2015 July 1

U.S. and Cuba to announce embassy openings

It’s about time that we open up relations again with Cuba.  Only children don’t talk to each other when they disagree. (Well, maybe adults do that as well, but policy makers need to rise above these types of childish behaviors.)

2015 July 2

Thousands evacuated after Tennessee derailment

The best way to reduce the number and severity of accidents like this is basically to reduce demand for such toxic chemicals and to ensure that any party transporting such chemicals take all the necessary precautions to ensure safety and have the necessary insurance to pay for a complete cleanup when accidents occur.

2015 July 3

Russia safely launches space station cargo ship

This is another reason to understand that space travel is extremely expensive, and talk about sending humans to Mars is really a big waste of money.  Dollar for dollar, robots can do so much more than humans, that any rational discussion would quickly veto any human visitors. Understandably, the human exploratory spirit is used to justify such travel, but since adults are supposedly in control of policy, we should let the prohibitive financial costs prevent us from wasting our resources. Orders of magnitude more benefits would be gained by funding archaeology and other sciences where humans are destroying evidence as time goes on.

2015 July 4

Too many patients, not enough doctors

Policies need to be structured in a way that better encourages human health. For example, junk foods should be taxed. People need to be taught from an early age how to live healthy and acquire healthy habits. Also, people need to go and get complete annual examinations to catch problems early.

2015 July 5

After year of Washington legal pot sales, taxes top $70M

Drugs should never be legalized merely because of the tax revenues that would be generated, but marijuana is not a dangerous drug and way too many people are being sent to jail for mere possession. Doing a basic economic (and even a moral) cost/benefit analysis, the rational decision would be to legalize it and regulate is appropriately.

2015 July 6

Children at detention center given adult doses of hepatitis A vaccine

This is just another stain on the US governments treatment of illegal immigrants.  Though the health effects of this mistake is minimal, more care needs to be taken to make darn sure that these people are treated according to the same standards that any citizen would expect.

2015 July 7

Cosby admission

Cosby should be charged and fined for every instance of sexual misconduct. After determinations by a court, victims should be awarded restitution and punitive payments from his current assets and any future earnings. I don’t know how to quantify such punishments, but a good place to start would be to determine the number of pills Cosby had purchased, and the number of women claiming that Cosby engaged or attempted to engage sexually or in some other inappropriate way. Perhaps, an appropriate fine for each sexual offense may be somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000, depending on the severity of each crime.

2015 July 8

Subway is now in a tough spot with Jared Fogle

The punishment for this type of crime (in which no people were directly harmed) should include some treatment that would result in a decreased sexual drive. Perhaps castration of one or two testicles, depending on the severity of the crime or the quantity of engagement with pornographic material.

2015 July 9

How the Senate could make or break the Iran nuclear deal

The Iran nuclear deal is of great benefit to Iran, and not so much for the rest of the world. The reason for this is that there is no effective international organization with effective enforcement powers that exists to keep tabs on Iran. Unless a country like the US is willing to lead the coalition required to restrain Iran, Iran will eventually come out ahead and will be able to project a greater threat to the world.

2015 July 10

UN announces agreement on 72-hour Yemen cease-fire

2015 July 11

Hacking of Government Computers Exposed 21.5 Million People

The internet needs to have more security checkpoints so that it is possible to determine where individual packets of information originate. We need to be able to track the creators of these troublemakers and punish them severely. If these attacks came from a foreign country, we need to impose tariffs on that country’s imports until the bill is paid.

2015 July 12

Army announces 40K in troop cuts

The US military is too big, so it is good that we are reducing its size. All countries should reduce their militaries, and if they would agree to delegate the powers of international defense to an international military organization, it would be possible.

2015 July 13

U.S. to Upgrade Malaysia’s Trafficking Rating, Easing TPP

These politically-driven status changes are so frustrating to so many people. Issues should not be linked in this manner. But placing countries on a scale from 1 to 3, and pinning trade regulations on that score is not the correct way either. Perhaps a better way would be to just allow trade with the offending country (this would also help alleviate the need for ‘black’market’ revenue) and have the importing country just impose a tariff equally on all goods exported from the offending country to penalize that country for such bad practices. The amount of the punitive tariff could be adjusted annually or every few years according to the severity of the problem

2015 July 14

Lawsuit: Immigrants got $1 a day for work at private prison

These laborers should receive at least the legal minimum wage. The prison should be able to charge them for ‘room and board’. Prisons should try to identify the skills and talents that each inmate has so that they could work in their respective fields (as much as practical) so that they would be able to earn more to pay off their debts faster.

2015 July 15

Judge Scolds Gov’t over Failure to Release Guantánamo Tapes

These tapes need to be released so that the world knows what we did. If the US wants the world to trust us again, we need to come clean and promise that we will never engage in such torture again (unless it can be shown the the person being tortured actually had information that was absolutely critical and time sensitive).

2015 July 16

NYPD Fails to Follow New Stop-And-Frisk Rules, Federal Monitor Says

The police need to be more transparent in their actions. In order for the public to regain trust, they much have body cameras and they must somehow document everything they do.  This information does not necessarily need to be made public, but when a controversy arises, then that information would be available, and possibly released to the public, if necessary.

2015 July 17

Chilling quote from Chattanooga gunman’s past

Unfortunately, this gunman was killed by police, although his death is better than additional innocent deaths on the scene. It would be good if the police could find other less lethal ways of incapacitating an attacker to facilitate a live arrest. A live criminal would be able to work to help pay off his crimes and it is always good to try to rehabilitate criminals.

2015 July 18

Armstrong ruffles feathers at Tour de France

It’s good that Armstrong is riding for charity.  His detractors have no valid grounds to say that he cannot ride the route. He’s not doing it on the day of the race, he’s doing it the day before. Any objections to he existing there is purely psychological and an over reaction to his original offense 10 years ago.

2015 July 19

2015 July 20

#BlackLivesMatter Protesters Disrupt O’Malley & Sanders Speeches at Netroots Nation

It is just amazing that O’Malley was shouted down when he said, “Black lives matter, white lived matter, all lives matter”. How can anyone disagree with that statement?!?! It just shows the juvenile nature of thought among crowds that are so easily able to be swayed by ‘mob mentalities’ that can be triggered by just an innocuous statement.

2015 July 21

Feds begin case against cops involved in Eric Garner’s death

The officers should be prosecuted because they did not take enough precautions to ensure the safety of Eric Garner. However, it must be understood that Eric was resisting arrest by not following directions and by continually talking over the police.

2015 July 22

“Africa’s Pinochet”: Former U.S.-Backed Chadian Dictator Hissène Habré Faces War Crimes Trial

It is unfortunate, but how do you punish a dictator who has been so brutal to so many people? This is why is is very important for an international organization with authority to be formed and charged with ensuring that situations like this do not arise.

2015 July 23

New York panel recommends hiking minimum fast-food wage to $15/hr -CNBC

The minimum wage should be fixed and tied to the general earnings distribution of the area.

2015 July 24

Texas officials say Sandra Bland arrest video was not edited

To increase the credibility, more videos of police officers need to be released during contested times. the more videos the better.

2015 July 25

Financial Times Owner Pearson Nears Sale of Newspaper Group

The government should not be involved in any way regarding this proposed sale. Instead, the government should create the tax rules that would apply to such businesses. If the sale goes through, the market share statistics would change, as would its tax liabilities. The market share would also change, changing the taxes, and potentially the profitability would change, changing the profit taxes applied. Its income would also change. If the rules are written correctly, the free market could do whatever it wants, and nobody should complain because there wouldn’t be any significant problems.

2015 July 27

2015 July 28

2015 July 29

2015 July 30

How does a real-life treasure hunter strike gold?

It would be nice if governments offered money for every pound of trash that they lift from the sea floor.

2015 July 31

Officials probe “major lead” in MH370 hunt

Aircraft need to have live transmitters on location and flight data so that information is available immediately to investigators if something goes wrong.