The consent of the governed

The just powers of any government, be it local or national, comes forth only from the informed consent of those so governed, of which that government is one of both enumerated and limited authority, with obligations by that government, both expressed and implied to those that are part and parcel of that society.   That is to say, the primary reason why any legitimate government is instituted is for the benefit of the people that are contained within the aegis of that government, so as for that government to be of material aid to the people; for a people and society united, is of far more strength and wisdom, than of a people, that is both separated and at odds or competition one with another.

This signifies, that the closer that the government is to the people that it represents, such as in local civic councils, the better enactment the people will have that their desires and viewpoints are not only being heard and considered by those governmental representatives, but that they are also, more often than not, having those desires and viewpoints, implemented, for the greater good of that society. On the other hand, when it comes to national governments, it is of vital importance, that the national government does not ever come to the point in which it is so intrusive, powerful, overbearing, and beyond the people's voice, that the people are merely treated as a sideshow, while that national government does what the desires are of the privileged and connected elite as well as those well-placed institutions that utilize such for their benefit, and thereby at the expense of the people, as a whole.

Again, the only legitimate governments, no matter the size, are governments that have the informed consent of those so governed, because authorized governments are created by the people for the specific purpose to be of benefit to the people, and not for the purpose to benefit elitist elements of government, or in particular, entitled people, or favored institutions.  This is of vital importance, for each person is endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, and that when those rights are subsumed by governmental officials, the only legitimate reason why this would ever be so, would be because of the most extreme exigent circumstances, such as war, that necessitates the sacrifice of the people at that time, to thereby protect and to defend their nation, for the express purpose to maintain ultimately their unalienable rights, of freedom, liberty, life, and their pursuit of happiness.

When any government, have taken from the people any or all of their unalienable rights, under circumstances that are not exigent and are not transient, and especially when they are done so that the government can control and exploit the people for the benefit of that government or those that are the hidden powers of that government, than such a government as that is not legitimate, and it is thereby the  right of the people to see that it be dissolved; for the only legitimate government is a government that is of, for, and by the people, and that the people have given their informed consent to.

A free and independent press is that inconvenient truth

Our First Amendment to the Constitution tells us that "Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…", of which it is this law that allows the people and the press to report and to disseminate information that represents the truth so that the people are fairly informed of what all is occurring in their communities and in their country, at large.  To the degree that the press reports the news, without thought as to conforming to the norms of the day, or to the prevailing viewpoint of those powers in charge, but rather holds itself responsible to be in accordance with the highest law, which is truth, than the people surely are well served.

Unfortunately, many governments and communities often don’t have a real desire to see the whole truth and nothing but the truth being printed and disseminated to their constituents, because their mission is often not one of being fully upfront and honest with the people, but rather has a lot more to do with creating a construct in which the news is mainly reported in a manner that supports the powers to be, while suppressing those that are the dissenting voices to that power. 

One might think that in today's world, with the internet, blogs, and social media of all types, that never has it been easier for people to get a hold of information that is outside the orthodox mainstream. While this is true to a certain extent, it does not take into account, all of the distractions and the "noise" of the internet, blogs, and social media, and fails to recognize that alternative media voices are no match to how pervasive and how powerful mass media has become, so that, to a very large extent, the mass media has an iron grip upon what is and isn't reported, as well as what is and isn't talked about. 

The most basic reason with why the public is not fully informed about the issues of the day has an awful lot to do with money and the influence that money has upon what the press so writes.  That is, most media companies, be it radio, television, or print, have a need to take in revenue, and a significant portion of that revenue comes from advertisers, as opposed to individual subscribers, and those advertisers have thereby an outsized influence over what is or isn't going to be reported, so that the press is quite obviously compromised in what and how it subsequently reports news.  So too, governments have an outsized influence upon the press because governments can exert pressure of all sorts upon those institutions that are not reporting the news in general conformance with that government's desires, as well as governmental institutions are also able to setup quid pro quo deals that further muddies the whole truth from coming forth, and finally governments can simply provide favors only to those that the government approves of.

A robust and independent free press that reports what is really going on, is that inconvenient truth, affecting all those that have their reasons as to why they do not want the whole truth being circulated throughout the public; primarily because those vested interests often maintain their status, position, and power, by manipulating what purports to be the truth in a manner that supports them, at the expense of the whole truth, and to the public's loss.

The informational advantage of those that are our representatives

Many of the people that are selected to be our governmental representatives are voted into public office by the people, of which, the primary purpose of those representatives is to represent the people for the benefit of those people as a whole.  Those that represent the people and the adjutants to them, are often privy to all sorts of information, of which some of that information is rightly proprietary and necessitates some degree of secrecy; whereas, a great deal of that information demands to be and needs to be, transparent and openly discussed with the people.

In regards to information as a whole, and in consideration that our representatives often play an integral role in a significant amount of legislation contemplated and thereby subsequently passed, or in regulations contemplated and thereby subsequently passed, or the rejecting of such legislation or regulations, as well as everything that involves directly or indirectly business, community, and financial decisions of all sorts, than quite obviously those governmental representatives are knowledgeable of a great deal of information that could be used to their own personal advantage, and/or the advantage of well-placed individuals or businesses.

In point of fact, the taking advantage of inside information, before it is disseminated to the public at large, is done time and time again, of which, those that are knowledgeable of that information, are able to benefit from that information, financially as well as in other ways that increase or augment the power of those having such knowledge.  This thus means that, for instance, in regards to specific legislation that directly impacts a given publicly traded company, that those that are aware ahead of time of what the resolution of that legislation will be, and specifically know such before the public as a whole is aware of it, can utilize that knowledge for their gain.  This means that a small subset of well placed people is able to thereby benefit at the expense of the public as a whole, which is neither fair nor right.

Again and again, those that are aware of valuable information, before the general public is aware of this same information, in regards to zoning, or regulations, or specific tax set asides, and so on and so forth, are thereby able to take that information and either monetize it directly, or via a quid pro quo, swap such for future consideration.   The only conceivable workaround to resolve such abuse, is for governmental officials and legislators, from big to small, to be far more transparent and open than they currently are, as well as being subject to far more public oversight by independent citizen councils and press agents, along with having a robust internal affairs department specifically built and conceived to stymie such selfish behavior.

Those that are truly honorable are able to deal responsibly with all the information that they are privy to and though they could take selfish advantage of, they specifically do not, and thereby by holding themselves to that higher standard that they owe to their constituency, they then stay true to the code and honor that they owe their people, for they are the firstly the people's representative.

The middle class is being grounded down

One definition of the middle class is to divide the wealth of America into five quintiles, of which the second through fourth quintiles represent the middle class; whereas the first quintile represents the upper class, and the bottom quintile represents the lower class.  According to brookings.edu, "The top 20 percent held 77 percent of total household wealth in 2016, more than triple what the middle class held…" and further, "… the top one percent alone holds more wealth than the middle class…"  This signifies that in America, the wealth disparity between those that have and those that are the backbone of America is astonishingly high, and that disparity is the prevailing reason why a significant percentage of middle class Americans are uneasy about not only their current position as it is, but are very concern about future generations as well as their fair opportunity to make something further of themselves.

That is to say, when a significant percentage of middle class Americans essentially live paycheck to paycheck, and therefore are susceptible to not being able to keep their bills current, are thereby especially in danger, if one of the members of their family loses their job for whatever reason, or if someone suffers an unexpected health crisis, or if they encounter some other unanticipated major expense; then this, quite obviously, cannot possibly be healthy for the American middle class as a whole.

In consideration, that America is the richest nation in aggregate in the world, one might think and basically one would expect, that the core of America, its middle class, would be secure not only in their employment, but also in their living, but this really isn't the situation whatsoever for many of those that are part of the middle class.  When anyone, is employed at will, but are obligated to make payments, for example, on a mortgage for thirty years, and/or to make payments on their vehicle for five years or even longer, then what has occurred, is that the person that has taken on that long term debt, is trying to pay back and to stay current on that debt, often with a job that is not guaranteed to even be there, over that same period of time.

On the other hand, those that are very rich, have the best of the best of what America has, and more than enough to take care of not only their own self and family, but the ready assets to setup future generations to live just as well.  That type of disparity between those that have, though they might indeed have worked hard, as compared to all those that are struggling mightily to maintain their position, is in its very nature going to create tension and unease within this nation, for the vast majority of Americans are not stupid, but are cognizant that it doesn't seem fair that so few have so much, and that so many, have so little.

There was a time, not so long ago, when unions were both stronger and relevant, when many employees were entitled to pensions from their company jobs, when those jobs were secure, and when taxation in all of its myriad forms, was truly progressive, but those days are now firmly in the past.  Any nation in which the top 1% has more wealth than the 60% that represents the middle class is a nation in which the rich live at the expense of the middle class, and the middle class effectively serves the rich.    That isn't healthy for that nation, it isn't right, and it need not and should not be that way, in what purports to be a free and democratic country.

90 million dogs and an awful lot of dog waste to deal with

Human beings have gotten appreciably better at picking up after their dog has done their personal business, of which, at the present time most of that dog waste is thereupon placed into a plastic bag, in which, ultimately that plastic bag is deposited into the trashcan of that person's property, in which its final resting place is the landfill.  Logically, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense that people utilize a sophisticated sewage system to take care of their human waste, effectively; whereas for dogs, of which, some of these dogs can weigh upwards to 100 pounds, have their waste, untreated, thereupon placed into a plastic bag, and ultimately deposited into a landfill.

For eons of years the waste of animals, and particularly barnyard animals, have often been utilized as a form of manure, and in recent years, as even a form of biogas and fuel producer.  It doesn't take any real stretch of imagination to understand that considering all the dogs and their waste that is produced each and every day, that simply throwing away their waste into a landfill is not the best solution for taking care of this issue in a sustainable and meaningful way, which has taken into proper consideration the possible productive uses of dog waste.

All of the above, would seem to indicate that just as it has taken a long period of time to encourage dog owners to deal with their dog waste proactively and responsibility; that the next and necessary step to take thereafter is to be one in which that dog waste once collected is dealt with in a way that will utilize such waste for a purpose that will ultimately put that waste to good use; for it is known that dog waste, properly dealt with, can create good compost as well as biogas.

This would signify that more communities should educate the public about the value of being a good dog owner by their recognition of the need of ultimately depositing dog waste into well located and designated, community dog waste bins that would thereby collect that waste for the very purpose of creating good compost with it, or possibly biogas.

Again, it's a fallacy to believe that the mere picking up of dog waste and then the deposit of it into one's trashcan has somehow made that dog waste, disappear; though, it is true that it is now out of sight, yet, it is also true, that landfills are not the ideal best resting place for dog waste, and therefore a more comprehensive solution is necessary of which, the voluntary participation by dog owners to these community programs addressing such, is of absolute importance.

Those that are pastoral farmers, are experts at not wasting the waste so produced by their animals, of which, this is of benefit not only for those pastoral farmers, but to the society as a whole. Those that own dogs should want to do their part to see that they are also responsible stewards by having the same sort of progressive mindset.

The volatility of stock markets

Just about every investor in the stock market is there as an investor primarily to make money on their investments.  Further to that point, most investors seek and deeply desire to get consistent and reliable returns from that stock market.  This thus means that a consistent, expected, and non-volatile return is the ideal for most investors; but the stock market does not guarantee this, and for a certainty, will not provide this over the long term, though there may be times when the volatility and the market behave in a manner that appears both reliable and predictable.

In point of fact, it is fair to state, that the more volatile the stock market is, the more dangerous such a market is to investors, for when confidence levels are breached for investors, for whatever reason, this increases the volatility, and the more volatile a given market is, the more extreme it will be in its performance, whether it be up or more likely, down.  In general, markets with low volatility have a tendency to be markets that are going up, for the very basic reason, that confident money has a tendency to maintain its status, for it does not fear, and in absence of that fear, it rides along with the prevailing trend.  On the other hand, when markets are volatile, because, for instance, of unexpected and unforeseen events, confidence in any stock, can be breached, and once that confidence is breached, all sorts of havoc may ensue, in which the natural state for investors is to seek safe haven, which thereby takes precedence over greed and at times, basic sensibility.  This signifies, that those that are in a market in which all is well, and are accustom to the general predictability and reliability of that market, that they not only have a tendency to invest more, because of their confidence in such, but also because of their complacency that such will continue for an unspecified period of time, and thereby they essentially lose their fear of that market ever becoming volatile or dangerous to their investments.  So then, when the inevitable happens, and volatility rises considerably for reasons known or unknown, these investors, that have relaxed their normal diligence in their investments, will typically have an overreaction when they come to the newfound belief, that the sky is falling, and this thereby adds to that volatility and helps to accelerate a down market into coming to full fruition.

The bottom line is that markets do rise and fall, and also they are subject to low as well as high volatility; and as to the belief that the market is ever efficient -- this is a belief that is erroneous, because the prices of stocks are forever changing, even when the market is relatively quiescent. So that, a market in which those that are invested in it, do so because of its low volatility and seemingly steady direction, will be very shaken when that future that they have envisioned is upended, for whatever reason, and thereby when the prevailing direction of that market turns down, and the volatility does come roaring back, many of those investors will thereupon add to their own troubles and increase volatility even more, by panicking, in which, suddenly that which appeared to be normal and reasonable, no longer appears that way.

The art of self-distancing

Basically, self-distancing is changing one's perspective on a given traumatic event or situation, in which, instead of living or re-living that event in the here and now, a person through the power of their mind, essentially stands back from their own self, and takes on therefore the guise of a third person perspective, so that the event is no longer seen as being strictly personal, but rather has morphed into something that is perceived as impersonal.  Those that are successful at self-distancing are able to essentially take something that is real and by the virtue of their stepping away from the here and now, are able to distance themselves in a manner in which they are able to achieve perspective, and hence, are less stressed about how a given event unfolded.

Self-distancing does not have anything to do with denying what has occurred, it merely is an aid for the benefit of that person, that makes it far easier to thereby not overreact and therefore to not suffer undue anxiety about a situation that perhaps may be overwhelming, in that moment.  In other words, when people have suffered a mighty blow to their psyche, such a blow can be quite debilitating; whereas, by the usage of self-distancing, a given person is able to take such a blow and is far better at discerning that things are probably not nearly as dire as they might appear to the emotionally overwrought.

In point of fact, far too many people, take themselves far too seriously, in which, for instance, arguments often blow up to insane proportions, simply because neither party, will consider backing off, and thereby self-distancing themselves from the situation -- therefore, continuing to intensify what doesn't need to be intensified. The whole point of self-distancing is to calm things down, which is something that is going to occur at some point, anyway; and the sooner that this is done, the less the damage that will be done, for far more damage is done by those that are too wound up, to recognize that they have lost control of their good mind.

So too, people have a tendency to beat themselves up about things that they regret doing, or have had happen to themselves, in which they re-live these tragic events, over and over again, in which, the re-living, doesn't seem to resolve much of anything or serve to reduce the tension so felt.  A far better way, though, to address regretful and tragic actions, is to practice the art of self-distancing, in order to gain that perspective that will help still the terrible winds of wrongful things so felt; and will aid in the clearing of our minds of the wrong belief that we can never escape a mindset of being trapped forever in a particular place or time. 

Remember this, forgiveness, practiced correctly, is really the art of self-distancing and therefore the obtaining of the proper perspective on that which is being forgiven.  After all, forgiveness is the letting go of former things and self-distancing is akin to the pathway to the very same thing.

Crime

In recent years, the United States violent crime rate as well as the property crime rate has come down considerably from their highs back in and around 1990.  Not too surprisingly, when crime is trending down, there are all sorts of people and organizations that wish to take credit for this being so, of which the general belief is that a stronger police presence, especially in known "hot spots" and the correspondingly higher incarceration of incorrigible criminals is the prevailing reason of why crime has gone down, which seems somewhat logical, but isn't nearly the whole truth.

In point of fact, violent crimes and property crimes are committed for all sorts of reasons, of which, poverty, lack, ill education, family dysfunction, impulsiveness, bad decision making, discrimination, the lethality of weapons, and hopelessness are always going to be salient factors.  The fact that there is a fair amount of crime in America, should not be a big surprise, because America has all sorts of issues in regards to the fabric of its being, of which, those issues have never been successfully resolved or ameliorated, and are therefore a constant scourge to its social fabric.

What many pundits seem to forget when it comes to crime, is that crime ultimately is conducted by human beings, of which, those human beings live in communities, and to the extent that a given community is engaged positively with those that are part and parcel of that community, this most definitely makes a significant difference about the amount of crime so committed within and around those neighborhoods.  That is to say, a neighborhood in which the good citizens of it, are effectively hiding behind bars in their own homes, and will not allow their children to roam the streets, is a neighborhood that quite clearly has ceded control of those streets to the criminal element.  On the other hand, a neighborhood, that makes it their point to be neighborly, and to thereby know each of its residents to the degree that it is possible, as well as believing in the importance of community upkeep, common courtesy, communication, respect, and concern, is going to be a neighborhood that will have less crime.

In other words, how people, engage with one another in and around their neighborhood, is a significant factor as to whether crime does occur there or not.  Those communities that demonstrate more cohesiveness, more often than not, are going to have less crime, because crime breeds so much better, in areas that lack hope, opportunity, and accountability.  This thus means, that crime does not just happen, for there indeed are often proximate reasons as to why it is occurring; so that crime can be mitigated to some degree or even to a large degree, by the very people that live within those communities, when they make it their point to do something constructive about that crime by becoming more involved with one another.  That is to say, people that really know each other, and have a real concern about their neighbors and what is going on within their neighborhood, and are willing to be of aid one to another, are going to invariably reduce crime, because those that take responsibility for one another, have created bonds that will not easily be broken by those that are contemplating crime.

Nuclear bombs have not been used in warfare in 75 years

The only time that nuclear bombs have been utilized in something other than the testing of, was in August of 1945, in which, regrettably, the United States, used not just one but on two different occasions, dropped a nuclear bomb upon Japan.  The devastating destruction of those bombs was catastrophic and led to the death of approximately 200,000 peoples, or possibly more, of which the vast majority of these deaths were not enemy combatants, but civilians.  While it has been argued, especially by the Allied powers of that time, that the utilization of these atomic weapons upon Japan, shortened the war, and ultimately thereby saved lives, that position and reasoning, is both controversial and suspect.

At the time that the United States dropped two of its atomic bombs upon Japan, the United States was the only nation in the world to have this awesome and devastating killing power, and to its credit, the United States did not afterwards use these bombs upon any other country, or has it used such in any other war or conflict, and that is clearly to the credit of the United States.  Since 1945, however, another eight nations are known to have developed nuclear armament capabilities, of which, two of those countries, Russia and North Korea, don't especially have good relations with western nations.  Yet, despite the fact that there are now nine nations with nuclear armament capabilities, nuclear war has not occurred.  Additionally, in 1990, Russia stopped all of its nuclear testing, and the United States followed suit by stopping all of its nuclear testing, in 1992, of which these two nations, have by far, the most nuclear warheads in existence.

All of the above, points to the salient fact, that though the awesome power of nuclear armaments, permits mankind, if it so desired, to end this world as we know it, that this has not occurred and does not appear to be on the table of occurring.  This would seem to indicate that though nations apparently enjoy to a degree, that is not really all that safe, an awful lot of saber-rattling, that when it comes right down to it, a world war, involving a significant use of nuclear weapons, is not something that is considered to be a viable option; for those in the know, know that such a war, would at best, provide the winner of such, a pyrrhic victory.

So then, despite all the conflicts and wars that are going on, seemingly non-stop in this world; we have come to the point that to a certain degree, the tale has already been told, so that, it has become inevitable, that warfare as we know it, is going to come to an end, because warfare does not resolve much of anything, and is not an appropriate way to deal with disagreements and disputes.  Rather, mankind has been to the brink, and having seen that vast and foreboding abyss, has calmly and consciously walked away from it.  This, thus means, that ever so slowly, but inexorably, mankind is in the process of becoming more civilized, more empathetic, and having more of an understanding, that each of us truly does have unalienable rights, and that the greatest good that mankind and governments can perform for one another, is to pay appropriate homage to those rights.

Income disparity, unsustainable debt, and collapse

According to equitablegrowth.org, in today's America we find that "…the wealthiest 1 percent of families in the United States holding about 40 percent of all wealth and the bottom 90 percent of families holding less than one-quarter of all wealth." This is especially problematic because the unemployment rate as measured by the United States, is at 50-year lows, of which, normally a very low unemployment rate, would have a tendency to be inflationary, because it would typically necessitate the increasing of wages because of the competition for that labor, but this has not occurred; so that, in actuality, the income gains for those that are in the bottom 90 percent of household income, are marginable, at best, and are falling further and further behind those at the top.

When the lion's share of wealth and income are held in the hands of the very few, this thus necessitates in order for the economy to grow at all, that those that are lacking in income and household wealth, are required to avail themselves of the necessity to borrow money through all the conventional means at hand, in order to get access to the household goods so desired, such as housing, vehicles, food, entertainment, and for those that are in the educational phase of their life, education.  In order to borrow money, the credit worthiness of those that are borrowing is determined, and from there loans are structured in a manner in which an appropriate interest rate is charged.

The main difficulty that people that are borrowing money have is that when their income is already stretched in order to stay current on the bills that they have to address each and every month, in which, additionally they are responsible for paying interest and/or fees on those monies so borrowed, is that the debt that they have to deal with, seemingly places them into a position in which, though it may be current, it is susceptible to  becoming delinquent, if something untoward happens, or simply because their monetary budget never allows them to ever get ahead of the curve.

That is to say, often those that borrow money, borrow that money under the hope that their income will grow so as to accommodate any interest payments or fees so generated from the borrowing of that money; but when their income growth is actually consistently less than expected, and therefore less than the interest payments or fees that they have incurred, then sooner or later, the debt bubble that has been created is going to burst.

The bursting of debt bubbles isn't good for either the lender or the borrower, because the lender may or may not have secured the money so lent, with enough collateral to recover from the borrower enough in assets to thereby be made whole. So then, in those cases, in which there is little or nothing to recover, the lender of that money has fundamentally lost that money, and though such a lender, may thereupon restructure such loans so as to present the façade that those loans are still good, they essentially are not.  This thus means, that when there are millions upon millions of borrowers, that simply are not ever going to be able to pay back their loans in whole, and the underlying asset to that loan is significantly below the value of those loans, than financial institutions, even those of long standing, are vulnerable to collapse, and such a collapse, done on a large enough scale, can bring the entire financial edifice down.

Rich man, poor man; good health, bad health

As stated in the nytimes.com, "The Richest American Men Live 15 Years Longer than the Poorest 1 Percent," which is an absolutely staggering statistic, and is proof positive, that those that have a lot of money, besides having all the advantages that money brings to the table in the sense of influence, material goods, and pleasure, are also considerably healthier than those that have little or nothing, who besides lacking in influence, material goods, and probably pleasure, die a heck of a lot earlier than their very rich counterparts, though both the rich and the poor, are citizens of the very same republic.

In a country in which the quality of one's housing, food, entertainment and material goods, is correlated highly with their income, credit worthiness, and material assets of that given individual or household, it is also clear that money buys better health insurance, better healthcare, and better access to medical facilities and because physical bodies are going to need periodic checkups as well as care, those that have good insurance and can afford to pay for good medical treatments as well as necessary medicines, are going to be a lot better off than those that can't afford to do so, or struggle to do so, and the life expectancy of those that are rich as compared to those that are poor, clearly state this.

It doesn't seem fair that those that are rich and that have all the material advantages to begin with, are also afforded all the health advantages that having money and influence also brings to them.  Further, for those that are in the middle class or thereabouts, the richest Americans still live longer than those in the middle class, as the correlation between life longevity correlates closely with household income, so that, the more household income, the longer the living, whereas the bigger the gap between those incomes, the greater the disparity in length of life between those incomes.

There are probably myriad reasons why very rich people live longer, besides the fact that their access to high quality healthcare is never limited by their lack of monetary funds; of which, a couple of those salient reasons comes down to food so consumed, of which poor people and those on tight budgets are more liable to having to consume food that isn't healthy or properly nutritionally balanced for them over the long term, as well as people with limited income are more prone to living in areas of the country in which their air quality, or their water quality, or their soil quality, or their housing or neighborhood quality, have suspect aspects to them, that over a period of time, are damaging to their health.

While it is true that the rich cannot take their material assets with them, and that eventually, after an extended period of time, that they will meet their Maker, the fact that just being wealthy, means longer life, signifies that healthcare in America is treated more like just another commodity, that rich people can buy more of and of better quality of; whereas for the indigent, they get the lackluster leftovers, and in our mainly for-profit healthcare world, that means, that they get virtually nothing, and are left to die, before their time, for their lack of the means to pay or to have provided for them, good healthcare.

The only King that matters

In this world, countries are led by kings or queens or presidents or by those that are dictators in everything but actual name.  in nearly all of these cases, to actually have a conversation with a king or queen, is something that for the common person is not going to ever happen, though, because they are public figures, one may have the opportunity to see a personage such as that in person, but an actual conversation, done over coffee, or even over a phone, is not going to happen.

Alas, this means for virtually all of us, that we will never be able to engage in any meaningful dialog with the most powerful luminary in our nation, but, in the scheme of things, even though we are not able to -- the bottom line is that it probably doesn't matter all that much.  After all, no matter the title, and no matter how valuable this notable may appear to be, they are not only fallible, but they aren't really going to in all likelihood be able to effectively address any of our personal issues, because they really don't know us, in a manner that would permit them to.

Imagine though, that in this world, there is a being, that is always available to us, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and not only is available, but knows everything about us; and  in fact, actually knows us better than we know our own self.  This being is infallible, omniscient, and cares about each one of us, no matter where we are in life, without qualification or condemnation.  Of course, this is our Creator, of which this Creator, hears and listens to each of our prayers so made, and is never too busy for us, as well as always being available to engage with us in a conversation, in which, if we are able to successfully quiet our active mind, we are able to thereby hear the words of God in the stillness of our being.

God not only listens to us, but God speaks to us, and if we would only listen for those precious words from the very lips of God, as opposed to allowing the hurly-burly of this world, or other distractions and manmade escapes to get in our way, we would be able to have the most meaningful conversation of our life.  God is truly the only King that matters, for God, alone, knows us, and from that knowing, God is our ever present help in all situations, not necessarily as a means to alleviate us from the perils of every dilemma, but rather God is there to allow us to perceive both perspective and wisdom from whatever that it is, that we are facing, good or bad, so that we are not ever abandoned or alone.

Many a person has cried out that God does not listen to them, or that God is not there for them, or various other vociferous complaints about what appears to be an indifferent God; but the mistake that is made, or the paradox thereof, is that while God is ever present and is therefore everywhere, the finding and the uniting with God in conversation or similar, is an art, that necessitates unwavering faith, dedication, purpose, calmness, and a belief that one will not fully rest until one is completely there and is thereby one with the only One, and hence the only King that matters.

The new royal debt

Those that are our national legislators as well as the executive office, through their continual fiscal irresponsibility, have brought the United States national debt to all-time highs, of which the usdebtclock.org puts the current national debt at just over $23 trillion, as of November of 2019.  The responsibility of paying that debt and suffering to its consequences are not upon our national legislators, or the current occupant of the White House, but are the collective responsibility of the people that make up this nation, and of those yet unborn.

In nations ruled as monarchies, the king and queen of such nations, took on royal debt, for expenses such as the raising of armies for not only the defense of the realm but also for the conquering or the attempting of conquering of other nations; additionally monies were spent on the infrastructure for the monarchy, such as buildings of all types, bridges, roads, and so on and so forth.  In order to service that debt, taxes of one sort or another were levied directly or indirectly onto dukes, earls, barons, and knights, in order to help finance the monarchy debt obligations, and when necessary, the borrowing of monies from money lenders or even other nations was done.  When armies, though, failed in their mission to conquer other nations, or were unable to ravage other nations to the extent that the army was self-supporting, in which the subsequent taxes being collected was not at a rate that was sufficient to pay off the debt, or to even properly service such debt, than those that were part and parcel of the royal court, did not let up on placing the onerous burden of that royal debt, upon its subjects, to make good on, or to suffer the ill consequences of their disobedience to that monarchy.

Today's America has created an enormous national debt load, which has primarily come about from those that are our present day elites working on behalf of very privileged people, either effectively as their representatives, in principle, or in lockstep with the desires of those elites.  This is quite obviously for the present benefit of those well placed individuals and corporations, that benefit monetarily at the great expense of the people as a whole, in which, because America does not have its national fiscal house in order, the dire consequences of this indebtedness falls upon the present as well as future generations that must make good on monies already spent or taken from the national treasury.

This thus means, that though America is nominally a republic, and is in principle, a government of, for, and by the people, it is in reality, a government that has in conjunction with well placed individuals and favored corporations, seen fit to run riot over any fiscal responsibility as well as to vacate its integrity, in their lust to take as much as they can for as long as they can at the expense of the people, in whole.  So then, as in monarchies of old, America and the elites have as their sole objective, to own and to control the lion's share of worth in America, and all others that are thereby born, are born to service those that rule them, and to pay their tribute, willingly, or to suffer thereby the consequences, of having not done their share of paying back that new royal debt.

Prosecutors and their continuous abuse of their duty to the law

District attorneys and prosecutors throughout American jurisprudence, more often than not, violate the law and good governance of that law, in actions large and small, each and every day.  While there are some good District attorneys as well as there being some good prosecutors -- far too many of them are guilty of doing all that they can to harass, convict, and essentially cheat defendants out of fair justice, by utilizing their very effective intimidating tactics of all sorts, to thereby coerce guilty plea bargains, as well as to add excessive charges to criminal trials, and to vacate fair play.

In point of fact, the law as applied in America, can be easily divided into those defendants that are ill educated, impoverished, and poor which are quite often incapable of making bail, when such, necessitates ready cash, as compared to all those that have access to money as well as a good defense attorney, who are educated, and are considered to be of value within their community.   One might think that the law is the law and is always equally applied, and therefore is no respecter of persons, but the law as applied is most definitely a respecter of persons, and most certainly demonstrates real disrespect of those not really considered to be persons, though they are human beings in form.

One of the tricks of the very nasty trade of District attorneys and prosecutors is their reliance on padding on and the adding-on of charges onto alleged criminal activity, which does not require that such additional spurious charges be so added.  So that, a male that has an altercation with their spouse or girl friend, in which no wounds or deep bruises occur and no weapons are used, instead of being charged with something such as third degree of fourth degree assault, finds instead, that they are initially charged with second degree assault, because the District attorney or prosecutor manipulates the police report and interprets such to make the charge more serious, so as to give the prosecutor bargaining power.  As bad as that might be, it often gets worse, because then the District attorney or prosecutor will reach into code book, to add on additional charges such as assault of a female, as well as assault by strangulation, if the perpetrator was alleged to have put at least one of their hands upon the female's neck, in addition to kidnapping, if the perpetrator was alleged to have blocked or impeded the female from escaping, in which, the evidence shows in total, no wounds, no weapons, and no deep bruising.

All of the above in a case such as that means the defendant now has three or four charges that he must contend with, and not too surprisingly is, especially when indigent and incarcerated pending disposition of those charges, in a very bad negotiating position.  On the other hand, a far more fair way to address trumped up as well as added-on charges, is that, when such is taken to trial, each charge of which the defendant is found not guilty of should have the typical median sentencing of that charge, subtracted from the sentence so rendered, when that defendant is found guilty of any other charge.  That is to say, when a defendant goes to trial and is, for instance, found guilty of one charge, but not guilty of any other charges, each of those charges the defendant is not guilty of, should reduce correspondingly the amount of the sentence of the charge that they are guilty of.  This means, using our example, if the defendant is guilty of one charge and receives a sentence of two years, but the other three charges he is not guilty of, in which the median sentence of those combined would also be two years, the defendant would be released.

The point is that trumped up as well as added-on charges should not be made to begin with, but rather the District attorney and prosecutors have a sworn duty to be an advocate of fair and equal justice for all, and not instead to take the law into their own fallible hands.

Mankind's purposeful neglect and natural disasters

In the scheme of things, natural disasters are going to occur, such as in hurricanes, tornados, floods, high and violent winds, earthquakes, and so on and so forth.  These natural disasters in and of themselves can be catastrophic but almost always they also can be amplified by mankind's neglect, incompetency, or laziness.  For instance, though high and violent winds as well as inclement weather could be the cause of a given bridge collapsing, in most cases, such a bridge collapses mainly because of design or construction flaws, and/or neglect of proper maintenance.  So too, hurricanes cause damage through the sustained impact of very high winds, in conjunction with the rising of flood waters that inundates communities, in which, such hurricanes and the locations so impacted by it, often have historical records that demonstrate that a particular area is much more vulnerable to the occurrence and negative impact of a hurricane, yet, construction is still made within that area.  Additionally, dams and levees have been built all over America, in which some of those structures are exceedingly old and in need of replacement or remediation, so when very bad weather is combined with a structure that is already failing, it isn't any surprise that such a structure is no longer able to bend, but breaks.

In all of the foregoing, natural disasters have occurred, in which, mankind is usually culpable to some degree to the damage incurred as well as the human life so lost.  It isn't fair and reasonable to expect that bridges, causeways, tunnels, dams, roads, homes, buildings, high voltage lines, sewage, and levees are able to always sustain themselves when confronted with catastrophic weather or other events, without regard to the proper maintenance and if necessary, replacement of such.  It is one of those unfortunate things, that people, communities, and governments too often expect that things will sort of keep on keeping on, when, in fact, the unexpected will always occur somewhere at sometime, in which those that are not prepared for it, will suffer from that lack of preparedness.  Further to the point, while America does an overall stellar job of responding to emergencies, such emergencies could often be ameliorated quite a bit, if the infrastructure was inspected and subsequently rectified as needed, much more often, beforehand.

The thing is that remediation and the doing the necessary work behind the scenes in order to maintain and to augment things such as our bridges and dams, is one of those areas, that necessitates money, equipment, and personnel, and doesn't seem for many people in government or communities, to be the type of expense and maintenance which is often pushed to the top of the list of things that must be done, and though it is often something that is acknowledged that needs to be addressed, a mere acknowledgement does not get the work done.

Too often in America, what needs to be done today to protect our citizens from the inevitable natural disasters that will occur is put off until tomorrow, and consequently when those natural disasters do come, the price that is paid is often a much heavier price than really needs to be paid; of which more governmental bonds should be issued by State as well as Federal authorities to take care of these infrastructure issues so that we as a people are better prepared to thereupon face those natural disasters which invariably do come.

What is the highest good of knowledge?

The advancement of mankind is built upon the foundation of all those that have considered questions of importance, and have endeavored to figure them out so as to resolve them, and from this, knowledge is gained.  Now then, to know or to learn something of merit, but to keep that knowledge to oneself, is often selfish, though, occasionally prudent or even necessary; whereas to take such knowledge and to provide as well as to teach it to others, benefits society at large.

So then, in a construct in which capitalism and competitiveness seem to be part and parcel of America's being, those that are knowledgeable about certain subjects and things, may be conflicted as to how best to utilize that knowledge, because quite obviously, in most cases, the more that other people have knowledge of a given subject or application, the more competition this thus creates, and the less personal benefit thus ensues.  Additionally, for many people, especially those that work within corporations, there may not be much of a quandary, for that knowledge so obtained, that is accomplished within the company domain, is for better or for worse, considered to be property and possibly proprietary to that company, alone.  For others, who are tinkerers, or scholars, or independent thinkers or contractors, the knowledge that they obtain is clearly theirs to do with what they should will to do, though qualified, undoubtedly, by others that have contributed to such knowledge, directly or indirectly.

To a very large extent, many people believe that the things that they have labored for and have learned, are theirs to utilize for their own benefit, especially if their perception is that knowledge isn't really hurting anybody, specifically.   Though, this may be true, it is certainly selfish, and knowledge obtained but not disseminated, hurts society, in general.  Further, knowledge learned, of which, it is perceived that if such became universal, that this would materially benefit society at large, even when such would come at the personal expense of the person so learning, should be provided as a matter of course to others, so that society at large, benefits.  After all, a good and stable society necessitates cooperation between its members, especially in consideration that societies are created, for the expressed purpose for the betterment of communities.  Further, the basis of a good and healthy community is for individuals to bond together as one, as opposed to a community of individuals, with no implicit or inherent obligations to the other members.

So then, it can be stated that the highest good of knowledge, is to disseminate such knowledge throughout the community for the benefit of that community, so as to materially improve that community's life.  While the choice of what to do about any particular knowledge so learned, is in the hands of that person, so that they are ultimately at liberty to do what they will with such, it is clear that to simply take personal ownership and to thereby keep that knowledge for the specific benefit of that person, and none else, is both selfish and misguided.  Indeed, a good member of society does their part to make their society better, so that, a voice that insists on being silent, when it should speak, is a voice that has not told the tale that needs to be told.

It should be: All for one, and one for all

The United States is a very unequal society, of which, there isn't a shadow of a doubt, that for some people as well some corporations, the United States offers nothing but the best of the best.  These superrich people and these superrich corporations have not only incredible monetary assets, but along with that money, there is often an incredible amount of power.  It would be one thing, if the superrich were simply just superrich, and enjoy all the benefits and accouterments of it, for their personal or corporate enjoyment; but alas, that isn't good enough, for those that are superrich, in order to add to their wealth, game the system in a manner in which recent history has demonstrated that the United States is becoming more and more unequal, with the bulk of its productivity and money accruing to a very small elite of people and corporations.

The Gini index which is an index that measures income inequality, in which the higher the number tabulated represents greater income inequality, tells us, as reported by americashealthrankings.org, that the United States Gini index is at .482, in which not a single nation in Europe is even at .400; and further we are told that just three people own more wealth in the United States, than the bottom 50% of its population, which is proof positive, that this country's progressive taxation system, as implemented, clearly does not effectively work as it should.

Additionally, as reported by povertyusa.org, "38.1 million people…" live in poverty, in this, the richest nation in the entire world.  Further, as reported by cnn.com, "… nearly 2.2 million adults were held in America's prisons and jails at the end of 2016."  When it comes to functional literacy, it is estimated, as reported by gentwenty.com, "… that 32 million American adults are functionally illiterate."   Basically, whether it is health, education, housing, crime, or the overall quality of life, those that are impoverished in America, suffer from the lack of good quality in their life, whereas, those with money do not.

In point of fact, despite minimum wage laws, social security, and governmental programs involving welfare as well as social safety nets, there is a huge underclass of Americans that aren't making meaningful progress, and further that suffer unduly for essentially being birthed into an environment of little or low opportunity, and hopelessness.  In preference to this country stepping up and bringing forth a great society for all, it instead has decided to treat those that essentially have nothing, as people to be oppressed and exploited, without end.  So that, the end result is that this country willingly tolerates poverty, and would rather spend billions upon billions on war armaments and killing, then to actually deal constructively with the poverty and hopelessness within its own homeland -- that need not be occurring as part of this very wealthy nation.

For the elite, this is indeed the best of times, and for the middle class of America that carries so much of the weight of America's misadventures and missteps onto it shoulders, it isn't all that it could be, but it is tolerable; whereas, for all those that are discriminately cordoned into sectors of poverty, crime, disease, and defeat, America is a great lie; that does not represent life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, but rather represents a new deal, taken away; a lamp that is unlit at its golden door, and a promissory note, forever unpaid.

The problem with America

While the United States is both the richest as well as the most powerful nation in the world, and has a Constitution dating back to the 18th century, it is not currently the country that it should be, and most certainly is not the country that it was founded to be.  For instance, some of the very reasons why so many Europeans emigrated to America, was for the opportunity that America represented, in the sense of freedom in general, and specifically as it related to the freedom of religion, the freedom of movement, the freedom of commerce, and the freedom to not be compelled to having to pay homage through military service or taxation or tribute to autocratic governmental authorities.

While in America, to a certain extent, there can be a great opportunity to create one's own destiny, this is predetermined to a very significant extent by the circumstances of where a given person is birthed, and specifically to the family structure, income, and educational facilities that are available within and around their local community.  That is to say, America can be an absolutely wonderful place to get a great education and to have a real opportunity for advancement and success in one's life, especially when circumstances favor that very thing, by virtue of being in the right place and with right infrastructure around.  On the other hand, there are an incredible amount of communities in America that are impoverished, and are desperately lacking in hope, opportunity, and the general good welfare of those that are birthed within that environment. For those people, the handicap that they will need to overcome is so daunting, that a reasonable chance for good success is more often than not, is not going to occur.

The biggest problem that America has is its gargantuan division between the privileged few at the top that are exceedingly rich and powerful, in stark contrast to the excessive amount of people at the bottom that are poor, oppressed, and exploited, of which these unfortunate people are both impoverished as well as powerless.  This fundamental flaw within America is why it suffers from so much tension, hatred, and hostility, which is displayed by its high violent crime rate, its surprisingly high degree of those that are functionally illiterate, its general incivility, and the overall lack of hope, personified in its urban ghettos.

Further to the point, America clearly has made a determination that rather than to proactively address the systemic problems that it has in regards to poverty, opportunity, equality, fairness, and hope, it has decided to spend inordinate amounts of money instead on its military, thereby taking away from the social welfare monies and necessary infrastructure that could be of real and meaningful assistance to those that have so little. 

To make meaningful change within America is something that necessitates money, dedication, persistence, and the absolute determination to do what needs to be done so that all people within America are afforded at a minimum the basic rights and common decency that a great nation owes to its own people; for this is supposed to be a nation for, by, and of the people, but clearly instead we have a significant portion of our people that have been left far behind, and thereby stand outside our golden door -- lost, forlorn, cold, tired, forsaken, hungry, and hurting.

Every coin has two sides

There is one country, that has more military might, than any other nation or even of all nations, combined; of which that might has been utilized to stop the demagogues of fascism, and to topple regimes of oppression and hate.  Yet, this mighty power, has also interfered again and again in the sovereignty of other nations, and has placed its military bases and means of operation of such all over the world, without really taking into consideration, the inherent rights of those other nations.  Further, it sells armaments of incredible destruction throughout most of the world, all in the name of blood profit, terrorism of all types, and in service to dictatorial regimes.

So too, within this nation, is a written Constitution, dividing the powers that govern it on behalf of the people, into three separate branches, of which no one branch is all powerful; yet, its unelected judicial branch, creates new law and destroys old law, simply depending upon its own partisan views.  Whereas, its legislative branch, seems absolutely beholden to money so contributed, directly or indirectly to those office holders, and instead therefore of being the people's representatives, answer most readily to the hands that feed them. Then, the executive branch circumvents both the judicial and legislative branches, by issuing executive orders that bastardizes Constitutional law, so that the executive can behave in a manner consistent to that of a monarchy.

While its institutions of higher learning are amongst the greatest of any on the entire planet, and well respected for its curriculum and professors, the students so attending, do so at a high monetary cost, though such a cost is easy to bear for those with a great deal of familial financial money, as well as those few that are gifted with free scholarships.  Those, on the other hand,  that cannot afford such or are not accepted to attend such, must find other colleges, of which the financial responsibility of those attending these, are place onto those young students' hands, without any real guarantee that their education received, will merit the cost.

As for its healthcare, it is all really a complete mess, of which, many of its hospitals and well-nigh all of its pharmaceutical companies are permitted to make a profit off of the ill health of its patients.  There is very little transparency in this industry, and despite the state-of-the-art equipment, as well as all of the monies so spent by insurance companies and by patients, the health of the nation in aggregate is disappointingly rather poor.

Additionally, there are a very few people that own an incredible amount of monetary assets, of which these few, have all sorts of extra homes, extra cars, and extra this or that, while barely ever using any of them, of which, though the country has a progressive tax system, as well as an estate tax law, the superrich don't seem to pay much of anything, for the legislature law is bent by the attorneys that are well paid by the superrich, so as to protect and to augment their worth.

So too, despite all the wealth of this dominant nation, there is an underclass living in poverty, of lives that often involve harassment, incarceration, indebtedness, hopelessness, poor health, ill education,  and  despair.  None of this seems to matter to this powerful nation, which claims that it is great, perhaps the greatest of them all, but the reality is that though there is greatness within her, and though its Constitutional structure is great, it is behind the façade, corrupt to the core, and built not to last, but rather to collapse, for it is blind, and knows nothing of what really matters, for it fears to open wide that enlightening door.

Dubious traffic violations and traffic stops

Most people do not desire to be stopped by a police officer when they are driving their vehicle, for a lot of good reasons, of which, some of the most salient are: they don't want to be shot or killed in cold blood, they don't want to be arrested, they don't want to receive some sort of traffic violation, they don't want their vehicle to be searched, they don't want their vehicle impounded, they don't want their time wasted, they don't want their car insurance rates to go up,  and they don't want their stress levels to go sky high.  The bottom line is that police officers carry a lethal weapon and further have the power to arrest people, of which these things rightly frighten those that have been pulled over, irrespective of whether they are guilty of anything or not.

Basically, if traffic stops were something akin to receiving a parking ticket, in which a citation is merely issued by an authorized person that is not a police officer; this thus would represent something that though undesired, is not typically going to be life threatening, mainly because the citation is straight and to the point, and the risk of a whole bunch of other possible negative actions occurring, would be virtually nonexistent.  On the other hand, police officers are allowed to pull over any vehicle that is perceived to have violated any of the myriad traffic violations, and police officers nearly always can find some code that is relevant to why they are pulling over a particular vehicle, such as "failure to signal for turns or lane changes", or "failure to maintain an assured clear distance ahead," and so on and so forth, of which, whether these violations have even occurred is often not clear.  Further, all vehicles are identified with a license plate, of which that license plate identifies the legal owner and the current address on file for that vehicle owner, so that, police officers, with their technology at their beck and call, most certainly have access to the name of the owner of the vehicle, and therefore have a good idea of the probable driver of said vehicle.  This thus makes for an opportunity for police officers to deliberately pull over vehicles that interest them, rightly or wrongly.

After all, just because somebody is driving on the public roads of America, does not and should not mean that police officers have carte blanche to pull anybody over, utilizing supposed traffic violations as their ready justified excuse in order to do so, and thereby providing those officers with an opportunity to search the vehicle or the person, under questionable circumstances.   To the degree that this is done, reflects that rather than America being a beacon of liberty and freedom, it is in reality, a country in which outright discrimination against certain elements of this society, is permitted, by the policing arm of the state, of which studies have demonstrated as reported by colorlines.com, "... that officers ticket, search and arrest Black and Hispanic drivers more often than Whites."

Nobody wants to be pulled over for a traffic violation to begin with, but when that is combined with a system, that allows police officers, to know who they are more than likely pulling over, and to thereby deliberately target certain individuals to the exclusion of other individuals, that is discrimination.  Further to the point, when policing agencies are able to hide behind supposed traffic violations as their reason for their traffic stops and subsequent questioning of the driver of that vehicle, the right of those drivers to be secure and to be treated fairly in their person, has been violated.