View From Here

Like voting is to governance, breathing is to life. Each are necessary actions. Breathing is an autonomic function of the body. It breathes because oxygen is required to live. Air goes into the lungs and exchanges for carbon dioxide expelled by the body. In and out, over and over again. It does not require our will to do this. It just does it because everything else in the body requires it. Voting, however, is not automatic. It must be done consciously. The election cycle is set up, ballots are prepared, polling places arranged, and voters show up to cast their votes on candidates and referenda. Knowing who is who and what is what, the voter needs to read or hear information on the referenda questions on the ballot, as well as the candidates who have agreed to perform their duties if elected. The voter must make a decision on all of these matters before casting a ballot. Many voters do not study beforehand. They enter the polling place and vote by some unseen flow of ideas. Whether...

A problem needs a solution, and someone comes up with the solution. That creation has value to the person in need of it. A measure of the value does not exist until enough people know of it and express a need or want of it. If they wish to buy it, use it or somehow benefit from it, then what they pay creates a known value for it. That specific solution may be a process or a physical product, thing. The value of things generally is much easier to create. Processes are not as easy to value.   Still, a dollar value emerges. A person writes a book. It is published and sold to the public. It has a value as stated by the publisher. If the stated price is too high, the price is lowered so the number of books sold increases to exhaust the inventory. It the price is too low the books will sell out and another edition is likely to be printed. Either way, a price becomes a settled matter given conditions of sale and acceptance. A person writes a play. If a producer likes it enough to cr...

The title simply means that I totally believe that Donald Trump is up to no good, knows it and has a core of people and organizations committed to the same. Obviously, they don’t all agree on the how and when but destroying the old connections and relationships of the federal government is something they believe are so horrid that only good comes from total destruction. Unhappily, that destruction will harm millions of people, including me. I survive totally on social security benefits, a system I paid into my entire life, while also donating tons of time, talent and money to others to build a stronger social order. I have paid my dues. I do not deserve to be unfunded, excoriated or in any other way debased. I’m one of the good guys. I care about people and do my best work when I focused on others, not myself. That’s how it works the best. But MAGA and Trump evidently believe otherwise. Who do they think taught their children? Who do they think came to the aid of their family m...

I do not agree with current White House governance. Period. It is un-American. It goes against our entire history. This is not who we are. On top of that, I unconsciously built a career on helping people. Later I realized what I had done and internally celebrated my life mattered to countless people. My career efforts and those of my colleagues, mattered. Still matters. The beat of our accomplishments goes on and on through many generations. Not doing what we did, undoing what we did, is simply not possible. Therefore, we and others need to continue doing all these things. This is a form of resistance to the Trumpism of 2025. Another form of resistance is to avow not voting for anyone who is or appears to be supportive of the Trump mindset. MAGA assumes America is not great. I disagree with that. We are pretty damn good. We have problems that need fixing. A clumsy, slow and awkward court system is one such example. It is salvageable. It has to be, or our tripartite form of govern...

The American story is one of invention and creation. Confronted with a problem, individuals and groups of people have focused their attention on solving problems. One after another, sometimes integrated solutions for several problems that emerged as connected. Our space race discovered many issues that produced processes, technology and production of new products and services. Those have become our everyday tools and experience. I remember a time before portable radios. In my teens I owned a transistor radio that went everywhere with me. A year or so earlier such a product was not possible. So much technology was discovered in federally funded military and space related projects. GPS is one such invention that is now commonplace in our cars and even iPhones. The iPhone itself is another such invention. An entrepreneur focuses on something he/she feels is unique that is solvable. The solution becomes the core of a small business. Other related issues expand the original small bu...

No, not the TV game show with Bob Barker as host, the real world where truth and non-truths exist. Each truth has consequences. So do the non-truths. Yet, in today’s American world, so much is said and shared it is difficult to know what is true and what is not. Used to be when a president said something, we relied on it as true, factual, and historical. Not anymore. Mr. Trump has built a reputation of postulating, claiming and declaring a lot of things. Most of the time they are lies, errors, deliberate misspeaks, and manipulation. Trump’s communication methods are the core of his con man personality. He misleads deliberately to create room to baffle others to accept a smidgen of his utterances as true. This makes it difficult to know when he is lying and manipulating. Actions flow from that misrepresentation of reality. A lot of nonsense can and does result. That’s the point of it all; confuse, addle and mislead to retain control of others. We are now in a time and space wherei...

Diversity, equity and inclusion. The big three of current culture. Democracy built on a foundation of fairness, morality and equality. A moral compass America has heralded for more than 250 years. We are a nation of differences. We are a nation that melds ideas to birth new ones. We are a nation of fellowship and sharing. We are nurturers of diversity to produce rich outcomes only reached by competing ideas and values. Yes, values. I am a native of this land. But at some time centuries before, a family member came to this country and built a family that became my roots. Along the way other families with other roots married into my family exploding our diversity even more. Combining these roots produces myriad diversities. In this way different nationalities have been a part of my family and nation for a very long time. Yours, too. In the diversity of family are differences which need to meld with everyone else’s. This is the base of equity, one person being equal to another, no p...

In very real terms, there are very few free markets. This is so because most markets are controlled or manipulated by companies and individuals who hold resources key to the same markets. The manipulations mean more wealth and power for them, less for others. Americans have been told and sold the idea that free markets are key to capitalism. This may be true, but we wouldn’t know it because markets are basically not free in our system of governance and capitalism. It is true that pricing matters considerably in purchase decisions, and sale as well. But these are instant moments in a transaction’s history, rarely a function of market. Many aspects influence value of things, people and processes. The confluence – or not – of these influences mix and dance around the transaction. Buyer and seller decide on the transaction – to do or not – based on instant influences: space, location, appearance, desire of others for the same transaction, function, history, promise for the future, and ...

Our system of government is a trilateral checks and balances structure. The Legislative or Congressional branch writes the laws, the Executive branch enforces the laws, and the Judicial branch rules the laws constitutional. Each branch checks the other two. If the Executive branch fails to enact the laws – put them into operation – either the Legislative or Judicial branches may take action. If Congress fails to produce a budget both the Executive and Judicial branches may step in to solve the problem such a failure to act would produce. If the political system stymies the Legislative branch from action – legislation frozen in limbo because a required voting level is not attainable – the Executive branch can declare an emergency and enact executive orders that take the place of law. The Judicial branch can be asked to rule on the constitutionality of any action taken by the other two branches to determine if the actions are proper and constitutional. There are those who feel the Tr...

Nearing 82, I am no longer able to donate money to good causes or political parties. Period. I live on Social Security income only. I have some savings but not a lot. I have a life insurance policy to pay my last expenses, so my family won’t need to do that. I’m OK and doing OK financially. But there is a limit on my ability to give much of anything to anyone these days. Most of my life I did contribute dollars to worthy causes, but mostly I gave my time and talents to worthy causes. I worked for many nonprofits and eventually became a consultant for them. In retirement I donated my time to become a SCORE mentor for entrepreneurs starting small businesses. I also counseled existing small businesses to become stronger and thrive. All of this effort hopefully helped society in many ways. I still do a little of this but am focusing energy on writing a book to further spread the benefit of these accomplishments. Although I detest current political circumstances, I support Democrats and...

The routines of living life distract us from important happenings. Later, often much later, we realize an important trend has occurred and grown into a major change in our lives. In quiet moments we ask, “When did that happen?” The answer becomes more obvious as our routines shift to new patterns. The changes were evolving bit by bit over time. With current information, we can now see how things change in small ways. Of course these combine to construct a new reality. To live life fully we need to be open to experiences and new ideas. But that requires we pay attention to the details. Not an easy task, but we do have two excellent resources to rely on: independent journalism and educators who study what and how come . By limiting journalism to impossible standards, truth and facts are hidden. The opposite is easily spoken as fact. These need refutation, analysis and freedom of thought. Journalists do this well, and have done it for centuries. It is why strong societies exist in ...

Trump often cites Biden as the person to blame for issues he is solving. Of course, none of that is true. Biden inherited both the faults of the previous Trump administration, and that of COVID. Biden responded tirelessly to fixing both. And he was successful. Beyond our wildest dreams, he was successful. Gross Domestic Product rebounded under his policies. Employment grew substantially driving unemployment down steadily. The only reason unemployment remained much at all, is due to fundamental changes in the economy caused by COVID. Entirely new industries appeared during COVID and old ones ebbed away as they became unnecessary. Replacing old jobs with new opportunities took time and still there are those who remain displaced. Biden’s administration returned America to the international scene with vigor. NATO was reinvigorated. United Nations relations were improved. Trade agreements with the global community prospered. Education, research and renewal within our social order expa...

We know about life through personal experience. What matters to us means something immediately recognizable. Over time we come to accept those meanings as important. We observe the same with close family members. Little by little we notice differences in what matters to them versus me. I then realized that meanings are broader than I thought and are valued differently among different people. There are universal meanings, of course, but not as many as I thought there were. Most of us would agree that taking another human life is wrong. Yet, in the name of society – our society – we take life from others. Usually, this murder is during war time, but not always. Government policy directs some murders, too, although not connected with war. Of course, we come to detest some people and wish they were dead, but we don’t take that action and would deplore it if someone did. Another universal meaning or value is access to education. We realize that dealing with an educated person is much ea...