going to further other agendas? That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing “Our money?” You bet it is. We need to have politicians and bureaucrats who see and spend taxpayer money as if it is their money. And before we are likely to insist on having politicians and bureaucrats with that mindset, we need to think that way ourselves. We need to see and spend every single taxpayer dollar as if it is indeed our money–demanding accountability and worthwhile results for every bit of it. Our belief at Revolution 2.0™ is that if we want better candidates and office holders, then we need to be better voters. To that end, we need to start with being well informed. Let’s do an analysis of the so-called Coronavirus Relief Package. Any COVID relief package should focus on four areas:  Helping those unemployed by COVID and COVID

Introduction If you are a resident of the United States of America, Joe Biden is your President–and mine. As was Donald Trump.  Now that we have handled that news flash, let’s talk about who I want to have as our President; not by name or party, but by qualifications and style. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Yes, character does count. C’mon, this person is the leader of the Free World; how could it not? I get it that when I need a plumber, I simply want someone who can get the job done, like unplugging a drain or replacing a disposal. But a key part of the job for any president is to model good morals, character and behavior. We want teachers, cops and others to model good character; its got to be even more important with our president. And I want a president who comes across as honest, sincere and persuasive–persuasive to all types of people and groups. If you want unity, it starts with people wanting to rally around a convincing leader of good character. Note

Introduction “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” -Greg Abbott, Republican Governor of Texas. “This proves the need for a Green New Deal.” -Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY. Neither of these political claims is true; more importantly neither one leads to the vital lesson that we all need to take away from the disaster in Texas. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Here’s a head’s up about where we are headed today: It gets very expensive, very quickly when we choose to pay to eliminate all risk, and cover every possible circumstance. The Texas free market approach to power generation was intended to supply plentiful electricity at low rates, and for decades it did exactly that. Looking at some example rates, we find that Texans pay 11.67 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, Californians pay 18.31 cents, overall in the US users pay 13.19 cents. The desire to keep rates low in Texas drove decisions like maintaining a power

Introduction Who would have thought that anything–anything–could put together certain right-of-center groups in with some Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics? The Proud Boys holding hands with La Raza.  COVID vaccines did just that.  That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing An evolving quote from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” observes that, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” The original quote was “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.” Today it is not misery that brings these groups together, it is distrust of their government. Depending upon the source, it looks like about a third of Americans are either hesitant to take the COVID vaccine, or have simply said they will refuse. Consensus among scientists declares that it will take 80%-85% of the population–or more–to get vaccinated before we can achieve herd immunity and defeat COVID. Houston, we have a problem. Polio was once one of the most feared diseases in the U.S., and not all that long ag

Introduction For centuries, anyone who had any noticeable black ancestry was considered to be black for purposes of hateful discrimination, including slavery. Today, anyone who has any noticeable black ancestry is considered to be some combination of a deserving victim, or simply a cut above.   Both are wrong. That is the subject of today’s 10 minute episode. Continuing Ugly terms like mulatto and half breed were once used to denigrate the offspring of whites mating with blacks, and whites mating with Native Americans. Both were generally shunned by society, including both sides of their ethnicity. More recently, Eurasian was used to describe the offspring of whites, typically US military males, and Asian females. Again, most of these children were shunned by society, especially Asian societies where almost all of them were born.  Today, the strong trend is to label the lightest skinned black as black, along with observing that the darkest skinned blacks are also black. In other words, you are black or