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Time to Choose Between Truth or Tribe – Freedom or Autocracy

  Time to Choose Between Truth or Tribe – Freedom or Autocracy Rick Olson March 18, 2024 In this year’s elections, we will have the chance to vote for a multi-racial democracy or risk losing our democracy altogether. We cherish our rights to say what we want, see and hear what we want on whatever media we want, to believe and practice (or not) any religion we want, to go wherever and whenever we want, to love and marry whomever we want, to meet and gather with whomever, whenever and wherever we want. But these rights mean nothing unless they can be enforced – by the rule of law. I learned back in the 70’s from the JC’s that we were “A nation of laws and not of men.” This means that decisions about these rights are made based on laws, not on the whims of individual authoritarians or even growing pressure groups. I can’t stay silent. Can you? First, for democracies to survive, losers of election must respect the outcome of free and fair elections - win or lose. 65% of Republ
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New Bold Viewpoint on Our Future

  New Bold Viewpoint on Our Future By Rick Olson, 320-248-9933, olson48176@gmail.com I am a former Republican who once thought of himself as a conservative. I even compiled a conservative voting record while serving in the Michigan legislature. So, what I am about to tell you may surprise you as several of the recommendations would clearly be labeled “liberal” or perhaps even “progressive”, but this is where I have ended up by following the facts. We have many serious issues/problems that need solutions. We are not hearing about them in the Biden vs. Trump discussions, as the issue is whether you are for or against Trump, not whether you are for or against policy proposals. That is why the possibility of Dean Phillips joining the Democratic primary race for President interested me. Might we see a “New Bold Viewpoint on Our Future”? Below are some of the issues that will drastically affect you, your kids’ and your grandkids’ future that might be addressed if we follow the facts
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Value Added Tax

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  Many countries around the world levy a Value Added Tax (VAT). Conservatives resist the idea of adding a VAT to our tax burden would balloon government spending and the size of government. (I don’t like the VAT either, but I see no other viable solution to the gigantic national debt that we must find a solution for.) One could look with alarm at the tax burdens of other countries and believe that the VAT is to blame. Source: Revenue Statistics 2018 Tax revenue trends in the OECD , 2018 This graph shows total taxes of all kinds, as a percentage of the countries’ Gross Domestic Product. By comparison, the United States (5 th from the right) at 27.1% looks pretty low. But the graph applies the “bikini principle”: it reveals that which is interesting, but hides what is vital. Different countries do similar things in different ways. Most of the countries with apparently high tax burdens include health care costs in their government spending paid by taxes. In the United States, a large p
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Solutions for Rapidly Rising Healthcare Costs

  There are no silver bullets. Empirical research has debunked many potentially promising ideas on how to control health care costs. Examples include: ·          The idea that if we insure more Americans, they will get care at a primary care office and not an emergency room, reducing spending overall, because, in fact, those who gain coverage  increase their emergency department use .  ·          Information technology  decreasing service duplication . ·          High deductible health plans  reducing wasteful care while maintaining valuable care . ·          Broad use of preventive care  reducing later spending. ·          Medicare accountable care organizations, where health-care providers have financial incentives to improve quality and reduce spending — greater care management activities were not associated with lower spending or better outcomes.  ·          A  randomized controlled trial  recently found little benefit from a multi-component wellness program in a large
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Racist? Guilty as Charged?

We hear a lot these days about racial injustice, white supremacy and systemic racism. There are many misconceptions and sometimes intentional misinterpretations that perhaps I can help clear up. We all have biases, as what we believe is primarily based on our past experiences. We achieve these biases mostly unconsciously, so that there is no fault or blame to assign here. We have been immersed in a white dominant society. The effect is that we have been exposed to white being considered “normal” without our even realizing it. However, even if we have an unconscious bias against others of another race, religion, national origin or sexual preference, that does not mean we are discriminatory, as we can consciously choose to act discriminatorily or non-discriminatory. Bias, reinforced by the force of law, is the definition of “systemic racism”. Our national history is full of laws that have the intent of discriminating in favor of whites and against blacks and people of color. Some l
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Thoughts on Universal Basic Income

  Andrew Yang has proposed a Universal Basic Income of $1,000 per adult per month sent unconditionally, with some of the current welfare programs eliminated. https://2020.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/ https://2020.yang2020.com/policies/the-freedom-dividend/   As early as 2011, “CRS identified 83 overlapping federal welfare programs that together represented the single largest budget item in 2011— more than the nation spends on Social Security, Medicare, or national defense. The total amount spent on these 80-plus federal welfare programs amounts to roughly $1.03 trillion. Importantly, these figures solely refer to means-tested welfare benefits. They exclude entitlement programs to which people contribute (e.g., Social Security and Medicare).” CRS Report: Welfare Spending The Largest Item In The Federal Budget   Thus, at first glance, this looks appealing to help reduce poverty and reduce the bureaucracy of the bloated, complicated welfare system based on qualifying
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