Our Congress

I’ve written of this before but to no avail. Ignorance persists. Despite the fact that its definition is specified by law, i.e. the Constitution of the United States of America, Article I, Section I, people, from the President of our country to those at the lowest ranks of our society insist on erroneously addressing members of our House of Representatives as “Congressman”. Even our national media persists in advocating this fiction, their responsibility for accurate reporting notwithstanding. I think it’s downright disgusting and irresposible.

A member of the House of Representatives is no more (or no less) a Congressman than a Senator. The official title of a member of the U. S. House of Representatives is Representative. The official title of a member of the U. S. Senate is Senator. Both of them are Congressmen (or woman, of course). The U. S. House of Representatives is termed the “Lower House” of our Congress. The U.S. Senate is termed the “Upper House” of our Congress. The U. S. Congress (consisting) of both is the legislative body of our government.

This is important to know. When someone, anyone, uses the title Congress or Congressman, insist he define his terms. When you see a sign “Vote for ‘John Doe’ for Congress”, question as if he is asking you to vote for a candidate for the “House” or of the “Senate”. The Congress of the United States of America is one of our three equal (in power) branches of government: Legislative (Congress), Executive (President), and Legal (Supreme Court). This of which I speak is not minor. It is fact. It is important—basic to your understanding of how our government works.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com

  

Enough Is Enough

Enough is enough! Our Great Nation was established by people with values, people who cared, not only for our country, but also for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Needless to say, the right to see our children murdered time after time before our eyes by Robber Barons who value profit over life was not part of the package (Yes, they are just as guilty as those who pulled the trigger. They are accessories after the fact to murder and they deserve to be held responsible) in the writing of our Constitution.

Also a matter of fact which is just as needless to say, neither was Party Politics and the rule of our Great Nation by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite covered under our Constitution. As Abraham Lincoln said, our nation is a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. Nothing is said anywhere in our Constitution that we are to be ruled by the very rich and powerful or by kings, queens, or autocrats in any way, shape or form. Our elected representatives are legally responsible to represent the best interests of the people—all the people, and not just the Corporatocracy and Power Elite.

I’ve had enough. Enough is enough. We the people need to get off our behinds and take back our country. Our elected representatives must return to representing the people. The only way, and I mean the only way, we can take back our country is by taking money out of politics—out of campaign financing, and we must do it now—before the elections of 2018. Our U.S. Supreme Court has sold out our great country. Corporations are not people. They exist to serve us—not rule over us. Many of these corporations deserted us long ago and moved overseas so as to avail themselves of slave labor and avoid taxes. They care little if anything about our country. It’s long past time for us to hold them accountable.

If we take money out of campaign financing, we can then move forward toward gaining control over gun control; and, I think, successfully. We must rid ourselves of this Shadow Government ruling over us and our representatives through lobbyists and corruption, i.e. bribery, extortion, etc. If the grass roots, the voting citizens, of this country don’t take charge soon, it will be quickly too late to save us. Of course, I can’t say for sure but after 2018 may be too late. Vote for those who care about our country and our people—not just the rich and privileged.

In closing, I want to express my personal opinion on school teachers and police officers in this nation. As a whole I believe both professions to be among the most responsible and underpaid professions serving our people today. That having been said, and we want to add law enforcement to the responsibilities of our teachers? Also, we want to raise our children in a “hard” atmosphere as opposed to a “soft” atmosphere?  Do we really? Do we really want to rob our children of their childhood? Have we come to this? My God! Help us!

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com


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Would You Believe?

Florida’s Governor Rick Scott has called for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign in wake of the Parkland school shooting in Florida and revelations that the bureau ignored tips about the shooter prior to the shooting. Are you kidding me? For a man of his position and allegedly so smart, this is just about as stupid a statement as one could make. Where on earth is his logic? I suspect that inasmuch as the oversight in question is allegedly that of a lower level employee of the FBI, it is the “big boss” that should resign. Really? It would seem to me that the “Big Boss” in that chain of command is Donald Trump, and you certainly could not expect him to resign.

Looking at his logic in another matter, what was “Scott’s” defense in the HCA, Hospital Corporation of America, aka Columbia/HCA scandal when he was the ”Big Boss” (Or did he think the blame for that was the responsibility of President Obama)? Have we forgotten that so soon? And Scott wants to run for Senator? Perhaps an analysis and explanation of his net worth over the past decade would be in order. A United States Senator is a pretty important person in our scheme of things, it seems to me.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

National Parade—What a Wonderful Idea

President Trump wants a military parade to commemorate our troops and our country—what a wonderful idea. He wants to pay tribute to our troops—how caring, how thoughtful, how respectful to those who protect our country and our people, what a great idea. He is so caring. Let’s do it!

It is estimated by the news media that such a parade will cost only approximately twenty-eight million dollars, a relatively small amount in light of our national debt.

O.K.! What the hell. Let’s do it. But, I think, if we are going to do it, let’s do it right. Let us make an impression on the whole world they will never forget. Let the world know what a magnificent and powerful country we are and how powerful our leader is.

I do have a couple questions, however. Do we want our military to march as those of the armies of Kim Jong-un of North Korea with their fancy side–step or those of Hitler with their goose step. Also, do we want His Highness, President Trump to wear a gold crown, perhaps with a huge pheasant’s tail and riding a great white horse prancing proudly ahead of our armies? Boy that would be nice. Now, that would make an impression—really.

Also, don’t you think it a nice idea to line the streets with the homeless so as to pay tribute to them who sacrificed the twenty-eight million dollars to pay for the parade which could have provided food for their sustenance? Oops! I almost forgot. There is, also, the cost of repairing the streets damaged by the treads of the tanks in the parade. How about all those missiles? Do we want them in the parade too? That would really fix our streets.

We’ll really impress the world with this. We’ll really impress the world with what a great leader we have, wont it?

B… S…! Let me tell you what I really think. The United States of America is the laughing stock of the world, and that is because we elected a sick fool for a leader. Are we really that stupid? As Donald Trump would say, “Sad”.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Our Gift to The Future

While the older of us in our generation bask in the warmth and glow emanating from the births of our great grandchildren as they enter into their new world, our gift to their futures, we struggle arduously to survive the greatest recession since the great depression of the “Thirties” and the massive destruction, debt, and disruption suffered in the wake of the many wars since. Laissez Faire Capitalism worldwide verges on failure, about which Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and former associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal has written his book: The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, described as follows:

“This book is a major challenge both to economic theory and to media explanations of the ongoing 21^st century economic crisis.

It outlines how the one percent have pulled off an economic and political revolution. By offshoring manufacturing and professional service jobs, US corporations destroyed the growth of consumer income, the basis of the US economy leaving the bulk of the population mired in debt.

The American people do not benefit from Globalism. In addition to offshoring, business leaders are replacing Americans with foreigners in those jobs that they retain in the US in order to lower costs, fraudulently claiming that they cannot find enough Americans with science and engineering degrees to fill them.

No one seems to understand that research, development, design, and innovation take place in countries where things are made. The loss of manufacturing means ultimately the loss of engineering and science.

This is the book to read for those who want to understand the agenda that is bringing the West to its knees.”

The premise of his book is:

          “There is no economic recovery.”

“Economists who have spent their professional lives rationalizing ‘globalism’ as good for America, have no idea of the disaster that they have wrought…”

“Globalism is a conspiracy against First World jobs…”

“The US is no longer an opportunity  society.”

Anyone who has read my blog knows full well my concern for the political and economic wellbeing of our great nation. As I read this book, I am compelled to share it with you. To this end, it is available from Amazon.com in paperback, used for only $1.98 plus $3.99 shipping, new, $16.95 plus and, if you have a Kindle Reader, you can buy that edition for $9.99.

If you really care about your country and why and what is happening to us—if you really want to know—I recommend this book to you. You may not agree with everything written, but you will at least have the opportunity to know.

In addition to the attributes of the author, Paul Craig Roberts, stated above, he has, also testified before committees of Congress on 30 occasions, and held academic appointments in six universities, including Stanford and Georgetown. Dr. Roberts was awarded the US Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of US economic policy”.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

         

Our Current State

It’s notable as I listen to “all these experts and politicians” as they espouse their thoughts and positions on a multitude of subjects; they continually bash President Trump every day, all day, and all night. I’m downright tired of hearing it. I myself have said on more than one occasion that I don’t like the man. I don’t like him personally, and I don’t like him politically. He is incompetent intellectually, experientially, and morally to be the chief executive of a large and dynamic country that used to be the leader of the free world. Those are facts. However, our people with full knowledge and little, if any, in-depth forethought have elected him as our president. Our elections are not unlike taking sides in a football game. As my father used to tell me, “that’s just the way it is; and we can like it or lump it”. Let’s get on to running our country.

Our news media has made millions of dollars promoting this charlatan, millions of dollars electing him, and now, millions of dollars trying to destroy him. In the process, they have made even more millions by not having to spend on reporting “real news” going on behind the scenes, using their “circus reporting” as a smoke screen. As Donald would say, “Sad”. There are mountains of news occurring all around the world every minute of every day, and we need to know about it–all about it.

Donald Trump is what he is, and he isn’t going to change, but he has accomplished some things. He has exposed the weaknesses in our system of voting; and, in the process, he has exposed the Republican Party for what it is and what it is not. It becomes very obvious that playing politics as if we are at a game of football is a fool’s errand. We the people may be dumb, but we aren’t stupid. We will take back our country from this Oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite which, like they have done in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, are helping to cause this mess in our country from behind the scenes. We will “smarten” up. We will take our country back.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Let’s Come Together and Save A Lot of Money

March 4, 1789, the date our Constitution became effective, the population of our nation was just under four million people, five percent of which was urban, i.e. city, and ninety-five percent rural, i.e. they lived in the country. Moving forward two hundred years to the end of the twentieth century, our nation’s population increased to just less than three hundred million, eighty-one percent of which was urban and nineteen percent rural. Can you imagine the immense change in the cultures of our people then as compared to now; then, when our neighbor was over the hill, down the road, up the holler, on yonder knob, or some miles away; or now, when our neighbor is next door, upstairs, downstairs, on the other side of the wall, or just down the street? Think of it! Can you imagine the vast differences in how we live now compared to how we lived then? Can you envision the vast difference in education, knowledge, and communications of our people then as compared to now? Also, I urge you to be mindful of the immense change in complexity of our foreign relations over this same period of time. To this end, think relationships, national security, foreign trade, etc.

Do you really believe thirteen sovereign nations under one flag or, as we are now with fifty states, fifty sovereign nations under one flag, could survive as a leader of nations in today’s world? The biggest arguments against our Constitution in its creation was “too much power in government”, states’ rights, and the lack of a bill of rights, the latter of which was resolved and signed into law December 18, 1791. Doesn’t this sound familiar? We have been fighting over the other two ever since, for the past two and a quarter centuries. I submit that “No We Can’t”. I submit that “United We Stand”, “Divided We Fall”. For two hundred twenty eight years we have literally wasted billions, if not trillions of dollars fighting this useless battle to nobody’s interests except for the Corporatocracy and Power Elite of this world. Except for a few years in the interim (I’m thinking of perhaps the 1920’s, the latter forties, fifties, sixties, and maybe part of the seventies–you will recall that Theodore Roosevelt put these Robber Barons in their place in the first decade of the nineteenth century and Franklin Roosevelt again in the thirty’s and forties), our people certainly haven’t benefited by all of this.

I submit to you that we need a strong central government, a government that will serve the rights, needs, and security of the American people with honesty, integrity, and transparency–all the people, the ninety-five percent as well as the five percent. And, if our business organizations can operate efficiently and effectively, devoid of politics, so can our government. We don’t need politics. What we need is a democracy of the people governed in the interests of the people. We need to come together as a people in the interests of all–not just a selfish few. We must come together as a people.

Do we need business? You bet we do. But, we need business whose purpose is to serve the people, their customers. Do they need to make a profit? Yes they do. Profit is an expense of doing business just as is the rent, wages, taxes, etc. Profit is the purpose of the investor. Business needs investment to operate their business; but, if they do not serve their customer, there is no need for their existence–no need for a profit.

 There is one more distinction to be made. Speculation is not investment. Speculation is gambling for which there is no redeeming grace except in the pocket of the gambler. As I write this, the financial collapse of 2008 comes to mind. Shut the liars out of your mind. What they say notwithstanding, that crash in 2008 which almost caused the destruction of the economies of the whole world was caused by speculation. If you are informed by all this, you will recall to mind that Goldman Sachs came out of it all with a profit–they did not lose money, unlike many of their competitors as well as their customers who went broke; and no one went to jail (I wonder why). Refer to William Cohan’s book, “Money and Power”, a biography of Goldman Sachs.

Do we need collectivism in government? You bet we do. Again, don’t listen to the self-serving liars among us. There are many segments of our economy that are not adaptable to the free market, as they call it (This is another subject of its own. I have written about it before, but suffice it to say here that the only really free market I know of in this day and age is on the chalkboard of a college classroom). Some examples of this lie in the fields of medicine and healthcare. Let’s not kid ourselves. People cannot with knowledge and forethought freely distinguish between, or select for that matter, between hospitals, doctors, drugs, procedures, etc. Really! Neither can they intelligently evaluate and distinguish between the many insurance plans on the market. In the end, it is just their best guess. Nobody knows that better than you. Hospitals, for the most part (Personally, I know of none) don’t even have cost accounting systems. I’ve spent many an hour in the hospital, and I know of no price lists to support their charges; and, for that matter, except for drugs, how can one have a price list without a cost accounting system to support it.

There are other examples. Let me suggest a few. Can you select on the basis of a free market your public utilities, roads, bridges, etc? These are the easy ones. Think about this. Lenders lend money at a variety of risks and interest rates for many applications ranging from small personal loans to home mortgages, school tuition, etc. Many of these loans are guaranteed by the government (you, the taxpayer). If the taxpayer, the government, is going to guarantee these loans, why don’t they go ahead and make the loans in the first place, taking the “sharking” out of it in the process. I am thinking of tuition loans and home loans. You will recall that government guaranteed loans were heavily involved in the market collapse to which I referred earlier.

I cannot finish without reminding you of this. Collective governance and economic planning are not Socialism. They are not Socialism any more than “Too big to fail” support of banking and corporations (Surely you haven’t forgotten the bailouts in 2009), disaster relief, Social Security, Medicare, Workmen’s Compensation, etc., and neither is it Communism–unless, that is, you allow it to be as a result of a lack of your due diligence, keeping informed, and at the ballot box, which, under our Constitution, is our job of course. If, on the other hand, we the people allow others (I’m thinking the Corporatocracy and Power Elite) to take over our Congress, as they do now (You know they do), what else? What do you expect?

To our Congress, The House of Representatives and the Senate, I ask, “When is our country going to be more important to you than party politics or getting rich or getting reelected? When?

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Our Government

Our governance coming out of Washington these days is abominable, an embarrassment, if not a disgrace to our people and our country. Arguably as the leader of the free world, our actions notwithstanding, we are under threat, if not in peril. This madness must end. We must get hold of ourselves and our nation.

We are told all men are created equal. We know this is not true. Every one of us is born with differences from one another and given different gifts from God. We are born equal only in the eyes of God and, supposedly, under the law. What then are we to do with these gifts, and who is to benefit from them?

Therein lays the answer to our question along with the real solution as to how we should govern. We are told, to whom much is given, much is expected. We are told the poor will always be with us. We are told by Jesus to “feed My sheep”. We are told Jesus came to the people. We are told that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And we are told we cannot serve both God and mammon—we cannot serve two masters.

Draw your own conclusions; but, in my mind, this tells me the world is here for all of us and we should govern accordingly. Our governance should be governance of the people, by the people, and for the people with equal opportunity for all and help for those in need and less gifted. We must rid government of corruption and greed and put the best interests of our nation and people ahead of individual gain and party politics. To this end, we need competent qualified leaders in our government who can and will serve the people, serve the nation, and lead the world, traits and service sadly missing in the present.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Our Defense Budget

As I have commented in the past relative to our Department of Defense, their immense responsibility to the security of our country and the American people notwithstanding, they do not have an accounting system, i.e. a set of books, integrated with our national system of accounting that are auditable. In short, their books don't balance.

 When Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense during the administration of George W. Bush (You remember Dubya) entered office, he promised to correct this problem. We soon entered the war in Iraq, and his promise was forgotten.

I think this condition is a disgrace to the people of our country. We have huge transnational corporations in this country (they may be even bigger than our whole government), and their accounts are integrated, they are able to balance their books, and they can account for every dollar they receive and every dollar they spend. There is no reason our government can't do the same except they don't want to.

 Solving this problem they won’t be able to lie, cheat, and steal and/or hide what they do from the American people without getting caught. In conjunction with this think the Military Industrial Complex. As long as they can hide the truth, the American people are uninformed and unable to fulfill their Constitutional responsibilities in the electoral process.

Our country has the largest military budget in the whole world and, yet, they want more. As I speak, their requested budget this year is approximately $700 billion, just over three quarter of a trillion dollars, and they still claim they don't have enough money. They want more and they want to take it out of our Social Security and Medicare. If you don't believe me, just listen to Representative Paul Ryan, our illustrious Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the evening news. As usual, we fiddle as Rome burns. This phenomena is what economists term “guns vs. butter”. I submit to you that if a government doesn’t provide for the needs of its people, they may not have a people to defend.

So as not to overburden you with my thoughts, let me refer you to those of others. For your convenience, listed below are a few articles relating to this subject:

Pentagon’s Failure to Audit Contracts Wastes Billions

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/05/21/Pentagons-Failure-to-Audit-Contracts-Wastes-Billions

Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic …

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.5a1f121743ed

Audit: Pentagon Cannot Account for $6.5 Trillion Dollars Is Taxpayer Money
ttps://www.mintpressnews.com/audit-pentagon-cannot-account-6-5-trillion-dollars-taxpayer-money/219246/

Fake News? I don’t think so. There is much more. It’s easy to Google. Study for yourself and see what a sick state our nation is in; and, you know? There’s absolutely no sense in it.

I’ll be back. In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller. www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

A New Year–2018

I recently received a message on Facebook, a message with which I fail to agree, to the effect that the year 2017, just ended, was a very bad year, but 2018 would be a better one–much better. I disagree because I believe The United States of America is under attack and our very sovereignty as a democratic republic is at stake, i.e. our very democracy is at risk, if not already lost. If we the people fail to identify and solve our problems, i.e. “Take back our country”, we will continue our downhill direction beyond our ability to recover. We need to get off our ass today!

What’s our problem(s)? What are we going to do about it, and when? I have posted detailed descriptions and recommended solutions to these problems over the several years since I have been writing this blog; and, therefore, will only mention them here in summary. You are able to look back in time by clicking below on the configuration, “Older Post” to read my past postings to this blog for greater detail.

In today’s New Year’s Day posting, I’m going to begin by listing what I see as the most important major problems confronting our democracy and sovereign democratic republic today with brief commentary. Then I’ll do my best to provide a brief summary of recommendations for their solutions. It is important to understand that my discussion here is with an overall view solely in the interests of our nation and our “government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” that they  ”shall not perish from this earth”.

To that end, I shall begin by submitting to you that the most major problem confronting this nation, and the world today, is a nuclear war. You and I both know that the solution to this problem is above and beyond my pay grade; but, if it isn’t solved and, I believe soon, all remaining problems are a moot point.

The second most major problem which confronts our nation today is the division of our people. We have had our differences throughout history, but never since the mid-eighteen hundreds, the Civil War, have we ever been more divided. I submit to you that there are only two solutions to this problem: Leadership and adherence to the Ten Commandments, i.e. “love your neighbor as yourself”. In that this nation was established as a democratic republic to be governed as a nation of law based upon Judean Christian values and subject to the will of the majority in conjunction with the protection of the minority, this problem should not be this great; but….

Problem number three, unfortunately, is we lack leadership. I think historians will agree with me that, here and there, throughout history we have had incompetent leadership; but, what we haven’t had is the intense complexity of today’s society, technology, and nuclear threat. Given the times and the challenges, this is the worst. I have spent over thirty years in corporate life, including corporate financial management, and I think I’m able to recognize management and leadership skills when I see them. I can tell you that a real leader doesn’t divide, He brings people together. He gets people to follow him because they choose to follow—not because he demands them. He inspires loyalty. He doesn’t need to dictate. Also, a leader has in-depth knowledge of what he is doing. He thinks. He plans. That’s as brief as I can get on that problem. I think you understand.

Our next major problem, our fourth (which, under normal circumstances should be our first), is the loss of our democracy to the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, a problem exacerbated by globalization. We have almost failed to recognize this problem because we can still vote, and our vote is still valued by our elected representatives (that’s why they spend such vast amounts of money to influence us); but, when the election is over, as a whole, they could care less. They only care for the wants and needs of the real rulers of our nation, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, who rule through their lobbyists, paying them vulgar amounts of money for their services. It is they whom your elected representatives (titled Representative, for members of our House of Representatives, and Senator, for the members of our Senate [most of whom up to and including our President don’t know the difference between a Congressman and a Representative, i.e. member of the House]) serve, i.e. answer the phone, serve their wishes, take care of, etc. It is they whom our Congress represents and from whom they receive their campaign income. And what is the solution? Get money completely our of politics; but you just try to get Congress to do it. Then, you just try to get a President to vote for it. You just try to get a Supreme Court to agree with you. They still think corporations are people. God doesn’t think so but the Supreme Court of the United States of America thinks so.

Our next major problem is our national debt and our national deficit. I plan to write a specific blog on this in the near future, but only a fool will believe our nation can continue to survive with our present income to spending ratio. A wise man knows that we must get our deficit in hand by changing it to a surplus and, over time, pay off our national debt. Not only must we do it, we must do it now!

Moving right along, we have several more major problems (and I do mean major) which I want to mention and about which you can see in my past blogs and about which you may also expect to hear from me in the near future because they are critical to solving our spending and revenue problems (our national deficit and debt) as well as our vast social needs, i.e. education, Social Security, healthcare, immigration, tax reform, and prison reform.

For the sake of brevity, today, I’m going to close this for now; but there is one more thing I want to say and say emphatically: There is no reason this side of hell, our Congress and our President can’t solve these problems, Congressional rules notwithstanding, in a relatively short period of time! All that is needed is the will to do so! There are times when it is difficult to chew bubble gum and tobacco simultaneously; but, by god, it can be done. Almost every issue on the table has been studied to death to no end. No problem exists which can’t be solved by smart people; and those who aren’t smart and informed should not be in office.

I’ll talk to you later; but, in the meantime, have a wonderful holiday. This is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

P.S. I would appreciate your comments on this. Participate in your democracy. Please.

Look You

Look you. For just a minute, I ask you to think about something. You can readily see all the disruption, discontent, want, suffering, and unhappiness all around us, with people, with nations, and with the world for that matter. You don’t have to be told. You know things aren’t right. Why? For just a moment, look beyond what you see, what you hear, and even how you think you feel. The late French economist, thinker, and artist, Frederic Bastiat told us that there is that which is seen, and that which is not seen. Looking for that which is not seen, cast aside from your mind for just a moment all the clutter and garbage that is fed to us on a daily basis and ask yourself a question. What on earth is behind all of this that is not seen that is causing all of this? What is really going on?

Allow me to suggest an answer to all this misery. That answer is the struggle for power and dominance, the basic answer to everything. The greatest, yet the most basic struggle is between God and Satan. Before you cast that aside so brusquely, please, just consider it. We all know who is going to win in the end, but that struggle is happening all around us each and every day. 

Now, let us bring this discussion down to earth where we can really relate. For the past approximately two and a half centuries of our nation’s existence, our people have been suffering between the pull of two forces—capitalism, the interests of the rich and the privileged, and the interests of the people, God’s creation, put here by God to “dress, till, and keep”, i.e. rule, a very long time before capitalism was ever given a thought. Before you cast that aside, too, recall to your mind what we were told by Jesus, God’s Son, that man cannot worship God and mammon, i.e. money, that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In that light, I say to you, this earth exists for man—all of us—not just the rich and privileged. To this end, you also know that business exists to serve the wants and needs of man—not the other way around, to rule over man.

Therefore, as you listen to your television, read in your newspapers, glean from your computers, and, also, relate with your friends and neighbors, behind all the information you “take in”, are the influence, propaganda, and mind control resulting from this struggle for power. In your study of history, you can see it in the Republican Party from the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid 1800s to the present, and in the Democratic Party pretty much from the “seventies” to the present, neither of whom have really served the people that well until people like Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, etc. came to the fore.

So, therefore, if we really want to “get on the road” with solving our problems in this great nation, I suggest we must first determine which way we want to go, i.e. direction, and “get it done”, rather than continue to follow the messy and expensive direction we are now doing. That decision should be made by the people. Perhaps we need a new party, do you think? I do know this for certain. Our country is going to continue to “go downhill” until our people wake up, get involved, and address this question.

Moving a step further in this discussion, there are those who say our country is not a democracy. It is a republic. They are mistaken. Our nation is a democratic republic. It is true that, in our beginning, our democracy was weak. Our senators were elected by representatives in the Houses of Representatives rather than directly by the people as we now do. Also, women couldn’t vote in those days, and neither could blacks, who were treated like machines with no regard for their humanity. They were property to be bought, sold, traded, and even killed at will. If our founders had been able to have their way in our beginning, only the wealth and property owners would have had the right to vote. Our democracy has come a long way baby (as they say), and could come even further if our people would only get off their duffs and take back our country from the corporations and very rich, i.e. the Corporatocracy and Power Elite—the very rich, the, well, you know who; or, what is it they say? You Know.

Only if the people, our people, take charge can we take back our country—not with guns, but at the voting booths across the nation, in demonstrations, and with pressure on our representatives in the “House” and senators in the “Senate”. Do we remember the “sixties”? It worked then. Even our president then decided not to run for a second term. Also, it would be one big help if people would read more and be better informed so as to really know what they are talking about. I say again, “Look you”.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller, http://sageobserver.blogspot.com/

The News Media is Thriving These Days, But…

The news media is thriving these days, alive and well with its many commercials, political propaganda, gossip, sports, and, relatively speaking, minor news events—and, oh yes, commercials. From our very beginning, “Freedom of the Press” has been a major contribution to the safety, welfare, and protection of the people from the errors and sins of government, but real in-depth reporting is slowly disappearing from the scene. Daily news events are reported over and over, sometimes for days, while other important subjects are overlooked. We are majoring in minors and minoring in majors.

For example, where, today, are the pros and cons of single payer healthcare being discussed? Certainly this subject is being discussed superfluously, but where are the in-depth pro and con discussions? Most of what I hear about the subject is, to the effect, “No need to discuss this as it will never be approved anyway”. Oh well, healthcare is only 17.5 percent of our spending nationally, annually contributing to our national deficit and debt. No problem.

Ref: http://www.justfacts.com/healthcare.asp

The financial crisis of 2008 was triggered by derivatives, one of those new securities invented to allegedly provide insurance coverage to home mortgage holders, aka fish food for speculators in the financial markets. I don’t really know how many dollars worth of these securities were in circulation in 2008. I have heard numbers like $400 Trillion. I have also heard numbers amounting to $900 Trillion. What are the numbers now, and when is our illustrious media going to reveal them to the people. The last time I heard anything in the mass media about the derivative risk was an article by Peter Cohan, AOL.COM, Big Risk: $1.2 Quadrillion Derivatives Market Dwarfs World GDP. Folks! Do you know how much money $1.2 Quadrillion is? Let me tell you. It is $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 or 1,000 times $1 Trillion. My gosh, folks, the world’s annual gross domestic product is only $50 to $60 trillion, and this article was written June 9, 2010—over six years ago. Oh well, that wasn’t important either. The public wouldn’t understand anyway.

https://www.aol.com/2010/06/09/risk-quadrillion-derivatives-market-gdp/

Let’s really get basic. It’s common knowledge that education in government, and civics has been lacking in our school systems in recent years. Yet our government from the president on down and the news media, when they address the people, they refer to members of the House of Representatives as Congressmen (or women). They are not Congressmen. Their titles are Representatives. If they are a Congressman, so also is a Senator by gum and by golly. Congress is the name given to our national legislature, a bicameral body made up of the House of Representatives, the lower house, and the Senate, the upper house. To be a Congressman, one would have to be both a Representative and a Senator at the same time. Duh… By the way, do you want to know why we have two houses? In short, the answer is the lower house, the House of Representatives represent the majority of the people, the masses who elect them. There are 435 members. The Senate, the upper house, represents the minority elite among us, in theory at least. There are 100 of them. I say elite. In our nation’s beginning, Senators were elected by the House of Representatives. Only later in the course of our history were they elected by the people as they now are. For further information:

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Enduring-debate-elitism-versus-populism-3189454.php

To close for now, our news media exists for the purpose of serving our people. They have to earn income to pay their bills, i.e. salaries, insurance, rent, and return on investments to their investors, but their main purpose, their only purpose which, in the end, justifies their very existence is to serve the people with news which is the truth; and, in my view, they could do a much better job.

This is my view. What’s yours?

In the meantime, this Ronald Miller, http://sageobserver.blogspot.com/

                                                    

December 6, 2017

Senator Bill Nelson

716 Senate Hart Office Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20510

Subject: Resignation of Senator Al Franken

               For alleged sexual harassment

Dear Senator Nelson:

It is my prayer, that you are extremely busy in these times notwithstanding, read this letter and sincerely consider what I am saying. I will be as brief as possible.

Not only is sexual attraction for those of the opposite sex part and parcel to our very being, but also, sexual aggression has been the norm from our very beginning and, for better or worse, good and bad, practiced throughout history. Accordingly, seduction, and harassment has been a part of our everyday lives and, in most instances short of violence, accepted—even when found distasteful. I believe seduction is proper; harassment is wrong — especially in a work environment under the threat of one’s employment — and should be stopped. There must be enforced rules — something we don’t now have. We might have the rules to some extent, but we don’t have the enforcement, making many of our actions arguably acceptable.

Secondly, inasmuch as, these practices have been going on for such a long time, I find it questionable that all these objections are coming to the forefront at this particular time. I believe they are being brought to the table just now for political reasons, i.e. political distractions, if you will; and this is not the time to shake up our political makeup in the Congress. These issues are of the utmost importance, and we must take action to put them to an end; but, right now, our nation is facing much more critical issues. I sincerely believe the very sovereignty of our democratic republic is at stake.

   

Just now, we should ask no one to resign. Rather we should lay down strict rules for the future, not only for those employed by our government, but for our nation as a whole and enforce them. As to Senator Franken and others with his predicament, we should let the voters and present law resolve the past. Our government is under enough stress. Our Congress doesn’t need this.

Your support will be sincerely appreciated.

Respectfully,

Ronald Miller

Copies to: Representative Ted Yoho

                 My Blog: www.sageobserver.blogspot.com

Our Leader

What are a people to do? How are they to protect themselves from themselves in a nation governed by a representative democracy? We live in a wonderful nation, a nation governed by the majority, yet ever protective of the rights and privileges of the minority. One of those protections is our Electoral College, an institution comprised of a set of electors who are, under the law, selected by the voters to choose who should lead the country. I submit to you that this time it failed us, an observation with which, if you are really watching with an open and informed mind, you must surely agree. We have elected the wrong person to office, political parties notwithstanding. Our nation is in serious trouble.

Leon Friedman, professor of Constitutional Law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, wrote on November 10, 2016 in the Huffington Post, that the reason we have the Electoral College “goes back to our founders’ distrust of democracy. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 68 explained that the ‘immediate election [of the President] should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.’ Rather, a ‘small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.’” This having been said, I can’t help but wonder who is going to protect the majority from the minority, the 0.1% who have “all the money”. This is just to provide for you a brief summation as to why we have the Electoral College, but another thought relative to this election enters my mind. Was Donald Trump really elected legally? Wasn’t it just reported that twenty-one states were hacked in this election? How did that affect the vote of the Electoral College?

Now let’s talk briefly about the Presidency of the United States of America. Wikipedia tells us that “the President of the United States is the head of state and head of government…. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be the world’s most powerful political figure, as the leader of the only contemporary global superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world’s most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both domestically and abroad”. This goes on, but you can check it out in Wikipedia and, also, Article II of the Constitution.

It has been said that the government of the United States is the “largest enterprise in the world”. If you will, imagine for just a moment being the CEO of an organization that huge and the immensity of the challenge such a job, arguably the biggest job in the world, entails. Think about it a long time because that is the problem before us. We have hired the wrong job applicant. We have hired the wrong man regardless of politics. He just ain’t qualified to fill the job for which he was hired.

Whether you love him or not, let’s look briefly at the problems currently facing our nation, problems which we must solve if we are to survive. Let there be no doubt about it, this is serious. These problems must be solved. The games have to stop.

 First, and above all, this nation is the most divided since our Civil War in which, according to historian J David Hacker, an estimated 750,000 soldiers died (it is said that is proportionally equivalent to 7.5 million US dead in 2012 [Ref: BBC News 4 April 2012]). We must come together and we need a leader who will do that. In almost every instance, rather than unite us, our president is serving to separate us—just listen to the news.

Second, we are on the verge of a nuclear war with North Korea. Our leader has done almost everything possible to exacerbate this threat, the nation of Iran notwithstanding. Do you think?

Third, our whole healthcare system is threatening to explode. Our people, most of them—I believe—simply can’t pay these massive increases in costs when, really, a solution is relatively simple if not for the petty very expensive political bickering of our elected representatives.

Fourth, as I have repeatedly written in the past, we are losing our democracy. The rights of our people notwithstanding, our nation is being governed by a shadow government of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, controlling every move of our elected representatives through lobbying, campaign financing, and who knows what else. We must get money out of government. We must overturn the Supreme Court ruling to the effect that Corporations are people with equal rights. We must take back our country.

President Trump is not a leader either within our country or without. His position in the Trump Empire notwithstanding, he is not a manager; and, to say the least, he is intellectually incompetent. In his current position, he is a dangerous man—dangerous to our country and dangerous to you and to me. He should do the right thing and resign.

I have just now exercised my freedom of speech. Now you exercise yours. If you agree with me, please share this in the public venue, Facebook and otherwise. In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller.

www.sageobserver.blogspot.com

   

Tax Cuts

The New York Times reported yesterday that “Republican lawmakers are gearing up to battle a powerful force in the coming skirmish over a $1.5 trillion tax cut: Economists”. I submit to you that there is another more powerful force they better gear up for: “We the People”.

Let there be no doubts in anybody's mind. It's the Republicans, the Corporatists, and the Power Elite against the American people and the interests of this country. Our national debt was less than a Trillion dollars when Republican Reagan entered office just thirty-some years ago in 1981. Just twenty-eight years later, when Dubya, entering office with a surplus, left office, the debt had increased to $10 trillion. Today, it is $20 trillion. And don't blame today's $20 trillion on Obama either. In just eight years Dubya left him with a collapsed economy. a 1.3 Trillion Dollar Deficit, and an illegal war to deal with. In conjunction with all of this, they raped the middleclass, creating inequality between the rich and the poor not seen since the days before the great depression. There's a lot of hungry people out there, folks, and it isn't all because they won't work either. Now the Republicans are wanting to enrich themselves even further when our economy is threatened with poverty up to our ears and, maybe, potential collapse of the dollar. To this end, they have had not a little help from the Corporatists arm of the Democratic Party.

Our people don't have to have a degree in economics to know they are being screwed. They may not be educated or know the difference between a Representative and a Congressman (calling all Representatives Congressman and Senators Senator, although everyone knows a Senator is just as much a Congressman as any Representative), but they aren't blind or stupid. And yet we wonder why the people elect misfits like Donald Trump. Why wouldn't they want a change? I tell you, the dysfunction being created is going to rain hell down upon us if Republicans don't straighten up. The rich don’t need tax cuts, and our country doesn't need tax cuts for them. We cannot afford them.

It's long past time for real tax reform. It's time for everybody to pay taxes according to their ability to pay. We, the United States of America lived "high on the hog" in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, the highest standard of living of any people as a whole in the history of civilization, and the top tax rates hovered around 90%. The Republicans have reigned, for the most part, ever since and now look at us—look at where they have brought us. Look at our condition. We are going down hill folks. Does it really take a pair of binoculars to see that?

The real irony of all this is that so many of we the people have let ourselves be sucked into the Republican lies and propaganda luring us like lemmings over the cliff. I submit to you that, in the scheme of things, the Republican Party has never really represented the people of this country from the beginning during the industrial revolution. Their only interests have been in the Corporatocracy and Power Elite that fill their pockets with riches. Open your eyes people. 

This is no longer Grandpa and Grandma's world. We are being taken for a ride, folks. Theodore Roosevelt pulled us out of the fire created by these people in the twenties and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman again in the forties (and we thrived after both these times). I don’t know who, but somebody must do it again. I must tell you, however, it ain’t no Trump. You’ll see why soon, if you haven’t yet.

I have just now exercised my freedom of speech. Now you exercise yours. If you agree with me, please share this in the public venue, Facebook and otherwise. In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller

www.sageobserver.blogspot.com

Single Payer Universal Healthcare

Lindsey Graham says as to single payer healthcare, “you have a choice between Federalism or Socialism”. I say to you, “Hogwash! Absolute Hogwash!” I mean no offense to anyone; but, I daresay, if you asked all the American people to write a short essay defining Socialism, the vast majority of us couldn’t do it. We wouldn’t know where to begin. What I’m telling you right now is that single payer universal healthcare with access for all is not Socialism.

Before going any further, let me let me first attempt to put an end to one other piece of misinformation I hear repeatedly from people. Generally, it goes this way or means this: “the government will give it to me”, or “the government will pay for it”. Again, Hogwash! In the end, our government doesn’t pay for anything. You do through your allegedly fair share of the taxes or your share of government borrowing for which, ultimately, you the people are responsible. Nothing is free. Somebody pays—if not you, your neighbor.

There are, also, those who define Socialism as that which we do in common with one another in governance, economic associations, etc, to which please answer (just to yourself) a couple questions. Every year or so, in our representative democracy, we go to the polls together and vote for our representatives in government. Is that Socialism? We do it in common. Whether you realize it or not, in the business world today, most notably in banking and investments, we capitalize profits and socialize losses. One immediate and more obvious example of this you will recall was the bailout of General Motors during the financial crisis in 2008—another, the bailout of the financial markets. A less obvious example is home financing wherein you borrow money (your mortgage) and pay interest (profit) to the lender. Yet our government (you the taxpayer) guarantees the loan. Is that Socialism? When the Multi Trillion Dollar derivative markets of the world collapses down the road for which we will all pay in one way or the other (they did in 2008 [you will recall that derivatives are mortgage backed securities]), ask yourself if that, too, is Socialism. I could go on, but….

I tell you this, single payer universal healthcare with access for all is not Socialism, what Congressman Lindsey Graham says notwithstanding (I know, Lindsey Graham is a Senator; but it is just as correct to call him a Congressman as it is to call a Representative a Congressman—but I digress). When it is adopted, and I believe it will be because it is the only sensible way, single payer universal healthcare, i.e. Medicare for all, will be “paid for” by all, and it will be billions of dollars cheaper. Take note, however. You will be the payer through your taxes. Private enterprise will participate in providing the service, i.e. hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, drug stores, etc. THIS IS NOT SOCIALISM!

Let me tell you THE REAL ISSUE. The real issue is MONEY (investments, income sources, campaign contributions, etc), and then Politics, and Pride. The interests of the American people and our nation, which should be on the table in the forefront, are constantly being subordinated and shoved aside. I’ll also remind you of this.  The purpose—the only purpose—of any business is to provide a quality product or service to the people. People were on this earth long before business. Business exists to serve the people—not to dominate and rule over them. It is wrong to continually support a business which is no longer needed whether that business is insurance, or whatever.

We continue to ridiculously argue and bicker, wasting billions of dollars in the process, adding to our national deficit and, accordingly, national debt while simultaneously neglecting to deal with other economical, political, and social issues critical to the welfare and security of our nation and our people. Right now, our government is a mockery to the institution of representative democracy here and abroad. It’s past time for them to do their job.

If you agree with me, please share this in the public venue, Facebook and otherwise. In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller.

www.sageobserver.blogspot.com