A Wandering Mind

The President, Boeing, the FAA, and What the Heck does Trump Want?      In light of the unexplained crashes of two Boeing "737 Max" aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the fleet of these aircraft operating in the United States. This comes days after the planes were grounded in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Experts I have heard on various sources say it's surprising that it took the FAA longer than its counterpart organizations to take action. However, part of the confusion probably can be traced back to President Donald Trump. The grounding of the jets was made by executive order. Trump's executive order was around 2:30 pm Eastern time, and the FAA announcement was around 3:00 pm Eastern time. So did the FAA ground the fleet (that is the FAA's job) or did Donald Trump.       A couple of days ago the Trump tweeted this: "Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists...

Gay Rights and Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs      When you were growing up, did you go to church on Sunday? Did you go to church on Sunday morning and then on Sunday evening and then on Wednesday night? Did you go to VBS, or Vacation Bible School? Did you go to summer Bible Camp? Have you ever "gone forward" at the end of an emotional "alter call" and ask for forgiveness of sins? Do you still remember all the verses of Martin Luther's "A Might Fortress is Our God?" or at least the English translation of it? Do you know what a "sword drill" is? (For the uninitiated, that is where your Sunday School teacher calls out Bible verses, and the first kid to stand up and recite it wins that round). Do you know John 3:16 by memory?      If you answered in the affirmative to those questions, you probably grew up Evangelical, like I did. Well, technically, I only became Evangelical in the 9th grade, but I was heavily influenced by Evangelical...

Anti-discrimination Bill Dead for Another Year      Well, here in Nebraska, a statewide ban on discrimination against LGBTQ persons has been rejected without coming to a vote. The bill's supporters did not have the necessary votes to overcome a filibuster. For those of you not familiar with Nebraska, it's the only state in the U.S. with a single-house legislature (we call it "the Unicameral"), and on top of that, it is officially non-partisan, meaning candidates cannot declare their party on the ballot (though of course party affiliations are no secret). Actually, this is a really good idea, especially for a smallish state like Nebraska. In my opinion, more states should try it, but that is another story.       The Lincoln Journal Star reported that supporters of LB627, as it was known, believed they had close to the 25 votes needed to advance the measure to the next round of consideration, but 33 are needed to end a filibuster. Once again th...

Microsoft and Google Engineers for Good?        Within the past year, software and hardware engineers at both Google and Microsoft have protested to their respective firms that they do not want to be involved in contracts that develop products for the U.S. military. In both cases, the engineers have essentially said they do not want to be part of efforts that "kill people." Weirdly, these two things have not gotten a lot more press. I recently heard an extended story on MarketplaceTech with Molly Wood did an interesting feature on this on February 27, 2019.  https://www.marketplace.org/2019/02/27/tech/a-lot-of-tech-employees-dont-like-the-of-idea-their-work-being-used-by-the-military  There are a couple of articles referencing this, this one on NPR on February 22:  https://www.npr.org/2019/02/22/697110641/microsoft-workers-protest-army-contract-with-tech-designed-to-help-people-kill . Then there is one on Google engineers back in Summer of 2018:...

(NOTE: Published January 18, 2019 on LinkedIn) This piece from NPR (https://www.npr.org/2019/01/18/685829213/attempts-to-make-shutdown-painless-may-stretch-limits-of-federal-law) notes that attempts to ease the pain of the shutdown might be illegal. Or not. At any rate, there is disagreement among legal experts regarding how the federal Anti-deficiency Act should be interpreted. Can the administration order essential employees (those required for safety and security) to work indefinitely? Further, can the administration order others to work, like employees of the IRS, because they have important jobs to do, like process income tax returns? Whatever the answer, it is becoming increasingly clear that this shutdown will be bad for business. We no longer live in the "dual federal" republic where the national government has some jobs, the states and localities have others, and never shall these meet. Many programs are not only jointly funded (think of Medicaid) but joi...

(NOTE: Published in Omaha World Herald December 2017) Dropping a DIME on President Trump James A. Harrold             Military officers are familiar with the acronym DIME, a way to talk about the four instruments of national power: diplomatic, informational, military, and economic power. The military is trained in the application of force, but it is seldom, if ever, the first tool that a nation should resort to using. President Trump seems unaware of this, and seems to think that military might is the main instrument at his disposal. He is wrong, and this error is far more than a philosophical difference with his detractors; it is an error that can get people killed.   Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is busy dismantling the State Department under the guise of reform. Diplomatic positions have gone unfilled, and interest in taking the foreign service examination is down, but President Trump says this doesn’t matter. A...

(NOTE: Sent shortly after the 2016 presidential election) James A. Harrold November 30, 2016 Senator Deb Fischer 454 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Senator Ben Sasse 386A Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Congressman Jeff Fortenberry 1514 Longworth House Office Washington, DC 20515 Congressman Adrian Smith 2241 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Congressman Brad Ashford 107 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Congressman-elect Don Bacon 11313 Davenport St Omaha, NE 68154             Dear Members of the Nebraska Congressional Delegation,             This is a letter to all members of the Nebraska Congressional Delegation. Now, it is certainly a fact that as a Nebraskan, I am represented by two Senators and one Member of the House of Representa...