Rick McBee's Writings to Enhance your Life

Our Democracy of the United Sates in America as of yesterday, 6 January 2021, been brought on the sudden realization of how we have slipped into enabling bad behaviors and the acceptance of inflammatory remarks and falsehoods in only four years. These behaviors are bringing dire consequences for our nation, they bring out the worst in all of us, and they threaten our Democratic form of government by the people and for the people. We are standing at a Line in the Sand! See how our law enforcement views what happened.: https://www.yahoo.com/news/hogan-feds-delayed-maryland-national-231416221.html

We didn’t have to be here! I’ve written to the President several times during his term and received acknowledgement: 8/18.2017, 8/23/2017 and 12/26/2018. Each time I tried to give positive suggestions that would help him do his job better. I hope you have written with suggestions as to what he could do for America

The Line in the Sand phrase comes from 168 BC, when a Roman Consul named Gaius Popillius Laenas drew a circular line in the sand around King Antiochus IV of the Seleucid Empire. The intent of the line being that Antiochus needed to make up his mind whether to depart from Egypt or go to war with Rome before stepping over the line and out of the circle. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_in_the_sand_

I personally have known for a longtime that there are forks in the road of life which require decisions that cannot be then backed away from without consequences. My enlistment in the military, my volunteering for Peace Corps, my volunteering to be a Missionary, and my signing of numerous contracts for teaching and administrative assignments were all commitments with obligations.

In Texas where my sister lives, a line in the sand has lead some Texans to immortality as seen in the 1969 John Wayne film “The Alamo.” The film reenacts the choice Heroes of Texas made after being given an ultimatum by General Santa Anna. According to legend, on March 5, 1836, Col. William Barrett Travis drew a line in the sand and the Heroes of Texas step across it knowing that a fight to the death will follow. http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/Line-in-the-Sand-Alamo-History.htm

But by the same token, crossing the line in Texas can lead down the road to infamy. This path is the insidious tral we are tending towards in our nation. On this trail we tend to slip unconsciously towards a hell on earth as seen in the western “Lonesome Dove.” Here, crossing of the line between good and evil becomes figurative as Jake Spoon who joins up with a gang for security, but then gradually becomes complicit in crimes until he helps massacre a frontier family. When captured, Jake pleads for his life, but his friend and former Texas Ranger, Gus, says “You know how it works, Jake. You ride with the outlaw, you die with the outlaw. Sorry, you crossed the line.” https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/the-top-12-lonesome-dove-quotes/

This almost imperceptible insidious line to infamy is the one the United States has been flirting with for the past 4 years as President Donald Trump has sown messages and publicly approved of acts of violence, bullying racism, and religious intolerance, while venting anger publicly to a group of Americans who at the beginning of the Presidential road believed that he would truly “Make America Great!”

The effect of mob violence on a Democratic form of government is no different in the U.S.A. than anywhere else. What I saw in the bombings and “Paro Armadas” during Sendero luminos’s failed attempt to take over Peru; what I saw in the mobs that supported the rise and maintenance of power for Hugo Chavez’s dictatorship in Venezuela; and what I saw in the actions of the Terr’s who roamed Zimbabwe-Rhodesia during the attempts to foil the elections of a legitimate representative government were all the same vicious uncontrolled anger of humans directed by presumed higher authorities to attack peaceful persons of their own nation. None of these countries were any different in their display of directed anger which caused a failed government than our mobs, orchestrated by Mr. Trump in the past 48 hours.

History and experience show that mob violence always ends up the same if not stopped in its tracks. The radicalized Left or Right Wings (it doesn’t matter which tribe or political party you belong to) will continue to push the limits of violence further and further. Eventually the majority in the middle decide to will give control to some one single person or one single political group whom they feel will stop the chaos and bring control, or peace, or food, or greatness or wealth ….. It doesn’t matter what the lie is, the people will buy into it because they don’t realize that the person taking control is the one who orchestrated the violence and chaos in the first place.

Whether the government then ends up being a Dictator like Chavez in Venezuela or Mugabe in Zimbabwe, or a one party system similar to that of left wing Communist China or Socialist/Communist Russia, or is a right wing Fascist group as in Hitler’s Germany, or a particular sect of a religious group like in Iran, the result is immaterial. The ultimate power placed in the hands of a few will bring total control over the lives of all the people. We will lose freedom of the press, speech, guns, … unless we are in the favored power group. Then, in order to keep those guns, orthe right to speak, or the right to publish we will have to show full obedience to the will ofwhiome ever in the Supreme Leader. This won’t be the freedom we thought we were going to get. It will be coerced Slavery and Misery which we brought down upon ourselves.

There is only one way out for the United States. We need to agree that a strong two or three party political system is always more important than going for one party. The parties must agrees to disagree at times but agree to compromise and share power always.They cannot pander to the radical fringes of the left or right, they cannot allow outright lies and twisting of the truth to propagandize one side or the other. They can’t blame the nation’s problems on the other guy. It’s all our nation, it’s all our government, it’s all fault! The parties are going to have to figure out how to communicate a very strong centralist viewpoint while working on a broad spectrum of Infrastructure improvements, economic, social, and political compromises for all Humans.

We must select out leaders for political wisdom, experience and the ability to work with one another and make compromises for the best of the Social Contract written in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.The goals of our nation and political; leaders must be broad enough for the majority of Humans, not for special interest groups, not for a wealthy minority of humans or for large multinational corporations who have fabricated some kind of Person-hood. If we can’t control our communication of falsehoods on the internet, then we will certainly go down the path of infamy and failed Democracy. The goals must include figuring out how to have and maintain fair elections and how to communicate those results to all with an understanding that we must learn to accept the winner of elections because that is the Social Contract!

I can only pray that our two major political parties can see a shared middle road that lies ahead clearly enough to realize that we are standing at the “line in the sand” right now. Every additional step over that line means a descent away from Democracy, a failure of a system that should give voice to truth and a voice by the people and for the people in the governance of this country.

Dear Mr. President, 18 August 2017

Thank you for the letter you sent acknowledging my previous letters.

        I note that you continue to tweet on topics which are best to ignore, thus creating an appearance of chaos in your office.  This is building your stress levels to a point that is unsustainable and not good for the country.  Thus, I hope that in order to get a handle on this tendency for outbursts, you simply cut yourself off from all internet activity for a month or two.

Take only meetings on specific topics relevant to national priorities as set by your very competent Chief of Staff. Let your press secretary handle the daily press conferences, to explain to the media what the President is concentrating on today with names of persons and the points of discussion.  Start a weekly cycle, one topic a day,  of presentations about your highest 5 priorities of government, which I am presuming include:

1. Improving the Affordable Care Act,
2. Improving the infrastructure of our roads, railways and electrical grid, International affairs,
3. National Security and:
4. National Budget, Economy and Tax Code. 

Stay away from watching the TV specials or from unscripted talks on the teleprompter and have each of your secretaries of commanders write you a couple of short paragraphs that you can quickly edit and read about the day’s progress on the topic at hand. This will then give your communication more flow from day to day.

Then on a daily basis write a two to five sentence hand-written memo to each of the main staff members you work with that day. Have your Chief of Staff let them know they are moving forward now in a planned operation to, “make America great again.” 

Don’t deviate from the plan. Trust your chief of staff and the other professionals, and make them present “best practice evidence and recommendations” even if these seem counter to your current thinking.  Use the term “best practices” when describing how you want to accomplish anything and have your staff call on experts, regardless of ideology who know these things.

Make Congress use “best practices” recommendations in writing their laws. Then do everything in your power to always look calm, in control and unruffled and be a happy family man. If you do this, you will be able to regain control of the helm of the nation and move it forward with an approval rating that will soar rather than sour in the next 12 months. 

Sincerely, Richard McBee

Dear Mr. President,                                                                26 December 2018

Sir, on this day nearing the end of the holiest month of the year for followers of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Wicca, Pagan, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, to name a few of the world’s great religions,  I would like you to take the time to briefly consider your own as well as the entire world’s children and possible great-grandchildren, as you read my letter on the subject of climate change.  I hope you will listen and then have the courage to speak out forcibly to correct our country’s current misdirection in this global concern.  

Climate change is the largest threat to humanity and is looming on our future. No wall or army will stop the predicted consequences for humanity and our nation if you fail to act. As a leader of the world, you need to stand up and begin to lead the world in this most problematic of situations so that we may still have a possibility of alleviating so of the predicted dire consequences, some of which we are already beginning to see.

 I know that a large number of Americans have chosen to not listen to the scientific community and seem to have your ear. As amateurs, they are cherry-picking science for unknown reasons in an attempt to undermine your taking any concrete action towards alleviating impending consequences of climate change. These persons presently have a lot of influence on the Political community which is resulting in inaction on your part and that of Congress. Thus, we who should be leading, have removed ourselves from the stage in solving a worldwide problem that will affect agriculture, health care, and very likely our great-grandchildren’s survival on this planet.

Climatologists who are doing solid science by taking the best climate data and finding the main culprit as well as some solutions for climate change say that we can still have an effect if we act now! It is a proven fact that climate change is caused by humans spewing trillions of tons of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere annually. We see the effects of the changes in our daily weather and in the extremes of weather that are beginning to occur on our planet and in our nation, costing us billions and eventually trillions of dollars to try to fix after the fact. The scientific explanations verifying this climate change are significant, meaning they are correct over 95% of the time and independently verifiable by others willing to do the research, not just rumor-monger. All their work is being done openly in the gigantic world-wide scientific realm.

Climate studies have found 7 ways to best remove excessive CO2 emissions, but these solutions need government support to begin immediate implementation. They also have given excellent suggestions of ways to bring the business community on board with profit motivated solutions for removing Carbon Dioxide and utilizing it. I suggest you immediately appoint a task force of the best economists and climatologists to help bring into reality all seven of the best solutions which are outlined in the new January 2019 Scientific American article, “The Last Resort”. 

Mr. President, it is time for the USA to act boldly. You must begin to be a leader in the world community. If our nation remains in the current climate change denial and analysis paralysis mode, we threaten the living conditions and economy of our own country as well as all other countries in the world. Climatic change is occurring. Our generation, yes, I am over 70, needs to be remembered as a generation that took on a massive challenge to make our world less hostile and insecure for the sake of our children and great-grandchildren.

Mr. President, your action is imperative. I hope I can count on you as a man motivated towards improving the future of humanity. As we depart the stage in active public and political life, both you and we need to leave a legacy that is greater than: “The President Who Led a Generation That Failed to Act.”

Sincerely,

Richard H. McBee Jr. 

Dear Mr. President,

    I am sure you want to be an excellent president and hope that my recommendations can help you pass through and beyond this tough time and do some things in the final 7/8ths of your presidency that will leave a lasting memory of your having done something to build America and make her greater. These are my recommendations:

1. Forget about tweeting. Let all of your comments come from your press secretary and office personnel and spend your night time working on the plans for the few great things you can accomplish in office.

2. Forget about Russia and any part of the investigations and innuendo circling about that whole situation and concentrate on only your official work on your major goals.

3. Forget about tax cuts for the rich. They already have so much money that they can give up their salaries the way you are ding and still pay taxes and still have so much left over that they will never be able to spend it in their entire lives. This will be a great improvement to your standing immediately and America’s little people will applaud you.

4. Forget about the Affordable Care Act which the House Republicans have spent 8 years trashing and now can’t come up with anything even as good. Just tell them to fix needs to be fixed and get on with working with the Democrats to do so. This will be  your first improvement to America and her people and you will be remembered as the man who fixed the ACA rather than wasted his whole time in office on something that isn’t going to ever make your or the people who voted for you happy.  The biggest improvement will be to allow larger area coverage and then even a single payer plan which will cut an amazing amount of cost. See the Rand Corp study of Oregon as a model fir what should be done.

5. Now get on to the big things that America needs that you can really do something about.

  a. Infrastructure: America needs Roads, Rails, Bridges, and all our infrastructure reworked after over 50 years of patchwork. Get this through Congress immediately and then put all those out of work coal miners and other workers to work on construction with government subsidized training of those people to get them prepared to be flaggers, machine operators and shovel men.  Also put in a subsidized training program for technology to move those unemployed into the computer tech areas that our country so badly needs so that we don’t have to keep bringing in more foreign trained workers for areas we should be able to fill from within our own educated population.

   b. Tax Codes: Cut the taxes of the lower class people, those who individually make under $50,000 per year or couples who make under $100,000 per year. Then cut out the capitol gains and loss exemptions for everyone who is above $150,000 in income and use that for your programs of education and putting people to work on the infrastructure. Give the small businesses (under $1,000,000 profit) a bunch of tax breaks to build this sector of the economy. Keep the money comeing out of the pockets of the big boys who can afford it.

6. In doing all of these things you will have to forget about all of the lobbies from all the big boys who want to influence you. 

Sir, if you do all of these things, you will walk out of 4 years of office with a clear ticket into the Whitehouse for another 4 years and a legacy that no-one can match.

Trust me.

Yours sincerely,

Richard H. McBee Jr.