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Post by nashville11 on Sept 11, 2018 14:44:37 GMT
For a long time, many Americans have wanted to see the government run "like a business". Remember H Ross Perot? HE was a legitimate businessman, served his country in the Navy ans was awarded a medal for "Distinguished Public Service", but he was before his time running for the office. A lot of Americans do say they want to see the government run like a business, but I'm not so sure that's a real possibility. The primary goal of any business is to make a profit. That's not the case, or at least I don't think should be, of the government. Rather I think the government should be run more as a non-profit. The primary goal, IMHO, should be to provide freedom, peace, and a quality life for the people. That doesn't mean (Rs who read here) that I think it should be a hand-out system for everyone. I do think there needs to be accountability in spending. I think there is a lot of waste that needs to be overseen and controlled. I think everyone should contribute in someway whether it is through money (which we all already do, even illegal immigrants), but also in community service, etc. Businesses are run for the benefit of the owner or a few shareholders. A non-profit should be run for the benefit of all it serves, which to me is more like the way a country should be run. We're never going to see it one way or the other, so perhaps the best we can hope for is a happy medium. Perot offered some good ideas, and he may have been before his time. I admit that I didn't vote for him, but I never had anything against him either.
So I'm not really sure what people mean when they say they want to see government run like a business. I think a lot of them are not really sure either. My best guess is that the majority of people who say they want to see government run like a business, they simply mean they want to see accountability from their elected representatives. Maybe, maybe not . . . but that's what I usually think of when I hear someone say that.
In my fantasy the government would have strict accountability to the citizens in all agencies, and all members of the government. Government would also be run strictly with the good of the people in mind. That's a fantasy though, and even on my most Pollyanna days I never expect to see that happen.
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Post by nashville11 on Sept 11, 2018 14:46:19 GMT
We were living in CA on 9/11. I was scheduled to teach a class that morning. We woke up to hear on the radio that a plane had just crashed into one of the Twin Towers. Then the world as we knew it suddenly changed forever.
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Post by luanne on Sept 11, 2018 14:56:51 GMT
We were living in CA on 9/11. I was scheduled to teach a class that morning. We woke up to hear on the radio that a plane had just crashed into one of the Twin Towers. Then the world as we knew it suddenly changed forever. We were also living in CA. I was getting ready for work and had the television on in the bedroom. When the news started reporting I ran downstairs, turned that television on and made my daughters, who were 11 and 13 watch along with me.
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Post by nashville11 on Sept 11, 2018 17:34:35 GMT
"America's future is not written by our enemies. America's future is written by our heroes," he said. "Brave patriots will rise up in America's hours of need and they, too, will fight back." -- The JA today at Shanksville
A beautiful sentiment, and surely America is desperately in need of brave patriots today who will rise up and put America first ahead of party. The JA is not now, never has been, and never will be one of them. But surely whoever wrote that speech for him was right that we need them, and I hope he is right that they will rise up. We are truly in an hour of need now.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2018 20:05:27 GMT
Puerto Rico was "an incredible unsung success"..."its an island you know"...."it's going to be tremendously wet" (referring to Florence) ...Florence is going to be biggest storm ever"...god spare us from this idiot as soon as possible!
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Post by nashville11 on Sept 11, 2018 20:58:45 GMT
Dang! Who knew Puerto Rico was an island? And who knew hurricanes were so tremendously wet? No wonder it was essential to get Puerto Rico all those paper towels. Sure hope my friends in the Carolinas are stocked up on paper towels. This man is such an idiot there really aren't any words adequate to describe it. If it weren't all so very serious, it'd be a really funny joke. Unfortunately it is serious, and therefore there's nothing funny about him.
I have one friend in the Houston area. She had a lot of damage to her home from Harvey. She's still waiting on FEMA to get it all repaired. A couple of rooms are still unusable, and yet this same "friend" is an ardent supporter of the JA. Go figure! It boggles my mind.
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Post by yogamama007 on Sept 11, 2018 22:24:33 GMT
Puerto Rico was "an incredible unsung success"..."its an island you know"...."it's going to be tremendously wet" (referring to Florence) ...Florence is going to be biggest storm ever"...god spare us from this idiot as soon as possible! DANG--Every time I think he topped himself with stoopid, he hasn't. Hang on, "incoming". Jeb, oh Jeb where are you? ?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2018 22:48:05 GMT
Hoping no one here is in the path of florence, but if there is please be safe.
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Post by yogamama007 on Sept 11, 2018 23:07:06 GMT
Some things happen and you never forget where you were.
We were in Burlington Vt. getting ready to drive home. When we went down for breakfast the T.V. was on and everyone in the dining room was staring open mouthed as the second plane hit.
Then we heard one of the planes was headed west toward Chicago and called our son to update him. The news was a jumble in the first hours.
Held on tight to ourselves and somehow got home. I refused to listen to the radio till we arrived. Then just waited for the final count, we knew people who worked at the towers. Had cousins on the cops and NYFD.
Our friend's daughter and SIL lived down by the towers. Smart kids grabbed their passports, money and headed for GranCentral and the train north to her parents.
Final count for us was 5 in the Towers and none of the cousins.
I think everyone in the tri-state area lost someone they knew or were related to.
Boy, life has never been the same since, in soooo many ways.
May they rest in peace.
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Post by yogamama007 on Sept 11, 2018 23:29:11 GMT
So I'm not really sure what people mean when they say they want to see government run like a business. I think a lot of them are not really sure either. My best guess is that the majority of people who say they want to see government run like a business, they simply mean they want to see accountability from their elected representatives. Maybe, maybe not . . . but that's what I usually think of when I hear someone say that. Think you nailed it......they are not familiar with how businesses are run, but admire the efficiency of what they see from afar. If they only knew what went on in some corporations that don't have the spotlight on them................humans will always be people...;} .....think about it. lol
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Post by luanne on Sept 11, 2018 23:52:26 GMT
A long read, but beautiful.
AN AMAZING STORY...
Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11:
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic .
All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination."
No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, Newfoundland.
He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately -- no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request.
While the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.
We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander , New Foundland, to have it checked out.
We promised to give more information after landing in Gander .. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was 12:30 PM .... that's 11:00 AM EST.
There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world that had taken this detour on their way to the US.
After we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are here for another reason."
Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the US. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander told us to stay put.
The Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near any of the air crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically, look us over and go on to the next airplane.
In the next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were US commercial jets.
Meanwhile, bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC.
People were trying to use their cell phones, but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada . Some did get through, but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S. were either blocked or jammed.
Sometime in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted, not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly calm.
We had only to look out the window at the 52 other stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones in this predicament.
We had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the planes one plane at a time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would be 11 am the next morning.
Passengers were not happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much noise and started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the airplane.
Gander had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory servicing.
And they were true to their word.
Fortunately we had no medical situations to worry about. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.
About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red Cross.
After that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken in vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were going. We learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people and they had about 10,500 passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander!
We were told to just relax at the hotel and we would be contacted when the US airports opened again, but not to expect that call for a while.
We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started.
Meanwhile, we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander were extremely friendly. They started calling us the "plane people." We enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended up having a pretty good time.
Two days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander airport. Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out what they had been doing for the past two days.
What we found out was incredible.....
Gander and all the surrounding communities (within about a 75 Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas for all the stranded travelers.
Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up.
ALL the high school students were required to volunteer theirtime to take care of the "guests."
Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was arranged.
Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were taken to private homes.
Remember that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility.There was a dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained with the crowd for the duration.
Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered "Excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went for hikes in the local forests.
Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests.
Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to the schools. People were driven to restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful meals. Everyone was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft.
In other words, every single need was met for those stranded travelers.
Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single passenger missing or late. The local Red Cross had all the information about thewhereabouts of each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on and when all the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything beautifully.
It was absolutely incredible.
When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everyone knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight back to Atlanta looked like a chartered party flight. The crew just stayed out of their way. It was mind-boggling.
Passengers had totally bonded and were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.
And then a very unusual thing happened.
One of our passengers approached me and asked if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We never, ever allow that. But this time was different. I said "of course" and handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers.
He continued by saying that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of Lewisporte.
"He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide college scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte.
He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, the total was for more than $14,000!
"The gentleman, a MD from Virginia , promised to match the donations and to start the administrative work on the scholarship. He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well.
As I write this account, the trust fund is at more than $1.5 million and has assisted 134 students in college education.
"I just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right now. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a faraway place were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in on them.
It reminds me how much good there is in the world."
"In spite of all the rotten things we see going on in today's world this story confirms that there are still a lot of good people in the world and when things get bad, they will come forward.
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Post by DotRen on Sept 12, 2018 0:33:00 GMT
IMO when I think of "running it like a business", I think yeah not paying $5000 for a toilet seat and things along those lines.
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Post by nashville11 on Sept 12, 2018 0:38:59 GMT
That was beautiful Luanne and good to be reminded of all the kindness in the world.
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Post by doordie50 on Sept 12, 2018 13:33:18 GMT
Newsweek: The administration diverted nearly 10 million from FEMA's budget to fund ICE's immigration crackdown. Just letting that sink in as Hurricane Florence promises to be catastrophic.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2018 14:53:07 GMT
The diversion of funds, once again shows how unprepared this Administration is for any kind of disaster.
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