The Paper Boy

We deliver

[thepaper8oy]

Unwanted calls

In the 1990′s, telephony was all the rage.  Combining voice onto data lines & use our computers.  Seemed great but today, there are programs that can spoof your area code & prefix & robocall you with the hope you will pick up the call. 

This is a win win for Telecom companies.  Thousands of phone calls every second means more revenue.  But the technology is already available to stop these calls.  Why don’t they do something to stop it?  Why should we have to ask our representatives to do it for them?

[thepaper8oy]

Gun Manifesto

I’m a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment.  I don’t hunt and never will. I’m a licensed gun carrying Progressive. I’d like to see the issue of guns settled in America so this isn’t part of our election by either party.  

I don’t claim to know it all and would be interested in hearing other ideas.  My 2 cents worth:

1.  National online Database, Universal Background Checks for a gun license.  Gotta have license to drive, should have one for a gun.  I got mine; quick, easy and inexpensive to do. Some would say it’s an invasion of privacy. But if you have an email account, cell phone, computer, tablet or smart TV, pay taxes, work, have a social security number; I’ve got news for you, the government already knows about you.  Unless you live off the grid, you’re not giving anything up.

2.  Mandatory class/instruction for new gun owners on how to carry, use, store and  transport a firearm.  Tax credit for previous owners to take the class.  Streamed online or in classes. Enough children have died already from negligence.

3. Tax Credit for voluntarily registering your weapon(s) by serial number.  Ever wonder where the bad guys get the guns?

4. Gun shows required to provide online background checks & registration for vendors. They shouldn’t be any different than a retail gun store.  Tax credit for private sales to entice the registration of the sale. Online access to your account like SSA.GOV.

5. Immediate roll-back of some of the previous gun laws restricting clips, bullets, number of rounds and/or automatic weapons.  People like guns. We’re going to make it legal for honest law abiding citizens to have guns. Oh, we don’t need lead bullets. Lead kills wild life over and over again and eventually into our food chain.

6. NRA.  Only individual members can run the group. Gun manufacturers should not be part of the process.  They can advertise but leave the NRA to it’s members.  We can always create NRA21 for the 21st Century approach to weapons and get members to switch.

7. Psychiatric communication by licensed MDs for suspensions & confiscations of weapon(s) if they feel this could be a problem.  Suspension of your weapons during divorce if requested by either spouse.  Suspension of your weapons if a restraining order is taken against you. You can add alcoholics and people with learning disabilities to this list too. Of course, violent felons & minors. Minors and guns; I don’t know. I think that depends on the parent. But ask the people of St. Petersburg when the Nazis arrived. Both the women and children used guns.

8. Citizen review board for people who are unfairly denied a gun and/or license. People previously excluded by mental health, divorce or non-violent crimes should be able to reapply for a weapon.  In other words, a path to regain your guns. 

9. Federal standard for gun licensing & carrying. The Fed overrides the State so there is uniformity throughout the country.

[thepaper8oy]

Alt-Right

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men & women to do nothing.

[thepaper8oy]

Health Insurance

Insurance is a product, health is not. Insurance companies, (who didn't always control our health care costs) can not offer cheaper premiums as long as they can not spread their risk pool enough to be profitable. Which is why we are here today.

Health is not a private free enterprise industry; it's life and death. To spread the risk around, we have to have one plan and everyone, from birth to death, are in this plan; everyone, a mandate just like our other taxes. But you will get health care throughout your lifetime. No more ridiculous premiums, yearly increases, higher deductibles & insurance execs deciding what procedures you are allowed to have.

We have had a Medicare program for 60 years, fully integrated into the Social Security Administration, fully functioning website, direct deposit and easy to work with. Why not make that our health care plan? Let the hospitals & doctors run the show and kick out Big Pharma (& their subsidies & lack of fair pricing) & private insurance companies. The insurance companies can then concentrate on life, auto, home & business; a great free marketplace industry.

[thepaper8oy]

Voting for Millennials

Here’s a hint.  There is only one day, 12 hour window, to vote.  It is that way to deny young working professionals, single moms, the poor, et. al., from voting.  The “grey” people vote.  It’s easier, some are retired or on disability, can show up in the middle of the day, etc.  The Democrats should focus more on this issue instead of ID.

So if you really want to get your country back, here’s what you have to do.  Grass roots effort to get your county, city and/or state to institute a multi-day voting law to increase participation; all precincts open.  Voting ends on election day.  I like weekends myself.

I think Trump’s election has shown people why it is important to vote.  We need to tweak our voting system to accommodate our modern ever changing lives. 

[thepaper8oy]

Modern Voting

I just loved the movie “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart.  My mom planned my 10th birthday party and took me and my friends to the Fox Theater to see the movie.  I’ve watched it probably 100 times since.

Remember the scene when it was time to vote on a leader to go to their territorial congress and push for statehood?  They closed the bar and the only person who could write, the town’s newspaper editor, kept asking for a drink.  Each time John Wayne denied him and comically he kept asking if it was over.  After everyone voted (everyone in the bar that is) drinking whiskey began again.

I say this because it seems that election day was made to be short to keep people from voting.  ID laws aside, it is not easy for everyone to vote.  It seems to me that the more people who vote, the better it is for our country.  A true majority.

Okay, why don’t people vote?  Let’s say, Carol is a 22 year old single mom with a 3 year old boy.  The father is long gone and her family has shunned her for whatever reasons.  On election day, she wakes at 6:30 AM and gets herself and Tommy dressed, fed and ready to go.  She drops him off at day care at 7:15 as they open on the way to work; which she arrive no later than 8:00.  She gives herself 45 minutes to get to work which is usually a 20 minute ride.

Twenty five minutes before the 4:30 PM quitting time, a problem arises at work and she barely leaves before 5 PM.  It’s raining and traffic is already a major mess.  She has to be at Day Care by 5:30 or she is charged $5 a minute.  She arrives at 5:38 and ask them to put it on her next month’s bill.  It’s already standard time and it is dark.  Tommy is hungry and Carol is just beside herself being late and incurring the $40 expense.  So they go home and have dinner.  Carol does not go to the polls during that 12 hour window to vote.

Open that window.  Weekends?  A national holiday week?  More absentee ballots for people like Carol?  We have to try something different for modern society.  We need more voter participation.  

[thepaper8oy]

Recycling is for losers!

Yeah, I know what you are saying; I must be a Trump supporter.  No actually, I have vehemently recycled almost everything I could; even tried the toothpaste tube.  I use to drive to several locations to recycle items that one or more of the other places did not take.  At times, I could not park in my garage because the amount of stuff I would sort.

I never thought much of waste until I purchased a house in Reseda, CA in 1986.  I had some yard waste that LA County Sanitation would not pick up.  I was told I needed to hire a private hauler or drop it off myself.  I covered the flatbed of the pickup I had and off to the landfill I went.  That is when I first saw the problem.  

In the 1990′s I had already accumulated 100′s of software manuals for the years I had been using a computer.  Where do these go?  At least they are paper (trees).  And if the trees are replanted . . .

This is why I am saying Recycling is for Losers.  Recycling is a hidden tax.  Why should we pay our sanitation companies/counties to recycle if we paid for the packaging when we purchased the product?  I think the companies who sell packaging should be responsible for the disposal of their products.  Also, when we recycle we waste our precious resources like clean water.

The responsibility of disposal needs to be shifted back to the manufacturers who makes and packages their products.  If we have to go back to deposit on bottles or whatever, it is a way to reduce and reuse.

Lastly, let me say this.  As a socialists I still believe in free enterprise.  Let people have the convenience of using plastic bags.  But make them pay for that convenience.  I don’t know, maybe $10 a bag.  Soon, people will begin to bring their own bags.  I’m just sayin . . . 

[thepaper8oy]

Repeal of the EPA

I listened to Thomas Friedman say that if a Trump Administration tries to peel back environmental laws, et. al., that there would be a HUGE backlash.  Tom, you know elections have consequences.  But I stopped and thought for a moment.  There is another way to approach the most serious problem facing both mankind and all living things. 

Our elected officials are beholding to people and corporations that give them money to run for office.  Until we replace that system with publicly funded elections then the interest of what’s best for our country and it’s citizens will continue to be ignored.  But if we could deliver a block of millions of voters to a candidate, they could take the pledge.  Our job is to get candidates in all parties to vote our way.

I suggest that all the major environmental organizations and the scientific community meet and create a single environmental entity with a “constitution” or plan that has specific steps that are needed so we can attempt to cool down the planet.  All club members from all the organizations would be asked to vote for the candidate who takes our pledge.  The public attention that this could create could drive up membership in all the different organizations.  And at this point in our planet’s history, it may be best to give free memberships to get as many of us as possible.

If our approved candidate is elected, their job is to immediately introduce into legislation our plan.  Create funding and begin the hard work. 

I personally won’t be able to make it to Philadelphia (i.e. our founding fathers).  Board members of The Sierra Club, GreenPeace, RAN, WWF, etc should gather together to create this constitution. 

I can think of a few things we could do.  First would be publicly funded elections.  I don’t know but I guess you could include an independent "Politico” type Fact Checker that scrolls the truth across the top of the TV screen when a politician lies either in a debate or their ads.  Give the people the correct information and they will make the right decision.  

Replant in our desert communities.  Replant native trees from the Rain Forests to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains .  Use oil less and less until there is no reason for cars and trucks to run on petroleum and diesel.  We’re going to need to build pipes to bring water from the deluged areas to the dry areas for planting.  Maybe de-saltification of nearby oceans for replanting.  And the elephant in the room, our population needs to be dealt with worldwide.

By enlisting members of both parties it could help us begin to fast track the projects and funding that will be needed.  The world well take our lead.  The United States could be the solution we need to combat climate change. 

There is no more time, people; we’re 16 years past the tipping point.  The time to act is now, regardless of who is in power.  This needs to be approached as a war or a speeding asteroid heading our way.  The alarm has been ringing for over a decade.

[thepaper8oy]

Election Night 2016

It’s almost midnight in Atlanta.  It beginning to look grim for the Democrats.  Not only have they lost the Presidency, but the Senate and House; which pretty well takes care of the next 20 years of Supreme Court decisions.  I guess it came down to the White less educated voters, who in a million years would want a woman boss.  Okay, I get that and if President Trump were just an ordinary candidate I’d be okay with him winning.  So the Democrats lost a lot; at least the next eight years.  They better hope the 2020 Census is done correctly so they can do their gerrymandering.

But what has America lost?  Civility towards each other and coming together as one country for all. Environmental Protections will be gone as we know it.  Clean air and water will take a back seat to the Free Market.  We’re going to move away from renewables and back to the cancer causing coal and oil.  The Supreme Court will adhere to the principal that businesses have precedent over individuals.  The entire country will weigh heavily to the right.  

Jobs will be lost in the urban and suburban areas.  The markets will go down around the world.  We are heading towards a possible world wide depression at at time when climate wrecking havoc and causing mass migration of people.  

[thepaper8oy]

National Elections

I know it can be tempting to shake up the establishment to get things done.  But to vote for a “Nero” candidate to go to Washington and burn down our country?  I just don’t understand.

I, like a lot of you, am not happy with our choices.  But having lived through elections from Eisenhower to Obama, I can tell you that this particular candidate, a reality TV star, is just so dangerous.  He is not smart.  He is not a good businessman.  He’s a typical BS artist that I have seen over my lifetime.  And to use FEAR to get people to go to his side is as cowardly as you can get.  

We have problems and Hillary may not be able to fix them.  There is another election in 2020 for President.  But for the good of the country, vote not for Trump.

[thepaper8oy]

GA SOS

I read the newspaper today and saw where several law suits were filed against Brian Kemp for not re-opening registration for the victims of Hurricane Mathew. One of the jobs of the Secretary of State is to handle elections for the state. 

At first I was dismayed that Mr. Kemp would try to deny people registration to vote as partisan politics.  Then it hit me.  Mr. Kemp is computer impaired.  He has no idea how to run or maintain a database.  He even sacrificed his top MIS employee for his own stupidity authorizing the copying and mailing of registered voters including their social security number.

I urge the voters of this great State to put Mr. Kemp out to pasture in 2018.  And demand a paper trail for voters so we can audit our elections if need be.

[thepaper8oy]

#Methane

Money drives the herds.  An increase in the cost of an item could make people use a cheaper item or do without if necessary.  The United States subsides the meat industry with our tax money.  If those subsidies went away, the price of beef, for instance, would increase making $1.00 hamburgers a thing of the past.  I say, stop using tax money to help keep down the costs of items.  Let the marketplace do it’s job.  Eating habits will change.

Besides changing eating habits, we would reduce our live stock, slaughter houses and thus methane gases and pink retention ponds.  A drastic measure, yes.  But we humans are already way past the tipping point to save our species; and the unfathomable chaos that climate change is about to give us.  We need to take measures today that can be fully implemented within 2 to 3 years.  

[thepaper8oy]

Atlanta Street Cars

One big problem; wrong direction. The first construction should have been North-South to tie midtown and Peachtree Center. The citizens would use & fill the trolleys and you could show the tax payers a profit to justify a visitors link running East-West.

[thepaper8oy]

efficiency

I've been a HMO patient for 1/2 my life. Henry Kaiser had the right idea. Today I entered the lobby but instead of checking in at a particular department check in for all departments is handled now by human employees. Look at all the employees let go. But don't worry for the three remaining humans. Help is on the way with touchpad kiosks. Oh! Too bad the public sector can't plan for that kind of efficiency.

[thepaper8oy]

ISSUE Gun Control - this could work

The government is not going to take our guns away.  It can’t be done.  Death, taxes and you can’t get rid of guns.

Banning a brand or type of weapon does not work.  We should have learned from the past that making something people want a crime only creates lucrative black markets and new crime.  Guns, unlike cars and computers, do not become obsolete.  In fact, the older the gun, the more expensive it is likely to be. Humans alive today did not invent the gun.  It is part of our lives and is unlikely to disappear. These are just facts.  People can be predators; which is why our ancestors in the wild started inventing weapons.

 The issue, as I see it, is making sure only sane non-violent people can buy and own guns.  Each state and some cities have their own gun laws. The Federal government cannot take that away from the states; and won’t.  

 All sides agree that terrorists shouldn’t be able to buy guns.  But most Americans don’t trust their government to have private lists that you don’t know you are on; without recourse.  If we continue to allow our government to have private lists and unnamed informants, then we should allow a system for recourse.  Maybe something like giving the Feds 2 to 3 weeks to produce evidence that you should remain on their list thus denying you a gun.

 In my state and county, I decided to apply for a carry permit.  Not because I wanted to carry my gun in public or pay a tax.  I want it concealed as protection.  I was finger printed and photographed and my application was sent to the FBI and Homeland Security for red flags.  All good, I got my license and renew it every 4 years.  The whole process (less the legal stuff) reminded me of getting both my learner’s and driver’s permits as a teen.  

Today I own a car.  I have a tag and pay a license fee yearly. I have insurance.  I was trained to drive and have taken defensive courses just recently.  My eye site is checked when I renew my license; which probably should be done more often the older you get.

Cars don’t kill people, people kill people.  Why can’t weapons be registered in a similar fashion?  Gun ownership should come with mandatory training, gun registration and registration transfers for sales which could be taxed.

A one-time tax credit could be allowed for people who would be willing to add all their other weapons to the database.  I see a whole industry here for the NRA; kind of like the PGA pros who teach golf and database programmers.

Each state could issue these licenses and track each weapon by individual ownership and serial number. I like headshot pictures on an official laminated card.  The Federal government’s job would be to provide a common database for all the states to submit to and research from.

So what do we get?  Gun ownership.  A taxing system to pay for the databases; no more paper trails.  

The past is the past and we are not going to get rid of guns.  Let’s move forward with something more sensible. When a gun is used in crime we should be able to answer these questions.  Who owns that gun?  How did that gun get in the hands of the user?  Who is responsible?

 No more banning of weapons. Well, maybe grenade launchers and missiles.  Come on America.  It’s not the 18th Century anymore.  If Jefferson and Washington had an iPhones . . . I’m just saying.

[thepaper8oy]

Earth 2020, oil spills and all.

[thepaper8oy]

Wounds reopened as ex-coal chief gets 1 year in prison

The free market place did not protect the 29 dead.  It was good old fashion business profits that got them killed.  Think about that the next time you listen to an AM radio station spilling hatred for the EPA and other government agencies that protect us.

http://www.myajc.com/ap/ap/top-news/ex-coal-ceo-gets-1-year-in-prison-for-deadly-mine-/nqzg3/