Follow the Constitution
The Articles of Freedom, published by the 2009 Constitutional Congress are a litany of ways that the constitution has been completely shredded. We need to get back to following the Constitution - if you do not like it there is a process for that - amend it - but simply ignoring it is not acceptable!
The Constitution states that the yeas and nays be recorded on any question at the request of one fifth of those present - not 3/5ths as is currently used in the cloture rule in the Senate, in clear violation of the Constitution.
The Constitution states that the yeas and nays be recorded on any question at the request of one fifth of those present - not 3/5ths as is currently used in the cloture rule in the Senate, in clear violation of the Constitution.
It's the economy, really.
New Hampshire has one of the healthiest economies in the country, and one of the lowest unemployment rates. Nationwide we have almost no manufacturing jobs, and that is a travesty, because it simply makes no sense to grow cotton in Georgia, ship it to Thailand to be sewn into shirts, only to be sold back in Atlanta.
Solution? A small worldwide minimum wage - even $1 may be sufficient, but probably closer to $5/hour would be more practical.
In most markets, supply and demand set wages at a reasonable level - for example most pilots get over $100,000/year - but I really do not see that it is acceptable to trust the lives of airline passengers to anyone making less than that. Slavery was outlawed a long time ago, yet paying less than $1/hour is little different than slavery by another name.
Solution? A small worldwide minimum wage - even $1 may be sufficient, but probably closer to $5/hour would be more practical.
In most markets, supply and demand set wages at a reasonable level - for example most pilots get over $100,000/year - but I really do not see that it is acceptable to trust the lives of airline passengers to anyone making less than that. Slavery was outlawed a long time ago, yet paying less than $1/hour is little different than slavery by another name.
Universal Health Care
There is no relationship between wealth and who needs health care, and there should be no relationship between wealth and who gets health care. All industrialized nations other than the United States have moved to a single payer system. I support the passage of HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, but with an independent trust fund instead, with disbursements controlled only by doctors and their patients, using best business practices to control costs.
It is only up to the patients and their doctors to determine what care is needed, not any company and certainly not the government.
It is only up to the patients and their doctors to determine what care is needed, not any company and certainly not the government.
Energy for the 21st Century
World wide, we have a 35 year supply of Oil, 70 year supply of Uranium, 85 year supply of Natural Gas, and 155 year supply of Coal - at current rates of consumption. You like Nuclear? We only get 5% of our energy from Nuclear - increase it to 50% and we would have only a 7 year supply. Oops. OK what do we have? We have enough solar to supply over 1,000 times current consumption for as long as we are on the planet - over a billion years. We have enough wind energy available for over 10 times current consumption. Therefore, oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear are essentially irrelevant and inconsequential in comparison to wind and solar. However, to make wind and solar work we need two additional elements - transmission and storage - to bring energy to where it can be used, or save it for when it is needed. The most practical transmission will be - when it is ready - superconductive transmission lines, buried underground. The most practical storage is pumped-hydro, where two reservoirs are used and the water is pumped from the lower to the upper reservoir when there is more sun and wind than needed, and used to generate electricity by reversing the process.
Just to let everyone know, within 10 years most cars in the United States will be converted either to run on electricity or on Natural Gas, because of the sharply increasing fuel prices - right now it costs the equivalent of about 60 cents a gallon to run a car on electricity - and MIT has built a solar car that never needs any fuel - and can go from Boston to NYC even without any sun, using the energy stored in the on-board batteries. However, prices are set by supply and demand, and if we can convert away from gasoline, that will also bring gasoline prices to below $1/gallon - as long as no one uses it!
Just to let everyone know, within 10 years most cars in the United States will be converted either to run on electricity or on Natural Gas, because of the sharply increasing fuel prices - right now it costs the equivalent of about 60 cents a gallon to run a car on electricity - and MIT has built a solar car that never needs any fuel - and can go from Boston to NYC even without any sun, using the energy stored in the on-board batteries. However, prices are set by supply and demand, and if we can convert away from gasoline, that will also bring gasoline prices to below $1/gallon - as long as no one uses it!
