Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions

James Altucher's recent podcast episode with Norm Dworman hits on a variety of topics but the essence of the episode is really in the last fifteen minutes where they discuss the tone of the world, censorship and what the next steps are. Just the other day, I was asked about choosing sides and it was a very difficult decision. Not because it's a right/left scenario but rather that there are no true right vs left sides anymore. It's all personal attacks and very little ideas. Politics is no longer a debate or discussion on ideas but more personal conflicts. Social media simply amplifies this and the more the amplification is reported on, the worse it gets. We live in a world where media businesses care about eyeballs and since most people want to watch a train wreck, so that's what they put on the air. They mix fact and fiction ("based on a true story, mostly ) and people believe it as fact. I have a rough time thinking of past leaders (Churchill, Thatcher, even R...

Maybe CNN should stop allowing their news reporters from starting their broadcast with an indictment of Trump BEFORE reporting the news. Watching Anderson Cooper start his Thursday night broadcast with five minutes of why Trump is un-presidential before reporting any news is simply instigating Trump's ire and strengthens his case about fake media. If someone's attention span is 5 minutes long (15 minutes in Britain?), then he just lost his audience and has right-leaning supporters switching the channel. Maybe there is validation to the reports that CNN just wants to be a left-leaning network, rather than fair and impartial. At least there's PBS and NPR. I expect this from non-news broadcasts, more opinion shows, like Don Lemon, MSNBC Morning Joe and even Fox & Friends, but when you're talking about major newscasts, you're missing the point. Imagine if Walter Kronkite came on before reporting the Kennedy assassination and said "well, you know, Kennedy...

I'm sure some of these have been spoken (or maybe just thought of) but as an outside observer, it seems fantastical that a country like the United States hasn't figured out how to deal with useless politicians (not that Canada is any better). So here goes -- a few fun ways (and a few slightly disturbing possibilities) to get congress to end the shutdown. Don't pay them. Forget about stopping actual government services. Stop paying congress, the senate AND the white house until they can actually deliver a bill that they can all agree on. Until they can actually prove they are essential services, they shouldn't be able to shut down anything. Stop travel allowances. Don’t pay for government-related travel, period. Olympics? Sorry, Mr. Pence, no can do. Maralago? Sorry, Mr. President. No White House travel. Need to see your family? Sorry everyone. no nothing. You keep core expenses, secret Service etc but no direct travel for any member of the legislative or executive ...

I just learned that Kevin Ragsdale is running for Congress   he's running as an independent and as he notes on his campaign website, he's running for change in politics (a common theme in this US election) but more importantly as he notes, he has 9 trillion reasons to run (the National Debt). So good luck Kevin! As he notes: "When I'm approached to create a solution, I simply study the problem and apply logic and common sense ...Maybe we could use a few more programmers in Washington, and a few less lawyers." So that got me thinking. Are there generic pros and cons about developers running for congress? Pros 1. As Kevin notes, logic is a key component of programming logic. While not necessarily that of everyone who writes a program (or a compiler), the key point is once you know the rules of the compiler, logic will prevail (for the most part). Does that apply to government or politics? It's supposed to, except that politicians always like to change the rules....