2016 December
2016 December 1
At least 10 dead in ‘human-caused’ Tennessee wildfires
Human started wildfire that get out of control is similar to slanderous messages the people send, intending them to be private, but being intercepted, then getting broadcast via various media nationwide or worldwide.
On an absolute scale, the people who started such things should bear the full responsibility for whatever damages occur. Sometimes, an arsonist may have wanted to cause a huge wildfire, but sometimes, a fire was intentionally set, but it just gets out of control beyond anywhere near their imagination. The same occurs with either factual errors or judgement errors (like slander or racist banter) that get published in some media. Sometimes, such errors get much wider circulation than would otherwise be the case because other media become interested and propel a much greater circulation.
So, because the damages can often exceed several lifetimes worth of labor (not that that, in an of itself, should prevent up from imposing it), it may be more just, depending on the particular facts of each case, which would depend, on part, on the perpetrators intent, to implement a reduced penalty for that portion of the damage that was not reasonably intended. This is for the courts to decide.
2016 December 2
Teen who was relentlessly bullied kills herself in front of her family
There needs to be a vested interest for police to follow up on bully harassment cases. In this case, any person who falsely said that this teenager was offering free sex should be punished by intensive educational counseling a a stiff fine going the victim.
2016 December 3
17 Reportedly Killed in Chinese Mine Explosion
The price of coal should be made higher by requiring the internalization of all true costs of production under a set of rules that ensures that all relevant safety, environmental and labor regulations are followed.
2016 December 4
Federal Officials Say They Won’t Grant Construction Permits for Dakota Access Pipeline
The pipeline should not be prohibited outright, it should just be required to ensure that any oil spill would not threaten the environment. There are ways to ensure that this could be the case, but the government needs to have the courage to implement the properly structured regulations and threat of penalties to make it happen.
2016 December 5
Trump warns of ‘retribution’ for companies that offshore jobs, threatening 35 percent tariff
The idea of a tariff on all imports is a good idea. However, this proposed specific tariff is not as healthy as a blanket tariff on all imports. Nevertheless, this will definitely have a significant effect of encouraging companies to stay within the United States.
2016 December 6
N.C. man told police he went to D.C. pizzeria with gun to investigate conspiracy theory
Anyone who publishes to any mass audience (probably defined as a ‘listenership/viewership of over 20 individuals) who contributes to the dissemination of false information should be held accountable and punished by having fines imposed for spreading false information.
2016 December 7
Citing high cost, Trump says Boeing’s contract to build Air Force One should be canceled
These planes do seem a little on the expensive side, even at $825 million each. However, the needs are very high for the purpose which these planes must serve.
Attacking this problem from a different angle, too much prestige and power is given to the President. One person, the President, should not be given so much power and influence that such a high level of security is necessitated. One way to reduce the President’s power and influence is to require the legislative process to be altered in such a way that legislators be required to study and vote on each issue separately.
2016 December 8
Sandy Hook Truther Arrested After Making Death Threats Against Shooting Victim’s Parent
This parent should be punished by being forced to endure a thorough educational series that directly addresses her skeptical views on the mass media. She should also be charged with the crime of intimidation and be financially charged for all expenses incurred by the parent of the child who was killed for legal and physical defense, in addition to a great deal of compensation for ‘pain and suffering’.
2016 December 9
House joins Senate in approving heartbeat abortion bill
Once a heartbeat is detected would seem like an acceptable arbitrary point of reference to apply the status of ‘living human’ with all the associated rights. However, it still appears that, at this point in the development of an embryo, there is still too high of a natural mortality rate to practically apply that status. It’s not too far away from the threshold of 50% mortality rate that occurs at around the 8th week of pregnancy, which is where perhaps that status would be more appropriately conferred. Nevertheless, this policy is far too restrictive of the conditions under which abortion should be allowed.
2016 December 10
Trump breaks with Obama, intel agencies on election hacking
People should put their money where their mouths are. Monetizing falsehoods would be one of the best tools to use to make sure that people speak accurately. At some point the truth will begin to dribble out and will confirm one side or the other in this debate. If we find evidence to support the idea that Putin authorized some type of hacking, and if Trump actually blocks attempts to investigate this issue, then Trump should have to pay some significant fines for his part in promulgating a lie. If the CIA cannot provide evidence of Russian hacking, then the CIA should be required to pay a significant fine. Simply put, whoever is spreading false information should pay.
2016 December 11
Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil Expected to Be Named Trump’s Secretary of State: Sources
The Senate needs to approve these cabinet appointments, But because of severe party-line affiliations, there is not sufficient diversity of opinions in the legislative branch to adequately review these appointments. In order to prevent such uniform opinions, we need to introduce regulations that, in effect, would require more diversity, such as proportional representation and ranked voting systems.
2016 December 12
Boeing’s $16B aircraft deal with Iran Air faces challenges
Boeing should not be required to get government approval to sell planes abroad, provided there is not classified technologies on them. There should be tariff charges on such international sales, as well as special charges on sales to Iran due to its terrorism connections, questionable nuclear program, and other offenses.
2016 December 13
Michigan elections panel weighs value of vote recount
Election voting systems need to generate results with a higher confidence. The recounting of ballots should only occur if the the results lie within the error bars for the ballot counting method in question.
2016 December 14
Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decides to raise rates
The Federal Reserve should not have to artificially manage interest rates if the proper economic regulations were to be put in place. Monetary policy should be guided by only two statistics: the population level and the price-level index.
2016 December 15
It’s new and it’s bad: Yahoo discloses 1B account breach
These data breeches should be punished using a scale directly related to the number of people and accounts threatened. This way, at least, the criminals would know the scope of the penalties they may face. In this case, over 1 billion accounts had data stolen. Perhaps a fine of $100 per account compromised (in addition to any actual theft) would bring the penalty up to $100 billion.
2016 December 16
Lawmakers look to limit Cooper’s power as governor
Because people are involved, it is always hard to write down legislative rules and principles to be guided by in order to avoid the natural tendency of human beings to act in their own self interest at the expense of the broader interests of the whole group. In this case, it appears that the Republican controlled state legislature is embarking on efforts to restrict the power of the incoming Governor who is of the opposite party. This type of political maneuvering should be objected to by any respectable civil servant. All these suggestions would be able to help in creating a more representative government and help avoid the deeply partisan management of government bodies who happen to be in power at the time.
2016 December 17
China just plucked a U.S. drone from international waters and carried it away
China should be required to pay the US for that drone as if it were stolen. In other words, the full price for that drone (about $150,000), plus a high punitive multiple (probably around 10) because it was clearly a violation of rights and a military action, should be levied on the Chinese. So that would mean that the Chinese should be required to pay a minimum of about $1.65 million for this offense, plus whatever estimated amount of time was required to repair this snafu (additional staff negotiation time, telephone/communication expenses, etc.).
2016 December 18
The risk of these crashes happening could be reduced if gasoline were more expensive. and there were a tax per mile traveled. Higher prices would naturally encourage people to either use mass transit, drive less, work closer to where they live, reduce the number of unnecessary trips, etc. All this would reduce the total number of accidents.
2016 December 19
Syria: UN gets go-ahead for Aleppo evacuation monitors
Refugees fleeing a war zone should be enabled to settle within the country that they are attempting to leave by having the UN or the coalition of forces carve out a part of the war-torn country and settle there. This way they would not be required to leave and settle in other countries which would tax the social fabrics of those other countries, of course depending on the total amount of refugees.
2016 December 20
Army veteran Vincent Viola, billionaire owner of the Florida Panthers, named Trump’s Army secretary
Hopefully Viola would be able “to find geeks who love their country” to help fight against cyber warfare. Former hackers who are trying to pay off their debt should be contracted so that they could earn enough from their talents to pay off their debts and do a few more things.
2016 December 21
Japan’s top court rules in favor of U.S. base relocation within Okinawa
Due to the Okinawa Reversion Agreement in 1971, the US agreed to turn over sovereignty of Okinawa and all other rights and interests in Japan. These military bases are needed, but progressively less and less so. We should obviously be good neighbors, of course, and we should not just make sure, but make darned sure, that US personnel behave and are good in all senses of the word. The US should make sure that the environment is not unduly damaged and that any spills or pollution is cleaned up. Noise, however, is another issue. That is more of a somewhat unavoidable externality. Nevertheless, we should do what is practical to minimize the reasons to complain. The ultimate solution would be for an international military organization to operate all military bases outside of one’s own country. The US should not have military bases in Japan, Germany, Iraq or any other foreign place. Ideally, no country should be allowed to have any military base anywhere, even within its own territory, that would allow it to project military force beyond that required for riot control and general internal population control. This is because all these functions should be assumed by an international military organization which is designed for international border enforcement and dealing with international military threats.
2016 December 22
It is good that Obama restricted oil exploration and drilling, but when the price of oil rises, these areas will just as easily be opened up again. Economics is a powerful force. That’s why it is necessary to impose all accurate costs on the producers of oil now, when the price is low, so that people will not put up as much of a fight. When the price is high people will resist any additional costs imposed on producers, but if these costs have been historically imposed, the resistance will be lessened in the future. Oil producers are not bearing their full burden, as any other mature industry should. They should naturally pay for all costs associated with producing their product, and that includes the cost of insurance for cleaning things up to near natural conditions when things go wrong, ensuring that transportation of their product meets sufficient safety standards, etc. Obviously, all subsidies should be removed for this industry which is now centuries old. It’s not like oil is a new technology that still needs to be incubated.
2016 December 23
Trump, Putin call for strengthening nuclear capabilities
This is the exactly wrong approach to nuclear weapons and it is the exactly wrong rationale. The reaction of the ‘world’ will be to try to hurry up to get nuclear weapons until America “comes to its senses regarding nukes”. It’s hard to believe that someone who has put so little thought in how the world works has made it to the top job. What’s more frustrating is how many ignorant people fell for such a person. But even more frustrating than that is that human beings still have not created a system of governance that have built-in safeguards against someone like this coming into such a high political position. The coming damage will take decades to fix. The greatest threat is international military conflict. We need an international military organization that will assume the obligation to protect the international borders of all signatory countries.
2016 December 24
Ikea Reaches $50 Million Settlement Over Deadly Furniture Accidents
This is a frivolous lawsuit that should have been thrown out by the courts. It is only logical that furniture needs to be fastened to the wall. Now that humanity is very aware of the problems with falling furniture, the government should issue standards to require manufacturers to instruct purchasers that such furniture needs to be fastened to the walls for safety, otherwise the purchasers assume all liability for all consequent damages. As societies evolve and become more aware of problems, regulation should be created to manage such problems. Usually, the costs of every damaging incident that happened before such regulations go into effect should just be assumed by the consumer.
2016 December 25
Ebola vaccine gives 100% protection, study finds
This progress is obviously very good, but humanity is waging an arms race with all kinds of bacteria. Future battles will get progressively harder to fight because of their evolving resistance. Sanitary conditions must be created wherever humans reside. The best way to ensure continued uninterrupted sanitary conditions is to create an international military organization that minimizes the chances of war. Educating doctors and the public about improper antibiotic usage is also of paramount importance.
2016 December 26
‘You can’t take Israel for granted’: Israel is ‘reducing’ its ties with 12 UN Security Council nations
Every country has the right to engage in whatever level of connection they want with whatever other country. However, so long as an international military organization is in control of every country’s ability to wage war, the world will not devolve into significant conflict.
2016 December 27
Obama Signs Defense Bill, Establishing Anti-Propaganda Center
All this information manipulation could go back and forth in several iterations so that the final product become so convoluted that no one knows what the truth is. This is like battling bacterial infections with antibiotics. The bacteria will develop resistance, humans will develop better, stronger, more refined antibiotics. But the bacteria will continue to evolve and everyone’s efforts and talents will be extended to the breaking point. When is this spiral going to stop? It’s not rational to continue out-spinning everyone else’s information.
All we mainly need is for the truth to be spoken by everyone. Yes, that is idealistic, but at the very least we need to institute policies that give everyone a vested interest in only promulgating the truth.
But the foundation of a healthy society is an informed population that is better able to distinguish truth from fiction.
2016 December 28
The U.S. continues to be the biggest arms spender in the world
The amount of money spent on defense by countries all over the world, but especially by the US, is ridiculously tremendous. Just thinking about the opportunity costs of such spending can drive anyone (who understands the issue) into a deep state of despondency and sorrow.
Consolidating these military costs by creating an international military organization could save colossal amounts of money. Humans need to find a way to educate themselves so that they are willing to shift to the next level of social development and security by adopting governance structures that are far better able to deal with managing the natural human tendencies towards corruption and the grabbing of power.
2016 December 29
Ryan proposes fines, ethics moves on grandstanding House members
Order needs to be ensured in all governmental bodies and the fines proposed by Ryan do appear to be fair and probably even too lax. Nobody should be allowed to physically prevent the normal functioning of business in such government bodies.
However, in order for such order to be maintained, it is imperative that proper rules governing the introduction of legislation exist and are enforced. Currently, many of the rules governing the introduction and voting of legislation are inadequate and illogical enough to reasonably allow the losing side of such legislation from justifiably accepting defeat. These procedures need to be overhauled so that more efficient and higher quality governance can be achieved.
2016 December 30
Montana: Neo-Nazis Target Jewish Community in City of Whitefish
This type of speech should be illegal and the people promulgating such speech should be arrested and punished (fined) and educated.
2016 December 31
Vermont utility confirms system breach by Russians
Fighting crime is a multi-faceted endeavor. It begins with providing a clean environment so that human defects (which most often affect brain function and human behavior) is kept to a minimum. Then, proper education is of paramount concern because this is what instill baseline civility to a person. Education is also necessary to teach people how to react to and process information so that junk information is more easily identified and rejected, minimizing the possibility of such information causing damage throughout the society. Then, naturally an effective law enforcement institution that effectively controls crime and corruption are essential. It shouldn’t be that hard to operate a society. It’s just dumb people who don’t know how the world works who are the people that cause and sustain havoc. Ignorant people as well as people who overreact, and people who are excessively impatient need to be kept to a minimum, but especially need to have their influence kept to a minimum.