We Don't Need More Babies, We Need More Adults

I can't believe this clip is not all over ever Sunday show and not getting more attention. It sums up what is wrong with Speaker Ryan specifically and current Republicans in general: old ideas, archaic solutions.

Take the real issue of aging Boomers- facts are facts- but we don't need more babies in the world or in the U.S. to solve this issue. The last thing a world of 7.5 billion needs is more people adding to an already exploding, unsustainable population. Instead we need healthier citizens, collaborative technology, and less wasted resources.

Here are some solutions we should try instead of becoming breeders for Boomers:

• More Peace 
• Hire Diplomats: The State Department has cut the budget for diplomats under Rex Tillerson. We need more diplomatic efforts and deals cut in the world vs saving pennies and spending billions on another war or defending escalating aggression on foreign soil. 
• Military Contracts: War is profitable for many. The Military-Industrial Complex is incentivized to keep us on war-footing in order to secure their lucrative contracts. Want to save money: war less. 

• More Wellness
• Healthier Citizens: Everything from the food and water supply, environmental pollution, and healthcare options need to be our focus if we want to keep the aging and current population as well and active as possible. When we over-work, over-stress, and under care for folks it costs us far more than a wellness based approach would.  
• Better Research: Alzheimers alone can take down the U.S. healthcare system if we don't get a handle on it. Not only is it a devastating disease for the patient but the family is often stuck between raising their children, working, and caring for parents. It's depleting their work, community involvement, and quality of life. We need to fund research and have better programs to care for those affected.

• More Equity
• Fair Taxes: Wealthy Americans need people to buy their goods and services, educate their kids, clean their homes, wax their boats, and keep their lifestyle going. If they hoard their wealth the middle class will dwindle and not only will it be un-Christian and bad for business, it is bad for the general welfare of the country that allowed them to prosper. 

• More Freedom
• Healthcare Rights: Restricting birthcontrol, abortion, and a safety-net for women to choose what works for their families cost our country. To be clear: more babies aren't free.
• Death with Dignity: Put the fact that most costs are incurred in the last few months of life aside and just allow folks to decide what works for them and their family. Have restrictions in place so that abuse is minimized but not only would it save billions but what speaks more to our freedom then let us decide when and how we want to die. 

• More Smarts
• Better Education: Education investments have priceless ROI: keeps kids safe, advances prospects for a better society, makes kids more employable for future, and could spark the next technology wave. 
• Better Infrastructure: High speed transportation is a key to everything from jobs and the environment to how to provide a better quality of life for our citizens. 

I could go on and on... immigration reform, prison reform, election reform. There are endless issues that can be solved if we came together as a country. The Republican taxcuts are about to give corporations and the 1% billions of dollars... or we could make all of the above investments and not only help The Boomers but invest in our entire society. 

We don't need more babies, we need more adults who are willing to lead our country forward with smart solutions.

E-Z CA$H

Recently I've been obsessed with money. Not my normal area of interest, which might be the reason I'm now hyper-sensitive to it  😉  ...  but for various reasons I've been focused on the generation, flow, and exchange of money.

My friend Vickie and I even meet weekly for a Money Club that started after we read Jen Sincero's You Are A Badass At Making Money. I loved this book because it takes on money not as a heavy topic but more as a way to up your energy... a game... a Hi-Vibe way of being in the world.

And of course whatever you focus on expands, so in the last few weeks I've been fascinated with everything from digital and crypto-currency to money apps. 

There are currently several money exchange avenues but none have jelled and caught fire. Banks offer their programs and PayPal's Venmo is popular among the kids these days.

But what I want is an E-ZPass for the Internet where I can exchange money not just out in the world but also online without a big deal every time I want to do it.

I think the Cash App is almost there.

Simple, beautiful interface, and I think with this added game-changing feature it could be the new face of money...

My idea  💡 

Create a CA$H icon/button on social media bar (& 🛒 ) for websites that links to their account so you can micro-tip/spend until you want to CA$H out.

I suggested this idea first for Square but I think it's even a better fit under the CA$H umbrella.  Cash-tags can be used with url's for every site on web even if they don't want to sign up until there is money donated/sent to them. Imagine how it can transform the way charities, journalists, artists, politicians, etc. are funded.

We use E-ZPass to get around tollways, E-Z CA$H can be how we move money. 

                                   

Trump & Twitter: Don't Delete ⛔️, Stop ❤️s & Retweet 🔃

The President of our country is now threatening war on Twitter weekly and it's scary as hell! 

I get the dilemma: Twitter thinks it's doing a public service by providing direct access to the news worthy leader of our country; 45's critics say it's an abuse of the platform.

Solution: Let him tweet (so we have the record for history, for Mueller, and for monitoring) but stop the spread of his tweets by cutting off the ability for him to get ❤️s and retweets.

This compromise allows him to go on record but not use Twitter to spread the threats/war speech.

It's hard to believe Chief of Staff Kelly, FLOTUS (with her anti-bullying campaign) and his children have yet to stop this destructive habit but since they haven't we need to patch together a fix that will stop the spread while keeping an eye on what we need to know as a nation.


Note: Probably good idea for him not to be able to retweet any non-verified accounts as well but let's start with baby-steps.

Will Mark & Jack Cause WWIII? or Save US From It?

We were cyber attacked by Russia during the 2016 election and it's not OK. I mean it's really really not OK. And the astonishing thing is Russia shot a weapon at the U.S. and we're going to let them reload for 2018 like there is nothing we can do about it.

There is!

We need to demand that Facebook and Twitter either get their services under control or take them offline and shut them down while any and all voting is taking place in our country. We don't let this type of sabotage and not only false advertising but blanket foreign propaganda on our airways we can not allow it on our other media platforms as well.

I'm no tech expert but there must be a way to block IP addresses that spam, unleash bots, or are found to be connected with nefarious foreign sources. Start a volunteer bot-army brigade that provides the company with suspected violators- I'm sure your communities would step up to help. Or just spit-balling here...how about asking Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney to head bi-partisan group to work with both the government and Silicon Valley to unite behind American Commission on Cyber Safety.

We now have Russia sitting back and relishing Trump starting tough talk with other nations. Who knows how far this will go? Are we going to let our enemies use our own technology against us?

I am a huge fan of Twitter and before they screwed with my feed (another rant for another day) loved Facebook as well. I dare say they have been two of the best inventions of our time. But with great power comes great responsibility and these two brilliant guys need to know their country needs them to put our nation's sovereignty and well being before their shareholders and even their customers. 

Tech-war could start a real war and there is no like-ing our way back from all the loss of life, treasure, and progress this will cause. I'm calling on Mark and Jack to step up and stand up for their companies to stop aiding and abetting our enemies.

Come one guys, I know you want to do good in the world - now's your time!

Donny Saves The Dems!

Bill Maher has been making the point for years that Democrats need better messaging. Dan Savage summarizes it perfectly in above clip and in his recent interview with Katie Couric (@ 47:30) reinforces the point... wording is the key to Democrats swaying "reachable" voters.

Democrats need to have clear concise messaging that all of them can get behind:

Universal Healthcare vs Single Payer
Earned Benefits vs Entitlements
Marriage Equality vs Gay Marriage
Estate Tax vs Death Tax

People don't want to be forced to think about: paying, giving entitlements, gay sex, and taking away a widow's money. Don't even get me started on Global Warming! But Americans do want: healthcare, benefits, equality, and for the uber wealthy to pay their share.

But who can lead the country to this new wave of power-packed words as political weapons?

As much as I love Dan Savage (Bill Maher too) and as much as we need them to come along we need someone a tad less crude to lead this parade... so I nominate Donny Deutsch!

Donny lead an advertising company, is politically savvy, hates what #45 is doing to the country, and loves a BIG IDEA.

I envision a think-tank type environment [ for now we'll call it: Word D Institute ] that brings together political minds, artists, creatives, social justice activists, and marketing mavens to create simple clear one page, one theme, one soundbite (with talking points) messages.

Unseating Trump is not a strategy that can be banked upon, but getting prepared to focus the conversation, seeding the way, and getting excited for '18 needs to be where all the energy goes.

Donny are you in?

The Pence Stake

Mueller might take too long and there are threats of a revolt and violence if Congress makes a move to impeach... so now there is only one clear path to getting 45 to go and that is by making Republicans do it themselves. 

And the only way they will is to tie them to him and have them firmly stake their future on his.

Mike Pence is a constitutional officer who has sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He was the head of the Trump transition team, has a security clearance, gets regular briefings, talks to the president daily, and I'm assuming also has a TV, internet access, and a subscription to a paper or two. If he doesn't know what's going on at this point, he can't claim himself commanding enough to lead our country at any time in the future.  

Therefore, it is now time to demand that Vice President Pence either get Donald Trump to step down or stake his own personal reputation and future to Trump's. He has more access to knowledge, intelligence, and occasions to observe 45's erratic behavior then almost anyone and it is literally his job to step up if the president is not capable of commanding the country. Every reporter should ask:

Is Trump physically, mentally, and morally up to leading our nation? 

Yes or no?

The follow up:

If President Trump is ever found to have committed crimes or enrichment against U.S. interests will you stand behind Mueller's findings and commit to not pardoning his behavior and let all consequences stand?

If he wants to stand there with all the smoke swirling around Trump, his campaign, his business profiteering, and his policy making then Pence must stake his honor firmly and unwaveringly.

Pence has a rule he will not be in a room alone with a woman who is not his wife, he should have as high of standards to not serve a man who is this corrupt, dangerous, dividing and damaging to our nation. Let's get him on the record now and clearly.

He's either a man of honor or of complacency; it's time to make him choose which.

_________________________________________________________________

Note: We need same 1st question asked of all Cabinet Secretaries with follow up: 

If President Trump is ever found to have committed crimes or enrichment against U.S. interests will you seek to rally and get behind a 25th Amendment remedy? 

_________________________________________________________________
09.18.2017 Update: 

This sums up Pence issue clearly. He knows Trump is ill-equipped to run the country but pretends he doesn't which is not only fraudulently authentic it is a danger to our country:

Beyond Complicit Ivanka Is Now Explicit

The SNL sketch was biting and brilliant but already too mild for what is currently underway at the White House. Ivanka has been given mostly a pass because she seemed polished and polite and by golly who can fault a daughter for supporting her dear old dad?

Not anymore!

The First Daughter it turns out has been participating in some shady business deals connected with her father for years. And as smoothly as her introduction speech went at the RNC it is time to stop giving her a pass. She has now stepped literally and figuratively into this administration, with or without a title, and is now directly linked to this presidency.

Today she is beyond passively complicit, her participation is now clearly explicit.

ex·plic·it

stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt

synonyms:

clear, plain, straightforward, crystal clear, easily understandable

There is no longer any doubt where she stands and what power she has to influence her father. As if her husband's appointment wasn't enough, going forward they will not be able to simply brush off the ties to whatever policies and predicaments he now inflicts in his path.

There is still a small chance that she is jumping in to try and right this ship before it ruins our country and what's left of her name. We can give her an opening to try. But unless it's swift, transparent, and in the service of all Americans she will be giving up any leeway she has been given. 

Country before party, profits, and paternal loyalty. We need a hero... and our climate, our healthcare, and our peace at home and abroad all depend on someone reining in this ridiculous circus before irreparable harm is done.  

Congratulations Ivanka, with your shiny new security clearance and West Wing office you now have no plausible deniability for whatever #45 gets the citizens of the U.S. and the world into. Please ask yourself how you will want your daughter (and sons) to feel about what you and her father enable her grandfather to do to our country.