Your "SUCKER" Test

The definition of SUCKER I am assuming is to be taken advantage of and doing nothing about it. Sorry to be so crude but another word for it is being screwed and doing nothing about it. I presume we all know that many corporations pay lobbyists salaries to influence our legislators. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont mentions it in his book, "The Speach." Do you think those salaries are a cost of doing business to corporations? If so those salaries would otherwise go to the IRS as part of their income tax bill. If those monies do go to lobbyists in effect you and I are paying the salaries of lobbyists to take advantage of or to screw us and those who sit back and do nothing about it are Suckers. Now listen to this. There is a way and it is a simple way to BEAT THE BASTARDS. If you and I and your friends and mine and all of them and their friends agree with the Patriot Pledge we shall overcome. We must all agree to vote for candidates for Congress who will agree to the pledge. Here it is. IF ELECTED TO POLITICAL OFFICE NEITHER I NOR MY STAFF WILL HAVE ANY CONFLICT OF INTEREST OR A SEMBLANCE OF A CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITH ANY FOR PROFIT CORPORATION OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES. Do you as I do want to stop that being taken advantage of? When you recognize the problem and do something about it you are no longer a SUCKER. By working together we will win as Patriots.

Control Corporations

When Abraham Lincoln stated that with the advent of the corporations will be the end of the Republic, it would seem he was right on the mark and that was in the 1860s. It is obvious that more than half of our legislators in Washington have been bought and paid for by corporations. Even knowing that the boards of directors of most corporations know that they are bleeding the Republic to death they will continue their nefarious activities. I am no political scientist but it seems to me there could be an out not only for the Republic but for the corporations, too. I urge others to take up the results of passing legislation permitting boards of directors of all corporations to be able to be sued for "corporate" miss deeds. Thus if a board member in authority hires a dishonest person who, for example fudges scientific reports to have a drug approved that is found to cause deaths of innocent people, the board should be responsible. When, more than a few years ago a chap named Socrates asked his friend, "If you knew that you would never be found out would you cheat?" His friend said he would have to think about it and gave no answer. We all must admit that perhaps most and maybe all humans are guilty of cheating if circumstances suggest the chance of being discovered is in their favor. Most of our laws are necessary to keep people honest. There are males who will tell a female she is pretty even if she looks like a truck. To one who says, "Get the government off our backs." We should say, "You bastard, you get off our backs. It's my government you are talking about." Corporations have to be controlled. Board members of corporations pay lobbyists to do what the board member would never do himself. It seems imperative that we somehow get the corporations off our governments back.

Improving School Performance

This is about low performing schools and is a good example of things mentioned and things unmentioned that outrage me and I hope you, too. C-Span covered a conference sponsored by "Aspin Institute" entitled, "Improving School Performance." There were class educators on all levels including political and those in every level of eduction. The best of those speaking barely touched on the real problem and didn't define it. It seems to me that the problem must be defined to be able to solve it. Don't you agree that that is a reasonable approach? It is a scientific approach.
Here is the problem: In low performing schools the product presented to kindergarten is, for the age for kindergarten, intellectually deficient. When such a student is presented the teacher, Principal, the Superintendent of Schools should all shout, "How dare you present an ill prepared student to our school? For shame!" It is not the Teacher's or the Principal's or the Superintendent of School's problem. It is societies problem. In another sense it is a problem with opportunity. If accepted, the ill prepared child may well eventually be athletically superior. Statistically that is probably accurate. How can a teacher discover the intellectual deficiencies in a kindergarten age student? A simple vocabulary, reading and writing test designed for the average of well educated kids of kindergarten age would be easy enough to prepare. To flunk it may be something like Autism or the usual poor exposure to the early education compared to most of the kids in the high performance schools. That poor little kid who seems so bright is bright and if it had been given the opportunity would have adsorbed the information needed for kindergarten that might lead to the student's being a world class scientist. So if that is the problem what is the answer? The answer is for mother and child to start school together at shortly after day one of life. Another attempt might be to establish "Cottages" for which locals are trained by local trained residents to add to the love and affection that is present for most babies, training including vocabulary, music, poetry, letters and words leading to reading and writing at that young age. Imagine all children starting on an equal playing field and perhaps an improved field than many affluent youngsters are brought up in. With such a plan adopted imagine the 45% male high school dropouts would vanish and those who would have been dropouts would have the advantage of an opportunity to reach personal heights. To coin a phrase, I am pissed that we all don't do something about that obvious and correctable situation. Science tells that with birth intellectualism continues and that the early days are of great importance. It all adds up to a question defined and a solution. QED as they used to say in geometry.