The blog discusses current affairs and development of national economic and social health through unique idea generation. Consider the blog a type of thought experiment where ideas are generated to be pondered but should never be considered definitive as a final conclusion. It is just a pathway to understanding and one may equally reject as accept ideas as theoretical dribble. New perspectives, new opportunities, for a new generation. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”—Thomas Jefferson
Dr. Powell discusses the state of the economy. Is the porridge too hot, too cold, just right or something else??? As the labor market gets tight and technology further pushes itself into the Digital Era there will be natural implementation of new technologies. Different types of skills are needed and they are going to be less labor oriented and more creative in design in order to maintain that innovative development through natural human motivation. Maybe not? No one really knows but its interesting to think about.
Over the course of my life I have met many people of many different backgrounds from all over the globe. There are some who will make it and many who will not. None of it has to do with their background, wealth, religion, race, or origin. Those who do make it have certain traits and inner core values when compared to those who struggle to accomplish the basics. Fundamentally, it comes down who we are as a person and what we want out of this life.
The mediocre often want to tear down those who strive for a greater purpose because change requires them to self-reflect how they view themselves and the world in which they live. It is their misperception that holds them back and when someone represents difference, depending on the perceived level of that difference, they begin to push away that which is bright.
The next time someone rips you for being a little different, ask, "Which side of "truth" are they on?" What they don't understand is they do not "see" you through the transparency of a glass window, but only gazing into a mirror at a person they do not really know well. People fill in their own blanks.
Life is a story, let's turn the page.....
*Some implied swearing.
**The article is designed to help people think and be inspirational for those who want to accomplish something beneficial in life and want to stay motivated. I encourage young people to think about their inner value. Sometimes we don't all come from prestigious backgrounds but that doesn't mean we can't contribute to society. Often those that are quickly discarded are the one's who are trying to improve their world. We just sometimes prejudge people, things, and other's motivations without really knowing what we are looking at. If you didn't notice. You are looking at yourself. What you see defines you as a person. So start self-reflecting.......turn your own page.......its story book? No? 🤷
Detroit is a beloved city and I like to watch how she has been progressing (I think Detroit is a She? or He? I'm not sure. 🤷). We also thought we lost the auto industry but we now have made a full circle back to bring it where it belongs....in Michigan. Our world is going to start changing very rapidly in a few years and new technologies many of us have never seen will be hitting the market. Most of that is going to happen is likely to happen in the next 5 years.+-
When we first lost a big investment to another state, I was concerned but then a couple of smaller announcements came out that hinted the EV market was likely to head this way (Michigan has a unique investor aroma.). The state turn around success came from pushing on the gas peddle at exactly the right time when the market was scrambling for investment safe haven and when the market was fidgeting. Michigan offered a solution (Some would say pure luck, but I would say a strategic choice by the state in a fog/murky waters as investors were unsure of what to do next. When you offer something at the time it solves a problem, the world responds. Sometimes you get luck and sometimes you don't.)
Other semi-related light economic reading (Its not necessarily directly related but it is part of a trend and there is some relation between economies that are becoming entrepreneurial oriented {I know someone must be chuckling out other}. Yes, Esky could be a itself a start up lab. I'm not saying it is, but I suppose one could do that if there was enough pack investing going on and easy in and out access. Detroit is on a large scale and Escanaba is on a small scale. Both have been punched in the gut when executives sold out for a few pennies on the share and went overseas. {Welcome back! Didn't work out?😂} If both systems function it could make a case for an avenue national scale {Infrastructure+Advanced Manufacturing/Digital Era Tech+Human Capital = Market Lead}. I mean in hypothetical abstraction land of Axis Mundi): Hedge Invest, EV-MI Infrastructure, Keep on Truckin!, Esky Jail, Forest Process, Esky Business and Fun, Esky Downtown, SME, Ford Doubles Down, Ford 2 billion, CEO Venture, GM President, GM Announces, Pure MI, Esky EMP, Digital Capital,Made in America, ShipBuilding, Start-up Esky, Full Bloom, Escanaba Harbor, Esky Redevelop, The Queen, China Trade, $5 Billion MI, Could MI EV, US Outperform China, Digital Explosions? (I wonder if cities can partner to bring executives up here to Escanaba. It used to be a straight 1 hour flight to the Detroit. I'm thinking a few design firms for testing new auto technology and parts would make sense. A place to come and be creative. An amazingly different environment with creative juices everywhere. An opportunity to expose and connect. Lots of land!)
The DOJ releases a very negative and somewhat startling report on the Louisville police department. I'm saddened as an American about this and feel that we should have known better and done more. For those who know me, I'm an American and an "American" and live in both worlds a little (I can't explain it right now. Its about social structure, resources, friends, access and opportunity.). I'm 100% for police and 110% for Civil Rights. Thus, to me policing must always follow good conduct and do what is in the best interest of society.
(Normal silly political discourse isn't going to solve this problem so its up to our politicians to get serious about focusing on the needs of our nation. We have challenges we have to face and human capital loss is eroding our opportunities as non-essential things are debated. We don't get "do overs" if we drop the torch in this generation and we become #2. Were fumbling a little too much.)
I've had three interactions with local police and they were all positive (Even though I think they don't have the resources to follow up on things). One was when a person on accident hit the back of my parked car and the second time when a tire fell off my son's car due to what appeared to be mechanic error (There could be other causes such as faulty equipment, not tightening the bolt, tampering, etc. The mechanic actually said tampering and put it in written form.).
All three were positive so that is good for the most part. The first was a Black officer and White officer, second was a White officer (technically St. Matthews) and the third was an Asian officer (Due to an accident I think the mechanic may have caused. I can only use the word "may" accurately.). Yet, I have heard stories of the opposite being true and I sense the anger in some of the communities who feel like they don't count. We have to change our inclusiveness approach so to encourage a stronger more universal democracy (I think from a systems perspective, a strategic perspective, a historical perspective and as a separate moral system that falls in line with that. They are all telling me change is needed and its somewhat apparent. The larger historical line is solid but the local social line is mixed. This is also likely why the Feds are more Constitutional focused and locally its more socially based so its an inner discussion among various crowds.)
Yet, the city is highly segregated and it breaks my heart that it is so. I see life in that city and I believe it it has real value to start bridging the racial divide. I will say something that I think is important. While my interactions with police were positive and polite, I have had a few very rude comments by a few businesses that is indicative of some underlying cultural distortions. These are embedded into some of the "inner crowds" as defined by wealthy, right side of town, elite education and perceived "pedigree" (btw I love elite education but we draw too heavily from it as a society. To me, the guy or gal that beats all odds, has proven inner core of resilience, is way more valuable then a person who experienced a life of open doors and unwarranted bragging about so so performance. The best and brightest can be drawn from any background, rich or poor, but the poor who climb are have already been credentialed through actual performance. At least, in my limited perspective.)
One attorney denigrated a Muslim Black woman who died saying something along the lines of "Around here no one cares about people like her. {Referring to her race and religion.} Not in Louisville anyway!". This is what self-entitled people often do when something doesn't go their way. I responded something along the lines, "Well, you are a boarder state between north and south so I suppose there are mixed feelings in the area. Good thing your side lost the Civil War." I also mentioned I like golf too because of his age and his relish in his dad's money, skin color and "inner crowd". He got upset and hung up.
(The sad thing is that I think I'm a very reasonable guy and will switch my perspective if it seems more logical to construct the data, things I have learned and experienced, in a new way. I do it all the time and I love it when someone points something out that changes my assumptions. I do not like it when people just throw conjecture in an attempt to confuse or intimidate people. Its a perversion of truth that bothers me. To me, truth is what makes us more accurate and makes us more functional as a society.)
The other incident was a guy at a business who called my adult mixed race son "boy" and that should be seen as unacceptable in the modern business world. Yet, you can't really fix these things without full universalization of our systems because they are embedded into the souls of others and how they interact with people (Remember these are interpretations and my interpretation could be wrong but is not unwarranted). We have also allowed politics to foreshadow very important fundamental rights about our fellow human beings and creates some underlining mistrust. The grotesque has become "fashionable" in some circles (See above.). I know that very deeply. We have few to no positive options if we do not change. Wisdom tells me that its becoming a central moral and human capital issue that is slowly dwarfing any other national problem.
I'm proud we live in a country where most people are trying to do the right thing. That is not everyone. However, the vast majority of the society still believes in the American cause of a free human spirit. I appreciate the good work of the DOJ (Trust me, there is always room for improvement, but in this case they are stepping up to the plate for a fundamental and constitutionally protected core American beliefs. We will change and adapt as a society because it is the most logical option going forward. We can no longer afford the grotesque and be able to look at ourselves in the mirror in the same way. The more honest we are, the more we build trust.)
My recommendation is be positive, polite, challenge hate, encourage others to correct the wrong, encourage higher value systems and increased engagement. Some of the work will be needed in our national leadership to focus on what is most important, be philosophically educated on our values, and make decisions that are more in line with their conscious. We just need to "do the right thing" and everything else will sort of work out the way we need it to. The question is, "What is the right thing?" Polices and Procedures in Organizations
Ok I have to admit this isn't as fun as watching the county's commissioner's meeting (Its supposed to be interesting from what I heard.). Other then the upheaval when they found out the jail redevelopment project had missing money, the city has been on a steady progressive growth pace and the news is less juicy but certainly good for investors. (The money theft story is that a granny mastermind hacker who used her advanced computer skills to send her west coast web spiders to various global locations to snatch city coffers through a simple {Pay Here} button. Unlikely I think. Still working on mastering the flip phone I think. 🤷 I'm still kind of curious if any of the money will be recovered.).
Economic change starts small but then grows over time. It is the momentum that counts because that is where adjustments occur in terms of increased change. We had new Swedish investments in a couple of companies and those appear to be significant and focused in a couple of key industries. They also have potential as a sign of increased demand for their products. More to come on all of that I'm sure. For now we got big investments that will start making their mark this summer (Billerud + State MI Infrastructure Investment + ? = ?. I always throw question marks in because it helps me think of other possibilities).
(Going off topic for a second. Before Covid we used to have a Swedish restaurant on Ludington Street that has been there for years but I heard they didn't reopen after the lock down. I'm going to tell someone tomorrow that the Swedish are investing in the area because they had the best tasting Swedish meatballs ever anywhere on the planet at the Swedish restaurant on the main street while on vacation a few years ago. They loved the place and decided to move here for a while. They were attracted to the best tasting meat ball worldwide known locally as the "Pasty" {pronounced Past-E}Will this story still be around in a few years and what will it look like? History of Pasties. Sorry light hearted humor. Its late. zzzzz)
Notes (I try to be accurate so please post a comment if I was inaccurate.)
-Michigan Catholic Conference. Concerned about adaptation of an amendment.
-50K Chipper. 1989! Wow!
-Senate Bill 19. Tax tribunal act with county board of revision. Anything over $600K would have to go through court instead of State employees. Senate Bill 19. Pass
-Gov. Whitmer announces Community Revitalization Projects across MI. $12 Million Hospital, 2 Million Handcock grocery store, need Redevelopment Ready Community.
I pulled some information about these programs so as to understand what the lady is talking about. Private investment, Michigan communities, strategy, fund, job growth, etc. all sound positive. Sometimes it is the way in which we view problems that limits our abilities to move resources to the right place at the time they are needed. That is what models do, they create a way of looking at things.
In this case, the model is focused on highlighting ways to create community revitalization. MCRP Program Outline.
"The Michigan Community Revitalization Program (MCRP) is an incentive program to promote private investment in Michigan communities. Administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) on behalf of the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF), this tool provides Michigan communities with access to real estate development gap financing for innovative and/or impactful placemaking, historical redevelopment and/or job growth in targeted sectors."
We do need to have some goal with all of this government activity and trumpeting. What is the purpose?
"The focus of the MCRP is to transform underutilized properties into vibrant areas by encouraging and promoting capital investment and the redevelopment of brownfield and historic properties located in or in support of traditional downtowns1 and high-impact corridors in every region of the state. Community revitalization will attract talent through innovative and/or impactful placemaking by accelerating private investment in areas of historical disinvestment, fostering redevelopment of functionally obsolete properties, reducing blight, and supporting the rehabilitation of historic resources."
-DDA restaurant week in Esky. I went out and had some delicious food. We have fish fries, buffets, Asian cuisine, Italian, Swedish, and even some excellent greasy bar food. Try the popcorn at
-Officer Dag gets a certificate. My guess would be a drug bust.
-Closed discussion. Awesome job attorney for having them formalize the process for full disclosure. Keeps everything nice and clean; especially if there are things out of the ordinary.
(I wonder if they have a concession stand for intermission/half time. )
-They voted to allow the attorney to work with the city. Ok....I need more info on this please. 🤓 Maybe its just a formality. (My guess is that its tax season, so it probably has something to do with taxes. New stores coming in the area so I would think maybe related to bigger sort of questions on commercial and/or retail taxes. 67% I bet its commercial taxes. I might be wrong.)
The Ohio train derailment was a terrible event and raises all types of new questions and issues. I came across this posting if anyone wants to donate water. Firefighters watch these incidents to learn from them and find better ways of preventing and handling. I'm a light R and keep up with the news. This came through email so it might be a nice event to donate water. I do not know the people putting on the collection but if its of value to you then that is great. (I don't really care which way you vote as long as you thinking about it and make sure you are an informed citizen. )
This is incident is why I'm thinking we need a stronger Haz response team locally. We have rail and things like that so its just good to have the knowledge set available. To me, I think its important to look at the area and say, "What is it going to look like in 5 years and how do I start thinking about how to prepare for that?" New businesses and money mean different response capacity so we should get ahead of the curve.
(Adding the flyer is not an endorsement or not not an endorsement. I used to care about politics but am more into finding solutions so I feel that just taking the Rino-Dino approach is the best for now. The political landscape has changed and some of the people in politics I'm concerned about in terms of values so I'm just orphaned for a moment. (Ok...I'm probably more Old Guard but with lots of liberal friends. Not sure where that puts me anymore. So I will wait and see. Let pages turn on their own so to speak.)
Anyway, I advocate for more creative ways to fund better responses to events like this (I kind of hand an unvented insurance savings idea and how to reroute that to a general first responder fund.Not sure on how to do that exactly but I'm thinking about it in a few different ways.) To me, simply being engaged and encouraging preparedness is important and I hope very much that we continue to develop locally on many different fronts. Planning and preparedness is helpful and important in any community. Some communities need more preparation than others.
(I post things because I find them interesting. I have a few local politicians I like but they are kind of on both sides of the perspective. There are a couple of others I like to watch because I want to see how things sort of turn out. Overall.....its the way things are done.....I know that.......but it just seems we waste a lot of time and energy on fighting when we should be pushing our country to develop.)
There are some changes in the USMC and I believe them to be designed to retain strong talent and bring in fresh new talent. We are in a different world when compared to 30 years ago. The Marines are a highly trained force with core values that tie them together throughout the ages. It is a system of honor as much as a fighting system. Some changes are occurring and the skills will likely adjust somewhat to encourage new adaptive traits.
(Remember that we are moving beyond the physical now. The Digital Era brings with it new ways of doing things and its is highly science oriented)
We are in an increasingly complex world and while the same physical abilities will be needed they will also be augmented by technology that will require new skills. Where one may have done well on one kind fighting platform (physical) they must now be able to incorporate real time data streaming technology into a complex battlefield that integrates two platforms (augmented reality).
Not all brains are ready to deal with the complexity of multiple activities going on in different planes of existence/sensory 'reality' (physical and digital) at the same time. Throw into that the complexity of a bird's eye theoretical strategic view and you will likely see mental filters start popping up to reduce information overload. Working memory and capacity is limited.
Thus, some of the criteria are changing for the world of advanced tech fighting and there will be an addition to the required skills of a unit that might include certain cognitive abilities that are rare from an evolutionary standpoint. When you are dealing with the general population certain cognitive creative abilities that often come with high IQ and dense neural networks are often neurotypical (Meaning they are outside the bell curve.)
As technology advances, I would suspect they will look for increasingly a subset of the population that has certain physical and neural characteristics. Age ranges may get wider for certain positions. Since they are rare, one could foresee integrating them into units based on certain duties designed specifically for them beyond the physical capacity (Maybe not. Let us see how advanced technology implementation unfolds.).
I'm not so much going to discuss the individual policy but more along the lines of general recruitment of advanced modern fighters that have unique developmental potential. See AI and the Navy and Human Robot Connection. These models are likely to teach us much about how human's process stimulation and react to their environment. The deeper neural densities of decision making is becoming increasingly important.
Staying on top of game will require new methods of recruitment, deeper educational/training models, and an industry that advances and applies innovative technology quickly to maintain leading battlefield edge (i.e. short lead time). The nature of success here seems to be proper military and non-military advanced strategic management techniques that will likely require new industry-government partnerships.
