Sidebar: Mr. Speaker

Before we get all gaga over the Republican caucus coming together and electing Rep. Kevin McCarthy as their Speaker, it's important to remember that this is still the Republican caucus, and we know who they are. 

Lest we forget, they're happy to remind us at every turn, as McCarthy did in Saturday's wee hours. As I noted in my Mr. Speaker post, he told us

I know the night is late, but when we come back, our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 IRS agents. You see, we believe government should be to help you, not go after you.

Their first order of business is worse than a solution in search of a problem - it's a solution in service to a lie.

There are no plans to hire 87,000 IRS agents to "go after you" or to go after anyone else. There are plans to hire additional staff for the IRS, according to Time.

The Inflation Reduction Act... includes roughly $78 billion for the IRS to be phased in over 10 years. A Treasury Department report from May 2021 estimated that such an investment would enable the agency to hire roughly 87,000 employees by 2031. But most of those hires would not be Internal Revenue agents, and wouldn’t be new positions. (All emphasis throughout the post I've added.)

There are many good reasons for the funding, which will bring on IT staff and customer service folks - the government employees "who should help you," as McCarthy said. And yes, there will be auditors, who "would be largely tasked with cracking down on corporate and high-income tax evaders." According to folks at Treasury, 

It is wholly inaccurate to describe any of these resources as being about increasing audit scrutiny of the middle class or small businesses.  

So, what is accurate?

There's a big wave of attrition that's coming and a lot of these resources are just about filling those positions.

More than half of current IRS employees are retirement-eligible, and expected to leave in the next few years. The new funding might lead to a net employee gain of 20,000 - 30,000 people. That will bring staffing back to levels last seen over a decade ago.

The IRS currently has roughly 78,000 employees. According to John Koskinen, who served as IRS commissioner from 2013 to 2017, that’s down from around 100,000 when he first started. By the time he resigned four years later, he said, it was clear that the agency was in the grip of a systematic attempt by the GOP to weaken it. 

When the GOP took control of the House after the 2010 election, Koskinen says, they "immediately instituted a series of crippling cuts..." Overall funding has "fallen further, by more than 20%" since then. And enforcement funding? That's dropped by 31%, making it easier now for "high-net-worth tax cheats and major corporations" to avoid paying their fair share, costing us billions.

Audit rates on the largest companies dropped from nearly 100% to 50%; audits on the wealthiest individuals dropped from 8.4% to 2.4% from 2010 to 2019, according to Janet Holtzblatt of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

All of us agree a non-responsive government is a bad thing.

McCarthy's right - government should help us. But how can they do that on something as important as the income taxes we pay, if there's no one to answer the phone or process our tax returns? Or if the IT systems are so out-of-date, they can't find qualified folks to work on them, making it necessary to use manual processes instead? 

Back in August, about the same time the Rs started threatening us with the 87,000 auditors lie, the Washington Post Opinion page shared an eye-opening piece, with photos, on why the IRS needed this funding. It showed the cafeteria at the IRS center in Austin, jam-packed with paper files as far as the eye can see.

 It’s part of what the IRS calls the “Pipeline”: a 1970s-era assembly line used to process tax returns at several locations around the country. And it might give you a sense of why Congress is on the verge of handing the agency $80 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act — not only for more enforcement but also for tech modernization.

There's a massive backlog - over 10 million individual returns as of last July, partly from the pandemic, but also from

the agency’s embarrassingly outdated, paper-based system, which leaves stacks and stacks of returns cluttering shelves, hallways and even the cafeteria. 

On the Pipeline, paper tax returns aren’t scanned into computers; instead, IRS employees manually keystroke the numbers from each document into the system, digit by digit.

All of this happens - the lack of audits on the people who have the most to lose if they get caught cheating, the lack of access to taxpayer assistance, the old technology and the mess of paper - all of this happens

despite the agency receiving evermore responsibilities: stimulus checks, child tax credit payments, Obamacare enforcement, foreign bank account tracking and, lately, hunting down Russian yachts. Without reliable, long-term funding guarantees, the IRS has struggled to upgrade its systems.

What will the service, technology, and audit programs be able to do if the funding is maintained? The Congressional Budget Office estimates the IRS will "increase revenue by $204B over the next decade." That money will help pay for all the programs the government creates - programs championed by Democrats and Republicans alike. 

One more thing.

Should you be angry because the IRS is going to be able to better perform all aspects of its job, if it gets the funding? Nope.

I used to say there’s no Democratic or Republican way to run the IRS,” Koskinen says. “The people who are significantly disadvantaged are the average taxpayers who have a simple question and can’t get through. Those are Republicans as well as independents and Democrats.” 

McCarthy's starting his tenure with a lie; I'll end this post with a truth. In a December 15, 2022 report, the Government Accountability Office said the IRS

... addressed its backlog of 2021 paper returns. However, as of late September 2022, IRS had about 12.4 million returns to process, resulting in refund delays for millions of taxpayers. 

That's a two-million-plus increase in the backlog - since last July. It's only going to get worse if this funding is cancelled. 

TGIF 7/22/22

Let's do an all good-week list today - you up for that?

Here are just a few of the notables who made this a good week, in my opinion.

The jury in Steve Bannon's contempt of Congress trial. 

They took about two hours to reach a verdict and it was the right one.

Steve Bannon, ex-White House strategist and adviser to former President Donald Trump, was found guilty by a jury Friday of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. 

Bannon was found guilty of two counts of criminal contempt — one for refusing to appear for a deposition before the panel and the other for refusing to produce requested documents. Each count carries a minimum potential sentence of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $1,000.

Naturally, he plans on appealing, but I don't care. I'm going to relish his conviction for as long as I can.

The tech team for the January 6th Committee. 

Last night's hearing was very well put together, and the video clips that were shared were carefully chosen and fit the moment perfectly. Among the highlights: Trump's Rose Garden message on the sixth, and the taping of his message on the seventh; the matching up of video from the Capitol and other testimony from the same time period, and the clips from Fox News and Fox personalities. And yes, the Josh Hawley clips - the fist pump, and the running clips, in full speed and slow motion, too. 

Mallory Nees (@The_Mal_Gallery on Twitter), who was the creative user behind several Josh Hawley running-to-music clips. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) may have broken a Guinness World Record on Thursday — if there’s one for guest starring in the most movies and music videos in a single night...

But the footage of Hawley was all the same: two clips that aired in prime time during the most recent hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Both showed Hawley running from rioters as they poured into the building, according to the committee.

Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the January 6th Committee. 

Her closing remarks at the end of last night's hearing? I don't think I'd change a single word. There were many quotable parts, certainly; here are a couple of the most meaningful. 

Here is the worst part. Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened. They would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her. And he is preying on their patriotism. He is preying on their sense of justice. And on January 6th, Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution. 

And, perhaps the most important of all: the Thatcher quote. 

This room is full of history, and we on this Committee know we have a solemn obligation not to idly squander what so many Americans have fought and died for. Ronald Reagan’s great ally, Margaret Thatcher, said this: “Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it.”  

The many Republicans who have testified including the two we met last night.

Among the Rs testifying in person? 

• State officials from Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. 
• A retired, highly respected conservative judge. 
• Multiple lawyers. 
• Former staffers for Trump and Mike Pence. 
• A disillusioned Capitol rioter.
• A former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers.

And, from taped testimony or news reports?

• The contemptuous Steve Bannon. 
• More lawyers, more staffers.
• Members of Trump's family.
• The House Minority Leader.
• The Senate Minority Leader.

The case against Trump is being shared by a mostly-Democratic committee, but it's being made by the Republicans. Nothing here is meant to relieve them of their complicity or their acquiescence. And, certainly, nothing forgives them for quickly dropping their facades, their anger or frustration, and traipsing off to Mar-A-Lago to kiss the ring of the man they all fear.

But without the Republicans - Cheney, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, of course - and all who we've heard from, we wouldn't know what we know. 

TGIF, everyone.

TGIF 3/5/21

Can you believe it's Friday again, already? 

Let's dive right in with the bad week list, and get that out of the way.

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared his state open - fully, freely, masklessly, crowdedly open - this week, saying that there are vaccines (!!) that will protect his constituents. He did say that people are urged to "continue wearing the mask" but that it was time to have the government stop running their lives. 

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbot also said that "the Biden administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID" into Texas, and that the administration must "IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans and Americans to COVID." That second statement is kind of silly, I think. I mean, if we just urge them to wear a mask, everything's going to be just fine, right? And who says they have COVID anyway? And are they also rapists and murderers and drug dealers, or just virus carriers? 

• Federico Klein, a former Trump campaign worker and later, a "special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs" in the State Department, was arrested for participating in the January 6th insurrection. Klein was seen on police body cam video "jamming a riot shield into doors at the Capitol," and was "heard on video trying to encourage others to clash with police." He's been charged with assault on police officers, interfering with law enforcement, obstruction, and other charges. MAGA, or something.

• Andrew Cuomo, my Sonofa Gov, has had a horrible week. Pick your favorite search ending and search Andrew Cuomo news, and you'll have an idea. 

Voters had a decidedly mixed week, depending on what you read and, heaven forbid, on your own opinions, should you have them - please say you have opinions on this! Take a look:

• Former lynching target Mike Pence had an op-ed about election integrity, which attacks HR1, the House voting rights act. Mostly, he says, it's full of changes making it harder for all kinds of people - the living, breathing kind I'm fond of, and the other kind, too - to engage in political speech. Not only that, but

Every single proposed change in HR 1 serves one goal, and one goal only: to give leftists a permanent, unfair, and unconstitutional advantage in our political system.

• Compare that "one goal only" that Pence talked about to the goal expressed by the Arizona GOP in a virtual appearance before the Supreme Court earlier this week. When asked by Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett about "the interest of the Arizona RNC " in keeping certain disqualification rules on the books, attorney Michael Carvin was disarmingly honest. 

Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to the Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game. And every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretation (of the Voting Rights Act) hurts us. It's the difference between winning an election 50-49 and losing an election 51-50.

As the linked article notes, "credit the Arizona Republican Party for at least admitting that these bills aren't about ensuring the integrity of Arizona's elections and they certainly aren't about ensuring democracy." 

• There are over 200 bills under consideration in red states that will, at least in the eyes of the opposition, suppress voting rights. That includes changes to Georgia's election laws that will, among other things, make it a misdemeanor  to hand out food and drinks to voters standing in line to vote. That's taking the 'zero sum game' to a whole nother level, don't you think?

I'll have a separate post on HR 1, which was passed by the House without a single Republican vote. There's a ton of stuff in it, some good and some bad - and the chances for it to make it out of the Senate, scathed or unscathed, are less than stellar.

Now, for the good week list.

• In a really cool use of technology, a 300-year-old sealed letter was 'read' after it was virtually opened. The letter, from 1697, was found in a postmaster's trunk. Historians and techies are both excited by the prospects.

• A townhouse development that didn't happen in an Atlanta neighborhood  allowed for something better: a 7-acre free 'food forest" which contains 2500 edible and medicinal plants, in an area where the nearest grocery store is a half-hour bus ride away. The article notes are there are 70 free food forests in the country now.

• Let's end with a good news story about the pandemic, to help wipe out the foolishness from Texas. Dolly Parton, who donated $1M to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help fund an early trial of the Moderna vaccine, got her first dose of the vaccine this week. And, to encourage others to do the same when it's their turn, she updated one of her classic songs. 

That's it for today - TGIF, everyone.

Meanwhile Back in Albany (v40)

Nathaniel Brooks/NY Times

How'd you do with Days One and Two of my Sonofa Gov's State of the State? And are you ready for more? 

Day Three focused on the greening of New York, what Gov. Andrew Cuomo called a "new economic engine that is future-oriented, that is essential to our survival, and that has the potential to benefit generations to come." But, he said,

As is true in so many major issues of our time, the challenge is to close the societal and governmental gap between aspirations and accomplishment, between rhetoric and reality, between saying and doing. Offering hope of a tomorrow that never comes is one of the main causes of our social unrest and distrust in government. We are just not making enough actual progress. Why? Because change is hard.

Have no fear, though: "As the world economy resets, and as change is a necessity, there is an opportunity to raise our efforts to the next level - and New York should seize this moment." And, we can seize the rhetorical moment, too: Cuomo noted that "candles cannot power the future." We're going to stick a fork in fossil fuels, or something, via a four-pronged approach: 

• identifying and building enough green projects to generate the clean energy needed to "reliably support" all our needs; 
• ending our reliance on other countries, by building our own green tech and equipment, and developing "a steady flow of projects to start up and sustain those new businesses;"  
• building up our transmission capacity to connect the dots between where energy is generated, and where it's consumed; and
• elevating our training and education programs, and building out our R&D capacity.

He announced a $26B public/private partnership to develop around 100 renewable projects across the state. 68 projects (52 solar, 13 on-shore wind, and three off-shore wind) are already underway, and he announced 24 more during his presentation. Cuomo expects 11,000 jobs in "upstate NY alone." (Upstate is defined here, in case you aren't sure exactly where to find it.) 

Among the new projects? Two new wind farms, invisible from the shore, off Long Island; turning a Capital-district brownfield into a state-of-the-art wind turbine tower facility, and adding a fifth offshore wind turbine hub to serve the entire east coast.

More big news? He announced a competitive bidding process for a new green transmission grid, starting with three projects all leading to NYC. Other projects across the state are designed to "break open congestion" and will start this year. And, we're going to have state-of-the-art battery storage capability, with construction already underway on a new facility in Franklin County

On the last tine of the fork, there's a new $20M Offshore Wind Training Institute, as well as training for heat pumps and geothermal heating technology, which will help us replace existing systems in some 130,000 buildings. All projects have must meet MWBE goals, and pay prevailing wage, so that workers and business owners of color are not left out.

He said the whole green program will create 12,400 megawatts of green power, enough for six million homes; directly create 50,000 jobs; and generate $29 billion in private investment. 

The message? "Go big, or go home," and he's got no intention of us sitting on the sidelines as others move forward. 

Could Alexa Even Handle the Decorations?

Folks who know me well know I sometimes question the value of all our modern technology. For example, here's an old post where I designed my own robot, one that would actually do meaningful and helpful things, rather than stuff like turning on the oven I'm standing in front of... I remember my now sister-in-law once said that I was like the Unabomber. 

She meant it in the nicest possible way, of course, but I'm still not so much a joiner in some of the tech stuff.  I'm known for chuckling at the ridiculous 'smart' things and the ads trying to convince me I can't live without these devices. This is my current favorite. Not for nothing, but unless there's a robot coming out of the woodwork to get the bowl out of the sink and onto the floor, well... As all pet owners know, the only thing worse than an empty dish is a full one your pet can't reach.

Another sis-in-law, who shares similar feelings about commercials (don't get us started on the perfume ones!), tagged me in a Facebook post (that's it to the right), and while we both laughed, I started thinking about what that would look like at our house - or anyone's house, for that matter. 

I can't imagine just telling her to "take down the Christmas decorations" without any additional instructions. I mean, how would she possibly know what's involved?

Would she know that the cute little boxes stacked so festively on the front stairs are nesting boxes? Would she know she has to take the lids off all of them except the smallest box, then put the smallest one inside the next smallest one, and then put that lid on, and put those two boxes inside the next biggest one, and then put that lid on, and then put those three boxes inside the last box, the biggest one, and put that lid on? And then put the box of boxes into the tote labelled Boxes and Pictures, which is downstairs in the Christmas room? 

Would she know to get to the Christmas room by going from the foyer to the dining room to the kitchen to the back door (not to be confused with the back porch door), and down the stairs, then cross the basement heading towards the front of the house, and if she runs into the bikes hanging on the rack, she's gone just a step or two too far? 

And that before she puts anything in the Christmas room, she's going to have to take out a bunch of trees and decorations that we didn't put up this COVID Christmas?

Would she know the framed pieces of some of our favorite wrapping paper hanging on the wall need to come down? And that they, too, go in the Boxes and Pictures tote in the Christmas room?  And that there's a difference between a framed piece of wrapping paper and the picture of me and My Sweet Baboo?

And the Santas? OMG, my Santas! 

Does she know the difference between cast iron, glass, ceramic, resin, metal, wood, and felt? Which need to be on the bottom of the tote, and which on top? Would she know that the tall skinny wooden Santas need to have rubber bands put on them, before being wrapped in bubble wrap and tied with ribbon, so their arms don't flail about and possibly break off? Does she know those don't go in a tote, but instead are placed gently on a shelf? That all of the motion-Santa bases get wrapped together, to make it easier for me to find them next year?

The cast iron ones? They get wrapped in newspaper and put in a tote, sure - but would she know that it doesn't go in the Christmas room, it goes in the closet under the stairs? 

Or that the smallest of the Santas, and the flattest of them, get wrapped (unless they don't need to be) and they go in a separate box that goes inside one of the Santa totes? 

And if you put the Santa's away 'wrong' you could end up with way too much space, or not enough, in the totes? And if it's too much space, would she try to fill it with other decorations, co-mingling them with the Santas and messing up the system? I did that (once) - is she smart enough not to?

Would she be even remotely curious about the newspapers everything gets wrapped in, some of which are more than a decade old? Would she even look at the articles, or no? And will she know whether to replace the least viable newspapers, or if they'll make it one more Christmas before being recycled? 

And what about the memories? 

Will she smile at each Santa as she gently puts them to bed until next year, remembering which came from where, or who, and why? 

Will she know which of the cast iron ones I got years ago in one of the first booths we visited at a massive antique show, and carried in a knapsack for hours as we wandered around a field of 1,000 dealers? Will she hear My Sweet Baboo cursing my foolishness that day?  

How could she possibly know which was the very first one he gave me, or the most recent? Whether it was from our first Christmas, or our second? The tenth? Twelfth? Does she even know this is our 18th Christmas this year? Could she actually put the decorations away without knowing our history, our Christmas history?

And, will she do this? Is she able to do this, the real work of De-Christmasing? 

As I put things away, I find myself pulling out the decorations that never left the tubs, the ones that didn't make the cut. Could I have put this ornament on the tree? Could I have put this stocking somewhere? Could the candy cane candles have gone on the sideboard? I spend almost as much time thinking about the ones that didn't get used, and how I had used them last, as I do remembering how much we enjoyed the ones that did.

Thanks, Alexa, but I think I'll take them down myself. Although, if you want, you can take care of the lights...

Email of the Week (v9)

Thursday is 'Email of the Week' day, when I plow through a hundred or so emails from the handful of Democratic presidential candidates I'm following to see what's going on.

I received 160 emails this week from the gang of eight candidates I'm following.As usual, Mayor Pete led the way with 48 emails,  followed by Elizabeth Warren (29) Amy Klobuchar and That Guy From Vermont (24 each), Andrew Yang (20) the new guys, Mike Bloomberg and Deval Patrick (7 each) and Tom Steyer (1).

Fundraising, Iowa (pre- and post-caucus), upcoming debates, and New Hampshire were hot topics, as were pointed barbs at each other. 

There were even a couple of emails from Cory Booker, who's now running for his Senate seat instead of for President.  Here's one of them, with the subject line Trump is tearing our country apart.

I just walked out of the President’s State of the Union address.

What we heard from Donald Trump tonight was more of the toxic division that we’ve become accustomed to. He’s tearing us apart instead of bringing our country together.

I’ve always believed that the ties that bind us are stronger than the lines that divide us. As we work to elect a President and members of Congress this fall, it’s important that we choose candidates who will help unite us instead of pushing us further apart.

That’s where you come in, Sue.

I’m running for re-election to be one of those leaders. Please send in a donation now so I can keep a message of unity at the forefront of our national politics.

Our country is deeply hurting right now -- and the past three years of Trump’s hatred and bigotry have only added to the pain that millions of Americans are feeling.

As I said often during my campaign for president, defeating Donald Trump is only the floor -- not the ceiling. Once he’s out of office, we’ll then have to begin the hard work of healing a country so wounded that it elected someone like him in the first place.

I’m ready for the challenge before us, but I’m going to need your help. Invest in our campaign today to send me back to the Senate for another term.

Let’s also do everything we can to ensure that this was the last State of the Union address Donald Trump will deliver as our president.

Sincerely,
Cory

That was almost the winner, but since Booker is no longer running for president, I went back through everything, and that's when I found this one Andrew Yang. Short and sweet, it earned the coveted Email of the Week recognition.

Sue --

Last night during the Iowa caucuses, the entire nation realized something the Yang Gang has known since the beginning -- we desperately need a president who actually understands technology.

This is a HUGE opportunity for our campaign to win over every single voter who saw what happened in Iowa last night and is now looking for a president who is ready to lead us into a future that is already here.

If we act now, we can make sure all these voters know that Andrew will be that president. So make a rush donation before the end of the day to help us reach these voters!

Sure, he's asking for money - but in that first sentence, he hit the nail on the head.

We don't need someone who merely knows how to tweet and who thinks that Rudy 'The Butt-Dialer' Giuliani is a tech security expert - we need someone who understands that whatever the heck ends up being the result from Iowa, whenever we get it, we can't have leaders who don't understand how critical it is that our election technology is both world-class and works as intended.

And, honestly, that whatever we do, it cannot fall victim to something as simple as a bunch of goofballs calling in, jamming the lines, and preventing votes from being reported.

Users on a politics-focused section of the fringe 4chan message board repeatedly posted the phone number for the Iowa Democratic Party, which was found by a simple Google search, both as screenshots and in plain text, alongside instructions.

"They have to call in the results now. Very long hold times being reported. Phone line being clogged," one user posted at about 11 p.m. ET on Monday, three hours after the caucuses began.

"Uh oh how unfortunate it would be for a bunch of mischief makers to start clogging the lines," responded another anonymous user, sarcastically.

Some users chimed in, posting alleged wait times on hold, imploring others to “clog the lines [and] make the call lads.”

Because if the goofballs can take us down so easily, can you imagine what the professionals can do? 

The Update Desk: Amazon's 'Monopoly'

In a Sunday School post last month, I shared Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's idea that tech companies need to be broken up. Warren's conversation with Ed O'Keefe on Face the Nation started with him asking her why she thought that needed to be done.

Because the giant tech companies right now area eating up little, tiny businesses, startups - and competing unfairly. 

In Warren's mind, platform companies should not be competing with platform users, putting their own products ahead of the competition in search returns, and so on.

So what I'm saying is we've got to break these guys apart. You want to run a platform? That's fine, You don't get to run a whole bunch of the businesses as well. You want to run a business? That's fine. You don't get to run the platform. Think of it this way, it's like in baseball. You can be the umpire or you can own one of the teams, but you don't get to be the umpire and own the teams.

So Facebook would have to sell off Instagram, Amazon would have to sell off Whole Foods, and "all those little businesses that they're running, competing businesses. Yup."

Warren says this can happen under our anti-trust rules that are already in place.

But is this a solution in need of a problem?  Let's take a look.

Wondering on Wednesday (v167)

Here we go again!

The president today decided to follow the path taken by many other countries and ground Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 airplanes after a second deadly crash killed everyone aboard, and after Canada declared that none of the planes would be allowed to land in or fly out of Canadian airspace based on new information.

Trump's statement noted

The safety of the American people, all people, is our paramount concern. Any plane currently in the air will go to its destination and thereafter be grounded until further notice. Planes that are in the air will be grounded upon landing at their destination, Pilots will be notified. Airlines have been notified and have agreed with us. 

This comes on the heels of a couple of tweets he sent yesterday which suggested that technology was making a mess of things.

Pilots are no longer needed? Who are those people in the cockpit, I wonder, and what are they doing?

"Older and simpler far are better," he said? I wonder if he's thinking about presidents, maybe? Or how that fits in with his big push for STEM and Space Force and all that? And border protection - what about that technology? Older and simpler would have us visually inspecting every truck crossing the border, grinding crossings (and the economy) to a complete halt.

How, I wonder, can he request $750 billion for the military,

...not funding for endless wars, this is for research and development and procurement to fund the most awe-inspiring military the world has ever known.

I just wonder about him, I do.

Grains of Salt (v39): Innovation Station

Grains of  Salt

What's a city to do when there are more services needed than it can possibly provide?

Try something completely different, that's what.  And that's what Syracuse is looking to do, by joining the Startup in Residence  (STiR) program.

STiR works with city and state government partners to formalize 'challenges' that startups from around the world can apply - think of kind of a matching program. A scope of work is developed and then over a sixteen week residency, the government and startup collaborate on researching, designing, building and testing solutions. If, at the end of the residency, the agreed-upon scope of work and requirements are met and a good relationship has been developed, the government secures the services of the startup to implement the solution. Sounds like a really cool program and one of those 'win-win' situations we hear about so often:

• governments get innovative solutions to problems, as well as a partner to implement them;
• startups get access to customers that are looking for what they have to offer, vs. having to generically pitch their ideas
• and citizens get proven solutions to problems that may otherwise go unsolved.

Syracuse put five challenges out for consideration:

• Autonomous snow clearing technology for sidewalks. We have miles of them, and many of them are not the perfectly smooth concrete that we see around office buildings or shopping mall. Instead, they're busted concrete, or asphalt on top of concrete, or full of roots and dirt and what not.  Bottom line? We need something that's going take a beating and keep clearing the snow. This one's important, not only because we get a lot of snow, but because uncleared sidewalks put residents on the street - school kids, the disabled, and the elderly among them.

• Crowdsourcing platform for low-income renters to obtain loans for their security deposits. This one's interesting - come up with a way to connect people who are willing to do short-term small dollar loans for folks who need help pulling together the deposits for apartments. This can be overwhelming for people, particularly those who are forced to move for reasons outside their control (landlord issues, code violations, 'included' utilities not being paid, and so on).  Sadly, Syracuse has a high percentage of residents who are 'housing unstable' who could be helped by this type of program. The solution being looked for would be similar to Kiva.org, a global platform that connects lenders and small business owners.( Here's a glimpse into US lending opportunities, in case you're unfamiliar with this program - I was.).

• Data analytics platform for waste management. While there are some rules and regulations governing how much and what kinds of trash can be put put for pickup by the Syracuse DPW, we're data-challenged and can't track who might be violating the rules. In addition, without good data, it's hard to optimize the routes and pickup schedules, increase productivity, help us with sustainability, and, frankly, help generate revenue by being able to provide who's violating the rules and collecting fines when they do. It's also a good thing for neighborhoods as a whole, and particularly for folks who live near the ones who break the rules. 

• A permit-management platform. This challenge seeks a way to centralize and track all transactions related to the permitting process for the city. The current process is outdated and cannot accommodate the reality: multiple departments being involved in the review and approval process, frequently working concurrently on the same application. It's a cumbersome process for the city, and an annoying one for applicants, who may be asked to provide the same information multiple times. The ideal solution would provide transparency for the city and for applicants, establish a solid workflow for applications, and track and archive all of the comments, decisions, questions and so on. And, of course, there's money to be saved if this one comes to fruition - increased productivity and better instructions for applicants are just a couple of opportunities on that front. Customer satisfaction is also an almost guaranteed outcome.

• Citizen engagement tool for the Trauma Response Team (TRT). I have to confess I was no aware we had a TRT in Syracuse. The TRT is currently dispatched, along with police and EMS, when a trauma occurs in the community, and members act as moderators between citizens and law enforcement. Without an effective messaging and engagement platform, they're left relying on word of mouth and social media to reach out with ongoing communications, which is hardly ideal. Engaging stakeholders and increasing trust may help lead to a reduction in violence, too. 

I'm intrigued by the whole STiR program, by the challenges Syracuse has put on the table, and by the continued outreach to any willing partner to help find solutions to problems. I'm looking forward to following these projects as they progress. 

Quick Takes (v26): Drone Wins and Losses

Quick Takes

Have you heard of the NUAIR Alliance?  If you pay attention to progress being made on drones in upstate and Central New York, you might be familiar with it. Here's what the Alliance is all about, from their website:

The NUAIR Alliance is a New York based not-for-profit coalition of more than 200 private and public entities and academic institutions working together to operate and oversee Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) testing in New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Headquartered in Syracuse NY, NUAIR supports the NY UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, NY, one of just seven FAA-designated UAS test sights in the United States. We are at the forefront of public policy development, commercialization, and integration of UAS technology.

Rome is a key site in the drone world, as we learn from this article in the Rome Sentinel last fall.

Griffiss, with high-definition air traffic surveillance, state-of-the art data collection and analysis capabilities, is the foundation for testing and certification of drone detect-and-avoid systems to meet future FAA standards and support the safe integration of commercial drones into US airspace. 

It's also home to two projects that are important locally and nationally: U-SAFE, to "further catalyze and expand the economic opportunities being created" by the UAS industry, and NUSTAR, which "will offer independent performance and safety benchmarking testing for drones and drone related products."  Both should help bring more drone activity to the area.

So, too, will the 'drone corridor' which will eventually stretch 50 miles or so from Rome to Syracuse, the partnership with NASA, and the investment of millions of dollars by the state. As our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo noted in September,

The development of the drone corridor is expected to unlock a trillion-dollar global industry and attract businesses, development and new drone technology to the state, specifically in Central New York. Dividends are already paying off, as regionally-based SRC Inc. plans to initially hire 50 engineers following its announcement of a $65M contract with the US Army to develop a system to detect and defeat small drones. Additionally, the company plans to add up to 1000 new hires over the next five years thanks in large part to the state's investment in the UAS industry which is working to create an ecosystem that will attract companies to CNY. 

Sheesh -- with all of that energy and investment from educational institutions, businesses, and both the state and federal government, you would think that our area would have been a perfect spot to test package delivery drones with Amazon, right?

Wrong.

Maybe it's because it's the feds, and we all know how much the president can't stand Amazon, or maybe it was just bad luck, or maybe it was a poor proposal, but we were passed over by the US Department of Transportation to be one of 10 national test sites for drone technology. Amazon had teamed up with NYS and NUAIR on the proposal, but in a decision called "highly confounding" by John Katko, who represents Syracuse in Congress,

... federal official instead selected 10 other locations as test sites for a program launched by president Donald Trump last year to speed the safe integration of drones into the national airspace. The ten projects approved by Trump's administration include other high-profile technology companies - such as Google parent Alphabet and Uber - that will team up in public-private partnerships. 

Katko said he'll try and get to the bottom of it, and of course there's always a chance we'll get picked if there's a next time. Or if we partner with someone other than Amazon, maybe?

We do have some good news on drones, though.

The Syracuse Fire Department will use drones, when it's appropriate, to help with firefighting efforts. Potential uses could be identifying hot spots in fires, or fighting fires in large commercial buildings where it's hard to get a good view of where issues are.

And, Beak and Skiff, the apple people, are the first in the world to pollinate apple trees using drones; they tested the technology on a small section of their 300 acres, with help from Dropcopter, a local start up company.  The firm had previously used their technology on cherry and almond trees, but never before on apple trees.  The company's co-founder, Adam Fine, sees a lot of potential for drones in agriculture.

We know that agriculture is one of the most significant points of entry for the commercial use of drones, and it holds the most opportunity to impact the industry and economy.

If you ask me, there's a whole lot more potential with this than there is with delivering packages to my porch - and probably much more benefit as well. It will be fun to see how things turn out.

OrangeVerse XIV: The Apprentice

The working vacation at Bedminster has been a goldmine for poetry lovers. Here's one exercise in free verse, on jobs and women and stuff. With Trump were Labor Secretary Rene Acosta, Secretary of (destroying) Education Betsy DeVos, and the First Daughter.  

This Stuff is Very Hard

Thank you...for joining us today.

And thank you 

all because we 

have been working

very hard on being sure that

Americans have the training

they need for

the jobs in the future.

Namedropping

I also want to thank Ivanka,

my daughter,

for her leadership

on workforce training

and her efforts.

You're working very

very hard

to create new economic opportunities

for women across America

and, actually

for women across the world.

You've been working with the 

Chancellor of Germany

on helping women all over the world.

Enormously Optimistic

In the past seven months

we've made enormous gains

in getting Americans

back to work.

The stock market is

at record highs

Unemployment is at a 16-year low

And manufacturers have never

expressed more optimism about the future.

The optimism

has been incredible.

Moving on Back

We have a lot of companies

moving back to our country.

You're probably seeing that.

Two major automobile companies

just announced they're moving back...

and they're going to build

major plants.

They're looking for the site.

They're putting it out

to seven or eight

different states

and they're going to be

very happy

building in the United States.

It's going

to work out

very well for them.

Who More Than Me?

That's why...

we began a historic initiative

to expand apprenticeships and

workforce training programs

in all industries. 

We're expanding

pathways to success.

So important.

And apprenticeships are one of the

many avenues that lead to the great jobs

completely debt free.

And who knows more about 

the work 'apprentice' 

than Donald Trump?

The Best Part of Waking Up

In fact, under the apprenticeship

you earn while you learn.

So important and so great.

And you love getting up

in the morning

and going to work

and a lot of great things

involved here.

Grab the Brass, er, Ring 

We're also here today

to discuss additional steps

we will be taking to

expand apprenticeship programs,

especially for women and minorities

in STEM fields where

women have been 

truly under-represented - really

I guess you could say

under-represented

for many, many decades.

 You Go, Girls!

Technology has become a part

of nearly every industry

from manufacturing

to retailing.

And we want

all of our citizens

every single citizen

including women and minorities

to have access to 

high paying tech jobs and

other STEM related jobs.

You Are Aware, Right?

American workers are the best

there is anywhere in the world

and we're finding work for them.

They built the

skyscrapers of our cities

the roads and bridges

across our land

and we'll be building plenty of

new roads and bridges

by the way - 

the technology that has

revolutionized the glob

and so much more,

as you're well aware.

 I Like it on Top...

Their skills, talent and grit

have always put America on top.

And we're going to 

remain on top

at a much higher level

than we are right now.

And speaking of now

it is our job

to make sure that

they have the training

immediately!

to lead us to the future.

And I Like it Down Low

We have

great, great hope

We have a

great, great future

in this country.

There's never been

more optimism.

And again, unemployment at

a 16-year low.

Any Questions?

So we're honored to have all of you.

Mr. Secretary, thank you

very much.

Betsy, thank you

very much.

We appreciate it.

And Ivanka,

congratulations on

working

so hard. 

We really do

appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any questions?

OrangeVerse IX: Emergence

As promised, here's the continuation of free - and competitive - verse from the American Leadership in Emerging Technology Event.

Now Being Cut

Too many years of excessive

 government regulation.  We have had 

regulation that's been so bad,

 so out of line that it's really hurt our country.  

And as you see, on a daily basis 

we're getting rid of regulation.  

In fact, Dodd-Frank is 

now being cut  and cut 

very substantially. 

Many

My administration 

has been laser-focused

 on removing the government 

barriers to job growth 

and prosperity.  

We formed 

a deregulation taskforce inside 

every agency to 

find and eliminate 

wasteful, intrusive, and job-killing 

regulations, 

of which 

we've

had 

many.

America First

We want

our innovators to dream

 big, like the folks around me

and surrounding me

in this room.

And

 we want

them to create

new companies

and to create

lots of jobs.

Your industry has

 been incredible. Your

representation of your companies

 -- is the reason you're here -- 

has been something

that has created so many

millions of new American jobs

 and probably jobs

 in many other countries, also.

But we're interested

right now

in America first.

Elvis

So,

thank you all very much

for being

here.

On behalf of myself

and my great 
Vice President

it's been a meeting

that we actually

both looked

very much

forward

to attending.