Ocean Beach Sunset Pier (Trying Out Digital Photos)

Quality pictures (assuming you think my pictures are quality.) are expensive. Usually they are printed out and then sent in poster packaging. However all that takes work or a hobby. However, I'm thinking digital photos might have more reach. Of course you are not charging the $120 minimum to do all the background work. You must offer a lower price. So I'm putting $40 up for digital photo. If it works well I might turn some of the other pictures in the gallery to digital download. 

Buy Ocean Beach Sunset $40 HERE. 

Russian and Venezuelan Operatives Using Shell Companies to Move Sensitive Military Equipment and Oil

 Russia has been receiving American military equipment through Venezuela. Some of it is highly sensitive and has been found on the battlefield. Read.....Five Russians charged in global scheme to smuggle equipment from US for Russia's military

You can read the full complaint at Justice Department Announces Charges and Arrests in Two Cases Involving Export Violation Schemes to Aid Russian Military

This is not something new and we shouldn't be overall shocked. Catching and disrupting such supply chains leads to less vital resources landing in the wrong hands. 

Shell companies likely have limited scope and clients. There may be lots of things on the books but activities don't match those companies. They are designed with a specific purpose and no matter how much they try and hide it they will be bent toward activities that earn the most amount of money thereby putting less effort into legitimate activities and exposing their activities. 

The Importance of Protecting Democracy on a Local Level

 We often talk about democracy from a high academic and political level but there are practical matters during local application that determine whether or not those Constitutional principles and values reign supreme as the law of the land. This is where local systems must become more educated on the purpose and value of democracy and ensure that cultural, racial, and religious considerations don't derail our national development. What happens on a local and realized level determines the course of democracy and the nation going forward. We can't neglect the building blocks of democracy in lived experience simply so we can hypothesis and theorize about its value on a national level. (64% of Americans believe democracy is in crisis. HERE. How we handle these issues is important. I'm a democracy supporter and that is why I'm just typing away this AM. I am off hiking soon. Waiting for the sun to come up. :))

Let us imaging for a moment that a large group of people were attempting to intimidate and clean out their community from minorities (i.e. lying, aggression, following home, false police complaints, intimidation, self enrichments, etc. knowing full well the laws don't apply to them in that way and they are given immunity based on association.). That doesn't say anything negative about the vast majority of community members who are good people and the majority of officers that have a positive rooted value system. Yet when we slice and break down the behaviors it appears there was intentionality and blatant disregard for others outside of the clan boundaries. 

Before one get too excited the majority of these people that are involved in this sports network are not bad people but there are toxic personalities/elements who hype up issues and continue on when there is no logical reason to do so (This is learned behavior). The vast majority of homogenous members are good mothers, fathers, and community members but that doesn't extend to those they deem as different (racial, religious, ethnic) and to those they define as not local (Defined not by genetic time in the area but by racial, religious, ethnic + cultural standpoint.)

This is where we see democracy either becoming stronger by handling these divergent ant-democratic pressures that bend democracy toward ones group (Similar to what you might see in a third world nation where tribes, clans and other differences determine application of law. Something some members of our society are complaining about.) become the primary consideration between justice and lack of justice. Growing democracies will bring these fiefdoms into the fold of democracy versus letting them carve out their own principality with their own unwritten rules (i.e. Good Old Boy Network, jobs, justice, safety)

The battle for democracy is on the local level and in the very human to human interactions we engage (There is a risk to extremism and a risk to watering down the principles of democracy.). Meaning that we must understand how democracy can break down and hold to account those systems and people who break it. That doesn't always mean someone needs to get in trouble but that there needs to be protections in place. What I have advocated to restore democracy is the following:

1.) Mandatory mental health for those who started the problem. There is concern among even their own members there may be mental health issues involved in conflict and hate. It also puts on notice their blind followers that they can be held to account if they do this again. It also dispels the intentional false rumors designed to target minorities. 

2.) Investigate serious community complaints. They may be important they may be just lots of rumors. Kind of scary stuff some people are saying. In my experience rumors sometimes have a kernel of truth. Not exactly the way it happened but perhaps something similar. I hope not!

3.) Ensure local policing systems (I'm sort of looking at one department because of their association with this group. The other departments corrected when they found out they were misled.) however, the other departments can certainly learn. i.e. turning a difficult situation into a positive win-win situation. 

4.) Ensure that local court system are not 1. afraid to hold this group accountable (A local prosecutor left in a hurry but I can't tell you why. However, I don't think they were happy with this group and some of the protections they may have been offered. We haven't talked about elections either and how that may impact decisions.), 2.) other minorities are not being targeted with impunity and 3.) that there is a healthy respect of peoples lives and our founding principles. 

5.) I would like to add improved tactics. Tactics on how to insulate officers from social pressures, how to investigate facts before acting, how to ask the right questions, how to handle people who are different, etc. and of course avoiding quick judgement. We want our police to be strong, capable and focused on their essential duties of protect and serve within Constitutional and Democratic values (The vast majority are good officers doing the right thing. I'm 100% for police and 110% for Civil rights)

6.) Ensure the local college isn't contributing to the cleansing behavior by accepting and rejecting candidates based on either what this group says through association or through willful attempts to block Muslims, Jews, Blacks and others. Telling my I'm more than qualified for an entry level Labor Law class then ghosting me. (😏 Looks like they really needed me. ). These look like pretty serious federal EEOC violations and misuse of taxpayer money in favor of their ethic clan (Kind of third world and I think we are going to start to round the racial and religious corners to a universal society. However, there are people in the process who circumvent the laws and rules with what at the moment looks like impunity. But I have to admit I don't know everything. I'm just giving opportunities for people to correct. I do think this will be an important issue someday and I'm going encourage the law not to normalize hate behaviors or weave them into unwritten rules.)

7.) Others

Its easy to keep one's mouth shut and not say anything. Maybe this group will start again in a few years when the "coast is clear" or they may have learned a lesson about unbridled hate and dishonesty (I doubt they learned because their behaviors indicate to me they are keeping distance but haven't learned anything other than this is serious. There is a large group of people who ostracized but not one of them really know what happened. They are doing so based on racial and religious preconceptions. Not a single person as far as I know can say me and my kids did anything to them. Sure they have the wrong color or religion but that is hardly a justification.). The other option is to stand up for your community, fix the long term risks to other community members, ensure democracy is firmly planted and of course take all the risks in the process for fulfilling ones oaths. (i.e. following home, pulling over kids, targeting, etc...). 

My plan? To be positive, engaging, help my community where I can, not be intimidated, be open to reconciliation and apologies, forgive but not forget (You really can't because they did it once and that is all it takes to understand capacity. I have responsibilities to my family and not to the inflated egos of mediocre sports players who barely rode their tricycles around the block but seem to know all the answers when it comes to "judging" others. (i.e. calling out "Your father is a bitch!" in front of my kids, starting them down in a parking lot, lying and manipulation, calling them "nigger babies" etc.. etc.. etc..).  What happened here was beyond not normal and a free pass starts looking like another problem that needs to be reviewed (i.e. other records, reviews outcomes, tickets, etc... might shed light on any other issues). 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." Abraham Lincoln. 

I encourage "all one thing" around our shared national purpose. Others might disagree.🤷 We are either moving toward a democracy or its rotting out in some our hometowns. 

Photo of Trains on Track

One of the biggest aspects of business is to be playful and explore. For example, I sometimes take photos and list them in my online gallery just to see if anyone is interested. Some of the profits (I shoot for 50%) go to charity. I was messing around with the photo a little. If you want the picture you can click the "Trains Running on Track" and purchase. Just the picture and not the wording.

It would be interesting to someday submit some of these photos to a few contests. I have done it before and won a few. Mostly not!

"If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done." 

Dale Carnegie

Building The Next Gen Digital Era Military

The world is changing quickly and new technologies are coming out at such a pace that superiority in one arena won't guarantee superiority 10 years down the road in that or any other arena. Innovation and change is a partnership between industry, government/military and the populace. There are concerns that the U.S. military would struggle fighting wars on multiple front and some changes are needed to expand our capacity. To solve a large rooted problem like this we must innovate across multiple sectors to fully enhance our capacities.

Let us take a look at decline in military problem by reading Heritage Foundations review entitled, 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength. The Marine Corps is doing great but the other branches are not so great . I'm not surprised by the higher ranking of the Marine Corps because as a highly trained force they are in high demand in an increasingly dangerous world.  In the Marine Corps, a failure to adapt could mean death and loss (Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome! creates an amazingly adaptable force.)

Likewise, we also find that military recruitment pools are dwindling thereby leaving the military struggling to fulfill its manning requirements. Deficiencies in manpower will require some type of readjustment in other resource pools to fill the void (Not to mention the need to tackle obesity and health on a national level. Resist the simple carb urge!). Of course one could consider robotics/wearable tech, partnerships/alliances, stronger service coverage, etc. (Be creative and think of other ways that might improve capacity.)

Either way change is necessary and that will include technology and new tactics that come from that technology. So we should really be thinking about what the military will look like in the Digital/Information Era and how to put the right resources in the right places. New ideas, new thoughts, new ways of doing things are coming........because we have few options but to be open to new lines of development.

(Oh....and by the way......I believe transactional clusters can help in speeding innovation in multiple industries at once. i.e. the Delta County Model. You may want to see this economic digital age theory in process of being rewritten for clarity. HERE.)

Federal Loan Debt Relief: The Web Link and Discussion on Value of Higher Ed.

Business benefits
from a skilled labor force
and new ideas.
The Brown Hotel

The Federal Student Loan Forgiveness is now open and you can apply to have part of your student loans forgiven (Apply HERE). There has been some controversy over this loan forgiveness program based on total cost, funding approaches and whether or not it is the best use of public resources. Different people from different sides of the political perspective will give you different answers. Some love the idea and some pull their hair out. 

These are my thoughts for my own personal understanding.....

What I can say is we do need as much skilled and creative labor as we can generate in this country if we hope to pull ahead in our slowly shrinking economic lead (Another point supporting economic clusters and rapid innovation systems that put the right resources, skills/people, and investments in a networked place where they can quickly adapt.). Improving human capital means higher education must be at the top of its game while governments and industry will need to find ways to maximize that academic and creative capital. 

In other words, we will want to put to good use our college graduates if we want to maximize the cost of higher education as a method of societal return (That doesn't take away from the arguments of other improvements we can make in higher education. There are always ways to improve every system but it may only be one problem in a situation that requires multiple solutions.). Likewise, since we are working older and longer, and as the digital economy develops, we will rely less on manual labor as a primary source of revenue (Think of wearable robotics where skill is more important than pure muscle as an economic input. Another example, if I near retirement age and am working remotely, or for contract, I may decide to work part time but stay involved in my field.) 

That is not a discussion on the specific costs of higher education, form, curriculum, design, etc. but more on education being an important input into the development of an innovative nation (There are probably some numbers out there that can shed light on the value of higher education and its return rate. Those numbers are likely to be somewhat limited because there are wider benefits and costs that don't lend themselves easily to current benchmarks. i.e. like does person with a higher education commit less crimes, more happy, help/hurt the environment, less/more medical costs, lives longer, has a higher/lower carbon footprint, knowledge semination, invent more things, produces more value, etc.).

Anyway, you get my point that metrics are only slices of the whole phenomenon and sometimes miss a significant portion of soft economic value. We should adjust our metrics from time to time to keep us from being blinded to the full picture (Most are users of metrics and some are creators of them. Metrics should continuously be improving their reflectiveness of actual events.).....

Depending on which economic philosophy one adheres there are going to be a couple of ways to tackle the higher education funding problem. Some will say government should pay for education (free, subsidized, loan forgiveness, etc.) and some will say the free market should handle it (corporate individuals, families, non profits, etc.).

I'm an advocate of free market solutions as long as those free market solutions are providing opportunities for everyone. In other words, they are free from manipulation (i.e. the dying off of small business and slowing of American development could be an indication its not completely free from manipulation and somewhere in our policies/politics we will need to make an adjustment. Higher innovation happens when small businesses are continuously developing to either innovate existing larger MNCs through acquisition or grow into companies themselves through investment in bringing new products and services to market. We must not forget what small business does for improving wealth opportunities on a grass roots level. Something we might need more than ever as a nation that will now show it can run to keep up its top spot! 🤷) We want to maintain the value of opportunity to encourage people to be the best they can be and rise from the bottom to the top to create circulation in government, business, and social positions so as to widen the adaptive lens.

The point is that free markets offer solutions because when the market functions in balance in naturally seeks to solve problems through developing new products services based on competitive need (fair competition). With the right policies we often don't need to make corrections in hindsight like student loan forgiveness. It costs the government little to nothing if it creates the right business environment that fosters start ups and small business to generate new wealth. Where or how we fund the education is a matter of politics and needs. What I can say is that when its truly a free market, the need for knowledge/skill will rise and the value of higher education will become more important. (In other words, it will be a self-correcting system that creates balance.) 

A balanced economic system is preferred to an unbalanced one where the various sectors of an economy are not growing together. To me its always better to go back and fix the roots of a problem (i.e. free market ) so as to not need to make economic "corrections" in an effort to try and rebalance the opportunity pendulum (Profit and opportunity will consistently be behind unless you fix the free market system to get ahead of the problem so that different opportunities are being created at different economic stratums of society. Perhaps there are some legal or policy changes that can adjust the entire chain that creates a market environment that provides more natural incentives for people to start businesses and regenerate their neighborhoods. It is a little more of a free market, capitalist type approach based in natural human needs that gives value to organic local development.)

No matter if we fund or don't fund higher education through "correction programs" we will still need to ensure education raises the value of our human capital in a way that has tangible benefits for the broadest beneficiaries of society. Those beneficiaries range from business development to individuals seeking to take advantage of the Digital Era (Society is at it its most stable point when opportunities are abundant and able to be taken up by those who have the desire to improve their lot in life. It is the best path all around. Unstable societies are marked by disparity in life, subjective laws, lack of opportunity, impermeable social hierarchies, mismanagement/corruption, and unnecessary culture degradation/segregation. ) 

You may be interested in a study on the value of higher education to spurring economic growth. Using UNESCO data of 15,000 universities from 1,500 regions across 78 countries between 1950 to 2010 and found that a 10% increase in universities per capita leads to a .4% increase in future GDP from that region (Valero & Reenen, 2019). In theory, I suppose if one were do do this with student debt, degrees per capita, universities per capita, it might be possible to find a fuller picture of impact of education on the economy (I can only say I don't know because I never went through and looked at the many different sources to compare them to come up with an answer based upon the best information we have available today to find the ranges.)

In summary, higher education provides greater growth and opportunity for business, the economy, and people. The dollar figure of that growth and opportunity is a deep economic question with experts likely to provide numbers all over the map (There will be significant variability among economists assuming they are not copying from each other by using the same exact metrics and methods. Changing around metrics changes around the economic picture.) In other words, its not an argument on the value of higher education itself but the economical ideology of funding that value. 

Valero, A. & Reenen, J. (2019). The economic impact of universities: Evidence from across the globe.
Economics of Education Review, 68, 53-67 Retrieved 10-18-22 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718300414

Michigan Is Top State for Political Ad Spending: Money Doesn't Buy Character!!

“Worthless people live only to eat

and drink; people of worth eat

and drink only to live.”

                        – Socrates 

(If you think Halloween is scary just
watch politics! The only crystal ball
you insight you get into others is
their character.)

Michigan is an important state not only geographically but politically and economically. It is part of the economic redevelopment of the U.S. in advanced manufacturing, pushing the green energy change, and climate change with protection, education and economic development of the Great Lakes. It is also a place where politics will be very important because it may influence the direction of national politics (Let us just watch what happens with some of our politicians and potential future candidates on a national level.)

At present Democrats are outspending Republicans in Michigan legislative races: $22.6 million vs. $6.6. (There are a few reasons why that is happening and I suspect they have something to do with marketing/messaging methods, candidates, and focus on important topics. Sometimes we discuss things that are party important but are not AS important as other issues to the general public. That is something to keep in mind if you ever go into politics and want to understand alignment of messaging around shared needs. Its not party specific but more of a general brand issue.)

(Sorry I have to put a plug in about energy. I'm for green development and creation of a more robust energy grid that is safer and can use multiple forms of energy; whether green or not. With the events as they relate to cut oil production we should be able to fill declines in supply with other sources. Even better if its only temporary. Thus, oil, green, nuclear, dispersed solar, etc. can all be helpful when they are needed but we should move relatively quickly to green as much as possible. Likewise, redundancy within the energy system is also helpful with local and regional sources of energy.)

You will want to read this article....Michigan is top in the nation for ad spending in state legislature races

(If your from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan you can see your district on Final District and Map.  I think we are in Senate District 38 and I didn't see increased advertising in the report.) 

Here is some advice I can give on political parties and voting. I'm a light right Republican and have seen lots of great ideas (and bad ones) come from both sides. I lean Republican because of my essential conservative values and that doesn't often resonate with the subjectivity of the far far Right or far far Left. So my advice is to pick the candidate you believe will do the best job regardless of party. It is the person you believe deep down will choose the will of the people and the betterment of their state/nation over their own career or political flattery (You don't know a person until they are faced with only bad choices and they will have to lose to do the right thing. Integrity is something we should expect from those in leadership positions.) You will know by watching them, staying focused on their core message, and the natural/real language they provide. Mostly you will know them by their ability to be wrong and be ok with that because that is an integrity issue and also leads to better long-term decision making. Over confident, self involved, and hyper social create problems for everyone else around them and they shouldn't have influence over our institutions and resources  (Its a general statement about responsibility and duty) We are designed to understand these things from the context of the information, the root assumptions of candidates logic, para/body language, and the general context of their beliefs. Think about selecting people who will support our national objectives even if they are not popular with others. You can dump money into ads but you can't build character (The same thing can be said about leadership skills.)