2016 September
2016 September 1
Last Remaining U.S. Maker of Cluster Bombs Stops Production
Items which are banned for sale within the United States should be banned for sale abroad, as well.
2016 September 2
‘No amnesty’: Trump vows to deport millions during ‘first hour in office’
This is unlikely to happen, but deportations should happen and not be stalled and delayed for years as has been the case for the last few decades. But they must be deported in a humane way. This means that nobody should do midnight raids or sudden surprise raids with screaming and banging of the doors. Everyone should be given enough time to disengage from their normal activities, about 3 months, at most.
2016 September 3
Romanian hacker “Guccifer” sentenced
This is not the right way to punish this guy. The correct way would be to educated him about why what he did was wrong, and then they should use his talents to work for law enforcement. They should also have fined him instead of giving him jail time.
2016 September 4
The FDA just made it clear that antibacterial soap is hurting you more than it’s helping you
Antibacterial products are far too numerous and should not be used anywhere near the degree they are currently being uses because the long-term damage in terms of an contributing to an ‘arms-race’ between humans and bacteria.
2016 September 5
Pence says he’ll release tax returns next week
These tax returns should have been released months ago. Politicians and candidates should have all these kinds of documents to the public as a matter of routine for transparency’s sake.
2016 September 6
Oklahoma orders shutdown of 37 wells after earthquake
These higher frequency earthquakes are being caused by fracking activities and the costs of all the damage that has occurred should be paid for by the fracking oil and gas drillers operating in the area, proportional to the amount of fracking ‘footprint’ that each company has.
2016 September 7
Syria conflict: Government helicopters ‘drop chlorine’ on Aleppo
This is why an international military organization should be responsible for the enforcement of international-level military rules.
2016 September 8
Trump Said ‘Take the Oil’ From Iraq. Can He?
Apart from being the totally immoral thing to do, taking the oil would have resulted in perhaps even more resentment among the more reasonable members of the population and would have provided an even more fertile ground for extremist sympathies. We need to divide up Iraq into at least 3 different units perhaps as far back as 1991, but definitely in 2003. There is no valid excuse for not doing so in 2003. To keep the country ‘united’ was a ridiculous aim.
2016 September 9
North Korea Tests a Mightier Nuclear Bomb, Raising Tension
It is not possible to consistently manage and regulated international threatening state behaviors without a permanent political set up at an international level (with teeth). This world needs an international military organization with limited goals so that it does not unravel.
2016 September 10
Argentina Jails 3 Dictatorship Agents for Kidnapping, Torture
The US involvement with this Argentine episode is disturbing as has its interventions in numerous other countries, especially since WWII. Only an effective international military organization would be able to most effectively control such behaviors.
2016 September 11
Wells Fargo Fined $185 Million for Fraudulently Opening Accounts
The amounts repaid to the affected customers should be at least twice the total amount of any fees they were (or would have been) originally charged. For any cases in which the customer needed to undergo any undo hurdles to cancel the accounts (such as try to prove that they tried to cancel), they should received 4-5 times the amount of money they spent. Any telephone or other records collected by Wells Fargo should have been ordered to be preserved by court order so that any destruction of records would not occur. Since it may be too hard for an accurate determination of who requested these account opened and whose were opened without their explicit knowledge, Wells Fargo should perhaps refund everyone who opened such account without proof of having explicitly asked for it to the tune of at least twice the amount of fees charged as well as twice the amount of money that was transferred into such accounts.
2016 September 12
Clinton expresses regret for saying ‘half’ of Trump supporters are ‘deplorables’
Most people, when questioned, will agree that roughly about 20% of the population have views so different from what they think their views should be, that they would be comfortable in calling them ‘deplorables’.
2016 September 13
Former EPA head admits she was wrong to tell New Yorkers post-9/11 air was safe
Since these statements were flat wrong, and because this was a public official in charge of this aspect, she should be fined heavily. Since this false information was widely distributed, the final fines would be very large.
2016 September 14
U.S. Finalizes Deal to Give Israel $38 Billion in Military Aid
We are increasing our military aid to Israel from the traditional $3 billion to nearly $4 billion. Although, inflation would actually mean that this aid is roughly the same, we should be progressively decreasing our military aid to Israel. The only proper way to manage international military relations is only through the mediation of an international military organization.
2016 September 15
Exclusive: Bayer nears acquisition of Monsanto – sources
It is generally not good to have such massive business entities because of the market dominating influenced they yield. However, the free market should operate without government regulations. The only thing the government needs to ensure is that the proper rules (tax) are written, so that these companies would know what to expect as their mergers, etc., change their position various aspects of size.
2016 September 16
Philippine witness: We killed for Duterte, fed body to crocodile
It is never right to carry out any extrajudicial punishments including killings, but the frustration with crime has got to be acknowledged. Demands for such extrajudicial actions only increase with higher crime rates. Although the Philippines may not have the requisite infrastructure, in the more developed countries, it is imperative that many more video cameras are installed so that more crimes and criminals can be captured and brought to justice. Victims naturally get tired of having to absorb the costs of crimes.
2016 September 17
U.S. House panel slams former NSA contractor Snowden
Snowden has undoubtedly revealed information that should not have been release because it was truly necessary for the legitamate security of the US. However, the ‘collateral’ damage that Snowden caused may have been the result of the sheer quantity of the information that was classified that really did not have a legitimate reason for being classified. Far too much has been and still is being classified. This material needs to be released to the public. Not doing so will result in a larger than normal number of future ‘uncontrolled’ release events.
2016 September 18
California Teacher Lowers Students’ Grades for Not Standing During the Pledge of Allegiance
People should not be forced to pledge allegiance to any flag or object. However, they should be required to decline their pledge of allegiance in a manner than does not call extraordinary attention to themselves.
2016 September 19
ISIS wing claims responsibility for Minnesota mall attack
One thing that might have at least made this attack a little harder to accomplish would have been to make the acquisitions of uniforms a little harder to get. It should be much harder for people to try to impersonate another person through the use of uniforms. Of course, people with authentic reasons to wear a uniform could also commit such attacks, but at least the chances would be reduced if greater restrictions are imposed.
2016 September 20
Why New Yorkers Received a Push Alert About a Manhunt
People should be allowed to sign up for such a service. It should not be ‘pushed’ onto everyone. However, to increase the chances that wanted criminal would be caught, people should be given a reward for providing the crucial information needed by law enforcement to catch them. Please should just know roughly how much money they would be able to make if they provided the important information. This type of information could be disseminated to the public the same way that the penalty for running red lights is disseminated to the public–people just know that the fines are pretty large for running red lights, so they don’t do it. People should just know that providing the important information to law enforcement will result in a large reward. Sure, they may not know how large, but they just need to know that it’s a large reward. The reward should be based on the total value of the crime committed by the criminal. And anybody who provides the necessary information to law enforcement should just know that they will get a certain percentage (like 5 – 10%) of the total eventual cost to the criminal.
2016 September 21
Donald Trump Jr compares Syrian refugees to poisoned Skittles
The analogy is a valid one, except for the fact that it is possible to apply tests to the Skittles to reduce the chances that poisoned ones would be be allowed through to be consumed.
2016 September 22
Trump praises ‘stop-and-frisk’ police tactic
‘Stop and Frisk’ is a good policy if it is guided by certain principles. A prerequisite to the following policy suggestions is that every stop should be documented.
First, it should be policy to pay each individual who is ‘stopped and frisked’ for just a few minutes (like less than 30 minutes), a certain minimum amount of money (like, $100) for each instance, if it turned out that they were innocent. If the stop lasted for longer than 30 minutes, then the innocent person should receive more money as compensation. If the person was guilty, they would obviously not get any compensation.
Second, law enforcement organizations that have histories of ‘too many’ innocent people being stopped should have their ability to ‘stop and frisk’ reigned in a bit, or even perhaps revoked. These agencies should have a sort of credit rating that would rapidly convey their degree of accuracy in choosing who to ‘stop and frisk’. Agencies with less than nearly perfect rating scores should be required to pay more for each innocent suspect who had been stopped.
2016 September 23
Report: Staff shortages hamper US wildlife refuges
These refuges (and national parks and other protected lands in general) should charge admission fees, user fees, etc, to at least cover the majority of the cost of managing those land parcels.
2016 September 24
Obama Vetoes Bill to Let 9/11 Families Sue Saudi Arabia
Anybody should be allowed to sue anybody. The loser pays.
2016 September 25
Video shows moments before Keith Lamont Scott’s shooting
Police officers need to provide better video and audio recordings of all their encounters with people. We have this cell phone video from his wife, but it doesn’t show everything. It does appear to suggest that Keith was doing something he shouldn’t, provoking the police to shoot him. If the police had better video, and if they really did not do anything wrong, then they should be able to quickly reassure all calm viewers of the video that they acted justly.
2016 September 26
Terence Crutcher Shooting: Tulsa County District Attorney Charges Officer Shelby With Manslaughter
Tasers and real guns should be visually very distinct. Tasers (as well as stun guns) should probably be made or covered with a bright color so that erroneous usages could be better minimized.
2016 September 27
ISIS suspected of mustard attack against US and Iraqi troops
As time goes on, more and more dangerous weapons will be able to be controlled by fewer and fewer people. The costs of weapons are continually decreasing and unless we get a functional international military organization working soon, this world will fall again into another world war.
Unfortunately, it is human nature to repeat cycles of the past. Because humans are, by nature, lazy and not willing to take the time to learn about macro-level things (like international relations, etc.) whose health is of vital importance to the foundations of peaceful societies, it appears that the globe must fall again into another global war before we all get some sense knocked into us again. The lessons we learn may only last a lifetime, though. The WWII generation is practically gone, and with them we are losing the lessons of the benefits of international cooperation. We are now repeating the same kinds of mistakes (not willing to cooperate on an international level) that lead to world war.
Terrorist groups, non-state actors with relatively very little money, were able to use mustard gas against US troops. Even though the quality was poor, this concept of asymmetrical warfare has been proven very effective, and the introduction of these new categories of weapons makes it at least one order of magnitude scarier.
2016 September 28
Why the $600 EpiPen Costs $69 in Britain
A market-share based tax on this product may have at least helped reduce these exorbitant costs.
2016 September 29
WATCH: Asked To Name Foreign Leader He Admires, Johnson Has Another ‘Aleppo Moment’
This is why voters shouldn’t get their information from on the spot conversations with political candidates. People need to be concerned about the policy positions people have, not their entertainment skills or ability to recall facts under pressure.
2016 September 30
The World Passes 400 PPM Threshold. Permanently
The most effective way to rapidly reduce the amount of carbon injections into the atmosphere is to remove all subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, impose sales taxes on absolutely every active economic transaction, require companies to internalize all negative externalities, and a host of other things.