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On Tuesday, November 6th, tens of millions of Americans will get up, hurry around, get the kids off to school, fight the traffic getting to work and work a long day. And many will conclude they cannot find the time to vote.

Given the importance of a federal election, one would think we, collectively, should do everything possible to get every eligible voter excited about going to the poles. But, we don’t.

Two years ago, during the 2016 presidential election, there were about 240 million US citizens eligible to vote. About 58% of them did vote. About 100 million did not; pathetic, disgusting, incredible or all of the above.

That voting record speaks volumes about how much we take for granted. A democracy needs maintenance, some TLC and attention if it is to thrive and survive. Voting is a civic duty. Voting is the act of reaffirming that we care about our democracy.

Our Constitution (article 1, section 4) specifically gives congress the power to regulate the, “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections.”

In 1845 congress passed a federal law designating, “the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November” as the time for Federal elections. In 1845 most of the US population was agrarian and it was not uncommon for farmers to have an all-day round trip by horse and wagon to reach a polling place.

Why November? Why not April or July or January. In most of the country the weather can be bad in the winter. Spring planting as well as summer and early fall harvesting were very busy times. By November, the crops were in and the majority of agrarian voters had time on there hands; hence November elections.

Today, most folks are a little busier on a Tuesday in November than they were in 1845. So busy that 42% find a reason not to vote; too busy, polls closed too early, traffic was bad, lines were too long.

Common sense says we need to take away those excuses. All it will take to fix it is a new one-paragraph law passed by congress.

One approach is to simply change election day to the first or second Sunday in November. Open the poles for 12 hours and there is still plenty of time to attend church.

But, just specifying “Sunday” is still not perfect. The Bureau of Labor statistics, says about 34% of Americans work on the weekends. To overcome weekend work, the new law could make Federal Election Day an official national holiday and specify that everything except “essential services” be closed.

There will be those who will say that voting interferes with church services. If that is a valid objection, make the Federal Election Day fall on the first or second Monday in November. Keep it simple but take away the excuses from the 100 million who are currently not making the effort to vote.

While we are re-doing the election-day law, there is another issue that needs to be fixed and it can be done with a simple sentence.

Currently, as the hours pass during election day, media sources go to elaborate ends to be the first to “declare” a certain candidate the winner. This begins early and goes on endlessly until all the contests are resolved.

So, what is wrong with that? What is wrong is that as the polls close on the east coast and winners of a national contest are projected, this is a potential disincentive for those on the west coast to vote. “Why should I vote, the decision has already been made,” they will say.

To fix this, simply add a sentence to the new law stating that, “no data or election information of any kind from any election or official source will be released until the polls are closed in Hawaii” (or perhaps Guam). If the polls close in Hawaii at 7 pm, that would be 1 am on the east coast.

True, we all WANT to know the projected winners as soon as possible. Also true, we do not NEED to know before all the polls have closed.

Voting is a RIGHT; hundreds of thousands of Americans died during the Civil War fighting for everyone’s’ right to vote. Voting is a PRIVILEGE not afforded to most people in the world; we should feel obliged to act out that privilege. Voting is a RESPONSIBILITY; freedom isn’t free and voting is a small price to pay.

 

 

January 20, 2017 while the nation watched the inauguration of President Trump, I recall one of the talking heads, filling up some air time during the parade, launching into a diatribe about what President Trump needed to do to keep from losing the House and/or Senate majorities during the 2018 midterms. The prognostications have been going on, non-stop, since that day.

So what? The so what of it all is that every day we see national issues, security issues, economic issues, crisis issues that are all tainted, delayed and debated in light of what it will “mean for the midterms”. The debate is too often not about what is best, or in some cases, what is absolutely necessary for the nation, but rather how it will impact the November, 2018 election results. Sad but true.

The unfortunate nature of politicians is that the next election is their top priority and everything else, no matter how important to the nation, is a distant second. US Representatives and Senators are arguably the most self-serving group of people in this nation and they are unlikely to change of their own accord.  To protect the nation from our politicians we need to change the environment and hopefully it might change their behavior.

Electing 435 US Representatives to the House every two years is outdated and unnecessary. Their collective campaigns cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It is an unfortunate fact of life that a huge amount of the Representatives’ term in office is spent raising money and campaigning for reelection. Raising money has its own huge drawback in that politicians become beholden to the big donors and lobbyists, perhaps at the peril of the nation.

The advantages of a four-year term for Representatives are so obvious and make so much sense, that it should become a priority to get it changed. One would think the Representatives themselves would be wholeheartedly in favor of a four-year term.

And while that amendment to the Constitution is working, why not take on the issue of term limits. There is something about the Potomac water; the more of it a politician drinks the more incoherent and power-hungry they become. Four terms, 16 years, for Representatives and three terms, 18 years, for Senators seems about right. There is an old saying that applies to organizations, “change or die”.  Change and new blood for Congress can only be a positive thing because the current system, and the politicians running it. are not serving the nation well.

And while we are at it, the Supreme Court could do with a little update. It seems so untoward that millions of Americans and half the politicians sit around hoping some eighty-year old Justice of the Supreme Court will become too infirmed to continue serving or even die in order for a sitting President to “stack the court.”

Because the Supreme Court has become so politicized, there is extreme pressure for some justices to remain on the bench no matter their age, health, personal desire or capacity to do the job required of them. “Appointed for life” is just not the best answer.

The average age of the three oldest justices, Thomas, Ginsburg and Breyer. is 78 years and they have served on the Supreme Court an average of over 25 years. Are they absolutely in their prime? One could argue not. We can do better than that? One would think so.

The Supreme Court is too important to become a political football. It is not difficult to fix this and thereby turn the court over periodically by limiting the term of office to twenty years.  Given that the average age of the current 8-judge court, at the time they were appointed, was about 52 years, retirement at about age 72 seems very reasonable.

Here is a simple solution.  Change the Constitution and set in motion a system wherein the longest serving Justices (Thomas 27 years, Ginsburg 25 and Breyer 24) will mandatorily be retired in 2019, 2021 and 2023 respectively. It follows then that Chief Justice Roberts would reach the 20-year retirement mark in 2025, Alito in 2027, Sotomayor 2029, Kagan 2030 and Gorsuch 2037.

With Presidential elections in 2020, 2024 etc., Presidents will routinely get a shot at picking new Justices.

Why do this? The founding fathers were perhaps the greatest gathering of minds at any time in world history. But they did not have a crystal ball and could not get it all right. That is why there are 27 amendments to the Constitution. It is not difficult to build a case for a couple more.  It all comes down to value added to the organization.

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

 

 

 

 

The most heard answer to the question, “why is the nation so divided” is, “it’s President Trump’s fault, he is dividing us.” The mainstream media has picked up on this answer and it gets repeated over and over, day after day.  If President Trump is to blame, then by extension, those who support him are also partly to blame. The “divide” is real.  The “divide” is potentially very dangerous.  Is the simple answer, “it’s all Trump’s fault” good enough?  I don’t believe so. Let’s take another shot a defining why the “divide” exists  before we jump on that bandwagon.

“Trump is a racist.”  We hear it every day.  Being called a racist is a very ugly thing. Members of the KKK are racist; people who proclaim to be White Supremacists are racist. Now we are led to believe President Trump is a racist because Maxine Waters says so, therefore it must be true and all the mass media have picked up on it?  But, what do Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have to say about Trump and his association with African Americans? Google up, Trump receives honor from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and you will find headlines like this;  “Jesse Jackson praises and thanks Donald Trump for a lifetime of service to African Americans.”  Hmmm, interesting.

“Trump is Islamophobic.”  He must be because he is defeating ISIS.  He must be because he does not want to allow immigrants from nations who are state sponsors of terrorism; from states that openly seek the destruction of America; from nations where those wanting to immigrate cannot be vetted because there is insufficient data to check their backgrounds.  Hmmm, also interesting.

“Trump hates women.”  His qualification for that statement seems to be that he  had an alleged extramarital affair 15 years ago..  Hmmm, no one in his huge business has said that?

“Trump hates Latinos.”  That must be true because he wants to seal the border to keep out illegal immigrants who are terrorists, criminals, drug traffickers, sex slave traders, and others who just want to disappear from view and live off US government assistance.  Or possibly it is because he is opposed to cities and states that willfully defy federal law and openly give sanctuary to Latin criminals.  OK, so that all makes good sense?

By engaging multiple media sources and in private conversations, it is difficult to get through a day without hearing a comment about how divided the nation has become. Maybe, just maybe, the issue deserves a more thorough look from what I pointed out in the opening paragraphs.  .

Begin by thinking about two parallel lines drawn about one-half inch apart.  The top line we will call the Republican line and the bottom one the Democrat line. While recognizing there are Independents and unaffiliates, the majority of Americans feel attached to the two major parties. So, I will use just the two to explain the divide.

There has always been a divide between what the Republicans and Democrats stand for; their platforms, vision of the future, etc.

Let’s say that in the fall of 2016, the divide between the two parallel lines was one half inch. The Republicans were asking for a stronger military, a fully engaged foreign policy (North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, the European Union, NATO),  trade deals that are more advantageous to the US and will reduce $500 + billion annual trade  deficits, defeat ISIS, cut taxes, reduce regulations, reduce the size of the federal government, immigration reform and border security to include building a wall and finally, do away with Obamacare.

The democrats were less specific about their vision for America, but their rhetoric led us to believe they advocated for open borders, military readiness status quo, maintain current trade deals plus a new one in Asia, maintain the level of military action against ISIS, essentially no change in foreign policy, raise taxes on the rich, increased government regulations, advocate against big business, and retain the tax-and-spend programs to stimulate the economy.

Now fast forward 24 months to the fall of 2018.  What we see on the Republican parallel line is a nearly identical list from 2016.  However, instead of being 2016 campaign promises, they are now completed or being worked as major policy initiatives.  With the exception of eliminating Obamacare, promises made, promises kept.

While the Democrats have been unable to move forward with their proposed campaign agenda, they have moved their vision further to the left. Many mid-term Democratic candidates, are actively advocating for the US to become a socialist state in spite of the fact that socialism has never been successful anywhere in the world.  And those who are not openly using the “socialism” tag, are advocating to nationalize big corporations, provide free college tuition, single-payer government-run health care, and the elimination of ICE, a major US law enforcement element charged with security for the nation’s citizens.

Based on the comparison of what the two political parties stood for in 2016 and where they are today, I have concluded that the divide should be widened from ½ inch to ¾ inch apart. But, while party comparisons are highlighted in the news every day, they still do not get at the crux of the “nation divided” issue.

Go back and look at the two parallel lines. For all practical purposes, the Republicans on the top line are happy. Yes, there are those who wish President Trump would stop tweeting and wish he was a little more articulate, but from a policy standpoint they are ecstatic. He made campaign promises and, for the most part he is working all of them; most, successfully. President Trump is not a politician in the truest sense of the word, he is a pragmatist who sees a problem and says, “this needs to be fixed, here is what we are going to do.” The tens of millions of Americans on the top line are happy.  The Republican line remains stationary, it has not moved upward to increase the divide.

A large percentage of Democrats literally HATE President Trump. They are very vocal and openly demonstrative about it. This hate talk is not just taking place around the family dinner table, it is daily headline news by the majority of mainstream media.

“Hate” is an ugly word and an ugly concept.  Widespread hatred is becoming a culture.  Culture is a powerful and pervasive force that, if negative, can paralyze an organization (the US) causing it to be unable to move forward.  For more on “hate”, see my blog; A LOOMING CRISIS IN AMERICA.

Bottom line, the United States is under the grip of a culture of hate.  It has spread rapidly and is growing. The normal separation between the two party’s’ ideologies is not what is “dividing the nation.” The “divide” is, in fact, the additional separation caused by the culture of hate.  The culture of hate has moved the Democrats’ parallel line down at least another ½ inch. The divide is getting so wide, it has negated civil discourse across the nation.

The irony is that in the media and personal conversations about the divide, the blame is placed on President Trump for “dividing this nation.”  Quite the opposite.

I’m not asking Democrats to support the Republicans; I am asking that Democrats support America. Democrats have a powerful and pervasive force on their side; the culture of hate.  If not abated, it can destroy this great country.

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of, VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

 MEDIA FRENZY OR MEDIA MENACE

 

Question, should we be worried about the national mainstream media; the TV networks, major newspapers and news magazines? I believe so. I have been a news junky for decades. Back in the day a “story” consisted of persons, places or things, facts, good, bad, and left us with enough information to draw our own conclusions.

Bernstein and Woodward, of Watergate days, began a journalistic shift with their “investigative reporting”. We began raising a generation of reporters who, rather than write the story, wanted to become the story and famous.

If I was to chart journalism since Watergate, I would have the line trending generally up in favor of more editorializing and politicizing. But, in just the past 2 years, that line on the chart has gone almost vertical with daily doses of hysteria and hate.

Mainstream media reporting has moved dramatically left on the political spectrum. Millions of Americans are subjected to opinionated, far left or even incorrect reporting, day after day, month after month, until they are inclined to think, “since that’s all I hear or read maybe it is the truth”.  But, is it?

I do not want to paint all journalists with this same brush. We know there are tens of thousands of radio, newspaper and TV journalists in small towns and cities who are absolutely true to their profession.  But the local journalists are not reaching the tens of millions every day like mainstream media does.

Is there a double standard today in media reporting? Take a look at just a few of the nation’s biggest issues over the past few years.

Some of President Obama’s notables: He criticized NATO for not paying their fair share but did nothing about it. He made no effort to work unfair and uneven trade. Sold 20% of US uranium stocks to Russia. ISIS evolved from nothing into a califate and was growing in 40 countries. Millions of illegal migrant gang members, felons, drug dealers and terrorist entered the US. When he left office, only one of three combat brigades in the US Army was fully combat ready; only 50% of the Air Force planes could fly.  The middle class, size and income, declined. Americans on food stamps reached the highest level ever in raw numbers and as a percentage of US population. Manufacturing continued to move overseas. North Korea nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs went into final stages, unabated. Obama could not get proper stairs to deplane in China. He bowed to the Saudi king and got nothing in return. In 32 quarters, never moved the GDP to 3% growth. Smothered America in new regulations. Tried for 8 years to work out of a recession with “tax and spend” economics; impossible to do. Yes, all of these made the news but for the most part the mainstream media gave Obama a pass.

Trump notables in 18 months: He looked NATO leaders in the eye and demanded they pay their fair share; they are responding. First-ever meeting with a North Korea leader and has a signed commitment to “completely denuclearize”. He deleted massive regulation, cut taxes and jump-started the economy. He is working all the big issues with China. Renegotiating all the bad trade deals and tariffs. Met with the Saudi King and got them involved in Middle East security. Got out of an Iran deal that was leading directly to nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.  ISIS is nearly defeated. He has reduced illegal border crossings by over 70%.  Minority unemployment is the lowest in history.  We have more people working today than ever before. Sanctions are back on Iran and Tehran protesters are calling for a new Iranian government. The mainstream media gives Trump little or no credit for these positive initiatives and for the most part has played them for days with intense negative emotionalism.

The evidence points toward an undeniable mainstream media double standard.  The questions are, can it get better, and if so should it get better?  Yes, it should; the mainstream media professional journalists should stand above the vitriolic banter that is too often on display today.

Can this media bias be fixed? I don’t know if it will be, but I do know where to start.  There are probably about a hundred senior leaders of the nation’s largest mainstream media corporations. With a simple decision memo, those leaders have the power to dictate that, one, reporting in their organization will be from a centrist political position and, two, re-introduce their reporters and broadcasters to the world of proper journalism.

An observation; without credibility, the fourth estate is powerless. A question; is the mainstream media self-destructing in its daily attempt to slay a perceived dragon?  We may be there now.

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMMIGRATION

Immigration in the United States is a colossal, embarrassing mess.  There are two parts to the mess.  One, the current immigration law using a lottery system and the provisions that allow a legal immigrant to bring along a large number of extended family members.  We simply need a new law that bases edibility on merit.

Secondly, there is the problem of what to do with the estimated 10-12 million illegal immigrants currently inside the U.S. borders.  Mass amnesty is not a viable solution because it is just plain stupid. Amnesty for 10 million illegals would set a precedent and open the flood gates along every U.S. border to millions more who want to come to America. In a few years’ time we would be faced with another 10 million illegals to deal with.

The purpose of what follows is to deal with the second problem.  THIS PLAN WILL W0RK

 

IMMIGRATION REFORM PLAN

1. All persons residing in the U.S. are supposed to fall into one of three categories; that is, a U.S. citizen or those with a Green Card permanent resident status or temporary inhabitants with Visitor or Student Visas. However, an estimated eleven million inhabitants exist outside those categories; WE DO NOT KNOW WHO THEY ARE OR WHERE THEY RESIDE. They are undocumented and therefore illegal inhabitants.

2. Administrations have, for decades, been dealing with the illegal migration problem to not avail.This proposed Immigration Reform Plan is simple yet comprehensive, self-policing and it will work.

3. The objective of this Immigration Reform Plan is to document every U.S. inhabitant. Everyone undocumented is subject to deportation.  Currently legal inhabitants have a Social Security number or a Green Card or a Visa.  The “document” for the undocumented inhabitants will be an Illegal Alien Card (for simplicity, hereafter referred to as the IACard). The cards will have the high technology of a drivers’ license to inhibit counterfeiting; will be changed and reissued annually; and each card will contain a picture, fingerprint and an IACard number assigned from a U.S. central registry.  This is a multi-phased operation but the Immigration Reform Plan can be fully operational within a few months after being signed into law.

4. This plan is simple, self-regulating, and does not require supplemental regulations or a federal bureaucracy to execute.

5. Phase One, July, Aug, Sep 2018: The President prepares a 10-page law based on the procedures explained herein followed by Congressional passage of the Immigration Reform Plan.  The language in the law must be very specific and not subject to interpretation or change by States or local authorities.  The reason for specificity in the law is to preclude the requirement for federal bureaucrats to interpret the law and re-write it into policy with unintended consequences.

6. Phase Two, Oct, Nov, Dec 2018: Each State will set up IACard registration sites.  A logical solution is to add one or two positions to every DMV office.  Additionally, in Phase Two, every law enforcement agency in the United States will forward information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on every felony committed by an undocumented inhabitant (who, what, when and where).  The FBI will establish and maintain a national database of these cases which allows for an immediate check against an application for an IACard.

7. Phase Three, Jan -Jun 2019: Every undocumented inhabitant in the U.S. will report to an IAC registration site in the state where they reside in accordance with a published alphabetical schedule (last name beginning in A, B, C, or D report during January, 2019, etc.).  If the applicant has a felony conviction, that person will be taken into custody, deported and will NEVER be eligible for an IACard.  This is an example of the specificity of the language that must be in the Immigration Reform Law; one strike and out.  Prior to appearing at the IACard registration site, each applicant must download a Federal Form, Employer’s Statement of Employment, fill it out and have it signed by their employer. No employer signature, no IACard.  The form must contain a statement of strong penalties for any employer signing a false statement.  Registration fee for the IACard is $50 per year.

(As time passes and this plan has not yet been executed, simply slide the dates in above paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 forward.)

WHEN PHASE 3 ENDS IT WILL NEVER BE REPEATED.  EVERY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN THE UNITED STATES ON THIS DATE IS EITHER A LEGAL HOLDER of an IACard or THEY ARE DEPORTABLE.  That is, by 1 July, 2019 we will know (probably about 10 million) who is employed, where they live, where they work, what they do and how many direct family (spouse and children) members they have.  The remaining 1 million non-IACard holders need to be located and deported.

8. Phase Four, July 2019: This is the phase that begins to change behavior and thereby solve the dual problems of undocumented inhabitants and unsecured borders.

On 1 July, 2019, the day following the initial 6-month registration period any employer who employs an undocumented worker (no IACard) will be subject to a fine of $25,000 for each worker, first offense; $50,000 each worker, second offense. No exceptions, no excuses. No employer is going to risk his livelihood over the employment of an illegal alien. Laws change behavior and add accountability of employers into the immigration solution.

This simple act of requiring illegal aliens to carry an IACard will have four positive and immediate results:

• First, employers will protect themselves from potentially heavy fines by only hiring inhabitants who have a valid IACard.

• Second, undocumented inhabitants who choose not to apply for an IACard or were denied an IACard will not be able to find an employer who will take them on. They will therefore be unemployable, will be constantly liable for deportation if detained for any reason and will likely return to their country of citizenship.

• Third, foreigners contemplating illegal entry into the United States in order to work will soon learn that no employer is going to hire them and illegal entry will be futile. This inevitable behavior change will, by default, reduce illegal immigration to a trickle.

• This will provide Border Patrol officers the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the illegal entry of drugs, terrorists, gang members and those operating in the slave/sex trade.

9. Phase Five, 1 July 2020: This phase begins the twelve-month reissue of IACards; $50 fee.  The card color will change each calendar year.  ONLY (again, specificity in the law) those inhabitants holding an IACard can receive a renewal card.  Additionally, they will be denied renewal if they have been unemployed and made less than $5000 or if they have been convicted of a felony.  Once denied, they will be detained, deported and NEVER receive another card. Any IACard that is not renewed by the annual renewal date will automatically be moved to the government’s deportation list.

10. In order to fund the Immigration Reform Law, a provision in the law will require IACard holders to pay 10% Federal income taxes on earned income. Employers must issue a 1099 using the individual’s IACard number to identify them to the IRS.  The IRS will establish a National Registry of Card numbers and the data base will list earned income and taxes paid for the previous year.  During the IACard renewal process, the registration center will immediately access the IRS data base to determine if the applicant has in fact been employed, made at least $5000 and paid taxes.  No tax records, no renewal and the applicant will be detained and deported.  The Federal Government will retain 2% of the tax revenue to fund three national data bases for The Immigration Reform Plan. The remaining 8% will be returned to the States in proportion to the number of IACard holders.

11. Any IACard holder convicted of a felony will have his card pulled, be detained and deported. That person’s file and IACard number will be annotated at the national registry to ensure that any future attempts to reapply will be denied.

12. An IACard holder who loses his or her job may immediately place an employment application to a National IACard holder registry website maintained by the Department of Labor. This database will describe the IACard holder’s skills and be broken down by zip code.  An employer seeking to hire, for example, a carpenter has two options. One is to make direct contact with an IACard holder; second is to review the Department of Labor national data base of unemployed IACard holders.

13. There will be four related national data bases associated with this plan. First is the basic national data base with the personal data and card number of each IACard holder.  Second is the data base of active IACard holders maintained by the IRS.  Third, is the data base of undocumented known felons in the US; maintained by the FBI.  Finally, there is the jobs-available register at the Dept of Labor.

14. An IACard holder will have the following four privileges:

• One, they may apply for a State vehicle operator’s license and will be tested in English. A provision of the law will be that every State must prominently display the individual’s IACard number on the State Driver’s License. Additionally, every applicant must show proof of auto insurance.

• Two, a current IACard will authorize the holder to legally cross US borders.

• Three, legal holders may apply for an IACard Dependent Card (using the sponsor’s IACard number with a suffix) for their spouse and children (no extended family members). If granted, the sponsor will be authorized to escort the dependents across the U.S. border.

• Four, after legally holding an IACard for five consecutive years, that person is eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship for themselves and their immediate family (spouse and children).

15. Remember, these people are here illegally. Therefore, they will NOT be eligible for social security, welfare payments of any kind, food assistance programs, Medicaid, or social services.  This will save hundreds of billions of dollars per year in federal and state assistance payments.

16. Children born to IACard holders in the U.S. will NOT automatically be granted U.S. citizenship. If, however, the parents eventually gain citizenship, dependent children under the age of 18 will also be granted citizenship.  This law will undoubtedly be challenged in the courts. The current law is based on post-Civil War intent to protect children born to freed slaves who had no documentation to substantiate their citizenship.  That law should be updated as part of the Immigration Reform Plan

17. Conclusions:

• Is this plan doable? Yes. Is it 100% full proof? No, but no system can be.

• This plan is an efficient, simple, inexpensive way to document nearly every US inhabitant.

• This plan will readily identify illegal inhabitants who are currently a drain on Federal and State support systems and provide for their deportation.

• If employers want foreign workers, they must become involved and accountable. Their only requirements are to hire IACard holders and to report employee earnings on a 1099.

• This program will drastically reduce the practice of unscrupulous and frequently deadly human trafficking.

• Enforcement: Let’s say a person is stopped for a traffic violation.  If the driver’s license contains an IA Card number the law enforcement officer can immediately access the FBI data base to determine if the person has a felony conviction, if the card is overdue for annual renewal or if the person is on the FBI’s deportation list.  If any violations are found, the alien will be arrested, detained and deported.

• For this to work two things have to happen. First, the Congress has to pass a pure, non-watered down, straight-talk law with specificity that is not subject to interpretation by bureaucrats at the Federal, State or Local levels.  Secondly, the FBI, IRS and Department of Labor, will need to develop high-speed, simple, secure, data bases that are immediately accessible by State and Local officials.  We cannot afford to create a bungling bureaucratic morass like the current Immigration and Naturalization Service.

• Immigration reform is not about amnesty or open borders; it is about accountability and changing behavior.

Lt Gen Marvin L. Covault, US Army retired, is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.

 

 

 

 

Culture is a powerful and pervasive force in any organization. An “organization” could be a small team of two or three individuals or it could be the whole country.

We know that every individual has a definable personality; bubbly, solemn, introverted, optimistic, the list is long.  Culture is like the personality of an organization; caring, harsh, entrepreneurial, bureaucratic; again, a long list.

In the 1990s a new culture began to emerge.  It started with a new meaning for the word “spin”. When a potentially negative issue emerged, the Clinton White House would “spin” the issue to make it look as though someone else was to blame. The blame game took root, grew and migrated to the US Congress and transformed it into today’s blame-everything, dysfunctional, grid locked organization.  And then it spread across the country. Today we have an engrained culture of blame.

Now the country is trending towards a culture of hate and it is moving like a wild fire.

Hate: “to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.”

A few days ago, President Trump was on Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional leaders. While walking down a hallway, a US Senate intern, Caitlin Marriott, yelled out, “Mr. President, f_ _ _ you.”

Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen was recently driven out by protesters while having dinner in a restaurant. So-called celebrates are routinely applauded during televised programs when they use the most vile and disrespectful language to degrade someone while millions watch on TV. The list is long.

And somehow, we are led to believe by much of the media that this type of behavior is acceptable. This kind of behavior is not about freedom of speech, it is about where that “speech” is taking the country.

And here is the worst part. Babies are not born with hatred in their little hearts. They know nothing of the concept of disrespect and bigotry. But they will learn hatred, bullying, the use of vindictive language, disregard for civil discourse at home, in school and from the media. A culture of hate is already on track to become a generational problem, just like a culture of segregation was for 100 years.

Hatemonger: “one who incites others to hatred or prejudice”.

If Maxine Waters would contemplate where this culture of hate might be leading the country, perhaps she would not be using her position to insight people to seek out multiple senior administration officials and attempt to drive them from their service to the nation.

Wake up America or you will someday wake up to an America you don’t know. An America that has lost its goodness. An America that has completely lost its way.

Watching the culture of hate grow and doing nothing is not an option. Get on social media and sound off with a logical counter argument.  Write to companies and boycott their products if they advertise with media which is supportive of hatemongering. Get together and send a barrage of emails to politicians like Maxine Waters who encourage hatemongering.

There must be consequences for vile public behavior. Caitlin Marriott, (who shouted “F_ _ _ you Mr. President”) is an intern for US Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH). The Senator’s punishment was to send Marriott home for a week of forced vacation. An alternative for the Senator would have been to call Ms. Marriott into her office, give the young lady a tongue-lashing she may never forget about proper decorum, pull her badge and have the Capital Police escort her out of the building. There would certainly have been a media backlash about that “severe” punishment. But the Senator would be siting securely on the moral high ground.

Civil discourse, agreeing to disagree and the golden rule are in danger of becoming a thing of the past.

Sometimes I find it instructive to look at issues by putting them on a spectrum of behavior; that is, look at the polar opposites.  Good/evil. Selfless/self-serving. Accountability/blame. Then there is today’s issue with hate on one end of the spectrum and on the other end is trust, respect and love. We have to get on the correct side of the hate spectrum

The most important thing we can do to keep the kids from learning to hate is to teach them something different. The kids need a daily dose of character training; every K-12 student in the United States; all 60 million of them. Every day for 20 minutes. It can be done. It is a proven concept. It is within the art of the possible. I just happen to have a completed concept paper for a national campaign to make it happen.

Lieutenant General, US Army retired, Marvin L. Covault is the author of Vision to Execution, a book for leaders.