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In The Satires, VI, Juvenal poses a question of great importance, “Who will watch the watchmen?” As more and more dirt on a host of politicians comes to the fore, as China expands its heinous reach in the Pacific Ocean, threatening trade and disrupting lives, as the Russia/Ukraine crisis grows, we, the citizens, are left asking this question. There is only one answer, we, the citizens of representative governments, are charged with watching the watchmen. A more critical and cogent point has not presented itself in these writings.
Regularly I write about the findings of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG). As a disabled veteran, a person falsely arrested, injured by VA Police Officers, and flagged fallaciously as a “behavioral problem,” I am a watcher of the watchmen and report on the findings. Unfortunately, the VA has turned both a blind eye and a deaf ear to the VA-OIG and my summarizations of the VA-OIG’s conclusions. You, the taxpayer, need to know what the government is doing in your name and with your tax dollars. We, are the watchmen tasked with watching the watcher (elected political officials), who were hired (elected) to scrutinize the government. Is our role in the direct representative government of this constitutional republic clear?
Did you know your neighbors sued the Baltimore Public School system for breach of public trust? For more than 40 years, the Baltimore Public School system has intellectually abused children and misappropriated public funds through forced taxation. The unelected school district has done this while tax revenues drop precipitously, students cannot read (yet still pass high school graduation), and the neighborhoods in Baltimore become more unsafe. Illiteracy is directly tied to crime rates, poverty, and helplessness; yet, the school board in Baltimore cannot even be bothered to allow parents the right of school choice. What is the role of citizens in Baltimore, the same as it is everywhere else; protect children, scrutinize government, elect different leaders, and watch more closely those elected to protect the rights of all citizens. “Who will watch the watchmen;” you are the watchers of the watchmen, and you are being lulled to sleep!
In our constitutional republic, we have three co-equal branches of government, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. President Biden is reported to be in full swing of destroying the power of the judicial. Recently the world watched aghast while a wholly unqualified person was measured for a position with the Supreme Court, the court of last resort in American Jurisprudence. President Biden is on record claiming he would nominate the first black woman to the supreme court; after ensuring that two other more qualified women of color were refused nomination earlier in his career. Do you sense a hypocrite, liar, and charlatan? The judge nominated cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman, allows sexual predators to have lighter sentences as she legislated from the bench. Yet, we, the watchers, are expected to believe she is remarkably qualified and uniquely capable of sitting on the Supreme Court. I have serious reservations, not because she is a woman or a person of color. My reservations rest solely upon her record as a judge, which I find detestable at best.
Everyone is aware, COVID-19 has plagued the world since late 2019, originating in China, and the costs have been exorbitant and extreme. Only until the Russia/Ukraine crisis came along did the global media find a new story for wall-to-wall, 24/7 coverage like feckless beasts fighting for a bone. Repeating only for emphasis, “Where has the opposition party been during COVID-19?” The watchers, every single one, from the mayor to the US House and Senate, went to sleep and allowed bureaucrats to overcome law and common sense to the detriment of every single citizen. Where did the watchers go, and why did they leave the citizenry to the incautious, ineffectual, inefficacious, and abortive bureaucrats who fired professionals, broke the law without regard, and still are running free? Liberties, rights, freedoms, were stolen without consideration, and the opposition party was nowhere to be found. Indeed, “Who will watch the watchmen?”
On the topic of China, why is Marco Rubio the only member of the US Congress willing to say aloud what the citizenry is wondering? 2020 closed with China owning $1.9 BILLION or roughly 192,000 acres of prime American farmland. Want to know where those crops grown on American soil go; I bet you can guess they aren’t traveling to US Supermarkets. China is still buying prime farmland, and nobody in the US House or Senate is willing to listen to farmers, ranchers, and dairymen about how their land is being purchased by China and they run out of business. Rep. Dan Newhouse was quoted regarding farmland ownership by Chinese investors as a national security issue. “The current trend in the United States is leading us toward the creation of a Chinese-owned agricultural land monopoly. There are currently no federal safeguards against the creation of this monopoly.” In response to Rep. Dan Newhouse, Rep Grace Meng proclaimed, “Can we honestly say that this Amendment, which singles out one country, won’t have repercussions on Asian-Americans across our country? Let’s include all of our adversaries.”
“Who will watch the watchmen?” An honest and fair question. I agree that no enemy of America should be allowed to own land inside America. Not that Saudi Arabia is an enemy to America, but it is important to note not just China is purchasing farms and ranchland in America. Worse, fresh water in California is regularly purchased to grow alfalfa for shipping to the Saudi Kingdom. California keeps declaring they are in a drought. The water crisis continues with or without Saudi purchases through the government’s mismanagement of resources, the need for liquid capital to keep the debt wolves away from the door, and the silly environmental laws. “Who will watch the watchmen; is apt and very important when discussing national security issues, the acquisitions of foreign entities inside America, and the need to meet citizen needs before foreign markets.
On the topic of Biden, specifically the Hunter Biden laptop and the shady deals with China, one has to ask about the timing of China’s massive land purchases ramping up. At the same time, Joey was Vice President, and Hunter was slipping the “Big Man” money. The Hunter Biden laptop story has been closely followed since October 2020, and the revelations released in the various news outlets on this story leave me appalled, alarmed, and amazed. I keep asking myself about the timing, why Joey was so valuable an investment, and the answer lies in his access to Obama. One of the media pundits discussed how Obama and Clinton are tied into the sale of access by Joey, and not all of the financial analysis is completed even now. Leaves me asking who got paid and why during the Obama presidency? A careful records review shows China going on a land purchasing spree simultaneously, and more questions for Secretary of State Clinton need to be addressed immediately! “Who will watch the watchmen?”
The US Constitution, in the 10th Amendment, provides all the authority any citizen needs to demand the watchers scrutinize the government and, if required, replace the watchers.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
We, the citizens, own the direct representative government in America, and it is time for those elected to fear the citizenry. Not because we have become violent, but because we are firing them, electing new representatives, and holding those removed from office accountable for their mismanagement while in elected office. Our country is being sold out from under our feet by those elected to office, and it is time they are held accountable before the bar of justice. Our national security is a hiss and an insult to them, all while they become enriched, and their children funnel money, and I am sick to death of seeing this nepotism. We, the watchers of the watchmen, deserve answers from transparent and speedy investigations that conclude with people wearing distinctive clothing and permanently disgraced.
How have the watchmen become millionaires while holding public office? This single question should be the watch cry of every single citizen in America until they are all held accountable and disgraced. You deserve better watchers. Our children deserve better watchers. The world deserves better representatives of the people, by the people, and for the people. Remember this in November!
© 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.
Sharona struggled with being a mother, her boss was driving her crazy, and her mental health issues stemmed from both her boss and her nursing responsibility. Sharona plays a problematic role; does she provide nursing care for Monk or provide living assistance as a counselor? Concluding that stress can be a mental health issue when taken to extremes. Natalie Teager struggled with loneliness and a desire to be her own person outside of her family. Both mental health challenges that many people struggle with silently. Other supporting characters had substance abuse issues stemming from mental health concerns and personal choices, thus Monk’s subtlety and genius.
Representative Deb Haaland (D) sent out an email while a US House of Representatives member claimed America is a “Constitutional Democracy.” I will endeavor to correct this confusion using simple terms; for Representative Haaland’s benefit, please allow me to elaborate. Along the way, let us explore a few connected topics, including the plasticization of words and how that breeds tyranny.
Starting in the 1930s, during the “Great Depression,” changes were made to America’s methods of governance by the President, a willing media, and sycophants in the Senate and House. Establishing the Federal and State Government’s ability to rule by largess; picking winners and losers based upon obeisance to a bureaucrat’s whims, wishes, and will. Reich lays out this history, walks the reader through the laws, and makes the case that because of democratic rule America’s Republic has been reduced to a feudal system where the government decides who gets the largess and who does not. With the Federal and State Governments making these decisions, businesses do not compete fairly upon their own merits but upon how much taxpayer money they can bamboozle from Uncle Sam. Unfortunately, the entire system hinges upon reducing private property ownership and the freedoms private property allow to feed the ever-hungry beast of Government consumption.
Thus, America needs to demand change through the ballot box, insist that freedom and private property are returned to the people. Those representatives who have no moral center, or cannot serve their constituents from both parties equally, are removed from politics; indefinitely! Since America is a Republic and not a democracy (yet!), the problems in representation can be solved.
Shakespeare (2016) used Hamlet to relate a line that frequently applies, especially when communicating online, “… thou doth protest too much, methinks.” Too often, those intent on misusing words are protesting too much about something. On social media, every communication, every interaction, and every person is a threat to the intellect of the one protesting and must be lorded over, trolled, and publicly shamed. A recent example of this the world witnessed during Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, where the judge’s children were physically and verbally assaulted—using a warping of legal rights, guaranteed justification for the assault. A careful review of any newspaper, news broadcast, and many politicians speaking will evidence the plasticization of words to justify actions, e.g., President Clinton, “Depends on what your definition of “is” is.” Words to couch a threat while seeming to be helpful and friendly, or worst of all hide abuses of others through twisted logic. Every time words become disconnected from standard meanings, society crumbles, language becomes useless, and the consequences are multi-generational, which is precisely what transpired in recovering Germany after Hitler’s demise.
I had the great personal pleasure of speaking to a senior citizen from Germany who lived through Hitler’s oppression and the recovery of Germany post-WWII, and the person I spoke with affirmed the most challenging social problem was relearning words and definitions to communicate without the taint of Hitler’s Germanic Language. Hence, we can draw several lessons from this experience; language is trained. It can be retrained; relearning language is a social problem fixed through social interactions and personal knowledge, and personal responsibility and accountability remain pre-eminent in communicating correctly. Another lesson from my experience, history repeats itself, and those with dastardly designs will always corrupt language to gain the advantage before showing their true colors as tyrants. Every single despot in recorded history has employed plastic language to lull the population into acquiescence before demanding loyalty and destroying that civilization, society, or culture.
From the 1960s, educators began believing and living a belief that poor minority students cannot succeed or learn to the same quality of rich white children. This belief changed how K-12 Education was funded, supported by the government, and directed resources for education in America’s cities and towns. Back in 1995, Milwaukee, WI., Douglas B. Reeves forever sundered the fallacious belief that poverty and race do not chain a student’s mind. Except in 2019, the lie continues that if you are not white and rich K-12 education is going to be forever out of reach, that your poverty status means you cannot achieve, and your race will dictate how smart you are. Race and poverty are still the demographic drums used to bleed resources, damage education, and stifle educational innovations. Well, I say it is past time to cease the madness and demand those in education either reform or leave; for they are committing child abuse with their racist lies for personal gain and political power.
Here is what the lie regarding poverty and race looks like in practice, using 
America, you are the power that keeps the school districts alive. Use the five points provided to assess the teachers, use the six-points above to evaluate and measure the school board, school administration, and principal, and then every time you see a school board, teacher, or principal out of compliance, demand change! There is no excuse for an almost 60-year old lie to continue to thrive. There is no valid excuse for failing to teach students in the K-12. Poverty and race do not hamper or hinder when teachers are prepared, and schools are appropriately led, focused, and each student is assessed for consistent, persistent, and reliable growth. Demand better; our kids deserve more!
DNC-Consulting 