Re-Gain

​Thirty years ago, I drove a neighbor home as she vented her outrage over the sheer number of billionaires and the obscenity of their wealth. Ironically, her own home housed roughly $80 million in inherited artwork—including Picasso sculptures and multi-million-dollar paintings—which she later donated to the National Gallery of Art. ​Even among those with substantial fortunes, the true scale of inequality is hard to grasp. Teachers, firefighters, construction workers, and nurses face an economy where the top 1% holds over $40 trillion in total wealth, far outpacing the bottom 99% combined. ​The middle and upper-middle classes feel the pressure, too. While households in the 80th to 95th percentiles hold significant wealth compared to those below them, many in this bracket still feel financially squeezed. Meanwhile, the broader middle class remains distinct from those living in poverty, yet what little wealth they possess is largely locked up in home equity, offset by mortgag...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbKIPSdjlh0 ​ The American spirit cannot truly thrive until it reconciles with truth and justice. ​My commitment to this reconciliation began in college. Driven by outrage over how our government historically treated—and continues to treat—First Peoples, I set out to study social welfare.  ​ My journey reached a pivotal moment in 1978 during the Longest Walk, a five-month, 2,800-mile peaceful march from Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C. Marchers walked across the continent to oppose federal bills that threatened Indian treaties, eliminate reservations, and strip away tribal sovereignty. ​When the marchers arrived in D.C., I went to the Lincoln Memorial to offer my support. I donated my teepee—which became the sacred medicine tent for the gathering—along with my first car, a VW Bug I handed over and never saw again. ​ Years later, amid the heavy emotional aftermath of 9/11, I helped organize several sweat lodges with Richard Moves Camp, a Lakota med...

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Managing Waste at Sporting Events https://share.google/uG03nU14x8tJiYb7z

​ Orphaned Oil Waste & Wells: A Hidden Climate Crisis ​ Years ago, I developed an expertise in used motor oil recycling. Thanks to my father’s background as a congressional tax expert, I had a front-row seat to observe how subsidies and financial incentives drive cradle-to-the-grave economics. ​ This background led me to testify before a House subcommittee in support of funding the Used Oil Recycling Act of 1980. Our goal was to launch public awareness campaigns targeting the tens of millions of do-it-yourself oil changers who, at the time, routinely poured their oil drainings directly into the environment. ​ A few months earlier, in 1981, I helped build a multi-million-gallon used oil recycling plant in Alexandria, Virginia. Proximity was on our side: just several hundred yards away sat an asphalt plant with a daily demand for 10,000 gallons of No. 4 industrial fuel. It was proof of concept, yet a frustrating reality remained—and still remains—that hundreds of millions...

Commentary: The Social Security crisis | Nvdaily | nvdaily.com https://share.google/WI6EKSuWJnJCx9kon

https://youtu.be/D9n73JsZ2kU?feature=shared Once a week, I become a court jester, mocking modern tyranny in the only garb outrageous enough to survive the purge. ​Historically, only the jester could mock madness without losing his head—though these days, even the fool must dodge the falling blade. I meet tragedy with comedy now. Satire is my alchemy, turning unbearable reality and sorrow into survival. Laughing and crying offer a similar emotional release, but I would much rather laugh. Otherwise, I would collapse under the weight of despair. ​It all began on April Fools’ Day in 1988, when I first appeared on the Capitol steps in full jester regalia. My Republican congresswoman helped sponsor the act and showed up at noon to watch. Since then, one question has echoed louder than the bells on my hat: Who’s the real fool? ​ My first live comic protest was a total bomb—figuratively, thank God. I called it a "FUNeral." The crowd wasn’t dying laughing, but I nearly was from stage ...

Benjamin Franklin was frugal and wise—and today, he is likely rolling in his grave. The federal government burns through hundreds of billions of $100 bills like a wildfire, pushing our national debt toward a staggering $40 trillion. The current political agenda is defined by aggressive tax cuts, sweeping tariffs, and targeted spending. Rather than shrinking the federal footprint, trade interventions and Trump's war continue to drive up projected deficits. ​Our nation is in fiscal decline. The U.S. government continues to spend far more than it takes in, with federal debt projected to reach $53 trillion by 2036 without major policy changes. Most Americans sense the danger: 76% believe Washington spends far too much while the current administration runs this  Now our AI-crazed casino is headed toward bankruptcy. With nearly $3 trillion invested in artificial intelligence, taxpayers shouldn't just be concerned about the return on our investment, but the return of it. ...

.Laughing  Recycling and Reusing Old Tennis Balls https://share.google/HihHpPAGinZhA09gP

​Socrates famously observed that the unexamined life is not worth living. Today, amid the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence, wisdom itself faces an existential threat—not because technology exists, but because it often goes unexamined, shielded from its own unintended consequences. ​ In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, prisoners mistake the shadows projected on the wall for absolute reality, choosing comfort over the disquieting light of Truth. The freed prisoner is the one who dares to step out into the blinding glare to seek a deeper reality. ​ True freedom relies on free will—the capacity to make deliberate choices and embrace personal responsibility. Embracing that weight often triggers a moment of existential angst. Yet, once we cross that threshold, we discover genuine liberation: the agency to make intentional micro-choices regardless of macro-level chaos, empowering us to forge our own authentic purpose. ​Human flourishing blooms when we cultivate virtue, observ...

Notes from https://youtu.be/zDtvrme-L-0?is=U3IvdLnC3Rnfd37- ​ With nearly $3 trillion in AI investment on the line, taxpayers shouldn't be worrying about the return on our investment—we should be worrying about the return of it. Everyday citizens will pay dearly for this inferno. ​Today’s tech billionaires are playing a familiar game: privatizing profits while socializing costs and losses. Despite sky-high market valuations, internal warnings are leaking out. Reports reveal that OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer cautioned CEO Sam Altman about the company's aggressive spending plans. While Altman publicly praises the transformative potential of AI, internal messaging to investors paints a far more precarious financial reality. ​ Recent web-traffic tracking data from analysts at Similarweb (via Momentic) shows OpenAI capturing 53.9% of worldwide chatbot visits, followed by Google Gemini at 27.9% and Anthropic's Claude at 9.2%, with smaller players splitting the rem...

​Tech giants are reviving the off-balance-sheet financial engineering behind Enron and 2008 to finance the AI boom—a dangerous gamble given that tech accounts for nearly 40% of the S&P 500. In the 1990s, it was the Special Purpose Entity (SPE); in 2008, the Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO). Today, it’s the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). A Nikkei Asia investigation highlighted by tech analyst Ed Zitron revealed a staggering reality: five major tech giants hold an estimated $1.65 trillion in off-balance-sheet AI commitments—exceeding their combined reported debt of $1.35 trillion. How the SPV Loophole Works Building AI infrastructure is eye-wateringly expensive. When Oracle used traditional bonds to fund its expansion, credit rating agencies soured on its outlook. To avoid credit downgrades, Hyperscalers (Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google) and cloud providers (like CoreWeave) are turning to private credit: ​-The Setup: A tech giant creates an independent LLC (an SPV) to...

​ Never in American history have we possessed so much information, yet so little wisdom. While brilliant minds abound, our leadership has become self-consumed—defined by intellectual dishonesty and emotional fragility.  To avert systemic collapse, we must demand a fundamental shift in how we lead. ​True leadership applies experience and public service to guide others toward the common good, prioritizing long-term sustainability over short-term authority. This requires the self-regulation to curb impulsive biases, the relational wisdom to bridge deep divides, and the organizational capacity to manage complexity without resorting to authoritarian control. The consequences of autocratic leadership are always disastrous. ​ Today, our economic and ecological trajectories threaten future generations. We are drifting toward bankruptcy, spending massive portions of our revenue just to service our debt. Technological silver bullets like AI will not save us; we cannot simply inve...

​Never have elites threatened our world more than they do today. While ordinary families across the globe struggle to absorb the crushing costs of food, housing, and healthcare, the world’s ultra-wealthy operate in a completely different economic stratosphere. ​Just look at Trump Savings Accounts—new federally backed, tax-deferred investment accounts for children that primarily benefit those who already have money. ​Recent Oxfam data reveals a staggering truth: billionaire wealth has jumped by over 16 percent to a record high of $18.3 trillion. This wealth is accumulating three times faster than the average rate of the previous five years, all while nearly half the world’s population languishes in poverty. Today, there are over 3,000 billionaires worldwide, collectively holding over $16 trillion in wealth. In fact, the top U.S. billionaires own more combined wealth than the bottom 50 percent of American households. Even the most volatile financial shifts illustrate this mas...

From Junkyards to Eco-Hubs https://www.waste360.com/waste-recycling/from-junkyards-to-eco-hubs-the-evolution-of-modern-auto-recycling

​One thing I wish to devote the rest of my life to is getting children out into the woods—a landscape I have called home for a third of my life. Having taught young girls for over 55 years, I believe it is essential to build their self-esteem. Just on the other side of the mountain where I live sits a magical place called Camp Strawderman. This amazing girls' camp is nestled in a beautiful hollow, bordered by Stony Creek on one side and Three Mile Mountain on the other. ​At Camp Strawderman today, young girls from all over the country come to experience a true rite of passage. They live in rustic cabins, go without air conditioning, and embrace limited cell phone use. The camp's roots run incredibly deep; the land itself was settled two and a half centuries ago by a pioneer named Peter Strawderman.  Much later, in 1929, the girls' camp was officially founded when a group of Girl Scouts came up from Harrisonburg, led by Margaret Hoffman, whose father had purchase...

​When a nation deliberately eliminates its military leaders and wipes out its institutional knowledge, it places its national security in grave peril. Throughout history, the systematic dismantling of command structures has rarely been a sign of strength; instead, it is a self-inflicted wound that leaves a country dangerously vulnerable to its adversaries. The most catastrophic historical warning of this hubris lies in the 1930s. During the Great Purge, Joseph Stalin decimated the Red Army's leadership. Driven by intense paranoia and an obsessive desire to consolidate absolute power, Stalin executed or imprisoned tens of thousands of experienced officers. The result was a military left leaderless, fractured, and ill-equipped to face the existential threat of World War II just years later. ​Today, we are witnessing a different, yet deeply concerning, manifestation of this impulse. In a sweeping overhaul of American military leadership, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ...

The aftermath of our recent war exemplifies our federal waste. The United States government continues to spend far more than it takes in. Federal debt is projected to reach $53 trillion by 2036 without major policy changes.  Most Americans sense the danger: more than 75% believe Washington spends too much, and in 2025 Senator Rand Paul identified $1.6 trillion in documented waste. The waste industry—often dismissed or overlooked—offers one of the clearest models for redesigning an inefficient government. After decades working on used‑oil recycling and evaluating landfill financial assurance, one lesson stands out: design determines outcomes. Waste‑management companies are widely considered recession‑resistant because their essential, non‑discretionary services generate steady cash flow even in downturns.  The government could learn from that discipline.The familiar “third R”—reduce—remains essential. But without rigorous full‑cost accounting, we cannot manage natur...

Tennis has never been just a sport to me—it’s a mindful dance in motion, a dance with the here and now. This magical intention I call PRO Zen Play, where the racket becomes a tuning fork for attention and consistent tennis. Playing in the blazing summer heat is its own bootcamp for presence. Tennis is full of shifting mental weather systems—gusts of doubt, flashes of confidence, storms of frustration. Each one is an invitation to return to the now. My secret formula? Intention + Attention.  The more I lean into effortlessness, the more the game shifts from struggle to flow. At the heart of it is my simple acronym:  PRO—Pause, Relax, Open.  -Pause between points to slow the mind, respond rather than react, and sharpen concentration. -Relax to melt tension and let errors dissolve. -Open to expand perception, embrace unpredictability, and meet the moment as it is.  My path into tennis began with a question to the legendary Pauline Betz Addie—a world champion...

Reader Commentary | nvdaily.com https://share.google/ID7SjLRoYHy6gvtXQ I grew up lucky. Adults took the time to guide me, teach me, and nudge me forward. I learned tennis because older people invested their patience and skill in me, and that attention shaped the course of my life. In the late 1970s, while I was teaching tennis, I began volunteering—what I called happy returns.  Giving back has given me a purposeful life.Over the years—from major schools to my early days at Bryce Resort in 1980—I’ve taught children and adults, freely giving thousands of hours of instruction. My reward comes when former students return years later to thank me.  Building community is priceless. Our greatest national treasure is the attention we give our children.Recently, I volunteered at Robinson Elementary School in Woodstock. Watching a first‑grade teacher command a room full of six‑year‑olds—balancing discipline, curiosity, and joy—reminded me how demanding and noble this work is....