From where I sit...

#thenewblue

No, folks, nobody is going to “de-fund” Police Departments across the Nation. That is just not going to happen. Someone thought it would be appropriate, given our collective turmoil, to use the word “de-fund” throwing more fuel on fire. That needs to be corrected.

Could we try the term “re-fund the Police”? That more closely describes what is being proposed. By using this new terminology, I am talking of bringing Law Enforcement back to what it was meant for. The jobs the Police are tasked with in too many cases are jobs that were never meant for them to handle. Police are not mental health professionals, social workers, family counselors, Doctors, EMTs, etc. Their only job is to enforce the laws of the land in an effort to keep communities safe from the bad guys.

Why has our society overburdened Police with tasks no one else seems to want to do? Let’s rearrange the deck chairs and give our Police a chance at doing the jobs they were originally tasked with. This would change the culture of Police Departments and erase the overburdening of a very valuable asset; our Police. There is way too much tension and mistrust in all quarters by all people. We can start by reforming the biggest hurdle first. The Police Unions are the driving force behind all this “militarizing” of the Police. These Union “leaders” have to learn their place and join the team effort in “re-forming” all Departments. This task is not rocket science.

Being from New York, I get too many chances to listen to Pat Lynch, the New York City PBA Union President. You only have to hear his oral diarrhea once to realize where the Police culture is right now. And, how Union heads all over the Country are constantly pushing toward that goal on militarization. It will not be an easy task to dismantle that culture; it has been with us for decades. I am not convinced that it takes 38,000 police to keep law and order in New York City. I am not convinced that any local police force needs to add combat vehicles to their motor pools.

           

There are many Veterans applying and being accepted by Law Enforcement. I know that police departments do not screen applicants thoroughly for substance abuse and mental health problems brought home from the battlefield. On the other side of that coin, the recent applicants who suffer from combat PTSD, TBI, substance abuse, and other unseen mental health problems tend not to seek treatment. If they did, they would never qualify for a police position, let alone carry a weapon. Therefore, they remain silent and fiercely deny any problems in those areas.

It is above my pay grade to dive deeper into the details of “re-funding” the Police. There are many people who know how to work out the details far better than I could even imagine. I do know that some people will raise the age-old excuse; “it’s too complicated”. No, it is not complicated. It does get complex. Complex we can do by solving issues one at a time. We, as a Nation, are good at doing that!

With our pride and love for this Nation,

we can all get behind this concept and make it reality.

Yes, we can give peace a chance; at home first!

Opinion: Veterans Harmed as Lawmaker Wages Political Vendetta

Not only do we need the current whistleblower protection program, we need to strengthen it. Especially when it comes to the Department of Veterans Affairs, whistleblowing is a must; given the disastrous shape this Agency is in. What is being reported is just the tip of a very large iceberg, which needs to be blown to “smithereens”, so the VA can be restructured to meet the needs of those it claims to serve. The article, below just came across my News Ticker....

Military.com

Military.com | Sep 08, 2016 | by J. David Cox Sr.

J. David Cox Sr. is national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 670,000 federal and District of Columbia government employees nationwide, including 220,000 in the Department of Veterans Affairs. The views expressed in this commentary are his.

I've dealt with extremist politicians like Rep. Jeff Miller long enough not to take his insults personally ("Opinion: Union Bosses, VA Bosses Rigging System for Failure," Sept. 5).

But after spending 20 years caring for veterans as a psychiatric nurse, and the past decade representing more than 220,000 VA employees across the country, here's one thing I take very personally: our nation's sacred obligation to serve the women and men who have worn the uniform.

Our members take that obligation seriously, too. That's why they were the first to come forward to blow the whistle on VA managers and executives who were falsifying appointment records to hide excessive wait times for veterans seeking care.

Rather than proposing real solutions to the problem of veterans not getting timely access to care, Rep. Miller chose to exploit the wait list scandal to serve his own political agenda. Miller has introduced a bill that would gut the workforce protections that empowered whistleblowers to come forward in the first place.

Miller's bill is part of a concerted effort by the congressman to strip all federal employees -- not just those at the VA -- of their due process rights, allowing employees to be demoted or fired at will without any protections from partisanship or favoritism.

He also has waged an intense campaign to implement the extreme proposal by the Concerned Veterans for America to privatize the VA and dismantle the patient-centered system that veterans have endorsed time and time again.

Miller's obsession with gutting employees' rights and stripping the VA for parts has distracted the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, which he chairs, from focusing on staffing shortages and underfunding issues that, if addressed, stand to make a tremendous difference for the veterans he claims to serve.

Tell me, Congressman Miller, how is silencing health care providers and shutting down VA hospitals going to improve veterans' access to health care?

A far better VA reform bill has the bipartisan support of Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chair Johnny Isakson of Georgia and ranking member Richard Blumenthal.

Even though we do not agree with provisions attacking the due process rights of VA executives, we support his Veterans First Act because it will provide real accountability at the VA without hanging an ax over the heads of honest employees who choose to blow the whistle on mismanagement.

The Veterans First Act is far from a boondoggle for labor unions, as Rep. Miller suggests -- which is why many employee groups still oppose it. Yet we believe that our veterans deserve quality health care and that they indeed must come first, which this bill would accomplish by empowering VA employees to hold bad managers and opportunist politicians in check.

With its vast network of more than 160 medical centers and 1,000 community-based outpatient clinics across the country, the VA provides its 5.8 million veteran patients the best health care our nation has to offer.

If Congressman Miller would focus on providing the VA with the resources it needs to serve more veterans, instead of scapegoating the very employees who deliver that care, our nation's war heroes would reap the benefits they so justly deserve.

© Copyright 2016  Military.com . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/09/08/opinion-veterans-harmed-as-lawmaker-wages-political-vendetta.html?ESRC=eb_160909.nl

Spread the word!

http://www.getmoneyout.com/

This initiative is totally legitimate and growing. If this can be melded with “Occupy Wall Street” and other similar movements, the People of this Country may, indeed, be able to reclaim the voice that has been stolen from them.The letter blow came to me via a good “Facebook” friend from Florida and, because I’m a little bit passionate about this subject, I am forwarding it you. My hope is that you will consider joining this Cause by simply signing their petitions from time to time. Of course, any further involvement will be a good thing, also.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jimmy Williams < >
Sent: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 4:55 pm
Subject: A Letter from the Executive Director, jimmy@getmoneyoutfoundation.org

Karen --
Sharing our own moments in history is real.  It’s humbling. I remember a moment I had back in late July when I was sitting in my spacious office down on K Street.  I had just taken a call from yet another Member of Congress, asking me to raise him $25,000. My initial reaction was to smile and reflect on simpler but poorer times when I was a Senate staffer; $25,000 a year!

I spent almost seven years, the best years of my life by the way, doing policy in the Senate and I take great pride in my public service. Back then I did what was natural: I became a lobbyist, with the hopes of continuing my economic policy expertise from the outside. Key word here: policy.

But here's the rub: lobbyists today rarely get to use the policy they learned in the halls of Congress.  Instead they are forced to spend a majority of their time raising money and shuffling from cocktail reception to cocktail reception.

The "fundraising circuit" is deafening.  It's sick and it makes me nauseous to think of having to write check after check after check to a Senator or Representative just so I can get a meeting with him or her later.  Anyone that tells you that's not true is flat out lying to you.

So, back to my "moment in history." It began at my desk.   A physical chill came over my body. The smile of "making it" as one of the top lobbyists (apparently the Wall Street Journal thought so!) in Washington turned into something different.

That's when it hit me.  That's when I knew I had to stop.  I had two choices, be a cog in the wheel or destroy the wheel. I literally shuttered at the thought of losing everything I'd ever worked for: my home, my ability to travel, to live a life of luxury, to provide for my family, etc. I left my lobbying firm and bunkered down on an island for the month of August and did some major soul searching.

Skip a couple of months forward and a new door opened: my friend Dylan Ratigan approached me to lead the Get Money Out Foundation.  Great offer but I needed a sounding board, so I picked up the phone and called my brother Robert down in South Carolina.  What I heard in my brother's voice was this theme that Washington, DC isn’t just broken but corrupt. He confirmed what I suspected: that the country at worst hates its capitol and at best thinks our politicians have no clue about what it means to live outside the echo chamber known as the Beltway.

My brother and I couldn't be more different; He's a Republican, I’m a democrat.  He's straight, I’m gay, he's reserved and more cautious, yet I was the kid in the family that threw it all out there.  But there’s not a single person in this world whom I love or trust more than my brother, and when he tells me the country's pissed off at Washington, I knew I had to do this.

Robert asked me how I was going to make Washington wake up and give up its power; what's the strategy, he said.  Here's what I told him:

First, Get Money Out will debate openly and with the public's input. We’ll write the best Constitutional Amendment possible and put it forward to the people.  We wont always agree but if you have something to say, I’ll listen.

Second, we will take the best amendment language to Congress and find allies to introduce it for debate.  Do I expect Congress to debate this immediately? I’m not that naive but that’s where you come in.

Third, I need a wave.  As I write this, we know we have nearly 220,000 followers who believe in this mission.  We need more.  We need MANY more.   I wont be satisfied until we reach 2 million or more.  Why? Because Congress won’t listen unless the wave overtakes them.  I've said it before: Congress doesn't pro-act, Congress only reacts.  This is where you come in. We need your help (and your friends and family’s help) to get Congress to react.  Lets build a wave so big they can’t ignore by exposing the auction for this "government to the highest bidder" mentality for what it is: corruption through and through.

Fourth, if we can get Congress to pass a Constitutional Amendment, then we turn our focus to the states, which have to ratify it to actually make it law.

Campaign finance reform isn't a new idea.  Congress has passed reform measure after reform measure.  Yet, the Supreme Court continues to insist that corporations are people and that money is speech. I just don't agree.  I don't think the Tea Party movement agrees. And I definitely don't think the Occupy Wall Street movement agrees that Exxon is a person.  What we all agree on is the system is broken, that Washington DC is nothing more than an auction house, with the highest bidder always winning.

There are others out there spearheading similar movements, many with good intentions. There are many roads to Rome.  Some want to take the back-roads, some want to take the interstate. In the end, if we all want to reach Rome and agree on the same goal, to Get Money Out of Politics, then I don't care how everyone gets there.  I just care that we all make it to the finish line and pass an amendment banning money in the halls of Congress.

That’s the strategy for the Get Money Out Foundation.  Its simple, its concise, and its honest.  We don’t need to complicate a solution to something so inherently and blatantly wrong.

As the executive director of the Get Money Out Foundation, I give you my word (and my word is all I have in this world) that I will run this movement to ban money in politics as openly, honestly, and transparently as I possibly can.  With your help, we will reach Rome.

Lets get money out and give America its government back.

JFMW

Jimmy Williams
http://www.getmoneyout.com/

About the Manufacturing sector

"BELIEVE IT, OR NOT WE USED TO ACTUALLY MANUFACTURE STUFF HERE IN AMERICA."

About the Manufacturing sector
The manufacturing sector is part of the goods-producing industries supersector group.
The Manufacturing sector comprises establishments engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products. Establishments in the Manufacturing sector are often described as plants, factories, or mills and characteristically use power-driven machines and materials-handling equipment. However, establishments that transform materials or substances into new products by hand or in the worker's home and those engaged in selling to the general public products made on the same premises from which they are sold, such as bakeries, candy stores, and custom tailors, may also be included in this sector. Manufacturing establishments may process materials or may contract with other establishments to process their materials for them. Both types of establishments are included in manufacturing.*
                                                           *North American Industry Classification System

The manufacturing sector consists of these sub-sectors:

            Food Manufacturing

         Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing

Textile Mills

Textile Product Mills

Apparel Manufacturing

Leather and Allied Product Manufacturing

Wood Product Manufacturing

Paper Manufacturing

Printing and Related Support Activities

Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing

Chemical Manufacturing

Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing

Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing

Primary Metal Manufacturing

Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing

Machinery Manufacturing

Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing4

Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing

Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing

Miscellaneous Manufacturing

Employment, Unemployment, Layoffs, and Openings, Hires, and Separations

Data series	Back data	May 2011	Jun. 2011	Jul. 2011	Aug. 2011
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)		11,710	11,724	(P) 11,760	(P) 11,757
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)		8,221	8,225	(P) 8,253	(P) 8,259
Unemployment
Unemployment rate		9.6%	9.2%	9.2%	8.9%
Layoffs
Mass layoff events		270	226	602
Initial claimants for unemployment benefits		25,199	22,986	71,814
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings		221	223	(P) 288
Hires		303	300	(P) 275
Separations		246	232	(P) 232

Footnotes:
(P) Preliminary

Union Membership and Representation

Data series	Back data	2007		2008	2009			2010
Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)		11.3%	11.4%			10.9%	10.7%

Extended Mass Layoffs

Data series	Back data	3rd quarter 2010	4th quarter 2010	1st quarter 2011	2nd quarter 2011
Extended mass layoff events		265	382	(P) 305	(P) 247
Separations		39,171	66,428	(P) 45,461	(P) 34,974
Initial claimants		(R) 47,128	77,311	(P) 50,370	(P) 32,181

Footnotes
(R) Revised
(P) Preliminary

Employment by Occupation

Data series	Employment, 2010
Helpers--production workers	253,910
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers	281,190
Machinists	280,120
Purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products	91,790
Team assemblers	693,27

source credit:

U.S. DEPT. OF LABOR / BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag31-33.htm#workforce

"With real unemployment at, or near, 20% overall ( much higher for minorities), these statistics are not very 'Hopey/Changey' inspiring. A number of my past blog entries have, for over a year, stated my belief that some sort of Civil Unrest is in our immediate future. I thought it would happen this Summer; my bad. I still cling to the probability that the proverbial poop will hit the proverbial fan. With a Presidential election year coming up, our lack of a viable economy may be just part of the puzzle. At any rate, keep your heads down and keep your 'powder' dry.