Fairway Frank's View of Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter has been very successful in raising the awareness of racial tensions in America. Unfortunately, the movement is now adding to those tensions. It is past time for BLM to get things under control.

When I see violence being carried out with the message that America is racist, I am offended. I hate to say this but it makes me feel like a white-American under attack, not the race-neutral-American that we should all strive to be. This is how the violent protestors are making race relations worse.

My reaction to the first BLM inspired violence was that it mirrored the Tea Party experience. Whenever an idiot at a Tea Party event said something racist, the news media played it up as though everyone associated with the Tea Party was racist. When the first BLM protests turned violent, I thought it was a few idiots that were ruining the reputation of a movement that had a message to deliver. However, the number of people that are now participating in violent acts of property damage and bodily injury is not few. And acts of violence are much more repugnant than a racist slur. In addition to the harm it causes, violence is a statement that there is no room for negotiating, there is only an option to surrender to the perpetrators demands. It is societal extortion. And, that angers people. Even people that want to make things better do not wish to engage with extortionists.

Jessie Jackson stated that the violence related to the police shootings is justified. When a leader of the black community specifically condones violence, we are in trouble. The situation has reached crisis level. Is there not a leader in America that can step to the plate and annunciate the BLM mission and provide hope to the black community that America will do better? Probably not, because there are no new ideas floating around to make America better.

If the issue is cops shooting black people, there is no argument. We all agree that some of the shootings have been horrible, unnecessary tragedies. Fortunately, big brother has arrived and we can now see all the horrors perpetrated on planet earth. The light of day that has been shined on the problem will fix the problem. Protests to keep the pressure on to fix the problem faster (like not standing for the national anthem and protest marches) are fine, violence is not.

But the problem is much deeper than cop shootings. An African-American on television best summed the problem when he stated that when a black cop shoots a black man it is not the black cop that is shooting, it is “the system” that employs the black cop that shoots the black man. This is a clear statement that some blacks do not believe that they have any stake in “the system.” The perspective is that they do not control the system with their vote and they do not shape the system with their voices. They are merely victims of the system. I am not stating that this is the perspective of all black people, but the number of black people that resonate with the message of BLM makes me think that the number is significant. And, we should be listening.

By the way, “the system” is society at large with its values and norms that get codified into law and then enforced by society at large – not just by police. It is the neighbor that sees something and calls the cops to help another neighbor. It is the citizen that witnesses a crime and comes forth to make sure justice is served. The system is society.

The problem is not cops shooting black people, it is societal breakdown. One group of society perceives itself as being the prey of another group of society. That is scary. If I were black and felt that way, I would be scared to death. The additional fear that I have no way of fixing the problem would be even worse. I would like to think that I would not strike out with an act of violence, but let us be honest, survival is a strong instinct.

The conditions of our inner-cities is a picture of what is wrong with America. Our policies have not made life better in our inner-cities for the six decades of my life. Yet we have not done anything different in those sixty years. Maybe we should try something new. And, maybe we should include those that live in the inner-cities in developing and implementing those new ideas.

In summary, BLM does not exist because cops are shooting black people, it exists because we have created a “system” that does not do anything to improve the conditions of economically disadvantaged people. We have tried to make things better. Over and over, and over for at least sixty years. It’s time for some new ideas.

In a future post, I will lay out some ideas for what we should do to make things better. My ideas will be only that, ideas for the effected people to take a look at and work with their communities to see if they are helpful and capable of being implemented. They will also be for all Americans to ponder - to see what we would be willing to do to make America better.

Write in FairwayFrank.com for President

I offer a symbolic alternative to the two major presidential candidates. On election day, write in fairwayfrank.com (Frank Coyle, fairwayfrank.com, Pennsylvania) on your ballot. Here is why:

We cannot vote for either Mr. Trump or Secretary Clinton. Mr. Trump is hard to read, I think his intentions may be good, but I am not sure. Is he really inspired to make America great again or is he making the Trump brand great? I have the same trust issue with Secretary Clinton, only greater. Does she want to help the little guy or is she planning on lining the Clintons' pockets. Secretary Clinton’s trust issue is greater than Mr. Trump’s but Mr. Trump is crude and would poorly represent the United States of America.

At best, both are less than transparent on matters that Americans should know about (taxes, emails, foreign deal making, health) before casting a vote. So I will not vote for either and you should not either.

Policy matters are not leading me to pick one candidate over the other either. We are a deeply divided nation because of our silly primary process that requires candidates to pander to the extremes of their respective parties. The reality is that most Americans are moderates. AND, Americans want solutions and action that our polarized system cannot provide.

Here are the principles of my 7-point plan:

1. Require every resident of the United States to register now. Then, build the wall. Those without a criminal history that register will be provided a pathway to citizenship. I do not want 10 or 20 million people living in the shadows. I want everyone living here to pledge their allegiance to the United States of America. After the registration period, if you are not registered, you get deported the first time you show up on any government agency’s radar screen. If you arrive after the registration period, you cannot stay. And, we will have systems in place to identify those that overstay their welcome.

2. Reform our tax code to stop American businesses from leaving. In fact, I will make America’s tax code appealing enough to attract foreign businesses to move here.

The tax reforms will remove all loop holes except those for people; charitable contributions, education expenses, child/elder/illness care expenses, and home mortgage interest. I do not have a staff of economists assisting me in developing this plan but economists have stated that we can lower our tax rates in a revenue-neutral manner by eliminating loop holes. However, loop holes cannot be removed in one day. That would wreak havoc on the stock market. Rather, each business that is adversely affected by the new, loop-hole-free tax code can fill out two forms: 1) using the old tax code, and 2) one using the new, loop-hole-free tax code. In year-one, any adverse impact on a business will be limited to 20% of the higher, loop-hole-free tax bill; year-two would be 40%; year-three 60%; year-four 80% and by year-five we will have our new tax code implemented. Businesses that see a savings from the new tax code get to keep those savings in year-one. I would expect that small businesses (those that create jobs without using loop holes) would see tax savings immediately.

Special interest groups will undoubtedly cry of horrible effects from the elimination of loop holes. But with a five year notice to get ready, they will have to just stop crying. By the way, to remain revenue-neutral, the tax rates would also be lowered in five steps. The exact tax rates will be determined by economists – but they will surely be lower. No credit for economic growth will be factored into the revenue calculations. Any additional revenue from growth will go toward paying down our national debt. Businesses that move to the United States will be offered the expected year-five tax rates immediately and guaranteed that they will not be raised for ten years. We want them to come here. There will also be a one-time tax amnesty for American businesses to bring their cash home - as long as they invest it in building more business and jobs here.

3. Enact a stimulus plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure. In year-one, the plan will only fund the research (what should we do) and design (engineering) work needed to identify and prepare for the rebuilding. I was not happy with the not-so-shovel-ready projects of our last stimulus plan. Stimulus projects will have three major goals, 1) to make our infrastructure more efficient for competitive advantage in a global economy, 2) to develop and deploy technology to provide cleaner energy, and 3) to train and employ people that have been left out of our not-so-great economic recovery.

BTW: cleaner energy should not be achieved by making fossil fuels more expensive so that renewable sources become cost effective. Rather, renewable energy must be made more cost effective so that they can fairly compete with fossil fuels. We also need to explore carbon-capture technologies so that we can cleanly burn fossil fuels.

4. This is not meant to be cruel, but we must capitalize on Europe’s immigrant and terrorism problem by cajoling them to work with us to form a world-wide terrorism military task force. This multilateral force should be heavy on special operation forces and strike terrorists that export or inspire attacks. Strike them in their home territory – to completely eliminate them. We must also demand that legitimate local governments step up to maintain the peace after we eliminate the terrorists. To be clear, I am saying that I would take the fight to the terrorist in whatever means necessary to protect Americans. Nothing is off the table except nation building. If local governments cannot maintain the peace, we will only do enough to prevent genocide and/or civil wars like that in Syria. This is intentionally vague, but you can see my bent towards taking action rather than inaction. The world is a safer place when America leads.

On the domestic front, we must provide the Department of Homeland Security any and all tools necessary to keep us safe. That means some infringement on our civil liberties. Measures should assure that our personal information is not abused, but we cannot live in an encrypted world when our enemies use the encryption to plot attacks against us.

5. I believe that the majority of our “income-inequality,” “racial-inequality,” and “gender-inequalities” are the result of a lousy economy. The items noted about will improve the economy and lessen the inequalities. But, they will not eliminate them. I will form teams (income, race, gender) of leaders from all communities in America, rich, poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Democrats and Republicans and charge each team with issuing a report on what people see as wrong with America and what they believe can be done to fix those wrongs. These teams and their reports will be given the power of my bully-pulpit to start a real conversation in America. My goal is to understand and fix the problems and to have the average guy on the street also understand the problem and be a part of the fixing.

BTW, protesting by ignoring the national anthem or raising a fist is what America is all about. However, violence will never be an acceptable form of protest.

6. Obamacare will not be repealed and replaced – it will be fixed. Those that have health benefits at their place of work do not know of the Obamacare problems. Those with very little income have benefited from Obamacare. Those in the middle (self-paying healthcare people) have seen their premiums skyrocket and their deductibles rise even faster than their premiums. The problem is that only 5% (approximately) of Americans are in the self-paying healthcare pool. Unfortunately, this pool has almost all of the previously “could not get insurance” people. My solution is a public plan that all federal government employees will be a part of and which local governments and businesses can join if they wish. This will increase the risk pool that those most harmed by Obamacare reside in and therefore, reduce their costs. ALL employees of the federal government should eat their own cooking including Congress.

          Unfortunately, my plan will not allow people to keep their plan if they like their plan or to keep their doctor if they like their doctor. But, I am letting you know that now. This aspect of Obamacare cannot be fixed.

7. My cabinet will be an even mix of Republicans and Democrats. Preferably those with current/recent experience in the Senate and Congress. I want leaders that have been successful in passing legislation on my team. I want them to develop the details that they can help get passed in Congress. I want results, not finger-pointing and blame calling.

That is my basic 7-point plan. Short on details because I do not have the resources available to be able to develop the details. What I have is the information provided by the two major candidates and parties – their ideas and their plans. I also have the benefit of reading opinions of journalists and economists that have reviewed the plans. I also have some of my own creative ideas. It does not take a rocket scientist to improve on the greatness of America – it just takes common sense and a willingness to compromise.

So, as a symbolic gesture that you do not endorse either major party’s candidate, that you deplore the existing primary selection process, and that you want my plan put into action: WRITE IN FairwayFrank.com (Frank Coyle, fairwayfrank.com, Pennsylvania) for your selection to be President of the United States of America (POTUS). It will be more symbolic than voting for either the Libertarian or Green Party candidates because, in addition to voting against one of the big two, it will also be voting for the above plan.

A few items of self-disclosure: I changed my party affiliation from Independent to Republican this year to vote against Mr. Trump in the primary. I do not have the temperament to be POTUS. Actually, I am an Irish-American with a temper. Finally, I would never want the job. I do not understand why anyone would want the job.

          God bless, and God bless the United States of America.

P.S.: Please email this to all your friends. We could put a scare into the "establishment"  of both parties. Maybe they would even act on this straightforward plan.

P.S.S.: If you would like to see a discussion on a specific issue, send me an email at fc@fairwayfrank.com, or just leave a comment here.

The Espionage Act Does Not Protect American Lives

FBI Director Comey has deemed that criminal intent is required to bring charges against anyone that handles our state secrets in a grossly negligent manner. Therefore, there are no consequences for haphazardly mishandling our state secrets. Thus, the Espionage Act does not protect our state secrets, nor does it protect American lives. It merely prevents criminal intent.

Criminal intent is not a requirement to prosecute a private sector executive. In the not-so-good-old-days, a small number of corporate executives operated with plausible deniability in order to run their companies in unscrupulous ways. Lower-level managers would take the fall in criminal actions taken against their companies. Then came Enron. Enron executives went to jail because the court decided that those executives either knew or should have known what was going on within their company. Criminal intent could not be established if the executive knew nothing about the crime. But if the law requires the executive to run the company in a competent and responsible manner, then (with or without criminal intent) the executive is criminally accountable.

As a result of the Enron disaster, Congress passed the Sorbanes-Oxley Act to codify the requirement that corporate executives be competent and diligent in the execution of their duties as fiduciaries of private investors, employees and retirees. The Act focused on financial matters of publicly traded corporations. However, the Act set the tone of accountability in all aspects of corporate governance (or lack thereof). Because of the Act, corporate executives know that they will go to jail if they are grossly negligent in their duties. Unfortunately, the premise of competence and diligence put forward in the Act only applies to the private sector. The executives that run our $3 trillion per year government have no such requirements.

Those with the fiduciary responsibility of protecting our state secrets that can put our citizen soldiers’ lives at risk should be competent. Unfortunately, the enforcement of our laws explicitly removes the requirement of competence and diligence. The required proof of “criminal intent” to enforce the Espionage Act’s gross negligence clause is a release from competency requirements. It allows “extremely careless” handling of our state secrets to be perpetrated with impunity.

The concern is not the Clinton emails. Those emails are gone. The concern is the next government executive that handles our state secrets in an “extremely careless” manner. There are no consequences in place to prevent a Clintonesque repeat. The discussion herein presents the case for why existing precedent is wrong: The Espionage Act does not protect our state secrets, nor does it protect American lives. It merely prevents criminal intent.

The recent leaks of Secretary Powell's and the DNC's emails are reminders of how vulnerable we are to cyber-attacks. We must act swiftly to strengthen the protection of our state secrets. The Espionage Act must be rewritten. It must specifically legislate that gross negligence does not require criminal intent. A strengthened Espionage Act will bring the accountability and competence of the private sector to the halls of our government. Thus, we will protect our state secrets and the lives of Americans. 
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PLEASE: Click on the "email" button below this blog post and send this article to your congressional representative and to your senators. Email this article to your friends and tell them to do the same. If we push Congress for this change, future American courts will be able to deem that our government executives either knew or should have known how to recognize and protect our state secrets. We will save American lives.