Here's the thing (2) . . .

Some days ago I mused about worrying about our country. I tried to put the best face on the current events with which we are currently dealing. But I am having a hard time doing that right now.
The senseless slaughter of Dallas police officers makes me feel deeply sad and discouraged. Their friends and families must feel absolutely devastated. I can see that Dallas' leaders are having a really hard time, also.

The "ambush" as it has come to be known, defies understanding, because it came at the conclusion of a very peaceful demonstration in a city that had made huge strides in effective law enforcement.
Dallas now has another big opportunity to model how to be in community. All who live in Dallas and their neighboring towns must continue to talk honestly and openly to each other, and to us.
We are rich and poor; Black, White, Asian, Muslim and Hispanic; Dallas and Tarrant Counties, Texas and the USA . . . we are all in this together, folks. We must maintain honesty and listen intently. The alternative is a downward spiral of violence and hatred that could put our nation is some serious jeopardy.

From blogging to what?

Like many of my web friends, I rarely blog these days, but I am active on Twitter.  "Follow me at Twitter," is one of my current Internet invitations.

I am also an active curator/editor of my auto-published editions at Paper.li.  Please take a look:

• Keep Up With the Day
• Speaking Up
• Washington DC Today
• Mind Matters Daily
• EARTH & SPACE FOLKS DALY

See you there . . .

Diversity vs. fear of "The Other" in governance

How different are political party attitudes about the idea of diversity in the workplace?  Historically, the Republican party has been a very long way from achieving diversity and inclusiveness. Republicans are living out fear of "the other" in their presidential campaign.  Compare the Republican lineup of "mostly white men," with the Democratic lineup, led in the polls by the first female having a real chance of getting elected.  Democrats in Washington have actually lived out "diversity and inclusion" in the Obama administration.

How diverse is the current Democratic administration led by President Obama?  The effort formally began with the establishment in the President's Office of Personnel Management of a Diversity and Inclusion in Government Council in 2011.  By 2013 Real Clear Politics wrote that the White House was very committed to a diverse cabinet.

How hard did the Democratic administration push for real inclusion up to 2015?  Yesterday, according to Juliet Elperin in the Washington Post, President "Obama has vastly changed the face of the federal bureaucracy."  Diversity initiatives are "baked in" at the cabinet level such as in the Energy Department and the Department of Veteran's Affairs, for example.

What happens when there is genuine commitment to diversity in the federal government workforce?  According to Chron/Small Business, there are some distinct advantages to having a diverse workforce.  There can be increases in productivity and creativity.  Our government's global focus demands a variety of language skills.  Additionally, a positive reputation for diversity enhances the possibility of attracting the best and brightest workers, who choose the government as their employer.

Why do so many Republicans believe that government cannot work?  We ended up with a deeply divided government in Washington, starting in 2013.  That year, the Lee and Low Blog, argued that the U. S. Congress lacked diversity, citing a number of unfortunate reasons.  Republicans took control of the legislative branch of government using gerrymandering, exclusionary voter ID laws, low voter turnout, inadequate campaign finance rules, along with racism and sexism.

What would have to happen for Republicans to elect the next POTUS?  It occurred to me that the Trump phenomenon currently manifesting in the Republican party indicates that achieving voter diversity is not one of their goals.  Contrast among their candidates is not high.  They have one African American, one female, and one Latino. 

What are their chances?  Not good in a general election.  There are far too many diverse voters, the "others" so feared by the Far Right.



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The Future of our Nation Examined Through the Eyes of Twitter

Do you ever worry about the future of our nation?
Re-reading my Twitter/HootSuite 2015 national news threads just now, proved to be alarming for me.

1. Budget War talk started early.
2. Republicans made head-spinning claims as soon as they took over.
3. Legislating under Republicans began with the meaningless Keystone Pipeline bill.
4. My own crazy state of Texas has not disappointed in its heartlessness this year.
5. The Secret Service admitted to having problems with alcohol.

The Republican budget that has just been introduced favors the "One Percent."  It would abandon large swaths of vulnerable people.  Even though they claim credit for an improving economy, Congress will do nothing to fix the essential infrastructure needed to support and continue that healthy economy.  The Keystone Pipeline benefits the Canadian economy.  Texas turns farther towards the extreme right as each month passes.  And we cannot protect the safety of the POTUS.  These realities reinforce my worry about what is happening to the USA in early 2015 .

But there are bright spots that should not be ignored.

• The Daily Beast writes: The Right Warms Up To Climate Change.
• We are understanding more about the brain.  This is Brain Awareness Week.
• Cory Booker continues to post tweets about possibilities.
• Anthony Snowden and Glenn Greenwald are still able to get together,
• Europe remains helpful to Iranian negotiation, even if Republican legislators are not.
• The state of Oregon made voter registration automatic.

Not all Congressional Republicans are stupid or corrupt.  Science continues to prevail.  Truth continues to have its brave apologists. We can count on our centuries old friend, Europe, to have our back.  Some states in the USA are not insane.  And optimists tweet.

 
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Is it time for a new Bill of Rights?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933. Lietuvių: Franklinas Delanas Ruzveltas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

President Obama won the 2012 election,  but the gap between the very rich and the poor is still far too wide.  Wages are stagnant, corporations are bloated with excess earnings and far too many people often go hungry.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was President during the Great Depression.  His vision probably saved our nation.  Republicans exhibited some of the same symptoms of intransigence that we see today.

Author Ellen Brown  wrote an article for The Asia Times in 2011 that posits an idea Roosevelt put forth in 1944.  It is worth quoting:

 

Time for a new Bill of Rights
By Ellen Brown

 

Roosevelt’s own vision reached its sharpest focus in 1944, when he called for a Second Bill of Rights. He said:

“This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights. ... They were our rights to life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however - as our industrial economy expanded - these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.”

He then enumerated the economic rights he thought needed to be added to the Bill of Rights. They included:

“The right to a job;

del.icio.us Tags: Roosevelt,economy,poverty,Bill of Rights

The right to earn enough to pay for food and clothing;
The right of businessmen to be free of unfair competition and domination by monopolies;
The right to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.”

Nov 16, 2011

Confessions Of a Collector -2013

Image via CrunchBase

Since I have become a Twitter convert, I have persisted in my old habits of collecting. I gather and keep stuff over time.  I confess that  Twitter has become one of my favorite applications. I like it because it makes it very easy to scan the news, follow links to further info, and keep up with the lives of interesting people.
The organizing platform I use for Twitter is an excellent, powerful application called HootSuite. It automatically sorts the posts of those I follow into separate groups as well as separate category pages.
Having written 2680 tweets (140 character posts) so far, I confess that I am probably addicted. Tweets/updates include "re-tweets," and my own Twitter messages. 
On Twitter, I have 357 followers (people who read my tweets); I follow 550 people myself.  My "Favorites" Twitter feed incudes others' tweets I want to keep for reference or merely for rereading pleasure.


"My Twitter Lists" are available feeds for you to try out:

• Newspapers and Magazines - First rate news sources make it easy to stay on top of most important happenings. 
• Newsletters & TV Stations - Digital and Non Print-Media sources of news
• Media Darlings - My favorites on TV or Pop Media
• Reporters and writers - Well known writers & reporters; all smart, often funny
• Bloggers and blogs - Writers and websites that do not fit into my other news categories
• Earth & Space Folks -  Maintain awareness of environmental & space news from committed people, organizations.
• Officials-government - Elected officials and government websites to follow
• Civil Libs & Activists -  Trying to make the world a better place
• Good Causes -  A way to follow good deeds in a troubled world
• Mental Health - Professionals and organizations working in the field of mental health

Below is a list of my previous posts in this "Confessions" series:

My computer is the perfect place to digitally collect STUFF.  Confessions of a Collector - Part 1,373 - 5/18/10 - To quote from my post: "I physically collect stuff: because I might need or want it some day. The bottom line is this. I don't NEED any of it. But I may WANT it. There is a big difference."

Examining my reasons for collecting - More Confessions of a Collector 4/25/08 - 
"I confess that, like most of us who are addicted to blogging, we don't need much of an excuse to celebrate. I also confess that I collect a lot of stuff to use for writing my posts. Today's post is a reprise ofthat theme.

Familiar TV away from home - Confessions of a C-Span Junkie - 5/3/07 - To quote: "All of you who are "clean and sober" would say to me, "for heaven's sake, get a life." But those of you who are also political or C-SPAN junkies can identify with my symptoms."

Handy-dandy blogging shared stuff - Collecting: new stuff - 9/8/06 was a post that focused on my favorite blogging sites, tools, new discoveries, etc. Many of these came to me as a result of another blogger's thoughtfulness.

True confessions - Confessions of a Collector - 2/17/06. In it I explored the motivations behind the collecting bug, as well as the "why" (for me) of some of my own favorite collected headlines. 

On the subject of national security, reading it later* is another option.

Steven Aftergood, at the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, discussed a new judge for the FISA court.  The article also discussed the idea of setting up a similar court to “review the conduct of drone strikes.”

Spencer Ackerman, writing for Wired/Danger Room, says that a cash strapped Army still plans on helping Pakistan fight narcotics. To quote his conclusion:

It’ll be a long time before the U.S. military gets out of the south-Asian anti-drug game, whatever the budget situation might be.

Aljazeera is reporting that Egypt will hold parliamentary elections.  Details:

Voting will take place in four stages with new People's Assembly invited to convene on July 6, presidential decree says.

*Source: Get Pocket.com (formerly Read It Later) is my aggregator.

Cops with guns mean business . . .

The following two news items are presented without comment. 

The stories speak for themselves:

• Texas police fatally shoot fugitive Fla. prisoner 
• Police Fired Over 100 Bullets At Latina Women ‘Mistaken’ for Chris Dorner

Ships careening out of control

Reflections on human systems failures: The Ship of State, a bunch of great big American Airlines airships, and a Carnival cruise ship have all been careening out of control.  It is always about peoples' handling of very complicated systems. The judgment of leaders is always key to what works and what does not work. 

. Contrast the potentially successful merger of US Airways and American Airlines with the two other utter failures we've seen this week.  Both events were ignominious failures of competency and systems: Senate Republicans successfully filibustered former Senator Chuck Hagel's Secretary of Defense nomination.  And the crippled Carnival ship was finally towed into port in Mobile, Alabama. I ended the day by watching the poor cruise ship dock. And I thought about the looming end of the month deadline for ending the sequester, while Congress just leaves town for over a week.

My feeling is disgust for the poor leadership exhibited by angry lawmakers and by two CEO’s in big travel corporations.  We see a bunch of small, nasty failures . . . very much akin to the red plastic bags and open buckets of human waste accumulating in the halls of the Carnival cruise ship

He is indefatigable. . .

 

The biggest thing of the day was President Obama's SOTU speech, an hour long "barn-burner," at least when it came to the issue of gun-control. Perhaps intuiting that that would be the emotional high point of the evening, many of the lawmakers attending wore green lapel ribbons.  Thus, both Republicans and Democrats decided to recognize those families who lost children or members of the school staff at Sandy Hook in New Town, Connecticut.

The President made news:  He urged that the federal minimum wage be raised to $9/hour. He wants universal preschool education for our children.   And he announced that 34,000 troupes will be withdrawn from Afghanistan within a year.

Reflections on my president:   He is tough, resilient and yet still he remains committed to change.  He has his feet on the ground and has ideas to make things better for those for whom real help is needed.   He wants a lot of things changed, and he's willing to go over the heads of Congress to help get them passed. He trusts the people to pressure their senators and representatives to get some things of substance done.

Like many others, I suspect, I ended the day shortly after the two Republican/Tea Party “response” speeches were over. I did not listen to either of them, but worked around the house for a few minutes instead.

2013 is still young and full of possibilities for Republicans.

      Reflections on defeated Republicans, who still live "back in the day."  

If they are to survive as a part of our two party system, they must become viable again.  They must recall again what governance is about.

We already see signs of hope.  We can observe the loyal opposition occasionally returning to rational leadership behavior:

• They have been able to swallow RAISING TAXES! - God forbid. . .  
• They have begun the process of behaving more like adults regarding RAISING THE DEBT CEILING. 
• The next big thing is to see whether they lose the Senate FILIBUSTER FIGHT.  The upcoming couple of days appear to be pivotal.  

Each time they survive a defeat at the hands of Democrats -- and don't die of humiliation in the process -- the party's  chances to get healthier get better.  

Contrast Republican reactions you've seen since the election, with watching DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (on C-SPAN yesterday) lead the Democratic Party's Winter Meeting with adeptness, charm and enthusiasm.  Perhaps being a breast cancer survivor helps her keep a rational perspective on the principles of governance that remain important.

My Other Blogs: My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

ProPublica hits another home run

 ProPublica - Journalism in the Public Interest just published an excellent article and action tool for use by those of us who want to actively support gun control reforms.

I recently used it to write to my U.S. Representative, Kay Granger (R-Texas).  I urged her to remember the children and ignore the NRA, who is one of her campaign contributors ($3,500).

I urge my readers to use the ProPublica tool to do the same with your members of Congress.
 

My Other Blogs: My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

In reverse at the edge of the cliff . . . this time.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was unable to secure the votes necessary to amend the senate-passed bill restoring a bit of sanity to the opening days of 2013.  For the first time in what has seemed like an eternity, a few coherent House Republicans joined with lots of House Democrats to pass legislation raising taxes on the wealthiest among us.  The measure extends tax cuts for the Middle class, without passing cuts to entitlement programs. Amazing . . .

Lynn Sweet, one of my favorite reporters tweeted this explanation:

Sweet blog House sends Obama fiscal cliff bill to sign: How it passed, the inside story bit.ly/VznkzM

Josh Marshall, of Talking Points Memo, however, reminds that the looming cliff is still before us.  His tweet reiterated that the Republican game of chicken will continue:

Simple fact: GOP pledging to use debt limit for new confrontation, keeping country, economy & markets in continued crisis for months.

President Obama, with Vice President Biden at his side, delivered a short statement about the U.S. House vote to pass the "fiscal cliff" bill the Senate recently sent to them. After signing the bill, he now returns to Hawaii to finish his holiday with his family.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now in the driver's seat for the next cliff-hanger.  We will be interested to see what happens January 3, when the 113th Congress returns to Washington, D.C.  Tomorrow, the Senate will decide on its new rules, including whether to change the filibuster rule.  The question occurs whether Senator Reid will confront his current ally, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over the 60 vote requirement to pass anything.  It will be interesting to see whether Reid hits the brakes on a bipartisan proposal recently introduced, or drives ahead with those in the Senate who want different reforms.

My Other Blogs: Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Reflections 0n Congressional Roadblocks

Reflections on congressional roadblocks on the last day of quite a year of Republican obstructionism:  Republicans repeatedly placed irrational roadblocks in the way of solving the so-called "fiscal cliff" dilemma.  In the end however, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Veep Joe Biden worked out a deal that was mostly a win for Democrats.  We'll see whether the recalcitrant U.S. House of Representatives will do what they need to do to pass it for the good of our country.  In the end, I think the Hastert rule will fall out of use, just as the no new taxes pledge to Emporer Grover Norquist must eventually fall out of favor.  Happy New Year, Citizens!  Enjoy our government at work.

Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Related articles

• Boehner Hobbled by Losses While He Keeps Job No One Wants

VA must address widespread mental health issues

As has most often been the case, mental health is not as well treated as physical health when it comes to health care benefits. The Veterans Administration has responsibility to treat veterans and to treat them well. This important article by the public interest journalism organization, Propublica, explains.

Remember that these programs are also vulnerable to the budget cutting fever now spreading across the country.

Amplify’d from www.propublica.org

Brain Wars How the Military Is Failing Its Wounded

More than Half of Recent War Vets Treated by VA Are Struggling With Mental Health Problems

by Joaquin Sapien ProPublica, May 11, 2011, 11:31 a.m.

More than half of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans treated in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals since 2002 have been diagnosed, at least preliminarily, with mental health problems, according to statistics [1] obtained by the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense.

The data, which is released quarterly, also shows that the raw number of returning soldiers with psychological problems is rising. Nearly 18,000 new patients were treated for mental health issues at VA facilities in the last three months of last year—the most recent time period for which data is available— upping the total to more than 330,000 [1].

The latest numbers confirm a trend that has intensified over the last several years. Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said that when the organization first began to collect the data in late 2004, only 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in VA hospitals had been diagnosed with mental problems.

The increase should come as no surprise given that a recent military survey, obtained by ProPublica and other media outlets, shows that U.S. troops in Afghanistan are currently reporting lower morale and greater emotional strain than at any other time in the last five years.

That report [2] notes that mental health staffing has doubled in warzones in order to ensure treatment is available immediately for soldiers who suffer psychological trauma.

Sullivan applauded the increase in staff abroad, but questioned what’s being done to make sure that troubled troops are properly cared for once they come home.

“We truly support having more doctors in warzones, that’s great,” Sullivan said. “But we also need to make sure we have enough doctors here.”

Laurie Tranter, a spokeswoman for the VA, told ProPublica that the agency has increased the number of mental health staff in the U.S. by more than 40 percent since 2002 to more than 20,000. Tranter suggested that the increase in veterans diagnosed with and treated for mental health problems may, in part, reflect more proactive screening and better access to services.

Pressure is mounting on the military and the VA to fix long-standing shortfalls in mental health care.

A federal appeals court issued a scathing opinion of the VA’s system yesterday, noting that it takes an average of four years for veterans to receive mental health benefits, a beleaguered process that demands immediate reform.

Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Stephen Reinhart said, “Although the VA is obligated to provide veterans mental health services, many veterans with severe depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”) are forced to wait weeks for mental health referrals… For those who commit suicide in the interim, care does not come soon enough.”

As reported [3] by the Associated Press, the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a 2008 verdict [4] and sends the case, which was filed against the VA by veterans’ advocates, back to U.S. District Court for resolution. Read more at www.propublica.org

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a12im2

Re-writes are hard

Every year at about this time I try to get myself in shape to write dates in a new way.  The change I must make is 2012 to 2013.  And I suspect that there will be a few checks with dates like the one I just wrote.  But, eventually my brain makes the change permanent. 

Most of us don't have to think about wishing our readers a Happy New Year.  So here is my wish for you, Faithful Reader: 

Have a very good and prosperous 2013! 

Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

What a difference a day makes. . .

Reflections:  on America's future-

Long lines at polling places all across the nation proved to be the key reality.  The simple concept of one person/ one vote has saved the nation from beaming back to the distant political past.  Adults are still  in charge. The country will be OK.

  Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Senate Bill Targets Press, Public in an effort to stop intelligence leaks

Deliberation is going on this week  regarding the Senate Intelligence Committee’s draft bill that includes a number of Cyber security measures.  Committee Chair, Joe Lieberman (I - Connecticut) spoke about the importance of bipartisanship for the passage of this bill.  A Manager’s Amendment will be offered.  But there is much opposition to several provisions of the bill.  Steven Aftergood, of SAS, wrote an excellent article from which I have quoted extensively here.  He concludes: 

Drafted in secret and without the benefit of any public hearing, the Senate bill includes provisions that are “crude and dangerous,” the Washington Post editorialized today.
The bill was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee by a vote of 14 to 1, with Sen. Ron Wyden in opposition. The text of the bill is here. . . Sen. Wyden’s dissent may be found here.

The Obama administration has struggled with unauthorized intelligence leaks over time.  And the oversight Committees of the Senate are attempting to legislate heavily on the matter.  Author Aftergood explains:

The Senate Intelligence Committee markup of the FY2013 Intelligence Authorization Act, which was officially filed yesterday, devotes an entire title including twelve separate provisions to the issue of unauthorized disclosures of classified information, or leaks. . . .
As reported in the Washington Post today, one of the proposed measures (section 506 of the bill) would dictate that only agency leaders could present background briefings to the press. . .
Questioned by the Post, Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein acknowledged that she had no evidence that such briefings, which are prized by reporters as valuable sources of information, had contributed to unauthorized disclosures.  And yet they would be forbidden. . .

Transparency was to be one of the hallmarks of President Obama’s administration, but it has not lived up to the expectations of many.  According to Mr. Aftergood,

Other provisions in the new bill were also roundly criticized by public interest groups concerned with access to government information.
A provision to prevent former government officials from providing paid commentary to news media outlets on intelligence matters is very likely unconstitutional, said Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies in a new analysis of the bill.
“The over-breadth of this provision in prohibiting commentary and analysis even when no classified information is disclosed would violate the First Amendment,” Ms. Martin wrote. “Indeed the provision seems drafted in order to chill public discussion of information that is not classified rather than being narrowly tailored to simply target disclosures of classified information.”
Another provision (in section 511) would grant intelligence agency heads the authority to unilaterally revoke the pension of an employee . . .
This section “would give intelligence agency heads nearly unrestrained discretion to suppress speech critical of the intelligence community– even after an employee has resigned or retired from an intelligence agency– and to retaliate against disfavored employees or pensioners, including whistleblowers,” wrote the Project on Government Oversight and several other public interest organizations in an open letter to the Senate Committee yesterday. . .

The delicate balance of the public’s right to know vs. keeping national security secrets is extremely difficult to maintain.  Add in the risk of cyber security breeches, and you have a very tangled web.  The key, it seems to me, it for security information classifiers to act with good faith in avoiding classifying information that is merely embarrassing. 
Our nation must honor its bravest whistle-blowers and protect them at all costs.  Otherwise we become merely “The National Security State.”


Source: Anti-Leak Measures in Senate Bill Target Press, Public
Steven Aftergood
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:30:17 GMT

Japanese Fish In Space This Year

According to Space,com The next astronauts to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) will be taking a few little buddies along.  The story begins:

When the next Russian-built Soyuz capsule launches to the International Space Station in October, it will deliver three new crewmembers to the orbiting outpost. But the trio of spaceflyers will be sharing their ride with some special cargo: 32 small fish for a science experiment at the space lab.

The medaka fish are native to southeast Asia, and have been the subjects of lab study in Japan for a very long time.  In fact they are analagous, in many ways, to the labratory mice and rats we study here in the United States.  Scientists can extrapolate animal results to humans due to the wealth of knowledge they have acquired over the years.  

So these little guys will have an important job to do, in addition to entertaining the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the ISS..

Posted via email from Behind These Links

Man has walked . . . and driven on the Moon

 Despite skeptics, there is much good evidence that these events happened decades ago. Photographs were transmitted at the time.  Moon rocks came back to earth on the trip. The men who were there came back to tell the tale, not a made-up story, but their actual experiences.  The truth of these events hangs together for us.

Despite hearing the truth, skeptics either know and deny, or do not know that President Obama is one of us.  He is of American birth in Hawaii; the documentation is there.  He speaks English without an accent.  His childhood friends have talked about knowing him way back when.  H's good at shooting "hoops," an American sport.  He gets sad, and yes, mad when bad things happen to the rest of us Americans, his fellow citizens.

Barack Hussein Obama is the President of the United States.  Skeptics need to just get over it.

My Other Blogs: My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.