Labor Unions – DNC-Consulting

Employers and Employees – The Battle is Waged: The Fight is Important

Employers throughout the world, including Disney, American Express, Wells Fargo, and thousands more, have begun to battle their employees. Unionized shops, the battle has been waged for 50 years and shows no sign of relenting. Only recently have other employers joined the fray, not to help employees but to rid themselves of employees. These businesses are fighting employees against their employees for the company’s culture and soul. Couched in many a buzzword, political stance, and archaic practices, the employers want to rid their workforces of those they despise, and the battle is legal!

Make no mistake, what the employers are doing is immoral, unethical, and disastrous to those employees unfavored, but the actions remain perfectly legal, and this is the point we must understand. Laws have been changed against the majority for the selectivization and advancement of the minority. The fight is important because you might be next and never know your termination has been affected, but not enforced until it is too late. This article intends to raise awareness, not cover every particle in the fight or catalog every avenue an employer might take to attack an employee. Imperative to know and remember, as long as the actions are against individuals, no laws are being broken, and the employer wins when they can make the situation untenable, and the employee on the out quits or is forced out under a miasma of quasi-legal terms, so it appears that employee was treated fairly.

Never forget, a lawyer’s job is to make the illegal appear legal, and the legal appear illegal, so a judge must decide. Add in judicial activism and legislation from the judicial bench, and the trouble becomes apparent quickly. Unfortunately, the lawyers’ training has shifted, and the legal mind’s quality has slipped under the weight of many of the topics discussed herein. The vicious cycle can only be broken when the collective beliefs of the majority are re-established, not to the demise of the minority but the growth of the entire society.

Culture and Politics

As long as people have banded together into organizations, societies, governments, etc., there has been the push and pull of politics. All of recorded history bears truth to this fact. People have beliefs. They express these beliefs through representatives who rise and fall in different leadership positions, and societies change according to the expressed beliefs through which a society is governed (law). Pick a governing style (Communism, Socialism, Representative, Direct or Indirect Representation, Monarchy, Theocracy, etc.), and you will find the collective beliefs of the people expressed in how long a leader remains in power or the stability of the society so governed. Politics happens and is best described as the push/pull of collective beliefs expressed by populations. Economies rise and fall based upon the collective beliefs, expressed in the stability of the society and the government leader’s length of time as leader.

History has shown when a governing leader is short-lived, it is generally because they refused to follow the collective beliefs of the population, giving rise to the credit ratings of stable governments and societies being higher than for those who are changing leadership every couple of weeks or months. Those leaders who can tread the waters of public opinion maintain their jobs and, many times in history, their heads by following the collective beliefs in the morals of the people. The US Dollar’s stability is one of the strongest reasons this currency is one of the world’s benchmark currencies. Politics did that, and politics are the push/pull collective beliefs expressed by the citizens to their government leaders. The process is messy and needs to be messy for a reason; only in the expression of two divergent points can a healthy middle ground be established, and society can grow.

Culture is not politics, but politics and politically minded people can influence it. If politics is a society’s expressed beliefs, then culture is the expressed moral convictions as lived by a community. For example, many institutions have been built on the law that coveting (envy) is wrong, but the practices of the people living build a culture that accepts graft, bribes, and other incentives that, while violating the law, are accepted. Make sense? The closer the culture is to following both the letter of the law and the living of the law provides for a stable and influential culture to invest resources into.

How does one change the collective beliefs of a society and the living practices of that society; first, you capture the children. Bad ideas do not go away, they are either replaced with good ideas, or the bad ideas go into hiding, awaiting the time they can make a new appearance. Everything modern society is facing has been faced previously, and the difference is that the seeds for the current dilemmas were planted more than 100-years ago, but the bad ideas first captured the children. Why have these bad ideas advanced so rapidly? The education of children in social customs, collectively shared beliefs, and individual duty, has been eroded and attacked mercilessly since “progressive education” (the refusal to teach children to read, write, and perform math) began in the late 1800s with Dewey, who called functional illiteracy “Progress!”

One of the first words plasticized, twisted, ripped apart, and then put together to fuel tyranny through modular language was the term progress. Unfortunately, language has continued to suffer relentless attacks since the late 1800s, and more words have suffered the same fate in the modularization of language. Consider with me the history of Tea. Tea plantations in India were ruled by the iron fist of laws drafted in America and marketed with women in distress to the consuming nations geographically distant to where the crops were grown. The tyranny of slavery is the same tyranny we face with modular language. Nobody realizes this because to mention this connection is frowned upon by those making money off the tyranny of language. The tyranny of modular language fueled the oppression of entire populations to fuel an empire. The language led to actions (afternoon tea) and a host of other practices, words, and social customs to fuel the demand for Tea. Unfortunately, the tyranny of modular language also fueled hot wars in China, more geographically distant suffering from the population consuming Tea.

Language – Plastic Terms

Diversity, what is it; what does it mean in practice versus meaning from a dictionary; what value does it have for a business? Equity, same problem, fewer answers, more confusion. Inclusion, same problem, confusion, chaos, and eventual destruction. These are, but a small sample of current buzzwords strung together and causing problems in businesses. There are entire word classes set apart for plasticization, which sound good to the ear, and that people love to rally behind, but these terms cover a hidden agenda. They have been weaponized to destroy, not lift and build—tyranny through modular language, plastic words.

American Express is a perfect example of how DE&I efforts (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) have been weaponized to pick away, through politics, the non-politically affiliated, those who show up to their employment and merely want to work their job. The University of Phoenix is another company long captured by, and suffering from, DE&I tyrants. Both American Express and the University of Phoenix began their DE&I journeys with the best of intentions. Still, the result remains the same, the minority classes bring politics anathema to good order and discipline into the company, initiating change cloaked in DE&I. The result has been the discouragement and disenfranchisement of employees. The DE&I champions crow and cheer for these people leaving as it injects more DE&I hiring, and the new employees realize that unless they are politically affiliated, read that as aligned to a militant tyrant in DE&I, they too will be out of work very shortly.

Language matters, and when terms are plasticized, the only result is destruction and tyranny. Consider the teachers in the Albuquerque Public Schools System or the employees of the State of New Mexico; both populations stress DE&I initiatives under various names but with the same purpose. Who are the enemies of DE&I; those who do not wear their politics on their sleeves, acting as emotionally charged smart bombs of the media. Even if a person holds some of the DE&I beliefs, if they are not militant in their beliefs, they are ostracized by their language, judged, and removed from employment.

When the patients rule the asylum, the problems for all patients in the asylum double and triple, not improve. The same result occurs when the vocal minorities of a population gain power that is not theirs, and they make no concerted efforts to rule fairly and justly. One of the truths about any revolution is that those who initiated the revolution rarely (if ever) get to enjoy the fruits of their rebellion as they are so focused on fixing what they perceive as injustices, they miss that they have become worse in action than those they deposed.

80-20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule is known by many monikers, but always it is the same rule, in different wrapping – 80% of a population will be controlled by 20%. In standard terms, the minority is setting the culture for the 80% to follow, and they hope you will never realize you are stronger without the vocal minority than with them. Take the recent changes at Disney. There is a vocal minority demanding change, couching the changes in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the Disney business model is about to self-destruct. The same is true of American Express, where if you are male and white, you are not welcome. But, if you are one of the members of any number of protected classes, you are welcome. When politics interferes in professional pursuits, 80% will always suffer under the tyranny of the 20%. What happens when the vocal minority becomes the majority, they fang themselves to death, and nobody is left to care because that 80% majority has left them to their own devices.

It should go without saying, but I will make plain, I am not against diversity. I do believe that diversity for diversity’s sake is wrong, immoral, unethical, and anathema to good order in a society. Diversity of thought should be preeminent as the diversity of thought transcends skin color and lifestyle choices. Diversity of thinking includes the desire to see all succeed on merit, character, and individual action. I abhor in the strongest terms picking a person solely based on their gender, skin color, religious preferences, disability status, culture, or any variable that supersedes accomplishment, education, and learned skill set. The same is valid for inclusion and equity; when people cannot compete solely upon achievement, education, and intellectual skill sets, this creates an imbalance in the population.

Hence roadblocks to education must be removed, character-defining and building experiences should be shared and taught, and achievement recognized. What is missing from schools from K-12 and up; is accomplishment, education, and learned skill sets. What has replaced these; is DE&I, where the vocal minority is destroying with no thought for what replaces the institutions, societies, corporations, and more. Iconoclasm in its most destructive form has taken over employers, and these companies are committing suicide to pacify, tranquilize, and placate a small population at the expense of all.

Inherently, change is not bad but growing, productive, and useful change requires inputs from a diverse population. Inclusion is not inherently a bad thing, but the current demands for inclusion, only for the sake of inclusion, make the activities of the vocal minority lethal to the entire social body. Equity is a prerequisite for society to grow, develop, and be stable long-term. This is why societies built on slavery, or those muzzling 50% of the population, are inherently ripe for hostile takeovers.

The actions of the vocal minority in employment right now are precarious at best, suicidal at worst, and permanently immoral and unethical. The models they promote have no substance and enable unfair, unjust, and unequal systems. Worse, companies that flout their customer base, which is the largest stakeholder in any business, will find smaller profit margins and higher expenses as employee churn increases.

One truth that should give hope to the employees affected is that when the minority becomes the majority in a body and does not have any substance, they destroy themselves. C-Leaders, are you sure you want to take the company you have been placed in control over down this dangerous path? On my first day at American Express, new hires were introduced to the rich, proud, and stable company history and core values. How sad it is to witness how fast this company has fallen! Who will replace these companies? Will their replacements learn from the failures of the past?

© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

Cost, Value, and Manufacturing

Does anyone else remember when Walmart was first breaking onto the scene as a competitor against K-Mart, they advertised “Proud to sell ‘Made in the USA’” merchandise? Then shortly, Walmart faced its first scandal, being busted selling cheap junk boasting “Made in China” on the label. The “pride” was pushed to the side, the “Made in the USA” disappeared, and the price was all Walmart was going to compete on, “Prices are falling.” K-Mart is gone, Walmart is still selling, “Prices” are still “supposedly” falling, but where is questionable, quality is all but gone, and who has benefited?

I remember when my town got a Payless shoe store. I plunked my money down for a nice pair of shoes; they lasted less than 30-days of wear; I was told, “You get what you pay for.” The next pair of shoes I bought at Walmart turns out they were probably made on the same manufacturing line in China. Payless sold them for $20.00; Walmart sold them for $30.00. Neither lasted long enough for the new shoe smell to evaporate. Payless Shoes is gone, Walmart is still here, the quality has not improved, and I am still asking, who has benefitted?

I purchased some tools the other day; I was mystified at the following label on the tag, “Made in the USA, of parts configured mostly in the USA but manufactured in other countries of origin.” It turns out, if the assembly of parts is done inside the US, a finished product can be labeled as “Made in the USA.” If some of the sub-assemblies occur outside the USA, the manufacturer might, or might not, be legally responsible to declare such, depending upon the industry, the finished goods, and the lawyers and labor unions involved.

Country of origin labeling is real sketchy, full of hungry lawyers and fascinating self-interest, as well as enough political grandstanding to satisfy forests of trees being slaughtered for centuries to come. All in the name of, yes, you guessed it, transparency. I am oversimplifying the problem here to make a point. Your child’s pencils in school have to declare Made in China due to some lead poisoning issues in the yellow paint, but crayons can hide the country of origin because a lawyer said the transparency issue does not cause harm. This convoluted logic is rampant throughout the entire mess of country of origin labeling. Unfortunately, this is but the tip of the iceberg in manufacturing, cost, and value.

By the way, I guarantee, there are hordes of lawyers plotting ways and means of overturning country of origin labeling to hide or overturn legal decisions they find onerous, mainly to further remove any hint that “Made in China” could be traced to problems with poisoning to China.

Taking us to the first point in this article, when did America stop manufacturing? Why did America stop manufacturing? Why did stores stop selling American manufactured goods? In Home Deport today, I made a point of looking for “Made Proudly in the USA” stickers on tools, products, and other items for sale. There were no official statistics, no actual counts, just browsing shelves, looking for products, and I was not pleased. Walmart has long been turned into a proud repository for Chinese manufacturing; to see anything other than “Made in China” on their shelves would be a significant accomplishment.

Having ventured into a Hobby Lobby recently, I was again amazed at the incredibly talented people worldwide and wondered again, “When did America stop manufacturing goods?” Dollar Tree is another place where Made in China flourishes, and one has to wonder, “Why did stores stop selling American manufactured goods?”

Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I am China-bashing or Big-Box Bashing, please note that I am sick to death of the excuses that “Manufacturing in America is too expensive to be profitable.” I detest hearing excuses that “Manufacturers cannot find enough unskilled laborers to work the machines, without illegal labor.” I am through listening to supposed experts declare that “Americans cannot compete with Chinese labor due to American expectations for benefits, job expectations, the cost of safety, etc.” The other day some ignorant putz declared that the “American worker is just plain lazy compared to workers even in Europe, which is why Americans can never work fast enough to meet production goals.”

Bringing us to the cost and value topics of this article. Long have cost accountants and operations managers had a professional love/hate relationship. We love to hate each other for one reason; we do not see eye to eye on basic fundamental reality. To a cost accountant, everything has a cost, but the difference between cost and value is not found in green money losses alone unless you are a cost accountant.

We have discussed the different types/colors of money previously. Green money is cold hard cash, and cost accounting is only, ever, concerned with the end of the day totals of cold hard cash! However, reality always has other types of money involved, relationships that cannot be qualified in monetary means, and humans are more than dollars and cents in a ledger. Value is always different than cost.

Simple explanation; a hammer costs your great-grandfather $1.00. With that hammer, your great-grandfather built a home and a cradle. That cradle rocked your grandfather, father, and you to sleep. Upon reaching the age of accountability, each, in turn, was taught how to swing a hammer, driving nails, and learning carpentry. That hammer holds four generations of value, beyond the cost of $1.00. Green money costs, that hammer has depreciated in value until it is worthless to the company and should be scrapped for a new hammer; but the value of that hammer is not measured in dollars and cents. Thus the disconnect between operations and cost accounting.

What does all of this have to do with retail establishments, manufacturing in America, and “Made in China?” What is the value of manufacturing in America; self-sufficiency in the time of trouble, pride of accomplishment, value in production, and upward economic mobility of dreams for employees. Why does America need retail establishments that will sell “Made in America;” to remind Americans who we are, why we are neighbors and provide an outlet for manufacturing in America to compete.

Ask yourself, why did President Bill Clinton pave the way for China to join the World Trade Organization and actively push to move manufacturing to China? Why did President Richard Nixon push so hard to “Open China?” What has been the cost, and where is the value in either or both of these decisions? Sufficient time has passed to evaluate both of these decisions without political rhetoric and bombastic bloviations from either political extreme. Both presidents possessed more reasons and desires than they admitted while in office for these decisions and actions; the consequences are the focus, and you can judge the consequences yourself.

Consider cost versus value, consider the toll on hometowns across America where factories lay idle, homes lay vacant, streets lay silent, and poverty is so thick generations of destitution have lived and died in its shadow. Consider how some towns have tried to restructure themselves and succeeded, others have failed, some shipped their children to schools far away, others have turned their towns into “sleeper communities” for cities 2-6 hours away. You decide! Think! Investigate! Talk to people laid off by unions and forgotten. Then remember when politicians discuss taxes, labor union special interest projects, and social spending. Remember the next time you, a citizen with a brain, are reduced to “Human Infrastructure.”

© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

Making the USPS Irrelevant One Disastrous Decision at a Time!

The viral post office | Viral post, Post office, Postal police By now, it is apparent that the USPS has utterly failed in its primary job of delivering the mail. That the US PS has been failing for my entire life is a topic the politicians do not want to discuss. That the business model the USPS is based upon has never been a profitable one, the overhead is disastrously expensive, and the labor costs beyond exorbitant are also not topics the politicians ever want to discuss. They prefer smoke and mirrors, purple squirrels, and Hollywood celebrity scandals to actually doing their jobs. But, I digress; last week, the USPS announced that postal service would revert to the slowest it has been since the 1970s, and the cost for that dismal service is going to increase dramatically.

All weekend the reasons for the USPS being in this fix have been stewing in my mind, and I would like your insight as I discuss the main reasons why the USPS is in such bad shape. Feel free to disagree. Feel free to comment. Feel free to ask questions and research further. To my mind, the most damning problems to the USPS come from the following areas, too much overhead, labor union expenses, business model, and no clear political place in government. Save the US Postal Service! By a zillion dollars comics | Politics Cartoon | TOONPOOL

Labor Union Expenses

Let’s get something clear, the labor unions in government are living high on the hog of taxpayer forced taxation and mandated union dues. Consider the following comment from Representative Dennis Ross.

“UPS (Union) – about 66% of their total operating costs are labor. FedEx (non-union) – about 45% of their total operating costs are labor. USPS – 80-82%.”

Here’s the rub in comparing UPS, FedEx, and USPS; they are not apples and apples; it’s more like apples to rocks. Why? Because UPS and FedEx must show a profit to shareholders at the end of the year; thus, anytime USPS runs into an unprofitable situation, they rely upon USPS to fill the gap. FedEx operates slightly differently based on its business model. From observation from living in extreme rural areas, it does not appear to rely upon USPS as often to cover the gaps in service.

However, the labor costs at USPS continue to run extremely high, and the excuses for these labor costs continue to run thinner and thinner every year. Looking at six specific USPS explicit labor union-negotiated labor costs:

1. 1. Compensation levels – What each employee under the collective bargaining agreement is paid.
  2. Work rules – How often an employee works, who they report to, uniforms, and a host of other processes and procedures, which can and do increase business operating costs.
  3. Contracting – Includes independent contractors, contracts for retail locations, pickup locations, and much more.
  4. Network differences – Differences in the network affect the labor involved in delivery, sortation, transportation, and retail portions of an end-to-end movement.
  5. Capital intensity – Differences in capital requirements affecting the amount of non-labor costs needed to provide services offered.
  6. Congressional requirements – Congressional requirements focus on the aspects of the Postal Service that add more labor costs influencing capital spending.

Hence, if we take Rep. Ross’s statement as accurate, Congress is to blame for some of the added expenses the USPS incurs and the hidden taxes the taxpayer pays to interact with the USPS. This is why the place in government is such an influential portion of this discussion. Congress has been pushing the costs of regulating the USPS onto the taxpayer as a hidden tax since the USPS was started. This is unacceptable, especially since the taxpayers did not have a voice in allowing the USPS to become unionized, tripling labor costs year-over-year. P.S.E Context of PA: SWOT Analysis of the United States Postal Service

Please note, when discussing labor costs tripling, we are not just discussing wage earners’ take-home pay. Labor costs, as shown above, include those six items, plus a host of labor union contracted benefits, plus retirement benefits, plus administrative staff to handle these benefit packages, the regulatory burdens, the reporting burdens, and much more. Thus, while comparing UPS, FedEx, and USPS is unfair and illogical, the labor costs are pretty close to accurate even though they cannot be compared due to business model, Congressional reporting, and quasi-governmental meddling by politicians. Any company with 80-82% labor costs will be struggling with labor problems and turning a profit. Labor costs, fed by a labor union, are a reality that needs rectification and addressing. USPS 2011

Outdated Business Model

2009 the USPS paid a lot of money to have their business model reviewed, and the result was an excellently written document that outlined two potential steps for the USPS to take. Where is the USPS in adopting either of these actions in 2021; nowhere! Why has the USPS not taken any action on this document since 2009; Congress! Item number six in labor costs continues to rear its ugly and monstrous head, and the problem is not so much on USPS; although they indeed share the blame, Congress continues to drag its feet and refuses to scrutinize the government appropriately.

When discussing the USPS business model, the industry is discussing “optimizing the last mile” in the supply chain. That last mile is where the USPS has traditionally filled in the gap and made the final customer delivery. However, USPS is inefficient, costly, and labor-intensive. Yet, until science fiction realizes a Star Trek-like replicator in every home, optimizing the last mile is the discussion we need to be having, and solutions are available!

The 2009 business model review offered franchisee options as a business model — what a novel idea. Imagine getting your mail on your commute route, no more having it delivered to an apartment box, packages waiting on a doorstep for thieves, stop by a convenient place on your regular commute route, and get all your mail. Why not have your mail delivered to your office? Then your office mailroom becomes an arm of the post office; it can sell stamps, handling packages, and then you do not have an extra stop at all. Talk about an employer-based incentive! Better still, for a fee turning over retail establishments to non-profit groups for work programs. Guess what; that has the benefit of increasing public outreach and building communities. Yet, the USPS languishes because Congress refuses to take up serious topics, and our tax dollars are squandered!

Place in Government

Read the US Constitution, the US Bill of Rights, other founding documents, wherein is a postal service discussed? Find me the article claiming we need a Federal Postal Service. Name me the reason why the Postal Service is required. Selling stamps, that can be done using a myriad of different methods. Sending packages, mailing letters, again, many other options are available. Passports, hundreds of other options are available; why not put that into DMV’s across the US? Why not simplify the Passport process entirely?

What is the reason for the USPS? Give me the why and justify the existence for the next 20-years for the USPS. My entire life, I have been asking why the USPS is needed, and I have been asking this since before email, fax machines, and other technological leaps.

Overhead

When was the last time the USPS had personnel layoffs to balance their accounts? 1970, under President Richard Nixon, USPS had a strike, got a unionized workforce, and, as they call it, “a living wage.” From 1970 to 2021, there has been nothing but problems in the USPS; from retirement benefits costing too much, to labor expenses, to Congressional expenses increasing year-over-year, the overhead does nothing but balloon. I was recently in a flagship USPS for Phoenix, AZ. The building is a disgrace, the parking lot is neglected, the lobby is dark and missing half the materials, no forms, no boxes, everything is behind the barred and locked counter, and the retail associates are criminally negligent in their duties. What’s worse, this was a good USPS office to visit in Phoenix, AZ.

Take an honest appraisal of your local USPS and ask yourself, are your taxpayer dollars represented in your USPS in a manner acceptable to you? I visited a USPS in Las Cruces, NM. The design of the building lends a bright feeling to the building atmosphere; the retail area is small and naturally illuminated. Same problem with retail associates, but not as noticeable. However, this was also before the latest changes from Washington, where the employees were told it was okay to work slower and charge more. More is Less at the USPS | Freeport Press

It is my personal opinion that the USPS has outlived its usefulness, and it is time for the USPS to be eliminated from quasi-government offices of the United States. Nothing fruitful can be gained from continuing the charade of the USPS. Congress needs to return to the states the ability to issue addresses and organize their communities and end the USPS debacle!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Glory and Gore go Hand in Hand – Stating the Obvious

Lorde, from the “Pure Heroine” album, sings the song “Glory and Gore.” From which both this title and the principle for this article originated. The obvious is stated many times a day, oftentimes in an ironic accident, and today was no exception. The headlines on several stories help prove this point and highlight some serious problems facing America.

From The Daily Signal, we find our first instance of stating the obvious when Lindsey Burke announces that “Unions are doubling down on inserting critical race theory (CRT) into education.” Of course, the labor unions of teacher associations would be doubling- and tripling- down on applying political pressure to advance America, destroying malarkey for K-12 Educators. Show a single instance when a Marxist labor union has ever done anything to support America, and I will show you the inner workings of liars, thieves, and cheats who will tell a thousand truths to convince you a lie is a truth.

CRT is dangerous, it is a lie thought up by academics, and the only people who will benefit from CRT are liars, thieves, cheats, and politicians. Tell me, of all the people in history who have been enslaved, forced into indentured servitude, harassed, belittled, and betrayed by a different society, why are American Black populations the only ones ever targeted for pampering and coddling? When you answer this question, you will discover that this population is being treated this way by racist antagonists who know they can rely upon this population for agitation, anger, and terrorism without thought, concern, and care about the consequences. Why; because they have been intentionally groomed and carefully taught to act in this manner for the political ambitions of the same people pushing CRT.

Ever notice how President Biden and Hillary Clinton only talk at the American Black Populations, and even then only address the leaders of groups dedicated to rousing the population’s emotions, and not the population themselves? When was President Biden ever in Harlem for a political rally? When was Hillary ever in Compton, Philly, or Chicago? What about a visit to Atlanta for a political rally down by the riverside? The politicians talk to the NAACP and the Black Caucus, who then speak to the religious leaders and social justice minions. They talk to the local neighborhoods, reflecting the cowardice and true colors of the politicians as race agitators and race hustlers, not interested in the population unless it is election time. What is CRT; trouble!

The Daily Signal also carried a story authored by Hans von Spakovsky, who declared that a former Justice Department lawyer testified that lawyers abuse their power at the Department of Justice. What a revelation; lawyers were acting unethically, immorally, and illegally for personal gain in government employment. Color me shocked! Ever wonder why lawyers and attorneys have the most jokes written about them of any other profession; I never have! Worse, I cannot believe how many can get elected!

Under the heading of stating the obvious, and how you cannot color me shocked, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continues to blame inadequate training as the go-to excuse when the Department of Veterans Affairs – Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) comes investigating. In the almost two decades I have been chronicling poor behavior at the VA, VBA, VHA, and National Cemeteries, the number one most often cited excuse for failure is “poor or inadequate training.” As a point of reference, this lack of training drove my desire to work in training at the VA to improve the training delivered.

As an adult educator with more than 20 years in distance learning and classroom training, I thought I would be a shoo-in for the positions. Nope, I had not served in pay grades lower to “learn the VA.” Even though I had more education and experience, was Schedule A, and more skilled than any other candidate, I was deemed not qualified, and internal people filled the open roles. How do I know these facts, I asked those hired, and they were glad to relate their stories, experience, and time served in the VA to get into a plushy training position where they were grossly inadequate. Only after leaving was the other reason revealed, the HR Director at the Albuquerque VAMC claimed too many veterans were in employment at the VA and refused to hire a single veteran while she directed the HR department.

Do the VA Leaders ever think that this is the problem? Only the worst of the worst can survive the mental depravity and mind-numbing bureaucracy at the VA to obtain promotion into higher leadership positions. Worse, those who achieve these positions have agendas, lists of enemies to crush, and power empires to build, so they are never interested in doing the job!

The result, designed incompetence is bred, excuses that could not hold reality become the accepted verbiage to deflect responsibility and accountability, and if all else fails, make sure your union dues are paid, and the union will defend your pension, your job, and your benefits. Then you can lie, cheat, steal, and terrorize without prejudice and escape without any problems.

If you ever think that something is too far-fetched to believe, the VA will prove you wrong. The VA-OIG continues to inspect five VAMC’s for inadequate and improper processes, procedures, and leadership where financial controls and payments to third-party or affiliated non-profit corporations are concerned. In 2021, two additional VAMC’s have failed sufficiently to make the eternally under investigation list, Albuquerque, NM and Palo Alto, CA. The original five are Boise, ID., Boston, MA., Cincinnati, OH., Nashville, TN., and San Francisco, CA.

“The Albuquerque and Palo Alto medical centers made about $17.9 million in improper payments to affiliated non-profit corporations. The reason for improper payments was the same for all seven VA medical centers reviewed. Specifically, procedures for approving invoices did not satisfy VA policy requirements because they did not require verification that the services were provided. The audit team also noted an absence of required periodic reviews by VA supervisors of approved invoices at all seven medical centers.”

Now, here’s the other side of the coin, the internal controls at both the VA and the non-profits did not identify that their problems were internal or even an issue. When I have worked in finance, the rule is, “no evidence, no payment!” When the non-profit I volunteered at failed an audit with 27-pages of audit inconsistencies, I was called in and charged with fixing the problems. Of those 27-pages of audit findings, 26 pages were for payments where documentation was missing. Four months later, a follow-up inspection cleared all 27-pages. Yet, no evidence continues to be the single most glaring problem at seven separate VAMC’s, and nothing has changed since this issue first reared its head in FY 2017-2018. The VA-OIG has collected reports beginning in Boston, MA VA_OIG report number 18-00711-211, published 02 December 2019, where more than 3700 payments totaling more than $23 Million were made without evidence proving services rendered.

From the VA-OIG Report:

“Of the estimated $1.6 million overpayment, about $1.5 million paid to the Boston non-profit was included in the total $35.7 million improper payments due to lack of evidence that services were received. The entire $1.6 million overpayment was for unallowable or prohibited reimbursements to the non-profit.”

“The OIG previously reported a total of about $35.7 million improper payments to five affiliated non-profit corporations as shown in this report.”

Is it too obvious to declare the leadership in charge at both the non-profits and the VA needs immediate removal, transparent audits conducted, and those leaders held accountable for the money that has been lost? Recently an author claimed the VA is more of a crime syndicate than the mob. After reading that two additional VAMC’s have failed gloriously to prove services rendered for payments made, I can agree with this sentiment!

Our final entry today originates, unsurprisingly, with the Department of Veterans Affairs – Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and a VA-OIG inspection where 88% of the claims processed involved lengthy delays in making decisions. Tell me, if you had an 88% failure rate at your job, how long would you keep your job? How long would it be before your bosses were shown the door, the company shuttered, and investigated for fraud? Now, why are government employees treated differently than private-sector employees? The inexcusable delays have led to more than $232 Million in questionable payments projected for the next two years, while the VBA is “encouraged” to fix the delay problems and “catch up.”

For the record, stating the obvious, the entire US Government is sick. The legislative branch keeps abdicating responsibility to the judicial and executive branches. Bureaucrats and bureaucracy have overcome common sense. The whole process has been rigged to keep the dregs of society in power while the taxpayer suffers. Let us, the owners of representative governments, remind those supposed to be in charge that they have cause to fear the electorate. Politicians should fear the ballot box, and they should fear having the electorate hold them personally accountable for the mess they have perpetrated.

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

The Proper and Improper Role of Government – Part 3

Bait & Switch There many ideas I embraced as a child that brings me short mentally and cause some discomfort. The biggest of these was the support of labor unions. As a kid, I thought labor unions were the best thing since sliced bread. I learned in K-12 how the labor unions had ended child labor, gave us weekends, Federal holidays, and the 8-hour day, among other tremendous and notable accomplishments. Until I lost my job to a labor union guy who took four times as long to complete work, complained horribly and sent me to the unemployment line. I never understood what he had to complain about, times were hard, and I lost a good job to a labor union member.

Apathy Because of the hold, the Labor Unions have on government, the line between government policy and labor union influence is generally so blurred that confusion is bred as to why things work the way they work in government. Unfortunately, every country with a representative government and labor unions has the same problem. Labor unions are entirely Marxist in their ideology, but to keep the masses happy, instead of communism, we get rampant socialism instead. J. T. Murphy writes specifically eloquently on the ties between socialism and the labor unions. Frankly, I have never understood how a labor person can swear they love freedom and America while supporting tooth and nail their labor unions’ Marxist and socialist agendas.

Inflation and Socialism, plus the Captivity of Debt

Public Employment Retirement Costs Are At "Tipping Point" Public-sector labor unions are the number one reason many states in America have seen their credit ratings drop. The debt of the retirement packages and pensions is a millstone around every state’s neck. This is an absolute reality proven time and time again. The pension crisis is so large that Forbes keeps coming back to this topic several times a year. If you would like a primer on the public pension crisis, go here. The public pension crisis is mentioned solely because it remains the number one budget item for too many states. With that much money owed, the debt runs the state’s fiscal decisions, not people, and brings up the captivity of debt.

Look up the principle of “usury” in historical texts, and you find usury occurs when interest is charged on money borrowed, which creates captivity. TheWalletcoach.com eloquently details how debt is captivity. The oldest of historical texts, the Old Testament, is vehemently against charging usury of brothers and family members, but strangers being in debt captivity was okay. Today, the confinement of debt, specifically the public pensions, leads the politicians like a goat to slaughter. But, unfortunately, none of the politicians can find the time to formulate a plan, gather their fellow politicians, and fix the problem. Debt, to the height of the public pension crisis, creates inflation and leads to socialism, as the government runs out of other people’s money to pay for the failures of previous politicians to be fiscally literate and fiscally responsible. Add in the labor unions’ consistent sticky hands, and the local and state governments are in deep trouble. Add in the Federal Government’s debt obligations, and money trouble is a catastrophe! Please note that catastrophe is not an “If” or “when;” it is a current issue right now! National Debt Graph + Bush-Reagan Voodoo Video - zFacts

16 March 2019, Tom Del Beccaro, writing an opinion piece for Fox News, produced the greatest missive I have ever seen tying the principles of debt captivity to inflation and governments becoming socialized! Historically speaking, Mr. Del Beccaro is 100% correct that the socialization of Greece and the fall of the Roman Republic are both tied to government debts. However, the Founding Fathers in America knew history, were literate, and they feared what would happen to this Free Republic (if we can keep it) when the government is allowed to rack up debts! Every single publication I have on the Founding Fathers, and the Founding of America, come back to the bondage of debt and the problems with government debt. However, when the population demands “free benefits” from the government and uses their voting power to elect only those who keep the “Gravy Train” coming, socialism has been achieved in all but name! Government Largess

That fact alone should scare every member of the American Experiment into correcting their government! Yet, what do we find, the exact opposite! Frightening does not entirely cover my feelings here!

Socialism, Taxes, and The Workplace

Returning to the pattern discussed on 16 March 2019, Tom Del Beccaro, writing an opinion piece for Fox News, discussed how taxes are a knee-jerk reaction to “keep that gravy train running.” Therein lay the root causes for how socialism has been promoted in the workplace and how high taxes will eventually go! I have written about this relationship for a long time, but please allow me to refresh memories.

In the United States, the Government Agency tasked with employment, employment laws, and employer responsibilities is not the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); by statute, it is the Department of Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The NLRB is only there to handle labor unions, labor union growth, and labor union law. The IRS defines what an employee is vs. a contractor or knowledge vendor. Worse, the IRS rigidly protects this relationship as a key to preserving the government’s interest (tax dollars) in keeping socialism in the workplace. Some of my earliest articles deal with these exact principles and the socialized employee structures in which each worker and business is demanded to participate. Gravy Train 2

Upset with how your employer treats you, both on and off the employer’s property, there is only one place to put the blame, the IRS. The IRS states the employer can invade your privacy, in your home, as an extension of “Risk Control” because your employer agreed to the IRS’s demands to pay taxes. Your rights, freedoms, and liberties are curtailed, culled, and clipped in the workplace because the IRS demands the employer play ball with them, and your liberties are the price you pay for a paycheck. Every time I see a labor union complaining about how the employer treats them, I want to shake the stuffing out of the leaders, for it is not the employer but the IRS that should be struck down and disbanded! Yet, the NLRB will always side against the employer, and the labor union, a Marxist organization, wins, the IRS wins, and the employer and non-union employees lose. As a result, socialism in America becomes more powerful and influential.

Socialism and Mothers in the Workplace

As a means to improve the strength of the family in society, several religious organizations would love to see mothers provided the power to stay home. Yet, socialism, as a fundamental operating principle, that all able bodied people must support the state, K-12 educators can rear kids, and the government acquires drones who do as they are told. High fuel prices are no longer discussed on the nightly news because the government needs every able-bodied and disabled person working and asked the media to find something else to discuss. Plato 2

Why does the current president keep ducking questions about inflation; because the higher inflation goes, the higher prices are demanded, and the more people will rely upon the “Government Gravy Train.” Unfunded liabilities (kited checks) are acceptable to socialists as a means of controlling the populace and keeping people in the game. Higher taxes from inflation are good when it controls those in society who would raise their heads and ask questions under the thumb of totalitarian control. If mothers returned home, how fast would demands for improved schools become the big issue in local politics, again? Gravy Train 3

My wife, a single mother due to divorce, while raising her two kids, relates stories of gathering mothers in Seattle to fight the school board and win. Bewitched (1964-1972), the TV show reflects several times where Samantha got involved and changed local politics. It used to be expected in local politics for mothers to have the ultimate last word on worthy politicians for whom to vote. Yet, by increasing prices, mothers had to go to work. It is now standard for politicians to get elected whose only desire is to keep socialism going, stealing liberties and freedoms while pontificating that the other party is at fault for your suffering.

Knowledge Check! I repeat, only for emphasis, the IRS remains the most influential, nefarious, and deadly threat to America. America, what I am proposing will be a culture shock. It will turn many people onto their heads. It will appear anathema, all because we, the citizens, have watched the government become stronger and us the citizens weaker for so many generations. But, the reality remains, we own the government, the government has been abusing us, and the time of big government to solve all the problems from a broken shoelace to fixing the weather has to end! We must believe, gather knowledge, and act as a conjoined whole to make the necessary changes.

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: Come, Let Us Reason Together – Chapter 5

Bait & Switch In Chapters 2 and 3 of this series, the discussion regarding money and the $350 Billion dollars COVID relief monies were discussed. As this is a continuing discussion, I would encourage you to read those missives as well for a fuller understanding of the principles being discussed. Regardless, several facts remain pertinent:

1. 1. The states accepting this money will be bound to spend it in a manner the Federal Government specifies.
  2. The money being given to the states as a “stimulus for COVID economic growth,” will not spur anything but inflation and poor fiscal policies.
  3. The strings attached to this money are a noose on individual state economic growth long after the deadline to spend the money (31 December 2026) comes and goes.

Doherty (2021) writing for the NCSL (National Conference of State Legislatures) provides some clarity on the Treasury Department’s rules and regulations regarding this $350 Billion albatross being forced down the state’s throats. The funds being discussed originate in the $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan Act, and the Treasury Department has released operational guidance to the states and cities receiving the funds. Never forget, while the Treasury Department claims there is an algorithm for sharing the money, politics and political connections will be the final determinant in who receives how much of the funds being doled out.

The Duty of Americans Pensions are the first point of discussion as to where these funds can go; never forget, pensions remain the largest single expense for states in the United States. Those bloated governmental salaries, negotiated by unions, and put in place by legislative fiat, keep the taxpayer on the hook for poor financial planning long after the initial beneficiaries of the union retirement pyramid scheme and dead and buried. Read carefully the pension data provided by USAToday for a full and detailed discussion on just how big the pension problem is for the states of the United States.

Millstone of Designed Incompetence Just as important, look at the total number of government workers as a share of the total workforce, and you will discover just how big your state and local governments have become. For example, two states selected at random from the 50-state list, New Jersey, and New Mexico are displayed below, and sourced from the article:

New Jersey

Funded ratio: 38.4%
Total pension shortfall: $130.7 billion shortfall (3rd largest)
Gov’t workers as share of total workforce: 13.3% (20th lowest)
Avg. annual payout per public retiree: $32,148 (9th highest)

New Mexico

Funded ratio: 61%
Total pension shortfall: $18.2 billion shortfall (18th largest)
Gov’t workers as share of total workforce: 18.6% (4th highest)
Avg. annual payout per public retiree: $20,907 (15th lowest)

Apathy Consider New Jersey for a moment, if you met 100 new people in one day, more than 1/10^th of those met will work for the state or local government in some capacity, and those 11 people are earning $32,148 taxpayer paid dollars a year for being retired. Worse, New Jersey is kiting checks on your children’s future to the tune of $130.7 Billion dollars every year. Raising taxes cannot help closing the funding gap in the pension. Want more news, the majority of those retired are not living in New Jersey, so all those taxpayer monies are not being recouped in sales taxes, property taxes, and other taxes.

Yet, the Federal Government just borrowed $1.9 Trillion to give the states $350 Billion, and the monies provided will not even pay a years’ worth of pension payments in most cases. Let alone pay for all the other accounts that have been stripped to pay for the pension gap. For example, infrastructure (Roads, Bridges, Highways, Broadband Internet, the Electrical Grid, etc.), Teachers, Community Colleges, Unemployment Insurance, Water and Wastewater Treatment facilities, and Health and Human Services, just to name a few cash strapped state programs.

Plato 2 A few days ago, I was discussing broadband Internet grids, and there susceptibility to failure with people who work for a major Internet Service Provider. In Umatilla County, as an example, the Internet either currently, or previously, went down nightly for 5-6 hours at a time. Read the outage reports and you will find regular large geographic areas of the country suffering with Internet latency and connectivity issues. Yet, your state legislators must focus not upon the potholes damaging your car, not upon shaky bridges and overpasses prone to failure, but upon pensions for retirees. All due to labor unions and promises that should never have been made in the first place!

Pensions are the number one reason I, personally, think that government workers should not be able to unionize, and that the government pensions should be as rigidly controlled as the private sectors pensions. Yet, the inverse is true, unions growing in the public sector, shrinking in the private sector, and the taxpayer is left with the bill. Since the government can continue to kite checks, our children’s great grandchildren are already up to their necks in debt that is unsustainable.

Plato 3 Come, let us reason together for solutions that actually work. I offer below the following suggestions, feel free to agree, disagree, add more, and discuss openly in the comments. We, the owners of government, must re-take control of the government, and to do so, we must communicate and act.

1. 1. Reduce the size of government immediately to the size posted on 31 December 1999. This is an immediate and interim step. To be followed by a position by position, value discussion, where technological solutions to replace workers is decided. Eventually culling government size back to a Pre-1930’s level.
  2. Automate as many functions as possible. The processes of how government function are necessarily complicated to justify a jobs program. This culture of complication must cease forthwith, the processes cleared of unnecessary complications, and streamlined to allow for automation of the processes.
  3. Take the pensions and eradicate the unions. Privatize pensions should be the letter of the law for all, public and private sector employees. Thus, creating a new market and investment industry.
  4. Privatize public maintenance of roads, the fuel taxes are sufficient to pay for this and improve road maintenance immediately.
  5. Privatize wastewater and water generation and distribution.
  6. Privatize and deregulate all utilities, allowing for maximum competition, and ending the private geographic monopolies the tech companies and Internet providers have established.
  7. Privatize K-12 and Community Colleges changing the pay structures for teachers and reducing the “staff” positions. Get focused on delivering a product, the product is an educated student who can read, write, and do math, thinking logically, and critically. This means ending the surplus of standardized tests and putting the teacher in charge of the classroom.

Patriotism Never Give Up! Not every child should be forced into college. Not every job requires a college degree. Opening the community colleges produces certified, trained, and non-debt laden students that are workforce ready. Workforce ready means able, willing, and skilled in working, be that in academia for a degree, or in the workforce as a tradesman the requirement is the same and the distinction needs removed from the leaders of K-12 educational leadership.

The aim and the intent of all government programs is to get out of the way and let people act as they think best for themselves and their families. Not pushing children to college for a degree and a life of debt payments. Not forcing them into the military because you are too lazy to teach them how to read, write, think, and speak. Not forcing them into poverty to support a government jobs program. The government will not go “quietly into that dark night.” But, with enough insistence the government we currently know can be cut, reduced, and forced to retreat. We, the citizens, need to take back our government through the ballot box, through the judicial branch, and through demanding change in the legislative and executive branches at all levels of the government.

Knowledge Check! First step, believe it is possible; live like it has already occurred. Second step, join others to raise the cry and demand the changes. Third, support only candidates who already live fiscally proper, morally upright, and ethically dedicated. Fourth, never give up! Never lose focus, and never relinquish the moral high ground for a bowl of pottage or 30 pieces of silver.

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: The IRS – The Pernicious and Detestable Federal Agency

Angry Wet Chicken Now that tax season is, for the most part, completed and behind us for another year. It occurred to me that many people do not know the power and reach of the IRS in their daily lives. Plato is quoted as saying, “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” No truer words can describe the situation with the IRS, and I think it is time every American knows just how destructive the policies of the IRS have been and continue to be.

Employee

UseLegal.com (2012) provides the actual definition of an employee, “An “employee” is defined as “a preference eligible in the excepted service who has completed one year of current continuous service in the same or similar positions” or “an individual in the excepted service (other than a preference eligible)… who is not serving a probationary or trial period under an initial appointment pending conversion to the competitive service.” Ramos v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 24378 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 6, 2009)” Essentially, a person can be hired by an employer, but does not attain employee status and protection until that person has been hired for a continual year by the same employer, is not under a ‘probationary period,’ and or appointment. Apathy

An employee agrees to be controlled by an employer; that person’s production is only one of the controls granted to an employer. Employee conduct both on and off the job can be controlled, and the means and manner of producing the work specified. The right to control is the primary determining factor in this relationship. The right to control is also the deciding line between freelance workers and employees. Upon this single imperative hang tax law, the responsibility of parties, risk, and every item in employee/employer relationships, hierarchical structures, and will ultimately decide who or which party is in charge, and is entirely governed by the IRS in America!

The Right to Control

The IRS breaks into three categories the essential components where the ‘Right to Control’ hinges, namely, Behavioral Control, Financial Control, and Type of Relationship.

Behavioral Control: Relates to the questions, what, where, and how work is completed. Employees have set schedules, tight restrictions about how to think, where to sit, etc., dictated by the employer.

Financial Control: Relates to all things money. The employee is forced to accept all terms of the employer without negotiation, from business expenses to taxes. Where Financial Control is, risk shortly follows; where risk is, the threat of litigation follows. Therefore, when the employer has financial Control, risk follows the employer, not the employee. Profit and loss, tools of the trade, and the freedom to offer services to other organizations are all part of the financial controls relinquished by the employee to the employer. Under Financial Control falls the following, the Americans with Disabilities Act – 1990 (ADA).

- The ADA’s seminal beginning originate in 1973 Section 504, which made it illegal to discriminate against those with disabilities if the organization receives Federal Government subsidies.
  - - - “No otherwise qualified individual with handicaps in the United States… shall, solely because of her or his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”(ED.gov, 1995).
      - Classified disabilities by disease; includes “Hidden Disease[s],” is changed constantly to update diseases covered, and dictates the only requirement for the condition is that the disorder “have a material effect on one’s ability to perform a major life activity” (Ed.gov, 1995).
      - Business costs mainly occur in ‘soft’ costs, i.e., changing procedures, reasonable accommodations, etc., something to keep in mind, though, “… noncompliance can cost an employer. For example, in the fiscal year 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) resolved 15,045 disability discrimination charges. It recovered $48.8 million in monetary benefits for workers who did not receive accommodations to which they are entitled under the ADA” (Woog, 2008). Thus, monetarily speaking, noncompliance costs more than compliance.

Type of Relationship: Relates to all things in the interaction of the two independent parties, including written contracts dictating the interaction, risks, penalties, etc. The extent of the relationship is a significant point and colludes with permanency and benefits to form the marriage between two independent entities. The employee forfeits Control in this arena to the employer who automatically sets the terms, demands compliance, and exerts totalitarian Control. quote-mans-inhumanity

Employee Surveillance

IRS.gov (2018) sets the standard upon which the premise for employee surveillance rests; the business organization holds the right to control, monitor, insist, and legally demand employee behaviors. Goshray (2013) quoted Cashmore (2009) and is correct; employee privacy is dead, and the origination is social media. Thus, with the IRS granting legal ability to monitor and control employees, there are no other legal or ethical issues, privacy concerns, or anything else wrong with employee surveillance. If the employee chooses to take issue with the monitoring, that employee is free to end their relationship with the company; in fact, Lyon (2017) substantiated that with newer employees, who have grown up with the acceptance of digital citizenship, surveillance is expected and no privacy concerns exist in the workplace. Patriotism

Holt, Lang, and Sutton (2017) further inform that employee surveillance does not affect potential employees’ rating of the organization’s ethics, nor the organizational views when monitoring, e.g., employee surveillance is higher than another business in the same industry. Holt et al., (2017) further added that employee surveillance has been, and continues to be, radically changed by the technology available (Waxman & Barile, 2016). Returning to the organizational “right,” as provided by the government through both edict and legislation, employees have no individual control and relinquish privacy rights upon hire to the employer (IRS.gov, 2018).

Vargas (2017) reviewed a business and found that the employer considers each employee a criminal and that through working for the company, investigated criminalization of employee behaviors is enacted and reproduced. Essentially, making each employee an automatic suspect anytime a crime occurs, suspecting every transaction, and disciplining for minor changes in expected corporate behaviors. While admittedly, this behavior by the business might be considered extreme, it is not beyond the legal “rights” of the employer. An argument could be made to treat employees better to reduce churn; in this particular industry (retail), high churn means you pay less in wages because good employees leave quickly and bad employees are fired fast. Thus, criminalizing the employee is not wrong; employee surveillance is not unethical and should have no consequences for honest employees. The Duty of Americans

However, labor unions vociferously continue to advocate privacy in the workplace and attempt to place limits upon employee surveillance by a company, completely disregarding the fact that the employer has the legal right and ability to demand and enforce all types of direct and indirect employee surveillance programs (Goshray, 2013; Holt, Lang, and Sutton, 2017; IRS.gov, 2018; Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, 2017; Lyon, 2017; Waxman & Barile, 2016; Vargas, 2017). While Leclercq-Vandelannoitte (2017) attempts to place ethical constraints, prior knowledge, policies, and procedures around employee surveillance, nothing in the IRS.gov (2018) mandates declare an employer has to mention or warn employees that their every keystroke, every conversation, and every action are directly and indirectly monitored as the “right” of the business.

Knowledge Check! Is the pernicious role of the IRS now more understood? Your Employer/Employee relationship is not governed by the NLRB, but by the IRS, and this was by design to protect tax money! Every action made in an employment situation is governed by the IRS, and the IRS has given great latitude to the employer, making you the property of the IRS, with control granted to your employer. The IRS remains a danger to every American, and the globe. Why is the United States the only industrialized nation to not allow options to the employee/employer relationship, squashing innovation, curtailing small businesses opportunities, and unequally tipping the scales for large organizations, look to the IRS! Want to point fingers, thank President Woodrow Wilson (D) and his complicit Congress and his executive orders!

References

Effelsberg, D., Solga, M., & Gurt, J. (2013). Getting followers to transcend their self-interest for the benefit of their company: Testing a core assumption of transformational leadership theory. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(1), 131-143. doi:10.1007/s10869-013-9305-x

Ghoshray, S. (2013). Employer surveillance versus employee privacy: The new reality of social media and the workplace. Northern Kentucky Law Review, 40(3), 593-626. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lgs&AN=90242325&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Holt, M., Lang, B., & Sutton, S. G. (2017). Potential employees’ ethical perceptions of active monitoring: The dark side of data analytics.Journal of Information Systems, 31(2), 107-124. doi:10.2308/isys-51580

Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, A. (2017). An ethical perspective on emerging forms of ubiquitous IT-based Control.Journal of Business Ethics, 142(1), 139-154. doi: http://dx.doi.org.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/10.1007/s10551-015-2708-z

Lyon, D. (2017). Digital Citizenship and Surveillance| Surveillance Culture: Engagement, Exposure, and Ethics in Digital Modernity. International Journal of Communication, 11, 19.

Waxman, S. S., & Barile, F. G. (2016). “Eye in the sky:” Employee surveillance in the public sector. Albany Law Review, 79(1), 131.

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS.gov) (2018). Independent contractor vs. employee. Available from http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,id=99921,00.html

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS.gov). (2018). The Agency, its Mission, and Statutory Authority. Retrieved from http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=98141,00.html

Vargas, T. L. (2017). Employees or Suspects? Surveillance and Scrutinization of Low-Wage Service Workers in U.S. Dollar Stores, 20(2), 207–230. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eoh&AN=EP123822581&site=ehost-live&scope=site

NO MORE BS: LIC – Low-Intensity Conflict – Explained and Expounded

Dont Tread On Me Between 2012 and 2014, I wrote the first article on Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC). Somehow this article has been lost in my changing blogs and computers. Hence, what follows is an in-depth look at LIC. Please note, several authors have significantly contributed to my understanding of LIC, but none so much as Lt. Colonel Alan J. Tinder, who wrote a paper for the Air War College in 1990, titled: “Low-Intensity Conflict.” From the Colonel, I have learned much and benchmarked this principle to more thoroughly understand LIC, how to recognize LIC, and how to detail LIC for others. The other compelling source is L. C. Green’s paper on “Low-Intensity Conflict and the Law.” My aim here is to synthesize this information into a manageable topic and aid understanding. LIC 2

Too often in America, we do not recognize LIC. When the Verizon Labor Unions had to be legally restrained from committing LIC against Verizon, the judge seemed to want to call the acts of violence nothing but poor decisions by some people. Yet, the labor union had begun a tactic of pressuring Verizon by destroying property, scare tactics for third-party contractors, and causing mayhem to obtain their demands. Hence, the labor union committed LIC and got away with it, no punishment, no accountability, no responsibility. Never forget, “Barely three percent of violent crimes committed by union members lead to an arrest or conviction. … Most victims of union violence are unemployed workers looking for a job [to] feed their families. “Scabs,” they call them. Subhuman scum. Untouchables. People who, in the minds of unionists and their enablers, are worthy of the same kind of vile abuse that Klu Klux Klansman used to dish out to African Americans that didn’t know their place.” LIC

What is LIC?

Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC) is the official name for what happens when individuals or governments hire intermediaries to conduct violent operations from a position of security. LIC is a misnomer; those who have become victims of the barbaric cruelty of those practicing LIC find nothing “Low” about the experience. The conflict is intense, the actions brutal, and the practitioners remain cunning adversaries using and employing willing dupes to hide the true depths of moral decay inherent in the societal destructions and deprivations the practitioners are enacting. Many confuse LIC in describing the actions of unbridled violence committed by ideologues under the banner of terrorism. The US Military Joint Chiefs of Staff define LIC as:

“A limited political-military struggle to achieve political, social, economic, or psychological objectives. It is often protracted and ranges from diplomatic, economic, and psychological pressures through terrorism and insurgency. Low-intensity conflict is generally confined to a geographic area and is often characterized by constraints on the weaponry, tactics, and levels of violence (Tinder 1990) [emphasis mine].”

Green (1997) adds a key ingredient to the description of LIC from Tinder (1990).

“… Non-international conflict itself is a refined term for what [was] formerly known as revolutions or civil wars, particularly when these have developed into major operations with the likelihood or reality of atrocities being committed against non-combatants. Whether civilians or those [rendered] hors de combat, a fact that is often more common in non-international … conflicts, especially when ideological, ethnic, or religious differences are in issue. It is for this reason that it must be borne in mind that the term low-intensity [conflict] has no relation to the severity or violence of the conflict” [emphasis mine].

Some will proclaim loudly, primarily due to affiliation with or money donated from deep-pocketed entities, that LIC is only limited to those more commonly perceived as terrorists, i.e., car bombers, hijackers, etc.; however, paid rioters, looters, and those termed by the media as “violent protesters,” are practicing LIC. Worse, labor unions have been getting away with LIC since 1892 and the Homestead Strike. As a point of fact, K-12 educators will only teach the labor union’s side of the story during the Industrial Revolution, leaving out the capitalists providing jobs, businesses that did not need, or want, government intrusion, and the continued depravity the labor unions continually inflict upon America. Just for the record, in 1991 alone, 4400 acts of violence were committed by labor unions. Apathy

Consider this for a moment, Americans generally despise violence for economic gains; but, due to LIC in K-12 education, the labor unions get special treatment before the law on committing violence. Imagine for a moment how ugly the media would scream if the KKK dropped nails, broke glass, destroyed property without regard to a minority-owned business. Oh, wait a minute; we know what the media would do, nothing! See, when politically correct rage occurs, even when it is a minority on minority, the press closes their mouths or pitches in! The world saw this in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta, Florida, and so many other riots, politely termed “peaceful protests” by the media!

LIC and the Law

I am not a lawyer, and the following is not legal advice. LIC being punishable under a military court is founded in the Civil War, and President Lincoln desired to regulate the behavior of Union troops and show proper deferment to enemy troops. While this legal precedent goes further back, the legal precedent begins with President Lincoln in the US. Controlling troops’ behavior led to the Genocide Convention of 1948, where genocide was created. A legal standard was set for controlling and describing proper behavior during a conflict and enforceable by third parties. Hence the reason why, and for, international courts to bring charges against countries and leaders of countries who commit genocide. Unfortunately, even with the United Nations “maintaining neutrality,” enforcement of genocide continues to be problematic. The Duty of Americans

However, the point is clear, commit acts of LIC, and you do not face a civilian court and judge; you face a military tribunal. The legal precedent for handling LIC by military tribunal further clarifies that those violent protesters and labor union members using LIC to commit acts of violence are deserving of the label, domestic terrorist. As a terrorist, those using LIC, including those paying for LIC, lose their US Constitutional Rights, face a military tribunal, and held without Habeas Corpus. Terrorists do not deserve and have rejected their US Constitutional Rights upon paying for or committing violent LIC actions. According to the legal dictionary, Habeas Corpus “is a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.” If US Troops must follow the Geneva Convention during peace and war, then those paying for or committing LIC are also bound, especially by Article 3:

“… Each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum … [to] persons taking no part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause [certain minimum rights to ensure that they] shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.”

Since those involved in LIC are terrorists and like criminals, they do not adhere to the law. The international community should be exerting pressure to capture, hold, and try the individuals involved in LIC anywhere in the world. For example, Cuba is currently holding a leader of BLM, an internal terrorist organization with roots in Marxism-Leninism. Other people have found safe haven in the international community and need to answer for their criminal and terrorist activities. However, since the American government refuses to label paid agitators as the internal terrorists they are, the criminal justice system will continue to be violated. Those guilty of LIC are allowed to continue their licentious ways to the detriment of America. Patriotism

Labor unions hide behind the lawyers and the criminal justice system to game and play LIC against everyone they consider an enemy. ANTIFA, BLM, and every other paid agitator group in America burning, looting, rioting, and “protesting” need to be labeled what they are, terrorists. Their actions need to be classified correctly as acts of terrorism. A military tribunal called to investigate funding sources and hold accountable those paying and those committing terrorist violence in America. There is no difference between a terrorist in the IRA, a terrorist in Afghanistan, and a “protestor” terrorist in Portland, Oregon. America, we need to understand LIC, and then we need to apply legal precedence to fix the situation America currently finds herself in!

Micro-Networks, Macro-Networks, and Polarization: Understanding Begets Opportunities

Corporate political infighting is one of the most fundamental challenges to organizational design. Incorporating disparate micro-hierarchies into a cohesive whole is akin to herding cats in a room full of rocking chairs. Unfortunately, micro-networks and polarization is making the job harder over time.

Defining micro-networks, macro-networks, and polarization opens the doors for opportunities. Still, a leader will have to choose to walk through those doors to discover the opportunity. Experience teaches that micro-networks exist in every business, industry, and occupation. Thus, what is applicable to call centers is directly translatable to every other business venture.

Micro-networks are the epitome of “Old Boy Networks,” the social clubs, golfing buddies, and intimate friend relationships of the modern business culture. Micro-networks often cross departments, teams, and internal work structures. Micro-networks include diverse people in roles of power, understood through work role, not specifically a job title, and often exists long after people have left an organization, a group, a specific team, etc.

Micro-networks always exhibit an unwillingness to change. The micro-network is a hybrid hierarchy established as a virus to the standard organizational order. By possessing a separate system, confusion will abound, problems arise, and the micro-network will be the root cause, even if the analysis points elsewhere. Micro-networks are the lazy manager’s approach to problems, using the same people with the same connections to accomplish work in the same manner.

The problem of micro-networks is prevalent, especially in call centers; many times, the call center leadership promotes micro-networking to accomplish the tasks and goals of the organization. People will always form teams of like-minded individuals geared towards protecting themselves, which leads to entrenched bureaucracies and hierarchies, which sums the problems and defines the micro-network perfectly.

For example, a department in a call center for a globe-spanning organization is not run by the team leaders, supervisors, directors, etc. but by a small group of employees who are knowledgeable of a legacy data-entry system. These employees have formed such a strangle-hold upon this department that until the legacy system is retired, the company is held hostage. While working with this organization, it was shocking to see how pernicious and long-reaching this micro-network had become, how those in the micro-network parroted the beliefs and opinions of the micro-network core leaders, and how fast micro-network jobs could be completed, but the regular business could not be concluded.

Academic research calls micro-networks a host of names from mini-networks, to relationship-based networks, to value-added networks to professional social networks, always the intransigence towards change, and the core group manipulating a host of powerful people are the keys to identifying the micro-network. Important to note that these networks originate when a person needs some legitimate business completed and finds a like-minded person who can accomplish what is desired. The micro-network methods of subverting system control to perform work generally start harmlessly enough as a “hook-up.” Get enough “hook-ups” occurring, and a micro-network will form.

Macro-networks may contain micro-networks or members of micro-networks; the difference is the purpose of the network, what defines membership in the macro-network, and the work of that macro-network. A macro-network does not fear change as a micro-network does; which, is essential to understanding the macro-network. Macro-networks span across multiple subsystems, cultures, identities, behaviors, etc. A macro-network overlays and contains a vast majority of people.

For example, Catholicism could be considered the largest macro-network in human history. Catholicism has breed hundreds of other macro-networks in religion, child adoption, hospitals, food banks, and much more. No single Catholic is the same and generally has ties to another macro- and micro-networks. Each will interpret the tenets of Catholicism differently and apply the principles differently, but with some degree of sameness as well. Hence, the final aspect of a macro-network, it can replicate other self-sustaining macro-networks. In contrast, a micro-network cannot replicate or be self-sustaining.

Polarization is behavior multiplied as two or more sharply contrasting opinions, beliefs, biases, or behaviors draw like-minded people. Behavior is attitude, bias, emotion, and individual choice, stemming from the axiom, “As a man thinketh, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Thus, thoughts become attitudes, the attitudes feed into behaviors, and the entire organization begins to suffer according to the individual’s choices and consequences. Polarization is an extension of tribalism and is observed as people cluster into competing groups in a zero-sum game, where negotiation and compromise are perceived as a betrayal.

Polarization is not a micro-network but may originate within a micro-network that grew. A micro-network does not develop into a macro-network but into a tribe that is polarized. Polarization is all about antagonism, the demonization of other people outside the specific tribe, conformity inside the tribe along with greater demands to force conformity outside the tribe, lies, and deception are tactics to win new members to the tribe, and violence is seen as natural to combat others not in the tribe.

Consider the following example, changes to The US Senate’s rules regarding filibustering. While in the minority party, the leaders in the current majority party decried long and loud how changing the rules of the filibuster was unconstitutional, wrong, or out of line. Wait a year or two, watch the political party from the minority become the majority, and now changing the filibuster rules is considered acceptable, needed, and a step in the right direction to move the country forward. The rules of the filibuster did not change; the political aspects of the filibuster did not change; only the people in power changed and then the rules of the filibuster changed.

Polarization begets violence; consider the separation between the union and non-union employees. Go anywhere in the world where labor unions exist, and the violence between the union and non-union employees is always prevalent. Now, some may say, violence does not happen here; how do you know? Violence is not just hitting another person or threatening to shoot that person. Violence includes deprivation and neglect. Case in point, a stack of work is delivered to an employee; if that employee prioritizes the work according to personal benefit, violence is being perpetrated against those not in favor of that worker. Micro-networks breed this type of violence into the workplace as normal and acceptable behavior!

A recent call center experience occurred where, when a homosexual manager discovered a person was uncomfortable; he would violate the personal space of a victim as a method of exerting power. It did not matter if the victim had generally good or bad opinions of homosexuality; simply being uncomfortable was enough to “invite” the intimidation. The business never claimed this was violent or a contributing factor in higher churn rates for that manager’s team, but ask the victims, and they absolutely considered the actions as violent, oppressive, and a type of bullying behavior. The victims of this manager were all men, and all shared the same aversion to merely having their space invaded by a known and militant homosexual, who used his sexual choices to protect himself from claims of sexual harassment. The people who accepted his space invasions gained promotions, and other preferential treatments. Those not accepting his invasions were eventually either asked to leave or quit without notice.

What about the female who actively looks for reasons to be offended and claim sexual harassment; the law supports the female claims, and the business from the preponderance of caution will generally side with the female making allegations. The victims were bullied into silence. This call center female filed more sexual harassment claims than any other person in its multi-state organization. The victims were shocked to hear they had been accused of sexual harassment, and the word spread that men should stay away from this person. The productivity loss, employee churn rates, and morale cost estimates were staggering, but the female’s behavior was accepted. The call center was so polarized over this issue that threats, bullying, and intimidation against male employees caused stress-related workplace injuries.

Understanding begets opportunities; this is a simple axiom with tremendous potential for improving environments of polarization, reducing the power of micro-networks, and increasing the productivity of macro-networks. The power of polarization is only diminished when people start working together, seeing each other as valuable assets of the same organization. Hence, the first opportunity to bridging polarization is getting people to work together, which takes leadership, and it requires selecting people for projects outside the normal same ten people (STP). Reducing the power of micro-networks also requires leadership and selecting people for projects outside the STP. The following is not an all-inclusive list but a basic launch point:

Intergroup contact and the power of working together; one of the greatest work projects witnessed included people from a wide range of positions; they were set firm deadlines, objective standards of performing work, and a leader who desired them to work together. Sweat equity paid off in large dividends; when the leader allowed them space to work out their differences and room to work, the group was successful.
Communication must change! While most will conclude that the speaker must select their words differently to accommodate a polarized audience full of micro-network competing members, this perception is invalid! It is not the speaker who must change, but the listener. The listener must move from not listening through active listening to reflective listening. Reflective listening is a personal commitment to listen until mutual understanding has been achieved. Reflective listening requires asking and answering questions in a manner that produces dialogue.
Refuse to honor groups and instead honor individuals. Honest praise is better for the brain than cash gifts. Fake praise is more damaging to the individual than a bullet, a bludgeon, or a whipping. Leaders must create the time to honor individual efforts honestly, openly, and often if they are to change the culture where polarization and micro-networks exist. Issuing honest praise is as simple as writing “Thank You for…” on a sticky note. The point is to give truthful, genuine, and sincere praise!
Behaviors are not people; behaviors belong to a person who needs praise. Choose the focus carefully! A leader can spend all day on negativity and never achieve a team of people working together. Or, a leader can choose to spend the day recognizing efforts to improve and positivity and make the team into greatness. Choose carefully, choose consistently, and choose to exemplify that which you want to see in others.

Be the example! Exemplify reflective listening by investing time in listening. Exemplify the need to bridge between polarized points by bridging not between ideas and opinions, but people. Exemplify the need to eradicate micro-networks by insisting upon not using micro-networks when work is needed to be accomplished. Remember, those STP will burn out, choose other people, and help them discover how to perform work. Remember, at the end of the day, the solutions and opportunities all reside in the people. A micro-network is people who found a faster way of conducting company business with like-minded individuals. The root cause for micro-networks stems from broken processes and procedures that govern work. Welding that micro-network back into the macro-network will require getting the people working together and a different work process that eradicates the need for a micro-network. Early prevention of micro-networks prevents polarization!

© Copyright 2020 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the pictures.
All rights reserved. For copies, reprints, or sharing, please contact through LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davesalisbury/

Democracy vs. Republic – American Governance

Please note: A republican method of governance does not mean everyone belongs to and votes the “Republican Party” ticket. Nor, does the democratic governance method mean everyone adhering belongs to the “Democratic Party” ticket. The political party is not the style of governance, and this is the first distinction that must be realized. No political party deserves your support, unless they espouse, and live, what you want them to espouse and live. America has had good and poor elected officials from both major political parties. America has even changed major political parties; and this is a good thing!

The Duty of Americans Too often people are confusing democracy, democratic governance, and the American Republic. Talking heads in the media get this wrong all the time. Hollywood has never gotten the distinction correct, ever. But, this ignorance might be by design as Hollywood has always been a breeding ground for disinformation, propaganda, and elitist posturing. Regardless of the political party, or lack of political party, every American citizen should be able to recognize Democracy from Republican styles of governance. The following uses real events to help distinguish the line.

A democracy, at its most basic level, can be described and defined by the control of an organization by the majority of its members. A simple majority is all it takes to gain the high ground and punish the loser. A simple majority is if 100 people gather in a room, they need 51 to agree to support a single idea. Democracies are full of simple majorities who then try to proclaim a moral high ground, and then attempt to extrapolate the single simple majority into a system of keeping the simple majority.

A republic begins with the philosophy and doctrine that embraces equality between its members as the ideal in governance. Recognizing that today’s majority is tomorrow’s minority, rules provide equality between people, and all titles are transitory. A republic is messy; equality in treatment under the law allows for every person to have the same opportunity because their inalienable rights have provided them with eternal potential to become anything they desire. This is especially true when a person desires through their actions, attitudes, and behaviors, which is not desired by the rest of the society, provided the individual does not break the law. However, laws are not changed to outlaw behaviors, curb ideas, or infringe upon inalienable rights as laid out and codified in the Bill of Rights.

Lady Justice For example, The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG), recently sent a report regarding an investigation of Peter Shelby, the previous VA Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration (HR&A), who steered a $5 million contract for the benefit of individuals with whom he had a personal relationship. This is a prime example of democracy in action. The person in charge had to pay for the simple majority that kept him in power. Consider the following direct consequences of Mr. Shelby’s actions.

“The contract … included talent assessment services for evaluating whether to hire or promote candidates. When the contract concluded in August 2019, it became evident that VA had purchased services far in excess of what it could use. VA used only 232 of the 17,000 one-year training licenses it purchased for $3.8 million and VA received no value whatsoever for the talent assessment services because required privacy and security certifications were not obtained.”

Mr. Shelby was allowed to resign when he discovered he was about to be fired from Government service. Thus, he keeps all his retirement, all his Federal benefits, and the money gained from his ill-gotten ventures. In many countries around the world, these actions are considered, “Realpolitik.” Realpolitik is politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral and ethical premises. In America, Mr. Shelby’s actions are illegal and should have been punished accordingly.

Government Largess 3 The American Public has witnessed the same political gamesmanship (realpolitik) in the US House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency, for a long time. All because, the line between a Republic and a Democracy has been intentionally blurred by those in power, to stay in power. Never does realpolitik benefit the rule of law, or provide equality as a basic and fundamental position of governance. Bringing into the conversation the critical quality of genetic behavior and the exponential growth of behavior from one generation to the next. If Mr. Shelby’s actions can be traced upwards through the behavior of elected officials; how many more unethical behaviors are hiding inside the government workforce waiting for their opportunity to practice realpolitik at the expense of the veterans, taxpayers, and citizenry of America?

Genetic behavioral growth is witnessed when a congressional member is allowed to bend an ethical rule in the name of politics so the simple majority can be sustained. The next generations are the governors and state legislatures who then replicate and advance that unethical behavior to one that is blatantly illegal, but not “really bad.” Extramarital affairs, drug use or abuse, alcohol abuse, spouse abuse, homosexuality, etc., are all not “really bad,” laws that are regularly shattered and overlooked to maintain the simple majority. This then leads employees of governments to act in a looser and more illegal or unethical manner, stealing the public money, misusing government tools and supplies, or in the case of Peter Shelby, forming a relationship and then steering a $5 Million-dollar contract to the entity that most benefits him.

Behavior-Change In a republic, those in power recognize the genetic nature of their behavior, understand that any lapses in good judgment are dangerous, and work to live in a manner that first allows for equality among all. Even if they must tell another person no. Consider how much corruption is in Washington, D.C., and every state capital in America, all because the simple majority has lured good people into acting against their principles, against the Republican form of American governance, and against the law established and maintained by the people, for the people, and of the people. The simple majority will always, to maintain power, refuse to say no, set boundaries, and live by rules and laws. The republican form of government lives by nothing else but the rules and the laws because equality only occurs under the rule of law.

Notice something important, the first rule of realpolitik is to disconnect the equality of everyone for the power of ruling. Just as in the book “1984” we see some are more equal than others; which is an extension of democracy. Then, realpolitik disconnects explicit notions of morality and ethics from actions and behaviors. Thus, equality is the first casualty in the hostile takeover of democracy.

Consider labor unions for a moment. Disney produced the movie, “Invincible,” or the story of Vince Papale and the NFL Eagles. In the movie, there is a union striking, and one sign is made clear, “Striking is DEMOCRACY IN ACTION” [emphasis in original]. The truth in this lie is that strikes are selfish, and represents democracy perfectly. But, the strike is not democracy in action, the labor union is democracy in action as a legal “pyramid scheme.” The strike of a labor union, along with all the other work slowdowns, bureaucracies, and other silly games played to thwart republic governance are but tools of democratic leaders to exercise their power.

Religious Thought The labor union spouts a lot of good democratic styled speeches; but acts like thugs, for the benefit of the elected few, at the cost of the dues-paying members. Proving that democracy is the last thing a labor union wants as the labor union remains a Marxist method of governance. Take any labor union, anywhere in the world, and you will find the elected officials living large on the backs, sweat, and labor of the dues-paying members. The fewest of the few long-term dues-paying members will be provided benefits and a lifestyle to be desired, but never obtained, even though the dues have been paid, the labor performed, and the sacrifices made. The Wall Street Journal has covered the loss of benefits paid for through dues payments, and while the Wall Street Journal does it’s best to keep the union out of the picture, it is not the company’s filing lawsuits, but the unions.

Always, the same principle determines the separation between democracy and republican governance, equality under the law. The solution is not found in more government programs to “level the playing field,” which is a democratic principle that has never worked! The solution is found in less government. Equality under the law is not found in government force; but, in less government potential to exercise that force. In the 1980s President Reagan was heralded for his nationalizing of the air traffic controllers; thus, ending a strike of the national air traffic controllers. But, the air traffic controllers still have the same inequalities, same problems, and the same issues as experienced under the air traffic control unions. Nothing changed fundamentally, and this overreach of government, “for public safety,” has kept the air traffic controller in bondage. Sure, the cage is nicer, but the cage is still a cage; only now, there is no possible way of escaping the cage. The same is true of railroad workers, teachers, and so many other employees kept under a labor union’s thumb, or government mandate.

In a democracy, it is perfectly acceptable to maintain the simple majority through nefarious means and ends. Whereas in a republic, the equality that keeps everyone equally refuses the nefarious types every society produces from having a purchase hold to establish themselves. Consider the violence that has rocked America since May 2020. Consider also, all the violence that has shocked and dismayed America since the Watts Riots in 1965. The Watts Riots are a perfect template reflecting the problems of democracy.

The media, and many people in government including most of the judicial branch, allowed personal anger over issues to become a violent outpouring, where the victim was the community and not the actual target of the violence. People acted in a selfish manner, with a total lack of self-control, and the community of Watts burned to the ground. The land is barren, dreams destroyed and lives ruined. Since the Watts Riots, the community has reached out for more democratic solutions, as if this was not the reason the Watts Riots happened in the first place. Fast forward from 1965, and every riot since has been glorified for their anger levels, because this helps feed the democratic solutions, keeping people unequal, refusing people their eternal potential, and denying inalienable rights to maintain power and authority.

America, we need to stop the lies that democracy is the “American Way.” Superman was correct, “Truth and Justice” are the American Way, which is the Republican manner of governance. America was established upon the fundamental principle that ALL are first equal under the law. Sure, we have not always lived up to the ideal; but, we are human. Our humanness is allowing us to falter, not fail. We fail the great American Republic every time we allow a democratic solution that forces people onto unequal terms. We stumble, we fall, when we forget that equality is precious and considering all to have the same equality means allowing people to suffer consequences of attitudes and behaviors.

President Adams When one person can be supported in their immorality because of their money (Jackson, Kennedy, Epstein, Clinton, Weinstein, etc.) when others are punished for the same crimes (pedophiles, murderers, thieves, rapists, etc.) we have a democracy. When all, regardless of money, titles, political power, etc. are held to the same laws and legal standards the great American Republic survives and gains strength. To rebuild the American Republic, we must first cleanse the inward vessel, removing from public office all those who refuse the blessings and work of a republic for the ease and captivity of a democracy.

The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the pictures.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davesalisbury/

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