Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts

Monday, November 27, 2017

Towards A Global Government

India has rolled out the biometric ID to almost its entire population. On top of that it has added a layer that works like Jack Ma's Alipay, only Alipay is in the private sector, the Indian version is in the public sector. Voting from the phone should become possible and private. Facial recognition technology minus possible abuse can be harnessed for safety and security. Digital makes business and vehicle registration easy. Solar energy is dropping in price at a dramatic pace and is set to blow open the number one constraint for the Global South's desire for prosperity: energy. When Musk puts over 4,000 satellites into orbit in a few years, you are looking at gigabit internet from every point to every other point on earth. Taking good care of earth will become possible. Much progress seems to be technology driven. But it is the human being that has to be placed at the center of the progress.



A world government has been long overdue. But it will soon become possible, and soon enough become inevitable. The first step might be to create a bicameral legislature in New York. In the lower house each member country has a voting weight in proportion to its population. In the upper house it is in proportion to its GDP. Each member country pays 1% of its GDP in tax. That makes the world government's budget. The President of the World is required to garner a majority in both chambers, limited to two five year terms. Eventually when at least half of humanity has biometric IDs and can vote from mobile phones, the President of the World can be directly elected. Local, state, federal, global -- these would be the four layers of government everywhere on earth, except where the country might be too small, or too homogenous for a federal setup.

The world government is not the UN. It is a new thing, just like the UN was not the League Of Nations. There will be a President Of The World. There will be a global parliament. There will be a World Court. There will be the three branches. All global institutions will be subsumed by the world government.

This century is not the American, or the Chinese, or the Indian, or the Asian, or the African century. This is the global century. All world will become one country. The basic needs of all human beings will be met. Primarily because the Age Of Abundance is right around the corner, much of it technology driven.

Multinational corporations are already global, finance has long been global, but there is not the robust political framework. That robust political framework will also be good for the MNCs, also for global finance.




Thursday, February 04, 2016

Android Phones Should Machine Record All Talk

Android phones should machine record all talk on all Android phones all over the world and feed all that to AI, so as to later enable voice search in all languages. Literacy is over rated. What if all knowledge could be translated into every human language? And not just in writing but orally. Literacy is primitive tech. I like it, but it should not be the gatekeeper it is. You should be able to access all knowledge orally. Too many human brains are going to waste right now. Human beings should not have to do robot work. Planting rice is robot work. And Android phones should be solar and drone powered. The drones give you the Internet access and solar gives you energy. There is no wire in sight. If everybody is armed with a phone, we could provide police service to every human being at a much lower cost. Much, much lower cost. 911 would be an app on your phone. Your phone knows who you are, and where you are. We should build a world government, and get every human being to directly vote. You vote on your phone, you have a biometric ID. You press your thumb during the vote week, and you vote through the vote app. Barack Obama should run for President Of The World. POW-WOW. Everyone should have ready credit on your phone. You graduate high school, you get credit. The credit shows up on your phone. Google sends "checks" to your phone for all the data it collects on you, from which it makes money. And there is a Universal Basic Income. Food comes from Iowa. Iowa and the Caribbean, and Bihar. 911 is number one. Education. Voting. Credit. And you unleash unprecedented creativity.

Would it not be great? To have a directly elected President Of The World? Black lives matter, and every vote counts.


Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Entrepreneur, Serial Entrepreneur, SuperEntrepreneur

I think being an entrepreneur is like being gay. Scientists say one out of 100 people are born gay. I think it is a similar ratio for entrepreneurs. Only one out of 100 people are entrepreneurs. You can not convince someone to become an entrepreneur, you can not train someone to become an entrepreneur, you can only discover them, help them, support them, aid them, nurture them, nourish them.

We all know New York City is part of the United States. But I think of New York City as a separate country altogether, it is so different from the rest of America, it is so different from even the other big cities in America. There is nothing quite like it.

Entrepreneurs are Homo Sapiens, we know that. But I think of them as a separate species. Entrepreneurs are so different from other people. You can feel it when you interact with them.

There are entrepreneurs, there are serial entrepreneurs and there are SuperEntrepreneurs. A SuperEntrepreneur not only builds a great company, or a set of great, big companies, but also builds a constellation of entrepreneurs around him/her.

It is like there are stars in the universe and then there are SuperStars.

The market value of a company is a good measure of the entrepreneur behind that company.




Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Sexting And New York City Politics

, member of the United States House of Represe...
, member of the United States House of Representatives. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(published in Vishwa Sandesh)

Sexting And New York City Politics
By Paramendra Bhagat (www.paramendra.com)

Sexting is when you send someone a sexually explicit text message or, God forbid, a tweet.

When I showed up in New York City in the summer of 2005 I placed myself in the smack center of the borough of Brooklyn, a borough that Barack Obama almost carried in the February 2008 primary. I was his first full time volunteer in the city. Right before the primary a deeply worried Anthony Weiner urged Hillary to make an appearance in Brooklyn, and she did. Minus that anything could have happened. 2007 was a time when I spent considerable time with the founders of organizations like Brooklyn For Barack and Manhattan For Obama. At an Upper East Side party thrown by a Law School classmate, later Law Firm colleague in Chicago and family friend of the Obamas, the founder of Manhattan For Obama complimented me by saying “The US Constitution should be amended so THIS guy can run for president some day!” That dude is currently running for Congress. The machine in the city was firmly behind Hillary and was to show me its ugly face by the time the primaries were over. Obama dashed the ambitions of many NYC locals who might have had federal ambitions.

Hillary the matchmaker perhaps was thinking world peace when she helped Huma and Anthony get together. Weiner is Jewish, Huma Abedin, former aide to Hillary and since wife to Weiner, is Muslim, and her father spent considerable time in India. Hillary might have been thinking Palestine and Kashmir at once.

But then the colorful New York City politics can get in the way. This is the media capital of the world. The media likes to play the game of building you up, and then breaking you down. And somewhere along the way it gets to collect a ton of ad dollars. Right before Weiner imploded as a Congressman he was a progressive hero belittling his Republican counterparts on national TV on the blessings of universal health coverage. He had been caught sexting on Twitter. I would know a thing or two about Twitter. I am one of the top 200 people/brands in New York City on Twitter. Mostly what I do on Twitter is I tweet articles that I read, mostly technology, politics and business articles.

There was that famous picture of his weeny making his tights bulge up. Okay, so the guy had an erection when tweeting. Who says Twitter is not a sexy platform? I have thought the world of it since I joined it in February 2009, after months of looking down upon it: those who can do long form blogging, how much can you possibly say in 140 characters? The top venture capitalist in New York City, Fred Wilson, who I happen to know (you can also get to know him if you read his blog at AVC.com and leave comments regularly), was the first investor in Twitter.

Sometimes men think they are not good enough for the woman they might have bagged, or maybe it is more than sometimes. One journalist wrote Huma Abedin is like the Taj Mahal, pretty in pictures, but you really have to meet in person to appreciate. Maybe that explains Weiner’s politically self-destructive behavior.

And all that was over and done with. Several magazine spreads of making amends later Weiner jumped into the mayoral race and immediately took the lead. New York City voters were not going to be bothered by a few tweets. They had far more important things to worry about, like sewage and garbage. Until it emerged that Weiner had done it all over again after resigning from Congress under a new name: Carlos Danger. Who would have thought? Now this was no longer a caught off guard once issue. Heck, I know people who never “got” Twitter or jumped on the platform and are still trying to figure it out. Hillary would fall in that later category.

I don’t know about you, but I intend to blame Fred Wilson for this whole thing. Fred, could you not have invested in something safer to use like, say, a Zynga? Or a FourSquare even? Wait, he did.

Weiner engaged in sexting on Twitter over months. He got caught. He denied, he claimed his account had been “hacked” – (don’t deny the guy his tech literary). Then he owned up to it and resigned. He engaged in Twitter sexting again under an assumed name. Then he went into long months of therapy and overcame all that. Then he ran for Mayor and took the lead. But that would be a sane story. The media is spinning it like he resigned from Congress for sexting, then he ran for Mayor and started sexting again. How dare he! Let this guy be taken to the butchers!

Hillary got on Twitter recently. I don’t know how much tweeting she is doing though. Maybe she should tweet some sense into Weiner. Hey, Anthony, can you stop that sexting already?

Wait, was that less than 140 characters? Would the message fit?

If Hillary and Weiner had figured out Twitter back in 2008, my side might have lost.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2013

More Like Fiscal Sausage

Everything is Terrible
In short, the fiscal cliff was “averted” the way that Jay-Z “retired” in 2003.

Short-term relief, and little else
the ugly fiscal arithmetic and political dysfunction that produced the cliff in the first place will remain...... A deal nearing completion in the Senate would make permanent the tax cuts first enacted by George Bush in 2001 and 2003 and due to expire on December 31st, except for the wealthy. The marginal rate for individuals earning more than $400,000 and couples earning more than $450,000 would rise from 35% to its pre-2001 rate of 39.6%, while deductions would be curbed for some people earning as little as $250,000. Estate taxes would go up, but not to pre-2001 levels, while rates on capital gains and dividends, now 15%, would go up to 20%, still less than their pre-2001 levels. Tax credits for families, workers and college students first introduced in Mr Obama’s stimulus plan will be extended for five more years. ...... Republicans, because they are being asked to approve the first increase in tax rates in two decades while getting no spending cuts in return. (Update: the senate approved the agreement early Tuesday by a vote of 89 to 8. The house approved it late Tuesday 257 to 167, with 85 Republicans joining nearly all the Democrats.) ..... It leaves in place significant short-term austerity while doing nothing to change the long-term trajectory of debt. It doesn't reform taxes or entitlements. And it doesn't deal with several key components of the cliff. ...... For his part, Mr Boehner never seemed sure of what his own members could accept, which made for unproductive negotiating sessions ...... Higher taxes on the rich will reportedly raise about $600 billion over a decade, an “inconsequential” sum, noted Bob Corker, a Republican senator. Indeed, it is almost a rounding error against a ten-year projected deficit of $10 trillion on current policies, or 5% of GDP. “The fact that the president won’t challenge his party on spending cuts is disgusting,” said Steven LaTourette, a Republican congressman.
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Thursday, December 06, 2012

A Season For Forgiveness

Forgiveness lesson from flowers
Forgiveness lesson from flowers (Photo credit: juliejordanscott)
Looking For A Few Holiday Parties
Charlie O'Donnell At His Inspiring Best
Tips From Gandhi
Happy Holidays

Temba Sherpa, I forgive you. Now get back your driving license.

Fred Wilson. I forgive you. Just because. And also because you have a kickass blog.

Binod Shah. I forgive you and your clinic in The Bronx.

Anjan Shrestha. I forgive you and your obsession with public restrooms.

Mike Bloomberg. You seem to be running for Mayor one more time. I forgive you.

Barack Obama. I forgive you. I mean, how about a second term, eh!

Marissa Mayer. I forgive you. I mean, after all those page hits you have given to this blog of mine.

Nabil Mouzannar. I forgive you. Here's to hoping you will find me a few good parties this month.

Pemba Sherpa. I forgive you. Even though your name rhymes with that of Temba Sherpa.

Benoy Thanjan. I forgive you and your misleading last name.

Julie Irving. I forgive you and I also forgive the NY Tech MeetUp. Oh, the long virtual lines.

Tsepak Dorjee. I forgive your singing voice.
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