Domestic Security Recommendations

Domestic Security

The Terorrist Organization, lead by Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, hereby referred to as ABTO, presents a direct threat to the United States of America, our allies, its friends and partners. Leadership and history have brought the United States of America to a position of global leadership and prevalence as the world's only super-power. It is our responsibility to continue providing the leadership, the world expects and address the very real security risks presented by ABTO. Part of providing for security however, includes an effective direction of our domestic security apparatus. These are directives that the federal government bureacracies can implement to advance the interests of domestic security. As a Master of Science in Homeland Security I recommend the following actions to bolster domestic security:

The Secret Service – The US secret service's first priority is to provide security for the POTUS. This is going to require increased vigililance by agents. Tightening access to the President is going to become an increasing neccessity. Continued adhearence to protocols ensuring that the chain of command is not accumulated in one location is going to become increasingly important.

The Secret Service is also charged with the responsibilty of providing for the security of other heads of states and there is particular threat to the heads of state of coalilition partners, most notibly the Queen of England, the Royal Family, their business holdings and propeties. This also of course includes all of our the leaders of the European Nations and all of the cooperating partners of the Arab League and any other heads of state visiting the United States of America. A top secret state of emergency authorization for the Secret Service and in coordination with the NSA and Computer Emergency Readiness Team, all technological means available to idenity threats of violence directed towards heads of state will be employed and all leads will then be passed to either the FBI, DHS, state police, the local sheriff or police chief to investigate. When each lead is sent from the Secret Service the receiving officer will be notified that they have 4 hours to assign a team of officers, agents or deputies to the case and that they will be required to report on their progress in 4 hours time. When such suspects are not located within 24 hours of the lead being issued, the lead would be handed over to the FBI. Either an emergency bill providing for more Secret Service budgetary dollars or alternatively an executive order re-allocating other Homeland Security Assets to Secret Service is appropriate.

The Computer Emergency Readiness Team is going to need to be bolstered to identify and address threats at US service members, their families and directed to target ISIS and al-Qaeda networks to cull actionable intelligence, identify threats and route them to the appropriate policing agency or department for further action.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency should organize and conduct a number of drills geared towards prepping for a catastrophic terrorist attack while bolsering supplies of medical treatments for possible biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons. There needs to be a focus on databasing key personell that could be employed or called in to act as emergency managers and calling them as neccessary.

FEMA Disaster Assistance should continue its focus on weather and climate related disasters.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center needs to implement training programs and author materials on the various terrorist groups including information on the ethnic, national and religious sects from which they originate or are based, while balancing information with religious sensitivity training. As the Islamic State is predominately an offshoot of the Sunni Salafi tradition, federal police, sheriffs and police should be trained to ask questions to identify if a suspect may be salafi, harbor stong anti-american sentiments, or have sympathies with the Islamic State. It is important to note that while Iraqi and Syria are the current center points of the Islamic State that it is a pan-Sunni movement. It is also important to understand the strong possibility of an attack against Iranian Nuclear Reactors and the prevalence of Al-Quds, an Iranian Shi'ite Clandestine Intelligence organization that has aggressively funded and armed anyone willing to fight USA and American interests, whether Al-Qaeda, Mexican Cartels, the Socialist Venezuelan government and Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Lebanese terrorist group. Training on identifying surveillance activities is key, as they are likely to conduct surveillance for potential terrorist attacks on US and Coalilition partner embassies, Jewish Community Centers, Synagogues, Cultural Centers and Holocaust memorials, military recruitment centers and an increasing volume of threats surrounding the families of US military service members.

The TSA is going to need be extra vigilent in its inspections and surveillance of transportation and individuals using such transportation. As its been a long time since there has been an attack, guards may be lowered, managers need to stress the very real threat USA is currently facing and TSA should be instructed to investigate any and all suspicious activity, keep cars moving and immediately contain unattended packages into blast shells that can be investigated by bomb sniffing dogs. While previous attacks have focused on airways, it is important not to neglect subways, trains and busses.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services need to be extra discerning in granting student, education and travel visas, refugee status or assylum. Understandably as a result of the crisis in the Middle East, North Africa and now with Ebola in West Africa there is going to be individuals looking to flee and fly to the US. While some will be good people looking and needing protection, the US cannot accept them at this time, they need to stay in their respective regions where UN refugee camps and hosting governments training for operations are being conducted. Middle or upper-middle class status is not in any way immunity from terrorist recruitment, there are numerous terrorist actors that come from wealth and many others that have presented very magnaminous intentions on their student visa applications that have then bragged about how learning English and studying in the US will help them advance their Jihad in intercepted social network coorespondances.

The US Coast Guard is going to increase its efforts to interdict and investigate the inflow of ships that may be carrying terrorist actors and weapons for an attack along with common human and drug smuggling operations.

There is going to need to be an amplified effort to update Border Patrol with names and faces of potential terrorist infiltrators, intel on plots and searches for weapons, conventional, chemical, biological or even nuclear. Border crossings close to major cities are of particular concern, there is a possiblity of terrorist groups entering into Mexico, purchasing assistance in smuggling or even purchases of stolen cobalt to be utilized in dirty bombs. It is imortant to keep in mind, that Afghanistan is the leading producer of opium and the Taliban allowed for Al-Qaeda to establish sophisticated smuggling networks that would provide products, Mexican drug cartels, particulalry the Zetas, Knights Templar (not to be confused with the Knights Templar of the Crusades or any modern reinventions) and Sinoloan Cartels would be interested in acquiring and protecting. The smuggling routes could take a number of paths, from Afghanistan to Indonesia to Latin America, Afghanistan to Vietnam to Mexico, Afghanistan to Malaysia to Latin America, Afghanistan to North African Countries to Latin America. In proximity to the Southern border I am more focused on it, but terrorist plots have also involved entering in to the US from the Canadian border. The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are directly linked, Boko Haram and Ansar al-Sharia are closely linked. Combined with their proxies, they have had active terrorist attacks in Belgium, France, London, Spain, Germany, USA and Australia. These groups have engaged in open warfare in Nigeria, Mali, Central Africa, North and South Sudan, Egpyt, Tunisia, Libya, Cameroon, Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and Iraq, Somalia and Kenya, with common financial backing from private citizens from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. They have been excited by the military successes of the Islamic State, particularly their propaganda film, “Flames of War,” and many individually inspired acts to behead infidels in public executions have been popular.

US Immigration and Customs Services is going to take every suspicious activities report seriously. Prior to the September 11^th attacks there were several reports on the Al-Qaeda hijackers were brushed off as Islamophobic reports. If people are calling about them it is very possible that it is not because they are Muslims peacefuly practicing their religion but because they are terrorists planning attacks and therefore, no longer Muslim.

The Anti-Trust Division of the DOJ can be used to investigate financial handling of companies with high volumes of financing from countries with active terrorist groups. There needs to be care in the conduct of these actions, but there may be patterns of financial movement that can help predict attacks or interdict financing operations by the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.

The ATF can play an active role investigating suspicious gun purchases, working to form programs with gun suppliers and shooting ranges to encourage reporting on suspicious persons. As we saw with the Al-Shabaab mall shootings in Kenya, conventional weapons can become equally effective weapons of terror. A small cell of four or five terrorists can do substantial damage with a few machine guns or semi-automatic weapons legally purchased and illegally modified by internet purchased kits. Established non-human monitoring of suspicious combinations of purchases, or web visits, such as gun purchaes, large ammo purchases and frequent visits to either jihadi websites or even right wing extremist websites, that are then automated into reports that can be used to garner warrants for the ATF to investigate or make arrests can significantly help prevent terrorism.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics can look at data for patterns of Islamic Radicalism and closely monitor individuals that may have been radicalized in prison soon to be, or recently released as potential culprits to be activated by the way of the internet and extensive ABTO and its proxies recruitment.

Community Oriented Policing Services need to include increasingly sophisticated strategies towards protecting peacefully practicing Muslims while identifying potential members of terrorist sleep cells and investigating appropriately.

In targeting heroine and opium sales, the DEA may find valuable leads relating to Al-Qaeda heroine smuggling routes and key persons.

The Executive Office of Immigration Review is going to have an active role in reviewing student and other visas, particularly as it relates to visas given to guests from nations with terrorist activities, many of whom may have gone AWOL, deciding not to go home to their war torn countries rather hide and wait in the USA, perhaps with funding and direction from terrorist handlers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will continue to have the lead on terrorist investigations and will need to have increasing resources to vigilently conduct their investigations, penetrate operational cells, prevent terrorism and when possible make arrests.

The Marshalls service is going to be on active call from the various agencies, as actionable leads are uncovered and warrants awarded, then US Marshalls will have an active role in making arrests and transporting alleged terrorists to the various courts and jurisdictions. US Air Marshalls will also have an active role in protecting flights.

Special Office of Justic Programs will need to be drafted and implemented to assist in carrying out anti-terrorism justice.

The Parole commission is going to need to be extra mindful of potential paroles that may adhere to radical interpretations of Islam and vulnerable to terrorist recruitment. The Parole Commissions should use what administrative leeway they have to deny such suspicious inmates Parole.

The US National Cenral Bureau – Interpol is going to be increasing coordiation with European partners relating to the travel of jihadi suspects to Syria and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa more so than ever. There have been serious failures of communication and coordination, with Jihadi suspects for example, flying from Istanbol to France, where the suspects were able to walk off the plane without arrest, and in fact, after finding one police station empty, had to go to another town's police station to turn themselves in. With a serious immigration crises surrounding Syria, Iraq and Libya, many at risk individuals will be making efforts to fly to the United States of America to garner amnesty. Some will be well-intentioned, but others will cary with them a very high risk of terrorist recruitment. Jordani refugee camps and increasingly Turkish refugee camps are hotbeds for jihadist activities. In the chaos of civil wars many prisoners from these countries were released or escaped from prison in the chaos of the civil war, administrative offices could have been used to issue authentic, fake documents. The US needs to tightly monitor all flights to these regions, and flights from these regions, monitoring saeble and other airline databasis and cross refrencing them with terrorist watch lists, financial transactions with known or suspected terrorist front groups and when possible, Internet Protocol Addresses or other communications, then coordinating or relaying this information via Interpol to pertinent partner countries where they may be traveling.

The Department of State is going to have an active role via its Visa Services, US Mission to the United Nations, National Passport Informaiton Center and American Citizens Services and crisis Management to help US Citizens vulnerable to terrorist attack or kidnapping, providing relevent information and travel warnings about the risks, what to be weary of and how best to stay safe in countries where terrorist networks exist. The State Department is going to play a vital cooridnating and diplomatic role, helping to build prosecutory and security against terror, while simultaneously lobbying and providing for the safety of all US personel traveling abroad.

The Department of Treasury will be able to increase their efforts to montior financial transactions for potential terrorist financing and funding. It will also have role in holding various departments, agency's and agent accountable to their jobs.

Bulletins on potential suspects, on how to report suspicious activities and identify certain patterns suggestive of terrorist activities should be distributed to the Department of Transporation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Interior, Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy and Department of Health and Human Services. I want every employ of goverrment, at all levels, from the Department of Defense to School Teachers to have rudimentry understanding of the geography of the Middle East and North Africa, an understanding of Islam's division between Sunni and Shi'ite, the main terrorist groups, their regional origin and basic goals. The Civil Rights Act will be followed without exception; however, citizens and employees of the government will be encouraged to use their first amendment rights at free speech to ask questions, to engage suspicious individuals in conversation and flush out intentions and sypathies to identify potential terrorist suspects. Respect for Islam, Muslim beliefs and practice will be maintained at all times, particularly relating to prayer, dress and dietary expectations. It is important not to stereotype Muslims as terrorists, be open to learning about a different culture and learning about their country's of origin, understanding of history and approach to life. Many Muslims are of exceptional character, have refreshing understanding of God and care for humanity. Women will be permitted to cover their hair according to the Qu'aran; however, cultural practices of covering the full face and body will be met with the utmost suspicion and officers of the law are permitted to initiate investigations on such grounds alone, as excessively warm clothes on warm days have long been established as grounds of suspicious activity to warrant further investigation. Such practices of full body garments are not rooted in the Qu'aran rather primariliy a cultural practice that developed in regions where sandstorms are prevalent.

The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is going to be of increasing importance. Security surrounding Power plants, nuclear, natural gas and oil, particularly is going to require increasing vigilence and the hiring of additional security personel is highly recommended.

Security around medical laboratories and science labs using contageous biological or dangerous chemical agents is also going to need to be increased.

Calling local law enforcement, the County Sheriff and requesting regular patrols is appropriate. As is requesting the DOJ and DHS to investigate the backgrounds of individuals who you may find suspicious.

Increasing security around the Department of Defense and families of the DoD is going to be required, with the Inspector General, NSA and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency increasing efforts to secure the families of the DoD from targeting.

The heads of all of the above mentioned departments should establish clear quantifiable goals, attached to time lines, that relate to increasing our countries efforts to prevent terrorism.

The FBI may set a goal according to the number of terrorist investigations, or arrests, or prosecutions, or thwarted terrorist acts. All of these goals will be broken down into incremental time/quota basesis, with each agent assigned a goal that they will be held accountable towards attaining. Contract renewals and bonuses will be awarded according to performance, discretion provided and disciplinary action to erroneous or irresponsible actions made as an effort to reach quotas. The goal is not to harass and arrest innocent people, the goal is to responsibily investigate terrorism related crime, identify terrorists and prevent acts of terrorism.

The heads of each department are going to have a better idea as to what type of goals they can realistically meet, and choose whether or not they want to designate goals or allow for their agents to set their own goals and then tally them together for a department wide goal. I prefer the ladder method, as it allows agents to set their pace that they are comfortable with while providing for department wide goal that encourages team efforts and fellowship.   

The Anglican and Episcopalian Church

Theo Johnson

10/03/2014

PA 642

The Anglican and Episcopalian Church

The Episcopalian Church continues to be part of a broader entity, called the Anglican Communion, which is lead by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Traditionally, the Anglican Church was formally headed by the Crown Sovereign; however, increasingly the day to day leadership of the Church has shifted to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopalian Church is governed by a bicameral General Convention, divided into two houses: the House of Bishops and House of Deputies. The word Episcopalian, literally means, the Rule of Bishops. Decisions are voted on by the two houses.

“The House of Bishops is composed of every bishop with jurisdiction (diocesan bishop), every bishop coadjutor, every suffragan bishop, every retired bishop, every bishop elected to an office created by General Convention, and every bishop who has resigned because of mission strategy – each of whom has a seat and vote. The House may also elect collegial members who are admitted with seat and voice, but no vote. Collegial members are bishops in the Anglican Communion who serve extra-provincial dioceses.”

“The House of Deputies is composed of up to four lay and four clerical deputies from each of the jurisdictions, domestic and overseas, elected in the manner determined by each jurisdiction.”

They meet every three years in a General convention, where legislation is enacted, church policy and programs approved and budgets are adopted.

The official Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards (CCABs) of the Episcopal Church are:

Agenda Committee of Executive Council

Board Development (GAM)

Board for Transition Ministry

Board of the Archives of the Episcopal Church

Budgetary Funding Task Force

Constable Fund Grant Management (GAM)

Court for the Trial of a Bishop

Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop

D004 Task Force on Older Adult Ministries

Disciplinary Board for Bishops

EC of JSC on Planning and Arrangements

Episcopal News Service Advisory Committee

Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee

Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Finances for Mission

Executive Council Archives Strategy Committee

Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism

Executive Council Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility

Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministries

Executive Council Committee on Science, Technology and Faith

Executive Council Committee on Strategic Planning

Executive Council Committee on the Status of Women

Executive Council D020 Task Force

Executive Council Economic Justice Loan Committee

Executive Council Executive Committee

Executive Council Investment Committee

Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission

Executive Council Jubilee Ministries Advisory Committee

Executive Council Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking

Executive Council Standing Committee on HIV/AIDS

Executive Council Standing Committee on Local Ministry and Mission

Executive Council Standing Committee on World Mission

FFM SubCommittee on Finances

GAM 009 Consultation

GAM-005 (GAM)

General Board of Examining Chaplains

Governance & Policies (GAM)

House of Bishops

House of Bishops Committee on Pastoral Development

House of Bishops Committee on Religious Communities

House of Bishops Committee on Theology

House of Bishops Planning Committee

House of Bishops Spouses' Planning Group

House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church

House of Deputies Study Committee on Church Governance and Polity

INC 055 Task Force (UTO)

Joint Audit Committee of the Executive Council and the DFMS

Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop

Joint Standing Committee on Nominations

Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements

Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance

Presiding Bishop's Council of Advice

SCLM Chairs of Task Forces on C056

SCLM Task Force - Animal Rites Group

SCLM Task Force - Canonical and Legal Considerations

SCLM Task Force - Creation Season Group

SCLM Task Force - Joint Creation/Animal/Science Discussion Group

SCLM Task Force - Liturgical Resources

SCLM Task Force - Pastoral and Teaching Resources

SCLM Task Force - Theological Resources

Standing Commission for Small Congregations

Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns

Standing Commission on Communication and Information Technology

Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons

Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Inter religious Relations

Standing Commission on Health

Standing Commission on Lifelong Christian Formation and Education

Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music

Standing Commission on Ministry Development

Standing Commission on Social Justice and Public Policy

Standing Commission on Stewardship and Development

Standing Commission on the Mission and Evangelism of The Episcopal Church

Standing Commission on the Structure of the Church

Standing Commission on World Mission

Strategic Partnerships (SC on World Mission)

Task Force on B014

Title IV Review Committee

Title IV Task Force II - Education

With a balanced budget of around $37,806,448, largely collected from Diocese contributions the Episcopalian Church has a sizable budget. It is important to note that the various provinces, diocese and parishes also have their own budgets decided on by their own parishes and directed towards their own initiatives, with each diocese typically contributing between 10-20% of their revenues to the larger Church. The Church has a large number of endowment funds, it also has well over $505,000,000, US dollars in assets. None of this, includes the holdings of the individual dioceses and parishes. This is the budget and items of “The Episcopal Church,” and aside from our contributions to our Diocese, who contributes to the Bicameral General Convention, this is not the Budget of “St. James by the Sea Episcopal Church” or any of the other individual Parishes who often have their own holdings, investment portfolios, incomes and budgets.

The Budget is allocated according towards

1. Proclaiming the Good News with the goal of Starting New Congregations – $4,813,544
2. Teach, Baptize, and Nurture New Believers with the goal of strengthening Province IX for Sustainable Mission – $939,471
3. Respond to Human Need in Loving Service with the goal of making missionary service available for all episcopal young people -$2,243,059
4. Seek to Change Unjust Structures with the goal of engaging Episcopalians in the Eradication of Domestic Poverty through Jubilee Ministries - $1,251,227
5. Strive to Safeguard the Integrity of Creation and Sustain and Renew the Life of the Earth with the goal of creating and strengthening local networks to care for creation - $100,000

The remaining components of the budget are here;

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sites/default/files/ec_budget_2014_revised_adopted_02072014_for_web.pdf

Now, its important to recognize that the entity, the Episcopalian Church, budgeted above is only a tiny portion of the broader Anglican Communion. Take for example the St. Matthews Episcopal Church in San Mateo, California. The Church owned the adjacent lands where a hospital was built, but the hospital became a privately established company leasing the lands. The Parish itself, owned the church, the school and some housing facilities for our deacons. While operating under the banner of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, the school itself, “St. Matthew's Episcopal Day School,” would barely co-mingle funds with the dioceses, it would instead have its own budgets and revenues from the tuition paid by students which then paid for operations and the salaries of the staff. With annual tuition being over $7,000 per year at the time and nearly 14,000 per year now the inflow of money, despite the school's small size, was significant. With many Episcopalian school's nation-wide and around the world, these proceeds would aggregate under centralized control, the local level of course, would never allow for such. I would imagine that there was some funds paid directly to the Church for usage of the facilities and while everything has to be sanctioned by the presiding Bishop, the parents, faculty and staff of the school worked to comply with the state's educational board to form a sophisticated curriculum that maintained the ethics and study of our faith, while also covering the subjects and topics expected to be covered by the Board of Education. Our parents had to pay taxes for public education, but elected to pay tuition for our own private education. Our school taught what the board of education wanted taught substantially better than public schools, but also allowed for theology to be taught and for morning prayer services. The Anglican system, or English-American system, avoids extensive centralized planning and funding, instead preferring for direct funding at the entity level wherever possible. The idea is not to send tons of money through a layered bureaucracy that is sluggish and unresponsive, but to keep those funds in the hands of those providing the services and goods, exchanging back and forth between, controlled locally, where they can be used more efficiently and in closer proximity to the needs visible on the ground, face to face, as people of faith.

As with most Anglo-Saxon societies, they tend not to be very rule or law based, rather more based on manners, customs and traditions embodied by common law. Anglo-Saxon people and countries, look at what works with minimal hierarchical control. According to the Economist, German countries stereotypically like to have everything to stem from the rule of law, even if it doesn't work. I may be stereotyping but from experience it seems thatt German Americans tend to gravitate towards the military and police force and run tighlty controlled rigid organizations while English Americans tend to be businessmen with fluid organizations centered around complex social networks geared towards matching goods and services to markets and investing available capital to generate returns.

The primary services of the Church; however, are geared towards salvation. Baptism, Mariage and Communion, or Eucharist are bigger draws. The Churches do; however, provide public services and charity. I can tell you that from St. James Episcopal we have some housing for poor families and take our weeks volunteering at a non-denominational homeless shelter. In certain circumstances, there are funds for medical services that can be made available for healthcare. There are also properties used for weekend retreats. The Episcopalian Church is an old organization with a rich history, the big families that built America, that traditionally governed America and owned the businesses were Episcopalian. Religiosity varied, but most of the Church's official work is geared towards the soul. There is a focus on praise through music, sciptural sermons applied towards current events and regular presentations or performances at our church along with focused bible or related topic studies. The Episcopalian Church is very different than the bible thumping baptists, because it has long been so interwoven with the state that it had to evolve along with society. The Episcopalian Church has interwoven itself within what political scientists call America's civic religion even invovling democracy in the election of its house of deputies. It has always been a leading religious organization as it relates to equality between men and women, including allowing for females to be ordained as Bishops, and also in its teachings on tolerance towards the LBGT communities. There is regular incorporation of relgious thought outside of the narrow confines of the Episcopal Church. I've heard sermons elevating Martin Luther King, Jr., to a prophet. I've heard sermons incorproating in the teachings of Rabbis after visits to the holy lands. Unlike the Catholic Church, its Priest's are able to marry, and as a result we have never had scandals surrounding child abuse. There are rifts in the church relating to social issues, but Archbishop Welby has done a good job at keeping these issues in perspective so that the Anglican Communion can continue to grow and heal previous divides.

I would like to see the Church to do more as it relates to health and education and to use its wide membership to push for educational voucher programs and consider moving into the provision of direct cash health services void of insurance, or a single payer health option to be purchased direclty from the Church. The American insurance system has caused health care costs to inflate to artificially high costs, so providing for a basic health system void of insurance would bring the costs of healthcare back down to their real market value. I appreciate the State of California and our Federal Government but feel at times, they do a lot more harm than good for society. At this point, nearly every service the state provides have devolved into common racketes. Providing parents and citizens with more choice, specifically the choice of sending their children to a State run school, or having the funds-per-pupil amount provided as a voucher that could be used for a private school, would relieve an immense amount of tension on our public school system while significantly boosting the role and influence of the Episcopalian Church in that student's life, whlie creating viable revenue streams for the Church. The elementary education I received was so vastly superior to those who went to public school, it seems cruel to force future generations into such a failed educational system as our state's, especially when there is a working alternative. Our schools taught us about evolution, science, mathematics, critical thinking and history better than the public schools. I wouldn't have received 5 on my AP English and Biology Tests, scored so high on my SATs if this was not the case. We still had sex education and we still had all the other facets of a public education, but were able to benefit from smaller class sizes, discuss morality and ethics and most importantly avoided being brainwashed by the Communists who infiltrated the Education Board in their efforts to make Americans feel guilty about their success, deceiving us into believing that there was anything other than a Market Based System that could effectively provide for the needs of our daily lives or that the State should ever have any other role than as a public servant. The public school system should be required to compete with the private school system, and those opting for the private school system should not have to subsidize public schools.

Traditionally, the church has a much larger role in healthcare, and with so much corruption surrounding the FDA, pharmaceutical companies and health administration the Church could step in and provide a valuable alternative. Scientifically speaking, prayer has been shown time and time again to be among the most effective treatments for a wide range of medically diagnosable ailments. I know that I am going to create a lot of cognitive dissidence and upset a lot of people when I say this, but a large amount of mental health issues are disturbances of the psyche, are spiritual maladies that prayer and attendance at a church services can help you heal. To be clear, I am not suggesting that everyone should stop seeing their doctor or taking medicine in exchange for a zealous healer holding a tent revival. I am suggesting that prayer can be a valueable part of any holistic approach to health. Psychologically speaking, its hard to deny the fact that the shift of orientation to a faith based community, combined with some of the aesthetic pleasantries of being in such can substantially improve one's temperament and disposition.

Many communists were good scientists because they avoided using the easy answer of God, but they were also generally horrible business men and so had to try to use the state to force customers to spend money on their products or services. Yet, the leading scientific breakthrough's have come from scientists viewing science as a means of better understanding of God and his universe. Many of these persons believe they are just democrats, unaware of the drift and origin of the ideolgies they have been indoctrinated into it. In America, these days, I would be considered a very religious, conservative, democrat. My liberalism is not socialist or communist, but lives in the philophies of John Stewart Mill, John Locke and Adam Smith. I share the goals of social equality, especially as it relates to ethnic origin and religious practice, but am bounded by fiscal realism and believe the surest way for them to be achieved this for the state to be scaled back and leave us space. It is important to understand that historically speaking, socialists and communits could not resist using the state to build monopolies. Once they built state monopolies, they then could not resist protecting those monopolies by creating laws geared toward harming their competitors and protecting their businesses. The problem with state monopolies and protective practices is that they interfere with the natural competition of free-markets that are necessary to keep prices and practitce competitive. That is why I have never been one of those liberals. I am a subscriber of true liberalism n. protestant, democratic and market-driven.

Additionally, it is an undeniable fact, spelled out on the Congressional Record of the United States of America (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1561529/posts), that the Communist party was actively trying to infiltrate distinguished positions in the field of psychology in an effort to coordinated the most successful mechanism of social control since the invention of the radio. They have at least in part, been successful and the problem is that the social control is used to force people to think in a way God, or at least evolution, never intended humans to think, causing further social malaise and stagnation. Suggestive marketing coached millions of Americans into erroneous diagnosis' and then subscriptions to addictive medicines for illnesses that they never had. My point being, that there has long been a lack of morality in the medical field that the Church may be able to have a hand in providing that improves the quality of those services and reorrientates the focus of health towards the overall health of the patient and universal goal of humanity to do unto others as they would have done unto them.

The biggest problem that the Episcopalian Church is facing is heavy taxation at the Federal, State, County and Municipal level. Citizens only have so many available financial resources and the money that is being taxed by the governent and that money could be used to go to the Church to provide overlapping services that either the Church or State could provide. It is because of this that contributions to the Church should be tax deductable and services that the state provides should be transferrable as a voucher that approved religious organizations with services meeting baseline requirements should then be able to receive and redeem for cash.

The benefit of this all would be a better balance between Church and State. To be clear, as I use Church, I am not only referring to the Episcopal Church or only Christian Faiths but the broader body of widely practiced monotheistic religions emphasizing a moral universe. Politics aside, it is obvious that many Americans identify that our state is carrying an increasingly unsustainable debt burden while being pushed to provide an ever growing amount of services to an ever growing number of dependents. There is a real opportunity for the various Churches to have a role in providing these services. In reality, most people only need acute or temporary, but immediate support from the Government, but the government departments have created unresponsive bureacracies that generally provide long-term solutions that generally require long waits to be accessed. Whether its medicare, social security, affordable housing or food stamps, the waiting period for these programs is extensive and the individuals on them, stay on them for way too long, at way too high of a cost. As it realtes to the Epsicopalian Church, at least at St. James, there is no question that we could manage those funds more efficiently while finding more cost-effective solutions for our parishioners than the State.

Philosophically speaking, there is way too much emphasis on equality, when it should be on equal opportunity and shared responsibility. The easiest way to allow for equal opportunity and responsibility is to vastly simplify the law into basic common and criminal law notions that are universally taught, practiced and enforced. Encouraging self-sufficiently and financial responsibility, breaking the spell of Communist Idealists detached from reality and decieved by indoctrination, vigorously emphasizing American mores and values is the only way back from global catastrophe.

True Liberalism

         A recent White House posting against corporate restructuring, demonizing the structuralization of corporations by legal means that involve creating corporations in lower tax countries where business operations are conducted reveals everything about the ideology of personnel very close to the President. While it is far from clear as to whether or not the President authorized the postings or that the president felt anything other than the same anger I felt, the anti-capitalist depictions on whitehouse.gov could have been lifted from old soviet propaganda pieces, and I fear that this is going to severely hurt both the democratic party in the mid-term elections and the true liberalism that has defined the Anglo-American system and facilitated the victory of the world order we enjoy today. Stalin, Hitler, our big communist and our big national socialist, were not liberal, they were conservative. They believed in rigid hierarchy, a state that dictates all and were againt private property, freedom of speech, press or religion and any protections for individuals. The leadership of the United States is falling for the same traps of power and the survival of our party is dependent on a clear seperation from communist banter and adherence to true liberalism. True liberalism lives in John Stuart Mill's marketplace of ideas and the harm principle, John Locke's emphasis on the importance of property rights and Adam Smith's emphasis on free markets.

       John Stuart Mill uses the examples of Socrates, Jesus and Galileo to point out that many times, the most correct in an epoch will be deemed wrong by their peers and persecuted, impeding progress and robbing that generation from the truth. With the greeks killing Socrates, the Pharisees killing Jesus and the Catholic church blinding Galileo, an unlimited and encouraged freedom of speech and idea is the only means of making sure that the best idea is not supressed. John Stuart Mill postulates that, "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights have no limits accept those which assure to the other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights.  These limits can only be determined by law. (JSL, "On Liberty")   An entire body of law stems from the harm principle, and fundamental to liberalism is the idea that govenrment is not above this law and that when it causes harm, it has to be liable for the harm it has caused.  Power can only exercised justly "over any member of society," when it is to "prevent harm to others," and so tort law developed.

         John Locke was among the most influential english philosphers influencing our founding fathers. The idea was not a triumph of the state, but the formation of clear protections for private property as the fundamental motive and means of securing a healthy economy. In his second treatise on Government, John Locke argues, that "Government has no other end, but the preservation of property."  The idea being that if you owned land, you would work that land responsbily and use it to produce goods for the market that consumers would pay for. According to Locke, there is a need for clear property rights, that property should be strongly encouraged and protected by the State.  While some may not own land, they still own their bodies and John Locke would argue that, "Everybody has a property in his own person.  This nobody has a right to, but himself."  The idea of hours of work as property, or the products of work as property, to be traded for currency stems from this logic.  Private property encourages responsibility and responsibility leads to more productive work and self-sufficiency.

        Adam Smith believed that the Governments control on the economy inhibitied markets, preventing the fair and natural exchange of goods and ideas. The negotiated balance between consumers and producers was the surest means of encouraging production that met the needs of the populace. Adam Smith correctly professes, "Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things."  Market demands would guide actions, encourage solutions and then reward those innovations. The concept of laissez-faire involved resisting the tempation to try and control how things are done, especially when that one does not work in the industry or field he is attempting to regulate, instead encouraging and defending the choice of consumers, workers, investors and contractors. Furthermore, "As soon as government management begins it upsets the natural equilibrium of industrial relations, and each interference only requires further bureaucratic control until the end is the tyranny of the totalitarian state."  The incentive to profit and self-intererst would guide humanity to make the right choices and thereby create a better functioning society more capable of providing for the well-being of its citizens.

        The congressoinal record will show that Communists long ago plotted to infiltrate the major medias, forums of entertainment, school boards, the fields of psychology and other unelected positions of governent so that they could slyly and subtley influence the minds of the masses and encourage the adoption of their doctines. Those interrogated by the FBI during the McCarthy Era verified the reality of such coordinated conspiracies.  Marxists argue for a historical process by which the state would come to control the means of production. What is alarming, is the lack of respect for private property, privacy or profit-motive.  The latest talk amongst Marxists is that it failed in Russia because there needs to be Capitalism first to build up industry.  These Marxists are arguing that they have a right to steal the businesses that they were too incompetent to build, ignoring the reality that they will soon run them into the ground. The reality of communism and national socialization is not mixed, on all occasions there experiments have failed and the regimes that persist have sustained themselves almost entirely on propaganda, lies and violent oppression. While they purport to be scientific or rational, they continually dismiss imperical, scientific and mathematical evidence contradicting the utility and validity of their doctrines.  Marxists lack full functioning faculties.  They have no concept of theology, of legitimate historical research, of economics, of law, of military matters or of governance.  They disregard individual rights, freedom of speech and enact policies that sabotage the performance of markets by hampering the entrepreuneral class with excesively burdensome regulation and taxation, and they levy these laws not for the sake of performance or quality, but for purposes of totalitarian control.  They time and time again allow for racial and class based rhetoric, allowing for race or class to be taken into account in decision-making, advancing the myth of race, encouraging govenrment dependence and discouraging personal responsibility. Why would any African American man vote in support of a system that has arrested and enslaved so many our brothers and sisters, encourged their dependence on food stamps and other social welfares and moved them to the ghettos they call projects.  What should be offered, is a true liberalism, where all individuals are respected as individuals, provided private property, afforded privacy and all, regardless of sex, race, or sexual orientation are equal before the law, and have equal opportunities in society, with the merit of your actions and your work the determining factor as to what you can acomplish and the heights you can reach. Liberalism should be defined as generosity. The issue then rests in the reality that communist and national socialist regimes have such flawed economic policies and theories that they can rarely afford to be generous. The end result is that the accomplishments of our merit is divided into the lowest common denominator, further reducing the total product, and then reducing common denominator with each and every year.  The limited successes of Marxist regimes, late Lennon-era Russia and under General Deng in China, resulted from marketization, when quotas required for the state were reduced to nominal amounts the production of the communes were then traded on the open market.  Such really isn't Marxism, its command Capitalism, a reality that without independent courts and individual protections, can quickly become indistinguishable from Fascism.  With all do respect for the good intentions of Barack Obama, it is hard to overlook the austerity measures necessitated by the Capital flight prompted by the fear on Wall Street that a socialist was coming to power.

   Let our goal be to liberate the public from onerous bureaucracy and red tape, to unhinge their natural instincts and talents, to use personal responsibility and the profit motive to encourage the best in their performance and accomplishments. Let us take legal and electoral action to show that we are against the oppressive mechanisms of the state and its artificial stunting of civilization's growth, and for the individuals, organizations, companies, religious groups and people's freedom and liberty.  The sum total of our liberty will always produce more for the people and in turn yield more for our rightful leaders.  I tell you, my dear reader, that with faith, responsibility and wise council you are able to make good decisions for yourself and yield resources to responsibly provide for those who need and/or want your help. We don''t believe you need much help from the Federal Government or State beyond basic security, adequate infrastructure, access to impartial independent courts of law willing to uphold traditional criminal and tortious notions of common law.  I am rather certain that the bulk of your governmental needs can be provided by the county and the municipality and that the reach of the federal government should be constrained by a literal interpretation of the constitution, easy taxes and ample enterprise funds. I know that we have been lied too and I ask how any government can hope to govern without the people's consent, how any government can hope to gain consent without trust, and how any government can gain trust without being honest?  Anything otherwise would be unconscionable tyranny.  I respect the first amendment rights of both Marxists and Muslims, many are good and honest people, but I cannot defend anyones right to lie about such matters and contend that they have been taught the wrong things and accepted the wrong council.  I have spelled out my beliefs and am a faithful Episcopalian, and so I prefer you look to your local ministers and the region's bishop for council. I tell you that my Church, I tell you that our Church, I assure you that our God believes in you and that with the grace of your faith in Him, that you will be doing exceptional in no time.


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On Prop 13 and California's Great Democratic Tax Revolt.

Theo Johnson

10/20/2014

Prop 13

      While prop thirteen provides a challenge to the finances of the state of California and its counties, it was necessary to curb back the contamination of invasive communist influenced ideologies on the minds of our children and the private property of free citizens in the California Republic.   By keeping property taxes down, more financial resources are kept available to Middle Class families and landowners so that they can invest money with religious organizations, private education, business ventures, enterprise and other initiatives.  Prior to Prop 13 property taxes had been used as an unending source of funds for an ever expanding role of the state in the lives of free peoples.  There was no relief and even old women who worked hard their entire lives, responsibly managing their financial resources to pay for their properties free and clear of loans or mortgage-related liens were being evicted from their homes do to their inability to pay the excessively high property taxes encouraging reckless irresponsibility, state dependence and spending.   Many of these confiscated properties had been family owned residences, passed from generation to generation for years.  At least this is how the campaign for Prop 13 presented the issue.  The purpose of this paper is to look at the facts of the matter and determine empirically and independently whether or not Prop 13 was a necessary democratic action to restrict the State and preserve the mores of our founding fathers, freeing financial resources to circulate according to the justice of the free-market, or a tax revolt detrimental to the long-term interests of the State and the People.  To achieve this I will first look at the legislation, then make the strongest empirical case for the legislation and then the strongest case against it, then come to a conclusion.

                Section 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property shall not exceed one percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.

According to closetheloophole.com[1], Prop 13:

    Rolled back assessed property values to what they were worth in 1975.

    Guaranteed property values could not increase more than 2% per year.

    Property tax is capped at 1%.

    Provisioned Property to only be reassessed upon change of ownership or new construction.

Mandated that all local and state taxes need a two-thirds majority vote.

        An impartial look at the proposition’s affects is going to require looking at more than simply its affect on 1. State revenues and spending, but the 2. affordability of property taxes according to the budgets of tax payers, 3. the affects of state taxes and spending on citizens and our economy and 4. an empirical look at the places for wealth to consolidate and then be spent, as it relates to the common good of our citizens.

The passage of Prop 13 prompted an immediate property tax cut of $5 billion dollars.  At a time when fuel prices were relatively high as a result of a weak foreign policy by the Carter Administration and inflation was hurting Middle Class American families, the relief from burdensome taxes was welcomed, as many California citizens were forfeiting the American Dream, selling their homes to pay their property tax bills.  County spending on infrastructure, safety and curriculum that improves pupils understanding of the world, encourages healthy lifestyles and prepares the youth for tomorrows job market is necessary, but curriculum that indoctrinates them into a godless culture of state dependence, drug usage and dangerous sexual behavior while insulating teachers and school districts from accountability is a matter that needed to be defunded.  While the initial adjustment for counties was obviously difficult, over time the resulting improvements to the economy ended up improving State budgets substantially. 

   Stephen Moore, from the Conservative think-tank, the Cato institute argues that the passage of Prop 13 marked the beginning of the conservative, anti-big government movement in the United States of America[2]. In 1978, Prop 13 passed with overwhelming public support and ushered in an era of unparalleled prosperity.  In 1984 and 1985 the State of California jumped up to the 5^th largest economy as measured by its GDP in the world.  At the time, it produced more product as a State than either China or France! Moore accurately identifies that, “In the 10 years after the passage of Proposition 13, incomes in California grew 50 percent faster than in the nation as a whole; jobs grew at twice the national pace.”  A growing economy and declining unemployment rate is a reality voters are always going to reward.  The dire predictions made prior to Prop 13s passage proved false.

According to Moore, in 1991 the State of California passed a 7 billion dollar tax increase, the biggest tax increase for any state, in the history of the union, and correspondingly our state sunk into a mild recession. In real dollars, the gold rush prompted by Prop 13 fostered state budgetary increases of 75% above inflation, from $55 billion in 1980 to $97 billion in 2002.  I would argue that our state has a more than adequate budget, where it needs improvement is in its send to District of Washington, return to citizens of California disparity, which is the worst in the country, along with a shift in a combination of its policies, laws and practice, along with a coordinated bi-partisan strategy on the part of our elected representatives to use our States stature and massive size to push for reforms from Washington, DC., that are geared towards significantly increasing the flow of grants for scientific research, scholarship, literary production, music recording, dance, theater, painting, photography, film and other liberal arts, while helping to make California an increasingly enticing state to incorporate in and execute substantial job creating, revenue and tax revenue generating, business operations. Attaching public benefits to some measure of production set by the recipient and monitored by the supporting agency would restore the dignity of those dependent on government or state support, developing talents that could potentially become market sustained careers.  The State, county and municipal governments would be better advanced by Federal Reserve purchases of highly rated municipal GO bond purchases with freshly minted money, as long as price indexes remain stable, along with the establishment and endowment of federal education, infrastructure and business lending banks.  Reforms in farm subsidies that determine subsidies according to the nutritional value of the food, along with tax increases on food products with high saturated fat content or processed sugars at the point of sale to market or restaurant would also be of value to the overall health of society, providing increases in funds without increasing property taxes.  Of course, replacing all state spending geared towards the prohibition of non-violent marijuana in-state production, sale and use, with taxes comparable to tobacco as ratio of sale price would move our budget from the red to the black with a single legislative act and administrative directive.

   Michael J. New argues that the biggest problem with Prop 13 is that “it failed to impose long-term discipline on state and local budgets[3].”  For Californians, taxes have risen from “19.4% of personal income the year after prop 13 was passed to 24.6% today.”  The percentage of income going towards income taxes is the clearest measure of affordability, as spending is believed to be determined by one's expected income, with more money, individuals spend and borrow more, leaving less available income to spend on taxes, making California families vulnerable to market cycles while placing a drag on long term economic growth.  While homeowners are advised to spend no more than 31% of their incomes on housing, many people spend substantially more, carrying debt to income ratios for mortgages along at or around 45% and some, when combining other debts well up over 50%.  If more than 50% of your income is going to property taxes and debt payments for housing how is the American auto industry going to expect to sell new cars, our manufactures to sell you new appliances, our entertainers to sell you tickets, farmers, food producers and cooks to sell you food, our inventors to sell you new products and innovative technologies, our universities to collect adequate tuition rates to pay for faculty and service workers to find clients? As Nada Wasi and Michelle J. White explain,“higher price of housing reduces net income, so that the marginal utility of consuming other goods rises[4].”  Contrary to Marxist myth, most of America's wealthy do not draw massive salaries with predictable long-term incomes.  1 or 1.5% increase in property taxes on a home worth over a million dollars is going to be sizeable junk of money to come up with, just a one percent increase would account to an increased tax bill of $10,000 when with a standard 30 year mortgage at 4.75% rate for the value of the home, that homeowner would already be paying $6,736.00 for principal and interest every month ($2,777.77 principal + $3,958.33 interest) without including insurance and the property taxes already in place. Paying close to $80,833.33 per year for home, before $10,000 in property taxes his hard enough, but to double that amount to $20,000 or a total annual expense of $100,833.33 before insurance means you need to be pulling in around a quarter million of income every year.  Most Americans that have attained that level of wealth have done so by performance based pay and leveraging assets, CEOs have increasingly had their pay attached to share price performances with banks providing loans according to the equity of various assets.  While these individuals generally are very competent and work extensive hours, there is real risk of such increases in property taxes becoming the metaphorical straw that breaks the camel's back.  Increased property taxes could lead to capital flight and endanger the very functionality of the economic ecosystem. 

Any sensible society would encourage individuals to provide for basic needs through the market whenever possible, high income taxes tend to prevent healthy household saving practices while encouraging deficit spending which intern encourage further State dependency. Healthy economic practice on the part of the State, would encourage temporary deficit spending and fiscal stimulus in times of recession or slow economic growth, but then shift spending to investments in rainy day account portfolios providing capital to a vetted list of publicly traded companies incorporated in and creating a substantial number of their jobs in the state and then either enact buy-backs of state bonds or pay downs of debts in times of high fiscal growth.   

      While revenues raised from property taxes certainly can provide beneficiary spending for citizenry, it is important to look at the programs created with the funds and look at the actual effect on our citizenry.  One of the counties primarily expenditures is on the Sheriff's department, which is responsible for policing and jails, but also has money that goes towards the fire department, emergency responders, county health and schools.  While there is an assumed public benefit from these programs and ample job creation, policy, practice and scope contribute to whether these public services account for a public good or societal harm. 

       Now providing for the security of our citizens is very important and the reality that Sheriffs are elected make them the preferred source of policing for many, especially as criticism over municipally coordinated community oriented policing strategies has increased; however, there is obviously still potential for abuse. There are numerous historical instances where the populace elected either Sheriffs that were members of the terrorist group, the Klu Klux Klan and times when organized crime groups had underwrote Sheriff Campaigns in exchange for immunity and protection of their various rackets. 

         The Sheriff has wide reaching authorities that can be used for the good of the citizenry, effectively investigating violent crimes, criminal gangs, organized crime, fraud and other abuses, or a source for societal problems by targeting dissidents, ethnic minorities or other elements of opposition to the country club establishment's plans.  In Phoenix City, Alabama in the first half of the 20^th century for example, organized crime factions elected the Sheriff of their choice, who then used his formal authority to protect the gambling rackets, kidnap young women for the ransom of bail, whose payment by the bail bondsmen would then become a means of coercing them into working as prostitutes with the Sheriff's deputies bludgeoning young soldier's unable to pay their gambling debts and bar tabs[5].

       There are human rights issues surrounding our jails, particularly as they have become so crowded that they begin to function as state run collective farms, something little better than an inescapable old Soviet pogrom or Russian mir. Keep in mind, you can be arrested and sent to jail without ever being convicted or even guilty of a crime. Many inmates are only allowed outside of their crowded cells twice a week for brief half hour sessions. Illnesses can sweep through jails as a result of the overcrowding and many individuals that have never been in gangs, booked on allegations of petty or non-violent crimes, then join gangs for purposes of security.  While spending tax dollars to build better facilities could help relieve these realities, halting the prosecution of non-violent drug offenses is a wiser measure.  Released from jail, many of these non-violent drug offenders are then discriminated against in hiring and often resort to calling their former jailhouse acquaintances for work in efforts to afford basic sustenance.  More resources for the county could be used to address these issues by underwriting jail and prison reforms, building nicer facilities, but the wellbeing of inmates traditionally has not been a priority for voters and taxpayers, and better organized policing, bar association and prison guard unions often push to advance more complex penal codes that punish petty vice and impose mandatory sentencing as a means of advancing their bureaucracy’s financial interests, where more inmates historically translated to more funds, regardless of societies interests at large.  

      With the savings from ending the prosecution and investigation of non-violent drug related offenses, I would direct our counties to save up to overhaul our jails and the state to overhaul its prisons, with magnificent buildings painted all white with large windows and natural light, white uniforms and private rooms where consensual monogamous heterosexual relationships are encouraged, with structured prayer services, athletics, academics, career training and then entertainment as an effort to heal the souls of inmates and rehabilitate them back into the grace of the light. 

  The fire department has not become what it did in Bradbury's “Fahrenheit 451” and is rightfully seen as a positive force in protecting private property.  That is unless, of course, property taxes are too high to pay and the fire insurance policy is profitable, nobody wants to lose their home to a fire. For the record, such actions would be criminally punishable for arson and fraud, and for those lacking a keen sense of humor, I jest to suggest. Firefighters also serve a valuable function as first responders.  Still, there are financial abuses at times, such as booking and billing of extra over-time hours, occasional instances when fire fighters set fires or engaged in thefts from houses they put out fires on[6].  These are isolated instances, I am not trying to play muckraker or alleging that any of these anecdotes are ongoing or prevalent, but there still needs to be some oversight to make sure they do not happen. 

Public schools are decent, most Americans can read and write, engage in arithmetic and have basic understanding of science, history and government structure; however, it is important to note that the first public school systems were developed as a consequence of French and Prussian military competition in the Era of Napoleon.  Nation-states learned that they could easily sustain standing armies if they could quickly train soldiers by having them read a military manual and justified the cost of funding public education systems with improved military strength as their end-goal. Thomas Jefferson envisioned America as a country of Yeoman farmers, and to have your children away with the state, 8 hours a day certainly reduced the readily available labor to keep a small farm or shop productive and a family self-sufficient.  I personally believe in the importance of our public school system, but have been impressed by the performance of children whose parents have opted for private schools, or even home-schooling.  As a matter of Congressional record and a result of the research of McCarthy Era investigations, whether we care to admit it or want to cover it up, the Communist Party was quite effective at infiltrating our education board, high ranking positions in the field of psychology and some influential positions within Hollywood and the media.  Common presentation of the red scare as a communist witch hunt, does not discredit the facts found by the McCarthy Era congresses.  Democrats, for the most part, were equally concerned by the threat posed by Communists hiding under the democratic banner and many communists questioned in these investigations turned on their co-conspirators under questioning, largely substantiating allegations of Communist infiltration.[7] Communists have a right to free speech, assembly and opinion; however, they do not have a right to be free from religion or conspire to overthrow the government of the United States of America without consequences ranging from prosecution for sedition, treason and conspiracy.  Many of these Communist Agents were benefiting from financial contributions from Russia, some were direct agents of Russia and others assets were being run by KGB agents at times with and other times without the communist provocateur's knowledge.  It is also important to note, that many people absorbed these Communist influenced beliefs unaware of the harm they would cause or the origin of their ideology from within the Communist Party.  I am not arguing that every state proponent or person who doesn't believe in God is a Communist.  I am arguing that the citizenry has a right to elect representatives to review the curriculum and determine if the lesson plans align with American mores and values and change the curriculum when its idealism is out of balance with the realities of life.  This is not a reprimand of the teachers union or board of education, as there merit, hard work and their efforts to rise to the challenge of the daunting task of education with only limited resources and systemic socio-economic problems that extending beyond their scope of control in the classroom, affect both the performance of their students and the perceived performance of their teachers. 

    Seemingly, despite the findings of Congress, the Communists infiltrating the education board largely achieved their goals on the education board to alter our curriculum to present our founding fathers as slave holding aristocrats, failing to mention that George Washington not only set his slaves free, put also provided them resources for their education and care. The constitution has been presented as an archaic document to be ignored, even as it persists to be the basis for American Jurisprudence.  There have also been efforts to misconstrue the scientific findings of Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton, who understood their studies as a study in the complexities of God's creation, as evidence that there was no God.  Albert Einstein, the author of the Theory of Relativity observed, “The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”[8]  Sir Isaac Newton, the man who first explained the laws of gravity and physics professed, “He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.”[9]  Even the Vatican has accepted “The Big Bang Theory,” with an understanding, that the instant of creation and the reality that all time and matter have been released from an explosive singularity billions of years ago, only advances the power of God and our innate Union with our deity and the natural universe.  Arguably, public school curriculums have subtly and softly prepared the population for an ever invasive role of government in the daily affairs of citizen's private lives, along with softening American citizen's openness to the nationalization of business enterprise.

As it relates to the remarks of the Hon. AS Herlong, Jr to congress on January 10^th, 1963 about Current Communist Goals, many of his assertions which were read from Cleon Skousen's, “The Naked Communist” have proved true.[10]     Inequality of financial resources was depicted as injustice, as opposed to justice earned for industrious work provided under conditions of equal opportunity and equality before the law.  For the record, I am not questioning that there were not extensive inequalities before the law and a lack of opportunities in the South under Slavery and later Jim Crow or that issues of racism or social economic disadvantage do not need to be addressed, I am simply arguing that a wiser curriculum would tell students the truth: this is a very competitive world and if you want to be successful, you need to work diligently to make opportunities for yourself to accumulate wealth.  Playing the victim will rarely help you to get ahead in life’s race. 

 Psychology was used to libel and discredit honest critics and patriotic adversaries, to convince us that the evolutionary basis of our genetics should not matter, that the ability to identify self-interest and pursue it within the parameters of law and the constitution is a sign of psychopathy, that patriotism, belief in God, resolve and determination are signs of mania.  Empathy, sympathy and morality were seen as signs of depression.  Recent studies have shown how individuals diagnosed with clinical depression tend to have a more accurate conception of reality.[11] I've gamed out tactics long enough to identify that such APA diagnosing guidelines are written for the profit of pharmaceutical companies and to exert control over the innately free minds of Americans. Sadly, psychiatrists in the field, regularly fail to even uphold the standards of the APA, shamelessly making diagnosis' to expand the volume of monthly visits from paying clients, receiving kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies, all while prescribing addictive medications whose side-effects then become justification to layer additional diagnosis and prescribe more harmful medications in what they dub, 'drug cocktails.'  These acts had nothing to do with patient health and everything to do with profiting from coerced chemical dependence. I've worked in marketing long enough to recognize that the fields of Psychology and Psychiatry have abused their understanding of the brain to master manipulative coercion, with communist regimes renowned for their use of clever propaganda to alter public opinion as opposed to reason or logic.  Scripture was never written as an exact history, but anthropology and archeology has proved that almost all of the events did in fact happen, and the wisdom as it relates to God and our relationship with him and what he expects from us in our daily lives continue to be valid. Obviously, however, scripture needs to be understood in the context of the authors who wrote them and the times in which they wrote. 

 The field of psychology abused its understanding to convince healthy people that they were sick, that prayer or faith could not help them and then used them as test bunnies for experimental drugs with horrid side effects that they systematically concealed and covered up.  Many died, others were rendered disabled and/or drug dependent do to permanent alterations in their brain chemistry.  In Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, every one of the victims' families who died in the holocaust, mentally ill, minority, homosexual or Jew received a very neatly drafted letter from the state providing an apology and some seemingly benign cause of death.  Many were forced to participate in drug experiments for IG Farben’s The Bayer Company.  Is this not what was happening on a massive scale in state hospitals during the 1970s prior to Prop 13?  Nazi is only a German abbreviation for National Socialist and contemporary political science identifies the convergence of Government take-overs of businesses as the starting point of every fascist regime. 

 Increasingly, the trends within academia and its review of the McCarthy Era, look less at it as a communist witch hunt and red scare, rather as a lesson for government agents not to allow either sympathy or denial to prevent them from taking administrative action.   These communist infiltrators and their indoctrinates used their understanding of framing and a range of libelous smear tactics and censorship to stifle debate and suppress the truth.  Conspiracy is not a paranoid delusion as a liable and culpable psychologist under investigation for medical malpractice and insurance fraud may contend, rather a long-established crime to be pursued in criminal courts with evidence and testimony available to substantiate these claims as neither paranoid nor delusionary, rather instead, facts of record.  The hope of the communist party was that Americans would let go of their rights outlined in the bill of rights so that private property and privacy could be done away with once and for all, so an all-powerful, unchecked, godless totalitarian state with a unity of command could do as it pleased with the soulless blank slates empty and ready for indoctrination.  The godless sought to program us, viewing us as little more than cattle with disposable thumbs.  If public school education is proliferating this reality, pushing for national socialism (Nazism) or communist agendas (marxist class warfare and anti-capitalist rhetoric), then the very survival of our country and its great character hinges on a dramatic shift in our educational curriculum, something funding from property taxes holds leverage for in negotiations. 

The Pro Prop 13 crew’s positions entirely neglect any serious look at the effect of their pursuits on society at large, instead falling for poster children for rational choice theory explanations of bureaucratic behavior.  When School districts point to poor test scores as a need for more funding, I see it as good reason to provide vouchers for private school, religious based or otherwise.   Private school students have consistently outperformed public school students, despite massive subsidizing for public schools.   If public and private school systems were put in competition with each other, with per-pupil spending available as a vouchers redeemable by the private schools for cash, the overwhelmed public school system could enjoy smaller class sizes and benefit from being able to scientifically and empirically review, then adopt the underpinning strategies for success prevalent at prominent private schools.  With the state taxing us and spending on our children's education regardless, the parents should be allowed to access those funds to pay for the education of their children by a church based organization or private school.  While there obviously needs to be standards for the curriculum, such as Darwinism taught in a science class, there is no reason scripture, tradition and morality cannot be explored in a theology class. I agree with Hegel that history has a process; however, a review of history suggests that the process is the victory of God, the Church and God's people over the morally depraved and godless losers of National Socialism and Communism.  As democrats, we need not pursue the vestige agenda of Russian backed communist infiltrators, our curriculum should instead instill understanding, belief and confidence in the Anglo-American, market driven system of representative democracy and dual federalism that provided for the rise of the United States of America to its position as global hegemon, praising the courage and valor of our armed forces in their efforts to protect us from foreign Communists, National Socialists and Terrorists, while preparing us to profit in tomorrow's marketplace. 

While individuals needing medicine, surgery or medical treatment should certainly be provided such, the best way for our country to improve the health of its citizens is by encouraging healthy habits of exercise, safe sex and nutrition.  You ask for money for healthcare, but first you need take better care of your health.  The occasional prayer cannot hurt either.  I am not against Government, I am for it and believe that as citizens we are the government, I merely identify with English Liberal Philosophies exemplified by John Stuart Mill, John Locke and Adam Smith as the foundation for both Great Britain and the United States of America's prominence and sense that the education board's proposed curriculum is draining our wealth, impeding our liberty, threatening America's future and endangering our posterity.  Increasing sums of money for public health services, corrections and education is not going to help if it doesn't also come with meaningful policy reform. 

 While State spending can help stimulate stagnant economies, it is not clear that the programs funded by property taxes and provided through the county are the ideal places to stimulate economic growth. While property taxes are generally considered good taxes in that they are broad based and assessed at equal percentages across income levels, small % increases amount to sizeable dollar amounts that can prompt home sales, which drive down housing prices, causing equity accessible for business purposes or home improvements to evaporate.  Extended tenures resulting from Prop 13 have helped guide parents to avoid moving, keeping children in school districts is beneficial for those children's development.  Closing deficits or increased state spending has to be balanced against its effect on the economy and the affordability of those taxes for the citizenry.  Our state cannot afford to keep throwing money at sink holes, it needs to see meaningful reforms exemplifying responsibility and competency before it can justify increasing tax burdens.  The better hope is for improved economic performance to result in higher tax revenues, as increased tax rates can have the adverse effect of recessing economic growth.  Improved educational policy and practice, shifting policing policies and drug laws, need to come first as a hard look is taken at what changes need to be made to ensure that California is the first choice for any inspiring entrepreneur to incorporate a business. Labor law and tax policy are very influential factors as sunshine and palm trees can only carry us so far.  I'd argue that the prioritized benefactor of any increases in spending should be our university and college system, a place where California continues to lead America and America continues to lead the world.  

Balanced by Christianity, Capitalism is considered a just system because it rewards industriousness and enterprise, while punishing slothfulness, irresponsibility and incompetence.  It is considered an efficient system because it moves wealth from irresponsible hands to responsible hands.  Capitalism is a driver of wealth that can then be irrigated through markets and orderly democratic government to continue growing our country's wealth and achieving organizational goals.  While the influence of money on our political system is often depicted as corruption by the Marxist influenced occupy movement, it is in fact better understood as a means of protecting our democracy from ochlocracy, our aristocracy from oligarchy and the monarchy from tyranny.   The Democratic Party's continued dominance rests in our ability to create separation from both Communist movements and National Socialist movements, to continue to exemplify a better understanding of science and application of empirical findings, creating policies that take the lessons of history and scripture into account, while winning out in both markets and other measures of performance such as elections.  The Democratic Party cannot be a party of anti-capitalist pacifists; rather it has to be the party of responsible policy and administration, realism and fiscal competence.

---

[1] www.closetheloophole.com “Close the Loophole.” Close the Loophole. Close the Prop 13 Loophole, n.d. Web. 20 Oct 2014.

[2] Stephen Moore, “Proposition 13 Then, Now and Forever” The Cato Institute (1998).

[3] Michael J. New, “Proposition 13 and State Budget Limitations: Past Successes and Future Options” The Cato Institute (2003).

[4] Margaret Anne Barnes, The Tragedy and Triumph of Phenix City, Alabama (Mercer, 2012)

[5] Margaret Anne Barnes, The Tragedy and Triumph of Phenix City, Alabama (Mercer, 2012)

[6] Prof. Jack McGrory, lecture in PA 640 at SDSU

[7] Findings in Federal Prosecutor Michael Wheat's HSEC 604, Homeland Security, Law and Society Course at San Diego State University

[8] http://withalliamgod.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/albert-einstein-on-god/ “With All I Am” Prayson Wilfred Daniel

[9] www.goodreads.com “Good Reads” Oct. 20^th, 2014

[10] “The Naked Communist” W Cleon Skousen.  Salt Lake City Ensign Pub. Co, 1962

[11] Alloy,L.B., Abramson,L.Y. (1988). Depressive realism: four theoretical perspectives.

The above was written for PA 640 course at SDSU taught by Prof. Jack McGory

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