Obama discovers need for strategy

You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I’ll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes.

You see, change requires more than righteous anger. It requires a program, and it requires organizing. At the 1964 Democratic Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer — all five-feet-four-inches tall — gave a fiery speech on the national stage. But then she went back home to Mississippi and organized cotton pickers. And she didn’t have the tools and technology where you can whip up a movement in minutes. She had to go door to door. And I’m so proud of the new guard of black civil rights leaders who understand this. It’s thanks in large part to the activism of young people like many of you, from Black Twitter to Black Lives Matter, that America’s eyes have been opened — white, black, Democrat, Republican — to the real problems, for example, in our criminal justice system.

But to bring about structural change, lasting change, awareness is not enough. It requires changes in law, changes in custom. If you care about mass incarceration, let me ask you: How are you pressuring members of Congress to pass the criminal justice reform bill now pending before them? (Applause.) If you care about better policing, do you know who your district attorney is? Do you know who your state’s attorney general is? Do you know the difference? Do you know who appoints the police chief and who writes the police training manual? Find out who they are, what their responsibilities are. Mobilize the community, present them with a plan, work with them to bring about change, hold them accountable if they do not deliver. Passion is vital, but you’ve got to have a strategy.

Capitalist Democracies

All liberal democratic polities have capitalist economies, but not all capitalist economies have been liberal and democratic.  Nazi Germany and current day China are examples.

Regimes which combine capitalism with democracy have all developed into what economists call welfare-state capitalism..  These states have taken a variety of forms.

The Gosta Esping-Andersen model consists of three regimes:

   A.      The conservative regime is most often found in Catholic countries and stresses job protection and high wages in order to allow a male breadwinner to be the sole support of his family.

   B.      The social democratic regime is found in the Nordic countries stresses government provision of social services and income supports to create a more egalitarian society and allow (some say require) both men and women to work.

   C.      The liberal version is found in the United States and, to a lesser degree, in other Anglo-Saxon countries and tries to offer government support for those who can’t work in the job market.  It generally has looser labor laws that make it easier to hire and fire people.

Lecture 35, Course Guidebook for “Thinking about Capitalism”, Jerry Z. Muller, The Catholic University of America, The Great Courses #5665, 2008, page 143.

I expect Pope Francis to favor the conservative regime found in Catholic countries.  This regime would not be expected to support equality of pay for women.

Bernie Sanders likes the Nordic model,  It requires both partners to work.

Could the American Dream be an Unintended Consequence of its liberal version?

The Dream of Utopian Socialists

Is the title of Chapter 5 in The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner a Touchstone Book  published by Simon & Schuster.  I have a copy of the revised seventh edition with a 1999 copyright.

With people “feeling the Berne” recently, it seems appropriate to revisit this.  Young people may not have been here before.

I.  Introduction

II.  The Economic Revolution

III.  The Wonderful World of Adam Smith

IV.  The Gloomy Presentiments of Parson Malthus and David Ricardo

V.  The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists

VI.  The Inexorable System of Karl Marx

VII.  The Victorian World and the Underworld of Economics

VIII.  The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen

IX.  The Heresies of John Maynard Keynes

X.  The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter

XI.  The End of the Worldly Philosophy?

        I.        

Alimony in Florida 61.08

Unless Rick Scott signs SB 668 in the very near future, Florida's alimony laws will continue to be governed by

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.08.html

Paragraph (10)(c) states in entirety:

 "If there is no minor child, alimony payments need not be directed through the depository."

I discussed this with Judge Earpp during a Contempt Hearing.  I said that the statutes said that if there were no minor children, alimony does not have to be directed through the depository.  He said he was aware of that.  Neither of us gave any indication that we were thinking of the statute differently.

I now think that he was thinking that judges do not have to direct alimony payments through the depository.  In my case, Judge Charles J. Roberts did direct alimony payments through the depository.

As a minimum, it was an abuse of discretion for Judge Roberts to award alimony in my case.  His award is not consistent with law.

I thought the legislature was thinking of me when they said alimony does not have to directed through the depository.  Judge Earpp was likely thinking of "the judge" did not have to direct alimony payments through the depository.

I now consider Judge Charles J. Roberts, Jr's directing alimony payments through the depository as just another example of Government Overreach.  In this case, Judicial Overreach.

Govern Scott should do everything he can to prevent more victims in the future.  I believe Govern Scott signing SB 668 into law would be a step in the Right Direction.

Are all Florida Family Lawyers algorithm challenged?

Diane Baccus-Horsley has repeatedly demonstrated that she is date-challenged and I have accused her of being arithmetically challenged.

The arithmetically challenged accusation is based on her calculations related to two withdrawals I made in 2000.  The first was about 10 times the second.  Baccus-Horsley could or did not remember that two withdrawals were involved when checking the percentage of ownership values.

I desired to close my Pioneer II account.  Transactions were limited to $100,000 or less.  My premarital Pioneer II account was over $100,000.00.  Diane Baccus-Horsley had difficulty getting the correct figure for my percentage ownership of an account in my name in which I placed my ex-spouses funds to enable her to earn about 9% interest on her funds.

The Florida Supreme Court specified a five step process in Kaaa v Kaaa.  I blogged on Kaaa vs. Kaaa is this blog on Thursday, July 16, 2015.  After determining the "marital portion", the Florida Supreme Court recommended the Stevens Methodology for allocating the marital portion.

They said that if, for example, one party brings to the marriage an asset in which he or she has an equity of fifty percent, the other half of which is financed by marital funds, half the appreciated value at the time of the petition for dissolution was filed, § 61.075(5)(a) 2, Fla. Stat. (1993), should be included as a marital asset.

[The other half of the appreciated value at the time of the petition is nonmarital.]

Florida Family Lawyers seem to have difficulty with common sense and identifying “half the appreciated value”.  Half the appreciated value is marital.

A typical case would have the marriage beginning about the same time as the purchase of the marital home.  My case had stipulated values beyond what would be available in a typical case.  My case had a stipulated value for the Fair Market Value of my home at the time of my marriage.  An eight year period of appreciation belongs to me as a premarital asset.   

Two afflicted with Potomac Fever

Prior to the 1960 election there was some discussion about age and running.

Stan The Man Musial, born November 21, 1920, was considered getting too old to run.  Jack Kennedy who born May 29, 1917, was three and a half years older was considered too young to run.

Kennedy was about 43 and a half years old when he took office.

His predecessors:

Dwight David Eisenhower:  Was 62

Harry S Truman:  Was 61 when he took office

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:  Was 62 at his last inauguration.

Our country grew old with FDR.  Both Kennedy and Nixon were of a younger generation.

I feel that Obama's disastrous foreign policy is in part due to his inexperience (youth).  Comments on his foreign policy can be found at http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/obamas-flawed-foreign-policy-doctrine-laid-bare

According to the Urban Dictionary:

Potomac Fever (n): A disease peculiar to the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan area that presents chiefly as an intense desire in the infected to be associated with the power and prestige of the United States Federal Government, particularly the Executive Branch. Associated symptoms include acts of extreme obsequiousness to those in power or likely to be in power; asserting as fact things one knows or suspects not to be true and; a burning desire to do more work for less pay.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz seem to be afflicted by Potomac Fever.

COUNTERINSURGENCY

FM 3-24 (MCWP 3.33.5) is the Field Manual on COUNTERINSURGENCY.  The digital copy has a left hand menu with the "FOREWARD" near the top.

It seems to be a compromise between FORWARD (as in march) and FOREWORD (as in word coming before or whatever).  I spent 2 years in civil service as a Department of Army civilian.  I have seen FORWARD many times.

This manual is designed to fill a doctrinal gap. It has been 20 years since the Army published a field manual devoted exclusively to counterinsurgency operations. For the Marine Corps it has been 25 years. With our Soldiers and Marines fighting insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is essential that we give them a manual that provides principles and guidelines for counterinsurgency operations. Such guidance must be grounded in historical studies. However, it also must be informed by contemporary experiences.

This manual takes a general approach to counterinsurgency operations. The Army and Marine Corps recognize that every insurgency is contextual and presents its own set of challenges. You cannot fight former Saddamists and Islamic extremists the same way you would have fought the Viet Cong, Moros, or Tupamaros; the application of principles and fundamentals to deal with each varies considerably. Nonetheless, all insurgencies, even today’s highly adaptable strains, remain wars amongst the people. They use variations of standard themes and adhere to elements of a recognizable revolutionary campaign plan. This manual therefore addresses the common characteristics of insurgencies. It strives to provide those conducting counterinsurgency campaigns with a solid foundation for understanding and addressing specific insurgencies.

A counterinsurgency campaign is, as described in this manual, a mix of offensive, defensive, and stability operations conducted along multiple lines of operations. It requires Soldiers and Marines to employ a mix of familiar combat tasks and skills more often associated with nonmilitary agencies. The balance between them depends on the local situation. Achieving this balance is not easy. It requires leaders at all levels to adjust their approach constantly. They must ensure that their Soldiers and Marines are ready to be greeted with either a handshake or a hand grenade while taking on missions only infrequently practiced until recently at our combat training centers. Soldiers and Marines are expected to be nation builders as well as warriors. They must be prepared to help reestablish institutions and local security forces and assist in rebuilding infrastructure and basic services. They must be able to facilitate establishing local governance and the rule of law. The list of such tasks is long; performing them involves extensive coordination and cooperation with many intergovernmental, host-nation, and international agencies. Indeed, the responsibilities of leaders in a counterinsurgency campaign are daunting; however, the discussions in this manual alert leaders to the challenges of such campaigns and suggest general approaches for grappling with those challenges.

Conducting a successful counterinsurgency campaign requires a flexible, adaptive force led by agile, well-informed, culturally astute leaders. It is our hope that this manual provides the guidelines needed  to succeed in operations that are exceedingly difficult and complex. Our Soldiers and Marines deserve nothing less.

This foreword was signed jointly by Lieutenant General DAVID H. PETRAEUS, US Army and Lieutenant General, JAMES F. AMOS, U.S. Marine Corps.