Red State/Blue State

Globalization is not a concept but reality I keep thinking of the rock song: “Hang on....Help is on the way!”....We need the cavalry out. And the elephant in the room is Globalization. It’s the dirty word for the 38% crowd. The odd thing is that these protectionist policies are going to hit them as much or more as it will everyone else. These are not the elitists. The Elite of the GOP want free and fair trade. The only small group that is cheering are the steel workers and their union leaders. Everyone else is screwed in this. And the idea that we are going to go back to the 19 th Century coal mine and aluminum and steel based economic models is laughable. There are books written, classes held and studies showing that automation is going to eliminate a segment of the work force. Preparing for the New Economy is going to take a Manhattan Project effort. We need a leader that we can get behind that will shove home this message every day of his or her campaign. ...

This summit -or photo op for Fat Boys- is a waste if we are going to simply expect Trump to go in and sit down and ‘charm’ the delegation or to use the old Harold Hill “Think Method” to try and stun them with our brilliance. Trump is a buffoon and a madman with a big stick, thanks to the 38%. The question now is how far will he go and how far will we let him go? The one thing the GOP is good at is fake outrage. And they would have had plenty of ingredients to stir them up as we keep speculating ‘what if” this was OBAMA doing these things. What if....Obama had trashed our allies!? What if....Obama had dismissed the press as fake news and an ongoing FBI investigation plus Special counsel looking into his campaign and possible obstruction of justice as a ‘witch hunt?’ What if...Obama had – and the list goes on. The answer is he wouldn’t be able to get away with it, and the next question is where is the outrage? Where are the people storming the Bastille? Why don’t the Demo...

One thing I have not heard of late was the reminder that the first model for Obamacare was  based on a proposal originally made by two Republican Senators way back when Bill Clinton was President. That's how far we've come, or how low the bar has dropped, as we trudge through this messy fight that began when the Tea Party hit the streets en masse to protest Obamacare. Now we have come full circle, as the left and the rest of the health care advocates are taking to the streets and flooding the air waves to stop the repeal of Obamacare. A few things missing in the fight are honesty and candor, both on the part of the political operatives and the media as this fight continues.... It's well known inside the beltway that when and if Obamacare goes down in defeat, the Democratic Party will have no choice but to embrace the single payer system. The Republican Party realizes that this is not really a fight about health care, but about taking the money that is in Medicai...

Former Vice President Al Gore asks three vital questions during the course of his TED talk: Do we really have to change?; Can we change?;  and Will we change? He explores these questions through some anecdotes but mostly with a daunting barrage of statistical data from around the globe. The statistics not only highlight the need for change, as he lays out the predicate in his opening remarks, but they also serve as a Call to Action as we are watching this TED talk. Gore then goes to the more hopeful and relevant points that list the ways we are changing. Not only is the reality of climate change not a political issue, nor is it even a scientific question at this point, but it has become a major economic issue and one that even the greatest military force ever assembled, the United States Military, has conceded is a real challenge. So there are many hopeful elements listed in this presentation from Al Gore. Gore has made it his mission, since losing the Pr...

The 100 days have come and gone. Some of the news of the moment has been condensed for this month’s RS/BS Newsletter for April.   What could Possibly Go Wrong? The newly appointed head of the EPA-Scott Pruitt has begun his assault on Environmental Protections for the US. First, Research & Development, along with water quality studies have been eliminated (Tell the people of Flint that we don’t need such things, right?) Trump has ordered Federal Agencies to stop using the Social Cost of Carbon -the estimated economic cost of emitting 1 ton of carbon into the air-as the measure which they have used to help big business to pollute at will. What could Possibly Go Wrong? The Trump Administrations anti EPA wants to gut Obama's Clean Power Plan , a nod to big coal and other polluters. And there is a bill up now from Representative. Lamar Smith called the HONEST Act- which is designed to prevent the EPA from even using sound science as the measure in studyi...

Wouldn't it be nice if …remember the old Beach Boys song? It was part of the film, " Roger & Me"  that highlighted the musings of one laid off worker who thought about it in terms of going back to the way things were in his youth, when Flint, Michigan was still a bustling hub for the automobile industry. In the same vein, my musings were: Wouldn't it be nice….if politicians stopped using health care as a political weapon and worked together to help create an affordable and viable health care system for all Americans that was designed to promote optimum well-being and good outcomes? Wouldn't it be nice…if people could work out their differences by simply admitting we have different views, but we all would like to protect Americans and continue to build our communities and keep our standing in the world of being a beacon of hope and inclusiveness? Wouldn't it be nice…if people could look at the other side of the aisle and recognize their problem...

The myth of the 'genius" business manager running the government has long been discussed. A lean and calculating business mogul, with a wolf-like demeanor akin to the "Wolf" of Wall Street, a person that knows the ins and outs and how business operates is the reason many people thought that someone like a Ross Perot or a Michael Bloomberg could run a better kind of government. Now, that charge has been left to the Donald. He is the same man who ran a successful operation on reality TV. A man whose father bailed him out of many failed business ventures, including casinos in Atlantic City. And who has touted the advantage of bankruptcy and borrowing, with leverage of going into enormous debt. His book, the "Art of the Deal" was a marketing tool he used in his pitch as a front man where he has been successful in leasing the Trump name in building ventures spanning the globe. This has been a successful operation that has catapulted his family busines...