Empress of the Americas

Yeah, that’s what I want to be known as. I won’t shy from it. And yes, I am well-versed in history, so I understand the overtones. No apologies. I will take responsibility…and credit.

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This is a problem that requires us, as a nation, to recognize that our failed war on drugs has wrecked havoc on all the nations south of us and it needs to be owned and atoned for.

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I spent formative years in Mexico and South America. I know how beautiful it is, how vibrant the people, how much they love their countries. Who are we to have mindlessly ruined them over the last four decades, only to turn around and blame them for what we did? PROHIBITION CREATED THE CARTELS. End prohibition and turn these countries back into sovereign nations, instead of the DEA’s private battlefields.
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I visualize a Trade route to challenge the New Silk Route. I will open a path of migration from the Arctic to the tip of Chili. Tourism. An industrial zone that is Pan-American, not individual countries suffering alone. Join together and lift a huge swath of humanity out of the mud. Legalize ALL drugs and turn the Cartels into producers/exporters. Free Latin America from the scourge of violence that has resulted from Nixon’s war on drugs. I’d say the drugs won.

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Let’s think outside the box, shall we? A properly trained and cared-for workforce to equal China’s. Freedom of belief and governing styles driven by an incredible economic force that would do things like rescue Caribbean islands battered by storms with hours of it happening.
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I envision kiosks all along this trade route (following the Pan American Highway) where desperate people can apply for work and refuge (not just in USA – all countries joining my consortium must agree to take in a certain percentage of this human desperation). So first, kiosks to pre-apply for work. Then Red Cross-style camps set up there. No more walking with one’s children to our border. Stop coyotes at the source.

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Imagine you need a nanny (because you have very young children and daycare is a real problem in your area). You have an extra bedroom. So you go to the website and read profiles. You pick 5 young women from central America and interview them via Skype. You select the one you feel most comfortable with and buy her a ticket on the Nanny Train.

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You pay into the system what you’d pay for child care minus a set deductible for your nanny’s upkeep. That money is divided into two accounts. One set of money goes to your employee. The other half goes into a savings account that can only be accessed when the nanny returns to her home country (or she can assign it to be given to her relatives). Point is, there is incentive (and savings) to return to her native land (knowing she can return to the kiosk-system at any time). Each contract lasts 6 to 9 months and will be renewable (by both nanny and employer) for up to 7 years. At that time, a green card is available on a fast track because this person deserves to be INVITED to be a regular citizen. But see, they also have a chance to go back home and start a business there. The constant infusion of cash from an army of workers would lift these countries’ standard of living better than any amount of money given to their political echelon to sock away for themselves.

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Speaking of armies, imagine if we were attacked by, oh say Russia or China, wouldn’t it be nice if we could call up a military might of every country on this continent to fight as one? Imagine that.

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As I said, Empress of the Americas.