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Fixing our Broken System with Carol Roth [Podcast]

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been engaging in more discussions about the issues our country faces and the gridlock in our political system lately. Today a friend and past guest of the Podcast Carol Roth was tweeting something that Gerri Willis from Fox Business Network had asked on Twitter.

“Who’s to blame for Washington gridlock? Rebublicans, Democrats or Both?” -Gerri Willis

This was a hot button issue for me so I quickly responded to Carol to invite her to discuss it on my podcast today.

Listen

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Podcast - Our Broken System

Summary

My answer to this question was that we are all to blame. We’re not coming together to work on what we agree on and we’re being manipulated based on interests. Carol had quite a bit of perspective to share on the issue, listen in to learn about how we can simplify this process.

Quotable

“People are blaming the symptoms instead of looking at the disease” – Carol Roth

This episode was live on Blog Talk Radio on 12/21/2011.

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You can also signup to be notified when I have new Podcasts scheduled by clicking the “follow” button for my show on Blog Talk Radio.

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Problem Solver Series Episode #1 Economy and Jobs [Podcast]

October 13, 2011 By 4 Comments

Problem Solver Series LogoA frank discussion on the economy and jobs with:

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Summary

From what the problems are to how to solve them and what to do now or if they aren’t solved.

The Problems

  • Uncertainty/Confidence
  • Global Competition
  • Housing Crisis
  • Access to Capital/Credit

The Solutions

  • Non-Partisan “Get on the same page” Leadership
  • Get 50% of the small businesses to hire one new employee
  • Revise/simplify tax code
  • Eliminate Red Tape
  • Broaden 1099 Classification

Contigency Planning

Both panelists were asked for advice on how business and individuals (employed or otherwise) could approach the market. Listen in to hear some great advice including a very well orchestrated suggestion on how to help others through challenging times by Don LeDoux.

Quotable

“The governments role here has gotten it a little bit out of control it’s like the Winchester Mystery house (they) just keep building and it’s going no-where.” – Carol Roth

This episode was live on Blog Talk Radio on 10/12/2011.

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Filed Under: Business, Interviews, Jobs, LinkedIn, Podcasts, Politics, Serious Topics Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Efficiency is the essential 21st Century Skill

October 12, 2011 By 3 Comments

You’ve probably heard the term sustainability thrown around a lot recently. It’s for good reason, we see evidence everywhere that businesses, governments, educational systems, laws, and everything else under the sun has to be able to survive the tests of time. There is no such thing as “too big to fail” just look back in history and we’ve seen Empires collapse under their own weight. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how great you think you are, if you aren’t prepared to sustain whatever you are doing it won’t last forever. Knowing that we need to be sustainable and actually functioning in a sustainable fashion are totally different things.

Be careful what you ask for

It’s time for every individual, business, political party, interest group, etc. to think long and hard about what they are asking for. If you are thinking today that someone else is going to rescue you, think again. At best they will delay the inevitable.

A society of individuals that aren’t taught to sustain themselves will fail.

Who doesn’t love the idea of a social service? I believe it is part of human nature to want to care for each other. I would even go so far as to argue that life without caring and serving others is probably not life worth living. Sometimes really caring though is asking for the right things, sustainable things, like teaching people that they matter and can stand on their own. Mentoring kids, especially those in difficult situations is one way you can really do this.

Never pass up a chance to tell a young person that they can do anything they set their mind to do.

Why Efficiency is the essential 21st Century Skill

We don’t have the luxury of excessive budgets to pay for inefficiencies and blow money on things that don’t work, the party is over and we just got the bill. Today we all have to emphasize the reality that we have to do more with less. With our debt piling up and our social systems strained to a breaking point there is only one real answer to the crisis – doing more with less while also being mindful of what we ask for.

3 Years ago my company leased an entire rack at a co-location facility to the tune of $900 per month. Today I rely on companies that leverage resources in a much more sustainable and efficient way to provide those services. The co-location facility has to do without my business, and so does the staff that is no longer needed to operate it, but in hindsight it would be pointless to place my business in the precarious and un-competitive position to support that co-location facility and the staff to operate it. This could easily be looked at by many as “killing jobs” but if my company goes under I’ll be out there competing for a new one.

The old way was not sustainable, the new way is and in the future it is my responsibility to ensure that it stays that way.

Opportunity is everywhere

Human beings have adapted to survive some incredibly challenging environments. We’ve launched successful business ventures during economic crisis’s including the Great Depression. We’ve huddled together to survive unimaginable natural disasters and hardships including horrific wars and genocides. Today you don’t have to look too far to see an incredible amount of energy being exerted, people are angry, they are fed up, many appear desperate and I think many of us are yearning for something I know that I am. What am I yearning for?

I yearn most for people to seize the opportunity to work together to solve the problems we face, instead of blaming others for them.

What do you yearn most for?

Filed Under: Community, Leadership, Parenting, Politics, Serious Topics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Episode summary Interview the Interviewer Episode 1 – Adriel Hampton (Podcast)

January 6, 2011 By 1 Comment

Adriel Hampton, Gov 2.0 Radio HostThis is a new monthly feature on my podcast where I will be interviewing “interviewers” in this case Gov2.0 Podcast host Adriel Hampton. Adriel is a passionate advocate for harnessing emerging technologies to make government more effective, collaborative and transparent. He is an early Gov 2.0 adopter and co-founded the popular public interest podcast Gov 2.0 Radio. In addition to producing the weekly show, Adriel is a community leader at GovLoop.com, the social network for government, and group manager for the LinkedIn Gov 2.0 group and its more than 4,500 members. Since 2005, Adriel has worked as an investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, and he began his career as an editor, designer and writer for several San Francisco Bay Area daily newspapers. In 2009, he ran a grassroots campaign for U.S. Congress.

Highlights

What can you expect by listening to this podcast?:

  • Insights from one of the top people in the Gov 2.0 Space
  • Twitter and Social media tips
  • Where Adriel finds time to Tweet (hint – he commutes on public transit)
  • Some social media book opinions
  • Social media in relation to political campaigns (Adriel ran for Congress in 2009)

Listen to Interview the Interviewer Episode #1:

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Adriel Quotables:

Regarding his 2009 campaign for Congress

“I got more Twitter followers than I got votes.“

Defining Gov 2.0

“Basically Gov 2.0 is the use of Web 2.0 tools and principles in government.“

On the disconnect between government and citizens

“We are the government, it doesn’t matter if you work for government or are a tax payer, or an immigrant to the country. Everybody makes up a democratic governance structure.“

Find Adriel Hampton online

On Twitter @adrielhampton
His blog adrielhampton.com

Listeners, who should I interview next?

Filed Under: Blogging, Interviews, Podcasts, Politics, Social Media Strategy, Technology, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Blogtalk Update Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing

July 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Many of you are aware but some of you may not be, that I have been doing a weekly internet talk show. I’ve had some great nonprofits, technology CEO’s and inspirational guests. What probably won’t surprise most of you is how much I’ve enjoyed it; I really enjoy the interesting conversations that have occurred.

My most recent guest was Stuart Hing. I met Stuart and his wife Rhoda at another talk show called “Ground Level Perspective” where Stuart and I had both been guests. Stuart is a judge at the Alameda Superior Court and prior to that he was a district attorney. He is a very thoughtful and interesting person and I think people like Stuart will provide solutions to a lot of problems that plague our society. You can listen to my interview of Stuart here: http://bit.ly/b88dzh

I’ve had many other wonderful guests in the 28 episodes since I started the program but here are some highlights if you’re interested in catching up:

Bob “4WheelBob” Coomber 12/9/2009 http://bit.ly/6qa2Sw

Peggy Kennedy Author of Approaching Neverland 1/12/2010 http://bit.ly/6lhHBb

Eric Goldstein Founder and CEO of Amplify.com 1/27/2010 http://bit.ly/9gtOjV

H. Abram Wilson – Mayor of San Ramon, Candidate for Assembly Dist 15 2/3/2010 http://bit.ly/9C2mZo

Bud MacKenzie – Founder of Trust in Education 2/24/2010 http://bit.ly/9ByP6s

Kathrina Rashid, PH. D. – Sexual Assault Awareness Month 4/21/2010 http://bit.ly/9pik9O

Richard Muller – Author of “Physics for Future Presidents – The Science behind the Headlines” 5/26/2010 http://bit.ly/9nFw8F

Frank Alloco – Inspirational Leader and Coach of De La Salle High School Basketball Team 6/9/2010 http://bit.ly/dB6EQT

All episodes are also available at http://blogtalkradio.com/joehackman or via iTunes at http://bit.ly/cIBr4G

Filed Under: Amplify, Interviews, Podcasts, Politics, Serious Topics Tagged With: , , , ,

Weighing victims rights and responsibility in the incarcaration debate

March 27, 2010 By 1 Comment

I wrote a really long response to a post on Amplify.com today and thought it would be appropriate to add it to my personal blog. The post was entitled “Our New Slave Era” by one of my sources A.A. Lee. It referenced a New York Times book review of “Texas Tough – The Rise of America’s Prison Empire”.  Here is the response in it’s entirety:

A.A. I am glad you brought attention to this important issue. I do feel strongly that people tend to paint criminals as victims in this debate. I am personally one of those people who would not compromise one iota to keep offenders with a history of violence behind bars for their entire life without concern over what it costs. The idea to me that we have to accept these people returning to commit their crimes over and over again is in no way acceptable. Since our criminal justice system does not rehabilitate, there are certain categories of offenders that should not be allowed to return to society.

I am concerned for any aspect of society that falls behind, what do we do about it though? Who is to blame? I was watching a show yesterday about gangs in Memphis, TN and they talked about how the criminal enterprises were born out of FDR’s new deal “temporary” public housing. What occurred was permanent housing and people who were more isolated from society. Sometimes with the best intentions we create bigger problems. We also tend to want to place blame narrowly instead of spreading it around like it deserves to be. It’s ok to place some blame on the people who end up in this situation, as unpopular as that might be. There is plenty of blame to go around. My feeling is we need to expect more from people who need our help, that way we encourage them to break the cycle of poverty and start to turn the tide in the right direction. When I read articles like this one I feel like we portray people purely as victims and we are supposed to feel guilty and to blame for the situation. That’s not beneficial to anyone. I have met some incredible people working to make a difference in people’s lives, the thing I universally notice is that they expect the people they are working with to make commitments and if they fail to meet them make the opportunity available to someone else. This seems harsh but I would argue that you can improve the quality of more lives by focusing on empowering people to help themselves than by letting them play the role of a victim.

I am glad I am not the one personally making these decisions, and I keep my mind open to change. My feelings on this issue are fairly strong, I want everyone to succeed but I also realize that not everyone will. I don’t want to enable the (likely) large volume of people who fall in-between failure and success to fail by placing too great a burden on society for their mistakes. Personal responsibility is not an option, it’s a skill we need to teach everyone. The lesson will be easier for some than others.

Since I posted such a long response to this I decided to add this to my blog with an appropriate link back to your original post. Off to do that right now. Thanks for the great conversation starter.

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Turning a critical eye to Hurt Locker and Green Zone

March 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This week I saw two Iraq war films – Hurt Locker and Green Zone. Both left me with some negative impressions and I wanted to share. Here are a few initial objections to the material:

  1. Military personnel are portrayed as reckless and unprofessional.
  2. Plenty of agenda in both movies, no doubt tapping people’s frustration with war.
  3. In GZ the majority of the characters were morally corrupt.
  4. The biases in both films creates a very negative impression of our service men and women.
  5. Somehow everyone had time to party and grab ass (HL) and hang out in swim suits by the pool (GZ).

I am not saying all of our armed forces are morally grounded and professional but I think the vast majority of them are, there are bad apples in any group of people. I also think that many of the lapses and outrages such as Abu Ghraib have lacked real effort to understand root causes. Recently I listened to a recording of Philip Zimbardo on the psychology of evil that sheds a interesting light on root causes of the abuse at Abu Ghraib. His name may be familiar, he was involved in the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. I believe you will find his research very insightful particularly how we can prepare ourselves and our children to be prepared to act appropriately when facing stressful situations. I wrote a blog article about this issue last year on my old blog and recently brought it over to this blog after the Haiti quake. I should add Zimbardo’s work to that article.

The vast majority of US service men and women are extremely disciplined and professional. You would not get that impression by watching either of these films which is unfortunate.

So these movies could not be all bad, what did I like about them?

  1. HL used a technique that made me feel a sense of what the characters were feeling.
  2. Both films had dramatic suspense that really held on to my attention.
  3. GZ did include actual real mistakes that should be lessons we should learn from.

Alone and Isolated

As noted in Hurt Locker a cinematic style was used that made the characters seem very isolated and alone even when other support was present. This really made you relate to the sense of isolation and at times desperation the characters were feeling in these stressful situations. This really contributed to the dramatic effect that kept me riveted to the screen at times.

Real Mistakes

In Green Zone they definitely took the non-fiction as well as the fiction. One example was the lack of preparation to prevent the looting that occurred when US forces reached Baghdad. A more profound example was what I think most people now believe was a huge mistake – the disbanding of the Iraqi army. This list would not be complete without mentioning the mistake of bringing in an exile and propping him up to temporarily lead the country. It was useful to be reminded of and to have attention brought to these mistakes.

Take Away

After I filter out the agenda and bias I can summarize my personal take away from these films. As we all know history has a way of repeating and people have a way of forgetting bad things, the two are clearly related. It also inspired me to re-visit Zimbardo’s work and an old article I wrote where I had identified the concept independent of his influence previously.

Support for Our Military Personnel

I want to give a big heart felt thank you to any past or present military personnel that happen to read this post. Thank you for your service.

Some other responses to these films:

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Joe’s Daily Poll Toyota Testimony

February 24, 2010 By 1 Comment

After hearing different responses to Toyota’s testimony before Congress I thought I’d do a simple 1 question poll here on my website.

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Mayor H Abram Wilson Weighs in on the State of Business, Politics in California (Podcast)

February 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Tonight I interviewed H Abram Wilson current mayor of San Ramon and candidate for Assembly District 15. Mayor Wilson is a public servant that promotes values that are lacking in many leaders. He believes that law makers should read the bills they are voting on. He believes that they should be accessible and responsive to constituent’s calls, letters and communications. Most importantly he believes that they should not forget who they are there to represent, we the people. It is refreshing to hear a politician whose values are in step with their actions as Mayor Wilson has walked the walk in his service to the San Ramon community.

Clearly individuals like Abram Wilson cannot succeed without the citizens of our state taking a more prominent role in policy. We need to vote on Election Day. We need to stay informed of issues that affect us. We also need to make sure that our voices are heard by calling and writing our representatives.

Evidently Abram’s message is resonating with voters. His campaign announced today that his fund raising efforts are out pacing incumbent Joan Buchanan by 2 to 1. I wish Abram the best of luck with his campaign and respect his efforts to make positive changes to move this state forward. I hope that his values and message gain traction, because I agree with him that we as citizens need to be more involved in forcing better policy decisions going forward.?

Listen in at Blog Talk Radio

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