Good Morning.

Have you ever had to report someone for a transgression? It's not an easy thing, and in most cases, it does not come without risk to you. But nevertheless, sometimes it's the only way to correct a wrong, end corruption, or sometimes even save a life or end a dangerous situation.

America has had a love/hate relationship with the whistleblower, but it's become such a part of our being that Congress eventually protected those that would sound the alarm under public law 101-12, passed in 1989.
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24 comments (Latest Comment: 10/31/2017 20:51:58 by Raine)

Good Morning.

Let's take a detour into the science fiction realm this morning. I remain strong with The Force, but I've also served aboard several Federation Starships.

Both universes are vast and varied, and have many fans of different ages and genres. But we're going deep into the past today, to 6 October 1967.
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2 comments (Latest Comment: 10/28/2017 15:22:55 by Will in Chicago)

The problem with our current election process is that it depends on donors to fund candidates. Some candidates (like former president Barack Obama) got tons of small donations from regular people. He led the country with that in mind, doing what he could to help regular people and protect them from Big Business.

Republicans, on the other hand, tend to get large donations from corporate interests. Sure, "legally", they can't donate large sums directly, but they fund pacs that do what they can to get Republicans elected. And as it happens, Republicans tend to reward Big Business when it comes time to legislate or manage the government. One of the Republican mantras is "small government", which the voters look at as less regulation for small businesses. What Republican legislators and those in the Executive branch see is more privatization to help their business benefactors.
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24 comments (Latest Comment: 10/27/2017 00:35:01 by TriSec)

Good Morning.

This country could have many "Independence Days".

Of course the most popular is July 4, which is the date the Declaration was ratified. But we could also use July 2, which is the date it was approved by the Continental Congress, or August 2, when most of the delegates actually signed it.

But there's also the Constitution. For our first decade or so, we operated under the "Articles of Confederation", which weren't the most efficient way of doing things. A Constitutional Convention took place in 1787, which in turn led to the final draft being approved on September 17 of that year. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire ratified the document and it became official.

But we didn't start the new government until March 4, 1789 - the first session of Congress under the new rules.
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40 comments (Latest Comment: 10/24/2017 20:38:16 by Raine)

Good morning.

Just remembered to post this. Out for a weekend with the troop down at our camp in the Blue Hills. (You could look it up.)

So, an open blog from the fireside this morning. Everybody play nice!
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2 comments (Latest Comment: 10/22/2017 16:50:55 by TriSec)