Hell is Voluntary failure

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen stated on his long running television program, Life is worth Living that "hell is voluntary failure."  You really can't put it better than that, though many simply see hell as a place for those that have committed sins of omission or sins of commission, or as a place for those that have not personally taken Christ as their savior, but in actuality it really comes down to the fact that to find yourself in hell, you have had to have voluntarily failed in your duties as a human being, that more than anything is apropos of why hell exists.

Too many people, have rather simplistic views of the afterlife, which fits in well with their demeanor, as they believe or purport to believe, that whether you get to heaven or go to hell, comes down to essentially whether or not you have politely requested God's grace, which as fundamentally bad as that doctrine is, is made even worse, by stipulating that the positive acts that you have accomplished won't make any difference in regards to your afterlife, but in actuality, that is exactly the opposite of what really occurs.

In point of fact, belief without actions is the same as non-belief, it is therefore your actions in your everyday interactions with your fellow brothers and sisters, as well as the challenges and dilemmas that you have inevitably come across day-by-day that define who and what you really are, for you are tested over and over again, to prove thereby your worth or non-worth, for life on earth is the proving ground and there are no shortcuts here, for anyone.

This then means for a certainty, that the decisions that you make: matter.  Further to the point, all are gifted with a conscience, free will, and the innate ability to discern right from wrong, so that at the end of the day, no matter how things have turned out, those decisions and those actions have come from ourselves, which is why those that complain or moan that their life is a life of misery because of this or that, or because of this person or that, or from lack of this or that, which while having some validity in what they are saying, must so recognize that it isn't so much where or what you have or don't have that bears its marks, it is what you do with the circumstances that you have been given to work with to begin with, for membership in heaven is free to all, if they are willing to put forth the effort to gain admission to it.

If you will not exert yourself positively for anything of worth, you will fail.  If you will not try to heal yourself as well as to try to be of benefit to others, you have failed.  If you live entirely to yourself, thinking just of yourself, playing games to benefit solely yourself, your failure is complete.  The bottom line is that If the test of your character was solely about yourself and none other, than earth would just be a place with just one soul, your own; so then, you must recognize that the whole reason why there are so many people on earth, such diversity and divisiveness on this planet, is to give one another a chance, to piece everythingback together again and to thereby make this world better for you having been a member of it, for in this endeavor, you will find success, and for those that voluntarily turn their back on such, they will find that havingfailed themselves as well as others,  a hell of their own making.

Police and Your Cell Phone

Arrests happen all of the time, and since most people in America actually have cell phones, than when they are arrested, what could be considered to be for many people their most important and personal item that they own, is now essentially in the hands of the police.  Of course, there are laws, laws of seizure, laws in regards to a warrant, all sorts of laws, and permissions granted or implied, which can protect citizens from unlawful search and seizures, in which the Supreme Court has made it clear that cell phones cannot be searched without a proper warrant, but cell phones are still searched, anyway.

The police are very good about applying pressure on suspects, and when the police have an arrestee in an either-or situation, in which, the either is to give up your cell phone voluntarily and the or Is to be arrested and taken to jail, than you as individual are really up against the wall, for once your cell phone leaves your hand, it doesn't really matter how "secure", or how "encrypted" your phone is, because unless you, yourself are some sort of professional hacker encryption expert, the police typically have all the tools that they need to "unsecure" your phone, or to "un-encrypt" your phone, and hence everything that has been done on that cell phone of yours, is available for their perusal.  This means that the voluntary relinquishing of your phone so as to not be arrested, most probably gives the police a portal to the most intimate aspects of your life, as well as giving up the connections that you have to people that are part of your social network, which may, of course, endanger them as well.  Not only that, police like to make promises and not honor them, so that, even when there is supposed to be a quid pro quo, they still arrest you anyway, so all things being equal, you are probably better served by insisting that the police get a warrant to search your phone.

The fact that cell phones are not legally searchable by the police unless under warrant or unless you give explicit permission that they can do so, doesn't mean that they won't be searched anyway, for once the cell phone is out of your hands, you aren't going to really know for a certainty what happened, and even if you are able to put together forensics clearly showing that your cell phone was searched, without a warrant, proving so in an actual court of law, is problematic, at best.  The police know all this and quite frankly the police don't really care, for at worse, there isn't really any penalty for them, except perhaps, the suppression of evidence in that particular case, but why would the police worry, because now they have all of your personal information as well as your contacts so they can easily arrest you or one of your contacts at their convenience on something else, or simply put you in their vast database to monitor and to track.

Still, it gets even easier though, for the smartest police don't want to take the chance that their evidence will get suppressed, so for certain suspects, they will play it by the book, and actually get a warrant to search your cell phone, and those warrants are issued by certain judges routinely, indicating, that the convenience and ubiquity of cell phones that carry a significant portion of our personal thoughts and activities are readily available for the police and that should definitely deeply disturb you.

All these $100 dollar bills outside America

America is not only the largest economy in the world, in fact the American economy is so large, that it is greater than the third through tenth largest country economies combined; America also has been around as a stable country since its revolutionary war against Great Britain, commenced in 1776.  Just as English is the international language of business, the American currency is the de facto default currency in numerous countries throughout the world, and not really by accident, rather, for the most part, this is by deliberate design by many other countries which align their currencies with the American dollar, even utilize it in international monetary transactions, as well as utilizing American dollars as a additional source of currency accepted within their country.  That the American dollar is so universal in usage and value throughout the world, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, for not only are most countries' economies a very small fraction of the American global empire, many also have a past history of an unstable currency, or unstable government, or basically recognize the prudent value of conducting business in dollars, which are perceived as stable in value, as opposed to their own currency.

This then leads to the rather amazing fact, which doesn't just seem possible, but as reported by thebalance.com, "…75 percent of $100 bills" are actually held outside of the United States.  Surprisingly, not only do foreign countries have $100 bills, they typically use them as a store of value, as well as an easy and liquid way to conduct business, both legal and illicit. Still, it is amazing, that somehow in aggregate there are significantly more $100 bills outside of America, than within America, especially considering how large the American economy really is, and how there are plenty of transactions in America which also range from legal to illicit.

The above seems to imply, that Americans have many other viable options to conduct business, that typically doesn't even involve paper-bill cash, such as debit cards, credit cards, checks, crypto currency, and so on and so forth, whereas these other countries, that are far smaller in size, without ubiquitous banks or an established and stable banking system, find that the better way to take care of business, personal or otherwise, is to use what is universally considered to be of real value, American dollars, and while $100 doesn't have the value that it once did in America, the cost of living in so many other nations is significantly lower, so that $100 or even $20 have real value, and are sort of in an ironic way, considered to take the place of hard currency such as gold and silver, and are thereby treated as the equivalency of thathard currency, for the trade in these foreign lands, are not the bits and bytes of modern computers, but real physical $100 bills transferring from one hand to another.

All of this leads to the rather reasonable conclusion that having $5,000 in the bank, bearing no interest or perhaps a very minute amount, as compared to the actual $5,000 in cash, that the man that actually has the cash, is richer than the man that has the money in the bank, for that cash, is real, tangible, and fungible, whereas money in the bank, is subject to seizure, can be frozen, can magically disappear, or be re-pegged to a new discounted value, so incredibly, as dumb as it might sound, having real cash in your hands has a value beyond the actual denomination of its apparent worth.   We know that there is truth in this, for that is exactly how physical $100 bills are treated in many a country, throughout the world.

The right to be forgotten

Nobody is exactly the same as they were yesterday, or even today, or will be tomorrow, for people as well as things are in a constant change of flux, of which, some of those changes are rather dramatic, some are intensely personal, some are most definitely private, and some are pretty much of blithe unconcern.  The thing about the internet is that it is a relentless beast and massive aggregator of data, of all sorts of data, of which some of that data is outdated, embarrassing, wrong, distorted, inconvenient, truthful, untruthful, and all sorts of things, that are part and parcel of life, itself.  The thing is that this information skein which relentlessly lengthens day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, with search engines such as Google, social media sites such as Facebook, websites such as Amazon, has the capability and the capacity to remember everything about anything.  There wouldn't necessarily be a problem with any of that, if, you, the individual, controlled the narrative, or had a material input into the material, or could cull or edit the narrative, but once information about you gets out into the public space, that control, if it even existed in America, essentiallyends.

Europe, though a recent court case, recognizes that individuals should not be compelled through internet search engines to have their old news, rehashed, over and over again, that is to say, news that may, in fact be true, but no longer has any present-day relevancy or basically represents an unwelcome invasion of a particular person's privacy, who would prefer instead, to simply be left alone, and thereby exerts their now established right to be forgotten.  While, not too surprisingly, various news organizations as well as Google, are up in arms about such legislation or law, as if the erasure of certain information off of the internet, somehow changes everything about the free flow of information, the fact of the matter is, the request is reasonable, and should be part of law, throughout the world.

There isn't a good reason, why certain news, especially when it involves non-public individuals, with pictures, with video, with graphics, with comments, with this or that, should be played or be available to the public, ad nauseam, through a few clicks on the internet.  It would be one thing, if everyone's interest on the internet was one of pure reasonableness, equanimity, fairness, concern, caring, but the fact of the matter is, the internet, is sort of like a bad Lifetime movie (and they are all bad), in which the dirt about just about everyone can be dug up and displayed, all for fun, or for shame. 

People should have a right to be forgotten, people should be entitled to privacy, and people should not have to answer to busybodies throughout the world, about things that have nothing to do with those nosey people that take pleasure through other people's discomfort, misfortune, or embarrassment.  The internet is a beast, and a beast without a bridle, is a beast that is out-of-control.  The least that Google owes the people that use its search engine, day by day, is to take responsibility for their product and its search results, especially considering that their search engine has made them billions of dollars, and thereby to show the concern and responsibility of being a good steward of this awesome invasiveness and pervasiveness that the Google search engine represents, and to thereby recognize that a reasonable concern for the discretion and consideration of individuals, makes for a better world, and far less evil.

Hi-Tech and the outsourcing of your job

This is a global economy, in which the world has gotten a lot smaller and continues to get a lot smaller, because not only is travel to all points all over the world, both relatively inexpensive while also being readily available, in recent years too, the world has become totally interconnected via the internet with all of its assorted bells and whistles.  The international language of business is English, of which those that have a good grasp of English, along with the required STEM skills, have given themselves a meaningful leg up on those that have difficulty comprehending or utilizing English.  The two most populated countries in the world today, are China and India.  India, having formerly been treated as a colony of Great Britain, but seemingly holding a fairly benign attitude towards Great Britain as well as western civilization, is a country on the rise, in which its massive population total of 1.19 billion people, as well as the fact that around 40% of that total is below the age of 20, indicates that in order to continue to economically grow, India must somehow employ millions.  Further to the point, a significant portion of Indians are competent in speaking English, as well as many of those same having strong skills in STEM capabilities, in which, Indians have an advanced public post-secondary educational system known as the Indian Institutes of Technology (ITT) of which there are currently twenty-three of these ITTs spread out through India, which have stringent admission policies, and graduate extremely competent students of technology.

This means that not only does India have degreed hi-tech engineers that can easily hold their own against their American counterparts, but they also are able to communicate well in English, and because the cost of living is more than 60% cheaper in India than in America, as well as their corresponding labor price-point being substantially cheaper than America, all this being indicative that their hi-tech engineers are bargains in comparison to AmericansAll of this, in combination with the internet means that very high paying hi-tech jobs that currently employ thousands upon thousands in America, are available, for the most part, or in conjunction to, in India, as well as other foreign countries.

As the well educated hi-tech world in America is essentially without a union, and seems to pride itself on not needing to ever be unionized, many thousands of jobs that could be conducted here in America, have already been outsourced, perhaps argued internally and somewhat mendaciously, that there aren't enough competent STEM graduates in America, so the work had to be outsourced, anyway.  The truth of the matter is, the globalization of hi-tech, and the greed and competition of hi-tech companies, have driven them to save money or make money, wherever that they can.  The rather easy decision has been to outsource jobs, for if you can utilize hi-tech workers in a given location, in which these workers are significantly cheaper in price, as well as being able to perform the work needed at a competent level, than you are going to do this, again and again and again.

The bottom line is that educated hi-tech workers in America, cannot compete against Indian educated hi-tech workers that reside and work in India, because the cost of employing those hi-tech workers in India is appreciably cheaper; this means, that hi-tech workers in America, educated ones, very competent ones, will, for a certainty, find less opportunity going forward, more fierce competition internally, as well as hitting their head against an unexpected salary ceiling again and again and again

Standing Armies and the Police

Our founding fathers knew well the danger of standing armies, as James Madison stated: "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty."  So too, the Third Amendment to the Constitution states: "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." Currently, the United States doesn't just have a standing army, we are far beyond that, instead, we have the budget of our vast military empire, along with the associated personnel and corporations that serve this empire, so that this vast military-industrial complex lends itself to the very thing that creates a constant disturbance to citizens of the United States each and every day, which is, the more areas of this world, America has its footprint in, the more trouble is brewed, not staved.

That aside, there are in fit, form, and function, truly standing armies in America, they are in our communities, they are part and parcel of our justice system, in which, we recognize them today, as the police.  What most people are not aware of, is this modern-day police force that we take for granted as a necessity in order to maintain law and order, safety, and civility, did not actually exist back in colonial times.  Further to the point, one of the greatest errors made by Great Britain, when we were still just a colony to them, was the decision made by Great Britain to board their troops in the homes of civilians in America as well as to utilize these troops as essentially their version of everyday law enforcement against the recalcitrant colonists.  This meant that a "standing army" was absolutely part of the colonial experience, interfering with the colonists day-to-day activities, constantly monitoring the colonists, with obviously the means and firepower to assert their authority if need be.

It then follows from the above, that today's centralized police force that are ubiquitous in any city of any significant size, represents in fit and form, a standing army.  These police forces are armed, they are the equivalency of a military force, and they have the right or own the right, to arrest people and to confiscate material items from the public, with virtual practical immunity from any justice system.   Not only does the police force arrest whomever that they so desire, in the public sphere, but routinely they do not identify themselves so as to infiltrate designated organizations, which, of themselves are guilty of nothing, so as to monitor and to regulate such.  Further, under some of the slimmest pretenses, certain citizens of this country are not even safe within their own private space, such as their homes or their cars, from forceful entry and even the use of lethal force.

While, many citizens believe that there is a necessity for a police force, they are missing the most important point, which is that there is a massive difference of a police force that responds to the people, as created by those people, as opposed to a police force that works hand-in-hand with untouchable governmental agencies of all sorts, prosecutorial agents with their own agenda, and the overall invasiveness of a well trained, aggressive police force that targets certain classes of citizens, while protecting specifically a favored few.  Today's police force has far too much power, with minimal accountability, that creates unnecessary tensions between the population as a whole and such policing agencies.  It would be one thing if police actually did serve and protect, of which, some do, but rather in whole, the typical mindset is to aggressively pursue those that have no power, so as to put their boot upon their neck, and make them to know, that at all times, with no sanctuary to be had, that they are subjects to the master class.

Military weapons and graphic warnings

In the real world, things that we buy and consume that have any sort of inherent danger attached to them, whatsoever, carry warning labels that are often mandated by law, of which most of those warning labels have an excruciatingly long list of adverse consequences that could happen, if the particular product is used incorrectly, or overused, or misused, and so and so forth.  The point of these warnings is obviously to protect not only the intended recipient of the product but also to help serve as a warning to carefully protect the product from getting into the hands of the innocent and inept.  Of course, most of these warnings are written, though some may have little sketch figures attached, demonstrating in picture form, perhaps the danger of hi-voltage electricity, and then there are a very few products, such as cigarettes, being the prime example, in which certain countries make it their business to decree by law, rather graphic images of how damaging that smoking cigarettes can be to one's health, with the basic point of such an exercise being to help to reduce smoking in which it is believed that breaking the fantasy that, for instance, smoking is cool, or smoking is hip, with the replacement of a rather nasty graphic image that indicates that smoking is neither cool or hip.

The country that sells and manufactures the most military weapons in the world is the United States.  Not too surprisingly, a significant swath of these weapons, are weapons that are lethal, and deliberately lethal, that is to say, these weapons, such as virtually all armaments and all bombs, are purposely designed to destroy infrastructure, and/or to kill people.  In addition, the various companies that manufacture these weapons, are well aware of their intentional design destructiveness, for that is the very thing that they are selling to national and international defense agencies.  This means, that these companies, besides mandating safety internally when manufacturing such weapons and the controls that go with that safety, could, if they so desire, or could if they were mandated by law to do so, assign graphic warnings onto the shipping crates that contain such weapons, as well as placing in strategic areas throughout their facility, graphic warnings about the products that are produced there, in addition to, such graphic warnings could on certain weapon systems be attached to the actual weapon itself.

It is vitally important that those that make money in the killing business, which is essentially what all weapons are manufactured to do when boiled down to their true essence, be compelled by law, that for their annual stockholder reports, for their annual stockholder meetings, and for their public meetings of all sorts, be compelled to display proudly in graphic form, the obvious consequences of what happens to people when their weapons are used in the form that these weapons have been deliberately designed to accomplish.  While there isn't anything wrong, with military defense contractors talking up how vital that they are to the nation's defense, it isn't fair and it isn't truthful, for these same contractors, to not also stand behind what their product does to people in the real world, so that if pride is the immediate emotion that comes to mind when you realize the destructive awesomeness of your product, or the incisive accuracy of your weapons, it seems only fair and right, to also show the end result of those weapons as utilized in the most common and likely way that they are, which would include explicitly or implicitly what these weapons do to people, with graphic pictures taken from the real world, proudly posted, so that there wouldn't be any confusion about the actual nature of the business as conducted, which is really "blood for money".

To The Government: Thou Shalt Not

Over time and through the years, the people have been browbeaten by a federal government that has aggrandized unto itself more and more powers, and more and move invasiveness into the ordinary affairs of its citizens.  While, on the one hand, we can appreciate the usefulness of a powerful national government in helping to provide the citizens with a common national defense, along with good infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, transportation, schooling, and assorted other things that we take for granted each and every day, there is on the other hand, something troubling about a government that takes it upon itself that it should know each and every detail, no matter how obscure, no matter how private, that involves a given individual, placing the government always in that catbird seat, which allows them to have the power to boss and to control its citizens, or else, steal from these people their very freedom, or freedom of movement, or freedom of thought, or freedom to just be about their business.

The Constitution which is the law of the land, is something that the federal government, the courts, and those in the upper echelons of power, have re-constituted to suit their particular needs and desires, of which, the very first sign that things are woefully amiss is the fact that the Constitution should not be looked upon as a document that enumerates certain specific rights and obligations that citizens have, which have been granted to them on a specific case by case basis, but rather that the Constitution is actually a document that specifies, in particular, by its Ninth and Tenth Amendments, that the true power of this land rests in the hands of the people, and therefore it so logically follows, that this is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, signifying that the Constitution, as well as our Declaration of Independence were specifically written to uphold the common man, his freedom, his vision, his dreams, and that this government derives its just powers only and by the consent of those so governed, and is not, and shall not be a power unto itself.

Further to the most obvious point, this means, that a government in which the citizens have to petition the government as to what they can or cannot do, is not the government that the Constitution created.  The Constitution was meant to create a free people, with free will, in which the primary purpose of that Constitution was more akin to laissez faire, than a government that insists it must regulate and control virtually everything in the ordinary affairs of its citizens.  There are many problems with governmental monitoring and governmental control, of which, the most basic of these problems, is that rather than the government helping to create or to maintain a level playing field, the government typically plays favorites, and thereby those that have influence with the government, or, even worse, are part of the government, have an unfair advantage over all those, that are not so favored, for the government as presently constructed, is virtually never fair, never equal, and never just.

This then is the very crux of the problem, for a government that is large enough to do everything for you, is the very same government which is powerful enough to destroy or to control you.  The best government, then, for those that are true seekers of freedom, is truly the government that governs least, for powers by the people ceded gradually or suddenly to governmental authorities, results in oppression and tyranny, and thereby the trading of one's freedom for servitude.

Remembering our modern war dead

Servicemen and servicewomen all over the world, that have given their last full measure of devotion to their country, deserve to be remembered, and deserve not to be forgotten, especially by their country and their people that requested their service in the first place.  This means that either laws must be made or implicit encouragement must be given by this government that through the public air waves of all sorts and types, through the internet, through national and local media, that these devoted men and women, shall be remembered.

In particular, this acknowledgement of service in action, should be done on the most current basis possible, that is to say, as soon as military authorities know for a certainty that a particular soldier has died in combat, and have notified the next of kin of such, than this information shall be disseminated to the appropriate governmental news source for dispersion to news outlets throughout this great nation, and in particular, that it shall be actively encouraged that the names of any and all soldiers so killed, shall be read and/or published, on a timely basis, daily, if appropriate,  as a public announcement, deserving of the attention of the people of this nation.

This would indicate that for newspapers, for example, that within an appropriate area of such a newspaper, such as within the obituaries, that the listing of servicemen and servicewoman that have died in combat shall be listed.  So too, for television and radio news organizations, as a requirement by the Federal Communications Commission,  a public service announcement in regards to war dead, shall be disbursed throughout this nation, as a courtesy and as a show of respect to these devoted soldiers.

Additionally, each Memorial day, it should be highly recommended and encouraged by this national government, that at places of eternal rest, the names of those that have died in service to their country over the last running twelve months, shall be read to the public, as a show of respect and of honor to our dearly departed.  We owe this hallowed roll call to those that gave all, on behalf of this great nation.

It is important to remember and never to forget those that have died on behalf of their nation, because when wars are being fought overseas, there is a tendency for the population, to be ignorant or somewhat forgetful of the fact that real men and real women, typically young in age, have died in the service of their nation, and that we, the living, have an inherent obligation, to make sure that their deaths have not been in vain, by resolving to do what we can to honor freedom, virtue, sacrifice, and courage, for these are the very things that make this country great.

It is vital to see war for what it really is, for war is always that inconvenient truth, that when mankind will not get along with each other, when mankind will not listen to reason, when mankind attempts to wrest away something that isn't theirs, when mankind refuses to compromise, and when mankind insists that the battleground is the only appropriate place to resolve disputes, than soldiers will die, good soldiers, and may we the living do our best to see that their deaths have not been for naught.

Nazi Atrocities and American Copycats

The German Nazis' of World War II infamy are vilified as the most inhumane, vicious, callous, and despicable lot of all modern history, especially in regards to their scale of human misery that they wrought, and in particular, their treatment towards basically innocent civilians, was both sick and tragic.   For instance, the Nazis' deliberately targeted those of the Jewish faith, in which, if they could not coercively convince these people to emigrate from their nation, then they thereby took the most drastic of all steps, and forthrightly, rounded them up and summarily executed them.  So too, the Nazis' made it a point that those that could not carry their own weight, because they were aged and feeble, or newborns with various disabilities, they then were all subject to euthanasia, for those that were of no obvious utility value to the fatherland, were disposed of, as useless human garbage.  The German Nazis' also took those that were considered to be "gypsies", found them to be enemies of the state, and rounded them up and executed them, for the ostensible crime of living a nomadic live with their own customs and beliefs which since they did not fit in with German Nazi culture, thereby were found to be inferior to the Nazis', and hence eradicated.

The German Nazis' lost the war and history has not been kind to the German Nazis' for what they did, for what they believed, and for their 'master race' philosophy, all of which, one might think, are completely dead and deeply buried.  Yet, we don't need to look far whatsoever, to see, that Nazism, in a different cloak, is alive and well and rather mainstream in America, today.  For instance, in 1973, the infamous Roe v. Wade decision was passed by the Supreme Court, stipulating that on a national level, the rights and privacy of the woman, superseded any possible rights that her fetus could have, meaning that abortions "on demand" was now the law of the land.  Since that time, as estimated by lifenews.com, 58,586,256 abortions have been performed in America.  As might be expected, for a decision of such import, abortions, are not considered by all to be wholly tragic or unfortunate, especially for those that recognize that the principle driving force behind the legalization and the normalization of abortion, was those that were supporters of eugenics, which is the destruction and elimination of those being born that were unfit, and, in particular, abortion as being a means to keep and to reduce the birthrate of the poor, of which, in America, the poor have been always overly represented by people of color.

So too, America, has begun to expose itself in regards to euthanasia, in which, five States of the Union as well as the District of Columbia, have legalized assisted suicide, signifying that the state has taken a vested interest in seeing that those whose utility value are suspect, should sacrifice themselves, so as to not be a burden to the state.  Then, this nation, which proved the point that those of a different race, despite being born in America as well as being citizens of America, can, in times of an emergency or war, with no actionable evidence to substantiate them as being dangerous in whole or a menace to society, be forcefully removed from their own private property, forced to sell their own businesses, and rounded up like cattle, which is what America did to those of Japanese descent during World War II.  At this time, the executive branch is motivated, to take this very same play, to preclude those of the Muslim faith from first entering this country, and no doubt, with the very best legal minds that can twist or turn the Constitution as they so desire, and pliant judges eager to placate such, can create laws, which will serve to round up American citizens of the Muslim faith and categorically displace them.

America has the audacity to believe that it has been blessed by God, perhaps so, but it is well to remember that God's terrible and avenging justice will one day awaken from its present-day slumber.

We need a radical revolution of values

On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "Beyond Vietnam" speech in NYC.  In that speech, made fifty years ago, he stated: "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."  How sad and how unfortunate, that we discover two score and ten years later that King's incredibly prescient warning, demonstrates that the very things King knowingly warned us about, sadly do define what America actually represents and what it is, today.

For instance, machines and computers, have become ubiquitous in our society, which while on one hand, these machines and computers have provided material benefits and efficiencies of scale that have markedly improved our lives, they are also the very same instruments and programs that have allowed this government, favored industries, and its military-policing-justice apparatus, to never hold more people in their thrall, as these powerful and invasive instruments have sucked and vacuumed away the very freedoms that are the bedrock foundation of America, a land that was created to respect and protect individual liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.  So too, as major stock market indexes seemingly hit new highs routinely, this is celebrated by certain segments of the population as if this is a meaningful achievement, but broken down to its very core, when profits of a corporation are more important than in aggregate the people that work as part of that corporation, in addition to consumers of such products being viewed by these corporations as people to be exploited in order to enrich those profits, than that edifice as structured is foundationally wrong.  Then, there are property rights, things such as eminent domain or its equivalencies, in which laws are misapplied or distorted, so that people are moved about as if they are nothing but inconveniences, so that the property owners or property beneficiaries can maximize their property interests for their benefit, no matter the cost to those humans whose rights are effectively trivialized and trampled upon.

When the people of these United States, are treated as if they are mere pawns to an elite that runs the show, than it becomes a state vested interest to help sow discord and unfairness, by undercutting civil right laws, by effectively ignoring them or gerrymandering them, so that the races are kept on a functioning basis: unequal, separated, and at odds with one another, as if there is an economic pie of opportunity and income that is fixed, so that the sharing of and cooperation towards is discouraged, and replaced instead with a zero-sum dog-eat-dog attitude.  So too, businesses of all stripes and industries, rely upon pervasive advertising of all sorts, across all mediums to help convince and to propagandize to the often credulous public, that their products are the very products that they need in order to feel free, to be somebody, to fit in, to have and to own, knowing all of the time, that this is really a sophisticated game of sleight of hand.   Then, we have the military budget of America which keeps getting bigger and bigger each and every year, as well as America's long footprint across the oceans of this world, which touches down everywhere and anywhere.  This military acclaims and the pliant politicians that dance to them claim, that there are dangers here, there, and everywhere, of which only a strong military and overwhelming power can keep back these barbarians that are at our gates, in which, truth be told, behind the curtain, there is nothing but an automated recording that plays similar versions of the same tired tone over and over again.

Regrettably, values have gotten worse in America, far worse, than what they were fifty years ago, in which, at that time, there really was a chance to change our path, and to truly become that beacon of light, to really become that golden door, but now that door is ancient, and severely tarnished with both mud and grime, and that bright beacon of light now barely flickers.  We, the people, are being conquered by the machinery of the system run by the elites, so that the dream of what could be is nearly strangled, and our collective nightmare runs riot.

Being financially penalized for being born white

America likes to believe the lie and to propagandize the lie that all are treated equally in this country, and further that this is a country of meritocracy, in which all have the equal ability to rise up to the upper echelons of society, and while there is truth in that type of sentiment, it is not the whole truth, and there is absolutely nothing about present day America that substantiates in whole such a premise, whatsoever.  In point of fact, America's favored race is white, it has been white, since the inception of this country, and there isn't any good reason to believe that it won't be white for the foreseeable future, so those that spout such nonsense in regards to racial bias being a thing of the past, or believe that our civil right laws, and equal opportunity laws, and affirmative action laws, have somehow done enough or are doing enough to compensate and protect those that are not the favored race, are deceiving themselves.

The bottom line is that in aggregate, blacks and American Indians have the worst public education facilities to receive their "education" from, they have the worst net worth, they have the worst net income, they have the worst economic opportunity, and only lead whites in dubious categories such as incarceration, arrests, violence, illicit drug usage, and so on and so forth.  While, there are many reasons that this is so, the most fundamental reason for them all is location, location, and location.  That is to say, American Indians are typically treated as wards of the state, though they are tribal nations, ostensibly sovereign nations, they are in effect, economically disadvantaged and given little opportunity to ever find meaningful gainful employment, poorly educated, subject to substance abuse, and treated, at best by our national government, with benign neglect.  Blacks, have for the most part, seldom been fully integrated into society, that is to say, there are white areas of town and there are black areas of town, but there are few truly integrated areas of town that proportionally represent each of the races as if race was truly random, rather instead there is an implicit amount of blacks that will be permitted within a given section of a town, and when that implicit inflection point is surpassed, the whites will flee.  This means, in effect, that many blacks don't really go to integrated schools, rather they attend schools of lesser quality, of lesser safety, of lesser budgets, that are, in effect, separate, unequal, and unacceptable.

Imagine though, somehow it has become mandated by American law, that all lawful pregnancies must now be done with surrogates and through in vitro fertilization, and further to the point, that in order to balance the American budget, a law has been duly passed entitled "The Reproductive Re-balancing of Progeny Act", in which those that want their offspring to be white, have to pay a financial penalty in order to be permitted to  do so, or if not, then their children will only be allowed to be born as black or American Indian.   One might think if color didn't really matter, and recognizing that the child would still be yours to love and to cherish, that a significant amount of people, might not have issues with this, and if so, racism, sort of like the dream line of communism, would sort of wither away.  Then again, this is America, white people are not stupid, and they know that as the favored race, it's like having a perpetual head start for everything, so they certainly would not want to willingly give up the privilege of being that favored race, especially for their children, so they would pay and they would pay dearly to have their children be born white, and that is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Sales Tax on Home Purchases

The given sales tax rate that an individual pays is State dependent as well as subject to county, borough, city, or other special sales tax assessments that may be applied.  In America, there are five States that do not have a statewide sales tax, which are Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire, Alaska, and Delaware, though Alaska, for example, does have some boroughs that separately charge a sales tax.  When it comes to exemptions from sales tax, there are all sorts of exemptions for all sorts of things, with the biggest exemption being materials that are bought for resale, which aren't charge a sales tax, until such a time, as that the material has been made into its final product, as well as groceries in many States are either not taxed at all, or are taxed at a significantly reduced tax rate.  In any event, unless you live in one of the States which has no sales tax,  most people pay sales tax routinely, of which, the item that one would typically purchase that would have the greatest sales tax impact in aggregate, would be one's vehicle, in which, a purchase at the average new vehicle price of $33,560 would if one is also paying the average sales tax rate of around 7% would mean that the sales tax collected on the sale of that vehicle would be $2349, a not inconsiderable amount of money. 

The foregoing, makes you wonder, why States don't charge a sales tax on each home purchase, although the simplest argument against such, is the fact that homes have yearly property taxes that an owner must pay each year which seems sufficient and perhaps fair.  The thing is, though, a sales tax is a one-time tax, so those purchasing a house, could reasonably be expected to come up with the money to pay that one-time sales tax, especially as the most common mortgages are at thirty years in length.  Also, keep in mind, that sales taxes in general, have special exemptions, and different rates depending upon certain items that are purchased, signifying that States in conjunction with their localities, could setup a sales tax so that it is progressive, or exempts the first $100,000 of the purchase price of the home, and so on and so forth. 

While, no doubt, purchasers of homes as well as the realtor business would be up in arms in regards to a sales tax being assessed against home sales, the bottom line is that sales tax in every single State that has one, didn't originally exist in any of those States to begin with.  In addition, the beauty of a sales tax for individual States is that the money is collected on behalf of that State, in addition to its localities, boroughs, cities, or counties, signifying that a sales tax so collected would be able to be re-distributed throughout the State.  So too, the very people that can afford to purchase a home to begin with, or the exact same people that can afford to pay a sales tax on the purchase of a home, so the wherewithal would still be there, and, in fact, a good argument could be made, that the implementation of a sales tax, would reduce somewhat speculation on homes, and would in its impact, help to stabilize further the housing market pricing mechanism.

In point of fact, State governments are always at least thinking about sources of revenues, so that, rather than like Arizona, which strangely imposes a small monthly rental tax on renters, they should instead look to charge the buyers of the housing product, a sales tax, for they are the owners, and most material purchases in this country have a mandated sales tax imposed.

The Constitution v. Government Control

America has a wonderful Constitution, which has stood us well for over two hundred years, but rights, even natural rights, unfortunately, can expand or contract, depending upon the governmental apparatus that the population has to contend with.  Today's government in virtually every aspect has never been more invasive into the privacy of individuals, for truly, it can be said, that the government knows everything about you, and that knowledge gives that government incredible leverage over the individual, for the government and all its resources impressed upon a given citizen, means that that citizen has no chance, of being able to stand their ground, unless that citizen's ground is combined witha Constitution of real substance, for without that, all is surely lost.

Our Constitution bestows upon us many rights, rights that are ours, but these rights can be wrested from us, if the courts, if the legislature, and if the executive branch, corrupt such, to benefit those that effectively run the government as they so desire.  For instance, we somewhat take for granted that we can speak, write, worship, and think, whatever that we want to be, but in actuality, our words, our speeches, our worship, are all under surveillance virtually all of the time, for the implicit privacy that we believe that we have when we are on our cell phones, or on the internet, or through email, or attending our church or our mosque, is subject to observance and recording because when we are either out in public, or utilizing a public network, or the event or service is open to the public, than such recordings or observation can be made, and with today's powerful computers, algorithms, and overall processing and correlating abilities, the government has the ability to comprehensively and fundamentally know who and what we are about, which is knowledge that they can exploit to their benefit, if need be.

That is to say, nobody is hardly free, if what they are saying, if what they are reading, if what they are writing, and if what they are doing, is being recorded, processed, and analyzed on a real-time daily basis, by a government that certainly does not answer to the people, but is a power onto itself.   When we were little children, our parents and teachers had a responsibility to watch over us and to correct us, for our own safety and for our own betterment, for they had at their core, our best interests in mind.  On the other hand, the government does not love us rather they want to categorize us, as either friend or foe, so as to have the upper hand upon us, meaning that we may have to consciously amend our behavior so as to become more compliant with governmental desires or decrees, because we are fearful of governmental power, unleashed directly or indirectly upon us.

All of this combined, means that inexorably and relentlessly, we have ceded nearly completely our public space to the government, and implicitly virtually all communication forms as well, so that citizens are left only with their freedom of thought, but even this last bastion of freedom, cannot long stand against a government that has the technology and wherewithal to act upon that as well.

The slave Trade was abolished in 1807-1808

The primary reason that so many slaves came to the West Indies, Brazil, and America, was that they were taken from their African origins and transported to these other countries, by the running and usage of ships specifically made for that very purpose.  In both America as well as Great Britain, there was a moral outrage that certain human beings were treated as chattel, forcefully taken from their homeland, and bought, treated, and sold as if they were cattle.  Although many saw this injustice and desired strongly to outlaw slavery, the practicalities of that day and age dictated that this was politically impossible, so instead, alternatively, they were able to enact in 1807 laws that abolished the slave trade (the United States law to this effect was passed in 1807, but came into effect on January 1, 1808).  The passage of this significant piece of legislature seem to signify that since the territories controlled by the British Empire as well as the United States itself, would no longer be legally importing slaves that this would over a period of time, reduce significantly slave populations, which basically became true for the British Empire but not for America.  The most meaningful reason why American slave populations actually rose each decade after the slave trade was abolished, is that America for the most part, did not have the same sorts of diseases such as yellow fever and malaria that decimated so many slaves in the West Indies, as well as the fact that despite the illegality of the slave trade, slaves were still imported in significant numbers into America. 

Though both America and Great Britain had navies, Great Britain's navy was the strongest and the most powerful navy in the world, in which, Great Britain devoted resources and time to eradicating illegal slave running from Africa to the territories that were part of the British empire and were fairly successful in so doing.  America, on the other hand, devoted minimal energies to interdict slave trafficking, in addition to the fact, that rather than importing slaves through ports it had previously used while the slave trade was legal, had many of their newly trafficked slaves imported through Texas and Florida, of which neither became a State of the union, until 1845.   So that, while the eliminating of slave trafficking in the British empire led to its logical conclusion which was the eradication of slavery, itself, by British Parliament in 1833; regrettably, on the other hand, in America, the slave population increased from as reported in the United States census at 1,191,362 slaves in 1810 to an incredible 3,953,761 slaves in 1860, this during a time period when the importation of slaves into America was illegal!  No doubt, part of this increase could be attributed to the slave population increasing through reproduction, but a significant amount of this increased number came from the illegal slave importation, so that, when the slave trade act in America was passed in 1807, the impression that by so doing, that slavery would over the years, gradually fade away and thereby become less and less of an economic necessity or need, was found to be wholly false, instead, the issue became such a conflict and inimical to what America represents, that a great civil war was fought, in order to resolve this issue which had torn this country asunder.

Laws, in general, are only as good as the equal application of that law as well as the equal enforcement of such.  In Great Britain, the abolishment of the slave trade did indeed lead to the abolishment of slavery, of which, this was done without revolution and a minimum of bloodshed.  In America, the abolishment of the slave trade, led to a certain segment of the population ignoring such, for they knew that they would suffer not, until such time, when a President was elected that they feared would call them to account, in which, this led to the fateful steps that abolished slavery in America, but not until thousands upon thousands died in this just but bloody cause.

You are meant to make the world a better place

There are those that believe that we live in a zero-sum world, that is to say, a world in which there is a limited amount of good stuff, and thereby the object of the game is to get as much as you can of the good stuff, and hence the devil takes the hindmost.  This type of selfishness is created by the false belief that there is a limited amount of good stuff in the first place, but in actuality the limits placed on mankind, are the limits of his imagination, his skills, his throughput, his efforts, and his teamwork, so that limits that are imposed, are self-imposed, and a zero-sum world view is wrong, for the sum of all its parts will either grow or even shrink, depending upon how mankind cooperates or not with one another.

Certainly, the first issue that must be considered is the mindset that each of us has, in which, fair to say, those that have troubling or selfish mindsets, probably aren't going to be doing or thinking the things that makes the world better for them having been here.  That is to say, wrong thinking, leads to wrong actions, though truth be told, because we are gifted with free will, we are therefore free to choose what to do or not to do, but recognize that the corollary of free will, is that we must surely reap what we sow, for better or for worse.  After all, it is pure folly to believe that what we do and how we act, does not have consequences especially for those that we deal with on a daily basis, of which, while we cannot control what others actually do or don't do, we have a responsibility to recognize that our interactions with others have influence upon them, for good or for evil.  This means, in recognition of such that we should want to behave in such a manner that we provide a benefit for others, and not a hindrance, for in having done right we are doing our part to increase enlightenment, as opposed to darkness and ignorance.

So too, recognize the logic that if each person in their own way, is helping to make the world a better place for their being here, than that world will bit by bit, step by step, good act by good act, will become that better place.  The type of change that so many profess that they want, cannot happen overnight, for it starts in the hearts of mankind, then their actions, then their persistence, then their caring, and then their love, in which, all that, put together, consistently, will result in a better world.  For if the world is not made in the image that you wish that it was the fault is most definitely not in the stars, but in us.  No doubt, most people will proclaim that they lack the power or the influence to affect change, which is only true in the sense that they lack some powerful magic wand, but that isn't what we need to worry about, what we need to worry about and concentrate upon is the people that we deal with day-by-day, in which, we must endeavor to do right by these people, in things big and small, every single day. 

Endeavor to make the world a better place by beginning with yourself, so as to better yourself and then endeavor to help others as you can to be better themselves.  Do this, and your life and this world will be better for you having done so.

The squeeze on the middle class

In America, there are the super-elite represented by the very rich and the very powerful, though there is also represented in America a very significant underclass that will seemingly never get away from being that permanent underclass, in addition to a middle class that finds that as reported by pewglobal.org that it has contracted from 62% of the population in 1991 to 59% in 2010.  Further to the point, in comparison to eleven other Western European nations, America while having the highest percentage of  their adult population classified as upper income, also has the lowest percentage classified as middle income, while unfortunately also having the highest percentage classified as lower income, indicating that the disparity of incomes is far higher in America than all other Western European countries, in which such disparity is very troubling, considering that in aggregate America is the richest nation in the world and should therefore logically have the lowest percentage of lower income adults, which it most definitely does not.

One of the biggest changes in America, since 1991, is how much smaller the world has become, as business, in effect, has become globalized, which for certain mega-corporations in America, is good, because being able to successfully market and sell their products abroad, helps immensely the growth as well as the bottom line of these corporations.  Unfortunately, the skew of income numbers, indicates, that this globalization, primarily benefits the few in America at the expense of the many.  That is to say, when the production of goods can be done outside of the United States, for a cheaper overall price, than more goods will and are being manufactured overseas.  Additionally, labor itself, is often utilized where it can be procured more cheaply, which means that labor has become more globalized, especially in consideration, that multi-national companies often have their footprints all over the globe, making it logical for such companies to employ workers from the countries that they do business in.  All of this combined, means that the middle class is becoming squeezed in America, because jobs that once went to Americans, have been transferred overseas, to new emerging middle class people in countries such as China, in which those middle class people, buy as well as create and manufacture the goods that used to be manufactured domestically, which obviously helps the bottom line and growth of companies, but does little to help the lower and middle class people of the United States.

This means that the type of progressive thinking, made, by example, Henry Ford back over 100 years ago, in which Mr. Ford more than doubled the average daily factory wage for his auto workers, leading to the inception of the industrial middle class, while improving both productivity as well as sales, has been replaced by the rather simplistic mathematical formula, which is if it can be built cheaper overseas, and/or if employees are willing to work at lower wages, than by all means, do that.   In fact, that is exactly what so many multi-national companies have done, so that those in the cat bird's seat are making money hand over fist, whereas those in the middle class, find that they are more and more competing not against fellow Americans, but global employees, in which Americans historically have been fortunate to command a premium for their labor services over the years, based on their knowhow, technology, location, knowledge, productivity, and efficiency, but have seen that come under assault more and more by the globalization of labor and manufacturing, leading to lack of the necessity of a vibrant middle class in America, because there is more profit to be made by closing up domestic shop and leaving them behind.

Government Surveillance and Safety

As modern technology gets more and more sophisticated as well as more and more invasive, the common citizens of America are subject to being watched, monitored, and spied upon at unprecedented levels of which, most citizens, aren't consciously aware of how much information is being gathered by governmental agencies, of which, most of it is done under the guise of protection and security for the state against enemies foreign and domestic.

There isn’t anything quite sweeter, than government mouthpieces assuring the citizenry that their powerful and thorough surveillance tools are used only for the protection of the homeland of its citizens, of which, stories exaggerated or not, made-up or not, with fall guys or not, are then fed to the credulous media to be disseminated to the public in which the government surveillance state is shown to be the protector of the people.  While there might even be truth to this sort of propaganda, what is missing from the discussion is the fact that when the citizens cede or have usurped, all of their rights by design or by default to the government so that the government is permitted to see all in public, as well as to monitor internet traffic and cell phone traffic that may originate in private space, but will as a matter of course travel through "open" space allowing such to be "sniffed" by governmental authorities, than your life is an open book to the government, in which, at its discretion it can come after you, for violation of the law, for which, there is always some law, somewhere, that can be found to have been violated at some point, by everyone.

In point of fact, to give the government, the benefit of the doubt, the government seldom has an interest to go after most citizens, for most citizens are not, in fact, a clear and present danger to the government.  What the government really wants to do, though, is to consolidate and increase its power, apparently done for the benefit of the security of the nation, in which personal freedom is completely sacrificed, for the perceived protection of its citizens.  However, not too surprisingly, those citizens that are difficult, have unusual or provocative ideas, or dare to think outside of the box, are by virtue of these same ubiquitous surveillance tools susceptible to that government deliberating  targeting and neutralizing their dissent as well as their inconvenience to state agencies.  This, then in a nutshell, is the danger of a society in which its citizens have no freedom of assembly, no freedom of thought, no freedom of speech, because such freedoms have been eradicated in the service of state security.

A government that knows all about its citizens, is truly a government that has separated its apparatus in effect from the people, so that those governmental beneficiaries can now live and do whatever they so desire, recognizing that the law doesn't apply to them, whereas those that dare to stand in their way, are compromised, arrested, marginalized, or eliminated, with nary a soul to make a plea for their case, for to do so, will subject those voicing such concern, to suffer the punishment of the state that will broker no dissent, for either you are with the state, or you are enemies of the state.

Regulation of the Press, Religion, and Speech

Our forefathers fought a valiant battle to provide us with freedom, of which, that freedom consists of many important things, such as freedom of thought, freedom to find gainful employment, freedom of movement, freedom to conduct business on a consensual basis, as well as freedom of expression through speech and the press, and the freedom to worship or not worship as per the individual's desires.  These freedoms are the very essence of what this country stands for, enshrined in our Constitution and should as a matter of course, be freedoms that are well respected and well known by all citizens of America.

Alas, there are many inconvenient truths in life, as well as inconvenient untruths, that each of us must deal with on a constant basis, of which, for whatever reason, people are surprised again and again, that lies and damnable lies, are permitted to be spoken or written or worshipped to by individuals and institutions, in which some people, decry that such a thing could ever be possible or permitted.  This, unfortunately, is missing the forest for the trees, for if the only things that can be spoken of are just words that are truthful, if the only words that can be written are just words that are truthful, and the only worship permitted are contained within the established religion of a country, than you do not have freedom, you have instead created a government of censorship and regulation which is of itself, a violation of this Constitution.

If, the people, are not comfortable when words are spoken or written that are hateful, upsetting, not in conformance with one's one opinions or thoughts, lies, and so on and so forth, the appropriate responses to such are to ignore it, to respond to it, to argue against it, and so on and so forth, but an inappropriate response in this country, is to stipulate that because you heard or read something that you don't agree with, that therefore that speech or what has been written must be censored, and thereby going forward, further speech such as that, must be regulated by governmental oversight or fiat.

The above type of thinking is flawed, for either this is an open society, with true freedoms or it is not, it is either entirely one thing or entirely the other, because when a society is open, you are as a matter of course, going to come up against thoughts, words, and actions, that you may not agree with, but those expressing such are entitled to do so, with a very few notable exceptions, such as shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre.  On the other hand, if you believe that such thoughts, words, and actions, must be regulated, you are essentially requesting that the government or its equivalency shut those people up, thereby making each person and institution subject to governmental oversight, governmental regulation, and governmental punishment for expressing themselves in a manner or way that you or society doesn't approve of.

This is a country of free speech, of a free press, and of free worship, which should be the fundamental rights in any just society, for the appropriate discourse of ideas must allow the free exercise of one's own thoughts in order to help formulate a society that takes responsibility for their own actions and deeds, so as to become in whole, a more complete and better nation for its respect for diversity and free will, allowing each in their own way to have freedom and liberty.

Military Aerial Bombardment and the recoding of such

America lives to bomb other countries, for a lot of reasons, of which, two of the most important are that bombers are seldom taken down by anti-aircraft gunnery or other aircraft because of the sheer distance in height that the bombers are when dropping their bombs from the sky, in addition to the fact, that the American public, does not like their soldiers dying in foreign wars or foreign insurrections, so that if the job can be done from the sky with minimal risk for our soldiers, then so be it.  Of course, you would think the most important reason for bombing countries is that bombing works and does it job efficiently, but in actuality, bombing, by its very nature, destroys or damages, indiscriminately, an incredible amount of infrastructure of all sorts, as well as killing, maiming, and inconveniencing civilians.  So too, because the bombs are dropped from so high up in the air, the overall damage on the ground, is something that is difficult to fathom or to comprehend, signifying that the recording of bombing missions by commercial-based drones, modified for their tasks, by the military, then streams such videos to the "cloud" would be of invaluable feedback.  That is to say, bombing missions are mission specific, so that an aircraft that contained, for instance, several DJI Phantom 2 Quad-opter drones, in which each unit retails for less than $500 on Amazon, could possibly be used to record video, in which a hobbyist, has already created video as reported by popularmechanics.com, of such a drone recording video at an estimated 11,000 feet in the air. 

The logistics of how these modified commercial drones would be utilized in order to record bombing sorties, can be left up to the military geniuses to begin with, but it certainly seems possible in the realm of things, that such an expense would be trivial for what these drones would provide via streaming live recordings before their batteries run out, which would be the actual footage of the immediate aftermath of bombing missions done on foreign territories, and one could easily make the argument, that this feedback of what and how effective our bombing missions werewould have a meaningful impact going forward, for it isn’t enough for the military to simply state that a particular mission is successful, without a more comprehensive proof of what destruction was wrought by the bombing of a foreign target.

In an era in which the America public, in general, wants to see far less boots on the ground, so that our soldiers are not at risk, in addition to America being the default first source to venture into conflict areas, there should be an obligation to actually have footage of what exactly is occurring when bombs are dropped onto their targets, so that adjustments may be made by those conducting such sorties, to reduce unnecessary civilian harm, to reduce unnecessary civilian infrastructure destruction, and to thereby advise our military authorities as to the overall effectiveness of our military operations done through such aerial bombardment.  This means that inexpensive aerial drones that are structured to stream back live video would serve as our "eye in the sky" , providing raw and unedited footage that would help immensely in telling the tale of each mission launched.