June 23, 2017

Phil Beaver works to establish opinion when the-objective-truth has not been discovered. He seeks to refine his opinion by listening when people share experiences and observations. The comment box below invites readers to express facts, opinion, or concern, perhaps to share with people who may follow the blog.

Note 1:  I often dash words in phrases in order to express and preserve an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth despite possible error. In other words, a person expresses his “belief,” knowing he or she could be in error. People may collaboratively approach the-objective-truth.
 Note 2: It is important to note "civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for the people more than for the city.

  

Our Views (protecting Gov. Edwards vs the people of Louisiana: theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_2e4f18d6-568b-11e7-8d0b-f3361d62e614.html)

Gov. Edwards was as certain as the liberal media and pollsters that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency and continue to spend federal money by increasing the federal deficit. Edwards was wrong, and if he cannot admit that to himself, he should resign so that someone with factual perspective can guide Louisiana to comprehensive safety and security.

We cannot know what Edwards would have expanded Medicaid had he known he faced an administration that would push spending out of the federal budget onto the states. In the states, health responsibility is more directly felt and therefore more controllable. It is well known that moderate life style is over four times more effective than medical care for personal well-being.

My federalist viewpoint may be influenced by perspective on the preamble to the constitution for the United States. The preamble may be paraphrased: Willing people in this state want comprehensive safety and security beyond personal and state responsibilities, and therefore create a federal government with limited powers, without relinquishing our powers. Life-style that protects well-being is neither federal nor state but personal right and responsibility.

The Obama administration, for reasons, expanded federal powers beyond the limits intended by the preamble. The Trump administration is pushing power back to the states and thus to the people in their states. It is up to Louisiana---the state and its people---to stand up for personal well-being.

The opportunity to stand up is coming and the state needs a governor who is both willing and able to lead rather than resist.

 

Today’s thought, (Proverbs 29:19-21, CJB). “A slave can't be disciplined with words; he may understand, but he won't respond. Do you see someone too anxious to speak? There is more hope for a fool than for him. A slave who is pampered from youth will in the end be ungrateful.”

The 2017 meaning of Verses 19-21 may be that anyone who condones slavery begs woe.

Dean freely, foolishly, expressed himself, quoting only Verse 20. He avoided the sandwiching references to slavery.

Commentators who address verses 19-21 may condone slavery. See, for example, studylight.org/commentaries/phc/proverbs-29.html#19. I retreat from the meaning 2600 years ago, knowing that the physics and psychology of slavery is chains, whips, brutality and rape more than words.

Letters.

Chemical workers  (Bowser). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_d7d6f08c-56b7-11e7-ae48-abb15114e736.html)

At some point, Louisiana roads will be so bad companies will go to other states for lesser natural resources but without the road-time-loss for employees and the business. In the next special-legislative-session, the 20 cent gas tax dedicated to roads may be reconsidered.

Secondly, it seems barbaric for a people to increase their population beyond economic feasibility. If new, high-paying jobs do not at least exceed the rate of birth into poverty, procreation ought to be discouraged. A state office ought to be publishing this monitor on child well-being. I know this is a controversial idea, but child abuse is detestable. (I’m desperate to lessen if not defeat child abuse.)

Entertainment (Sellen). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_3ded4230-56b9-11e7-86b3-6b41aedb7cb9.html)

Free market enterprise is the best economic system in the world, but the American system needs tweaking in two areas: 1) advantages to the elite population and 2) over emphasis on adult entertainment. I cannot imagine how to solve those two problems.

It’s not just a matter of an MBA not being able to find a job. The median personal income is $30.300/year compared to a cost of living around $50,000/year. Thus, half the population does not earn enough to support save and invest to build financial security. See usdebtclock.org.

Also, there are 153 million in the workforce, 7 million reported unemployed but 95 million not in the labor force. President Trump’s challenge from the jobs side is not just new jobs, it’s getting people to qualify and work.

Watching the greedy entertainers and elites on TV just makes me fuming about how much envy children in the USA may sense. Shame on the children! Load up their debt for adult entertainment. Air fare and tickets for the elite; media for the middle class and less.

  

Columns. (The fiction/non-fiction comments gallery for readers)

Rage (Cal Thomas). (calthomas.com/columns/rage-and-responsibility)

I appreciate the attention to Alinsky-Marxist organizaing (AMO): “ Organizing for Action, a community organizing project, which is a spinoff of President Obama’s Organizing for America, appears to operate only to cause harm to and ultimately impeach President Trump. The Saul Alinsky playbook remains the Bible of the political left. Obama and Hillary Clinton are, and have long been, Alinsky disciples.” See newenglishreview.org/DL_Adams/Saul_Alinsky_and_the_Rise_of_Amorality_in_American_Politics/ for the history from Al Capone to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Perhaps last week's five to zero drubbing of the Democrats marks the end of five decades AMO influence to make American politics amoral. 

Perhaps Barack Obama's influence is on the way to the trash bin of Chicago’s Al Capone history.

Postindustrial society (Robert Samuelson). washingtonpost.com/opinions/america-sings-the-postindustrial-blues/2017/06/18/d59a8a2c-52bb-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html?utm_term=.d1b5df7e7471

Was Samuelson advocating education? It seems the upper middle class is receiving a good portion of GNP, but the lower half is losing out.

“From 1960 to 2014, the annual earnings, corrected for inflation, of men who are professionals and business executives rose 70 percent, reports Stephen Rose in a study for Third Way, a slightly left-of-center think tank. By contrast, annual earnings for male factory workers rose only 18 percent over the same period.”

“As late as 1960, 51 percent of U.S. workers hadn’t finished high school; by 2014, the comparable figure was 9 percent, says Rose. Over the same period, the share of college graduates tripled, from 10 percent to 35 percent.”

“Over the last three or four decades, income inequality has increased in the United States, but only at the top,” writes Reeves. “There has been no increase in inequality in the bottom 80 percent of the population.”

It seems education is the key to being in the top 20% who don’t resent the 1% and ending up in the 80% who are losing out.

  

Legal predicament (Byron York). (washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-five-more-notes-on-trumps-current-predicament/article/2626178)

Of course I have no idea what is going on, but I would not second guess President Trump.

For all I know, the Obama administration is in the predicament and Trump is entrapping them in their evil---“investigation that could last the rest of Trump's time in office.” That could be seven years, I guess.

  

Keep the zoo where it is (Page 1A). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_59019572-5767-11e7-ac6d-f33da045b1ee.html)

There’s nothing as suspicious as a pastors’ coalition. My suspicion of the BRAF capital group increases. And I am oppose to philanthropists influencing politics that could increase my taxes. I have come to see philanthropy as a way to defeat the civic contract in the preamble to the constitution for the USA.

I’m no fan of Councilwoman Chauna Banks (I perceived she celebrated Livingston area flooding, and that gave me a bad impression I don’t know how to erase, unfair as it may be), but am intrigued with her claims that “those interviewed for the initial feasibility study about moving the zoo are connected to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. She accused BREC of not being transparent in their plans, and she said it was wrong for the Friends of the Zoo, a private foundation, to pay for the feasibility study.”

“Charles Lamar III, a well-known Baton Rouge philanthropist, spoke in support of moving the zoo, saying said both transportation issues and private financing point in favor of the need for a relocation. “

Chauna Banks also “accused BREC of not being transparent in their plans, and she said it was wrong for the Friends of the Zoo, a private foundation, to pay for the feasibility study.”

I hope Banks stays committed to opposing philanthropists who would donate enough to get a vote against my well-being. For example, approving a vote to fund the mismanaged Council on Aging was wrongful.

Other forums 

During a heavy rainstorm yesterday, I lost my car keys in a store. Someone found them and delivered them to lost and found, where I collected them a few hours later. Thank you.

Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, 1861, and responding to Jeremiah Wright at Southern University, 2015: We can’t count on government; we can’t count on God; but we can count on civic people for comprehensive safety and security--justice.

  

Phil Beaver does not “know” the-indisputable-facts. He trusts and is committed to the-objective-truth of which most is undiscovered and some is understood. He is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, education non-profit corporation. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com.