Remember Romney?

At several points in this election, we have been faced with the comparsion between Trump and past Republican nominees. Everyone seems to agree now that Trump is one of the worse nominees in history, but this agreement has for some reason led to a false conclusion. Romney was not a particular good candidate, he was surely a decent candidate. Maybe he is even a decent human being,but he was not a particular good human being. He was a person who benefited immensely from privilege and didn’t realize it. He thought Sesame Street and HUD were a waste of money. Trump is terrible, but Romney was not in any way ideal or for that matter an acceptable choice.

Trump was already terrible by 2012, he eagerly jumped into birther movement. He had already declared bankruptcy six times. He had already been sued for not allowing African Americans in his residences.In 2012, Romney eagerly stepped on stage with him after courting his endorsement calling him a job creator. For the record, if the majority of jobs you create are low wages temporary jobs- I’m not that proud of you.  Romney was thrilled to be on stage with Trump.

4 Small Scale Ideas for Transit

1) Provide Grants to Develop or Improve Mobile Applications for Transit
Driving alone is the most popular way to commute to work. This method leads to high traffic, long wait times, and congestion on our roadways.  One solution to these issues is to transition drivers to alternative transit. Public transportation has a perceived lack of reliability. A grant that provides for the development or improvement of mobile applications that track buses will lead to increased trust in the public transportation sector and higher rates of ridership. Another option would be for the grants to go into the development of text-tracking.

2) Compel Ride-sharing Services such as Uber or Lyft to Share Data
Uber and Lyft’s popularity is, in part, because they use their data to better tweak their systems. They encourage drivers to go out and direct the drivers to high usage areas. Using anonymized data, we can create more efficient and accurate transit policy. One small example: discerning if rush hour times need adjustment.

3) Provide Grants to Reward Increased Bicycle Programs
Biking has numerous benefits, including reducing traffic congestion, encouraging physical activity, and reducing energy consumption. When cities and other entities make their long-term master plans, they often include priorities for the next 5 years. Encouraging states and cities to include bicycle programs through have a certain percentage of bike lanes or developing educational programs will encourage bicycle use.

4) Fund Large Study on Cause of Rising Crash Fatalities
Crash fatalities are up 9% from the same period in 2015. The National Safety Council did not release a reason why the traffic fatalities are up. The State Smart Transportation Initiative suggested are that the national 30% increase in bike riding and the 8% increase in walking to work may be partially responsible. Funding a large study on why traffic fatalities are up could provide valuable life-saving information to planners and communities around the country. It could also provide valuable information on where distracted driving is increasing.

 

Sunday Media List

Let’s get better at this. Sorry, I’ve been a bit MIA, things piled up. Let’s get back into balance.

Customer service for a product should not be an additional cost.

Does your resume need an upgrade? Here are two resources to try.

Enhance your CV and get credit for your resume. 😉 (See what I did there?)

NPR’s politics podcast kills with its analysis on the recent Trump tapes. 

A great example of how a simple thing can lead to a snowball of goodness

I’m not saying that I’m going vote for the guy. But elections should have valid challengers, politicians getting too comfortable. Getting too comfortable is bad for democracy.

 

 

Losers

Every political campaign seems to attempt to bottom out the negativity. Donald Trump’s favorite word seems to be loser. Losers go against the American dream, no one wants to be a loser. Losers exist. The sooner that we are able to recognize that losers exist in a global economy, the sooner we can make better decisions. We live in a strange world, where we can’t say basic truths but we can convoluted half-truths. For example, we can’t say eat less red meat but we can say, “Choose meats that are low in fat.” Similarly, when we talk about trade or overseas jobs – even though we know they are losers- politicians can’t call them that. Surely, they are more losers- fathers, mothers, hard-workers but they lost. They put their faith in an industry that they thought was forever was going to be in their hometown and now its not.

The fact that we cannot acknowledge that jobs will not come back blinds from how to actually deal with the issue. Yes, many articles are being written now about how the growth in home care workers and service industry are the future. Yes, there are argues about Trump’s rise is due to a “perceived loss.” There is plenty written to justify or pick at whether of not they have actually lost or to look at the potential new winners.

There is not literally enough written about what to do about the losers. Yes, no one wants to be a loser – but everyone is one at least once. If we are able to talk about who loses from policy -we can actually create HONEST policy. In this world, where indirect and dishonest policy is used to not offend – maybe a little hard truth can actually move us forward.