For many people, there is a world of anguish, conflict, and victory they face on the daily basis. Youth can be the most exuberant, the most careless, the most self-sure, and the most unselfconsciously productive stage of life. However, in modern times, youth are being used as medical and psychological experiments by the TV news media, Democrats, and clinicians researching transgender procedures and treatment. Following gender roles and making decisions about your body are usually best left to mature adults. For example, when I was five years old, my ear was pierced because it was trendy and an adult decided that it would be cool. By the time I was a teenager, the piercing closed, but I had my ear pierced again because it was still a trend. However, as a mature adult, I wish that my ear had never been pierced because it was a trend and unnecessary. I do not want to put holes in my body, damage it, or scar it. I believe that some people who decide to change their gender, as a minor or a young adult, may be deciding on a procedure that may be irreversible and that they may regret later. I believe that before people make a life-changing decision about their gender, they should seek religious counseling and therapy with a psychiatrist to make sure that one is not being brainwashed or following a trend. Youth are most susceptible to the propaganda of ideological systems which promise a new world perspective at the price of total and cruel repudiation of the standard one. #RandolphHarris 1 of 31

Many young people are looking for ideologies. When they go to high school and college, youth are exposed to a militant system with uniformed members with uniform goals; at least, it is a “way of life,” or what the Germans call a Weltanschauung, a world-view which is consonant with existing theory, available knowledge, and common sense, and yet is significantly more: an utopian outlook, a cosmic mood, or a doctrinal logic, all shared as self-evident beyond any need for demonstration. What is to be relinquished as “old,” such as God, patriotism, respect, gender roles, work, hygiene, and home ownership, for example, may be the individual’s previous life; this usually means the perspectives intrinsic to the life-style of the parents, who are thus discarded contrary to all traditional safeguards of filial devotion. The “old” may be a part of himself, which must henceforth be subdued by some rigorous self-denial in a private life-style or through membership in a militant or military organization; or, it may be the world-view of other castes and classes, races and peoples: in the case, these people become not only expendable, but the appointed victims of the most righteous annihilation. The need for devotion, then, is one aspect of the identity crisis that we, as psychologists, attribute to all these tendencies and susceptibilities. The need for repudiation is another aspect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 31

In their late teens and early twenties, even when there is no explicit ideological commitment or even interest, young people offer devotion to individual leaders and to teams, to strenuous activities, and to difficult techniques; at the same time, they show a sharp and intolerant readiness to discard and disavow people (including, at times, themselves). This repudiation is often snobbish, fitful, perverted, or simply thoughtless. These constructive and destructive aspects of youthful energy have been and continue to be employed in shaping and reshaping tradition in many diverse areas. Youth stand between the past and the future, both in individual life and in society; it also stands between alternate ways of life. Ideologies offer to the members of this age group overly simplified and yet determined answers to exactly those vague inner states and those urgent questions which arise in consequence of identity conflict. Ideologies serve to channel youth’s forceful earnestness and sincere asceticism, as well as its search for excitement and its eager indignation, toward that social frontier where the struggle between conservatism and radicalism is most alive. On that frontier, fanatic ideologists do their busy work and psychopathic leaders their dirty work; but there, also, true leaders create significant solidarities. #RandolphHarris 3 of 31

In its search for that combination of freedom and discipline, of adventure and tradition, which suits its state, youth may exploit (and be exploited by) the most varied devotions. Subjecting itself to hardship and discipline, it may seek sanctioned opportunities for spatial dispersion, follow wandering apprenticeships, heed the call of frontiers, man the outposts of new nations, fight (almost anybody’s) holy wars, or test the limits of locomotive machine-power. By the same token, it is ready to provide the physical power and the vociferous noise of rebellions, riots, and lynchings, often knowing little and caring less for the real issues involved. On the other hand, it is most eager to adopt rules of physical restriction and of utter intellectual concentration, be it in the study of ancient books, the contemplation of self-actualized Christians, or the striving for the new—for example, in the collective “sincerity” of modern thought reform. Even when it leads to destruction and to repudiation without any apparent cause, as in delinquent gangs, in colonies of perverts and addicts, or in the circles of petty snobs, it rarely does so without some obedience, some solidarity, some hanging on to elusive values. Societies, knowing that young people change rapidly even in their most intense devotions, are apt to give them a moratorium, a span of time after they have ceased being children, but before their deeds and works count toward a future identity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 31

When people leave an organization, they should leave in a quiet and prescribed way. One should know that they are marking time before they come to their crossroad, which they often do in their late twenties, belatedly, just because they gave their all to the temporary subject of devotion. The crisis in such a young man’s life may be reached exactly when he half-realizes that he is fatally overcommitted to what he is not. As a witness to the predicament of over-commitment, let me quote a senior citizen who, looking back on his own youth, had to admit that no catastrophe or failure stopped him in his tracks, but rather the feelings that things were going meaninglessly well. Somehow, events in his life were coming to a head, but he felt that he was being lived by them, rather than living them. A man in this predicament is apt to choose the kind of lonely and stubborn moratorium which all but smothers its own creative potential. George Bernard Shaw describes his crisis clearly and unsparingly. “I made good in spite of myself, and found, to my dismay, that Business, instead of expelling me as the worthless imposter I was, was fastening upon me with no intention of letting me go. Behold me, therefore, in my twentieth year, with a business training, in an occupation which I detested as cordially as any sane person lets himself detest anything he cannot escape from. In March, 1876 I broke loose.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 31

Breaking loose meant to leave family and friends, business and Ireland, and to avoid the danger of success without identity, of a success unequal to “the enormity of my unconscious ambition.” He thus granted himself a prolongation of the interval between youth and adulthood. He writes: “…when I left my native city I left this phase behind me, and associated no more with men of my age until, after about eight years of solitude in this respect, I was drawn into the Socialist revival of the early eighties, among Englishmen intensely serious and burning with indignation at very real and very fundamental evils that affected all of the world.” In the meantime, Mr. Shaw apparently avoided opportunities, sensing that, “Behind the conviction that they could lead to nothing that I wanted, lay the unspoken fear that they might lead to something I did not want.” We must grant some young people, then, the paradoxical fear of a negative success, a success which would commit them in a direction where, they feel, they will not “grow together.” Potentially creative men like Mr. Shaw build the personal fundament of their work during a self-decreed moratorium, during which they often starve themselves, socially, erotically, and last but not least, nutritionally, to let the grosser weeds die out, and make way for the growth of their inner garden. Often, when the weeds are dead, so is the garden. #RandolphHarris 6 of 31

At the decisive moment, however, some make contact with a nutriment specific for their gifts. For Mr. Shaw, of course, this gift was literature. As he dreamt of a number of professional choices, “of literature I had no dreams at all, any more than a duck has of swimming.” He did not dream of it, but he did it, and with a degree of ritualization close to what clinicians call an “obsessive compensation.” This often balances a temporary lack of inner direction with an almost fanatic concentration on activities which maintain whatever work habits the individual may have preserved. “I bought supplies of white paper, demy size, by sixpence-worths at a time; folded it in quarto; and condemned myself to fill five pages of it a day, rain or shine, dull or inspired. I had so much of the schoolboy and the clerk still in me that if my five pages ended in the middle of a sentence I did not finish it until the next day. On the other hand, if I missed a day, I made up for it by doing a double task on the morrow. On this plan I produced five novels in five years. It was my professional apprenticeship…” We may add that these five novels were not published for over fifty years, at which time Mr. Shaw, in a special introduction, tried to dissuade the potential buyer from reading them, while recommending to his attention their biographical importance. To such an extent was Mr. Shaw aware of their true function and meaning; although his early work habits were almost pathological in their compulsive addictiveness, they were autotherapeutic in their perseverance: “I have risen by sheer gravitation, too industrious by acquired habit to stop working (I work as my father drank).” #RandolphHarris 7 of 31

Therapeutic as well as reformist efforts verify the sad truth that in any system based on suppression, exclusion, and exploitation, the suppressed, excluded, and exploited unconsciously accept the evil image they are made to represent by those who are dominant. I once had as a patient a tall, intelligent ranch owner who was influential in western agriculture. Nobody but his wife knew that he was born a Jew and raised in a Jewish neighborhood in a large city. His life, while outwardly expansive and successful, was made uncomfortable by a network of compulsions and phobias which, in analysis, proved to have reproduced and superimposed on his free movements in western valleys the outline of the street in which he grew up. His friends and adversaries, his elders and his inferiors, all unknowingly played the roles of the German boys or the Irish gangs who had made the little Jewish boy miserable on his daily walk to school, which led him from an isolated and more refined Jewish street through the hostile remnants of tenements and gang warfare to the short-lived haven of the democratic classroom. This man’s analysis provided a sad commentary on the fact that Streicher’s presentation of an evil Jewish identity is no worse than that harbored by many a Jew who—with paradoxical results—may still be trying to live it down in an area where his past could be relatively unimportant in view of what he is. #RandolphHarris 8 of 31

The patient in question sincerely felt that the only true savior for the Jews would be a plastic surgeon. In the body ego of such cases of morbid ego identity, those body parts which are supposed to be of strategic importance in the characterization of the race (in this case, the nose; in that of the dancer, the backbone) play a role like that of the afflicted limb in a cripple and that of the genitals in neurotics in general. The body part in question has a different ego tonus; it is felt to be larger and heavier, or smaller and disembodied, and in both cases, it feels dissociated from the whole body, while seeming to dominate the attention of others. In case of morbid ego identity and in cripples, dreams occur where the dreamer unsuccessfully tries to hide the painfully spotlighted body part, and others in which he accidentally loses it. What may be called an individual’s ego space-time preserves the social topology of his childhood surroundings as well as the outline of his body image. To study both, it is essential to correlate a patient’s childhood history with the history of his family’s sedentary residence in prototypical regions in the East, in the South, or on the western and northern frontiers, as these areas were gradually incorporated into the American version of the Anglo-Saxon cultural identity; his family’s migration from, through, and to areas which, at various periods, may have represented the extreme sedentary or the extreme migratory pole of the developing American character; the family’s religious conversions or diversions, with their class implications; abortive attempts at becoming standardized on a class level and the loss or abandonment of that level; and most of all, that individual or family segment which, whatever they were doing and wherever they were doing it, provided the last strong sense of cultural identity. #RandolphHarris 9 of 31

A compulsive patient’s deceased grandfather was a businessman who built a mansion in a downtown district of an eastern metropolis. His will demanded that the mansion should stand and remain the family’s castle even though skyscrapers and apartment houses mushroomed all around it. The mansion became a somewhat sinister symbol of conservatism, telling the world that the X’s needed neither to move nor to sell, neither to expand nor to rise. The conveniences of modern travel were accepted only as comfortably insulated pathways between the mansion and its extensions: the club, the summer home, the private school, Harvard, etcetera. The grandfather’s picture still hangs over the fireplace, a little bulb eternally lighting the rosiness of the cheeks in his generally powerful and contented countenance. His “individualistic” ways in business and his almost primeval power over the fate of his children are known but not questioned; rather, they are overcompensated for by a sensitive show of respect, scrupulousness, and thrift. The grandsons of such men know that in order to find an identity of their own, they must break out of the mansion and join the mad striving which has engulfed the neighborhood. Some do, successfully; others take the mansion with them as an internalized pattern, a basic ego space, which determines their defense mechanism of proud and pained withdrawal and their symptoms of obsessiveness and sexual anesthesia. Their psychoanalyses last inordinately long, partially because the analyst’s four walls become the new mansion and the analyst’s completive silence and theoretical approach become a new edition of the mansion’s ritualistic isolation. The patient’s politely “positive” transference, however, ends when the reticence of the analyst seems to resemble the restrained father rather than the ruthless grandfather. #RandolphHarris 10 of 31

The father image, and with it the transference, appears to be split up. The image of the weak, mild faher of the present is isolated from the Oedipal father image, which is fused with that of the powerful grandfather. As the analysis approaches this double image, fantasies appear which make plain the grandfather’s overwhelming importance for the patient’s real ego identity. They betray the violent sense of power, the fury of superiority which makes it hard for these overtly inhibited people to enter economic competition except on terms of prearranged superior privileges. These men, of the once highest strata, join those from the very lowest in being the truly disinherited in American life. From where they are, there is no admission to free competition, unless they have the strength to start all over again. If not, they may resist cure because it implies a chance in ego identity, an ego resynthesis in terms of changed economic history. The only way of breaking through this deep resignation is serious attention to memories which show that the child has experienced the grandfather really as a simple and warm man who fulfilled his public role not by force of some primeval power, but because history favored his capabilities. It is much easier to talk oneself hoarse in a “protest meeting” expressing righteous anger or to get a sore finger writing newspaper articles than it is to blow up bridges during the occupation of American territory. Remember, Mr. Hitler was a speaker and used inflection to convey meaning, which is lost in writing. He called protesters courageous in sarcastic jab, meaning they were actually cowards. #RandolphHarris 11 of 31

America is a great country, and every state is founded on force. If no social institutions existed which knew the use of violence, then the concept of “state” would be eliminated, and a condition would emerge that could be designated as “anarchy,” in the specific sense of this word. Of course, force is certainly not the normal or the only means of the state—nobody says that—but force is a means specific to the state. Today, the relation between the state and violence is especially intimate one. In the past, the most varied institutions—beginning with the sib—have known the use of physical force as quite normal. Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. Note that “territory” is one of the characteristics of the state. Specifically, at the present time, the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it. The state is considered the sole source of the “right” to use violence. Hence, “politics” for us means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state. People compare President Trump to Mr. Hitler because they are both charismatic. Some people see Mr. Hitler as a good person, and they appreciate his contributions to Germany. Many people want to see President Trump take on a more authoritative use of power and get America back in control. #RandolphHarris 12 of 31

Currently, there is a lot of crime, corruption and murder, riots, and robberies going on in many cities in America. Here is a sample of an oath most law enforcement is supposed to uphold. “I solemnly vow to the people of said state, upon my honor as an officer and citizen, to discharge the duties of an officer of the said State Police to the best of my ability, to adhere to the rules and regulations of the said State Police, and to adopt the Agency’s mission and goals into my everyday life. I pledge to be honest in thought, word, and deed; to maintain unimpeachable integrity; to be just, fair, and impartial; to be steadfast against evil and its temptations; and to give my utmost to protect the rights, property, and lives of our citizens. I shall strive to give thoughtful, intelligent obedience to the commands of my superiors, to make my conduct friendly but impartial, courteous but firm, and charitable to the inadvertent violator. But I shall never compromise with crime and shall, at all times, uphold the Constitution and laws of my country and the said state.” However, as federal law enforcement is out in the streets to uphold law and order, they are being attacked by protestors, their cars are being rammed, and their lives are being threatened, and some police will not stand up and help their brothers and sisters in law enforcement. For example, police in Chicago were told not to help ICE agents while they were being threatened by an angry mob, and this violates their oath. National police unions are calling the Chicago Police Department’s refusal to help ICE agents a “shocking” violation of duty. #RandolphHarris 13 of 31

Like the political institutions historically preceding it, the state is a relation of men dominating men, a relation supported by means of legitimate (id est, considered to be legitimate) violence. If the state is to exist, the dominated must obey the authority claimed by the powers that be. In principle, there are three inner justifications, hence basic legitimations of domination. First, the authority of the “eternal yesterday,” id est, of the mores sanctified through the unimaginably ancient recognition and habitual orientation to conform. This is “traditional” domination exercised by the patriarch and the patrimonial prince of yore. There is the authority of the extraordinary and personal gift of grace (charisma), the absolutely personal devotion and personal confidence in revelation, heroism, or other qualities of individual leadership. This is “charismatic” domination, as exercised by the prophet or—in the field of politics—by the elected war lord, the plebiscitarian ruler, the great demagogue, or the political party leader. Finally, there is domination by virtue of “legality,” by virtue of the belief in the validity of legal statute and functional “competence” based on rationally created rules. In this case, obedience is expected in discharging statutory obligations. This is domination as exercised by the modern “servant of the state” and by all those bearers of power who in this respect resemble him. #RandolphHarris 14 of 31

It is understood that, in reality, obedience is determined by highly robust motives of fear and hope—fear of the vengeance of magical powers or of the power-holder, hope for reward in this world or in the beyond—and besides all this, by interests of the most varied sort. However, in asking for the “legitimations” of this obedience, one meets with these three “pure” types: “traditional,” “charismatic,” and “legal.” These conceptions of legitimacy and their inner justifications are of very great significance for the structure of domination. To be sure, the pure types are rarely found in reality. However, today, we cannot deal with the highly complex variants, transitions, and combinations of these pure types, which problems belong to “political science.” Here, we are interested above all in the second of these types: domination by virtue of the devotion of those who obey the purely personal “charisma” of the “leader.” For this is the root of the idea of a calling in its highest expression. Devotion to the charisma of the prophet, or the leader in war, or to the great demagogue in the ecclesia or in parliament, means that the leader is personally recognized as the innerly “called” leader of men. Men do not obey him by virtue of tradition or statute, but because they believe in him. If he is more than a narrow and vain upstart of the moment, the leader lives for his cause and “strives for his work. The devotion of his disciples, his followers, his personal party friends is oriented to his person and to its qualities. #RandolphHarris 15 of 31

Charismatic leadership has emerged in all places and in all historical epochs. Most importantly in the past, it has emerged in the two figures of the magician and the prophet on the one hand, and in the elected war lord, the gang leader and condtierre on the other hand. Political leadership in the form of the free “demagogue” who grew from the soil of the city state is of greater concern to us; like the city state, the demagogue is peculiar to the Occident and especially to Mediterranean culture. Furthermore, political leadership in the form of the parliamentary “party leader” has grown on the soil of the constitutional state, which is also indigenous only to the Occident. These politicians, by virtue of a “calling,” in the most genuine sense of the word, are, of course, nowhere the only decisive figures in the cross-currents of the political struggle for power. The sort of auxiliary means that are at their disposal is also highly decisive. How do the politically dominant powers manage to maintain their domination? The question pertains to any kind of domination, hence, also to political domination in all its forms, traditional as well as legal and charismatic. Organized domination, which calls for continuous administration, requires that human conduct be conditioned to obedience toward those masters who claim to be the bearers of legitimate power. In the other hand, by virtue of this obedience, organized domination requires the control of those material goods which in a given case are necessary for the use of physical violence. Thus, organized domination requires control of the personal executive staff and the material implements of administration. #RandolphHarris 16 of 31

The administrative staff, which externally represents the organization of political domination, is, of course, like any other organization, bound by obedience to the power-holder and not alone by the concept of legitimacy, of which we have just spoken. There are two other means, both of which appeal to personal interests: material reward and social honor. The fiefs of vassals, the prebends of patrimonial officials, the salaries of modern civil servants, the honor of knights, the privileges of estates, and the honor of the civil servant comprise their respective wages. The fear of losing them is the final and decisive basis for solidarity between the executive staff and the power-holder. There is honor and booty for the followers in war; for the demagogue’s following, there are “spoils”—that is, exploitation of the dominated through the monopolization of office—and there are politically determined profits and premiums of vanity. All of these rewards are also derived from the domination exercised by a charismatic leader. To maintain a dominion by force, certain material goods are required, just as with an economic organization. All starts may be classified according to whether they rest on the principle that the staff of men themselves own the administrative means, or whether the staff is “separated” from these means of administration. This distinction holds in the same sense in which today we say that the salaried employee and the proletarian in the capitalistic enterprise are “separated” from these means of administration. This distinction holds in the same sense in which today we say that the salaried employee and the proletarian in the capitalistic enterprise are “separated” from the material means of production. The power-holder must be able to count on the obedience of the staff members, officials, or whoever else they may be. #RandolphHarris 17 of 31

The administrative means may consist of money, building, war material, vehicles, horses, or whatnot. The question is whether or not the power-holder himself directs and organizes the administration while delegating executive power to personal servants, hired officials, or personal favorites and confidants, who are non-owners, id est, who do not use the material means of administration in their own right but are directed by the lord. This distinction runs through all administrative organizations of the past. The award-winning Sacramento Fire Department is another form of an organization. When it comes to their apparatus, they tend to invest a lot of money in preventative maintenance (PM) to prevent the big, expensive repairs. A good PM program also reduces the chance of a catastrophic failure at an emergency incident. Occasionally, these failures result in the apparatus being scrapped out. Personnel, on the other hand, are run until they are broken and sent out for “repair.” Very little is invested in PM compared to the cost spent on repairs. If you are not sure, check the numbers at your fire department. Compare money spent on workers’ compensation and lost time with annual physicals, workout equipment, workout injuries, and annual fitness evaluations. Although the fire department invests heavily to prevent the catastrophic failure of apparatus at incidents, a lack of PM for personnel leads to far too many failures. #RandolphHarris 18 of 31

Wellness Fitness Initiative (WFI) studies have shown that by increasing the proactive costs of personnel maintenance, the Sacramento Fire Department reduces the reactive cost of personnel “repairs.” Our discussion usually uses statistics from line-of-duty deaths (LODDs). Initiative 9 deals with near-misses, the times during which an LODD could have easily occurred. When we are talking about catastrophic failures of personnel, it has to include near-misses. Preliminary reports indicate that heart attacks are the leading cause of LODDs among firefighters. An Indianapolis report cited that an estimated 765 firefighters had heart attacks in the line of duty in 2005. Just because they survived, it does not mean they were not catastrophic failures. It would be safe to say that a good many of those were not able to return to work. Preventive maintenance for the engine includes an oil change, lubrication, and inspection. Because the Sacramento Fire Department already does a great job with apparatus maintenance, why reinvent the wheel? There are several steps they take throughout the year to ensure that their apparatus is ready to respond. Some of these steps can be compared to personnel. If your department is able to provide medical physicals and fitness evaluations, they should be timed appropriately. Like fire apparatus, there is a definite advantage to scheduling the annual medical physical just prior to annual fitness testing. One evening, two firefighters lost their lives in the line of duty. Two men were buried under tons of debris when a 50-foot section of the north wall of a two-story building collapsed without warning and pinned them against the house next door. The blaze was initially discovered by a business owner, who was in the office of the building and smelled smoke. He found the fire and tried to fight the flames with a fire extinguisher. He emptied the extinguisher on the growing blaze and then summoned the fire department around 6pm. #RandolphHarris 19 of 31

 The fire companies arrived within minutes only to find the building nearly engulfed in flames and the entire roof of the structure burning. By 6.15, the roof had fallen into the building, and the fire raged out of control. The raging fire was fed by the contents of the building, which included two lumber and various chemicals, such as Naphtha, Benzene, and Kerosene, all which were used in the paint shop. Thick, oily smoke covered the area as firefighters struggled with the blazing building. The radiant heat from the fire made the hydrant at the front of the building unusable. The water pressure in the mains was raised from 60 to 80 pounds and eventually reached 115 pounds where it was maintained until the fire was brought under control. As the evening wore on, Fire Chief made the rounds around the building and noticed the north wall beginning to bulge. Three firefighters were manning a hose in the alley between the building and the house next door. The men were warned several times to watch the wall because it was becoming dangerously unstable. Heeding the warnings of the Chief, they had retreated to where their backs were against the house across the alley. If the wall collapsed, they believed they were out of harms way. One of the firefighters left to walk around the rear of the house to check the condition of the wall and to move the crowd back from the alley.  Suddenly, the wall collapsed outwardly into the alley. The wall instantly buried two of the remaining firefighters. Witnesses said the men had no time to feel and were caught in the collapse. The firefighter who was moving the crowd back escaped with a broken arm and several cuts from the falling bricks. RandolphHarris 20 of 31

If you see a fire truck stopped in the street without the lights on, be very careful. Sometimes there is an emergency, and you should not pass the fire truck. It might be a good idea to safely turn around and go another way because if you hit someone and they happen to die, you could be charged with manslaughter. Sometimes fire firefighters are getting back into their vehicle, and if you pass the apparatus, you may collide with a firefighter who is on foot. Also, be sure to look at their signals; sometimes emergency vehicles are in motion, albeit slowly, and drivers try to pass them, and this could lead to a dangerous situation. Also, if you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other people’s problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation, and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. #RandolphHarris 21 of 31

California is the third most expensive state in the nation. In 37 percent of counties, a family of four living on a six-figure income is now considered low-income. The average home price in California is nearly $1,000,000.00 USD, while the average salary is $96,036.00, meaning that most Californians cannot even afford to buy a home. California is having an affordability crisis. A single person making an income above $100,000 is now considered low-income in five counties in California. This distinction now applies to individuals living in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin counties. The maximum percentage of your gross income that you should earmark for a monthly mortgage payment is calculated at 28 percent, and no more than 36 percent of your gross income to all debts, including mortgage. If you take 28 percent of the median household income per home in Sacramento County, homeowners can only afford a mortgage of $2,070.23 per month. And if you take 36 percent of their gross income to all debts, including mortgage, they should be devoting no more than $2,661.72 a month to these debts. The mortgage lenders must be using some kind of sorcery to get buyers into these expensive homes. To afford one of these homes using traditional guidelines, a household would need to gross $11,280.24 per month or $135,362.88 per year, but the median household in Sacramento County is grossing $7,393.67 a month or $88,724.00 annually, and that typically means two to four people in the home are working and contributing to the mortgage. Home prices in Sacramento County are rivaling the Bay Area, and in some cases, homes in the Bay Area are more affordable. Historically, homes in the Bay Area have been more expensive because they have higher-paying jobs, a larger population, and the Bay Area is a tourist destination. Contributing to the housing affordability crisis is Gavin Newsom, who has been lavishing illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded resources and cash aid, when state workers should be receiving a 25 percent wage increase instead. #RandolphHarris 22 of 31

In 2025, many people in California saw their bills increase by an estimated $500 a month. This includes items such as food, automobile insurance, homeowners’ insurance, and electricity. In fact, more than 3 million people in California are facing household hardship, and more than 300,000 of them are facing eviction soon. This comes at a time when California is having a shortage of affordable housing. The crisis is caused by nearly half a century-old laws that discourage home sales and encourage higher rents. The incompetence in California is very easy to see. From 2018 to 2023, California received $24 billion, which they used to fund 30 homeless and housing programs. These programs created 100,000 units. That is an average cost of $240,000 per unit. In comparison, Roger Lucas, owner of Grand Castle, LLC, spent $50 million to build The Grand Castle, which is a 522-unit residential apartment community in Grandville, Michigan. The community includes studios, 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, 3 bedrooms, and even a multi-level penthouse. Rents generally range from $1,000 to $2,500. The community is a 23.6-acre site. It features 750 covered parking spaces, a clubhouse, a resort-style swimming pool, and was built over a period of 12 to 18 months. The average cost was about $95,785.45 per unit, which is $144,214.55 less per unit than California spent. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.5 percent. As people are seeing their bills skyrocket, and minimum wage has increased to $20 an hour, people on Social Security retirement are really bearing the burden with the checks the typically equate to $5-$7 an hour. Furthermore, while Americans are struggling to find and afford housing, Gavin Newsom, Democrat governor of California, signed two bills into law on February 7, 2025, to protect illegal immigrants. Bills SBX 1 1: Budget Act of 2024, and SBX 1 2: Budget Act of 2024, allocates $50 million to protect illegal immigrants from deportation. Governor Gavin Newsom also granted 700,000 illegal immigrants free health care, which costs taxpayers $3 billion annually. At the same time, Newsom cut vital programs for veterans, school children, the disabled, and the homeless. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. #RandolphHarris 23 of 31

Meanwhile, China, where we are sending all our jobs and money, has more than 50 ghost cities, with 65 million vacant homes. Ghost cities are regions where housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. If they are all officially counted, California has approximately 4 million homeless people. The highest home prices in the nation, the highest taxes, and the most unfriendly business regulations known to man.  Because California is so hostile towards people and businesses, more than 360 companies have fled the state since 2020. Businesses like Chevron, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard are among the names on that list. Also, more than 500,000 people a year are abandoning California because it is too expensive to live in, Gavin Newsom has criminalized homelessness and actually started arresting people without homes, crime is out of control, and they are losing their jobs due to companies relocating. More than 100 companies have announced layoffs in California for 2025. Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, PayPal is cutting 2,500, and Meta has terminated 4,000 employees. California also has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.4 percent, while the national average is 4.1 percent. The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages, and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. Accordingly, California has more than 3.5 million illegal immigrants. Having the Southern American border open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce, and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security-relevant alerts, such as the end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. #RandolphHarris 24 of 31

Additionally, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be uneducated about economics. Newsom has spent $300 million to try to stop proposition 50. Proposition 50 would replace the maps drawn by the state’s independent commission with districts drawn by legislators solely to gain or protect Democratic seats. Newsom only cares about the environment when his policies allow him to raise taxes and restrict freedoms. To further highlight this illustration of incompetence by Governor Gavin Newsom, Mexico has been causing one of America’s worst environmental disasters. Fifty million gallons a day of industrial chemicals, untreated sewage, and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County daily. This toxic waste has been turning up on Imperial Beach and is causing the miles of white sands to become polluted and the ocean breeze to smell of feces, which has been sickening residents and wildlife and costing San Diego millions in the form of lost tourism and health problems. The problem has been going on for more than a century, and by 2030, Mexico plans to dump one hundred and twenty million gallons of sewage a day into Imperial Beach. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure such as the 2025 Palisades fire. Southern California ran out of water because Newsom is totally neglecting the state and the American people. And while the fire departments in California are critically understaffed and underfunded, Governor Newsom vetoed firefighter pay raise. THe Palisades fire cost $275 billion, which is money that could have been used to insure the State of California had the resources it needed. Furthermore, when Southern California is located next to an ocean, Newsom should have invested in desalination plants to help with the water shortage in California. The water in the ocean is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. Desalination has been identified as one technology that will help solve California’s water scarcity problem. Desalination is a cost-effective technology that can transform an abundance of salt water into a reliable supply of potable, fresh water, which is a great way to fight climate change and have enough water for our region’s water requirements. Ras Al Khair, Saudi Arabia, is producing 1,036,000 meters (273,682,192) per day of desalinated water. #RandolphHarris 25 of 31

America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care for its infrastructure, provide adequate resources, or end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last are considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. As a result, the American automobile trade deficit with Japan was $39 billion. Additionally, Japan exported 1.4 million cars to the United States of America, but only imported 16,000 American-built automobiles. However, Japan imported approximately 143 thousand motor vehicles from the European Union. This is why President Trump created tariffs. We need to balance the trade deficit that America faces with other nations so we are not taken advantage of and so America can go bank to being a creditor nation, instead of borrowing money for other countries. Each year, President Trump is bringing $400 Billion in Tariff revenue into America and hundreds of thousands of new jobs. With this money, America is paying down debt, and with a portion of it, President  Trump plans to send Americans a stimulus check anywhere in the range of $1,000 to $2,000. However, if President Trump’s Tariffs are deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, taxpayers will have to pay back trillions and trillions of dollars. As we literally and /or figuratively see gangs, federal judges, and Governor Gavin Newsom fighting with federal law enforcement and President Trump– states and cities refusing to honor federal laws. Politicians are also showing an utter disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America, and anarchy is becoming increasingly common. #RandolphHarris 26 of 31

Anarchism is a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centered on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary. Derived from the Greek root anarchos, meaning “without authority,” anarchism, anarchist, and anarchy are used to express both approval and disapproval. The anarchist denies man-made laws, regards property as a means of tyranny, and believes that crimes are merely the product of property and authority. However, the anarchist would argue that their denial of constitutions and governments leads not to “no justice” but to the real justice inherent in the free development of human sociality—the natural inclination, when unfettered by laws, to live according to the principles and practice of mutual aid. Anarchism is also a form of treason. Treason, the crime of betraying a nation or a sovereign by acts considered dangerous to security. In English law, treason includes the levying of war against the government and the giving of aid and comfort to the monarch’s enemies. In the United States of America, treason was defined restrictively by the framers of the Constitution. Treason against the United States of America “shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” which is something that many politicians are currently guilty of.  The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them before the situation becomes a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state, or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. #RandolphHarris 27 of 31

Drug cartels have been threatening the health and safety of Native American communities. The trafficking of dangerous and illegal drugs into their territories is leading to a second genocide. The overdose rate for Indigenous people is 42 percent higher than the national average. A recent bust on Montana’s Blackfeet Nation’s Tribal Reservation resulted in the seizure of more than 700,000 fentanyl pills, which was the largest bust in Montana history. Recently, the Blackfeet Nation had to declare a state of emergency after facing 17 overdoses in just one week. There are only 6.8 million Native Americans left in the world, which is 2 percent of the American population. We should be doing more to protect these proud and honorable people; they should not want for anything. People rush and give away resources to illegal immigrants, but totally disregard the Indigenous people of this land, as their race silently fades away into extinction. We must secure our borders and increase federal funding to Native American tribes so we can save this precious population. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom has given billions of taxpayer dollars away to illegal immigrants and protected them from law enforcement, while arresting law-abiding Americans because they cannot afford to pay rent or mortgage, and the homeless shelters are unsafe, overcrowded, and have restrictions on who is allowed inside. He has also totally ignored the cartel problems on American lands. Clean air, water, land, and preserving our heritage are extremely important. We cannot just allow criminals to kill off the people who are native to this land and do nothing about it. Wars have been started over governments that tax citizens without representation. Taxation without representation is what led to the American Revolution. #RandolphHarris 28 of 31

Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and can support American farmers and ranchers. As money flows, it influences further investment. Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever.  And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land for future use, we need to start limiting the number of people allowed to immigrate to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a population that equally represents all races of people. If Americans continue to spend money on American products, then more need to be made to keep up the inventory. When investors notice these goods are selling, it gives them the confidence to pour more money into that local business. It shows that people want these goods made in America and pressures investors to keep these goods and services in America. The jobs stay here, the business stays in America, wages naturally increase, and more money is invested to keep up with demand. This reduces the burden on the taxpayer. When you support American businesses, that money stays in our economy and can help to reduce the national debt. The government creates debt by borrowing from businesses in the private sector or from foreign countries. It also increases the national debt by spending more than it gains in tax revenue in a fiscal year. #RandolphHarris 29 of 31

When people shop locally, more tax money stays in the economy and goes to the government. This way, it keeps more money in our national economy and keeps more jobs located in America which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the national debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by sending more money overseas. Buying American-made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards on pollution. American companies must be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Under President Trump’s administration, he has make America a priority. President Trump has closed the southern border, illegal crossings have fallen to an all time low, and are 90 percent lower than under the previous administration. Since President Trump’s crack down on crime, violent crimes in Washington D.C. have dropped by approximately 80 percent. He has stopped thousands of pounds of drugs from entering America and killing citizens. And since President Trump took office, investments in America have increased by trillions of dollars in U.S.A. manufacturing, production, and innovation. As you can see, President Donald Trump and his pledge to “Make America Great Again” is exactly what America needs to save the country and the American people. And yes, diversity is important, so you can see why it is also important to preserve blonde hair and blue eyes, as the people with these characteristics are becoming a minority in America. #RandolphHarris 30 of 31

We must think before we can understand the soul’s existence; we must understand before we can realize it. The earliest beginnings of thought, as apart from instinct, when it was itself still but a lurking tendency, belong far back in primeval time. The human intellect as we find it today, so rich and developed an instrument for the consciousness of the ego, did not arrive at this fullness without a series of graduated stages. We have had plenty of scientific thinking, business thinking, and political thinking long enough, but we have had very little inspired thinking. That is the world’s need. The intellect is cradled in selfishness but runs the evolutionary track into reason, where it will one day finish at the winning-post of selflessness. As a reminder, parents, please teach your children to love America and be patriotic citizens, and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. It is inborn in the human mind to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy. Therefore, remember to take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. Also, to make sure they have all the resources required, please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to help improve our national security. “Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” #RandolphHarris 31 of 31

The Winchester Mystery House

According to locals, over a century ago, the land that houses The Winchester Mansion had been vacant forever. Then, sometime in the early afternoon of Saturday, March 13, 1886, Sheriff Angel Camilio began getting reports that a massive castle made of wood had suddenly appeared. Gables rose, towers peaked into the sky as the mansion mushroomed into a labyrinth overnight.

The house’s sudden manifestation had been both disconcerting and fascinating to the community. Some felt dark curses flowing from the estate, and things moving around in the darkness. Others saw a fairytale castle glimmering in the spring sunlight. Perhaps this is why there are no records of construction, no blueprints, and no permits filed with the county. And then one day, a hearse came tearing through the gates, and in that hearse was a coffin, some believed it contained Mrs. Winchester.

According to legend, when Sarah Lockwood Pardee (Winchester) married William Wirt Winchester in 1862, she enjoyed a life of extravagant luxury. William Winchester, President of the Winchester repeating rifle, became a very wealthy man through the sale of his guns, and the couple were among the elite New England society.

However, in 1866, the death of their infant daughter drove Mrs. Sarah Winchester into a deep depression from which many thought she would never emerged. Several years later, she lost her husband to tuberculosis, and her grief was overwhelming. Mrs. Winchester sought the counsel of a Boston medium to reach her beloved dead family members. The medium told the grieving widow that she was cursed and demons straight from hades had sought revenge by ending the lives of her beloved husband and darling baby girl.

She also told Mrs. Winchester they would kill her too, unless she moved out West and built a great house for the spirits. In addition, Mrs. Winchester was told construction on the house must never end in order to appease the spirits and keep her alive, perhaps even give her eternal life. Mrs. Winchester followed the medium’s suggestions, and in 1886, she moved to the Santa Clara valley just outside San Jose, where she bought an 18-room farmhouse and property to build her mansion. At its peak, the Mansion once stood 9-stories tall and had as many as 600 rooms. Today, the stately mansion is 4-storys, and over 100,000 square feet.

Experience an unforgettable journey back to the time of kings and queens with this entry ticket for The Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara, California, which was the residence of Heiress Sarah L. Winchester. Come and see what secrets this so-called, “Winchester Mystery House” may hold. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After the tour, there will be time to enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages that lead to hidden chambers within the mansion. These chambers served as safe places for valuables, precious documents, and as private sanctuaries for Mrs. Winchester, and allowed her to move stealthily throughout her home. At one time, there were even secret tunnels that extended beyond the mansion, leading to nearby Victorian houses that were also on the property, and other structures, creating a network of escape routes or hidden pathways.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal at Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, which once spanned 740 acres, all the way down to Stevens Creek Boulevard; wander through the miles of hallways in the world’s most mysterious mansion.

For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available for purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Why Choose Harris?

Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company.

Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs, not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/

Brian Harris BMW

With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW, The Ultimate Driving Experience, has demonstrated its ability to produce high-performing, reliable vehicles that meet consumer demands. BMW stands out due to its focus on driving dynamics and engineering excellence. While other luxury brands prioritize comfort and opulence, BMW is known for creating cars that are fun to drive and offer a unique connection between the driver and the machine. This is why BMW is known as The Ultimate Driving Machine. https://www.brianharrisbmw.com/

Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers

Building strong and lasting client relationships is crucial for a successful legal career. Many lawyers mistakenly believe that mastering legal skills alone ensures success, but law is fundamentally a service industry—our job is to solve problems through the time we sell. To build long-term relationships, attorneys must focus on three core elements: knowing their clients, understanding how their legal issues fit into a larger context, and consistently delivering exceptional service.

Randy advises clients with regard to business transition, taxable and tax-deferred mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, integrated tax planning, federal and state tax controversy resolution, and real estate transactions. Trust is the cornerstone of any client relationship. Ultimately, my clients feel they are in capable hands with someone who genuinely understands their problems and goals. https://www.jmbm.com/l-randolph-harris.html

Park Haven

Rancho Cordova, CA | low $500s

Now Selling!

Welcome to Cresleigh Park Haven, the newest home community in Rancho Cordova.

Nestled in the heart of Rancho Cordova, Park Haven is a thoughtfully planned neighborhood of 71 homes designed for comfort, convenience, and connection.

Adjacent to Exploration Park, it offers the perfect blend of modern living and outdoor adventure right at your doorstep.

Choose from five floor plans ranging from 1,342 to 2,547 square feet, with options for 3 to 5 bedrooms, flexible spaces, and open layouts tailored to today’s lifestyles. Whether you are a first-time buyer, a growing family, or looking to simplify without giving up style, there is a home here for you.

Select homes include 100 percent owned solar at no extra cost, providing lasting savings, energy efficiency, and the confidence of ownership.

With maintenance friendly yards, nearby shopping and dining, and access to top rated schools, Park Haven is more than just a place to live. It is a place to thrive. https://cresleigh.com/park-haven/

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.” -Abraham Lincoln

America is a nation founded on godly principles, by God-fearing men. As a nation, we have convinced ourselves of our uniqueness with concepts such as Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism. Manifest destiny was the imperialist belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand from sea to shining sea.

American exceptionalism, idea that the United States of America is a unique and even morally superior country for historical, ideological, or religious reasons. As a nation we appear favored and blessed by the Lord with success and prosperity unparalleled in human history.

America has a lot of amazing things – its beautiful natural scenery, vibrant cities, unique culture, and some of the world’s most iconic landmarks — it us no wonder many choose to make America their home.