• DCG MEDIATION SERVICES WILL EVIDENTLY SOME DAY BE ‘COMPETING’ WITH ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION. The U.S. trails other countries in implementation of broad services, but it’s coming. eBay buyers & sellers already settle 60 million claims globally every year; Canada & Europe now allow varying algorithms to guide users in “reaching a settlement themselves, or bringing in human adjudicators as a last resort… then provide software agreements for divorce, child custody agreements, landlord-tenant & condominium disputes, property tax appeals and no-fault insurance claims.”  [BUSINESS WEEK – July 4, 16]
  • CALIFORNIA’S LEGISLATURE IS ATTEMPTING TO EFFECTUATE A “HIGHLY AUTHORITARIAN AND ILLIBERAL BRAND OF PROGRESSIVISM… which stipulates only one correct and legal view on controversial issues evolving into something of a state religion.” Proposed Bill (SB 1161) would enable the state to prosecute anyone (personal or corporate) “who has dared challenge the orthodoxy on climate change… seeking redress for unfair competition committed by entities that have deceived, confused or misled the public on risks.” This brand of Progressivism promulgates only one ‘correct’ view on issues – in this first step “giving officially sanctioned science something close to papal infallibility – despite the fact that there remain widely divergent views on such issues, exacerbated by transition to a one-party state where debate & dissent is being stamped out in an attempt to enforce orthodoxy… Couched in the oft-repeated hysterical language that has come to dominate green politics, anyone who dissents on the orthodoxy faces the possibility of official persecution.” [ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER – Jun 19, 16]
  • WITH HIGHER-LEVEL EDUCATION INCREASINGLY LESS VALUABLE IN TODAY’S WORLD, a “new crop of hands-on universities are transforming how students learn… rejecting lectures, textbooks, slogs in the library, exams and professors. Instead, students work on projects in teams, trying to solve problems without clear answers, combining arts, humanities and sciences.” Factors which have created complacency in both universities & students include: rising demand for ‘degrees,’ instructor careers based on personal research versus teaching effectiveness, and the simplicity of ‘quick answers’ available from technology versus analytical thinking. The result are graduates “lacking applied knowledge, critical thinking & communication skills, and unprepared for business jobs.” Today’s curriculums & teaching methods actually stifle understanding; last year a Zogby poll of 27,000 students found 96% who said they wanted “challenge-driven universities… to promote an entrepreneurial environment.” The newest trend is headed toward “students working on tough practical problems in huge open spaces – no lectures, classrooms, majors or departments.” It’s about time. [THE ECONOMIST – June 25, 16]
  • AS THE BREXIT DUST SETTLES, REALITY OF THE VOTE HAS BECOME CLEAR. The most common voter arguments for leaving the EU focus on (1) the liberal rules for open borders & internal migration, since EU law requires members to admit an unlimited number of migrants from other EU countries irrespective of their disastrous economic & employment impact; and (2) burdensome regulations stemming from concentration of power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Many rules are ludicrous (one can’t recycle a teabag, children under eight cannot blow up balloons, limits on the power of vacuum cleaners); others are infuriating,“enacted by meddlesome middlemen unaccountable to the public. After two decades with lack of sovereignty, voters simply wanted to return full authority to the peoples’ elected representatives in the British Parliament.” [VOX.COM – June 24, 16]
  • “THOSE OPPOSED TO RESTRICTING IMMIGRATION OR PROFILING OF MUSLIMS can characterize those proposals as misguided, and perhaps discriminatory and/or demeaning, but not as so far beyond the pale of rational discourse so as to be called un-American… Not all rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply to non-Americans outside the country. Under what has been called the Plenary Power Doctrine, the Supreme Court has held consistently that Congress decides who to admit and who to exclude as immigrants or other entrants, and the Court has repeatedly turned away challenges to immigration statutes and executive actions (on grounds they discriminate)… Also current federal law (Title 8, Sec 1182 of the U.S. Code) gives the President legal authority to suspend – by simple proclamation and without any action by Congress – the entry of ‘any class of aliens who would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,’ and to do so indefinitely. President Obama has in fact already used this power.”  So Trump’s platform issue may not be so crazy after all.  [BREITBART.com – Jun 25, 16]  

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