American Indians on Reservations is Socialism in Action

There are politicians that spend all their time every day praising and advocating socialism, as if socialism will right all the wrongs, right all the divisions, right all the inequality that civil society has, sort of like some big, governmental magic wand.  But all of this talk, and there is plenty of talk, isn’t really necessary, so if you want to really see socialism in action, you can see it right here live and in-person, simply by spending time and observing American Indian reservations.

Although American Indian reservations are considered to be sovereign nations, at least in print, they are also considered to be, “domestic dependent nations”, so that the federal government takes a very paternalistic view of American Indians, essentially providing them with their sustenance, which means being under the umbrella and aegis of the federal government, and the result of such a dependence can be seen in your typical American Indian reservation.

American Indians, in substance, are the least educated, the most impoverished, and by far the most dependent upon federal largess than any other segment of our population.  As you might remember, socialism is essentially the elimination of private enterprise and capitalism, replaced by governmental control and regulation of the productivity and the planning of the means of the usage of man’s productivity and ingenuity.   Socialism, is in theory, the sharing of man’s productivity amongst the population, and at least as envisioned, the creation of an utopian society in which all needs are met for all.  The most significant issue with socialism is that in order to have such a thing, individuals must cede all of their sovereignty to those governmental officials, and must be subservient to them in all matters.

When you are no longer responsible, or considered yourself to be no longer responsible, or by fiat are not really responsible for your daily needs, than not too surprisingly your initiative to do anything of substance often diminishes, and for those generations following, any semblance of initiative is virtually stillborn.  American Indians living on protected reservations are little enclaves of socialism as it really is in the real world.   Since they don’t have to take responsibility for their livelihood, they soon lose any desire to apply themselves to anything of real substance, and instead depend upon the government, to provide everything for their day-to-day living effectively becoming permanent generational wards of the state.

The bottom line is that when you change the mindset of the individual from one in which they are sovereign onto themselvesinto one in which they are not, behaviors and incentives will change, and the fewer people diligently applying themselves to accomplishing something of merit, results in a shrinking pie of prosperity, mediocrity at best, and rather than some sort of socialistic paradise, it makes for a life filled with little purpose, little productivity, and an endless belief in entitlement, in which, the living conditions and life itself, resembles life on present-day American Indian reservations, which are often hopeless, bleak, and demoralizing.

My Money and Other People's Money is not the same thing

Governments on local, State, and Federal levels utilize taxing, fees, and other charges in order to extract money from the general public and provide necessary infrastructure as well as other benefits to the population.  The thing about money is that the way that you typically treat your own cash is not the same way that you treat it when you are the steward of it, even when you believe your intentions are admirable.  For instance, when the money is yours, you are going to be more cognizant of how and why you spend your funds, as well as at least attempting to prioritize and to budget your monies.  On the other hand, those that work in government agencies, or in fiduciary duties, may indeed want to make prudent and sound decisions, but simply aren't going to put forth the same diligence and devotion to the usage of such money as if it was their own, because it isn't, and that mindset makes a material difference.

This would imply strongly that the more that governmental stewards are removed from the money that they have to spend being directly extracted from themselves or even from people that they have a direct relationship with, the less concerned that they are with it, or about the result or impact of that money.  After all, if you really don't know where the money came from, it is far less likely that you will treat it with the same meaningful concern.  So too, the usage of other people's money, especially when you're doing all of the taking and all of the talking, makes it rather easy to request more, or to spend more, and to expend a lot more than what you really need to do, because you do not personally feel your wallet becoming lighter.

This is why stewards of money, no matter how governance is setup, no matter how convoluted and confusing the structure is, must be much more transparent about how they treat and expend monies provided or allocated to them, for if you do hold your governmental and other fiduciary figures feet to the fire, they will have a strong tendency to be less than responsible in doing the right thing for those that they are serving.

There is risk, and there is risk with other people's money, and they are not the same thing.  For instance, those risking their own money make it a practice to be involved and cognizant of it, whereas those, playing with other people's money, care more for not being embarrassed about their use or misuse of funds, rather than being overly concerned about the performance or utilization of it.

The bottom line is that efficiency drops substantially the more removed the money is from where it actually originated from.  This signifies that the best politics and best spending, are done on a local and not on a national effort, for those on a local level, will best understand the things that they really need to get done, whereas those on a federal or far-removed level, are perhaps more concerned with spending as much as possible, wherever that they can, because throwing lots of money around, looks like you're doing something, which you are, but not very efficiently and not with all due respect and consideration of the people that you ostensibly serve.

Broadcast Warning before a Religious Program

There are television programs that before airing will as a matter of courtesy, information, or broadcast modus operandi, provide a warning to the audience that the following content may not be suitable for younger audiences because of mature content, or violent images, or strong language, or various other reasons.  Therefore, these warnings are perhaps a last chance for parental authority to change the channel to something less controversial or more desirable.

Then there are warnings that pretty much are nonsensical or even annoying in the sense of misplacement of such a warning. For example, a warning in front of a religious program, in which the preacher of such, is about as innocuous, about as upbeat, about as positive, as a person can be, in which one broadcaster displays a warning that the following program is not endorsed by the broadcaster,  nor expresses the viewpoints or reflects the sentiments of the broadcaster which is okay for what it is worth, but then follows this with the temerity to add that the following views are not endorsed by any of its employees, which would imply, or actually states, that none of their employees are Christian, or have Christian sentiments, or endorse Christian ideas, as if, Christianity is some sort of unmitigated evil.

It would be one thing, if the broadcaster, for whatever reason, stated their viewpoint and left it at that, but it's an entirely different thing, for a broadcaster to basically aggregate onto itself, what its employees are or are not, especially if what they are stating isn't even true, that is to say, that at least some of the employees are, in fact, Christian or have Christian sentiments.  Additionally, the warning seems quite misplaced, especially if America has degenerated into a country in which some broadcasters, or at least one broadcaster, believes that Christian sentiments such as love, grace, graciousness, charity, and so forth, are somehow something to be avoided like the plague.

While America has striven hard to become more inclusive, it is an entirely different thing to take positive attributes, and disavow oneself of them, solely because they are associated with a particular religion, but not exclusive to that religion. The mistake being made, is to take religion, as something that should just be shut inside a church, or a building, as if, human beings should only express religious sentiments in private, as if somehow to speak of their faith, or to act in accordance with their faith, is inimical to civil and secular society.

If broadcasters truly believe that they should warn patrons over the watching of wholesome programs, than one might ask as to what they aren't going to warn against.  There was a time when it was considered to be good stewardship to encourage Christian values, and if today those Christian values should instead be hidden like a lamp inside a closet, how far the mighty have fallen, and if those that use to be the beacons of the proverbial hill, have turned those beacons off, how mighty their fall shall be

Market Volatility and Panics

According to visualcapitalist.com, the total value of all the stock markets in the world is around $69 trillion dollars, of which, the United States markets represents about $26 trillion dollars, in which in any given year, America's economy as represented by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about $18 trillion dollars.  All of these above numbers are absolutely massive and difficult to comprehend on just about any human level.  The pundits, financial programs, as well as media of all sources, basically like to present the stock market as inherently stable, in fact, there are those that actually believe that stock prices pretty much represent a fair reflection of their real value because equity markets are efficient.

While there may be truth in the sentiment that markets are efficient, relatively stable, and surprisingly quite liquid, there are times, though, that these circumstances aren't true, whatsoever.  This then is the very thing that should worry people as well as the institutions that have significant investments in markets, whereupon they assume that there isn't any real risk, whereas these investments which appear stable, can in fact, become unstable within a very short period of time, which will create the type of havoc that brings down governments, nations, and devastates lifetime savings, all essentially accomplished in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, America is the market of markets, because it is global in nature, experienced, highly valued, and the touchstone, in addition to its being secure and most vigorous in its efforts and abilities to handle just about any circumstance, yet, it cannot handle every circumstance, especially things that are "black swan" events, and black swan events, most definitely, do occur.  For instance, as much as the stock market historians want to discuss ad nauseam the crash of 1929, the actual biggest crash in the history of the market, occurred on black Monday, 10/19/1987 when the Dow Jones dropped 22.61% in a single day, which means, that this crash occurred in the modern age, though, of course, the experts say, they've learned from this experience and so subsequently this will never occur again.

The thing about life which applies also to markets, is that for the most part people are fairly rational, but when a sudden and unexpected event occurs, such as a real fire occurring in a crowded theatre, the response can easily be a massive and hysterical panic and subsequently an overwrought tragedy caused by this reaction, as opposed to a more reasoned response that would reduce such to lesser and more manageable consequences. 

There is absolutely no reason not to believe that markets can and will become irrational in their response when some particular event occurs that upsets greatly the normal equilibrium of the market.  In addition, when institutions and investors are leveraged, or even overleveraged, and the market has quickly turned against them, these people are going to, whether automatically set or not, respond in a manner that protects themselves and their assets, which often means a flight from equity assets into liquidity, such as cash, in order to protect themselves, and as markets slide, these asset value drops cascade on top of each other, creating margin calls and further selling, and thereby a full-on panic ensues.  After all, when there are no buyers, or buyers who say to themselves, why buy now, when it's only going to go down lower, than the market drop on what you once thought was fairly stable, can be sickeningly fast and the ramifications of such a drop can destabilize anything and everything.

So you think big Corporations don't have real Power

The immensity of mega-corporations is hard for the average person to fathom, for instance, the biggest corporation by sheer sales size is Walmart, with fiscal year 2016 sales of $482.1 billion dollars, an amount that is absolutely staggering, in addition to the fact that Walmart employs about 2.3 million people, easily making them the largest privately-held employer of people in America, and second in employment only to the military.

Further to the point, sales of $482 billion dollars are so huge, that if Walmart was just its own country, its GDP would rank just behind Sweden, and ahead of Belgium, to wit, Sweden's GDP is 23rd highest in the world, signifying that Walmart sales are greater than every other country beneath Sweden, or over 80% of the world's countries in total.  All of this, doesn't necessarily mean that great size equates to great evil, but indicates that corporations that have massive sales and massive footprints around the globe, have inordinate amounts of influence upon people, countries, and governance, of which, Walmart is not a democratically elected representative in any government in any part of the world, yet, they hold powerful sway, in getting their way.

Size in all of its many manifestations, equates to power, such as the power to get roadway right-of-way and set asides, tax reductions and set asides, favorable infrastructure decisions, favorable laws, kickbacks or rebates of all sorts, pricing power over vendors and suppliers, and the list continues on and on.  This would indicate for a certainty that the playing field that mega-corporations are on is materially different than those that may have equally or better ideas, but are overshadowed nearly completely by lack of size, and connections to those that make and have influence.

While there certainly are advantages to consumers in buying items from large corporations, such as the pricing and breadth of items often being very competitive and extensive, in-stock, and of great value, there are tradeoffs to these benefits, which is, for instance, that local communities rather than being in a situation in which the money cycles and recycles within that community, find more often than not, that a percentage of the money circulating is essentially being siphoned off to corporations which have their headquarters in different cities, or even different countries, so that the necessary infrastructure that cities need to grow and to benefit its constituents is reduced, forcing either a reduction in services or a need for more federal or governmental assistance of various kinds.

Also, it doesn't seem right that the very biggest corporations in the world get the very best deals in the sense of their cost of money, their tax structure, their tax benefits, their land deals, and just their overall benefits, in a situation in which, these large corporations have already more than enough to take care of business in an equitable and even-handed manner.  The main reason why big corporations continue to throw their weight around is that they have an obligation to their stockholders and investors to always increase sales as well as to increase gross margins, and conversely to reduce expenses, so as to please those investors.  This means, that big corporations, again and again, exert pressure to get what is best for them, never once taking their foot off of the pedal, in consideration that being a good neighbor is the best policy of all.

Permanence and Impermanence

Those that dwell on things that are impermanent and treat them as if they are permanent, such as physical beauty, money, their status, and so forth, will never find true peace or equanimity of mind in this world, for if your treasure is on or within the temporal, than your treasures is subject to its inevitable rust and decay or outright thievery.  On the other hand, those that recognize that their greatest efforts should be in accordance with that which is permanent, and of these, they are invariably of the spiritual nature, such as the fruits of the spirit, which are: "….love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance… ".  (Galatians 5:22-23). 

The things of this world have their place but are superseded in preeminence by the advice, the wisdom, the peace, and the understanding, that you pass on one to another from one person to another in your day-to-day activities.  Those that, instead, dwell on creating their own kingly domains, have their gratification in having done so, but as much as they might try, they cannot hold onto such kingdoms, because they cannot control the material world, and lacking such control, all sorts of sins, disappointments, and wrongs create themselves.

We suffer, so often, not because we lack, though we might lack, but because we spend inordinate amounts of time, going after things that inherently will not bring us true happiness or even satisfaction, although they very well may satiate ourselves for a time.  For instance, there are those that want to look a certain way but cannot try as they might, forever turn back the ravages of time, because the physical body eventually reaches its point of no return.  So too, no matter how great the edifices that you create or have helped to create, they cannot without the vision as well as the workers present, continue to be developed and maintained far into the future, so too these great edifices will eventually decay back into dust.

However, for those that spend their greater effort making this world, making their family, engaging with their friends, in a positive manner, this demonstrates in thought and in action that they care, by devoting their energies in a manner that places service to others at a higher level, than demanding or expecting self-service for themselves.  The things that you do, the things that you say, the things that you influence, and the effort that you put into everything, will, whether desired or not, influence the actions of others impacted by what you have done.  These are indeed the things that are permanent, because they carry forth from generation to generation, for better or for worse.

This world suffers through manmade disasters, which can change things in a blink of an eye, as well as natural disasters which can tear down things that have been created over generations, and even have stood their ground for millenniums; these can all disappear from the powerful fury of wind, water, and fire.    This world tricks so many because they see the things that are tangible and believe that these things are permanent, but material things, all have a cycle that cannot be changed no matter their form, because nothing of a material nature is eternal.  The art is in knowing, that the material is needed in order to live life on earth, so as to play our roles on this plane, while those that see the bigger picture, that we are spirit, will intuitively recognize that we are all one, therefore when we aid one another, we aid all

No one is left behind

This is America, but somehow over the years the Puritan ethic has been cast aside as the ideal and replaced with a "me-first" attitude, or an entitlement mindset demonstrated by so many, and in general, selfishness in all of its many manifestations is considered by some to be sort of America redefined.  While certainly there is something to be said about "looking out for No. 1", but to do so, in a manner that undercuts, cheats, or excludes others, because of your unseemly grab for wealth, power, or its equivalencies is not the proper American way. In America, there are way too many people that have selected a finish line that they are aiming for, without ever taking into careful consideration the consequences for others when or how they get there. 

All of us are indeed created equally by their Creator, which as defined does not mean that they are equal in talents, nor equal in circumstances, nor equal in mind, but equal in that each has the unalienable rights of free will, and a free conscience, so as to freely choose or not choose to find their way back to the First Source. Those that are actually successfully in reuniting their spiritual souls with God, are eternally grateful for having done so, but like a great ship at harbor, this ship will not sail again, till all, that is, everyone, without exception, is aboard.  That is why great souls that have no karma to work off, that have no rebellion inside of them, that have passed all tests given to them, come back to this earthly plane again and again, so as to lead by example as well as influence those lost sheep to return to the one fold that all originated, without exception, from.

God is our creator, and can our creator ever leave his creation behind?  He cannot.  He will not.  He does not.  Man, so often in his assumed wisdom, thinks he knows everything, but draw back the curtain all of the way, pour forth the illuminating scintillating light that is God, and man's wisdom shrivels up to an embarrassment of hubris.    There is one God, there is one river, there is one people, and one cannot ever be complete without all joined in together.

Those that lend a helping hand, those that sacrifice for the greater good, those that make the world a better place for having been here, are those that build the very steps that will lead us back to the throne of God.  It is a process, it does not happen overnight, there are starts and stops, there are mistakes and misdirection, but the overarching theme, the bend of justice, will ultimately become the straight and very narrow path back to God.

When the school bus stops so as to let the children out for a lecture at a park, or a day at the museum, or other activities, each student has been counted and identified, and that bus will never leave, until each student has been re-counted and identified, not once, but at least twice so that none will be left behind.  We are God's children, some are far astray, some are asleep, some are actively doing bad things, but then again there are those that are good, that care, that love, and that are tireless in pursuing the lost sheep on behalf of God. 

It may take time, but what is time to God, for none will be left behind, no, not one.

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Where Everyone is Always Guilty

Government is power and government is force, and the laws that so many people think are set for their benefit, are always and without exception a two-edge sword, in which, laws poorly written and structured in such a way that the government can prosecute whomever that they want, whenever that they want, is nothing but tyranny upon the citizens of this great land.

Perhaps there were good intentions behind the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, perhaps not, but in any event it is the law of the land, and in a day and age in which virtually everyone that isn't debilitated or a disinterested Senior Citizen, or living in the outback, and thereby completely off the grid, than you as a matter of course are engaging with the internet on a constant basis through whatever smart devices that you prefer and therein lies the problem with this law.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) contains a lot of verbiage covering all sorts of things, but essentially the most dangerous activities that it can foist upon the unsuspecting American public is that it prohibits access to a computer "without authorization" or "exceeding authorized access", so that all of those Terms and Conditions that you see on social media sites, or access to particular internet sites, and so forth, that nobody ever reads, contains language in regards to "conditional usage" of such a website, which, of course, ties into the CFAA.

While it certainly makes sense that you would want to stop unauthorized access to computers, such as those that are intimately involved in hacking activities, or up to a general no-good, the law as written is so broad, that just about anybody accessing the internet in the normal course of events, is potentially subject to having violated such access, because of the global nature of the internet, which invariably means that computers and information are connected to each other, and some computers and connections are government connected, or foreign connected, or cross State lines, in which any of these things can be construed by aggressive governmental authorities to have infringed upon this law.

The government's long and powerful prosecutorial arm as utilized today, has a insidious part to it, which is, by the very virtue of being able to reach out and to snag just about anyone off of this nebulous CFAA law, that this sort of indictment, allows the government to pressure those arrested or charged, to cooperate with the governmental desires or decrees.  This means that those that are an inconvenience to the government, or a pest to the government, and so forth, can deliberately be targeted, and effectively harassed and thereby silenced, which effectively is an abridgment of our freedom of speech.

To the government, it is a very nice convenience, to have this particular law in their arsenal as it allows them to pressure those that annoy them, to no good end.  For the people, this law is a version of being in constant danger, without really being aware that this is so, until they are the unfortunate one to become indicted for their "crime".  This law is most definitely used, it's very effective for its intended purposes, and it is a very dangerous power poorly written and chillingly oppressive.

Employment Age Discrimination

In America, there are laws, then there are the actual implementation of those laws,  follow by the interpretations of those laws, and finally the bottom line, which is that you get just about all the law you're going to get in proportion to the money and the quality of the legal council that you so engage.  When Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA),the purpose was to protect those age 40 and above from employment discrimination, because the bottom line when it comes to employees, is that younger employees are in general cheaper in labor costs, cheaper in health costs, have less family issues to attend to, and typically are more moldable by the employer, so if you are needing a lot of "Indians" but not so many "Chiefs", younger employees typically provide such a benefit.

In addition, because younger employees have a very strong tendency to exert downward pressure on labor costs, it makes it difficult for older employees to make all the money that they deserve to make, and if those older employees, know that finding another job with the same pay and equivalent benefits is more problematic for them, that makes them far more quiescent in pushing for higher pay rates or benefits. 

Although, America does not have a law that stipulates that you cannot ask the age of an applicant, most employers as a matter of course do not do so, because that is almost prima facie evidence that they are walking the path of potential age discrimination.  Rather, and I suppose they think they are so clever, they work around asking the straightforward question, by sometimes requesting a picture to go with the online resume, which can open up an entirely new can of worms, or the favorite, which is for the applicant to place on their resume or follow-up questions, the year that they graduated from college.

The thing about the graduate year is that knowing such, doesn't mean that you know for a certainty that someone that graduated in 2015, is in the age range of 23-27, as there are older people that don't get around to finishing their education until much later in life, yet there is a reasonable presumption that most graduates at that time are young, whereas for those that state that they graduated in 1985, there is an absolute certainty that they are over the age of 50, and cannot possible be in their twenties.

Further to the point, since most resumes are now uploaded online, it is very easy for an independent party to create a program that takes those dates and segregates out those that are older from the desired targeted candidates without such a procedure actually being divulged to the client.  Rather, they might say, that the sophisticated analytics that are applied to resumes only produces the best candidates for further review.  Whether this is true or not in actuality, misses the point, the point is that graduation dates are especially for companies receiving boatloads of resumes a very easy way to separate out those that they have no real interest in interviewing, further if they have some sort of plausible denial in place, no one is the wiser.  Does it happen?  No doubt that it does.

Defeat can lead to Victory

In sports, the greatest accomplish is to go an entire season without ever experiencing defeat, becoming both unvanquished as well as the champion.  Of course, this doesn't happen often, and if was to be a routine occurrence for a particular team, viewership would actually go down, because if a particular team always wins, there just isn't much drama in that.  So too, in life, it is important to remember that if everything that you do comes rather easily for you, if everything always goes your way, and if the whole world seems to revolve around you, then you are either imagining these things or you have got to get yourself up and actually find some challenges that involve real struggle and real effort.

In point of fact, the people that always win, and that always get their way, aren't going to be especially empathetic to people that aren't winning, and aren't getting their way, because they will be at a lost as to how to identify with that.  Everybody needs some load or burden to carry, because only by actually knowing what it feels like to lose, or to get knocked down, or to not have the right answer, will you have the opportunity to appreciate the value of humility and the value of struggle.  It is in the losing and wanting to better yourself that allows a person to ultimately overcome defeat, and thereby attain victory.

So too, there definitely is value in being on the receiving end of disappointment, especially if in this disappointment there is created a fire in your belly, and thereby a vigor to do better so as to achieve more.  Many people do not know how much talent and strength that they have, until they are placed into a position in which they must assert themselves, or suffer dire consequences for not successfully doing so. 

In order to really appreciate health, you need to suffer poor health,  at least on occasion, so that you will take recognition that good health should not be seen as a given, but something to be appreciated, to be valued and to be grateful for.  You need to suffer sometimes, not so much because suffering builds character, but rather to better empathize with others going through similar situations, so that your strength and your experience will help to prop up another, who needs that helping hand.

Also, it is important to see physical life lost, so that you will better understand, that life not only has many stages, but that physical life on this earth can end suddenly and unexpectedly, therefore allowing you to appreciate more that time allocated to you and hence understand more completely that time has value, and it is up to you, to maximize it, not only for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others.

Your life matters, not only to yourself but especially to family and friends, and your experiences matter, because those experiences, either becomes stumbling blocks or building blocks, depending upon how you manage them.  In life, the objective is not to get a perfect score, the objective is to try and try again to overcome the things that prevent you from being the best that you can be, and your obligation to society is to lend a helping hand to others so that they can do the same

America: Overmedicated and Overprescribed

There isn't a country in the world that comes close to the amount of medications and pharmaceuticals consumed by Americans on a per capita basis.  It would be one thing if all this medication actually was a net benefit for the patient by improving the quality of one's life, or reducing the pain thereof, or for just making for a more humane and more considerate experience when dealing with medical issues, but in actuality, that often isn't the case, while medical doctors, medicine, and pharmaceuticals can most definitely improve the lot for certain diseases and ills, it can also create new problems, mask the real problem, and actually do material harm to the patient.

The day that America decided that it was okay to market pharmaceuticals to Americans via print media, advertising on television and radio, and now advertising on the internet, is the day that the growth rate of the usage of pharmaceuticals within this country began to achieve a much more pronounced trajectory.  The bottom line is that on any given day, you may experience a headache, a stomach ache, general aches and pains, not sleeping well, anxiety, or all sorts of things, which typically come and typically go in your life.  It use to be, if these things did not become chronic, or of a real hindrance, that people would just go about their business, but nowadays these advertisements are so ubiquitous and cover so many "conditions" and sell the promise that they provide what appears to be instant relief, that Americans are sucked into believing the hype.

It's bad enough that American adults take or are prescribed way too much medication for things that don't really need medication, but it is an entirely different thing for children, to be prescribed medication for being overactive, hyper, lacking in attention skills, or need an antihistamine, or need to relieve asthma, and so forth, in which these young children really don’t have much of a say on the matter, as they assume that their parents as well as their pediatrician know what is best for them, but alas this isn't always so.  So too, children that are prescribed drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may easily start a process that never ends, that is to say, they are on ADHD medication all of their life, which doesn't seem like a good solution in the first place, or if a possible solution, should not be the first one to engage in.

While there are most definitely people that do require medication, and while there are situations in which medication is very effective as a remedy, it is also important to recognize that the body, is a well constructed and a well constituted machine, that incredibly can and will, under the right circumstances in many instances, heal itself, if only given enough time to do so.   There are times when urgency requires urgent responses, so too, there are numerous times, when patience and attentiveness in all of its many forms, is by far the best response, and the best thing for a person.  The bottom line is that even in the best of cases pills are two-edge swords which is why pharmaceuticals have their attendant disclaimers written in very small print that simply go on and on and on.

If you don't make war, hell, you will just get a lot more of it

It's been said that "war is hell" and certainly for those suffering through the consequences, hurt, and destruction of war, this is definitely true.  However, when wars are fought in which one nation has far superior weapons, far superior technology, far superior infrastructure, and far superior trained personnel, the whole war is hell scenario, is more properly seen as war being hell for the side and the people that aren't able to properly defend themselves, at the same time being hellish for those conducting such a war with their boots on the ground, but for those supporting those boots on the ground, war often isn't all that bad.

In point of fact, for every soldier on the field of action, who is actuality really risking his body, and his life, it is estimated that there are seven soldiers behind him, that are relatively free of any reasonable concern that their livesare in any sort of danger or even concerned about suffering privations. Never, has the support troops to American soldiers on the field, had it so good.  Nowadays, everything that an American support soldier needs in regards to health, food, sanitation, internet access, and social activities, is readily available for our troops, signifying that while war is most definitely brutal, cold, and lethal for those being assaulted by such,  it's like a completely different world for those ensconced in safety zones.

While it certainly makes sense that America wants to take good care of its soldiers, there is a downside of making soldiers so comfortable away from home, so safe from danger, that they don't really truly comprehend the savagery of real war.  Most definitely, those soldiers with boots on the ground are very cognizant of the brutality of war, the unfairness of it all, and the suffering that is created for the civilians who are in the wrong place at the wrong time, even though the place they are in, is, in fact, their native land. 

The thing is, the superiority of American firepower and logistics is so significant, that the kill ratios, that is to say the amount of enemy combatants as well as collateral damage killed by American soldiers as compared to those American soldiers killed by the enemy is estimated by the independent.co.uk as: "US-to-Isis "kill ratio" 15,000-to-one."   In general, the kill ratios in any of America's undeclared modern wars are at such staggering ratios in favor to America, that it seems both inexplicable and insane why any nation or organization would even consider going to war against America.

For those on the receiving end of the massive indomitable power and lethal destructiveness of American might, war, for those peoples is most definitely a living hell.  On the other hand, the American soldiers giving the fight are, with the exception of those truly in the line of fire and in real danger, relatively speaking, a bit of a burden, an inconvenience, but not much more.  This means, the masterminds of all of American skirmishes and wars, have created a playbook which pretty much reads as follows: keep our casualties down to an absolute minimum, treat our own personnel very, very well, and wreak as much havoc and destruction as we desire on our enemies, till world's end.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Big Brother

Technology, is most definitely a two-edge sword, it offers some incredible savings and efficiencies for consumers as well as businesses that we take advantage of each and every day. Take, for instance, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which are becoming more and more ubiquitous for just about any item that you might purchase because it is so tiny, (Hitachi has developed a RFID which is just .15mm x.15mm and just 7.5 micrometers thick) which can be utilized for a variety of products, or on the other hand it is flexible enough that it can be embedded under an animal's skin, such as for cattle tracking and identification, as well as doing the same thing for humans.  

At the present time, there isn't any uniform standard of marking and the placing of RFID devices on products that consumers purchase, so that consumers don't have the right or the ability to properly "opt out" of purchasing or deactivating an item with a RFID device, but in fairness, they should. This is unfortunate, as it is one thing for RFID devices to be on products for inventory control and such for businesses and an entirely different thing if in the purchase of an RFID encoded product the business can correlate exactly who purchased the product through your smart phone or some other device, thereby identifying you as a consumer to specifically monitor and market items to.

The above are basic issues about RFID, of which some people might be annoyed, some not, some not really caring, and a few might find it to be "really cool".  The most significant issue about RFID devices is that if and when it become mandated for convicts or students or immigrants that they must have a RFID device implanted upon their body, the pendulum will have swung completely over to the side of state authorized authority which would mean that citizens at a minimum in the public square, could be easily tracked by state agencies, and effectively all of their motions and activities, stored and analyzed for whatever reasons, good or bad, that the state would have an interest in.

The fact that state-issued identification now have RFID technology embedded within these identification cards, as well as credit cards from banking companies, also having RFID embedded within their credit cards, would seem to imply that the game is already over, and that perhaps it isn't really necessary to embed a RFID device underneath someone's skin.  However, not everyone carries a credit card, and not everyone carries state-sponsored identification that has RFID, so that, it could be said, the very people that the government most wants to track, don't typically carry a RFID activated device, therefore the government would like to see that everybody has some sort of RFID attached to them, pretty much making everyone under their surveillance, all of the time.

So too, there is an important issue, which is, when the policing agencies make it a matter of routine course to scan people for RFID devices, this could easily be set as a specific quid pro quo, that those people that cannot be read, will be subject to being stopped and frisked, because those not voluntarily providing clear and actionable information to state authorities that positively identifies them, will be considered to be enemies of the state, until they are properly vetted by Big Brother. 

Immigration Judges are Not Judicially Independent

Justice is supposed to be impartial, but it is not possible for immigration judges to truly be impartial, when rather than being independent judges, serving on the court as long as they exhibit "good behavior" they are, rather, instead, employees of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which means that they are employed by the same prosecutorial element that instigates immigration cases.  This would strongly imply, in actuality, more than imply, that judges that are employees of the Department of Justice, will judge cases in the manner, more often than not, that upholds Department of Justice's goals in mind.  That is not only inherently unfair to the immigrants that are being prosecuted in court, it in actuality, makes these courts appear to be nothing more than presenting a semblance of real justice.

Further to the point, this would indicate that it is basic federal policy to put forth that immigrants, by definition, do not have Constitutional rights, in particular, that the 14th Amendment, which states that no law shall "…deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," that this appears to be the mindset of the DOJ, signifying that justice will not and cannot be served.

The Attorney General of the United States is responsible for the appointment of Immigration judges, so it goes without saying, that the judges so appointed, are going to be in lockstep with DOJ desires, and if they are not, they will be replaced as necessary, because they are not independent, thereby their continued employment is at the discretion of the DOJ.

The United States likes to proclaim that it is a nation of laws, but when those laws are adjudicated in a court of law, in which one element, in this case, the prosecutorial element, has the judge in their pocket, than there will not be justice.  Instead, what we receive in return, is whatever the current desires are of the DOJ, and the only thing preventing these policies from being enacted with no dissent, is the valiant defense made by immigration attorneys that at least make it difficult to enact Administration preferred immigration policies that often do not take into account the rule of law, nor due process of the law, nor equal protection of the law, but rather serve to circumvent such.

It is to the DOJ's convenience, to simply paint immigrants that do not appear to be legally within our country, as illegal, and thereby subject to deportation, without appropriate judicial review.  The United States response to its current immigrant crisis, is basically an end around Constitutional law, which essentially allows the DOJ and its immigrant judges to determine whatever that they desire to determine in regards to immigrants, and further this purposeful and targeted discrimination, enables such immigrants to be more easily exploited by employers and other people in America, because those that have no rights, or limited rights, have little effective recourse when they are preyed upon, essentially creating a form of servitude and punishment without having been duly convicted, and thereby manufacturing in practice, a modern new form of subservience.

The Maximum Federal Income Tax Rate should be 50% and Indexed against the Median Income

Nobody really likes to pay taxes but taxes are necessary in order for governments to function, and those that have the highest incomes, are well positioned to pay their fair share.  In point of fact, which is unfortunate for the general public, is that the more money that you make, the better lawyers that you can engage, as well as the better lobbyists that can be bought by you and others of your ilk, and the more that you and your cohorts can bend the ears of legislators in this country.  The upshot of all this, is an extremely complicated tax code, made specifically that way so as to allow those in the know to pay considerably less in taxes, unfairly burdening those that do not have such a luxury.

The maximum top marginal rate has not been not been higher than 50% since 1981, with the years from 1932-1986 being at a minimum at least 50% as the top rate, with some years, having that top rate at a staggering 94%.  Even those that believe that the rich should be soaked probably don't believe that 94% could ever be a fair rate, and no doubt, it is rates such as these, that helped to create the tax dodges that we deal with in the present day.

A far fairer policy would be to not only simplify the tax code so that those that are the richest of the rich, pay their fair share back to society, as not only can they well afford it, it would also serve to reduce considerably the new monetary aristocracy from overturning the democratic roots of America.  Further to the point, from a fairness perspective, a maximum rate in which the taxpayer must pay on a 1:1 ratio taxes towards the government seems to be not only inherently fair, but something also that would be hard to argue against, as pundits like to rail against insanely high taxes as being de-motivating to working, whereas $1 for me, $1 for the tax authorities, seems reasonably fair for the most successful of them all, for those making that coin at extremely high levels.

Not only should the Federal Income maximum tax rate be fixed at 50%, this 50% rate should be indexed to ten times the current median income in America, which at the present time, is about $51,500, so that those earning above $515,000 would pay federal income taxes at 50%, and since some States also have high State income taxes, there should be a provision that in aggregate of State, local, and Federal taxes, the petitioner will not pay more than 50% towards those authorities of their income. 

In addition, all the sophisticated write-offs, charitable donations, and tricks of the trade that takes a given person's income and thereby creates an adjusted gross income that has been reduced to absurdly low levels so that thereby the person appears to not have much of an income at all, should be phased out so that once your gross income exceeds $515,000 as indexedyearly against the median income, no more deductions or credits to your tax liabilities will be permitted, which would essentially be a reconfiguration of the alternative minimum tax program. 

The bottom line is that the superrich have the capacity to pay their fair share of taxes, and 50% is a fair enough trade to make, in order to live and to enjoy life and all its attendant benefits within the confines of the greatest nation in the world.

Warning: Using Social Media sites can kill you

The government requires all sorts of warning labels for all sorts of things that people utilize or take on a daily basis: such as certain machine tools, prescribed pharmaceutical drugs, and cigarettes.  Whether these warning labels actually work, is debatable, but they are required by government law, or it not, recommended by respected legal advisors.  It is somewhat surprising, that social media sites are not compelled by law or encouraged by legal advisors to provide a similar warning, either voluntarily, or mandated by law, by virtue of the fact, that the usage of social media has led to murders, stalking, assaults, and other crimes of one person against the other.

The most basic thing that at its core is wrong about so many social media sites is the fact that the users of such, often aren't really aware of how invasive and how actionable the information that is presented on their site is engaged by other people, of which some of these people, do not have the best interests of the social media poster in the first place.  Those that use social media to post exactly where they are located at the present time, exactly who they are or are not currently dating, exactly how they feel about people that use to be close to them, and displays essentially all of this information in a public forum, easily creates a situation in which, because other people have been publicly shamed, or are jealous minded, or other negative emotions, will react in ways that could be catastrophic for all.

Those that use social media sites the most are often young, along with many being impulsive, lacking in maturity, lacking in good judgment, and exceedingly sensitive to how they are portrayed and what they believe should or should not be permitted in a forum which in many respects is very public.  Additionally, just the way that social media sites are constructed and utilized, what one person sees as teasing or being playful, another person may interpret it as being taunting and provocative, which can lead to rather dire consequences.

While there are certain people that deliberately make posts on social media sites, trying to incite a reaction for whatever reason, on the other hand, most people making posts are not looking for real trouble, yet, they may indeed have to confront trouble from making a post that in their intention, wasn't even supposed to have been seen by certain people, but when social media accounts, have hundreds of even thousands of friends, you, really don't know who is looking at your posts, nor do you know what they actually feel about them.

The owners of social media have a vested interest in people having lots of "likes" or friends, or connections, or followers, and so on, but individuals on a very real level, simply don't have that many people that they really have that sort of connection with, and in actuality, would be far better served to be far more discreet, far more cognizant of the fact that not everybody has your best interests in mind, and that social media is a very poor way to deal with conflict, meaning that in certain situations very bad things can happen, because perceptions of public shame or public bickering, can easily lead to bodily harm, including even death.

Finding Faults in Others but less so in Ourselves

Most people are very good at discovering character flaws and faults in others; in fact, it seems to come naturally, whereas, for ourselves, significantly too often, we give ourselves either a free pass or the benefit of the doubt.  This type of inconsistency, in which we are quick to see that others have feet of clay but we, ourselves, are relatively speaking, just made of more integrity, is good for assuaging our own ego, but of little merit in the real world.

It has been said, that in order to really understand another person, you need to walk a mile in their shoes, which is absolutely true, but rather difficult to accomplish.  In actual fact, we often don't know where people really come from, what they have had to deal with, what they are really trying to accomplish, and who they really are, so being quick to criticize anybody without knowing their circumstances and their story, is probably the wrong attitude to take under most circumstances as criticism rather than being something that betters the other party, is often taken as a reprimand that they are inferior, and in particular, inferior to you.

A far more effective attitude to take, is one of helpfulness to others, so that, if in your perception you ascertain that someone is doing something wrong or inefficiently, show them considerately the error of their ways, or at least the possibility that they could look at things differently or do things differently, that perhaps has not previously occurred to them, that is to say, try to be of help, rather than an overbearing annoyance.

So too, people need to the best of their ability, step outside of themselves, and recognize, that if they don't particularly care to be criticized, especially by those that they believe really don't know what they are talking about, or by those that may indeed have a valid point, but make sure that their criticism is especially deep and cutting, need to recognize that if the heat in the kitchen is too much for them, than they should not want to treat others in the same manner.

We are all imperfect human beings, all in need of character improvement, personality improvement, and the like, so that, many are quite forgiving or forgetful of their own faults, but take a certain kind of perverse pleasure in pointing out the errors of other people's faults, perhaps in the mistaken belief, that they are being helpful in such criticism, but often this is done with selfish motives akin to the supposition that by lowering another person's image or self esteem, thereby means, that you have, subsequently risen above them.

We can all do much better, by first of all thinking about what we are saying and the real purpose behind it, before we actually say it, as well as taking into account, what is it that we are really trying to achieve, for if our purpose is to essentially knock down a person, that isn't really very constructive, for we have an inherent obligation, rather, to do good unto others, and certainly to live our lives in all aspects that reflect this in practice, by doing the very things that we desire to see done by others.

Savers and Debtors

The United States is in aggregate the largest debtor nation in the world, while it can be said that America also has the world's largest economy, this does not take away from the immensity of its debt, which as estimated by usgovernmentdebt.us America's current debt is nearly $20 trillion dollars and growing, which equates to a staggering amount of $60,974 per person.  Further adding to America's long term problem is that its GDP growth has slowed considerably since the beginning of the 21st century, so that the most recent year that real GDP growth was able to cross even 3% was 2005, so that any realistic hope of America being able to grow itself out of debt appears quite futile.

In cases in which countries or any debtor for that matter, has enormous debts, these debtors if they cannot successfully discharge such debt through default or through a structured discount to such debt, have only one other alternative which is to debase the currency of that debt, which just so happens to be the American playbook.  This is why, America's government is constantly trying to encourage inflation, which actually is somewhat difficult to accomplish, because as America has both modernized in the sense of having more and more computing power, robotics, machines, analytics, and so forth, to become more efficient, this has acted to actually reduce the material cost of doing business, additionally, with the rapid decline and irrelevancy of labor unions in the private sector, labor costs are consistently quiescent, so that these things combined help to accomplish both better products that are also cheaper to produce in form and function, as well as often being  less expensive in cost.

Nevertheless, inflation is part and parcel of the American milieu, for there are many sectors of the economy, such as governmental spending in all of its myriad forms, as well as healthcare, which are both inefficient, or have infrastructure that do not lend themselves to competitive influences which would tend to mitigate pricing increases.  This inflation, is of critical importance to the ruling elite, for from the debasement of currency, subtle and not so subtle shifts in power and monetary strength are enabled, and those that are unable to play the game, or to even understand the game, correctly, are the losers to it.

For instance, anytime that inflation exceeds the amount of money being paid as interest to savers, then savers are the losers, for their currency value while increasing nominally, is decreasing in worth because of taxation of false asset appreciation, as well as the corresponding loss in purchasing power.  On the other hand, debtors, that are paying back money in depreciated dollars, are gaining, for they have borrowed money at one value, and correspondingly paid it back with its attendant interest that in aggregate is of a lesser value, which is a formula, that done again and again, with very large numbers, effectively transfers wealth from savers to debtors, so that borrowers of money, can in essence, siphon wealth from productive members of society to themselves.

While, in general, debtors should be subservient to their creditors, if the debtor is large enough, powerful enough, and can control the rules of the game, that irresponsible debtor becomes enabled to funnel real money and real productivity from those that have created it to finance the things that the debtor so desires, to the world's end.

So You Think Banks are Safe

United States currency is very important to just about everyone, primarily because it is used as the coin of the realm for America in virtually all transactions that are done in person, electronically, or via exchange.  Additionally, America has not always had a national currency since at the time of its inception, the individual States, were pretty much sovereign unto themselves, it was only much later through fits and starts that the States ceded control of their local currencies, so as to create a national currency of the same value for all of the States of the Union, which is our present day system.

It would be one thing if today's currency was actually backed by something, for instance, silver or gold, or even oil, but America's currency rather than being backed by something tangible or meaningful, is instead backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States government", which either means a lot, or on the contrary, means virtually nothing.  In actuality, despite all the protests governmental and banking officials might make, and all the various semantics that governments and banking officials might construct, the currency that we take for granted, is fiat currency, which is currency that is the legal tender of our country, but backed, in essence, by nothing.

If you don't believe any of the foregoing, recognize this, whenever you read a book or an article that are utilizing monetary values of the day and age of a period, perhaps a century earlier than the present time, you are no doubt astonished at the prices of things, things that we still consume and purchase today.  For instance at usnews.com, the average annual salary of a male in 1915 was $687, and the average home sold for $3,200.  This signifies that money that isn't backed by anything, and is essentially created out of thin air, devalues itself through inflation, because the more money that is created to paper over whatever you want to paper over, will over the course of time, deflate the currency, and thereby inflate prices, because the overall value of that money has decreased so that one needs more of it just to stay in place to where they were.

People might think that banks are fairly straightforward and simple places in which real deposits are made by customers of all sorts, and then the banks issues currency on a 1:1 basis for loans to people, while keeping a relatively small supply of ready cash available.  If this was true, banks probably would be fairly stable, because they would be conservatively run, but we live in a game of greed with all its attendant illusions, so that banks actually run on the fractional reserve/money multiplier system, which means in effect, that for every deposit made into a bank, that the deposit so made creates new money, that simply didn't exist previously, and further at a multiplier significantly higher than a 1:1 ratio, such as 4:1 or much more, creating more money into existence, which invariably leads to inflation.

This means, to a large extent, that the monetary system that we currently trust and utilize is really just an elaborate shell game, and all games have a beginning and so too they have an ending.  While this monetary game that we play can end in a variety of ways, including the dollar being re-pegged to a commodity or something similar, it can also end up with monetary chaos and tribulations, signified by the structured closing of banks, so that instead of depositors getting back their currency at its historic worth and norm, they receive instead a new currency which is severely devalued with absolutely no recourse to what once was, or, a combination of new currency along with mandated banking stock so that the depositors have a vested interest or a compulsion to keep their money within the same institution, till things normalize.

To Make a Saint

Saints don't simply happen as they are instead people that have actively applied themselves consistently over time to the purification of their soul through their actions and by their thoughts of behalf of the people by rightful actions and their righteous response to the needs of the day.  While there is a lot to be said, for those that sanctify themselves, by quiet and careful contemplation, far away from the troubles and tribulations of the world, whether formally through, for instance, a convent, that is set aside from the world, or through their own individual adjustments to stand apart from worldly things, these while most definitely having their place, as communion with God, is a calling, most demanding, and most obedient, there are literally millions and millions of God's good flock, that require guidance and administering to from those that have the capacity to do so.

A great saint is a great person, not because they think they are great, but because, nothing gets in the way of their service to others--not governments, not principalities, not even the barrel of a gun, because true saints answer only to He who answers to none.  The courage that a saintly person has comes from drawing upon the knowledge and power from the purest Spirit of them all, which, will not bend to mere mortals, and will never waver, no matter, the consequences.  People, always gravitate to those uncommon men and women, that have a divine mission, that focuses them so completely, that they do not see themselves as man sees them, but instead, believe and behave wholly as true messengers from the heart of God.

You can never be a saint, when you say one thing, but do another, as this does nothing more that sow confusion and disorder.  For a saint to be a saint they must be in lockstep with God, Himself, and that connection, is the source of all knowledge and fortitude.  Those that are not saintly, see themselves as physical, living and breathing human beings, and believe that what they see is what they are, whereas, a saint sees only the cloaking of a physical body, if even that, while intuitively knowing the essence of a given man or woman that is their true identity. 

A saint recognizes that to go out into the world, that they first must prepare themselves properly so as to shield themselves from the slings and arrows of an outrageous world, capable of just about anything.  This means, that you cannot know what exactly to expect, but you certainly can be centered within yourself, in harmony with God, and prepared to do spiritual battle, if it comes to that, against those that represent and perform evil.  Saints cannot and will not allow evil to run amok, as this runs counter to the clock of God's wisdom, for to not call something evil for what it is, is to a certain extent, encouraging to evil, and subsequently diminishes good, so saints, stand, where those that tremble fear to do likewise.

The power of one is significant, the power of two, even more so, as saints represent in living action the backbone that so many lack, because they are too caught up in the day-to-day affairs of life along with survival, and thereby forgot the very first thing, which is to seek God with all of your heart and all of your understanding, which is the very first step to becoming a saint.