I've been asked "If we went to 2 Caesars, what fields would they have responsibility for?"

 Both can have overlapping fields of responsibility only in different areas of the world (geographical) etc. except one Caesar would control dealing with the budget  and financial solvency/indebtedness of the country, the other with organizational efficiency.

I believe this separation is necessary, since democracies--the world over--have greatest difficulty in avoiding debt and must have someone responsible for the federal government's solvency.  A cursory history of following democratic solvency should be convincing that this is a major problem for whatever the particular list of problems have caused it.

My opinion.

   

This work is very complicated: must solve as best I can the voter dissatisfaction with the Presidency!

 The reason for it, I think, is that the one individual is responsible for too much.  No one person can have so much responsibility when there are so many factors to be considered in each project.

The answer is to spread responsibility among two, at least, both of whom go before the people and illicit their opinions and evaluations of their performances for each of their areas of concern.

By the way, I've never had such impressive array of support these days.  I don't have time to do more than to give you designers to take up the specifics, but I can give you options, each of which you can think over in making the overall workable.  There's got to be division of areas of responsibility.

In short, "the buck doesn't stop here"--in one person, any longer.  United States has entered a new realm: that of shared responsibility or extended responsibility.

My opinion.  

   

A Reminder: Pastor Billy Graham had George Beverly Shea as his partner; and the latter carried his own weight in the team!

Someone who adds that much that people remember and are glad that he or she is on the ticket, too.

In Rome, there were two Caesars, equally important, non-controversial, both carrying a bagful of responsibilities.  I believe US is that big internationally for shared duality of title!

My opinion.

   

Former Secretary of Defense asks a question on CSPAN from his questionnaire for the US youth to fill out.

I know the answer well; and it is an answer why people are dissatisfied with going into government service.

A story.  I just received my PhD and was considering going into US government.  I talked it over with my wife at the time and she was emphatic: "No," she did not want to participate as a team with me in government.  Government service basically is a two-team commitment--usually, husband and wife, whether the one or the other has a job title in government.

Unless one transfers from business to government, maybe with the status of a Musk, for whom it may not matter, to run for office or Congress requires two in a team; and the kids, too--generally.

But after some years, I got a divorce, remarried to a librarian!  She was set in her ways; and so that marriage did not last long.  

As a single divorcee I got involved with government service--behind the scenes, which I don't want to go into much at this time, save to say I had an intriguing and exiting time.  It's been a blast!

So, where there's a will, there's always a way.  But I never remarried after the second divorce.  Yes, what I am doing, I enjoy muchly and feel there's a lot of good will toward my country in government work.

My opinion.

P.S. I personally feel the era of "the two-people team doing service or forget it" is over.  It's asking too much in marriage life and of their children's lives. 

   

Believing that the fate of Israel in the Holy Land now rests with Netanyahu as its leader, Israeli courts are being challenged.

Nay, the system of rule of law is in the limelight.  For Netanyahu and family are saying he is so important that any infraction of law he has committed in the conduct of his office ought to be laid aside.  He is the virtual savior of the Jewish movement among heathens!

Sound familiar?  The cry of another facing the halls of justice were raised by Donald Trump and his coterie of devotees in the United States when he was brought before some court.  And he too appealed to what he was doing on behalf of the country, viz., its voting citizenry.

I detect a similarity in both their cries to override the execution of the law, and to question the ultimacy of the justice's authority.  (See the Economist, December 14th issue, p. 41)

My opinion.

P.S. There's the error in autocracy--it believes that the fate of the country is determined by what the autocrat is able to accomplish. It's stunts the growth of the country in whatever it is its destiny in the future; has no inkling of what the future holds for its people.   

Overcrowded cities in India are overflowing with garbage.

So, Operation Clean-up is needed.  See the Economist, December 14th issue, 2024, p. 34.  The problem is very great in India, where the wealthy just throw on the ground their refuse leading to smelly, infested piles of junk.

An obvious sign that wealthy people who can afford all that should be able to afford to clean its street remnants.  Notes the magazine, "In cities it spreads disease and attracts vermin." 

My opinion, too. 

Well, many critics of democracies, claim it takes time to resolve disputes among parties: Look at the complexities in South Korea.

 It could take several months before we know who it is that is officially the President of South Korea, as the title of Acting President is being passed around when President Yoon was impeached, or in the process of being removed.

Let the courts, with Parliament standing by, enter the debate.

My opinion.   

Israel on a rampage: now, the Houthis in Yemen.

The Arab block seems in disarray.  Gone is Assad from Syria; a remnant group with al-Qaeda origins under Abu Muhammad al-Jolani leads the Islamic Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to possibly take over the entire country of Syria.

Meanwhile, Israel appears to be on a terror of its neighboring states: into Yemen, but only having silenced the guns of the Hizballah in Lebanon, ravaged military installations in Iran, and may be encouraging Russia to dismantle its bases in Lebanon city environs.  Not to mention how the Palestinians in Gaza got Israel's wrath by murdering Jews before the onslaught wrought by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

It is only a rumor that Israel wants lands on which Palestinians and other Islamic groups as well as Christians are dwelling under a wartime principle: "To the victors go the spoils."  But what does Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel want from the opposing variegated Mohammads?  

Maybe a pardon from his government.

My opinion.   

The US is doing very well in setting up elements of world government.

 I talked with someone who lives next to the Blinken residence, Antony Blinken.  The family caters a dinner at Shalom House in DC every Christmas for the last 3 years; and I was invited to the dinner or I would have missed talking with them.  The father is Catholic and owns a restaurant here in DC, I think.  That all occurred last Friday night at Shalom, owned by SOME.

I would like to use what I talked to the father about regarding my contacts with the Chinese in Beijing.  I have done a lot to assure that there would be a turnabout from communism in that country, but let me explain.  I am trained to be a minister, though got into politics after my working in Mountain View, California for some years in computers!  Too long a story to relate at this time how all that was worked out.

Anyway, I could only set the seeds for change to democratic ways of thinking there.  This was 1989 on one of my trips to China.  I knew the Pong Presidency there.  And even now, I live near Chinatown in SOME housing and enjoy that culture to a degree, though I live in the NE part of DC, in basically a black neighborhood for the last 7 years.

I am hopeful that the US will engage the Chinese in common projects, still, in the years to come so that gradually, they will reject the communist agenda and turn to Western values.

Would you believe, I've been to Russia, too at the demise of the Russian Empire around '89.  To further my trip to Russia and engage with Russians there, I was trained in philosophy under Sydney Hook of NYU and have attended Russian influenced meetings for a time while in graduate school and in my early teaching, e.g., in DC that were held I think off 14th Street.  I learned some of the problems the Russian non-communists were having there, but I encountered little blocks to my being able to talk with them during my stay in the German sector of Moscow, though I could do nothing to help them, even years afterward when on a bus in one of the cities I was living in at the time I met up with two of them from Moscow.  And years ago, I attended a few events at the Russian Cultural Center in the DuPont Circle area of DC. So, I could talk with them who know English.  

Here, I have attended seminars at the organization on 13th Street in the Woodrow Wilson Center, though it's been years since I was there and only there while Georgia was breaking free and trying to relocate their orientation to Western values, particularly English.  There at those meetings, I was encouraging as I could be in hastening to bring acceptance into EU.

Now, all I do is keep up-to-date in current affairs around the world that maintain my interests in world affairs still; and enjoy living in DC, especially where I'm at off Rhode Island Metro station, Red line!

I maintain 3 blogs to that end and use the Economist.  And, I get good meals and care through SOME and the city; and excellent health care at the George Washington University Hospital complex.  Life is good for me!

Years before all this, I was encouraging the Pentagon to establish bases in every country in which they were invited to and I think the US has bases in some 190 nowadays from an initial small number in the West.   

FYI, only.

My opinion. 

 

 

       

  

 

    

Wealthy Republicans are backing the Republican Plan to keep the federal government open for business!

What's different in this new proposal of the Republican plan to kick budget concerns down the road?

Why, it contains an inferred reference to Donald Trump's commitment to extend the debt ceiling for 2 years--another 5trn dollars for the rich to spend first, what's why!

It's saying "Yes!" to the trickle down approach to handle the country's problems.  Keep funneling government money through the hands of those wealthy who are used to keeping in control of the country's affluence.  

But there are "doers" in the country--the middle class and the low class--who are supposed to admit the well-educated and those in prominent positions are being favored in the USA democracy.  (It was the Democrats under President Biden who were willing to try another approach in disseminating the country's wealth directly where it is needed most.)  The "tried many times over through the years" is never a reason for loyal faithfulness to it. 

Tax breaks for millionaires on up, but poverty is the lot still for the low class. 

Anyway, after President-Elect Trump completes his second term as President, he knows the wealthy have for him a place of honor for fighting to retain their cause.

My opinion.     

Supermarkets should start using robots with AI programming to set items from hard-to-reach places (shelves)!

Make it easy for old people--start using robots in your stores.

My opinion for innovation in our time!  

A Start toward Fiscal Responsibility: An Idea whose time has come!

Democracies fund with "seed" money new innovative projects, a very essential program for growth in the countries' development.

It's like throwing wet cereal at a wall and seeing what sticks, pardon the pun on something so essential.

But with "seed" money a project's value can be estimated.  It's like a Broadway bound show in rehearsal in other cities than New York aiming to see what survives!

Then, the "commit or no commit" evaluations are done before large amounts of money are committed to a start-up project.  Of those that are deemed "survivable" and "worthy of the big time," investors, including the government, can commit "serious" dollars.

And that's basically it.  Fiscal responsibility has been practiced because responsible backers have a chance to evaluate it through "off Broadway" scrutiny.

But without foreknowledge as to a project's worthiness, no money of large amounts should be entrusted to an innovative leadership.  That's just common sense--not always followed--leading to democratic governmental insolvency; and sometimes a search for another form of government, e.g., dictatorship.    

My opinion. 
 

  

Parliament expresses confidence in democracy and its guiding "rule of law." No need for martial law in Seoul, Korea.

 Democratic principles have only been followed in South Korea since 1988.  But a lingering memory of what government was like prior to then has been rekindled: killings of the people, possibly not disclosing all the brutality laid upon the backs of protesters.

It is clear the citizenry remember those days, of autocrats and despots--1980: the reign of Syngman Rhee, a dictator, who for years was its President.

No more: no more dictatorship, no more harsh treatment of citizens.  1988 and from then on democracy is the rule of law for the whole of the land.  It remains for the country's court system whether Mr. Yoon will return as President, having been impeached by Parliament this past week for trying to bring back martial law. 

Now, speaking for Parliament, Mr. Woo urge the Korean people to enjoy the festivities of the Christmas season, and to return to the normalcy of everyday life--in this model, democratic country: South Korea. 

My opinion.

I work in undercover conditions, because of the nature of the work.

 And I definitely enjoy my work!

But I've been at it so long, I'm embarrassed to say I can can't place the faces I run across today of people I have known in my past, even in DC, where I'm now living.

I've been associated with the US government since I retired, no even before retirement age, working in Silicon Valley, California.  I don't get paid and try not to think about myself too much, but just enjoy what I'm doing for the Country, USA.

Anyway, on the bus coming home in northeast DC minutes ago, I "met" a face I knew the whole him well 20 some-odd years ago!  He said graciously that I haven't changed much.  He is living in the same neighborhood as before.  Only I got to do my work in several other cities my entire career in volunteering for service.  The "boss" would ask me did I want to move into another and continue my work there, and I'd say, "Of course."  And subsequently, they'd set me up in my new location.  Every time, I'd just do as they sent me, but always hoped it would be more time in DC than the one to three months at a time before I would go off somewhere else!  But this last time I came back to DC, I knew it would be for longer; and I've been here for 7 years+ consecutively.

We exchanged pleasantries before I was at my stop.  I wished him well; he told me quickly I have many more years to live before I'd reach the 96th year his mother is living and working in an old folks home!

Life simply goes on, every bit precious and fun for me!

My story! 

      

 

   

Word has gotten out: EVs aren't selling too fast!

 The world can live with the effects of using combustible engines (when to carbonized engines, EV (electric cars) is an added option for consumer car buyers) is the current scuttlebutt.  "So drill, baby; drill in Alaska!" is the imperative to oil companies exploiting reserves in Alaska from the man sitting in the White House! 

I think carbonized engines are acceptable alternatives, since it appears the carbon smoke floating a lot over Africa and non-polluting areas, despite not given to the heavy volume burning ordinarily in traditional user countries of the gas engine cars, i.e. in the advanced nations.  But also, the several governments may not be lending a hand to restoring the properties devastated from the flooding and hurricanes in their area, with beaucoup dollars from them.   

So Trump's federal treasure chest may not be as topped to overflowing from the tariffs on foreign cars, though it should be filled with taxes from wealthy and middle class alike in the purchase of new cars made in America.   

My opinion.