America the Destructible

 

America still has her fruited plains, purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain all from sea to shining sea. None of that has actually changed and America can still feed herself even if that would mean no morning coffee, or just for the few who could afford Hawaiian coffee. America has grand rivers and a highway system and trains and everything that made her great yet she stands about to fall. America has been missing one set of elements which had kept her great, justice, equality before the law, religion, unique sense of morality, seeking goodness over wealth, doing that which is right, foregoing expediency and a government under control. All these things which all of America had in great abundance such that it ruled even in the highest levels of business and governance are now no longer prevalent. Sure, these are still the watchwords ruling many an American household in the area the political elite call flyover country. Sure many, but insufficient, numbers of political representatives have these qualities and hold them dear initially but the coasts of America hold an allure that is all but irresistible which will wear-down all but the most stalwart of men and Washington D.C. is the epicenter of this corruption. This is where the force which tempts and eventually shoves forcefully to press all political souls into compromise on their principles, and almost all fall in the end tiring of making the good fight. That is the truth which should frighten all.

 

Fruited Plains – Purple Mountains Majesty – Amber Waves of Grain

 

Today America selects their next President and determines the make-up of the government with which said President will be made to work with. Many have claimed that this is by far the worst of all possible outcomes which placed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the top candidates who won the primary selection process of the two main parties, the Democrat and Republican Parties respectively. Many a person has been baffled that these two were who were chosen from amongst the three-hundred-thousand potential Americans where at least two-thirds, a whopping two-hundred-thousand, were eligible to take the nomination. What we additionally learned was that Hillary Clinton was as much anointed by the Democrat Party as she was chosen; and that, contrary to the recent coverage, the media played a huge role in making Donald Trump the eventual victor for the Republican Party. Since selecting these two less than perfect and potentially unacceptable candidates the American electorate have come to a dazzling set of potential solutions, each more viable in the long run than the one before, and these are;

1) Just boycott the election altogether,
2) Write in any name from Daffy Duck to John McCain to Bernie Sanders,
3) Vote for a third party such as the Green Party, Constitution Party, Libertarian Party or other such party recognized by the Federal Election Commission (FEC),
4) Vote against the less desirable candidate by supporting the other party’s less than perfect but probably less problematic than the certainty of their opponent.
5) Brainwash oneself into honestly believing one major candidate is exactly what the party ordered and the party knows best.

After today comes the first of four years of tomorrows where the nation will live with whatever result is voted into the Presidency this today, be it through honest representation, voter fraud, illegal immigrants utilizing drivers’ licenses to vote using National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter Act), foreign interference or any other acts which affect the Electoral College outcome. This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Should America and the world be fortunate, then we should have a tabulated and verified result and the Electoral College delegates be set and promised to perform their duties honestly and as required by law; thus setting in stone the winner and next President of the United States and Leader of the Free World by default and by definition. This Leader of the Free World position was left largely vacant for the past eight years just as planned by President Barack Hussein Obama from the outset as he worked tirelessly to, in his own words at a campaign stop on October 30, 2008, in Columbia, Missouri where he stated, “Fundamentally Transforming the United States of America” as if the nation suffered from some debilitating disease from which the world need be protected from contracting through any form of American contact (see actual excerpt video below). At this point one can extrapolate from campaign statements, past actions, candid statements allowed to slip out either as an intentional plan or one of those rare moments where a politician or person of perceived importance actually says something they honestly feel deeply within themselves and is a defining principle, we have heard that most actually do have such guiding limitations and are often items the politician does all in their power to keep suppressed in case it might adversely affect voters, especially potential supporters. No matter how successful a politician may be, their actions, deeds and votes on the little or seemingly items of lesser importance are where their true and hidden side is often revealed. These telling moments will be either concealed by the mainstream media for their favored darlings or exploited and maximized in importance for those they desire to depose come Election Day. This is just one more deceit from which America currently suffers, a bent and twisted media which acts more as if they were the propaganda arm of the one party and an attacking beast for all others.

 

 

How long America survives as the spine and supporting strength of the free world is difficult to ascertain. One need remember that despite the fall of Rome as the ultimate power for much of Europe, Roman laws, currency, ethics and attributes remained as the guiding path down which the surviving states which had vanquished Rome would adopt as their own. Roman roads remained in use until approximately fifty to one-hundred years ago and their water systems are still in use, especially for some vineyards across Europe. To this day some of the concepts which were the basics of Rome, the ideas expounded by the Greeks and Torah and the words of the Prophets of the Temple Periods all remain as valid and necessary to Western civilization as one could imagine. These are the precepts, philosophies, tenets and arguments which form the framework of the modern state and are set in stone in the Ten Commandments and in Torah plus understood and lived through such historic documents which brought about the freedoms, independence and liberties enjoyed by many across the planet today. Such documents as the Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence and numerous treatises, essays, journals and various other political and even some science fiction writings expound the necessary state for humankind is exercising their incontrovertible and indisputable rights which were defined in the Declaration of Independence as “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The insurance and unassailability of said rights was to be the first and foremost demand of government. It was to buttress, protect and preserve these rights, freedoms and liberties that government was to be tolerated. Government was intended to be weak and solely in support of the people and it was with the people that the bulk of the power was to be vested. This is the opposite as is had today and this concept and its principles are exactly what will save America for our grandchildren and their children and grandchildren but only if we and our children make the ultimate sacrifices today that such can be assured of preservation.

 

As American election results roll in tonight and over into Wednesday we should each take some time and research our Representative and two Senators our votes have placed in Washington D.C. and evaluate how they measure up to a high standard of cutting the power out of Washington D.C. and returning it to the most local governance if not simply empowering the family and the individual trusting that those closest to the problem, dilemma, opportunity, selection and actual activities are the ones best capable of making things work and work well. Such representation would be working on all but eliminating the Department of Education limiting it to evaluating school systems or simply abolishing it altogether. That would be but a start. They would probably assist in writing legislation which would freeze if not decrease spending by 10% per year computed annually until such time that a sizeable surplus permitted paying the debt down to zero and then setting up a savings institute where the excess would be deposited such that there would never be a catastrophic event for which borrowing would otherwise be required. The cuts should be strived for every year and cuts in taxes should always be the first and prime effort of business in Congress. Further the congress should look into all regulations and determine if they serve a purpose of the people’s or serve granting government more power. If the regulation simply serves the government in any manner other than assisting the military, it should then be repealed; while otherwise it would still need review to improve the efficiency and assure it will not place an undue strain or demands on the people. A final review should be committed on all laws, regulations and requirements and test them to ascertain if they run afoul of Amendment X. Amendment X reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

 

Amendment X is a simple, short, concise spelling out of what has become the most trampled and hollowed out and ignored of the Bill of Rights. Reinstating and reinforcing this one short Amendment from the Bill of Rights could and would honestly rid the nation of America of so much red tape, so many regulations and minimize the Federal Government so honestly and completely that its application alone might save the nation. There should be one last little alteration to the means in which Washington D.C. need change, every regulation must be reviewed and spelled out before the Congress every five years and be validated to continue being enforced. All legislation too would receive the same treatment of a full review every ten years in order to remain enforceable. Such requirements would tie up the Congress thoroughly setting a strong limitation on the amount of regulation they could review thus limiting the damage and interference they could enact and retain in use. Forcing items to be constantly reviewed guarantees the laws remain arguably necessary. An example might be:

CFR › Title 27 › Chapter I › Subchapter A › Part 4 › Subpart D › Section 4.39
(a) Statements on labels. Containers of wine, or any label on such containers, or any individual covering, carton, or other wrapper of such container, or any written, printed, graphic, or other matter accompanying such container to the consumer shall not contain:
9) Any word in the brand name or class and type designation which is the name of a distilled spirits product or which simulates, imitates, or created the impression that the wine so labeled is, or is similar to, any product customarily made with a distilled spirits base. Examples of such words are: “Manhattan,” “Martini,” and “Daquiri” in a class and type designation or brand name of a wine cocktail; “Cuba Libre,” “Zombie,” and “Collins” in a class and type designation or brand name of a wine specialty or wine highball; “creme,” “cream,” “de,” or “of” when used in conjunction with “menthe,” “mint,” or “cacao” in a class and type designation or a brand name of a mint or chocolate flavored wine specialty.

All right, we can understand how many of these forbidden words could be used as misleading but why “Zombie”? Sure there is a drink called a Zombie which most certainly would never be confused with any wine. The standard manner to mix a Zombie is as follows:

Zombie Recipe

Blend all ingredients with ice except Bacardi 151 proof rum. Pour into a Collins glass. Float Bacardi 151 proof rum on top. Garnish with a fruit slice, sprig of mint and a cherry.

 

Because of this drink we cannot use the word Zombie in the name of a wine, and I hoped someday to ferment grapes with their skins included in the wine and call it “Zombie Blood,” Well, guess that how to get rich quick scheme is dead as research showed New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco as the best places to market such a brew. Bummer, guess this proves that almost, if not, everything is illegal somewhere in the regulations just to stop everyone from committing an unapproved action. We think we best stop here and check the regulations and see if words being forbidden as we would not desire to be askance and standing in offense of the laws and regulations now, would we. Remember to vote unless in Chicago, then we advise as the old city bosses back in the day said, “Vote early and vote often.”

Beyond the Cusp

The Real Reason Behind $15.00 an Hour Minimum Wage

 

There are all the usual reasons behind the proposing of a $15.00 an Hour Minimum Wage and it has little to do with actual minimum wage. One of the standards for an increase in the minimum wage is and has always been the unions. Many unions have salary agreements based on the minimum wage. This means increase the minimum wage, and union salaries automatically get a boost. When union salaries get a boost, then union dues get a boost. If union dues get a boost, the union leaders get more money for their own wages and for political donations. As political donations go higher, then incumbents get support of more PAC monies and this cements their job for life. So, in the end the politicians raise the minimum wages and the donations to the parties and their own campaigns increase thus making it that much more difficult for some upstart young man with the dreams of repairing the system to ever have a chance and the system is comfortably maintained. But even more is at stake this time around.

 

The introduction of ObamaCare forced employers of minimum wage employees to cut their hours to thirty hours so many positions became four six-hour days or three eight-hour days thus producing a twenty-four hour workweek. With these hours it also made it easy to establish seven-day-a-week, twenty-four-hours-a-day coverage by employing four shifts of six-hours/four days a week, and three shifts of eight-hours/three days a week, and presto-chango the twenty-four/seven week scheduling was covered. This actually worked out cleaner and easier to now cover the twenty-four-seven workweek than it had been with the forty hours a week which left weekend scheduling which often had two twelve-hours-a-day weekend staff which led to poor performance as twelve hour shifts have proven to be overly taxing on the individual worker according to many studies. The twenty-four hour workweek solves that problem very tidily. This caused a different problem in that the forty hour a week minimum wage earner now being reduced to twenty-four hours per week part time work placed an undue strain on the finances of anybody attempting to live on a minimum wage salary. The solution, make a twenty-four hour workweek pay close to what the forty hour workweek had paid in salary. The current Federal Minimum Wage of $7.25 per hour making a forty hour work week pay $290.00 and if one were reduced to a twenty-four hour workweek one would need a salary of approximately $12.10 per hour and if working a mere twenty hour workweek would require a salary of $14.50 per hour. This makes a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage a slight increase in pay and would actually cover a minimum wage using the twenty-four hour workweek of $9.00 per hour for a forty hour week. (For a list of minimum wages by state see here.)

 

Where this would be a nice explanation, there is even further reasoning behind this and that is the idea which has begun to be floated of a minimum livable salary for everybody. This idea is a guaranteed minimum annual salary paid by month which would be given every citizen of voting age regardless of their work status. This living wage would be based at, you guessed it, the $15.00 an hour minimum wage and be set just a mere $1200.00 per year less than working the forty hour workweek at $15.00 an hour. The worker at this imaginary line would earn an annual salary of $31,200.00 per year and the guaranteed monthly minimum would be $2.500.00 per month or $30,000.00 per year, a mere $1,200.00 less than the standard forty hour per week at $15.00 an hour minimum wage. Thus if you worked one of the twenty-four hour part time workweek at $15.00 an hour your salary would equal $18,720.00 per year thus you would receive a check each month of $940.00 each month bringing your salary up to the guaranteed yearly rate of $30.000.00 a year. Further, when this guaranteed minimum wage would be enacted ObamaCare would already have been amended into a single payer healthcare system exactly like those failing healthcare systems throughout Europe thus there would no longer be any need for the twenty-four hour workweek and employers could resume having forty hour workweek employers unless they found the part time system to their advantage. With the minimum wage at $15.00 an hour and working a forty hour workweek one would be being paid $31,200 per year, a dizzying $1,200 more than the guaranteed minimum salary. For that minuscule difference to make a difference there would need be a earned income credit for people not collecting anything on the guaranteed minimum salary making employment even at minimum wage for full time forty hour workweek more attractive otherwise there would be even more people forgoing working and just taking the guaranteed salary, something which would likely occur no matter what the incentives.

 

Tech Workers of the World Striking

 

The libertarians and conservatives would likely gasp and potentially come close to having a stroke at this idea and it will be strongly resisted but in time reality would force some system similar in nature to this even if initially at a lesser guaranteed minimum salary. The reason will become evident in the near future as Wendy’s is going to provide stores with an automated cashier and likely when possible automated food delivery as well. We can expect as robotics improve and become less temperamental (known as more dependable in the automation and artificial intelligence community) there will be more and more positions worked by automated employees, otherwise known as robots. In industrial positions, the first to automate, the robotics need not resemble humans in any manner other than wielding tools, even should those tools resemble appendages. In human interaction the initial AI robotic interface with the public or other employees will likely obviously appear robotic even if their actions appear close to natural. Their mode of transportation is more likely to be wheeled for speed and stability but expect bipedal as walking robotics become more stable and safe. Their appearances will also go from R2D2 to C3PO to so human in appearance it may be next to impossible to tell the robotic organisms from the human employees except the robotic employees will not get all of the jokes and will be pranked constantly by those who feel a need to show their greater imaginations. Eventually the robotic organisms will even match or exceed us in these fields as well though they will likely only use such areas of their programs as a defense mechanism and in getting revenge on their human tormentors.

 

The future will present the problem that almost all low skill and even moderate and eventually all but the highest level requiring human traits such as imagination will be filled largely by robotic organisms. Robotic organism lawyers will have sued to have them referred to as organisms even if we lesser humans insist on using the robotic label in order to feed our egos and to make ourselves feel superior in some esoteric manner. There will be no reason why robotic organisms cannot teach school having a human reference person available to assist when a robotic organism has difficulty interacting with biologic lifeform students but such humans will be mostly bored and will probably be able to back-up many scores of robotic organism teachers. Waiters, stockroom workers, sales positions, almost any position will eventually be filled by robotic organisms such that we will eventually reach a point where humans will only need work if they so choose. All of this is dependent on our robotic organisms at the least being amused at our presence or needing us to be consumers for their products. Of course there is always the science horror possibility that they will perceive us as unnecessary and eliminate us. There is one position which will be legally restricted from robotic organisms being employed, politicians. There are already long-haul truck companies starting to look into automated tractor trailers for inter-city long-haul truck routes which is being fought against by the Teamsters Unions. No surprises there. There will be no preventing the use in more and more positions of robotic organisms even if at first it will be a bit of a novelty, it will soon thereafter become a necessity for doing business as the company using robotic organisms will have a large advantage over one using old fashioned human workers. Competition will lead to replacing human organisms with robotic organisms even to the point of their using robotic organisms as the supervisors until they realize that robotic organisms do not require supervisors, just repair technicians which can also be robotic organisms. It’s the future and that is part of the $15.00 an hour minimum wage which will lead to the $2,500.00 a month individual minimum wage. The only thing we would like to request is please do not kill the messengers as was the case in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Four More Years!!

 

No, this is not a chant for repeal of Amendment XXII and reelecting President Obama nor is it a call for election of President Bill Clinton. We advise it to be the rallying call of conservatives who also plan on finding some way of coming to terms with this year’s election choices. Instead they need to choose one or the other of the current choices or find some workable alternative and not some pie in the sky on a wing and a prayer choice and dedicate themselves over the next four years to finally get organized and intelligent in their approach to the election of a President. With the current problems surfacing faster than one can track, let alone counter intelligently, we felt this article was seeing new life as it was not posted during the Republican primary season when first composed. That will also explain any idiosyncrasies.

 

Republican Candidates into South Carolina

 

Finally choose one and only one true and acceptable conservative candidate and not run seven conservatives against one interloper and then complain. Yes, there are a compliment of conservative candidates who all have sufficient qualifications making them promising as potential candidates for President and challenging Trump’s reelection bid or against Hillary Clinton’s reelection bid and any one of them would probably be an improvement. These are each best in one or two categories and they overlap each with the other in one or another of the categories and none are across the board head and shoulders above the rest but them all contending for the nomination results in exactly what we have seen for the past; it will be twenty years come next election cycle. When are the conservative public going to wise up and demand that the conservatives find one candidate to run and the rest please have a seat and support the selective choice as otherwise ten conservative running and one moderate, or worse, one left leaning candidate cleans up winning merely twenty-five to thirty percent and the conservatives all in single digits splitting the remaining votes between them. By the time sufficient of the conservative candidates are whittled out of the mix and a single individual representing the then conservative consensus is so far behind and the momentum of the least conservative or worse candidate makes them uncatchable and soon becomes the presumptive Republican candidate and that’s the end of that election season. We have watched at best moderate candidates lose while true conservatives who would have had the total support of the Republican base no questions asked sitting with their campaigns broken and in pieces as they had torn and ripped at each other’s support base until it was diluted and each fell one after the other and if even two are left the more liberal candidate walks off with the nomination.

 

The conservative base, the Tea Party, the NRA Second Amendment supporters, the pro-life supporters, the free-trade pro-business financial conservatives, the social conservatives and all the other identity conservatives need to swallow their pride and work as a team and not as a series of independent groups vying for complete control and superiority pushing their own candidate all other concerns aside. That is an equation for disaster and simply trying the same old comfortable paths to ruin one more time because this time it will be different and they will persevere and win the nomination. Instead, perhaps a conservative convention need be held where the different groups can all be represented and work and find a candidate which they all can agree upon. This candidate will not be the most desirable to a majority of groups as they will not come from amongst their ranks but then they will be more favorable to their cause than allowing a complete loss with no conservative candidate running for President and another four years of standing on the sidelines complaining about the primaries and how the entire system is broken. The system works just fine; it is the pride of too many individuals that is breaking the system as far as selecting the strongest conservative candidate. Stop trying the same thing expecting different outcomes which, according to Albert Einstein, is the definition of insanity. Work together instead of directly competing and dividing the votes of the base fracturing any possibility of fielding a candidate in the election. Is that too much to ask of groups of people who claim to be pragmatic, logical, organized, practical, realistic, reasoned and operating in the real world? This should have been obvious but somehow your demand on perfection and complete control leads conservatives to demand purity in the candidate and refuse compromise. Stop and stop now before the country swerves so far left that there is no path to return to the middle, let alone to a more conservative and reasoned legislating. Perhaps when working together there may be a candidate who, though not necessarily being chosen by any of the numerous groups and not possessing the purity of essence to any of the varied position still is supportive over the broadest spectrum of the desired causes. The conservatives need to understand something the left learned a long time back, the we will scratch your back and you all will scratch ours and together we will be stronger.

 

Four more years is the deadline for conservatives to find a way to communicate and relate such that a consensus candidate can be found to be the acceptable if not preferred candidate such that the majority of the different convictions, principles, values, philosophies and doctrines while also possessing the ethical, moral and principled beliefs and deeds with levels of accomplishments and achievements making them acceptable to the widest sets of viewpoints as possible. Not being capable of compromise the conservative interests may as well pound their chests as they wither and decline off into history as the center continues to drift further and further into the distant furthest left point on the political spectrum. The two presumptive candidates who survived with the most support despite often not being the majority vote getter are the perfect example of what a divided conservative base produces. Perhaps the theme song refrain should be (as sung in Where Have All the Flowers Gone) “When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?” (Song below)

 

 

Beyond the Cusp