Emma Berry

Archive for the ‘Solutions’ Category

There is a Collin County District Clerk’s office and this is the group whose offices were raided by the Texas Rangers in June and against whom indictments have been filed.

There is also a Collin County Clerk’s office.  This is not the same group.  These people have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

In some of my posts reporting on the Collin County District Clerk’s office, I have left out “District” and I wish to say now that has been an unintentional oversight on my part–for which I apologize.  I had no intentions to imply that the Collin County Clerk’s office were involved in this mess.

EMMA

There is force in the universe, which, if we permit it, will flow through us & produce miraculous results.~Gandhi

On second thought, if I am able to garner the majority of the votes of the people in the Third Congressional District, maybe I better leave Bill here in the Third District to keep me posted on what’s happening back home.

Bill’s information in The Collin County Observer is priceless.    If  you want to know the story behind the story and/or what is upcoming, you better go to The Collin County Observer daily.  I do.  Bill is a great writer and he tells it like it is.

I’m waiting to read about his thoughts on the  meeting that was held at the North Central Texas Fusion Center, Thursday March 4.  [For those who don't know, the North Central Texas Fusion Center is a multimillion data mining center that is run by Sam Johnson's son who received a no bid multimillion dollar contracts to build it in 2006.]

For example, if it weren’t for Bill, I would not know about this upcoming Town Hall.

Photo courtesy Daniel Kurtzman, Political Humor

In 1816, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter, “I hope we shall. . . crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.

The Founders didn’t anticipate the threat of corporations to our democracy when the Constitution was ratified, nearly 30 years before Jefferson penned those word.  But they did give us the tool we need to address then-unforeseen challenges like Roberts Court’s overreaching decision in Citizens United v. FEC: the ability to amend our Constitution.

The Supreme Court, by a one vote margin, kicked open the door for unlimited corporate money in our elections with is radical reinterpretation of the First Amendment.

The only way to undo the harm of the Court’s ruling  completely is with a constitutional amendment.   And support for such an amendment is growing.

This month, People for the American Way released a poll that clearly shows that Americans want limits on corporate cash in elections and would support a constitutional amendment.

HMMMMMM “Either/Or” you say?  That’s a bogus choice.  No thank you.  Let me put on my thinking cap and come up with a better answer.

Unfortunately, for the past 30 years the leadership of our nation has forged the national mindset into either/or thinking–a simplistic approach to problem-solving that is so narrowly circumscribed that it only can allow two choices.

There are a few absolutes in this world.  Among them I count: death, mountaintop removal, and murder.  And you could even argue that even these are not absolute if you believe in an afterlife (in the examples of murder and death) and you could argue that even after mountain tops have been removed and valleys and streams are polluted that eventually, several generations hence, the land will return to something nice again, different, but habitable.

********************************************

When the choices are either/or, it simplifies the decision making process and enables those in power to more easily manipulate a populace.

As a nation and as individuals, we must make a conscious effort to retrain our way of thinking to not automatically choose one of the two choices that are presented to us, but to demand that other choices be added to the solution from which to pick–especially when multinational corporations or anyone tells us that their solution is absolutely the ONLY solution that will work.

To use the coal mining companies as an example, if we were to listen to them, we  would believe that we EITHER blast off mountain tops in Appalachia,  thus destroying the environment there and polluting it for several generations to come OR we take the consequences that this loss of source of energy will bring to the USA.

Fear is another element that the either/or thinkers bring to the table to manipulate: They postulate the “either” choice and then when explaining the “or” possibility,  they always inject the element of fear into it.  Sometimes this fear is by direct threats.  For example, many multinational corporations bully communities and entire states this way:  “Either you allow us to have this land tax free, or we will go elsewhere.  Either you allow us to cut off mountain tops, or we will go elsewhere.  Either you let us have this trade agreement  whereby  we take over half the arable land in your nation, or we will offer this great deal to someone else.

**************************************************

We the people do not have to buy into  EITHER/OR PROPOSITIONS of multinational corporations or politicians who would manipulate us in the direction of their own personal investments.

Start thinking of additional solutions that might be applied to the problem.

Any government leader who only considers two solutions to a problem is stupid.  There is no other word for it but stupid.

*************************************************

Once again, I will say that our country would be better served if all the members of the House  AND the Senate were forced to take a problem solving course and learn some problem solving skills.  Here they are, supposed to be solving the problems for the people of our nation, and the majority of them don’t know a thing about problem solving.

Here is a start for them:  TRIZ a problem-solving methodology

***************************************

Many years ago I once read that people have been trained to think that we live in a chocolate vanilla universe,  but  in truth, we live in a Baskin Robbins universe.

One thing that set this Tea Party apart–not only from other Tea Parties, but also from any political rally that I’ve ever attended was that it had at least one speaker who was saying something different and who was offering real solutions that might actually work.

Although I could have done without the aggressive/loud/ gay/liberal bashing “humor” of Steve Crowder, the opening Act of the Dallas Tea Party, I was very impressed that Michael L. George, the creator of the lean Six Sigma process was one of the speakers.

I’m very familiar with the Six Sigma process as I have worked in three companies that used this process.  Six Sigma is a quality control/efficiency process that can and has saved companies and the government billions of dollars.  It is a solution with a proven track record for cutting waste and improving quality.  [Although I'm very familiar with Six Sigma, my training and heart is with a problem-solving methodology called TRIZ.] If I had a wish, all members of Congress would be required to be trained in the TRIZ problem solving methodology.

But be that as it may, I was so heartened today, as were members of the Tea Party crowd, to hear that we don’t have to cut important programs.  We can cut the Federal Budget by $700 billion per year through the elimination of waste while improving quality.

That’s my story too as you can read in many of my posts here. Forget the political cliches and let’s talk solutions.   After visiting Toyota in 1986, Michael George founded the George Group to help US companies become competitive with the Japanese in cost, quality and delivery cycle time.  Mike sold his company and its revenue of $120 million per year and 300 employees to Accenture in 2007.  He has a Masters degree in Physics and holds several US patents.

At the Tea Party, Mr. George gave out his book, SOS! Our Economy is Sinking! to all the attendees at the Tea Party today.

The clip that follows is such a tiny snapshot, but if you want more information on Mr. George, go to www.strongamericanow.com

SAM JOHNSON VOTES NO ON WAGE INCREASES FOR THE AMERICAN WORKERS AND THEN CLAIMS AS HIS EXCUSE THAT HE IS SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES

Sam Johnson, a man who in 20 years of having his meals paid for by the American people voted against the first wage increase for the American workers in 10 years back in 2007 !

The Bill to raise minimum wages for ordinary Americans was passed in 2007 in spite of  his obstruction on a bill  for the MAJORITY of working people on Main Street.

Increase the federal minimum wage to:

1. $5.85 an hour, beginning on the 60th day after enactment;
2. $6.55 an hour, beginning 12 months after that 60th day; and
3. $7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day.

American workers  waited for over 10 years on a minimum wage for the poorest workers in this country Low-wage workers had their wages frozen in time, from 10 years ago, but when they go to the supermarket, the food prices are higher; when they put gasoline in the car, the gasoline prices are higher; when they pay the utility bills, the utility bills are higher; when their kids get sick, the medical bills are higher. All of those things are higher. They were living in 2007, but in their wages they were living in 1997.

Do you wonder why so many Americans for the past 10 years have needed two job to make ends meet?  Ask Sam Johnson and those who have kept wages at below subsistence levels for the MAJORITY of Americans.

**************************************************************

Sam Johnson and others from his party often give the excuse that wage increases hurt small business by reducing their ability to compete with large companies.

In other  words, their “solution” to help Small businesses be more “competitive” with Wall Street is to keep the wages of  the majority of workers at a slave level.  With “solutions” like those, Main Street doesn’t need Sam Johnson helping them out in Congress.

****************************************************

One Better Solution for Small Businesses (and there are more)

LEGALLY DEFINE A “SMALL BUSINESS” AS A COMPANY UNDER 100 EMPLOYEES BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT 98% ARE–UNDER 100 PEOPLE.   Then small businesses could actually compete for government contracts on a level playing field with corporations like Boeing and Halliburton.

There are more than 26 million small businesses in the United States. Almost all of them — 98 percent –have fewer than 100 employees. Yet, the basic standard that is used by the government is 500 employees.

Over the years, the Small Business Administration has revised its “size standard” – the numerical definitions for each industry. A recommendation to reduce the basic employee limit to 100 was halted by the SBA in July 2004, despite response comments that were overwhelmingly in support of the reduction. More

******************************************************

In terms of wage increases, Sam Johnson has a ready-made dog and pony show for this election.  Last year he donated his cost-of living increase that Congressional members are paid every year to charity.

BIG DEAL.  Such an act is nothing short of more political grandstanding and means about ZIP to the majority of Americans.  What impact does Sam Johnson’s political grandstanding have on your life, on your ability to get a job that pays a livable wage? ZIP that’s how much and if you fall for these political dog and pony tricks along with the standard political cliches and promises that people like Sam Johnson dish out instead of real solutions that Independents like me will bring to Washington–then you have yourself to blame as you are the only one who gets to decide what you want to do with your vote.

You can throw it away on more of the same tired old cliches and political grandstanding, or you can vote for me.

The question that I will be searching to answer is:   How many times over the past 20 years has Sam Johnson voted himself a raise?  That is the REAL test–not whether or not he donates a paltry $3,000 or $4,000 of  his current $174,000 salary to charity, most of which is tax deductible anyway.  I’m not impressed.

Another question to ask Mr. Johnson except for “lower taxes” which never seems to be delivered and his vote to keep wages at below subsistence level for most Americans–what other solutions does Sam Johnson offer for Small Businesses?

In addition to being citizens of the Third U.S. Congressional of Texas, I hope that the people in my district will also keep the larger perspective of themselves as citizens in the world and the power that they have as voters to change things.  All ordinary citizens of the world face problems today because of  the war mongering ideology that the leadership of the most powerful nations in the world have been wielding against ordinary citizens of their countries and especially against the countries of developing nations.

In addition, our leaders in the USA have voted for and continue to support large farm subsidies  ($19 billion dollars a year) to corporate agribusiness such as Archer Daniels, convicted criminals of price fixing in the mid 1990’s.  This policy of heavily subsidized commodities costs Americans even billions more every year and creates unfair competition with other nations whose governments do not subsidize large agribusinesses like Mexico.

Then you add our irresponsible legislators who pass trade agreements like NAFTA and you have a cocktail for human disaster.  USA corporate agribusiness, with the assistance of our Congress, devastated the Mexican economy and over the past 15 years have sent millions of displaced persons from Mexico into the USA.  Until the root problem that includes both the unfair trade  agreement AND the the removal of farm subsidies for large agribusinesses is addressed, there will be no real change.

In dealing with the huge issues that our nation faces  today with displaced persons from Mexico, I suggest that we renegotiate NAFTA and put the tariffs back in.  In addition I suggest that we take that taxpayer largess of $19 billion ( $18.5 of it going to corporate agribusinesses and rich Sunday farmers  who live in New York City) and apply all but $1 million of it to addressing the issues of the health and welfare of both the Mexican AND American citizens whose lives have been economically devastated by this irresponsible legislation.

That $1 billion would be reserved for the 2% of family farmers who still live on the land that they farm.  Today, those Americans get only $380,000 million of that total annual $19 billion that American taxpayers fork over to Corporate Agribusinesses.  If that is not obscene (disgusting to the senses, repulsive) then we need to rewrite the definition of obscene.  As far as I can tell, “obscene” is the perfect description for the current farm subsidy giveaway to corporate agribusinesses.

In the final analysis, it is only ordinary citizens like us who can change the world.  This video about Doctors Without Borders reminded me of that truth this morning.

The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world’s biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.

IF they were held financially accountable?  Why shouldn’t they be held financially accountable for what they do?  Ordinary Americans are held financially accountable for what we do.  Why should these people be an exception to the rule for behaving like responsible human beings?  This is a serious question.  What would you tell your kid who refused to clean up the mess he made in his room?  That it was OK?

************************************************

AND THE SOLUTION IS?

You tell me:

Allow the world’s 3,000 largest companies in the world to continue to pollute our planet until when?  Until there is no more grass, no more air that is safe to breathe without an aspirator, no more water that is safe to drink.  Until they finally have the last penny that the majority of us ever had?  Until when?  This is a serious question and it deserves a serious answer. At what point in time, if ever, do we demand that these people take responsibility for the harm that their greed continues to do to our entire planet?

And I’ll tell you.

If we allow the world’s 3,000 largest companies in the world to continue to pollute our planet, because God forbid, that they should lose 1/3 of their current profits if they had to wipe their own rear ends and pay for the toilet paper, then we all lose.

*******************************************************

If you vote for me, I will have no problem demanding that these people take full responsibility for the messes they make.  All I have to do is think of my children and grandchildren.  I’ll be sure to keep their photos on my desk when I get to Washington to remind me of my priorities.  You can send me photos of your family too.  I’ll plaster the walls of my office with photos of my constituents.  I won’t forget what is important.