#child labor laws? those haven’t been invented yet.

[quietwingsinthesky]

vampire!lucifer does sometimes spend a decade or two wandering around in caves underground and only coming out when he can’t find anything down there to feed on. no people down there to deal with, nothing but the darkness and the earth. he’s very good at it. he’s very alone. and what I’m saying is, lucifer finding way into a mine that’s mostly collapsed, filled with poison he doesn’t have to breathe. he got in through the tightest and most narrow of passages, no human could have squeezed through there, especially not in pure darkness. and that is where he finds jack and marie. abandoned to choke, all smudged up with ash and dust and nearly dead.

they’d be a good meal, really. but they’re so small. and scared, alone in the dark, used until they were thrown away. and wrapped around each other because that’s all they have.

and so lucifer’s a voice to them at first, a phantom touch, the taste of iron against their lips, a quick sharp pain that turns into something More. lucifer guiding them up out from the ground, through passages that force them to go slow and trust him or else get stuck and die down there anyway. and when they finally emerge, lucifer bringing them out to look up at the night sky. and by that time, well. they’re his, and he will not let them go.

[heymich]

My Motherhood and Nursing Journey- part 4

Preview: Preamble, God’s design, survival and human flourishing, objections and mother to mother wisdom... nursing/breastfeeding, lactivism...

Preamble

I think I know maybe just a handful of people in my life who are passionate about this subject of breastfeeding/nursing and how God has revealed to me his wonderful design and purposes. It’s hard to talk about it because I don’t want to come off as judgmental or shaming others who haven’t, are unable, or for some reason did not decide to walk this particular road. I don’t think I am a better than anyone for living the way I do. I don’t think my family will be superior to anyone’s family because of these decisions. Ultimately God is the best, He will judge justly, and His ways are the best, and the best for us. I want to share this knowledge so someone might be blessed or feel less alone in their decision to go this same path. 

Off on a tangent, kind of- Ravi Zacharias had an interview with Ben Shapiro that I found encouraging in many ways. He mentioned in the talk about the issue of elitism vs. egalitarianism. Elitism referring to ideas- that there are some ideas that are better than other ideas. And egalitarianism referring that human beings are all equal in value no matter what differences they might have. The problem of today’s culture is that we have switched the two ideas of elitism and egalitarianism... there is an egalitarianism of ideas (all ideas are equal) and an elitism of people (certain people having more value than other people). 

I do find often this particular conundrum in the realm of this current day conversation. It seems like ideas are treated as equal- such as, your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth (relativism) and the idea of just do what works for you (pragmatism, individual autonomy). The idea of doing something that is “better” or even “right” is considered in some conversations as harsh, judgmental, prideful, and shaming others who do things differently. Some circles embrace “science” and “facts” but when it comes to making personal decisions, many like the sense that “personal rights” are honored, vs. what is actually right for the person, and right for society and human flourishing.

So how does one have a proper discussion of ideas without feeling personally trampled, accused, attacked, or feeling like certain people who disagree will feel less valued, and feel shamed? Sadly when I google up stories of breastfeeding and post-partum depression, you hear accounts of women who feel suicidal or not mom enough because they “failed” to breastfeed their children and feel pressured by the term “breast is best”. It was in nursing school that I learned the concept of “breast is best”. I thought it was a wonderful saying, based on undeniable facts that breastmilk is far superior to any other feeding method for a baby. In today’s world it seems like the medical advice is “fed is best”. As long as the baby is fed, that is what matters. You know, for the sake of protecting a mother’s value, worth, and mental health. Mothering is hard enough right?

No judgment to my mom friends. I was formula fed. I turned out “okay” right? My mother had twins. She didn’t think breastfeeding was going to work out with us. We were also born premature... I’m happy to have been fed either way and I’m alive. Praise the Lord.

I understand somewhat, both sides of the extremes. But at the same time I don’t agree. My heart aches. My mind is puzzled. I love mothers and I love babies and I love God’s wonderful gift of breastfeeding. I truly think the “idea” of breastfeeding and breastmilk is superior to all other forms of infant feeding.  How do I respond to those who disagree? I can only share from my heart and hear each story case by case and offer support where I can...

God’s design, survival and human flourishing

I’m not an expert on this but mammals are a class of animals that have mammary glands. Humans happen to be part of that same class... so we make milk, to feed our young. Wonderful isn’t it. It’s clear to me that God created us to nurse our young for however long the young need to be nursed (which some may decide what that age is...). There are wonderful articles sharing the benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding your child for both the mother and the child- I guess I’ll link a few here, here, and here. 

This information just wows me! It gets me excited. And I’m so thankful I get to do this... to nourish the next generation. Even though I am an imperfect vessel. It hasn’t been a perfect journey. Some days are harder than others. Some days I’m unsure if I even made the right decision. But we’re living it, we’re doing it... I really hope it pays to get this first hand experience so I can pass on the knowledge and support to my children. Not everyone will choose this path but I think it is absolutely necessary (in a physical sense) for human flourishing. Also, spiritual lessons can be drawn through this journey...

Being connected physically to my children for this long has definitely forced me to take care of my own health as I am nourishing lives. The lack of ovulation due to breastfeeding has bought me time to connect with my children and recover from my pregnancies, labours and deliveries. Having my children connected to me through nursing definitely forces me to understand their cues and their needs as they change and grow. I do prefer the term nursing over breastfeeding, because breast should not be just about feeding. It’s way more than that, in my paradigm. Again I did not always think this way. Nursing has forced me to be more nurturing and attentive to my babies’ emotional needs and my own body’s need to rest and restore. 

In an immune perspective, I was also impressed to learn that the child’s immune system is not fully developed until they are around 6 years of age. And globally the upper limit of end of nursing is age 6-7. Isn’t that amazing?? I gotta find the exact article where I found that. They also compared different mammals, and their reproductive ages, and it seems to make sense that humans nurse longer because they reach their reproductive age at a later time compared to most animals.

Okay, and in a survival perspective. Let’s say... there is a natural disaster and we are out of clean water. And you happen to have been formula feeding your infant and now you cannot feed your child. What will you do? Obviously you wouldn’t want your child to starve. Lord willing, help will come and provide clean water somehow but as a nursing mother I have another solution to offer to you. Wet nursing. It’s been practiced in the past, and it’s even mentioned in the Bible. And we all know that formula is a modern invention right? Of course there are people who DIY their own formulas or give their kids cow or goats milk. But even bottles are a pretty modern invention. I haven’t done all the research but something in me sees that in a state of emergency and lack of clean drinking or washing water, the non-breastfed kids are going to be at a disadvantage. I guess it is helpful for a family who is formula feeding their child to have an emergency stash somewhere... anyway there are sources sharing how even if the mom doesn’t have nourishment during an emergency she can still nurse her child and make lots of milk. Wow praise God!! Breastfeeding can save lives!

Objections to promoting nursing/breastfeeding

Just to name a few. There are a lot of great pro-breastfeeding advice out there but this is my response...

- Having bad experiences with nursing. Dear mothers who struggle, you aren’t alone. It’s important to read up about nursing and connect with people who actually want you to succeed in your “breastfeeding goals” (e.g. how long you want to nurse and your experience of it). There are people who are well-intentioned but are quick to advise you (or affirm you towards) early weaning when you or baby aren’t ready yet, or provide enough information to convince you to use formula. Nursing is not supposed to be painful but the reality is that we do live in a fallen world and things like congenital abnormalities, mineral deficiencies, stress from the birth experience or medications used during labor, and lack of experience and misinformation can lead mothers on a difficult, confusing, “unnatural” mothering journey of nursing their babies in the early weeks. It is not an easy journey. 

For example... myself- I was not nursed. My mother and mother in law did not nurse their kids (formula fed generation, but also just a medical condition where nursing was not advised). Generally many people in our parents’ generation did not nurse their kids so they do not see the benefit of nursing nor see what the purpose of even trying to nurse your own children since bottle feeding is more convenient. Call me kooky but I like trying new things, doing hard things and I feel motivated by the “rightness” of it all, (e.g. you start making colostrum, supply and demand based on baby’s sucking needs... it’s just meant to be, it’s supposed to happen, the baby needs it, mom needs it too)... that I think it is a pilgrimage worth journeying through.

- Fear of failure? Not feeling mom enough? Post-partum depression and anxiety... Like, what if it didn’t “work” for you for some reason? From what I have read, I honestly think that any woman who has a baby can nurse their baby, with the right supports in place, and if the mother is determined to make it work for whatever time they hope to nurse for. I am really sorry for those who couldn’t do it for what ever reasons but I don’t think it should be something to normalize when a mother or baby has to end the nursing relationship earlier than they anticipated especially in the first 2 years of the baby’s life. I think the reality is that there are many factors that make nursing so difficult for today’s modern women and I don’t think it’s fair to blame breastfeeding, or the promotion of breastfeeding for creating a sense of failure in the mother. See... perhaps someone can explain it to me, but I don’t really understand why I hear stories of moms (online usually) who say they had felt “pressure” to breastfeed their child and for some reason the mother couldn’t do it, but felt she shouldn’t have been “pressured” to breastfeed. I feel with the many options mothers have in today’s world people perceive that breastfeeding is just another mothering choice. In my mind breastfeeding is a part of mothering. And I would wish that mothers didn’t feel pressured if people come around and try to advocate and support their breastfeeding journey to be a success. I don’t see why that would be shaming a mother to promote breastfeeding, unless she truly did not want to nurse her child and felt the support was completely unnecessary. Well then that’s her choice and she should be supported as long as her baby is fed... and hopefully she did it informed-ly. Sadly I’m not even sure if people today actually want more information, but rather they want privacy and independence to do whatever they want with their lives and their children’s lives. Okay then. 

There’s another great quote by Ravi where he says that with the world’s egalitarianism of ideas, that you can’t escape that there are natural consequences to each idea. I gotta post the actual quote down in the future. But it’s been burning in my mind to share that... God allows us to make the choices we make. He doesn’t necessarily force us to do what he wants. However every choice has it’s consequences. What you sow is what you reap! I love God’s order. I love how gravity is constant. I love how there is order blessing that follows with obedience, and that there is chaos and judgment when the path of selfishness and disobedience is followed. 

I don’t like scaring people into decisions. But I still like to inform my dear friends who are thinking through their choices about God’s wonderful design and the wonderful scientific facts available to us. For some people they rather not think through consequences long term because for now, it works for them and their family. Bravo. It is a bit present-pragmatic (is that even a word?) but I respect that approach too. Though I love the path I have taken so far and I’m excited what God will do through it, I also acknowledge not everyone’s arrived to the same ideas, and I totally respect a wife who is willing to be lead by her husband’s lead and preferences on raising their family for the glory of God. Mothers, you are wives and helpers to your husbands before you are mothers. Your mothering will have great influence by your husband’s lead... God is watching, and He will take care. 

 - I just want my body back, or sleep, or self-care, or it’s just not good for my mental health. I remember losing my former belly button and realizing it will never look the same after my first was born. I had to grieve that loss and accept my body has given birth to a life and will now be nourishing a life. I am not my own. I was never my own. I am the Lord’s. I am a wife AND a mother now. I need to catch up with reality sometimes. Mother, have you considered what your body is for, and who it belongs to? Do you see your motherhood as a calling from God and a way to worship Him through your mothering duties? I feel in this world, there is an attempt to separate God’s creation from God’s intended purposes and design for that creation- specifically as I am talking about separating sex from children, separating breasts from nursing a child, separating women and wife-hood and motherhood... did you know that it is possible to tend to your sleep and mental health without sacrificing the needs of your child? I feel like I’m getting into potentially judgmental territory because I don’t know what you struggle with at this time so I apologize if this comes across wrongly. For example, did you know that breastfeeding actually causes mom and baby to be relaxed and sleepy? Doesn’t that sound like self-care, right there? Sleep with your baby if you can!! I know some people might not dig the idea of bedsharing... but that’s in the Bible too. Haha. Luke 11:7. I think my expectations of self-care have changed. I remember feeling so miserable about not having my daily showers with being so busy with the newborn stage. Now I don’t even shower every day as I learned it’s actually not good for you (especially, washing with soap that is. However I should treat myself to some “hydrotherapy” more often. Then again, I guess part of my self-care right now is to write this down for you to read right now! 

I also remember being sad I had to hide in a room to avoid making certain men feel uncomfortable during a social gathering. Now I crave those alone times away from crowds and I see nursing as a nice retreat to gather myself before I go out and socialize again. In other scenarios learning to nurse in public has helped me sooth my baby in public while being able to listen to the sermon at church, for example. I’ve learned to be very flexible... we’ve even gone camping with my first at 10 months and she would just go where I went. It made for good memories even though it was a lot of work!  

Mental health story: I remember the pressure of feeling I had to separate from my first child at 4 months old for that date night opportunity... I was not ready at the time. My kind in-laws were offering us a date night I believe. They formula fed their kids so the idea of leaving your child to a caregiver didn’t seem a big of a deal however for me, I wasn’t sure if my kid would even take a bottle yet. It was a pretty big deal to leave my little nursling!! Hehe first time parenting. Anyway, I called up my local LLL leader who reassured me that I can still enjoy dates with my husband while bringing my baby with me. She reassured me that babies are only little for a season and that I should enjoy the time I get with the baby, and consider things like baby wearing and bringing the baby on the date too. She commented things like I just became a mother and it is a transition. I had heard similar advice from a wise woman of 8 children who told me that this season flies by quickly and to enjoy it. Hmm... sometimes we just want to get on with the next stage only to realize we wish we could have savored it more. Not to sound kid-centric but I’m just growing more convinced that if we embrace this season of life, we can deal with it better mentally (self-talk: I am a mother and a wife and I can do both by the grace of the Lord Jesus)... and by asking for help in ways that help me to prioritize the things I care about like sleep, and mental health (e.g. asking help from family and friends with thing related to domestic duties for a season like cooking and cleaning). Now that I have 2 kids I realize the preciousness of any kind of alone time I get with my husband and help I get from others. I am more confident about leaving my kids for a couple of hours. I left my second born at 3 months with her first bottle and told my in-laws we’ll be back, in the mean time I trust you all will survive ;). it gives me perspective that if I were to die one day, my kids would be more than okay and God will take care. That takes a lot of pressure off me as a mom, even though my little ones depend so much on me for a season of time. After having my second I realize the time where they are physically needy is an important time to bond and grow together- I can choose to grumble through it, or be thankful for it and just roll with it. Some days/moments I fail and some days/moments I succeed. Anyway, perspective pays and thank God for His grace to grant us moms with supernatural patience and gentleness and kindness and thankfulness... we can’t do it on our own. We are not our own. Lord please continue to give me more of your perspective...

- We just don’t live in that kind of world, it’s not realistic, lack of support. I’ve heard this personally... that my ideals just don’t fit in this world that we live in. Moms have to go to work. We don’t live near our families. We don’t get the support we need so we can be healthy enough to nurse our children. It doesn’t feel socially acceptable to nurse my child in public. What will people think? It’s kind of gross don’t you think? My child doesn’t need this and already eats food. Well you get to make your own decision. I want to be there to support those who do choose this path, and a support to those who don’t choose the same exact path. I definitely think we need to be a community that supports each other even in our differences, and continue to learn from each other. For survival, for human flourishing, for the glory of God. Ultimately whether someone chooses to breastfeed or not is not really my primary concern. My primary concern is love, whether people understand that or not... Love for God and love for others. Not just in how we make parenting choices, but how we make time to bless one another through the time we spend together, the ideas we might share, and the practical help we provide for one another. Mom’s need support to raise the next generation. This is work of eternal value. It needs community to support this grand endeavour.

Mother to mother wisdom

Titus 2 comes to mind. But also from the inspiration of LLL and other sources of information, I’ve been more and more convinced the value of passing on wisdom, traditions and knowledge via mother to mother. I sense we live in a culture where families are very individualistic, and distant from the previous generation, and are quick to run to the “experts” e.g. their doctor when concerns arise in the care of their child, or the way they handle labour and delivery. I want to share my heart about this as I think this is vital to human flourishing and obeying the Lord in the area of women and childbearing. Shortly my concern is that when people run to health care providers who are not experienced in normal birth and delivery and preparing the woman to conceive and carry a pregnancy and give birth, and nursing well... that it could lead to a negative experience of motherhood (starting from conception) and create unnecessary trauma for a woman and harden her heart towards the idea of having more children going forward, or being fearful of her past traumas. My understanding is that these traumatic experiences don’t have to be the norm (as it is dramatized in our culture about worst case scenarios, and hospitalization of birth as if it were a disease)... instead I would want to advocate healthy motherhood experiences from conception to post-partum so the mother gets the best start to her parenting journey and is encouraged to continue being open to children out of obedience to the Lord. I know maybe it’s not in my job to change a person’s heart on the subject of trusting God with their fertility but I guess I see that the factors that impact a woman’s motherhood could be improved so that the experience of motherhood can be enjoyed for what it was meant to be. There are things that a doctor isn’t necessarily going to tell a mother unless they too themselves are mothers. Actually if a woman were to visit a doctor for their birth, it would be wisest if the doctor was too a woman or a man who is married to a woman who has given birth to many children. I think I can trust testimony from a woman who has successfully given birth and has cared for her body and is proven to be able to care for her families needs. An example that I admire is Serene Allison from Trim Healthy Mama. She looks great after 9 biological kids (I think) and is a grandmother, homeschooler and businesswoman. She has a little one herself and looks like a busy mom and faithful wife and is spiritually lively. 

In conclusion... I am not against formula or those who think differently. But I really love God’s gift of nursing and mothering and wanted to share that to the world and give praise to God as I share. He is good and so wise! There is so much I could write about this topic... as God teaches me but I think this concludes my series on “Motherhood and nursing journey” so far...

Lactivist quotes from theologian John Calvin 

". . .the Lord does not in vain prepare nutriment for children in their mothers' bosoms, before they are born. But those on whom he confers the honor of mothers, he, in this way, constitutes nurses; and they who deem it a hardship to nourish their own offspring, break, as far as they are able, the sacred bond of nature. If disease, or anything of that kind, is the hindrance, they have a just excuse; but for mothers voluntarily, and for their own pleasure, to avoid the trouble of nursing, and thus to make themselves only half-mothers, is a shameful corruption."

The above is a comment from John Calvin's writings about Genesis 21:7, which reads:

7 And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

Love,

Michelle

[ddreamsinc]

Starting An Insurance Company From Scratch - Using The Internet

The2DBlog REPORT by TheDdreamsInc/                          SEE THE VISION. See the vision. What does that mean? It means, that you have to journey outside of reality to see something in the spirit world & write it down & make it plain. What does that mean? Writing it down is a "time castle" on paper or cloth or wood or rock to become a later road map to what you seen in your imagination. Or I call the spirit world. God gives us "ideas" in this spirit world aka imagination, for us to manifest it into the real world. Make it plain, is make it make sense. If it is an invention, then how would it work? Invent the parts to make it work. How would it cost to make & if you planning to sell it or make & sell or distribute yourself or outsource? Make it plain enough for the children could understand. See the vision, write it down & make it plain. Ladies & Gentle, I have Vision. What I am about to share with you is from that world & think about the kind of America would it become? Then you would see why God told "if he wins, he is going to jail" in 2016, because, in a previous vlog episode, I had said, "if he wins, I am not going to do TheDdreamsInc. I would serious about that too. God woke me up to tell me because He knew, I would had TRIPPED, as I did when I woke to hear that he had won. I am just going to give you some of what, I didn't want him to get credit for. One day TheDdreamsInc would have 9 llc's & 3 Non-Profits with 1 of these division would own a chain of, free to all, Medical/Dental/All/Rehab/Natural/pharmacy Centers in 200 US locations & 500 Internationals & the 2nd Non Profit will do transit, day-care, mail/print/money/business store center in the hood & rural areas, a healthcare Insurance international in all 50 US states & 10 territories & 100 nations & Pharmaceutical company (don't ask why). Costs? Well see the medical center will be staff with medical & natural professionals & that means they "protect" health, so they would Knights, The2HKOPs tm. & would have a starting pay of $1.500,000 & up & a staff of 1,500 as Boss Hours #1 C (7 hours shifts & 1 shift with only 4 hour last shift, a team for Tues to Fri & a new team for Sat to Mon, be 6 months on & 6 months at Boss Hours #1 C Schedule by TheDdreamsInc). According to my estimation, it cost $33.6 Trillion for 700 Medical centers, Health Insurance, & Knights payroll budgets & this is just for health projects, I got many projects to target & fix many problems.. Guess what, I am going to have it too. And pay my people like that because I use to be an employee & always wanted to treated & paid that way, so now or soon I would have the chance to do so. I don't like jobs because of how they steal your gifts for lesser value in return. So when my need to get "People Power" to try & help my business grow, I found several issues, in my way. No money, to hire anybody, I ain't HIRED myself yet, I am working "Pro Bono" for my company. The next thing is, I don't like jobs, so why would I create jobs? So I began designing a dream job & when I did the math to how that would cost, I realize, "that's crazy" & impossible. It was then, I started to pity employers, some of them just have the money to create dream jobs. Then I created a pricing system for my brands & created The BOSSICOL Club by TheDdreamsInc (Busy Tribe). When I franchise it to other businesses, your "jobs" will have no other choice but to pay & treat you better, or they would lose candidates for those jobs, to this what God gave me. It was He who "pointed out my job's nastiness" in 2000 & Healed me when I realized that I was of a contract that they made me sign, after hearing one of the ideas of a product. Ever since then, BOSS is what I focused on but now BOSSICOLs Boss Commission members which means, instead making labor commission, I would pay them $374,4000 & up a year to do "duties" for my company. But my Knights? They have to be part-time employees because I want their 100. I have to create any jobs, I would with these knights. Forget about my beef with law enforcement, they would have to face God on that, but these Knights are not for my protection, but to the people's protection. I called them Hardhead, because I mirrored my 12 divisions after my characteristics, so if a family said to me "I'll be back, I am about to go see what this girl is talking about, she said her baby daddy & his friends over there tripping, I'll be back, stay here". Then he leaves. Now, of course my cousin ain't expecting me to just sit there & wait for him to get jump or killed, does he? So when my cousin arrives at his baby momma's house, he closes his door & walk up the door & before he reaches the door, he'll hear "doomp doomp doomp doomp". Look back & see me, my brother, & his brothers walking up to the house too. Of course, he would say "I told y'all not to come, Y'all hard-headed". I would respond, "I want to see a fight too, so if there is a fight, we just want to make sure that it's an even fight, that's all cuz". So if I have to hire, I can't trust them to be just independent contractors nor contractors, because of high sensitive inventions, plans, & secrets of operations that they'll be protecting. I need their 100. To pay them as they matter because when my family, BOSSICOLS & their families, Committees & their families, Customers & their families, & all Human beings are at stake. Plus they'll have access to top-level secrets too, I need for them to be employed by both TheDdreamsInc & The Hard Head knights of Protection division & any other division they'll duty too. Which means they'll 3 jobs & possibly get themselves a BOSSICOL agreement when they on their 6 months rest time. (probably month to month off to on). So If my destiny requires a Knight for protection, then I rather they be dream jobs & give vets a better job option when returning from duty of our nation. If they become homeless off this kind of money & healthcare & time off to chase their dreams too, then they "on something". Dear Government? Are you against God? Then why are you against me? What about helping people makes you so afraid of me? Is it that you afraid black people would unite behind me & that would make your worst nightmare come true? Well, you're off a lot, I will unite the world behind me. Remember God? Yeah, He seems to believe that this is HIS Planet. Ain't nobody showed me a title to it yet, so I am going "assume", that HE IS RIGHT. So black people, as you know, I DON'T KISS BOOTY. My mission is you focused, but not solely, Hebrew & Gentile. I don't want to be your buddies, nope. I am an entrepreneur & you're public servants, y'all stay in y'all lane & I will stay in mine, but we can help each other can we? Yeah, this plan would make your jobs easy, or some of your voters won't like me because of my works to help the people who need it. Most people have decided that money is above life. They are to get an EYE-OPENING Experience from "some".. Some Elites? God is about to speak to them & they will be looking for me soon. In 1 sell, I would be rich & put it right to work, because I don't care to be rich, I know money is only a tool to get stuff done & I am going to USED the MESS OUT OF IT. And the beginning of a new way of doing stuff. Stop fighting God because Change always comes. Please Read a book call "Who move my cheese", it's a book about learning to adapt to change in business or life. Yes, you better adapt to this change or not adaptation would destroy your survival. I have already seen what it would do. Dr. King seen it in a dream, I seen it while I daydreamed, ever since I was a child. I now know that it was God preparing me for it. And He said if I had the vision, that He would provide me with the Provision. To President... But I want to publically state that I want to apologize to Donald Trump (I haven't typed his name since he won). I despised you for your racism but now I Know it is Facts of what God told me about you is true & I now feel sorry for you. I can't imagine the pain & dread you are experiencing now. I felt dread before & it is an ugly thing to feel. I also want to thank you for calling back those planes. It showed me that you're not a bad person at all, just racist. A bad person, likes those around you pushing for that war, would have started that war because you could. But you called it back & that showed leadership. Thank you for that, but now we have to heal this nation. No, I don't need your help, too many of your supporters has also shown to be enemies of this nation, even if the investigators haven't cared to look & I rather not. Not until they prove their love to an untied body of Americans of all races. Also as I knew, that you didn't want to be president in the first place, so when you did become president, you & your wife was frightened about it. You knew, that this was a whole new ball game. But why did you run for it anyway, when you knew of your past? Because you didn't think you would win, didn't you? Neither did I & I was mighty pissed that you had. Well, that's because you underestimated racism in this nation, as we "racism" experts have been yelling at the top of our lungs about. There were more people, out there, who thought like you than you thought, didn't you? Your Ego? Yeah. You're an entrepreneur & not a public servant & being both is not good to that entrepreneur's freedom & the freedom of free enterprise is illegal as a public servant. I knew that & said that when you had won. I thought it would be what would end your job, but it finds out that you had help. "If he wins, he is going to jail" & that is what He meant If you won. When you won, it became illegal, if not already before & then investigated & you got off & kept pushing & oops. I knew that a person can go to jail as an entrepreneur because they think like an entrepreneur would led them from thinking & acting as entrepreneurs & oops. Something like what you've done, huh? Still, you have my apology for being so mean to you but you're not totally innocent, are you? Your racism, I promise that racism is a big issue for me. God used you to bring them out. Now there is elderly white women wearing matching 'I'm a Racist B" t-shirts in the open. You done that & the American people would be better for it. Because the way of hate has welcomed greed which both have become saftey concerns to the body of the world. Hate, Greed, Corruption & willful ignorance are the core issue to the world's problems. If we consumers would untie & stop supporting those who support that stuff, we can weed it out better. Thank you for that. I still do feel sorry for you because you got in way too over your head didn't you? First, when I heard about you & your wife crying when you won & clutching your Bible, I knew why you were crying. But clutching the Bible says to me in that time, YOU BELIEVED in HIM. Good. Then I read about you 2 looking as if you just lost a loved one. It had just hit you to what had just happened huh? I am not a prophet yet, I may be already, just don't hear God like that, He only communicate to me when it is important for me to hear. But I do be getting messages from God through other people & directly from him. The first He did that was to tell me about your future if you won. But comes from what God said that night & my gut. You will not be executed for these crimes, which are the penalty for treason, but you won't be. No God said to me that night, you're going to jail if you won, nothing else. And I believe that is all you would get. No doing yourself harm neither. You can not REPENT if you're dead, God loves you too. You Clutched your Bible before, you should turn back to Him now & He would guide you to what you must do. Sorry dude, you gotta go to jail, because little is watching this. Let me ask? Have you ever got a whooping? No? Figures because if he had, then you would have had a thought of "I can get a whooping if I done this", but since you never experienced that through childhood, then you don't have that. Show me a rich man or woman who still whoop their kids & you're looking at the best down to earth rich person, then adult on the planet. Got money through family, but still got that moral compass which pops or moms whooped into him. I forgive you too. But this is as far I would go too with this apology, because I know how your followers would try & use me as "ploy" they better not dare use my stuff against my will. Do what is right for this nation. All of you. You who I mean too. Thank you & pray & God would lead you. Everybody else. Help God bring His Kingdom to Earth. How? See the vision, write it down & make it plain.

[theconservativebrief]

Over the past 50 years, lots of things have changed in the United States. Here are a few examples.

1) A child’s chance of earning more than his or her parents has plummeted from 90 to 50 percent.

2) Earnings by the top 1 percent of Americans nearly tripled, while middle-class wages have been basically frozen for four decades, adjusting for inflation.

3.) Self-inflicted deaths — from opioid use and other drug addictions — are at record highs.

4) Nearly one in five children in the US are now at risk of going hungry.

5) Among the 35 richest countries in the world, the US now has the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy.

These facts, and many others, are cataloged in a new book by Steven Brill about America’s gradual decline over the last half-century. Brill has been writing about class warfare in the US since 2011, and the picture he paints is as depressing as it is persuasive.

The book argues the people with the most advantages in the American economy have used that privilege to catapult themselves ahead of everyone else, and then rigged the system — to cement their position at the top, and leave the less fortunate behind.

I spoke to Brill about how this came to pass, why the American dream has vanished, and what it will take to undo the damage that’s been done. A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

I read this book as an autopsy of the “American dream.” What happened? Who or what broke the country?

Steven Brill

There isn’t one villain or one pivotal moment, but there really were several different things that started happening at the same time, and they fed off each other.

One example is the movement towards corporate free speech — that supplied the money and the power for all the lawyers who are being hired in Washington to be lobbyists, and to fight regulations, to fight labor laws.

That, in turn, gave companies much more power, and it weakened labor unions, which consequently undermined support for a real program for job retraining in the face of automation, and in the face of global trade.

There were several things like this that made sense at the time, but in retrospect, they kickstarted a chain of events that led to disaster.

The real answer to your question is it takes a fairly complicated, ambitious book to tell the whole story. It’s not a matter of pointing the finger at someone.

For example, the guy who invented mortgage-backed securities didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I’m going to get rich by really tanking the economy.” What he probably thought was “I’m going to get rich by creating something that’s going to make mortgages available for a lot more people,” and he was right at the time. But we all know how that turned out.

Sean Illing

The key distinction you make in the book is between the protected and the unprotected classes. Why is this so important in American society?

Steven Brill

I think it’s a much more relevant distinction than saying people are Democrats or Republicans, or that they’re conservatives or liberals.

The unprotected are all the people in this country who rely on the government in some way to provide for the common good. They actually need public education to be good because that provides opportunity to their children. They need mass transit. They need a fair tax code. They need someone to answer the phone at the Social Security Administration when they get their Social Security check.

And what’s happened over the last three or four years is that big swaths of the unprotected people in this country have gotten very frustrated and angry that basically nothing is working for them — whether it’s the economy, or the highways, or the power grid, or the tax code, or job training programs, or public education, or health care. They basically have the sense that the government’s responsibility to provide for the common good is gone. It’s evaporated.

This is why they reacted, or at least 46 percent of them reacted, the way they did in the 2016 election, which was really an effect of severe frustration — “Let’s just elect this guy who’s promising all this stuff. He seems really unconventional, but at least he says exactly what’s on his mind. Let’s try this.”

Sean Illing

And the protected class?

Steven Brill

Well, they’re the “winners” in our system who don’t need a good system of public education because their kids go to private school, who don’t care about mass transit because they can afford to drive anywhere, and they don’t need public health care because they can pay for private coverage.

In short, they’re not invested in the common good because they’re protected, and the system is rigged to keep them that way.

Sean Illing

The story of decline you tell really begins about 50 years ago, so is this basically a story of how a subset of the baby boomer generation drove the country off a cliff?

Steven Brill

That may be too much of a generalization, but I wouldn’t knock it because it’s basically right.

The particular baby boomers that I have in mind are the high achievers in the knowledge economy — the corporate lawyers who helped take companies over, the bankers who created derivatives and stock buybacks, and so forth. We became an economy that basically moved assets around instead of creating new assets.

Sean Illing

You seem hesitant to say that the country is broken, and yet when you look at all the relevant measures — public engagement, income inequality, wage levels, satisfaction, knowledge of public policy, faith that the next generation will do better than the current one — we’re at or near historic lows.

Steven Brill

Oh, I haven’t said that we’re not broken, only that I don’t think we’re irretrievably broken. I think we can still fix things.

The core promise of the American dream has always been that you can do better than your parents. “If you work hard and you play by the rules,” as Bill Clinton used to say, “you can make it in this country.”

For a large swath of the country, the majority of the country, that’s just not true anymore.

Sean Illing

You make an interesting argument that America hasn’t abandoned its core values but instead has become a victim of those values. Can you explain?

Steven Brill

I say that they’ve been hijacked. It’s possible to have too much of a good thing, right? We decided that we needed more democracy in our politics. What better way to do that than to allow people to go to the polls and vote in primary elections, to choose their nominees? That has not worked out so well. What the founding fathers wanted was a representative democracy, not a pure democracy.

We have much more of a pure democracy today, and it has its virtues, but it also has its problems. When you combine that notion of pure democracy with the total monetization of that democracy by having no limits on what people can spend and no limits on what rich people or rich corporations can contribute, you have a democracy that just doesn’t work.

Sean Illing

Has America been victimized by its own meritocracy? Have the people who worked or innovated their way to the top used their advantages to engineer what amounts to an aristocracy?

Steven Brill

It’s been victimized by its own failures. The way it was victimized is that the smartest, most driven, most talented people were able to take those values and use them to their own advantage at the expense of the common good.

For a country to work, you have to have balance between personal ambition and personal achievements and the common good.

The way you do that is to have all kinds of guardrails on the system. In finance, you have regulatory guardrails. You have labor laws that produce something like a level playing field between employer and employee. You have consumer protection laws. You do all kinds of things to create these guardrails so that the winners can’t win in a way that hurts everybody else. That’s what we’ve lost.

Sean Illing

You used the phrase “common good” a couple times there, and I think that gets to the core problem. We don’t have a common good anymore — if we ever did have one. We live in country with almost no social capital, no real civic bonds. A generation of Americans have exploited the rules of our system, hoarded all the gains for themselves, and then rigged the game in their favor. And they did it because they feel no obligation whatsoever to the country that provided the opportunities or to their fellow citizens.

Steven Brill

No question. In many cases, the people doing the most damage aren’t breaking any laws or consciously trying to hurt anyone else. They’re simply doing what they were told to do — go to prestigious law schools, get a job at a prestigious law firm, and make lots of money.

But the end result of what they’ve done is increase the gap between the protected and the unprotected, and to create a country that is more unequal and less fair.

Sean Illing

If the protected class, as you call them, was wise enough to see beyond their own immediate self-interest, they’d be playing the long game here. They’d see that if things get bad enough, there will no one left to exploit, no system to rig, no game to win.

Steven Brill

That’s exactly right. A big theme in the book is short-term thinking. One example is ignoring the decline of infrastructure, because infrastructure is a really slow-moving crisis until a bridge collapses, as it did in Minneapolis.

That bridge was inspected and deemed to have been dangerously defective 15 years before it collapsed, but politicians don’t win headlines for saying, “I’m going to repair that bridge.”

That’s the sort of short-term thinking that is ruining us.

It happens on Wall Street all the time. If you do stock buybacks instead of investing in your company, you get a quick hit to the stock price. Your quarterly bonus goes up, but the long-term interests of not only the country but actually the corporation that you’re supposed to be serving is not served.

Short-term thinking like this drives everything now, in business and in politics, and it’s making it impossible to invest in the country’s long-term health. Can you imagine Congress or the president today coming up with a 20-year plan to build an interstate highway system, as Eisenhower did in 1958? Nobody does that anymore. And that’s our problem.

Sean Illing

Where, then, does that leave us? If the values and institutions that made America great have been corrupted, is there any point in trying to salvage them? Or do we need new values, new institutions, new ways of doing politics?

Steven Brill

I think we need to redirect our old values. The values that were hijacked — the First Amendment, due process, meritocracy, the financial and legal engineering — they need to be redirected to undo some of the damage that’s been done.

We have to demand leaders in Washington and state capitals who unite us, who will tell the frustrated middle class that they have more in common with the poor than with the protected class. If we can’t do these things, we’re in trouble.

I conceived the book as an autopsy of the “American dream” when I started, but I also realized that there was another part of the story.

In the course of trying to collect all the facts for the autopsy, I started talking to the people who were tackling campaign finance or infrastructure or income inequality, and I realized that there were a lot of people out there doing really important work, really good work.

So yes, things are very bad, but the patient isn’t quite dead yet — there are some cures that are still possible.

Original Source -> An autopsy of the American dream

via The Conservative Brief