The Minimum for Function: Rethinking Government Beyond Ideology

Is there a term for the idea that a government must maintain a certain level of functionality to be effective—and that it doesn’t truly become a government until it reaches that threshold? Conservatives often advocate for small government without regard for this baseline, while progressives may sometimes push for more than is strictly necessary. 

However, when conservatives pursue small government purely for its own sake—as in Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which seeks to slash departments and personnel without careful consideration—the result isn’t just ideological. It becomes delusional, damaging, and fundamentally opposed to the concept of a functional government.

This concept relates closely to several political science and public administration principles, though there isn’t a single universally agreed-upon name for that exact threshold idea of “functional government minimum.” However, the idea does exist in various academic and policy discussions. Here are some relevant terms and frameworks:

---

🔹 State Capacity

This is the closest formal concept.
State capacity refers to the ability of a government to effectively implement decisions, deliver public services, maintain order, and enforce laws. A government without adequate personnel, institutions, or funding can't fulfill its basic responsibilities—no matter how ideologically "small" it is.

Conservatives often discuss “limited government,” but state capacity theory points out that reducing government below a certain threshold undermines its basic functions.

---

🔹 Administrative Capacity / Institutional Capacity

These refer more specifically to the bureaucratic competence and staffing levels necessary for a government to carry out its duties. You can think of this as a kind of minimum viable bureaucracy. If you slash departments (like what you mention with Trump's proposed restructuring via Project 2025 and the Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE]), you may fall below this level and create dysfunction.

---

🔹 Governance Threshold / Minimum Effective State

Some scholars and policy thinkers refer informally to a “minimum effective state” or “governance threshold”, the idea being that there's a lower bound of institutional complexity, staffing, and regulation needed for a modern government to manage:

• National security

• Public health

• Infrastructure

• Justice system

• Economic regulation

Below that threshold, the system begins to break down. That’s not ideological—it’s structural.

---

🔹 Ideological Extremism:

Ideological extremism—where conservative “small government” approaches ignore that there is a floor, not just a ceiling, to how lean government can be before it fails to perform its core duties. It’s a form of anti-functionalism, sometimes even described as “deconstructing the administrative state,” which is precisely what Steve Bannon once said Trump aimed to do.

---

🔹 Related Concepts

• Governance failure – When institutions fall below this functional threshold

• Hollow state – A state that appears to function but has outsourced or gutted its capabilities

• Public choice theory (misapplied) – Sometimes used to argue all bureaucracies are inherently inefficient, justifying cuts without regard for capacity

---

What are the basic services every government should offer in order to be a functional government? One might assume Social Security is one, Medicare is another, etc. EPA, OSHA, etc., such departments and agencies serve important functions to protect citizens.

It's a great and important question—and we are right to be thinking in terms of basic functionality before ideology. Regardless of political system or size of government, there are some core services and protections a government must provide to be considered functional, effective, and legitimate.

These core functions can be grouped into broad categories. Some of the agencies you named (like Social Security, Medicare, EPA, OSHA) serve these critical roles.

---

🔹 1. Public Safety and Order

• Police and fire services

• Emergency management / disaster response

• Courts and the justice system

• National defense / military

• Border security and customs enforcement

🟡 Purpose: Protect citizens from crime, domestic threats, and foreign aggression. Maintain rule of law.

---

🔹 2. Public Health and Welfare

• Public health services (CDC, health inspections, vaccinations)

• Social Security

• Medicare and Medicaid

• Food safety (FDA, USDA)

• Mental health and disability support

• Unemployment insurance

🟡 Purpose: Safeguard population health, reduce poverty, ensure a social safety net, and provide for the elderly and vulnerable.

---

🔹 3. Infrastructure and Transportation

• Roads, bridges, public transit

• FAA (aviation safety)

• Maritime and rail regulation

• Postal service

🟡 Purpose: Ensure mobility, commerce, and connectivity across the country.

---

🔹 4. Economic Regulation and Stability

• Federal Reserve (monetary policy)

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• Department of Treasury / IRS

• Consumer protection (CFPB, FTC)

• Department of Labor

• OSHA (workplace safety)

• Small Business Administration

🟡 Purpose: Prevent economic crises, ensure stable markets, enforce fair labor and trade practices, collect taxes, regulate banks.

---

🔹 5. Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• National Park Service

• Fish and Wildlife Service

• NOAA (weather/climate monitoring)

🟡 Purpose: Protect air, water, and public lands; manage natural resources for sustainability and public benefit.

---

🔹 6. Education and Innovation

• Department of Education (standards, federal funding)

• Public universities and research funding (NIH, NSF, etc.)

🟡 Purpose: Promote a skilled, informed citizenry and drive innovation for national competitiveness.

---

🔹 7. Basic Governance and Civil Administration

• Elections oversight

• Civil service infrastructure

• Data collection (Census Bureau, statistical agencies)

• Federal records and national archives

🟡 Purpose: Maintain democracy, track population and economic trends, ensure institutional continuity.

---

🟥 When these are undercut:

You get what policy analysts call:

• State failure

• Governance collapse

• A hollow state (where institutions exist on paper but don’t function)

• De-legitimization of government in the eyes of the public

This is why indiscriminate cuts, especially like those proposed in Project 2025, are so controversial. They risk dismantling this foundational scaffolding under the guise of “efficiency.”

In the end, the size of government should be determined not by ideology alone, but by what it takes to meet the needs of a modern, complex society. Undercutting that threshold in pursuit of dogma doesn’t make government leaner—it makes it fail.

Compiled with aid of ChatGPT

Trump's ERS Dead in the Water, Like Trump

I'm so bored with clickbait guy in our White House. 

FYI. No. We're not replacing IRS with ERS, External Revenue Service, and tariffs. It's clickbait.

Who the Hell elected this guy? Jesus Wept...Putin Grins...along with Trump oligarchs and apparently a vast and ever growing kakistocracy.

Trump announced his intention to create an "External Revenue Service" (ERS) during his inauguration speech on January 20, 2025. The ERS is intended to collect tariffs, duties, and other revenues from foreign sources, aiming to shift the U.S. revenue system away from income taxes. ​

Following this announcement, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the administration's goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and replace federal income taxes with revenue generated from tariffs. ​

Economists have expressed skepticism about the feasibility of this plan, noting that tariffs currently generate a small fraction of federal revenue and that relying solely on tariffs could lead to increased consumer prices and economic challenges. ​

Trump has proposed the creation of the ERS to replace the IRS and eliminate income taxes, but this plan faces significant economic and political obstacles.​

This idea is economically unworkable and largely nonsense. 

Here’s why:

1. Tariffs Cannot Replace Income Tax Revenue – The U.S. federal government collects over $4.5 trillion annually in revenue, with over 50% coming from income taxes. Tariffs currently bring in only about $80 billion per year—a tiny fraction of what would be needed. Raising tariffs high enough to replace income tax would make imported goods unaffordable, hurt American businesses, and spark trade wars.

2. Who Pays Tariffs? – Tariffs are not paid by foreign countries; they are paid by American consumers and businesses that import goods. So, instead of income tax, Americans would just be paying higher prices for everything, making this an indirect tax rather than a true abolition of taxation.

3. Economic Consequences – Eliminating income tax while shifting entirely to tariffs would cripple the economy by:

   • Increasing costs for consumers (inflation).

   • Hurting businesses that rely on imported goods.

   • Causing retaliation from other countries with tariffs on U.S. exports, harming American industries like agriculture and manufacturing.

   • Creating massive budget deficits since tariffs wouldn’t generate nearly enough revenue to fund government services, including the military, Social Security, Medicare, and infrastructure.

4. Political Impossibility – Even if Trump proposed this, it would require Congressional approval, which is extremely unlikely given the chaos it would cause.

This is classic clickbait populism—throwing out a radical-sounding idea that plays well with anti-tax rhetoric but has no basis in economic reality.

Compiled with aid of ChatGPT

Political Ignorance in a Trump Universe

The ignorance in this last 2016 presidential election on the side of Hillary Clinton supporters is superseded only by that of Donald Trump supporters. It is reminiscent in form of the quote by Winston Churchill.

'Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…'
Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947

I'll get to Pres. Trump's address to both houses of Congress, in a moment.

For many Clinton supporters who have been around a while, they saw this as her time to become president as after all she had put up with, succeeded through, and done they felt she deserved it. And they deserved it to have a woman president. It was time for a woman president. We are long past that time. It needs to happen. Just not apparently with Hillary. Sad for her, but true nonetheless after to failed runs for that office.

However Mr. Trump should never have been a candidate. That is clearly obvious now even as it was for most people during the campaign.

In hindsight we can now see what I had thought all along during the campaign. That yes, Hillary had paid her dues to become president, all through husband Bill Clinton's rise, campaign, two term presidency and all throughout his romantic antics. Also through her work in Congress and as Secretary of State under the opponent, Barack Obama, whom she had lost to not once but in the end, twice.

However as we now examine our actions and how things turned out, we can see more clearly that as some contended during the campaign, Bernie Sanders could very well have won over Donald Trump. I had said and wished that Hillary would have subordinated herself to become Bernie's Vice President on the ticket to his Presidency.

I still think that would have been a world changing event.

Not a Trump style world changing event, but a positive, useful and constructive one. With Hillary as VP, someone who had been through all she had internationally to the point of Secretary of State, what a block buster team that could have been. Perhaps she could then have run at a future date as President. Perhaps it was simply never to be.

In looking now at the world and the state of American politics, it seems clear that we should all have put aside our beliefs and desires, and gone with a Bernie/Hillary ticket and not a Clinton/Bernie ticket, and certainly not as it turned out, a Clinton ticket up against some nutcase like now Pres. Trump. I said that before many times but no one would listen, that surely she would sadly never take second to a Bernie Sanders.

Very sadly as we now see.

We don't realize the advancements we've made. Some say the IQ has dropped. But I think more importantly what we're seeing is a better educated citizen, smarter people, who aren't yet smart enough. And Republicans always want to cut education. Makes you wonder. And I won't even go into things like cognitive dissonance here.

Read: 7 Things Our Founders Believed about Public Education

These people are smart enough to know there is someone behind the curtain, but then think it's the Illuminati (which always surprises them when you tell them that), or some ridiculous entity, or that this is as deep as it goes and no others are involved, or no other process, entity or entropy is involved.

What I've seen, mostly to be honest on the conservative side (liberals have another issue altogether), is that they are smart enough to see they need to break things down somewhat in order to see what there is and where the problem is.

While a wise person knows when you stop doing that and you have the answer. OR, that you cannot achieve a viable answer from any known information at the time.

Still some will push over the edge into what many call insanity, but is simply drawing conclusions with too little information, or never drawing a conclusion other than the one they have already drawn and which all too frequently turns out to be totally incorrect, once all the information is finally known.

Which almost always does eventually show up.

And so we find those who we offer the solutions to for things and yet they refuse to accept it, in thinking they are that smart as to be able to literally divine the answer from not enough correct information. When frequently it is answers they need and not just one. And so it goes, on and on.

And so too, to most critical thinking people they appear stupid.

But they are not stupid. They are simply not intelligent (or educated) enough. Basically and to put it simply, they know just enough to get themselves and others into real trouble and to look foolish.

Therein lay the Republican party.

One of my favorite people for many years has been Christopher Hitchens who sadly died of cancer in December of 2011. In considering what he thought about Hillary, he would have preferred to have seen her not even run for president. But she did not run in a vacuum. She was against Trump.

I have to believe that he would have seen her as President a far better thing for the world than a Trump administration as we have now and as we're seeing is highly dysfunctional and frequently clueless, self serving, and at times outright dangerous.

Charlie Rose on February 24, 2017 had a segment of his show about Chris asking his wife and friends how he would see things today if he were still alive. There is also an article by Newsweek titled, "What would Christoper Hitchens Write?" (1/2/16)

What Chris might have said may all well be true. However he didn't see her having to run for president against not a Barack Obama, a figure who cut a graceful Fred Astaire profile in form and mind, but a Donald Trump figure who cuts more of an Alfred Hitchcock profile though with little of the grace and intellect and none of the style.

Pres. Trump has  a flabbiness of mind exceeded only by his inflated ego, overt narcissism, greed and questionable mental health. He is not insane as some claim but is a capitalist and narcissist and I'm sure other terms of dysfunction we will be seeing and hearing of in the near future. If he makes it that far.

Chris called out Todd Purdum's view of Hillary Clinton and her husband. Yes, there are many things to be said about all that. Which brings us then back to Pres. Donald Trump. There is little need to lay out the issues we are now seeing with him as President of the United States of America. He is a travesty pure and simple and if you cannot yet see that, you simply don't want to. There is no comparison between the two. One is a work horse, one is Donald Trump. One may have an agenda that would have been poignantly put into place, one is scattered and a novice or worse at executing his skewed and admittedly deconstructive agenda.

Even with all the things we know about Hillary, we would still today be far better off with her than a Donald Trump as president. Both Hillary and Trump have as politicians do, deluded their supporters. Trump simply had a far easier job of it with his. As could be seen in many fact checks during the election campaign up to today, Hillary showed far more truth in her statements than Trump ever did or again, even as he does today.

I won't even go into the Republican, Conservative, and Russian slander against Hillary going back to the 1990s. A grass roots hatred of a candidate that deserved that hatred far less than did her opponent in Trump in deserving his praise by those who have found they need to translate in their heads, what he is saying, because he is frequently not saying anything coherent. And reading into what the president says is a highly, extremely dangerous thing to do, and to have to do.

Frankly, Trump supporters were far more easily duped to the point that we now have him as POTUS. Something that will plague not only America, but the entire world, not to mention benefit Russia and perhaps China, for a very long time after he leaves the world stage.

To be fair to Trump supporters, they voted for him not out of intelligence and information, but out of anger and frustration at our government. It has indeed been entrenched for decades now in a style of government that desperately needed change and repair. Much of  that repair being needed for Republicans working hard to damage the government.

Thinking to elect a disruptor, someone to shake up the government and not just another status quo candidate, Trump is most definitely now disrupting things.

However he has consistently and blatantly lied to us, damaged our government's standing with our citizens and even more so with other countries around the entire planet. Good things will come of his presidency, of that I have no doubt. But in the same way as a broken leg is stronger at the break than it was before it was broken. However that also weakens the areas on either side of that break.

Things like government and in such a big and powerful country as the US, needs care not damage to fix things. Of that few gave much consideration out of their frustration at being promised change for so long and seldom seeing it. Or simply not seeing it as fast as change happens on reality TV shows.

I get that. We all do. But a child throwing a tantrum in a shopping mall merely evokes a parent to do whatever they can do stop the tantrum. Not necessarily at all doing what really needs to be done.

Yes, a good parent will do what is needed, and not just what is required to assuage the child. Trump however is not a good parent. Pointing to his children raised by wives and not him, is not proof of anything other than to show that he knows how to marry multiple women and have them raise his kids. Not to mention, those children do have problems as we're now seeing. First off, they're all capitalists. And too rich to really see clearly what most Americans are living through.

When Republicans say "affordable" healthcare, or what American's can afford, or for them to pay reasonable healthcare costs, they have no clue that is a code word for too expensive. My healthcare now that I'm retired is one third of my income. One Third. That's just to have healthcare coverage and not even considering out of pocket expenses.

As for Ivanka, I personally have issues with anyone who chooses on their own to convert to any religion, let alone one like Judaism which is convoluted and rather silly like so many religions. Especially those desert religions of the Middle East which evolved out of a one time need and have evolved into a religion of the obfuscations of reality.

But then, that's what religions do. Make the fears of living more palatable. Offer up hope. When reality should do that if we would just let it. But that really isn't the point either. The point is, Trump is now president. Two words that should never have ever come into the public consciousness: President Trump.

Just how politically ignorant can we be to have allowed such a thing to take place?

Obviously. Pretty damn ignorant. But mostly just frustration.

I have never been so embarrassed to be an American as I was the day Trump was elected. I was pretty embarrassed by the Nixon debacle in the early 1970s as a kid in High School. I was embarrassed by Gore losing to Bush in 2000 and that debacle. I was more embarrassed with the false war in Iraq and then George W Bush being unbelievably re-elected in 2004 at which time I simply gave up on the American people for a time until Obama was elected.

But nothing trumps America electing a Donald Trump as president.

Nothing.

Speaking of political ignorance, Pres. Trump's speech last night on February 28, 2017. He spoke through his teleprompters, made it mostly through the speech with only a single break where he almost turned into The Donald again, but caught himself and returned to reading Steven Miller's curious speech.

photo from CNN

The ONE thing I'd have liked to see last night from a President who says he wants to bring people together... A nod at Republican's for their eight years of obstructionism, now that they ARE in power, for them also to work with Democrats. To have put that ALL on Democrats was ludicrous.

I wouldn't have half minded the several other negative nods at Democrats about that then.

But when it was mostly Republicans refusing to work for America through eight years, it screamed for equal time to both parties last night to do something constructive together, especially for the Republicans and even more so.

Mr. Trump's creating the Voice agency to point out immigrant illegal activities brought a hush of fear over the Congress for a moment, then a few Republicans clapped. It is not as he said to support victims but to further his contentions about immigrant abuse of Americans. A sad commentary on the Trump administration.

Highlights of Pres. Trump's speech if you missed it (go here for a more professional account):

-Various fluff, chaff and misdirections
-Magical promises.
-He's great!
-Republicans rock!
-Immigrants are dangerous! To the point of their creating Voice agency to publish list of crimes by immigrants. The President claimed that murders were being kept quiet by 'special interests']
-Democrats suck because they are partisan and they need to work with Republicans. Republicans apparently are doing just great on that point!
-ACA ("Obamacare") is giving people cancer or something and needs to be exorcised from American consciousness for the great plan Republicans are going to put in place, if only Democrats and the American people would get out of their way and let them implement whatever it is they may come up with if they can only think up something and by the way, NO ONE KNEW that healthcare reform was so hard.
-Display a woman who was in a wheelchair and an inspiration.
-Display the wife of the Navy SEAL the president sent into harm's way with too little planning and who died on the mission, leading to an emotionally rousing and very long standing ovation.
-Other stuff.

It's going to be a very, very long four years....

Vladimir Putin, Russian Mobster, Pres. Trump Hero

Both Pres. Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping admire President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation.

I've been warning the public about Vladimir Putin [Mikhail Ivanovich] literally since the first months he took power in 1999. Ivanovich, Putin's alleged nickname, is a name gleamed from a 1969 Russian comedy film. Actor Stanislav Chekan played Mikhail Ivanovoch, Captain, then Major of militsiya. Also Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin known familiarly by Soviet citizens as "Kalinych", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist–Leninist functionary. Another was an opera singer by that name.

Putting it simple, Putin is a criminal. He is also, as Donald Trump is in America, Russia's worst political cancer and needs to go merely for the sake of Russia, but as well for the rest of the world. Russia definitely needs more than anything to be rid of him. Putin has been involved in criminal activities since leaving the KGB. He was then elevated by being put into power by Boris Yeltsin in order to replace him. And in order to protect Yeltsin from prosecution, from his own actions to be clear. Putin then absolved Yeltsin and his family from prosecution or further investigation. 

Once in power Putin kept himself there. Our President Trump at allegedly $10 billion, loves this jerk. Probably because he's illegally gotten away with becoming massively wealthy. By one report in a 2014 documentary, to the amount of 60 million euros. My understanding of Mr. Trump is that he is of a similar cut of the cloth in his own business dealings to a much minor extent.

Donald Trump is not at a financial level with Putin. Where Mr. Trump may have walked the fine line of legalities in America, I would assume he has had to use somewhat rough methods to achieve so much silence in this time of his becoming and being, president. 

Putin however is more murderer and thug to Mr. Trump's illiberal businessman demeanor, to be overly polite and politic. Putin wears vastly expensive watches, even giving them away at times. though he claims he only makes the meager sums he is paid as his position dictates. 

"And some people, including myself, believe that he's the richest man in the world, or one of the richest men in the world, with hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth that was stolen from Russia." [When] asked by [journalist Fareed] Zakaria what Putin's net worth is, Browder replied, "I believe that it's $200 billion."

[Kremlin whistle blower Sergei] Kolesnikov, who published a 2012 article in "Vedomosti" titled "Putin Forever," says the Russian leader's controversial third-term reelection convinced him that after years of criminal self-enrichment, the only way to stave off prosecution was to remain in power.

"Putin's entire chain of command is built on a foundation of corruption," Kolesnikov says. "To see power go to another party or other people would be to put themselves under enormous threat of criminal investigation and inevitable punishment." That, is Vladimir Putin.

That is the man the new American President Trump admires so much. And that greatly speaks to just who our new president is and what his orientation is.

We are seeing a Trump administration in the White House who seem to be clueless that they are actually in the White House, running the government. Luckily, Federal Judges and appeals courts have reigned him in. Something they have sorely needed. 

Mishaps with Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and presidential counselor Kellyann Conway have led to restraint on their parts. As well in senior presidential advisor "I can barely read pre written scripts off que cards during interviews" Stephen Miller, who has added confusion to their messaging. 

These people appear to be lacking any sense of what they are supposed to be doing. Not in what is most desired by the administration, though that too seems somewhat lacking. Mostly they seem to be best at not doing what is in the best interests of the country. 

Yes, it is the same with every new administration. The question always being, how long will the indoctrination period last? With the Trump administration it is very likely that it could last until the end of the Trump presidential term, if not longer. 

With a crew like this on his administration and his exhibiting admiration for criminals like Vladimir Putin, this loose canon of a president should have only up to go from here. Or does he? As he still shows potential for continuing to go down again and again and again.

#POTUS #PUTIN

Where to Invade Next?

Every American should watch documentary filmmaker and very liberal American Michael Moore's, Where to Invade Next. You may know him from his other works like Fahrenheit 9/11 about the Bush administration's travesties, and other documentaries. His film Trumpland was a tour de force, well reasoned and productive in many ways. He went into the heart of Trump supporters and invited them to a one man stage show and filmed it.

He pushes his mostly left wing progressive agenda with facts, and humor. We need people like him, who push the envelope. But where he used to be annoying to many, he has grown into someone who is succinct, lighthearted, and accurate as a sniper's bullet.

I have never before pushed anyone to watch a Michael Moore film. But watch Where to Invade Next. It's on Netflix DVDs and Amazon Prime where I saw it. Ignore your feelings about him and just listen to what people in Europe say about us and how they view us and LET THAT SINK IN! It could be the one thing that saves us.

Do NOT let conservatives, Republicans, capitalists, and those types deny what is possible, deny the potential to make our lives better, deny we can make changes better for people and the country. You will find their lies sound oddly familiar. Because they are the same lies by the rich and powerful who have gotten us to the place. This sad place. America sad? Watch the damn film first before denying. Then we can talk.

Even IF what we see in the film is not possible in America according to those naysayers and soldiers of the status quo, which is at least partially ridiculous, the film most definitely gives you a feeling for an obviousness of how things should be certainly in AMERICA, and yet how they are most prominently, not!

CEOs are asked in the film, why do you give your employees so much? Because we can, they say, because it is right. How much money do you need to make after all, they say. Human dignity and respect. Our employees are healthier, happier. We make lots of money and we take care of our people and they respect and take care of us.

When asking people if they don't work two or three jobs, people are confused by the question. And so it goes in the film, on and on and on again about so many topics. Jurisprudence. Schools. And so on.

Michael's long been known as a liberal nut job. I didn't always agree with him. He seems to be mellowing though, getting more accurate and his documentaries? They are getting better. This one is his best in my view, in one particular way (and his others are pretty damn good too).

His best not because it has the best facts, the most truth, the actual important over what Pres. Trump is dictating as most important. We can't listen to what Mr. Trump says because he tells falsehoods and I believe, actual lies so much, just to get his way, to satiate his emotional status, to inflate his already conflated ego.

I saw this is Michael's best because by the end of the film you have a true visceral feeling for what is wrong in America. How we are not seeing reality around us because we've been lied to for so long by government, corporate and big money interests, and our own sad paradigm through archaic beliefs.

We have all the information in the world and yet, we continue to be the parent who beats their child rather than using newer tried and true methods now used world wide.

Over and over again, those in other countries react to Moore's prodding with looks of surprise, incredulity, and horror at how America does things. Over and over we hear Europeans asking about America, in how we do things. To paraphrase...

Life and government is about the human dignity? Primary is respect for people.

After watching the film, then ask of our new Pres. Donald Trump:

"How again are you planning to make America great again?"

But who cares really, apparently, as he got elected. Still ask what he means by America being made great AGAIN?

Michael's examination of other countries in how it can be in America, of how people can think of fellow citizens in really trying to actually help families and children, not just lip service, is simply not like America.

Try not to get angry while watching the film at how you are treated, how most of us are treated as workers here.

Two months vacation a year? That's just the beginning.

If you're not embarrassed, humiliated, disgusted and depressed by what this documentary shows you about ourselves, then you need to take a really good look at Yourself. It shows how we are not who we should be, who we could be, who we already think we are and, we are not.

It shows us how our understanding of things is warped from reality. How we don't allow cruel and unusual punishment in our prisons, and yet, we have those prisons which are themselves crule and unusual punishment based on 18th century jurisprudence, on punishment and retribution, not rehabilitation and building a better citizen. America prisons, including privatized ones (a truly despicable thing) are a broken, degenerate paradigm that is in itself cruel and unusual.

And we cannot see those things.

We need to wake up. I'll even go this far.

We need to wake the HELL up!

#EverySecondCounts