Capitol Riot Officer Fanone Wants Leaders to Recognize Their Sacrafice

The police officers of the Capitol Riots had a tough job that day. It wasn't coffee, check lists and patrol as usual. When chaos occurs and people must fall back on their training and instinct is when we know things got serious. What happened during this time was not a pure coincidence and was more likely a result of multiple factors coming to head at one time (pandemic, sociological shifts, foreign manipulation of media, possible "agents" hyping the crowd, etc...etc...) It was not a normal day for these officers and for the nation that could have been thrown into violence if a mob would have turned right instead of left down a hallway that led to other congress members (This was a serious day that forces us to reflect on our political dysfunction on both sides. I don't know if all of our politicians are truly grasping he danger of hyper politics and its rhetoric and lack of wide reaching solutions.) 

In this battle for America's soul we have those who follow the Constitution and those who follow a narrow sense of what American should look like (Its not pro or anti any party. Its what they see America to be). In many ways I wish I could have been there to help. We have one country and attacking the capital never was the solution to our problems (Whether spontaneous or more guided.). We should encourage our leadership to work together to bring different perspectives back to the center of rational thought. That is hard when we sideline those who want partisan solutions for those who seek to pull us in opposite directions (Talking louder and smarter are different things!). This is our time in our history to stand up for essential principles beyond our political aspirations.

Sometimes we can see the trends growing...... See Research on Gab Media Hate,  Social Media and Hate and Michigan Extremism-Hate Reform Idea ...sometimes we don't have the foresight or political capital to act early and we are not prepared for curve balls like this. 

Conference Board Says Consumer Confidence Up July 27th, 2021

Consumer confidence is rising and generally that prompts that people want to buy things. Much of our economy (I believe around 75%) is driven by consumer spending. When confidence rises people spend more and the economy improves. We should remember that one of the reasons we have boom and bust economies is because of spending, supply, and contraction/expansion of that supply/demand network. That will hold true until we move into a higher level digital platform where such flow disruptions are lessened through better management and preemptive cycle adjustments (One of the benefits of big data. There are some detractors as well. I don't know. Sounds ok. )

The following was taken from The Conference Board. 

"The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® was relatively unchanged in July, following gains in each of the prior five months. The Index now stands at 129.1 (1985=100), up from 128.9 in June. The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—rose from 159.6 to 160.3. The Expectations Index—based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—was virtually unchanged at 108.4, compared to 108.5 last month." 

You can tell from the charts on their page that the pandemic wasn't as long term disruptive as thought because the entire world economy shuttered at once like a reset button. There was enough digital technology available to push companies to adapt quickly and that will continue as more mature models are developed (remember that digital business models are relatively new). While the economy slowed much of it was the acceptance of consumers who banked their money and came out strong with spending. 

Bergman, Axne Introduce Bipartisan Protecting Patients from Medicaid Fraud Act

 A couple of quick comments because I'm a little busy tonight. :) I would say that any time we can cut waste we are stretching the dollars further. We as Americans pay our monies into this system that could be used for other resources. If we are going to continue to do that we must make sure its not a "cash cow" for shifty vendors. 

This was taking from District 1 Congressman News......

For Immediate Release July 27, 2021 Contact: James Hogge 231-944-7633

Bergman, Axne Introduce Bipartisan Protecting Patients from Medicaid Fraud Act   Washington - Today, Reps. Jack Bergman (MI-01) and Cindy Axne (IA-03) introduced the Protecting Patients from Medicaid Fraud Act, a bipartisan bill to improve oversight of Medicaid, prevent improper payments and waste, and protect patients from fraud. This legislation is based on recommendations from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan agency that works to improve the operations and fiscal responsibility of the federal government. “While states are required by law to screen health providers enrolled in Medicaid, we have no system in place today to check if states are following through,” said Rep. Jack Bergman. “This means billions of dollars every year may be going to providers that defraud patients, fail to meet health and safety standards, or operate without medical licenses. With nearly $500 billion of federal spending going towards Medicaid annually, our current level of oversight and accountability is unacceptable. I am proud to introduce this important bill with Representative Axne to improve Medicaid and protect patients nationwide.” “The oversight of health care providers in Medicaid is so inefficient and convoluted that its allowed more than $35 billion in improper payments in just one year. As health care costs continue to rise, we need to crack down on providers that are defrauding patients and unlicensed professionals lining their pockets at the expense of American taxpayers who’re paying higher and higher costs for care,” said Rep.  Cindy Axne. “After fighting to make government more efficient and accountable at the state level for nearly a decade, I’ve been working in Congress to find commonsense solutions that will reduce waste, cut red tape, and save taxpayers money. This bipartisan bill is one such solution — and would help save billions of taxpayer dollars through simple enforcement of the laws already on the books.” Under federal law, states must screen health providers before and every five years after enrolling them in Medicaid. This ensures providers are properly certified and ultimately protects patients from fraud. However, the agency that administers the Medicaid program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does not conduct any nationwide screenings to certify compliance with these eligibility requirements, instead relying on optional consultations with states. This patchwork of data makes it impossible to check compliance and prevent improper payments. The Protecting Patients from Medicaid Fraud Act would expand CMS’s review of provider eligibility compliance to include all states, not just those participating in optional consultations. It would also give CMS the tools needed to monitor the progress of states currently working to become compliant.

Don't Get UPSET? Multiple Ways to Solve UP Drug Problems

Drugs are a problem in just about every city in America. While we have tried different strategies we can't seem to get out of the drug hole as the poison leaks into the community and destroys futures. According to an article by Public Radio 90's Nicole Walton entitled 'UPSET arrests Delta County man on drug, gun charges', "Detectives seized about 34 grams of suspected crystal meth, a small amount of suspected heroin/fentanyl, more than $3,600 and a loaded handgun that was reported stolen." (Walton, 2021, para 2)

As we think about national policy places like Delta County (DC) offer opportunities to try out ideas when they seem beneficial (It would need a little more  multi-department and community coordination of different institutions.. i.e. courts, police, mental health, social work, government programs, new jobs, community groups, public awareness, etc...). The beauty of DC is that its small and isolated enough to have a better grasp of the factors involved. See Systems Thinking and Small Community-University Collaboration.

1. Strategic Enforcement and Judicial Involvement:  

We will need to get smarter about our long term goals as they relate to communities and drug enforcement. We can't jail our way out of drug use; at least not with users. The users are so beaten and battered in life its little like throwing a blanket over the little light seeping into their world. Better to require rehab and/or counseling in lieu of jail time in most cases (Its not perfect but its more in line with long term solutions and provides the most options. Perhaps science will advance to the point that rehab is more outpatient than anything. Remember its chemical and emotional dependence.)

Strategic supply chain disruption helps slow the spread of drugs (We have to think beyond DC). While local officials look for key indicators/markers of drug activity in their towns and begin investigating there is a much wider supply chain at work outside the U.P.. Disrupting could include international intervention, local first contact with drug users, in and out-state coordination, etc.. Some strategies raise costs on users (to shift toward something healthier with matched services), some are designed to create chaos to disrupt, others are designed to funnel networks into specific arenas that net larger groups. Big data matched with coordinated enforcement along the entire chain can make a big difference. See Big Data, AI, Followership Behaviors , Hidden Network Activity and Signature Base Anomaly Method and See Modern Supply Chains

 An overriding strategy would be helpful to  "touch" various supply chain locations as needed (i.e. disrupting one, taking another chain down completely down, criminal network chaos and monitor, raising the cost in one chain to push coordinated activities down other supply chains where legal traps are waiting, etc...).  We can review other intelligence/analysis methods to clean our society of certain behavior that we agree as a society should not be working in the black market. Sometimes we can crossbreed different fields of study to discover new things. (Its possible to analyze macro and micro networks to determine flow, resources, intention and activities). You can see a published version of something similar  Markov Method for Discovering Nefarious Networks

Perhaps we might want to get tough on big distributors and those who make these drugs. Makes sense to me as these are the most destructive members that prey upon the lives of others. Willful intent to harm others based upon personal gain is anti-social by nature. Smaller criminals are important but they are mixed with other primary needs (i.e. usage and source of income) much more than pure greed and profit (...many petty dealers are selfish but some are just dumb and young and make a few bucks peddling to their friends. Kind of different animals by nature.)

2. Mental Health and Community Engagement: 

People love to judge and few love to understand; Its part of our nature (...remember the whole beam in your own eye and speck in others story?). Drug users have lots of the wrong kinds of friends and not enough of the right kind. Remember there is a real person in there that was dragged into a world many of us will not understand because we do not have a conception of the multiple traumatic factors that get them there. It is possible to move people into a productive life with proper community intervention and mental health (rehab) as long-term strategies.     

I'm not going to quote all the details but in essence it would take a community to connect to users so they can get the help they need (I've seen where mental health help would have provided the best long term solution and we instead inadvertently pushed them down a criminal path. ) It takes a community of happy people who want to see the best outcomes for those suffering. Instead of being fearful someone is coming out of prison we should be happy they are coming out of rehab and engage them to change their friend networks and employment options (Social networks is where people often fail. Lets find them alternatives and be wise about our activities. Lots of great volunteers out there looking to mentor and listen.)

3. Economic Opportunity and Hope:

Things go south when opportunity and hope dry up. Its important for people to feel like they have prospects for the future and with a little effort can change their world. As a community we would want to develop opportunities and reintegrate people back into the working community. While the cluster model I'm working on is focused on business generation/attraction it may also work in part to reintegrating people through business start-ups, apprenticeships, entry level positions, and much more. There are different positions for different skill levels. See Delta County Cluster Model

So many different drug philosophies but most haven't worked well because they are limited in focus and don't seem to understand the wider psycho-socio-economic factors. I'm throwing out a few ideas I came up with thinking about the recent local bust. Congrats for those who did it and hopefully it will put a dent in local drug manufacturing and distribution. Perhaps we can also move toward longer term prevention strategies by employing interested stakeholders and integrating them into a better drug buts, rehab, and reintegration flow. 

If your interested in more information on UPSET and likely where to report tips you might want to contact their webpage. See Upper Peninsula Substance Support Team.

"The Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team (UPSET) is a multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force that serves all fifteen counties of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. UPSET’s foremost objectives are to bring narcotics awareness, education, and enforcement into the communities of the Upper Peninsula.

UPSET readily collaborates and works with local, state, and federal agencies in an effort to combat narcotic use, distribution and sale across the Upper Peninsula."

Walton, N. (July 23, 2021, para 2). UPSET arrests Delta County man on drug, gun charges. Public Radio,  90. https://www.wnmufm.org/post/upset-arrests-delta-county-man-drug-gun-charges#stream/0 

US and China Talks-Frosty and Likely not Fun

 I'm watching the talks between the U.S. and China (as a growing trend). We have two major super powers that want to find a way to work with each other. Part of the argument is that American companies felt taken advantage of by China. I'm sure China has a few complaints or otherwise they wouldn't be there. What we can say is that there are some things we can work together on and that is climate change and pollution. It impacts both societies and that might be a nice place to start in any long term negotiations (When I did some union-mgmt. negotiating in the past I thought about similarities and tried to find where both parties agreed and where they didn't. Defining/breaking down further and further until we get to the root of the difference makes sense. Most often its ideological but sometimes if we use these root agreed upon assumptions we can find other similarities.). 

At the end of the day its two different ideologies competing. They both will be impacted by climate change and other global issues. 

I'm not making a judgement...but like to watch how events unfold. 

Encouraging College Students to Critically Think Sources

 College is a time when people learn "how to think" versus "what to think". Any society must have people that are able to think for themselves and come up with their own conclusions. The lessons we learn from critical thinking can apply to different aspects of people's lives in and after college. While as professors, we want to encourage people to move down healthy thinking patterns it is not our job to tell students what to think; that is up to the student. We must only give our students the tools they need to come to conclusions using critical thinking skills to solve problems. 

In the business world it is the ability to overcome problems and implement new strategies that will make success. Some will always work for someone else, some will become executives, and some will start their own businesses. Each will have to make choices over lots of things in their field and they will need to use critical thinking to ensure they are being impactful.

Helping students to think critically is vitally important to our nation. We want healthy people that listen to different sides of arguments, explore possibilities, create new possibilities and then support their ideas with a level of credible data/sources. If your not critical thinking to solve problems your accepting the perspective of others without examination.....

Critical is “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” (Scriven & Paul, 2007, p. 1).

Such level of thinking encourages metacognition which is thinking about thinking. It is a fuller understanding of our thinking processes and how we draw conclusions. Not everyone will reach a level of metacognition in their lives and thus will be more prone to misunderstanding themselves and the information presented to them. 

There is something students can use called IDEALS  (Facione, 2007):

I Identify the Problem: What is the real question we are facing? 

D Define the Context: What are the facts that frame this problem? 

E Enumerate the Choices: What are plausible options? 

A Analyze Options: What is the best course of action? 

L List Reasons Explicitly: Why is this the best course of action? 

S Self-Correct: Look at it again … What did we miss?

Notice that critical thinking is about exploring possibilities by defining problems in new ways and supporting ideas in evidence. It is also about looking broadly and widely among a number of different sources to find solutions that may have been previously skipped over. This is why one must review problems to find new angles and in turn go research the possibilities of such solutions. The better we are able to find and coordinate the pieces the better we are at thinking (requires a level of fluid intelligence).

For example, I'm going back to the calibrated tax plan that I'm working on (simply because it is in my radar of interests). The plan was generated from constant debate over taxes that attract and retain business while also ensuring companies pay their fair share. Having a calibrated tax rate for businesses who have their headquarters (intellectual capital) in the U.S. and a different one for those conducting commerce in the U.S. might be helpful in attracting business and converting them from system user to system builder (Attracting a business to move their HQ to the U.S. versus simply using the system to sell products.) It is a finished idea? No....but its a new way of looking at taxes in an increasingly digital global world that helps slow the race to the bottom because the rate is set based on the strength of a number of competitive factors such as infrastructure, labor availability, etc.... You can read more about it....See Hypothetical Delta County Calibrated Tax Model

In this tax example we can say there are many reasons why it might and might not be true (Just because its my idea doesn't mean its right and I should give equal weight to alternatives). We look at all of the different tax plans, we look at our history, the changing trends in society, the need for the U.S. to become the center of the supply chains and we ask ourselves, "How will we get there?" Chances are we will need to change a few things to do it. Critical thinking is about not accepting the previous answer (or the one's others offer) without some level of analysis and comparison. It is helpful when someone else looks at the same thing and comes up with differences based on evidence and logic. 

You can agree or disagree but you need to know why before you call yourself a critical thinker. That can be any topic or issue. It could be politics and it could be the leading social conversation of the day (Not that you want to spend time examining everything you read in the news.) Once you know how to think you can apply that thinking strategy to other topics and find there may be lots of different ways to look and resolve issues.  See Teaching Critical Thinking

Scriven, M., & Paul, R. (2007). Defining critical thinking. The Critical Thinking Community: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Retrieved January 2, 2008, from http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/define_critical_thinking.cfm

Facione, P. A. (2007). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Retrieved January 2, 2008, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251303244_Critical_Thinking_What_It_Is_and_Why_It_Counts

Snyder, L. G., & Snyder, M. J. (2008). Teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills. The Journal of Research in Business Education, 50(2), 90. http://reforma.fen.uchile.cl/Papers/Teaching%20Critical%20Thinking%20Skills%20and%20problem%20solving%20skills%20-%20Gueldenzoph,%20Snyder.pdf

Biden Townhall CNN (July 21st, 2021)

Keeping up with the political news. While I lean Republican I have no issues with Democrats and think sometimes they come up with some great ideas. We are polarized in this country and there is little to no reason we can't pull both sides toward the center. To me, the ability to solve problems is the most important functions of being in politics (I'm no expert so make your own judgements.)

One thing I agree with President Biden is that democracies must compete again and are challenged by other forms of government. While some might believe that we can't overcome challenges (due to our polarization) I believe we will adapt. Democracy is here to stay because as people gain access to information and education they want to be involved. 

Democracies are about empowering people to act in their and their communities best interests. We want people to go out and chase their dreams (life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness) and do so in a prosocial level that helps their country (Its actually good for the country.). We have obligations to each other and that should transcend our specific political issues.

Parties are great and they should provide others with general guidance but we should never have parties that dictate straight line choices. Instead, we should have parties that recognize general alignment but provide wiggle room on voting. Politicians owe their loyalties #1 to the American people, #2 their moral conscious and lastly #3 their party. 

Basically being in government means you should be focused on the nation and secondarily to what they believe what is right/wrong. After that, one could line in with their favorite party. While this is likely to be the case we shouldn't' force people to vote specifically one way or another. 

One thing I'm going to say I agree that we don't want police to be viewed negatively and we need them to be on the street getting to know people. We also want policing to be a positive job that attracts some of the best our country has to offer. College students and social workers should be part of the process. 

I agree with the concept of disrupting disrupting drug networks, help addicts, and crack down hard on those who make the drugs. Mental health and addiction are related and we can't solve one without solving the other. Science should lead our choices and that wouldn't sit well with all people from both parties.