You see it everywhere — band aid solutions for gaping wounds, and temporary patches for shredded cloth. It’s as if decision-makers suddenly became aware of problems, and in their tireless and hurried vie for public approval, money, or power, submit graffiti solutions when the American people deserve a Van Gogh.

Hey, everyone! Not sure if you heard the news, but Jim Jenkins was recently endorsed by The New York Times! The most influential and widely read newspaper in the United States has decided that this rancher and businessman from Nebraska has a message for all Americans -- serve the people, not the party.

At the heart of the Carpathian Basin pulses the resilience and hope of the Hungarian people. A civilization molded from a history fraught with compounding obstacles, the pain of the past still burns deep in the national consciousness as the struggle for stability continues.

Clawing for survival, the Orban administration has turned inward and eastward. Hungary's retreat from a liberal democracy has been executed in the shadows of the dark clouds in the Middle East and Ukraine. The international community, however, cannot afford to ignore the dissolving democracy.

The race in California's 25th Congressional District between Tony Strickland, who has served in the state Assembly and the California Senate, and State Senator Steve Knight (District 21), is one of 5 same-party races in November between two Republicans. The election will determine who will succeed U.S. Representative Howard Philip "Buck" McKeon, who is retiring after serving 21 years on Capitol Hill.

As service members approach the looming fiscal year with uncertainty, a recent survey from Feeding America found that a quarter of the families that their food banks serve are military families and 20 percent of veterans depend on food banks and other charities to provide for their families as well.

I always love seeing quotes from founding father Thomas Jefferson; especially, any about Jefferson's hatred for public debt.

Jefferson's overall ideology was one of a smaller federal government with little to no debt, but a deeper look into Jefferson's political life reveals that he had a characteristic that is becoming less and less common -- he was willing to change his political views when necessary (and sometimes when only expedient).

“What do you mean what incentive do voters have to vote? What about preserving the democratic system, the American way of life, freedom, opportunity, apple pie, choice?”

The counter to this of course is, does the current system offer this incentive to voters? Is the current electoral system truly a democratic system in which all citizens eligible to vote are given an equal voice and equal access to the voting process? Are certain segments of the voting population intentionally disenfranchised to silence their voice?

On September 21, concerned citizens and global thinkers will collaborate in order to bring local, national, and international leaders into the fold of environmental stewardship by marching worldwide. A San Diego chapter, SanDiego350, organized a local march to show solidarity for the national march in New York. They are scheduled to coincide with the arrival of world leaders for the UN Climate Summit on Tuesday.

"I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”—Oliver Cromwell, in a letter to the Church of Scotland

"We must mistrust utopias: they usually end in holocausts."--Mario Vargas Llosa, "Sartre, Fierabrás, and Utopia"

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation , then by deflation , the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” - Thomas Jefferson

Picture yourself in this situation: