Surveillance: The government isn’t spying on us; Google is spying on us, and the government is asking Google for certain results.

Mass information gathering by for profit companies and the use of that information is becoming a major issue for societies, groups and individuals who are gradually waking up to the reality that if you type it with a keyboard or upload it and hit the send key you might as well be writing graffiti on government building walls and leaving your name and address in the bottom right hand corner.

What is amazing is how innocent and lulled most of us have been about the use of computers and keyboards.  Especially allowing kids to spend hours unsupervised on the same machines we do our most important communicating with banks, friends, colleagues, you name it.

So here we are having a debate about our relationship with online entities and the use of the data we willingly share and that data they are also able to produce deductively beyond what we are willing to share.

Whether we have anything to hide or not, most of us assume we get to make that choice.

Apparently, our keyboards, desktop computers and online connection are a gateway to big business and big brother which today seem to be becoming one and the same.

“LET’S get the most contentious point out of the way first: Edward Snowden made the right call to make public the extent of the National Security Administration’s surveillance of electronic communications. The American people can now have a debate about whether or not they consent to that level of surveillance in order to prevent terrorist attacks, a debate that we were previously denied by the government’s unwillingness to disclose even the …”

via Surveillance: Should the government know less than Google? | The Economist.

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NSA Snooping Was Only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief Leading Us Into Cyberwar

Conflict and competition can be argued are leading forces in the development of civilizations.  However, when conflict and competition exist within a system that is competing with a plethora of external sources, these internal forces can be destructive because a divided house is more easily destoyed.

America is such a system today.  This is especially true of our divided political system.  From Watergate to various false attempts at “Obamagate” today, America finds itself at an important crossroads.  Eisenhower’s military industrial complex seems to be reaching Orwellian proportions.  It is not just made up of electronic eavesdropping.  It has plenty of mortal and brick and significant parts of it are independent, for profit and privatized.

The abuses of Black Water during the Gulf War are now looking temporary and relatively small compared to the all pervasive and apparently institutionalized programs that listen in on private communication among all Americans in a new America where BIG BROTHER seems to be watching, listening, recording and even sending drones.

“INSIDE FORT MEADE, Maryland, a top-secret city bustles. Tens of thousands of people move through more than 50 buildings—the city has its own post office, fire department, and police force. But as if designed by Kafka, it sits among a forest of trees, surrounded by electrified …”

via NSA Snooping Was Only the Beginning. Meet the Spy Chief Leading Us Into Cyberwar | Threat Level | Wired.com.

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In America’s cities, demographics must drive policy

The baby boom generation continues to dominate numerically.  Even as they slow down and even retire, their sheer numbers continue to drive American social needs and wants.  As corporations increase their global reach and their local dominance, simple demographic currents may rule the day as millions of boomers smother marketing strategies and trends with a simple “That’s not what I want.”

“As many boomers choose to “age in place,” that is, to retire and continue living in their homes and/or neighborhoods as opposed to in retirement homes, they will demand accessible transportation, services, walkability, and access to health care in their communities. These demands also characterize today’s young, educated, millennial generation.

Will cities and neighborhoods be able to cope with these interrelated demands? There are several key reasons for concern and also several important opportunities.

Areas for concern

• Urban Institute models project that between 2010 and 2030 there will be a 70 percent increase in senior homeowners and a 100 percent increase in senior renters.
• As many seniors choose to “age in place” by staying in their homes and communities, their cities and neighborhoods may not be equipped to provide the transportation, services, and health care they increasingly demand.
• Affordable housing is limited, but retirees on fixed incomes and millennials facing an unprecedented wealth gap will increasingly demand affordable housing in walkable urban areas.

Reasons for optimism according to panelists

• Health care will increasingly comprise the largest share of living expenses for seniors, but in-home care and other in-home services can reduce health care costs, and those cost savings can be reinvested in the services that generate them.
• Social Impact Bonds and other public-private partnerships may be well-placed to make the initial investments in the many services that will be needed, increasing economic efficiency and generating profits.
• Technology will allow many seniors to receive health care monitoring and service delivery in their homes, while millennials will use it to interact with and replace many neighborhood amenities.”

via In America’s cities, demographics must drive policy.

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Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: April 2013 | The most important part of health status may be the knowledge and behaviors that lead to that status. With healthcare reform upon us, people still know very little about healthcare reform …

Healthcare costs are not only a problem affecting budgets, taxes and government waste.  Healthcare costs also mean that healthcare policy and healthcare reform effectively happen through the spending of big dollars by individuals and immediately benefiting individuals who are part of the healthcare industry.  The people who are to be affected by the social investment and who ultimately must change behaviors to impact their health status are quite distant from the decision making and from the economy that healthcare reform creates.  Ultimately, healthcare costs and consequences will be more impacted by the kitchen table decisions of millions of families than by the billions of dollars that health professionals, consultants and go-betweens will garner from the current healthcare reform top down process.

“As government officials, community organizations and advocates gear up the consumer information and assistance efforts that will surround this fall’s open enrollment for the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), much of the public remains confused about the status of the health law, according to the April Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Four in ten Americans (42 percent) are unaware that the ACA is still the law of the land, including 12 percent who believe the law has been repealed by Congress, 7 percent who believe it has been overturned by the Supreme Court and 23 percent who don’t know whether or not the ACA remains law. And about half the public says they do not have enough information about the health reform law to understand how it will impact their own family, a share that rises among the uninsured and low-income households.”

More via Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: April 2013 | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Manager Uses Urban Dictionary to Defend UFC Fighter’s Gay Twitter Slur — What would Oscar Wilde and George Orwell say?

Educational attainment, the schools we attend, the neighborhoods we grow up in, and the family that shapes us, all represent the context which gives our language meaning, its connotations.  But the dictionary and the official meanings in it is an important shared frame of reference; or is it?  In search of meaning, intentions and aggression, we often find ourselves in front of the proverbial mirror of shame.  There always seems to be plenty of blame to go around when people are mean to one another.  But to complain about UFC culture seems to go beyond reason to a place where words or meaning may no longer hold much substance.

Life in today’s diverse America is becoming quite interesting and the language to explain it increasingly seems to fall short.  Public behavior, especially public behavior tied to corporate profits and corporate values, has ramifications beyond colloquialisms and local vernacular.   Because the spoken word is usually magnified and made more powerful when it is repeated by those who have the means, people who speak to the wrong person (s) or in the wrong place, or at the wrong time, get crucified.  Someone is always ready to listen and to register a complain for all the good people to weigh in and render a collective judgement.  What passes for conversation, if inelegant or far from eloquent, in the confines of comrades and buddies in local corners or man caves, can be quite the consternation in a public setting–even when it is said in a spectacle of violence, and mostly indecency, displayed for the public palate.  Apparently it is ok to beat another human being nearly to death but it is not okay to call them names?  What ever happened to sticks and stones will break my bones, etc., etc. etc.  We have reached the day when the tongue is mightier than the sword and the public sense of decency is measured by what Oscar Wilde himself may have seen as ironic and inane.

Tell us here at The Policy ThinkShop what you THINK???

“UFC fighter Nate Diaz (above) was suspended by the mixed martial arts body on Thursday night for earlier in the week using a gay slur against another fighter. That’s typically where a manager or someone else would step in and get the athlete to apologize and …”

via Manager Uses Urban Dictionary to Defend UFC Fighter’s Gay Twitter Slur.

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The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union | Pew Global Attitudes Project

European hegemony may no longer be sustainable.  The European economic community is being held together by a fragile piece of paper called the Euro.  Aside from the currency, which a Pew Foundation survey reports is still favored by most European countries, there is little else Europeans agree about or even like about each other.  Perhaps the onslaught of diversity perceived by growing right wing groups is the only glue left to hold Europeans together.  The current economic crisis has seen much conflict and scapegoating regarding immigrants from mostly the African continent; but now Europeans seem to be turning against one another.

“The European Union is the new sick man of Europe. The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in disrepute across much of Europe.

Support for European economic integration – the 1957 raison d’etre for creating the European Economic Community, the European Union’s predecessor – is down over last year in five of the eight European Union countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2013. Positive views of the European Union are at or near their low point in most EU nations, even among the young, the hope for the EU’s future. The favorability of the EU has fallen from a median of 60% in 2012 to 45% in 2013. And only in Germany does at least half the public back giving more power to Brussels to deal with the current economic crisis.

The sick man label – attributed originally to Russian Czar Nicholas I in his description of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century – has more recently been applied at different times over the past decade and a half to Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece and France. But this fascination with the crisis country of the moment has masked a broader phenomenon: the erosion of Europeans’ faith in the animating principles that have driven so much of what they have accomplished internally.”

MORE via The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union | Pew Global Attitudes Project.

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Unauthorized Immigrants: How Pew Research Counts Them and What We Know About Them | Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center provides us with the facts and figures on the immigrant issue… Visit Pew by reading the article below and tell us what you think …

“What we can tell from our data that, to a degree is not widely appreciated, the unauthorized immigrant population is made up of young working families. The majority of unauthorized immigrant adults are here with family members — spouses and children. Our estimates are that unauthorized immigrants have between 4.5 million and 5 million children under 18 who are U.S. citizens because they were born here. Those children are affected by this proposed legislation because their parents have the potential of being able to remain here legally and not be subject to deportation.

In addition, the unauthorized families include roughly three-quarters of a million adults who are either immigrants here legally or U.S. citizens who are family members of these unauthorized immigrants. Some may be spouses, some of them are children who are older than 18. So that means that the total number of people who might be affected by the proposals is much larger, probably between 16 million and 17 million people. This demographic dynamic is not well-known or widely-appreciated. It’s often a big surprise to people.”

via Unauthorized Immigrants: How Pew Research Counts Them and What We Know About Them | Pew Research Center.

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Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings – Metro – The Boston Globe

No one ever talks about it.  It is taboo.  Or perhaps, it is not important in our mostly Western European culture.

As we have developed a culture of fear, xenophobia, and antipathy towards foreigners, we have begun to kill our American Dream.  We dislike people who look poorly dressed, “dark,” or otherwise not like “us.”  We forget, or perhaps our history books don’t explain and our grandparents did not share, that most people who came through Elis Island came here with few  belongings, lived in very modest quarters and felt as isolated and alienated as today’s monolingual and “lost in America” recent immigrant population.

Mexicans, Haitians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Puerto Ricans, many, many, groups are portrayed as “less than American” and continue to be seen as different from the mainstream ideal.  An ideal that may now be shattered after the savages who attacked innocent people in Boston.  The facts are developing at this time.  But the monsters in the two FBI photos are nothing like the “dark guy” ridiculously and irresponsibly described by CNN’s John King with Wolf Blitzer supporting.

“I want to be very careful about this, because people get very sensitive when you say these things,” King said Wednesday. “I was told by one of these sources who is a law enforcement official that this is a dark-skinned male.”

America is now more diverse than ever.  It’s mainstream leadership is woefully out of touch with the silent growing segment of the population that is destined to inherit our tomorrow.

The Boston Globe reported a story that confirms the damage mainstream media does to our fabric when they echo the fears and phobias suffered by less educated Americans…  By less educated we don’t mean did not go to College–we mean people who were raised and educated by parents and schools that failed.  Some of these people have high degrees and are millionaires who lead our nightly broadcasts…

“Every day, Heba Abolaban of Malden checks on her family in war-strafed Syria, where water, bread and electricity are in short supply. She was far more worried about them than about herself on Wednesday morning when she put her baby daughter in a stroller and headed into the sunshine to a play group with a friend.But as they strolled down Commercial Street, an angry-faced man charged toward the petite woman, his hand balled into a fist. He punched her hard in the shoulder and screamed curses inches from her face. Then he pointed at her and …”

More via Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings – Metro – The Boston Globe.

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Immigration reform: Getting there | The Economist

The most powerful force behind immigrant reform is Hispanic Americans who are here legally or were born here and can all vote…  This group is greatly impacted by actions against immigrants which they see closely connected with their own identity and perhaps their political interests.

Whatever happens through the mechanics of Congress it remains clear that Hispanic public opinion, ever growing and important, is clear on the side of welcoming Hispanic immigrants no matter how they got here, who want to work towards the American dream.

The London Economist lays out the political machinations on the Hill and asserts that the Hispanic vote is a force to be reckoned with.

“EVERY major policy issue has been resolved,” declared Charles Schumer, one of eight senators seeking to draft a bipartisan bill to reform America’s immigration system. The “Gang of Eight”, he continued, would unveil their proposal in days; it would putter through the

via Immigration reform: Getting there | The Economist.

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G.O.P. Opposition to Immigration Law Is Falling Away – NYTimes.com

Latino population growth, touted by some and warned by others for decades now, is finally a tangible reality.  The impact of demographic change and the potential that it is having on workforce, consumer and political markets is the subject of much conversation these days and it is finally breaking the xenophobic fever of some in the Republican establishment, traditionally more liberal, and even on the fringe…

“Republican opposition to legalizing the status of millions of illegal immigrants is crumbling in the nation’s capital as leading lawmakers in the party scramble to halt eroding support among Hispanic voters — a shift that is …”

MORE via G.O.P. Opposition to Immigration Law Is Falling Away – NYTimes.com.

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Culture, Language and Health Literacy

• Healthcare reform is here, millions of dollars are being invested…. What will the outcomes be for marginalized populations?  What is the role of culture and interpersonal communication in healthcare services, marketing and behavior change?

• The Policy ThinkShop recommends: The Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Health Resources and Services Administration has a useful website addressing the relationship between healthcare needs, the sociodemographic variables of persons and communities who have those needs and the healthcare provider workforce and institutional systems addressing those needs.

“Effective health communication is as important to health care as clinical skill. To improve individual health and build healthy communities, health care providers need to recognize and address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities.”

More via Culture, Language and Health Literacy.

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Rubio and the Zombies – NYTimes.com The Policy ThinkShop comments: Marco loco, Marco, loco, Marco loco… In search of a rising star to peddle tired Republican ideas…

In a sad game of hide and seek, hide economic reason and seek Latino votes, Marc Rubio is being paraded out of the Republican political stables to get the attention of Latino voters …  It’s not working…

“In case you’re wondering, a zombie idea is a proposition that has been thoroughly refuted by analysis and evidence, and should be dead — but won’t stay dead because it serves a political purpose, appeals to prejudices, or both.”

via Rubio and the Zombies – NYTimes.com.

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