A Long Haul Project for Average Americans — I recently had an interesting discussion with Jim Fonseca which was based on his interesting political map of the United States. The One Minute Geographer: The Heavy Hand of Geography on the American Federal System The United States Population in Thirdsjimwfonseca.medium.com He had an original idea about reforming the electoral structure of the United States. I’ll just cut and paste this part of our discussion here:

We need more respect! — When I wrote my assignments for my high school and university courses, my wordsmithing was guided by my English-speaking brain — on some kind of autopilot — to find the right grammatical structures for me. “Does this sentence look/sound/feel right?” …

Training future politicians to make better decisions. — I like simulations as learning tools. A good simulation gives learners real world experience without real world consequences. I have developed a few web-based simulations. My first set of simulations was part of a business English program I started developing in 1996. I was focusing on the English language involved…

Who is really writing history? — For watchers of democracy, I recommend reading the Medium article below. It shows where the real democratic power lies. Middle Seat x John Fetterman: Flipping a U.S. Senate Seat from Red to Blue How Early and Sustained Investments in Digital Propelled Fetterman to Victorymedium.com To summarize, this article was written by a political consulting firm, Middle Seat Consulting. This firm was managing the campaign to elect John Fetterman as Pennsylvania’s newest senator.

A Real-Life Political Play in One Act — Characters: DC, a Democrat Congressman BD, a Big Donor Belinda, BD’s secretary Scene: BD’s office. Act 1 BD: Fred! Long time, no see. What brings you here? DC: Well, you know how things are in Washington. Busy, busy, busy. Meetings, meetings, meetings. Every evening is politics: restaurants, pubs, secret meetings. I hardly have time…

My 15 Minutes of Medium Fame — I am not a popular writer on Medium. I have reluctantly accepted that Medium contributors do not want to hear about my alternative democracy despite the current democracies are not working so well. The world is not ready for this idea. A year ago, I got a little counselling from…

Or should we just move forward? — My feed has seen an increase in articles belittling Umair Haque and Jessica Wildfire. Here is a recent article on this theme, by Berna Tural: Nobody Wants to Read Jessica and Umair Anymore We’re all tired of doomersmedium.com When I joined Medium in April 2019, Umair and Jessica showed up on my feed. So, I clicked and read. I had to agree with…

A better balance? — I grew up around alcohol. My parents were great socializers, and bottles came out whenever company came over. We had lots of company; bottles did not stay full long. I had my first hangover when I was 15. In my youth, I believed the world was composed of two kinds…

It’s time for less conflict — What do a theater manager, his accountant, a mining executive, a couple of high-level bureaucrats, several disgruntled miners, and a control-freak security guard have in common? Dale E. Lehman takes us to the Oort cloud, where asteroids are mined for resources not easily found in the other eight planets. …