Is Bitcoin the future?

You know that you have made the big-time when there is a congressional hearing about your product which recently happened to Bitcoin.  Of course, that type of exposure has its good sides and its bad ones. Bitcoin is the industry leader in the virtual currency world, but it also has numerous competitors that may or may yet supersede it.

Before there was Bitcoin, there was PayPal.  PayPal also had its competitors but PayPal became the industry standard for eBay transactions that were previously slowed down by vendors because they were limited to accepting paper checks, or money orders, and most small-time vendors were not thrilled about using credit cards and having to pay their associated transaction and monthly fees.  PayPal ended up being a win-win situation for both vendor and customer and became the de facto standard for e-bay transactions and other peer-to-peer transactions on the internet.  The simplicity of the vendor seeing the payment appear in his eBay account via PayPal, allowed the seller to expeditiously mail the product to the buyer, furthering PayPal's' growth.

As we fast forward to about a decade later, Bitcoin, pushes the envelope to a new level by offering to accomplish transactions anonymously through a virtual currency that is fast becoming widely accepted.  However, there are several problems with this method when it comes to the government.  They are: it's not government regulated, it is utilized as a digital currency, it's anonymous, and it competes against our own legal currency and specifically our banking system.

I don't believe the government has any interest in putting Bitcoin out of business.  In fact, you could make a strong argument that the US government would like to see Bitcoin or one of its competitors become the de facto digital currency standard.   What the government and private enterprise like about digital currency is that it is quite traceable, unlike cash transactions, and anything that pushes or nudges the public, the youth, and especially the intelligentsia to transactions in which the government and companies can log your every move, is exactly what they want.  Advertisers would be overjoyed to be able to hit your cell phone or tablet with targeted advertising as you walk or drive into any area in which they conduct business.    Big Brother will monitor you through your own portable devices and your digital wallet, and as long as you can get that Caramel Macchiato $1 cheaper, you won't seem to care.

Of course, a government's beneficence does not come without some conditions.  Specifically, whether Bitcoin likes it or not it will have to adapt or it will be legislated out of business.  I predict that one of the major banks will purchase Bitcoin, and buried deep within the terms and conditions you will find some fundamental changes at Bitcoin.  For instance, no more will transactions be guaranteed anonymity, this digital currency will also be regulated by the US Treasury, there will be certain transaction fees, and over time Bitcoins will be tied to something, perhaps not a physical product, but something that will stabilize its value such as the population of the USA.

Corporate Welfare for Wal-Mart

In fairness, corporate welfare for corporations, defense contractors, and utility companies are endemic in America and the overall cost of this welfare is billons of dollars of wasted and distorted incentives from tax write offs to tax write downs and everywhere in-between.  This welfare is so prevalent, the crony capitalism is so disturbing, and the lobbying is so intensive, that I could go on a rant for pages.  Instead, I figure it was probably best to just focus on one large conglomerate, specifically Wal-Mart.  What makes Wal-Mart unique is that it is the largest corporation in the world by revenue (the next seven are all oil conglomerates!) and it is the second largest private employment corporation in the world (China Railroad Engineering Corporation is #1).  Wal-Mart is ubiquitous in America and it is an unusual man or woman that doesn't frequent their stores at some point during the month.  I am a member of Sam's Club (a subsidiary of Wal-Mart) and I can verify that Wal-Mart and Sam's Club pricing is as competitive as it comes, so from a consumer perspective it's very difficult to have an argument.

However, from a level playing field perspective, Wal-Mart does not play fair.  It hasn't played fair in a long time and I don't see Wal-Mart playing fair in the foreseeable future.  As in anything in life, there are major consequences for this distortion of the free market capitalist system.  In fairness to Wal-Mart I will say this, they couldn't take advantage of the system, manipulate the system, lobby within the system, if the government favoritism didn't exist.  That is to say, if there wasn't a door of entry to curry favor within government movers and shakers, than Wal-Mart would not be able to receive the benefits that it gets.  If there was no pot of gold to be raided, than the raiders would have nothing to aim for.  But alas, that clearly isn't the case.

Whether various government agencies are gullible, stupid, corrupt, unable to adapt to game theory, or a combination of all of them, I do not know.  I do know that Wal-Mart does not need free land, tax subsidies, subsidized financing, property tax breaks, subsidized infrastructure improvements, eminent domain workarounds in order to conduct its business.  Wal-Mart will work every angle to get these things because the smartest guys in the room are in Wal-Mart's room but they don't need those breaks in order to conduct or to accomplish their business!  It is therefore the height of hypocrisy to hand these things over to Wal-Mart and then to honestly believe that you as a government representative have been diligent in your job, and by consequence been fair to other businesses when in fact, you have been discriminatory in favor of Wal-Mart to the detriment of other competitors or competing businesses or usage ideas.

The more transparency that government representatives provide to its population, the better the negotiations will be when conducting proposed business with Wal-Mart or other like entities.  Ultimately, accountability starts at home; a true democracy is a raucous place, filled with the hustle and bustle of a cacophony of voices, in which a consensus will be fleshed out over time.  Wal-Mart wants its deals done in private, undercover, and for their publicity releases to be accepted as gospel.  The defense to that tactic is an open government filled with doubting Thomases.

Cigarettes, the law, and NYC

Mayor Bloomberg signed into law on November 19, 2013, a measure that had previously passed through the NYC legislature, raising the legal age to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21, effective 180 days from the date of the mayor's signature.  As bad as that law is, a companion bill, sets a price floor on the selling price of cigarettes at $10.50 a pack.  The people that are most rejoicing at this new law aren't whom you might expect, that is to say, the "nattering nabobs and nanny state nincompoops", but the wanna-be shadowy underworld elements that are part and parcel of NYC.  Here for them lies a golden opportunity to sell product that is desired, commonly used, with a ready market that is underserved, legal to purchase and store, and with a very healthy profit margin that cannot be undercut by NYC law.

The bottom line, unfortunately though, for small mom and pop stores that legally sell cigarettes in NYC is a heap of trouble, because their consumers are going to find other avenues to purchase their smokes.  Not only that but peripheral purchases of other products within these mom and pop stores will decline because if you aren’t purchasing your cigarettes there, you aren’t going to pick up any other impulse purchases as well.  That makes for a declining and hence a bad business model at these small stores and probably will force the closure of some of them, making it less likely for fellow New Yorkers to find a corner store that is in close proximity to them.

As for the cigarette smokers themselves, the law may be a blessing in disguise.  Freed of the necessity or desire of frequenting and thereby paying high prices for NYC cigarettes, they will band together, preplan, and find alternate and cheaper sources for their smoking pleasure.  Not only will these smokers ultimately end up paying less per pack for cigarettes, there will still be a massive profit margin built in for cigarette bootleggers, enough to make sure to take care of paying off those in the know.  Monies that would have flowed in steadily to NYC tax coffers will flow instead to the underworld, corrupt entities, and street hustlers.

Adults of ages 18-20, who are old enough to vote, use to be old enough to drink, are old enough to smoke, are old enough to die defending their country's liberty and are old enough to be involuntarily sent to adult jails, will be put into that gray area of "adults with lesser rights" and this new NYC law will simply breed more contempt of the law.  It will also bring into play a new type of man, one not selling illegal drugs and paraphernalia, instead he will be providing a legal product that is highly desired, inconsistently regulated, and well placed to exploit.

Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t wish to acknowledge that Americas' first successful cash crop was tobacco, and it was our most successful export from 1617 to 1793.  Without the success of tobacco, America as we know it may not have ever come to pass.  Vilifying tobacco serves no good purpose and never will.  If tobacco really was all the evil that opponents make it out to be, it would have already faded into the trash heap of history.  Smoking survives and will continue to survive because tobacco provides some notable benefits such as: appetite suppression, reduction of anxiety, relaxation, and yes, pleasure. 

Cell phones for free!

I was recently talking to my Aunt who told me that there was a program for people to get free cell phone service from the government.  That seemed a little hard to believe but to humor her I commiserated with my Aunt in my agreement that this was indeed "appalling" and to be honest, I didn't think much further on it, because I chalked the whole thing up to "urban legend."  I mean, people pay incredible amounts of money for iPhones month after month, for the iPhone itself, for the service, and a meaningful amount of iPhone users are struggling just to pay their bill monthly so I knew that there couldn't possibly be a program that provides free cell phone service in America.  I thought, perhaps, they might have a free cell phone program for senior citizens, especially the ones that fall down and can't get up, but that program is run by a private company called "lifecall" and it definitely isn't free, so I figured case closed.  But to my surprise, a recent Stossel  TV program covered the free cell phone scam and did a tremendous job in opening up my eyes, and while I don't have that much to really add to the story I thought I may as well put in my own few cents.

Apparently the lifeline program was created in 1984 to provide a discounted landline for low-income Americans to communicate and therein lays the first fundamental error.    Instead of subsidizing phone usage, the government should have subsidized or provided CB radios.  CB radios are both portable and reliable in true emergency situations and allow you to receive news and weather updates in crisis situations as well as the ability to communicate with others.    Fast forward to 2013, and the lifeline program has morphed into providing free cell phones for impoverished people, in which it appears just about anyone can skirt the rules and be issued a phone.

In fact, the free cell phone deal is so good; I was tempted to take advantage of it myself.  I mean you get a free phone, you also get 250 fee talk time minutes as well as the critical 1,000 text messages, so to be honest, the free cell phone would hardly crimp my style and certainly I could use it as an adjunct to my main communication device.  I decided to visit the safelinewireless.com website to see how easy the application process was and it's remarkably easy to navigate, in fact, you can finish your enrollment in less than 5 minutes.  They then give you three categories to qualify with:

            Income

            Program (like Medicaid, Section 8 housing)

            My child belongs in the program

I looked at all three categories and decided that income was the best fit, after selecting "income" the next webpage showed me the income level that you could not exceed, depending on the total persons in your household, I then selected a low-income level that was appropriate for my household size and the final webpage indicated that I was approved, but there was that "penalty of perjury" clause that precluded me from feeling comfortable with clicking all the way through on that final page.   Had, I instead, signed that form, I would have received my free cell phone, subject to any potential penalties for perhaps perjuring myself.

The reason the free cell phone plan is such a horrific scam is the following.  First off, the marketing guys that try to sign you up outside a welfare office, for instance, are paid per enrollment, which according to SafeLink wireless is "…up to $10 per enrollment!"  With that kind of incentive, you're motivated to sign up as many people as possible, whether they are eligible or not, after all that's not your problem.    The next issue is the phone companies themselves find the program to be quite lucrative, in which the parent company of SafeLink wireless (Tracfone) received $452 million in 2011 from lifeline's subsidies according to money.cnn.com. Finally, the program itself just isn't necessary, a cell phone isn't a right, it's a tool, and a convenience.  If the government really believes that cell phones are necessary for impoverished people, than perhaps they should make that a category that is covered under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  Of course, I can hear the cries of disbelief now, "you mean to say that you believe people should be able to spend their food stamp monies on cell phone service."  Yes, I do, and if they are really hungry, they can always call a friend.

The Bilderberg Group

Who doesn't remember the notorious Mafia meeting held in Apalachin, NY in 1957 in which some of the biggest mobsters got together at Joseph Barbara's home in upstate New York to have a meeting to discuss outstanding issues about various criminal enterprises and to smooth over potential internecine warfare.  On surface, the meeting seemed brilliant; to get together with the significant players that could make a deal, shake hands on it, and to come to consolidated agreements about whom, what, and where.  The unforeseen problem, however, was the meeting was held in the middle of nowhere and the expensive cars that rolled into a small community was a massive red flag, encouraging the local police to investigate and thereby to raid the meeting, with the upshot that the biggest Mafiosi in the United States were identified and detained, exactly the type of outcome they most feared.  Instead of a quiet, secluded meeting, the Mafiosi got the type of publicity and notoriety that is very bad for business.

Around that same time period, the first Bilderberg meeting was held in Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands.  Just like the Mafia having their agenda, so do these gentlemen and ladies who represent the biggest and most powerful bankers, politicians, and businessmen in America and Europe, who together map out strategies and think sessions about how best to use their influence, their money, and their power to keep them at the controls of any significant actions or events that will influence their spheres of power and maintain their control of the keys to the gate.

People in power do not willingly give it up, and groups of powerful people working together will consolidate and crystallize that power so that in aggregate they are the only true force that matters in the western hemisphere.  When Jeff Bezos (CEO Amazon), Robert Rubin (Secretary of Treasury 1995-1999),  Eric Schmidt (Chairman, Google), Timothy Geithner (Secretary of Treasury 2009-2013),  amongst over 100 more international and national personages of the highest and most influential caliber get together at the Bilderberg conference of 2013 in which the media is not invited,  you should be concerned.  These aforementioned people do not have time to waste with trivial pursuits, their agenda for more power is clear, these are the true insiders and power brokers that make the deals that influence our lives for better or for worse.

The Bilderberg group does not consider themselves to be evil, they believe instead that their interests in working together with other powerful leaders of other nations makes for a safer and saner world in which they are all in agreement that we can no longer afford the human and damaging material costs of our previous European World Wars of the prior century. But there is a huge price for this largesse of protection; in return, the Bilderberg group most fervently desires a passive and docile population.  A population only too happy to sacrifice freedom of choice, true liberty, and free thought, for a life in which each person is assured food, shelter, mindless entertainment, and some sort of dead-end job. 

7 Year Pornography Expiration

The internet is ubiquitous with pornography, and the internet appears to be the preferred method for viewing and procuring porn because of the variety available, its anonymity, and the accessibility of all particular genres.  How much money is made off of porn, how big a business is porn, and how porn is doing in the internet age are questions that are difficult to answer since the vast majority of adult entertainment companies are privately held but estimates range for the entire pornography enterprise of pay-per-view, video sales and rentals, internet sales and rentals, print media, and audio media to be in the range of $2 to $6 billion per year.   (Estimates of porn revenues vary so widely and the methodology to come up with the estimates aren't consistent that any number generated is somewhat suspect.)

What isn't in doubt is that the real money to be made in porn is not on the acting end but on the production and distribution end.  Porn performers are non-unionized, typically receive no residual pay, no health insurance, and are often free lance with many having no agent representation and therefore are on their own when it comes to making a financial deal with the producer.

While I won't argue the point that an adult owns their own body and therefore should have the right to do with their body what they will, porn presents an unique problem that should be addressed, which is, for how long shall any performer continue to have their images sold and resold in which this particular performer is receiving no further monetary compensation.  The quick answer is that their contract stipulates the rules and therefore that is just the way that it is, but I find this to be quite unacceptable.  The question is one of how long any porn performer for a one-time payment should have to see their image reproduced time after time after time, in which that said performer would prefer to opt out.  I believe that time span should be seven years from the date the media was first available for sale.  Obviously, you cannot create an ex-post facto law, so all porn created before this law came into effect, would effectively become dated as of the date of the law itself.

The advantage of the law would be it would allow all porn performers to by default opt out of seeing their images portrayed again and again ad nauseam.  Seven years is a very long time for producers of porn to make their money and then some.  However, if all performers agree at the end of seven years that they wish to continue with that particular media distribution, a contract with the necessary signatures could be drawn up and the deal would then become valid for an additional seven years.  This does mean that if one or more performers do not agree or will not re-up,  that the media will then either have to be shelved, pending future negotiations, or edited to take these actor(s) out. 

The bottom line is pornography is not a wholesome business and people's lives change and those that were once a part of the business for a day or for many years should be allowed the dignity to walk away from it and thereby not be haunted or harmed by images from yesteryear.  Snapchat has the basic concept right, there should be a self-delete button automatically generated and this should be implemented within porn. 

TV Use to Be Free

If you live in a rural area or if you are over 40 years of age, you probably remember when TV was free or are still experiencing broadcast television for free.  In fact, according to Knowledge Networks’ 2011 Ownership Survey and Trend Report, "… 15% of all homes now just depend on free TV, up from 14%.", that number is no doubt a combination of people that predominately utilize free broadcast TV by choice and those that have cut their cable cords by their own volition (whether desired or not).

There was a time when free broadcast TV was the only game in town for television.  The consumer had the big three of ABC, CBS, and NBC, alongside PBS on his VHF channels.  On his UHF channels the viewer received a couple of local or independent channels which were much lower budget than the big three, and if you lived near a major metropolis you could also probably pick up an additional channel or two on your TV.  Although the choices were relatively few there was enough variety to suit nearly everyone and whether you were in school or at the office, there was always going to be at least one person who had watched the same show at the same time as you did.

The consumer today who pays for cable or satellite is given a multitude of channels, perhaps 200 or more, but he also pays for the privilege of doing so.  Besides his TV, today's viewer can still access media in a variety of formats and ways, some of which are free, some relatively low-cost, and some via the pay-per-view method.    I am often surprised though, how often the television consumer doesn't at least consider his free and low-cost possibilities first before purchasing his paid subscription, as the cost differential over a year's period of time can be quite meaningful. 

How valuable a cable subscription is situation specific and it is also virtually impossible to compare plans and services in an easily recognizable way.  Additionally, it just seems to be a truism that the channels that one person likes are wholly different from their significant other's choices and therefore you have to migrate up to a higher paid plan in order to accommodate both parties, as I am unaware of any cable provider that allows you a la carte choices. 

This brings me back to free TV and the big three which has since been joined by Fox, which is now available for free on broadcast TV, and for most people there is also the further choice of CW.  So free channels on broadcast TV have actually increased over the last generation and while these channels are overwhelmed by the variety and complexion of what cable and satellite providers have in their arsenal, they are free with no contracts and no commitments.

However, there is a disturbing problem, while we can still get free broadcast TV depending on our location, our sophistication, our TV, and our antenna, the major broadcasters are not in our corner.  People that receive free TV broadcasts don't pay a dime for them, whereas cable and satellite providers must pay retransmission fees to ABC, CBS, and the like for providing these stations to their subscribers.  The difference then breaks down as follows: for the cable/satellite viewer the major broadcasters get paid through those subscriptions.  For the free broadcast viewer, the major broadcasters just get paid through advertising revenue. 

As I said, TV use to be free, enjoy it while you can.

SWAT

SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics and is a special police force organization which was initially setup to handle crowd control and civil unrest in light of the Watts riots in LA of 1965.  Although it took some time to develop, mature, and synthesize, a typical SWAT team of today according to Wikipedia would consist of some or all of the following: "Such units are often equipped with specialized firearms including submachine guns, assault rifles, breaching shotguns, sniper rifles, riot control agents, and stun grenades. They have specialized equipment including heavy body armor, ballistic shields, entry tools, armored vehicles, advanced night vision optics, and motion detectors for covertly determining the positions of hostages or hostage takers, inside enclosed structures."

SWAT teams are so common and ubiquitous nowadays, that it is estimated that over 90% of cities with a population of 50,000 people or more have a SWAT team as part of their police force.  Yet, the initial mission of SWAT teams was to be only used in extraordinary situations in which the community at large was either in danger, and/or there was an illegal or threatening organization that was heavily armed and unwilling to surrender without armed confrontation.  Examples of the latter would be the shootouts involving: MOVE, the Black Panthers, and the SLA. 

Yet today, SWAT is most commonly used for alleged drug or contraband crimes and the houses that are thereby raided are deliberately raided in order to arrest the suspects and confiscate their drugs.  But in so doing, the SWAT team puts into harm's way other family members, such as children or grandparents, who are wholly innocent or ignorant of these drug crimes.  Therefore, by these actions, it could be argued that these officers of the law are in direct violation of their primary mission which is to "protect and serve". That leads us to question as to why SWAT feels the need to  break into a house with overwhelming force in order to catch a drug criminal when houses are stationary and. have common egress and ingress points.  If there truly are drugs within the house those drugs are going to either have to come in to the house or go out of the house or both.  Why can't SWAT teams concentrate on catching the specific perpetrator at hand and not endanger themselves, the community, and those unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time by simply staking out or observing the suspect over a certain period of time.

Additionally, when it comes to SWAT raids, the data available indicates that it isn't even close to 100% of the time that the warrant is successful in producing criminal charges against any of the occupants of the house that necessitated SWAT in the first place.  Therefore there should be absolute transparency to every SWAT raid in regards to who, what, how, why, when, and where transpired.  How else, can a community properly oversight their police, their SWAT teams, and their community safety without this very pertinent information.

SWAT teams are yet another example of good intentions gone wholly out-of-control whether deliberately or inadvertently.  A man's home is his castle, this is a fundamental right, and what a man does in his home is really his own business unless there is valid proof that there is an activity within the home that endangers the public safety and/or the exigencies of the situation warrants an immediate entry.

Stock Market Cheerleaders

Monday through Friday the stock market is open and it's covered before the bell, during the trading hours, and after the bell by television organizations like Fox, CNBC, and Bloomberg, along with numerous online websites.  The overriding sentiment, no matter what is going on in the real world, is one of bullishness.  Of course, I want to be realistic here, the pundits are never 100% bullish, but that is the overall sentiment.  The message that these media outlets typically want to send out is that stocks and your investments in general, are only going to go up, up, up.  Further, that even if your stocks should go down, why that is just another buying point for your selections and they will still go up if you just have the courage to hang on, think of the long long term, or to purchase more at this new bargain basement price.  While this all looks and sounds great, especially when the stock market in general is going up, the fact of the matter is, sometimes the market goes down and it can go down by a lot.  In those types of situations, the pundits muddle through it, try to justify or unjustify it, try to explain it, pontificate, bluster, but it isn't quite business as usual.

Through it all, do these media outlets actually care or are they concerned about how you the individual investor performs?  Actually, I do believe that they do care and that any legitimate organization is trying to give you good and often sound advice.  The problems are that their track records may be rather poor, past history is not a guarantee of future success, and the hot hand of last quarter or last year by the time he or she becomes a name, is often having a poor year or a reduction to mean, when you unfortunately hear about them.  Their intentions may be good, the articles may be informative, but it doesn't necessarily add up to investment success.

The stock market cheerleaders also want to get you excited about the market, to trade with the market, to get in, to get out, or to just get involved somehow.  In order for the market to move, it needs action, for every buyer there has to be a seller.  The cheerleaders want to give you the illusion that you too can make that easy money, that it's only a click away, and that if you compound some daily gain over a weekly period and then compound it again and again, you'll be filthy rich.  They don't bother with telling you these important and fundamental facts, that you are an amateur up against professionals, quants, high-frequency traders, and insiders.  Do you really think or have the audacity to believe that you are the smartest guy in the room?

Before investing in the stock market, you should be aware of what you do and don't know.  You are not a congressman or legislator, or lobbyist, discussing pertinent legislative laws which will have a material impact on your business.  You are not a corporate insider well aware of whether your company is or isn't going to make its quarterly goals and well aware of the pipeline of future sales.  You are not part of the Federal Reserve and consequently do not know ahead of time, future Fed policies.  If this is who you are not, you are on the outside looking in.

Standing Armies

In our grievances as listed in our Declaration of Independence it was stated that King George had in the American colonies: "… kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."  The colonies were right to be concerned and to feel imperiled by Great Britain's standing armies that answered not to our own domestic legislatures but to the King and its parliament instead; and when war came between us, those standing armies were loyal to the crown and not to the coloniesAfter our independence, the importance and the fear of standing armies lead to important debates between the federalists and anti-federalists during the constitutional convention, in which ultimately the funding of a standing army in America was vested to Congress and not to the President or to the Executive branch. 

A standing army is a mighty instrument that inappropriately applied can be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes.  First, it is important to understand that the military indoctrinates its soldiers to believe that they are part of a greater whole, that while there is room for individual heroism it is also a given that the individual soldier is subservient to the unit, that the overriding objective of soldiers is to be obedient to their superior officers, to follow orders promptly, and to implement them without hesitation.  While it is written in military manuals that soldiers need: "obey only lawful orders", in times of crisis, of exigency circumstances, there will be few soldiers, if any, that will have the courage or effrontery to confront their superior with their viewpoint that a particular order is, in fact, "unlawful". 

The history of standing armies is hardly comforting to us.  James Madison in 1787 stated: “The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home." For every great leader and general such as George Washington or Cincinnatus, history demonstrates that they are hundreds more of tinhorn dictators, tyrants, despots, cabals, and the like that wreak havoc both domestic and foreign, and use their military power as a blunt instrument to effect their desires and beliefs, whatever the cost, and whatever the consequences. 

The mission creep of standing armies can easily morph from protecting the homeland, to generic peacekeeping overseas, to promoting foreign democracy, to attacking our enemies both foreign and domestic, to outright war, and finally to enslaving our people themselves in order to best protect and provide for them from enemies yet unknown. 

A standing army should best be looked upon as a permanent and dangerous threat to liberty.  Justice comes in many forms and many guises and one of those forms is when you are looking down the barrel of a gun.  When the guns or the army that you thought was there to serve and protect you is in fact turned against you, where then will you find your freedom, your liberty, your happiness, your livelihood, your country, except in the lost pages of history, or in a declaration of independence now forgotten, or a constitution effectively overridden and dismissed

Safe Drinking Water

There are a slew of things that we take for granted in our modern world each and every day because for the most part you can count on them working correctly day in and day out, and while there are plenty of resources that we would be loath to lose the use of for even a partial day, one of the foremost items that we would be most troubling to lose is water.    While we can quibble and argue that the most essential element for life itself is air, the fact of the matter is, with the exception of the most dire of emergencies you can find yourself good or at a minimum adequate air, but nearly one billion people upon this great planet lack reasonable access to safe drinking water and without safe water your health, and your life itself is seriously imperiled.

According to nicoletwater.com, "90 percent of Americans receive drinking water from a public water supply, such as a city, town or county water department."  On the surface that appears to be wonderful news, except for the fact that there are significant logistics involved in bringing that safe drinking water to our homes.  The first issue is that the water has to be safe--it cannot be compromised.  We typically get our water from sources such as lakes, reservoirs, streams, and rivers, but that water isn't simply just piped into our homes as is, it has to be diverted first into and then typically pumped into a holding pond which will then have the water treated with chemicals, then the usage of filters to screen out sediments, and finally a more thorough filtration will be utilized.  Next, further cleaning chemicals will be used to destroy bacteria and other harmful elements, than tests will be run to assure that the water has been properly purified before that water is stored pending its delivery to the population.

Now with the safe water being stored typically in a water tower it is available for distribution but that brings in a host of other items needed for that distribution.  Water must flow through pipes to arrive at your home, it must also have the energy needed to flow through those pipes, while part of that movement of water will come from gravity,  part also comes from the flow of water through the mechanism of high pressure to low pressure, but in order to accomplish that, that necessitates electrical energy.  A water supply without appropriate power and without necessary pressure is stagnant water in which the quality of that water will be become suspect in a very short period of time due to the possible contamination of the water by bacteria.  You may still have access to the water, but now it must be treated, typically by boiling the water for a period of time, before you can use it.  Should your access to water be completely cut off, you are at the mercy to any previous storage of water that you may or may not have.  Without safe and clean water, the quality of your life deteriorates rapidly, and chaos & panic will quickly ensue. 

For millions of people around the world, that do not have either safe or a clean water supply available to them, and therefore they must either use water that is convenient but contaminated, or travel long distances to procure hopefully safe water in which the transport of water is neither convenient, easy, or reliable, since the weight of only one gallon of water is about eight pounds.  Without an easy, affordable, and steady supply of safe drinking water, your life, your livelihood, your sanitation, and your health is on the wrong side of the line drawn in the sand. 

Revelation 21

All the wisdom that we need to know, to contemplate on, to pray upon, to meditate with, is contained within Holy Scripture.  God has given us no task in which we cannot but succeed or overcome, if we are willing to listen and to obey the still small voice within.  It is only man, in his ignorance, who sees the body, and believes that this physical body is the be-all, and the end-all of life; but indeed nothing physical can last, only our soul, only our spirit.  No matter what occurs to your body, your soul can never be vanquished; it can only be ultimately absorbed into omnipotent God.

Genesis 3: 17 states: "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life."  What this means is as follows; that mankind deliberately listened to the voice of its own ego, beguiled into believing that they too could be gods of a sort if they followed the advice of the serpent and tasted the fruits of the path of temptation, as opposed toobeying God's perfect way.   By eating the forbidden fruit, the relationship between Adam & Eve in regards to their Creator had been turned asunder, no more were they immortal beings worthy to be co-heirs to our Lord; they had been reduced to human beings subject to the laws of physical life and death.  Their life could no longer be one of paradisiacal splendor, a garden of love, instead they would have to toil, to labor, and to live within the physical laws of earth which includes suffering, pain, injustice, fear, unfairness, darkness, and ultimately death.

However all was not lost, as Adam & Eve had not been abandoned by God, as His wisdom, His power, His omniscience were still present to be One with Adam & Eve through prayer and contemplation, what had happened to them was that the physical needs of the body had corrupted and now competed with Adam & Eve's ability to draw upon, to listen, and to love their Creator. 

This was not the end as Christ showed us the perfect way back to our Lord, through his willful obedience and surrender to God's Word.  Far from living a life of sensory enjoyment, and ego fulfillment, Christ followed the admonition that each of us has a stark choice to either follow God or to follow mammon.  These choices are fundamentally opposed to each other, and when tempted by Satan and offered dominion over all the kingdoms of the world, he rebuked Satan and broke forever the bonds of Adam & Eve, for now here was a man who would not only overcome physical death, but would resurrect himself and walk the earth again while commencing the Great Commission before ascending to heaven.

Which leads us to Revelation 21:4: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."  "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found" Luke 15:24.  Revelation 21:4 is the end of our story, it is man coming back to God, being one with God, it is man overcoming self, it is man regaining paradise, and finally it is man receiving God's total and complete compassion for us, forgiveness of us, and unending and unfailing love for us.

Presidential Proclamation of Fasting

Each thanksgiving in America is celebrated with friends and family, feasts of good food, family communion, thankfulness for our gifts both merited or unmerited, care for those less fortunate than us, and an appreciation for our God and our great country.  Thanksgiving is a holiday that many people look forward to and celebrate, but whatever happened to the counterpoint to thanksgiving, a day of humility, penitence, prayer, and fasting?  While we do have a National Day of Prayer, within that day there is no call for penitence, forgiveness, or fasting, but just a general call for prayer and meditation.

Our Continental Congress from 1775 - 1782 (with the exception of 1777) declared a national day of humility, fasting, and prayer.  John Adams as President declared in 1798 and 1799 the same sentiments.  President James Madison in 1814 also proclaimed a national day of humility, fasting, and prayer.  Finally, President Lincoln in 1861, 1863, and by title only in 1864, declared a national day of humility, fasting, and prayer.  It has been nearly 150 years, and since then not a single President under any conditions, war or peace, good times or bad, has declared a day of humility, fasting, and prayer.  A country and a people that no longer believes it has a need to humble itself, to fast, and to show appreciation to our Creator is a country of arrogance and mistaken pride. 

To show how far we have fallen from grace, a call now for America to humble itself, and to fast, would be subjected to the most virulent calls for a separation of church and state, the inappropriateness of such a measure even being considered, health concerns that thousands of people would die (fasting can include water, juice, necessary medicine, or even small meals before sunrise or after sundown), and the general acknowledgment that America dips its flag, nor bows its head to any power, here or Above.

A country or a people that will not humble itself is a country and a people that are lost.  Christ has many passages on humility throughout the New Testament, for instance, Matthew 23:12: "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." Nobody, nor any country remains on top forever.  Life has its seasons, its cycles, and its stages.  A people that are unable to humble themselves, to sacrifice themselves, not even for one day, is a people that have judge themselves to be above it all. 

To think that one is always justified, and those that come from a different place, a different country, a different attitude, are not justified, is a dangerous ideology and a dangerous god to listen to.  Humility, prayer, and fasting, are a true chance and an opportunity to submit ourselves to our Creator, in gratitude for His benevolent grace, His tender mercies, and His wonderful wisdom. 

There is no higher calling than to serve our fellow man by helping the helpless, aiding the hurting, and by loving the unlovable.   Man does not live by bread alone that is why we must occasionally fast to remind ourselves of that vital fact.

Your National ID#

The government wants to track your whereabouts in everything you do and in everywhere you go.  A database or a population that is traceable is easier for the government to manage, to predict their predilections, to infiltrate, and to control.  The government is always outnumbered by the people, and those few that are the most powerful in any country are far outnumbered by the people, yet minorities of a minute percentage of people in conjunction with para-military and intelligent elements are able to keep the population pacified or constrained within certain acceptable boundaries for very long periods of time.  

The government wants you to be like lemmings.  Measures are passed in which your rights are protected only for your rights to be eroded over time.  Take, for instance, our standard social security cards which when initially issued in 1935, contained no separate identity numbers at all, but that was changed by the next year and even though this number was specifically set up to keep track of social security earnings and benefits that too would change.  While in 1946, cards were first issued with the specific warning that stated: "FOR SOCIAL SECURITY PURPOSES -- NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION"-- a warning so clear and specific that it should bring us a feeling of relief, that warning was removed by 1972.  This removal was a clear indication by the government that your Social Security# was no longer just for Social Security.  In fact, common usage of your Social Security# today whether you give out your entire number or just the last four digits includes but isn't limited to the following:

            Assigned at birth (1994)

            Landlords

            Banks

            Cable companies

            Employer

            Cell phone

            Utilities

            Credit cards

            Libraries

            Universities

            Medical & Dental

            Hospitals

            Credit Bureaus

            Taxation

If you don't give out your Social Security# to any of the above entities, you can expect that your application will either be denied, delayed, or processed very slowly, even though your Social Security# has never by law been assigned to you as your National ID#.   Your Social Security# is, though, for all intents and purposes exactly that.  But with computers and algorithms having never been more accessible and more powerful than they are today; the necessity of using anybody's Social Security# for identification purposes isn't valid.  All the same information that these organizations require to validate you could just as easily be obtained by your full name, birth date, and birthplace, with possibly a few other quick questions on previous addresses or miscellaneous information within a multiple choice format.  (I've already seen this exact format used online previously without having to provide my Social Security#.) 

The government sells you the illusion that it protects your Social Security#, your medical records, your tax records, your phone records, and so on and so forth from one agency from another, but if each of these agencies is using the same ID#, it doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination to picture the government stitching this all together again for its own purposes.  If you believe that the government is your great benevolent friend, than no worries, but information is power, and information that you thought was private or proprietary is even more powerful.  When the government has enough information to compromise you or a family member or someone of significance to you, they then have the ability to manipulate you, to coerce you, to find you, and when the government's back is up against the wall, they will not hesitate a moment into using you, to protect the ruling class and the power brokers. Your National ID# is like a permanent tattoo on your body, you are born with it, you will die with it, and you can never escape from it.

Minimum Wage

There was a time when I made just over the minimum wage, was I embarrassed by this fact?  Not at all, at that point this was my first time being fully employed and quite frankly I was delighted just to have a job, any job. Did I deserve my wages?  Yes, I believe that I was productive for the wages paid and I maintained my job, learned responsibility, and advanced.  Did I wish I was paid even more?  Duh, who wouldn't want more!    But the most important thing about my first job was it allowed me eventually to get more pay, more opportunities, mainly because my skill set, my networking, and my experience improved.  Without someone taking a chance on me, giving me that opportunity, my history may have been far different, and instead of being a success, perhaps my results would have been pathetic or worst.

When it comes to discussing the fairness of the minimum wage, the first test should be, are there a multitude of minimum wage jobs in which nobody will take the job, and it just stands vacant month after month after month.  The answer to that appears to be no and the reason why I can say this is that if this was true, the employer would have no choice but to raise wages in order to attract employment.  Another reason why we know this isn't true is the fact that the unemployment rate for youth ages 16-19 is around 25%  and for young adults 20-24 it is around 15%, as compared to the nationwide average of about 7.2%.  How is it possible that the segment of the population that makes the lowest wage on average has the highest unemployment rate?  On the surface, this doesn't make any sense, since your labor cost is an important component of your company's expenses.  It only makes sense if one recognizes that an artificial minimum wage above what the free market would settle on, allow employers to cherry pick their employees and therefore they often opt for someone more experienced, more reliable, and steadier.  Therefore, despite the good intentions of a minimum wage, the people that the minimum wage purports to help, those that are struggling to make a living wage, to get a job, any job, are left with no wages, no job, and effectively become wards of the state.  That is the irony of good intentions.

I do believe that a man should receive an honest day's wage for an honest day's work, but is it necessary for the government to impose a minimum wage upon private enterprise?  In the modern world, I doubt it and I suspect that if the government followed a more carrots-and-stick approach that they might find themselves more successful in providing more employment and better wages for the public at large.  Corporations are not stupid and are enterprises that as going concerns will typically last long beyond our human lifetimes.  Do you actually think for a minute that corporations will allow themselves to be legislated out of existence?  It won't happen, and therefore taking an antagonistic attitude towards corporations is both short-sighted and ill-served especially in a country created with the spirit of self-reliance.

The government can play a role in increasing wages, but this role should perhaps be done by engaging businesses in comprehensive discussions in order to formulate common goals that benefit both parties.  Additionally, tax consequences make a huge difference in the decisions that corporations make, so it is high time to think outside the box and formulate some new plans such as the deductibility and depreciation of capital investment vis-a-vis labor.  If government truly wants to see more jobs available above the current minimum wage and/or to see labor utilized more, provide those specific incentives to do so to businesses and it will happen.

Mass Media

The United States offers the illusion of choice every day in regards to our entertainment, reading, television, and other media, but in fact, these media "choices" are controlled by a large oligopoly.  These huge conglomerates control, process, and provide the media that we consume and utilize on any given day.  The big six by revenue are listed below:

Walt Disney   

            Media, consumer products, parks, resorts, hotels, cruise lines, ABC (media) ESPN (sports), Marvel (comic media)

News Corp

            Newspapers/multi-media, (UK, Australia, USA). Dow Jones (includes WSJ), HarperCollins (books)

            21st Century Fox

                        Spun off from News Corp  TV/movies

Time Warner  

            HBO/Cinemax, Time (print media), IPC Media (print media), Groupo (media), Turner Network (multi-media), Warner Brothers (multi-media)

CBS

            TV, print media, radio

VIACOM  

            Paramount (movies), MTV/Nickelodeon

Comcast

                Cable, NBC Universal (TV/multi-media)      

While there is something to be said about the synergy and consolidation in media as providing better pricing overall to the consumer, with both higher quality and superior service, the flip side is that diversity is minimized, controversial or innovative viewpoints are stifled, and the lust for power and money has been magnified.

While this is the age of the internet in which any viewpoint, any opinion, any idea can be solicited to the public, if you are not on the right wavelength, connected to the right people, or have made nice to the power brokers, your views will be marginalized with little or no hope of ever achieving a foothold into the American psyche. 

America still does offer freedom of the press, but if nobody actually reads or listens to what you have published or said, you are the sound of one hand clapping.  It isn't so much that mass media deliberately wants to censor your voice, it has a lot more to do with the fact that if you are not with the program, that mass media can't market successfully what you say, can't make money off of what you proclaim, or such, they will simply ignore you and ignoring you is their perfect response. 

Mass media always wants to give you a choice but it's always the choice of "heads I win, tails you lose."  The choices that you are really offered are essentially going from one conglomerate to another, as long as you're doing business with one of the big boys, the oligopoly are happy.  Sure they compete with each other but they understand that not everyone wants the same thing, at the same time, and that people will gravitate from one media to another, depending on their age, income, social background, and whatnot.  All they really want from you is your attention, your money, and some sort of loyalty. 

The mass media understands that America is the world leader in media in all of its many forms, and if mass media can't get its own population to adhere to certain standards and behaviors, how would it be possible to influence others beyond our own borders.  Mass media has little interest in a strong nuclear family which demonstrates clear, independent and moral right thinking.  While that is okay in a few exceptional cases, mass media wants to be your family, your daddy, your mommy, your sister, your brother, and your special friend.  They will tell you what to do, what to think, and how best to please them, and all you have to do in returnis simply absorb their message day by day.

World's Richest Country

There was a time when the United States really was the world's richest country by GDP, by median income, and by any other recognizable metric but that total dominance ended by 1973 in which countries such as Sweden and Switzerland surpassed us for the first time in their per capita GDP.  The United States is the third most populous nation in the world but its population trails far behind India and China in which both of those countries have only one billion residents each as contrasted to our three hundred and thirteen millions.  Population is a key component to a countries' overall GDP in which the United States GDP is double that of their next closest country which is China. However, a Forbes article of 10/7/13 predicts that China's GDP will catch up to the United States by 2020.  This won't be the first time that China was the world's largest economy as they had the biggest GDP till around the turn of the 20th century when the baton was handed over to the United States which has not relinquished it since.

In the 21st century we can see that the United States has continued to slip down the charts, for instance, in 2000, the United States was ranked by Credit Suisse as the #1 in average wealth per adult, but by 2010, the USA had slipped to #7 with an average of $236K which was behind countries such as Switzerland, Australia, and France.  For 2012, Credit Suisse stated that the United States median wealth per adult was at $38.8K which was ranked 27th in the world, surprisingly behind such countries as Germany, Sweden, Japan, and the United Kingdom. 

Which leads us to the next problem for the United States which is that out of 50 countries, only Russia had a larger disparity between average wealth and median wealth in which the ratio for Russia was 12.6 times its median wealth, whereas in the United States it stands at 6.7 times, in contrast to Australia and the United Kingdom in which they are at 1.8 times and 2.2 times median wealth respectively.  (Remember that the median is defined by having half of the numbers above the median and half of the numbers below the median, therefore the closer an average salary is to the median, the more equitable the number; the higher the disparity the more inequitable, because an average takes all of the numbers together and divides them by the quantity of numbers taken.) 

This disparity between average and median wealth is part of the reason why the United States is perceived as wealthier than it really is.  America is very wealthy for the special elite, in which the United States is first in billionaires, and first in millionaires, and their conspicuous consumption is felt worldwide.  But America also has an impoverished underclass in which a report issued in 2011 by the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development stated that our poverty rate was more than twice that of countries such as Denmark and Hungry, and our poverty level was higher than countries such as Germany and Italy.

Marcus Aurelius said that "poverty is the mother of crime."  We can see that in our prisons which are full, this despite a country that is widely acknowledged and perceived as being the richest nation that the world has ever known.  America is a country divided by rich and poor, with a middle class being squeezed out of existence by taxes domestically and labor outsourced internationally.  America is great and is impoverished, unfair, corrupt, and heading for the shoals.

Welfare state

The welfare state  as currently constructed should not exist in this country, not now, not ever, as it is by definition diametrically opposed to what this country was founded on, which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  This country provides you life, because there is no compulsory draft, and therefore your life is your own.  America provides you liberty to live where you want to, travel unmolested, think and do what you desire, and consequently you are free.  Your pursuit of happiness is left in your own hands so that you can pursue your dreams, your goals, your plans, and to blaze your own path.  The welfare state opposes all of that.  The welfare state demands one very important thing which is anathema to the principles of America, which is for you to be subservient to the government, so that they can take care of you.  That isn't America and that isn't what this country was founded on,

The welfare state means that the more that you reward a particular action the more that you will get in response that particular action.  Further, when you provide for people's welfare and treat them as wards of the state, the more wards you will discover.  Additionally, when every little problem or setback is dealt with as if this is an ongoing disability, the more disabilities you will find.  Finally, if the rivers of welfare prosperity and sustainability appear unending, welfare largess will never end.

To make matters worse, the government doesn't have the moral courage to tax the gainfully employed and income-producing peoples directly  to assure that the welfare state is self-supporting, instead it taxes through its massive yearly deficits generations yet unborn.  That is hypocrisy at its worse, as those that have yet to enjoy the fruits of their labor, are stuck with the bill which simply states: "payment due" and gives no value in return.

It's always easier to spend other people's money.  When a congressman pats himself on the back for spending money on this or that welfare program, he hasn't spent his own money, he has spent yours; yet he gets the plaudits, he gets the buildings named after him, he gets the roads that sing his name, and the editorials that praise his generosity.  That's wrong in every aspect, it's nothing more than a con game, in which the government pretends that it can create wealth, whereas the truth of the matter is the government is very good at coercing wealth and ill-using labor and resources; because our government essentially produces nothing, it re-allocates and re-distributes resources to favored groups while taking a large slice of the pie for itself for its troubles.

America owes its citizens, a chance, a level playing field, opportunity, and anything that we can do to encourage these things is a net benefit to society at large.  We don't owe anyone a free ride, entitlements, or promises that we ourselves cannot keep without taking from others.   The welfare state has not worked to date and needs to be reformed, so that properly understood and reformulated, charity and welfare should be a helping hand and not an indiscriminate handout.

Utility Pricing Plans

If you're like me, when you moved into your home and signed up for trash, gas, electricity, water, and sewage you pretty much figured that you got to pay what you got to pay and you really didn't worry yourself or were concerned about it any further.  That's a mistake.  While it doesn't appear that in my community that you have a choice in regards to selecting a different vendor for water & sewage, you definitely do have choices for trash, natural gas, and electricity and a good consumer makes good reasoned choices.  I initially didn't do that and to compound my error further I signed up for paperless billing.  While paperless billing may be better for the environment, if you don't ever take a look at your bill, but blithely pay it, you will probably miss the opportunity to audit your bill and consequently you won't make any changes to your utility vendors or your pricing options.

Of course, it isn't entirely your fault, for instance, on my natural gas provider, I was by default signed up for their introductory rate which was approximately .349/therm but that literally lasted just a couple months before being automatically switched over to their variable plan at approximately 1.029/therm, which is the default plan and the preferential choice that this vendor wants you to make.  The reason that I know it's their preference is when you log onto your account and wish to select or remain on their variable plan, this can be done online with no human interaction, whereas, when I attempted to switch over to the fix rate for 12 months at approximately .629/therm, the website insisted that I call an operator or else the change would not go through.  The phone call was quite eye opening because rather than simply signing me up for the fix plan, she attempted to bully me into staying with the current plan by warning me that the fixed rate plan has a termination charge of $150 and that the variable plan is well, variable.  Although I consider their termination fee to be an outrage, I also am not moving anytime soon, additionally I believe that if it comes down to a termination that this something that can be negotiated or pro-rated, especially since I have a track record with the company.  In any event the comparison was pretty straight forward:

            Variable 1.029/therm (this does vary and it can go up as well as down but I've never seen it lower than .879/therm and that was during the summertime!) with a $6.95 monthly service fee

            Fixed .629/therm with a $5.95 monthly service fee and a possible early termination charge

That decision was pretty straightforward as I went with the fixed plan and have probably saved myself $80 - $200 per year.  The savings will vary depending on how much natural gas you use and how cold the weather gets in your area.

In regards to trash, I was initially with Waste Management, which is the biggest waste company in America, and although I was satisfied with their service, I became annoyed over their raising my price a couple of times and I figured that the competition was probably also going to be satisfactory. I mean it's trash pickup, right?  I've now switched twice since leaving Waste Management, and I estimate my current yearly savings to be at approximately $90/year.

Benjamin Franklin said it long ago, "a penny saved is a penny earned", and that was back in the day when a penny was worth something.  Utilities are a part of life; you have to have trash, gas, electricity, and water & sewage, so you may as well try to save yourself a few dollars while doing so.

The New King George

A great portion of our Declaration of Independence was the facts submitted to demonstrate the tyranny of King George and our Great Britain suppressors against us as a people and the colonies as a whole.  Unfortunately, as time has moved on, the independence that we once had and so richly cherished, has been compromised by the very government that is in theory, of the people, by the people, and for the people.  The people have become subservient to the government, and especially subservient to our National Government.

For instance, "He has erected a multitude of New Offices…" such as:          

            Director of the White House Office of Cybersecurity

            Director of the White House Office of Health Reform and Counselor to the President

            Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy

            Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change

The above agencies were just some of the appointments made by the current Presidential administration without Senate confirmation.

"He has obstructed the Administration of Justice."  For instance, after both bodies of Congress pass a bill, it is submitted to the President for either his signature or his veto.  However, recent administrations have added their own Executive interpretation to this straightforward signature option, by adding a signing statement to their signature, signifying how the President believes this particular law should be construed which essentially interprets the law as if the Executive branch was the judicial branch and thereby modifies law and consequently supersedes the congressional legislative bodies.

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power." The Executive branch has consistently waged war without congressional declaration, by declaring that since the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, that he is in effect, able to call forth military forces at his prerogative, to fight enemies both foreign and domestic and without the need or aid of congressional approval.  This effectively makes the President, and therefore the military, independent of and hence superior to Civil Power.

"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury," in which more than 90% of criminal trials, are settled with essentially coerced or extorted plea bargains, a Faustian bargain at best, and basically a perversion of justice for the convenience and service of the state. 

Our new King George has been in existence for quite a while, each President in his own time adding his particular imprint to the list of grievances impressed against the people.  The Presidency has devolved into an effective dictatorship, in which all laws are obeyed at his convenience, and the ones that the President feels the right to supersede, amend, or to ignore he does so with seemingly unlimited immunity.  The President is no fool, he makes sure to attempt to placate his political party, to provide the general public its bread and circuses, and he treats the military with all due deference and consideration.   The President wants the public to be fat, dumb-downed, morally suspect, and subservient.   The President smiles while he kills us softly.  We are his bleating sheep to be fed and then shorn again and again,