Short Quiz & Suggested Answers

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Short Quiz & Suggested Answers

Post by johnkarls »

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO THE SHORT QUIZ - CAN THE MIDDLE CLASS BE SAVED

Question 1

Is the title of the Atlantic article inherently racist? Why is it inherently racist?

Answer 1

Yes it is racist, because it exhibits an utter disregard for the American permanent underclass. This sort of thing could be expected if a member of the Brahmin Caste of India wrote an article ignoring India's Untouchable Caste, but it just does not comport with America's pretensions of equality and class/caste mobility!!!

Question 2

Who was Saul Alinsky?

Answer 2

As we have studied in the past, Saul Alinsky was a self-proclaimed radical of the post-World War II era who believed in change using democratic institutions which, he believed, made essential convincing the Middle Class that their interests were allied with the poor and dispossessed. His mantra = "Do NOT alienate the Middle Class!!!"

Question 3

As a disciple of Saul Alinsky like Hillary Clinton, is President Obama wise to focus seemingly solely on the welfare of the middle class and ignore the permanent under-class in our inner cities?

Answer 3

Hillary Clinton wrote her Senior Honors Thesis at Wellesley College on "Rules for Radicals" - Saul Alinsky's classic political handbook. There was a lot of media commentary during the Clinton Administration that President Clinton was able to persuade Wellesley College to refuse access to Hillary's paper in order to avoid accusations that she and, by association, the President were radicals.

During the years between graduation from Columbia and entrance to Harvard Law School, Barack Obama worked as a Community Organizer on Chicago's South Side in an organization that was founded, financed and run by Saul Alinsky.

All by way of background. For the answer to Question 3, please see Answer 4.

Question 4

Because the effects of the economic downturn have hit the permanent under-class of our inner cities much harder than the middle class, is the President losing his base?

Answer 4

Yes.

The tradition of American politics is to screw your base in order to appeal to independents.

President Obama appears to be demonstrating that you can screw your base so badly that you fatally erode it. And demonstrating that constant Alinsky-esque overtures to the Middle Class (1) may not be sufficient to compensate for an erosion of your base, and (2) may not even be successful in appealing to Middle-Class independents.

Question 5

Has President Obama's primary hometown newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, called for him to announce that he will not run for re-election?

Answer 5

Technically, no.

The call for President Obama to step aside and permit Hillary Clinton to run for President in 2012 at the head of the Democratic ticket was made on September 18 in an OpEd Column by Steven Chapman, a member of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board.

Accordingly, it was obviously intended as merely a "shot across the bow" of President Obama rather than an official editorial position -- at least for now.

Question 6

Have any ideas been posted yet on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org for saving the middle class?

Answer 6

Of course!!! Please see the "Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaign" recommendations to President Obama described in Q&A-7 through Q&A-11 below.

[By way of background for newbies, a "Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaign" comprises an already-prepared e-mail addressed to a decision maker that each of our 150 members can send WITH NO MORE THAN A FEW COMPUTER-KEYBOARD KEY STROKES (1) to the decision maker, AND (2) to all OF the member's friends/acquaintances to do the same in an unending chain.]

Question 7

Did we launch a six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign recommending to President Obama the elimination of unemployment with an FDR-style "national security work force" that puts insofar as possible all of the unemployed to work building solar panels for what would have been the amount of unemployment compensation which would then never expire -- with unlimited time off for job interviews to rejoin the regular work force?

Answer 7

The Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-Mail following our 12/9/2009 meeting 22 months ago =

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Re: Eliminating Unemployment With A "National Security Work Force"

President Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you very much for conducting your "Jobs Summit" on December 3rd.

Although our "Reading Liberally" discussion group was overlooked by the invitation list, we would still like to offer a suggestion prompted by our reading of Dorothy Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer-Prize-winning "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt."

She describes FDR's bold leadership in creating jobs by having the Federal Government itself employ large numbers of idle workers in such programs as his WPA (Works Progress Administration) and his CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).

Next to job creation, our most pressing problems are clean energy, reducing imports, eliminating political dependence on Middle Eastern oil suppliers, etc.

So why don't we "kill four-plus birds with one stone"???

1. Condition unemployment compensation upon working in a manufacturing plant to be created in every locality with significant unemployment, to manufacture solar/wind equipment - with the Federal Government running the plants in a WPA/CCC/TVA/Manhattan Project-style program.

2. Increase the length of the unemployment compensation so that it never terminates - everyone continues to work for the amount s/he would have received as unemployment compensation until s/he is hired away by private industry for higher compensation.

3. The Federal Government is now recouping a good share of the cost of unemployment compensation because now something worthwhile is being produced with those expenditures.

4. The Federal Government could require the owners of the best solar/wind technology to license their technology for reasonable fees.

Although not essential to the proposal, the Federal Government which already funds virtually all basic research in America, should increase the funding for improving solar and wind technology.

Another thought which is also not essential to the proposal =

If an employer wants to close (or significantly reduce employment at) a plant, why not have the Federal Government require the plant (or the unused portion) to be auctioned off under "eminent domain" - and if the auction price is sufficiently low, purchase the facility as a nearly-ready-to-go solar/wind manufacturing facility with its old work force starting ASAP to manufacture solar/wind equipment???

Thank you for your consideration.
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Question 8

Did we launch a six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign recommending to President Obama the transformation of the SINGLE-DIGIT inner-city high school graduation rates to 90% with the only method that works = "I Have A Dream"® or IHAD-style programs that feature tutors and mentors that become de facto parents (studies routinely show that nothing else works on a broad scale, e.g., early intervention, teacher incentive pay, etc. -- and vouchers/charter schools only remove from the Holocaust those few inner-city children who are lucky enough to have a motivated parent)?

Answer 8

There have been THREE Six-Degrees-of-Separation E-mail Campaigns on this subject following our 1/13/2010, 5/13/2009 and 1/14/2009 meetings. For example, the e-mail following the 1/14/2009 meeting 33 months ago =

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President Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

Re: The ONLY Way To Transform SINGLE-DIGIT Inner-City High School Graduation Rates to 65%-70%

SINGLE-DIGIT high school graduation rates and the overwhelming majority of households headed by single-adult druggies who turn over any receipts to the pusher so the kids have to steal just in order to eat were typical conditions for the first 180 I-Have-A-Dream Programs in 50 American cities as documented by John Karls, IHAD's volunteer national treasurer in the 1990's. He also documented that SURROGATE PARENTS (a tutor, mentor, etc., who is able to bond with the Dreamer) is THE ONLY FACTOR CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A QUANTUM TRANSFORMATION OF H.S. GRADUATION RATES from single digits to 65%-70%. (For further details, please see http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org or ask The Hon. Hillary Clinton who served on Eugene Lang's IHAD-National Advisory Board for many years before the 1992 Iowa caucuses.)

In the wake of the Supreme Court's 2007 reversal of Brown v. Board and return to separate AND UNEQUAL public schools, and faced with the inconvenient truth that America has produced a permanent inner-city under-class despite identical-twin studies that consistently show that inner-city IQ's are equal to suburban IQ's, we respectfully recommend:

(1) that a sizable portion of the $5 billion of discretionary funds in the Education Department's portion of the budget currently being approved be used to replace some of the failing inner-city schools with federally financed and operated K-12 magnet schools that attract suburban students whose families will become SURROGATE FAMILIES for the inner-city students; and

(2) that as such federal K-12 magnet schools prove their worth, you dedicate a portion of the $10 billion/month savings from winding up the war in Iraq to replacing all failing inner-city schools with such federal K-12 magnet schools.

PS - Thank you for being so accessible to the ideas of your constituents, and thank you for increasing last January the size of messages such as this that you will accept from 500 characters to 5,000 characters.
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[10/1/2011 Reading Liberally Editorial Note re the "PS" = the message size was soon cut back to 2,500 characters.]

Question 9

Did we launch a six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign calling on President Obama to honor his campaign promises and announce that he will veto any legislation incorporating the recommendation of his Deficit-Reduction Commission to exempt from corporate income tax the profits from out-sourcing American jobs (NB: most readers would not notice that the Commission's Official Report recommended taxing corporations on a "territorial basis")?

Answer 9

The Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-Mail following our 5/11/2011 meeting =

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Exempting From U.S. Tax The Profits From Exporting American Jobs

President Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

During your 2008 campaign, you pledged many times that you would make it difficult for multi-national companies to export American jobs to low-wage countries such as China.

As you are probably aware, the final report of your Deficit-Reduction Commission entitled "The Moment of Truth" and published last December with a cover bearing the official White House seal contained on p. 33 a Tax Reform proposal entitled "Recommendation 2.2.3. Move To A Competitive Territorial Tax System" which would, among other things, exempt U.S.-based multi-national companies on their profits from exporting American jobs. The stated rationale is that foreign-based (primarily European) multi-national companies are not taxed on their profits from manufacturing in low-wage countries such as China.

You should honor your campaign pledge by announcing immediately that you will veto any legislation that would tax U.S.-based corporations on a territorial basis.

If U.S.-based corporations suffer a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis European-based corporations because continental European countries typically exempt foreign profits of their corporations, then you should negotiate with those European countries to impose taxation on foreign earnings rather than dishonoring your campaign pledges.

Thank you for your consideration.
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Question 10

Did we launch a six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign recommending to President Obama that he propose setting up a new U.S. government patent-exploitation office that will patent in the name of the federal government all inventions resulting from basic research financed by the federal government (National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, Department of Defense, etc.) and aggressively pursue the economic exploitation of those patents INCLUDING ENSURING THAT SUCH TECHNOLOGY IS EMPLOYED ONLY IN MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES AND NOT USED, FOR EXAMPLE, BY U.S.- OR EUROPEAN-BASED COMPANIES IN THEIR LOW-WAGE ASIAN MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS?

Answer 10

Technically, no.

As set forth on our Home Page of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org, we have very high standards for our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns. Average attendance at our meetings is 10-11 (we cancel if there are fewer than six RSVP's from our regular attendees, which has only happened once in our six years of existence) and TO BE OFFICIAL, A SIX-DEGREES-OF-SEPARATION E-MAIL CAMPAIGN REQUIRES NO MORE THAN ONE DISSENT (in which case we describe the recommendation as a "consensus" rather than "unanimous").

On 5/11/2011, there were two dissents based on the belief that unlike, for example, a General Electric or an American drug company that employs scientists to conduct research and that patents any inventions, the U.S. Government (representing the American taxpayers who pay for the research) should NOT be permitted to patent any inventions from the research they finance or impose any conditions on the use of those inventions.

However, Yours Truly did send the following e-mail to President Obama. And provided it to our 150 members together with a "heads up" that even though there was NO RECOMMENDATION regarding its use, each of our members has "Freedom of Speech" and "Freedom of Petition" under the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, can make his/her own decision what action, if any, to take.

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Benefiting American Taxpayers For The Scientific Discoveries Of Basic Research They Have Financed

President Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

As you are probably aware, the U.S. Government funds an incredible amount of basic research through the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Defense Department, etc.

As you are probably also aware, the U.S. Government does not patent any of the discoveries that result from this research. Instead, companies both U.S.- and foreign-based are free to capitalize on these discoveries and they are even free to conduct any manufacturing based on these discoveries in low-wage countries such as China.

Accordingly, it is recommended that you announce a new policy accompanied by legislation, if necessary - (A) that the U.S. Government will patent all discoveries resulting from basic research that it funds, and (B) that the U.S. Government will license such discoveries for commercial use provided that the licensees, whether U.S.- or foreign-based, conduct in the United States any manufacturing operations utilizing the technology.

It is recognized that many of the discoveries resulting from research conducted by the Defense Department are kept secret, much like the famous Coca Cola formula is a "trade secret." However, it should be a small matter to provide that when defense secrets finally enter the public domain, they will automatically be subject at that time to a new patent owned by the U.S. government that will become part of the program described above.

Consideration should also be given to the problems posed by the unauthorized use of the technology that will be owned by the U.S. government. It would be appropriate to insist with all of the members of the World Trade Organization ("WTO") that - (A) every WTO country will ban imports of goods made with the U.S. government's technology without a license, and (B) exports of other goods to WTO countries from countries that use the U.S. government's technology without a license to produce goods for internal use or export to non-WTO countries, will be subject to seizure to pay for the royalties that should have been paid on the goods used internally or exported to non-WTO countries.

Thank you for your consideration.
*****************

Question 11

Did we launch a six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaign recommending to President Obama a European-style motor-fuel tax that completely funds social security and universal health care "killing 4 birds with one stone" = (1) reducing the international balance-of-payments deficits, (2) increasing national security by reducing the reliance of the U.S. and its allies on foreign oil-exporting states, (3) reducing pollution with more fuel-efficient vehicles, and (4) fully funding social security and universal health care? [Typical gasoline prices in Europe are the equivalent of $15-18/gallon.]

Answer 11

No.

Such a campaign was proposed twice, at our 4/14/2010 and 2/9/2011 meetings, but each time there were two dissents.

[It is both ironic and tragic that one of the two dissenters at the 4/14/2010 meeting was an ardent supporter at the 2/9/2011 meeting!!!]

Nevertheless, Yours Truly did send an e-mail to President Obama and the leaders of both parties in the Senate and the leaders of both parties in the House of Representatives.

However, the texts of those e-mails were not provided to our 150 members for their consideration.

Question 12

Are there any other good ideas that we missed? [If so, please post them on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org -- or simply press "reply" and send them to us for posting.]

Answer 12

As of 10/1/2011, the date these suggested answers are being sent to our 150 members in our weekly e-mail (the questions had been included in the weekly e-mail 7 days earlier), nobody has posted any "good ideas that we missed."

However, there are still 11 "shopping days until Christmas"!!!

If nobody else has any suggestions, then Yours Truly would propose we discuss the U.S. adoption of (1) the French higher-education model that all education (including college and post-graduate) is free and open to all based on competitive examinations, and (2) the British/French models of free medical care for all (vs. the Swiss model of requiring citizens to purchase health insurance, which is the basic idea behind the "individual mandate" of the Massachusetts and Obama models).


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EXTRA CREDIT QUESTIONS

Question A

Have we launched other six-degrees-of-separation e-mail campaigns making recommendations to President Obama with regard to issues that do not affect the middle class per se and/or the economy?

Answer A

Yes.

Other Official Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns =

1. 3/10/2010 - Ameliorating the Supreme Court's decision permitting unlimited corporate campaign contributions by promulgating new IRS regulations employing the traditional corporate-income-tax rules regarding whether an expense is "ordinary and necessary" - the new IRS regulations to provide that unless a campaign contribution is related to a specific and narrow issue directly affecting the corporation's business, then the deduction will be disallowed and the contribution will be treated as a non-cash taxable dividend to the shareholders.

2. 11/18/2009 - Eliminating EPA and Chevrolet Volt fraudulent claims regarding gasoline mileage designed to mislead the American public into ignoring the environmental disaster posed by 100%-electric cars so long as there remain any coal-fired electrical-generation plants on the nation's grid - NB: (1) this comment does not relate to hybrid cars which generate their own electricity from the waste heat of their gasoline engines, and (2) until the last coal-fired electrical-generation plant is retired from the grid, the overall impact of a 100%-electric vehicle = carbon emissions (think global warming) ARE INCREASED although other pollution (think "acid rain"), though also increased, can be exported to electrical-generation plants downwind.

3. 10/14/2009 - American Policy Toward Palestinians (the key to Middle Eastern Peace) should be reformulated by providing $3 billion/year (the level of aid to Israel and Egypt) for education/training of Palestinians in order to provide them with a real future.

4. 4/8/2009 - Instead of surging U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 47,000 to 70,000 in his first month in office, President Obama should rely on human intelligence. (President Obama later decided on a SECOND surge from 70,000 to 101,000.)

5. 11/12/2008 - The nation should embrace Al Gore's 10-year challenge to America to re-power the nation's electrical grid.

Two Additional Proposals For Which There Were Two Dissents, But The Text of Each E-mail Of Yours Truly Was Provided To Our 150 Members For Their Consideration Whether To Exercise Their Individual Constitutional Rights of Free Speech and Petition =

1. 4/13/2011 - We just missed consensus on recommending that in the wake of the Japanese nuclear-plant disaster which demonstrated how easily water can be shaken from what are essentially home swimming pools used to house spent fuel rods (though we recognized that radiation also contaminated the environment due to venting from the containment chambers and coolant leaks outside the containment chambers), especially since many American nuclear plants are in earthquake zones and most are near aviation corridors -- America begin reprocessing its spent fuel rods to eliminate the problem. We noted that (A) most the world avoids the spent-fuel-rod problem by reprocessing, (B) the 66-page Feb 1999 report prepared for President Clinton by the Government's Oak Ridge National Nuclear Laboratory concluded that reprocessing was attractive, and (C) the 12/23/1977 decision of President Carter not to reprocess for fear that weapons-grade fuel would be produced that might be stolen by terrorists shouldn't be a problem in view of the fact that the U.S. military has nuclear weapons at many more locations around the world than the 65 sites of the nation's 104 nuclear plants and the U.S. military has no problems in providing adequate security on a routine basis.

2. 11/10/2010 - We just missed recommending that until our 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan, our military "foot print" in Afghanistan feature primarily Navy Seabee battalions whose primary mission would be building schools, hospitals, etc.

Question B

What has been the response of President Obama to our recommendations?

Answer B

He has ignored all of them.

Particularly tragic has been his refusal to eliminate unemployment with the "FDR-Style 'National Security' Work Force" since Federal Unemployment Compensation, which had been extended to 99 weeks and was proposed to be further extended in President Obama's Jobs Proposal of only last month (Sep 2011), will now be cut off for many, if not most, recipients.

For an old timer such as Yours Truly, several comments demand airing =

1. Over the decades, I have participated in several politically-oriented discussion groups at the Harvard Club of NYC.

2. Virtually all Presidents for the last 40 years until President Obama have conducted "open Administrations" that constantly solicited good ideas from outsiders.

3. Many, if not most, of the ideas implemented by previous Administrations originated in the politically-oriented discussion groups of the Harvard Club of NYC. After all, (A) the members of those groups came from the Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations and the world's major international law firms, (B) the members of HC/NYC groups were constantly floating back and forth between NYC and the highest levels of the U.S. Government, and (C) it was only natural, when Administration officials were casting about for solutions to problems, that they would consult their friends to ascertain whether any of them had heard of any good ideas. [It was always a very heady experience when one of your own ideas was implemented!!!]

4. Although I still participate in 1-2 monthly discussion groups of the Harvard Club of NYC, it no longer has any politically-oriented monthly discussion groups.

5. My impression of the reason why they no longer exist is that, as often reported in the media, President Obama and 5-6 close advisers are hermetically sealed from everyone else (the rest of the Administration, Congress, the public, etc.).

6. Indeed, http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/contact which provides the vehicle for sending an e-mail to the President, permits the sender to check a box toward the end requesting a response -- YOURS TRULY HAS NEVER FAILED TO CHECK THAT BOX AND HAS YET TO RECEIVE A RESPONSE TO ANY OF HIS E-MAILS!!!

7. Although the obvious conclusion is that the solicitation of ideas through http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/contact is merely for show, we still have an obligation as citizens to exercise our Constitutional Right of Petition to request President Obama to propose policies that will improve our country.

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