Next Meeting of the Scarlet Kings

Greetings to All,

The next meeting of the Scarlet Kings will be held on

Sunday, December 8th, 2013 at 12:30PM.

Location: Houlihan's

(4225 Belt Line Road #220, Addison, TX)

Please join us for a fruitful and lucrative discussion!

Very Sincerely,

VJ

Meeting Minutes

We had an insightful and wonderful meeting at On The Border.  We had 3 attendees: (from left to right) Ry Zamora, Tommy Schultze, and VJ Arjan. 

Computerization of the world

We started off the meeting discussing an article that Tommy had sent to various people, including our attendees, titled "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs To Computerization?".  Written by two Oxford University professors, the article proceeds to explain that more than a half of the current jobs as characterized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, will have be automatized in the near future.

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B0-ape4ST5Atb0pTSDhib1YzQ3c

They go on, "while technological progress throughout economic history has largely been confined to the mechanization of manual tasks that require physical labor, technological progress in the twenty-first century can be expected to contribute to a wide range of cognitive tasks", involving everything from legal writing, truck driving, medical diagnoses, and even persuading and selling.

Tommy went on to describe the SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) codes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to catagorize each job and even created a spreadsheet that listed probabilities of that category being automated.  The excel sheet is attached here.

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B0-ape4ST5AtNTI4YjFYSHdOTnc

Some noteworthy categories include, Security Guards, which have a 84% probability of being automated, Pharmacy Aides which have a 72% chance of automation, Accountants and Auditors, which have a 94% probability of being done by a computer.

Those that had a lower chance of automation were either a specialized skill or a profession that required dealing with cultivating a relationship with people.

An example of this automation, could include what roofing contractors do today, which is the use of aerial drones to scope out a building or roofing project.  There is a drone called the Parrot AR Drone 2.0, which costs $300, that is currently being used in this manner.

Tommy went on to discuss that Qualcomm has already designed what he terms, "brain-inspired robots", which have artificial intelligence; in other words, they are building semiconductor chips that simulate a positive feedback mechanism. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c1Noq2K96c

Some gaming designers are using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in their games where enemies have the ability to surrender and to even negotiate and this is not even scripted. 

In games like 'Stalker", the characters in the game have AI and therefore have the ability to decide whether a situation warrants a choice or not.  The characters in the game can even explore the virtual game environment to look for supplies or find good hiding spots.

It is only a logical conclusion that this technology will be extended to real life military operations as well.  At the moment, robots in the military and even space exploration are being directed by humans.  The time that robots will be able to fight, identify targets, etc. may be a scary day indeed.

VJ asked what theorhetically would happen should half the labor force be unemployed and Tommy suggested to watch the movies Elysium and Metropolis, which illustrate a permanent unemployed and unfulfilled underclass that literally lives below the upperclass.  If nothing else, Tommy went on, the government may be forced to give out more welfare checks to give these people a living - it would be an implicit tax of sorts as a consequence of these advances in technology.

The GOP's Losing Battle

As everyone remembers, between October 1st through the 16th, the U.S. Government entered a shutdown after Congress failed to put through legislation appropriating funds for the fiscal year 2014.  During the shutdown, 800,000 federal employees were fuloughed.  We all discussed the situation and who the winners and losers were.

This situation was created in part by the Tea Party wing of the Republican party, in particular Senator Ted Cruz's efforts, to threated to stop negotiations should Congress approve funding towards the Affordable Care Act.

The net-net was that funding was approved and certain issues were tabled until February 2014, where it may be likely these effects will be dealt with again.

VJ mentioned that the shutdown hurt the public's attitude towards Congress, but was especially harsh towards the Republican party.  After the shutdown, a Fox News poll reported that 42% of voters pinned the blame for the shutdown on the Republicans, while 32% on the Democrats.  

Another Gallup poll during the shutdown reported that only 28% of the public had a favorable view of the Republicans in Congress, while the Democrats had a 43% approval rating.

Just thereafter, in the battleground state of Virginia, the Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, edged out Republican Ken Cuccinelli to win the Governors electoral race.  Both sides admit that the government shutdown was a major key to the Democratic victory.

Mr. Cuccinelli's chief political strategist, Chris LaCivita, said in a recent interview with USA Today that the shutdown was "more than anything...what cost us the race."  He even mentioned how the shutdown and the beating of the GOP brand nationally caused Republican donors to "sit on their checkbooks" and hold on to their political contibutions.

VJ went on that these are low points indeed for the GOP and he believes that any chance for the Republicans to take office in 2016 may have been lost during this shutdown.  It will take a while to lick their wounds before they will be able to bounce back. 

He also mentioned that although the Tea Party had originally helped the Republican party and enthused its base, it may actually be hurting them as the more vocal and extreme wings asserted their dominance alienating those majority moderate Republicans.

China's Plenary

Part of the reason the meeting minutes were delayed in being released was in anticipation of the 3rd Plenary of the 18th CPC (Communist Party of China).  Ry Zamora, who has visited China many times, explained how these Plenums, which took place between November 9th and 12th, are important because it is where the new leader, Xi Jinping, can introduce broader economic reforms and a political blueprint.

The Plenary did not offer much in the form of drastic economic reforms and there will not be any vital changes to its current political policies either.  There was, in fact, lots of re-hashing of previous reforms.  For instance, increasing the role of household consumption, improving energy efficiency, decreasing inequality, etc, were all stated in that last such meeting because all of those issues basically moved in the wrong direction.

However, Mr. Xi did create a new governing body with himself as the head that will cut out the middlemen in the Politburo for approving economic reforms.  This may be his way of fighting a system corroded by rampant corruption.

It looks like Deng Xiaoping's philosophy of "crossing the river by feeling the stones" will remain in place and that more steady and gradual improvements on current policies seems to be the route that the China under Xi Pinjing is going to take.

Market Prognostication

Ry mentioned that many economic indicators he's been following illustrate that economic growth is slowing down and that even though consumer confidence has been increasing, producers confidence has been on the slide.

He believes that the markets at some point may turn between now and the end of the 1st quarter of next year and that investors may want to issue puts on their position or just puts on market indices, while keeping cash available to buy on the selloff. 

Ry also sees an old snake rearing its head again.  There is evidence that the ECB has not been treating all the banks of the member states the same.  For instance, they are being more strict on those banks in say, Greece or Italy, and not so strict on the banks in Germany and France.  According to the statistics that Ry is reading, there may be some major problems in German and French banks in the near future, as illustrated by the results of a round of recent bank stress tests that the ECB conducted. The same capital requirements issue that the PIIGS faced earlier over the past few years may be confronted again very soon by the banks in other member-states.

Ry also recommends to buy into companies that have a strong international presence and are not completely dependent upon and operating on any one country; a strong country diversification can soften the blows that any one country can deliver.

VJ mentioned that the current market environment and increasing consumer confidence suggests to him that there may be a classic "Santa Claus rally" in store, but thereafter the future is less certain.

Tommy suggested that the economic surge during the holidays is so strong that there are several retailers who will operate in the red over the course of the year and make up the entire deficit and more during the holiday season.  He mentioned J.C. Penney, Sears, and Radioshack as examples that fit this mould.

Tommy went on to mention that even for these behemoth brick-and-mortar stores, the day of reckoning is coming.  He estimates that by 2017, 60-70% of all major purchases will be done online.  Today anything from sticky notes, to furniture, to cars can be ordered online and he believes that this trend for online purchases will only become stronger in the future.

The Power of Suggestion

Tommy mentioned to us how comedians and actors are able to lead their audience through conversations and those who can do control conversations without the audience noticing and can set them up to feel a certain thought or emotion are the best in the industry. 

It is similar to a conductor of an orchestra directing an ensemble.

He gave us a demonstration here with the use of his LiveScribe; it is an incredible device and illustrates the point (will need the updated Adobe Reader to view this, it an incredible device.  You may even find when you hear the conversation that we are some straight-up nerds :-). )

You can either click the link below to download the file, or watch it below.

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B0-ape4ST5AtM2t3VmV5a2ZKTW8

The next meeting will be on Sunday, December 8th, 2013.

For those who have not attended a meeting, but would like to attend, please email your wish to VJ Arjan at scarletkings@gmail.com

Also it seems that there are many domestic and international readers who are following our blog posts not only in the United States but all over the world including Europe, Latin America, and Asia. If you wish to be added 

to our email list, please email at scarletkings@gmail.com

Next Meeting of the Scarlet Kings

Greetings to All,

The next meeting of the Scarlet Kings will be held on

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 at 12:30PM.

Location: On The Border

(4855 Belt Line Road, Addison, TX 75254)

Please join us for a fruitful and lucrative discussion!

Very Sincerely,

VJ

Meeting Minutes

We had an absolutely wonderful meeting at Romano's Macaroni and Grill - in fact, we were enjoying our meeting so much that we were there for over 4 hours and it felt like only 2 - time passed us by so quickly.  We even got our server, John, involved in our conversations (more on that below).  We had 3 attendees: (from left to right) Tommy Schultze, VJ Arjan, and Ry Zamora. 

The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare)

As the healthcare exchanges for Obamacare went live on October 1st, we all asked the ramifications that will entail such a huge program going into effect.

Tommy Schultze had several key insights:

- 1/5th will lose 1/4th - in other words 1/5th of the population will lose 1/4th of their income.  This is not referring to the economic classes above the middle class, but rather that rung of the ladder which is below the middle class and above the poverty line.  As a result, it may effect the lower-income classes more harshly.

- Contract labor - According to the ACA act, businesses with more than 50 employees have to offer insuranace to their employees who are considered "full-time".  The ACA defines "full-time" as any person working a minimum of 30 hours per week.  He believes that the corporate worker model is being replaced by a contract laborer model.  The industries that will be affected the hardest, in his estimation, are the food service and retail sectors.  He also mentioned that any industry that has a cyclical economic cycle will be affected similarly.

- Renters shortage - Due to the increase in the cost of healthcare across the board for most people, several renters who are already stretched will find it difficult to pay rent to their tenants and will therefore move to apartments.  Tommy said that this should be very good for companies like Rent-A-Center, storage facilities and pawn shops.

Although the long-term impact will only be known in the future, it is clear that the short-term impact will negatively affect the vast majority of citizens.  If the costs for healthcare skyrockets, so will the premiums under the ACA act.  The question is whether or not the increases in healthcare costs will be lower under the ACA act. 

VJ Arjan brought up the fact that our current healthcare costs are, in his opinion, outrageous compared to several countries around the world.  For instance, according to the International Federation of Health Plans, the United States is paying sometimes quadruple or quintuple the amount for the same services.  These are several graphs below that illustrate the point -  there are even more graphs at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/21-graphs-that-show-americas-health-care-prices-are-ludicrous/.

These comparisons, however, are just to illustrate an issue, not whether the ACA act can actually address them.  The problem, VJ went on, that needs to be addressed is healthcare reform regarding the actual cost of healthcare.  The ACA act may end up redistributing the cost of healthcare without addressing the critical reform needed.

For a good calculator to estimate your premiums and potential subsidies under the ACA act, go to the Kaiser Foundation website at http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/.  For more information regarding the ACA act, visit www.healthcare.gov. 

U.S. Debt Default

We all addressed the question regarding what would actually happen if the U.S. defaulted on its debt? 

Ry Zamora had some key insights:

The strongest reaction would come from the holders of U.S. sovereign debt, especially other countries like China.  Should they realize that their investment is going to default, it could go a long way in shifting their past and current policies with the U.S. completely. 

It is true, he explained, that China and the U.S. share a symbiotic relationship, but many have mentioned that China needs the U.S. more than the reverse as China does not have a developed domestic economy to consume the things which they produce. 

Ry mentioned that, interest rates, which are the mark of risk/reward, would shoot up across the board.  The rapidly increasing money supply would therefore watering down the U.S. dollar even further.  This depreciation would be good for, however, for the U.S. export market as they can sell their goods for much less relative to other sounder currencies. 

For example, VJ explained that it is common practice for Europeans to go to Disney World in Orlando, Florida even though there is a Disney Land in Paris, France due to the affordability provided by the Dollar-Euro/Pound/Swiss Franc exchange rate.  This advantage would be spread across the board to all markets should the U.S. dollar depreciate much further against these basket of currencies. 

Tommy mentioned that in times where the value of fiat currency is uncertain, it is best to buy tangible assets.  One can always go back to the bartering system, should the fiat currency fail to hold.  He mentioned that the word "cash cow" actually comes from the practice of using cows as the first form of currency, at least that has been documented historically. While he is not suggesting that we all buy cows and turn into farmers, he did mention that it would be very dangerous to own dollar bills that are worthless, given that the value of greenbacks are in the trust that people afford to it. 

There is no inherent value in the paper bills, besides the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury.  Even on the front of every dollar bill which is issued by the Federal Reserve to the United States Treasury, there is a clause which states that "this note is legal tender".  Interestingly enough, the U.S. Treasury (and the U.S. citizens by extension) is a debtor to the Federal Reserve.  The people, therefore, must trust that the note that the Federal Reserve prints is backed by some value.  If not, it is worth perhaps the paper the note is printed on.  So fragile is this relationship between trust and value.

So the bottom line, Ry continued, is that should the U.S. default on its debt and the U.S. dollar be, in effect, rendered worthless over time, the net-net is that business will continue as usual using an alternative form of rendered currency, whether it be Euros, Chinese Yuan, Bitcoin, or even cows.  In Ry's estimatation, even shares in companies will be converted to alternative currency forms, because shares in a company are certificates of ownership on plant, property, equipment, etc. and those tangible assets can be traded for other commodities of value.

Silver Certificate issued in 1928

Only time will tell perhaps, if the United States shall follow down that Yellow Brick Road and the outcome may be quite different from what we at the Scarlet Kings have speculated.  But we would hope that is it prudent to have at least a backup plan or exit strategy, than to have none at all.

Handwriting Analysis

It has been a while since this blogger has wanted to write something upon this subject. 

Tommy Schultze has one amazing talent among his many other talents, and that is that he can analyze with almost fearful accuracy a person's tendencies, behaviors, and character just by a quick glance at his/her handwriting.  It could even be as much as a signature on a receipt.  It is a result of 8 or 9 years of intense study on the topic, by his own admission.

At Romano's, it is customary for the server to write his/her name on the paper table cloth.  It was so amusing for us to see that as soon as our server wrote his own name, Tommy would fire off point after point discussing this person's personality type, behavioral tendencies, etc. 

So astonished was our server, John, that he came back several times to our table just to go over just how in the world Tommy was able to deduce what he did.

Afterwards, he analyzed Ry's handwriting and gave him something to chew on as well.

The basis for how he is able to deduce what he can comes from his belief that handwriting and the alphabet in any language is an amalgamation of symbols, which stand for some behavior or emotion.  For instance, those whose signature appears like a harpoon, can have a quick or hot temper.

  
There are 3 zones to one's signature, the lower, middle, and upper.  For instance, those who have clearly defined letters in their middle zone have a penchant for being meticulous.  And each one tells him of something about the person's personality.

Ry added that the Chinese language is built upon this exact premise, in fact, it is much more straightforward.  He took for example the word in Chinese that means "good", or "hao" in Chinese.

The word "hao", however, is a combination of two letters that are the words for "woman" and "child". 

It is a fascinating study indeed, and it shows just how connected the psyche is, if unconsciously, in expressing itself through writing.

The Threat From Scotoma (an area of diminished vision, a blind spot)

Tommy and VJ discussed the prevalent attitude he sees in the United States today, particularly the youth.  Tommy mentioned that the youth today value independence over freedom.  It has become custom for one's children to leave the house after they have reached 18 or so, because they just can't wait to live freely, away from their parents. 

It is not this way in all cultures.  VJ mentioned that in India, it is perfectly normal for children to stay with their parents for several years after they become adults.  In fact, it is even normal for several to live with their parents in the same home after they are married.

Tommy mentioned that the youth today are so obsessed with this "freedom" even though they may kill themselves psychologically to support themselves through their job.  Many recently-graduated college students, who have a heavy burden of student loan debt, are perfectly happy to carry that debt for 10-15 years so long as they have a way to live on their own.  It is a perfect indication to him of people afflicted with the short-term mentality. 

It would make more sense, VJ added, if these recent grads stayed at home with their parents for a few years while this could be paid off, but, we suppose, common sense is not that common. 

Tommy added that this faulty and loose logic is a form of mental scotoma for many individuals today, who are willing to live their lives in a fashion that is deleterious to their well being, while believing it is going to add to it. 

He mentioned that the same mentality exists in the drug culture - taking psychedlic drugs can either separate one from its feelings or enhance them.  More often than not, especially those drugs which are considered heavy (cocaine, heroin, etc.), are a form of escapism, a way to separate you from all of your problems and issues, so to speak.  The trip is often so good, and the shirking of responsibility and accountability is so wonderful that it is no wonder that it is so easy to become addicted to these substances.

The Sacking of Rome

This mental scatoma and complacency was, according to the historian Edward Gibbon, the reason that the Roman Empire collapsed.  According to him, it was due to a gradual loss of "civic virtue" among its citizens.  The Romans had become so weak, that it eventually succumbed to barbarian invasions from the Goths (Northern Europe).

The next meeting will be on Sunday, November 3rd, 2013. 

For those who have not attended a meeting, but would like to attend, please email your wish to VJ Arjan at scarletkings@gmail.com

Also it seems that there are many domestic and international readers who are following our blog posts not only in the United States but all over the world including Europe, Latin America, and Asia. If you wish to be added to our email list, please email at scarletkings@gmail.com

Next Meeting of the Scarlet Kings

Greetings to All,

The next meeting of the Scarlet Kings will be held on

Sunday, October 6th, 2013 at 12:30PM.

Location: Romano's Macaroni Grill (4935 Belt Line Road, Addison, TX  75001)

Please join us for a fruitful and lucrative discussion!

Very Sincerely,

VJ

Meeting Minutes

We had a very philosophical and multi-topic meeting at La Madeleine's.  We had 3 attendees: (from left to right) Elena Swindull, VJ Arjan, and Tommy Schultze. 

Geopolitics of the U.S. military strike on Syria

Putin and Obama at recent G20 Summit in St. Petersberg

We discussed first, of course, the most pressing geopolitical issue, which is a potential U.S. military strike on Syria.  Even though, there are tentative agreements pressed by Russia for Syria to hand over their chemical stockpiles to avoid a military strike, that does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

VJ had taken some thought regarding the issue and saw that there may be several consequences of a strike on Syria:

- The largest blowback may come from Lebanon and Hezbollah, who is a neighbor, and may incite Hezbollah to antagonize the region against the United States and Israel

- There may be an indirect increase on the price of oil through Iran, as Syria does not have a noteworthy oil output.  Iran, a Syrian ally, can apply pressure by making things difficult for its buyers who seek their shipments of oil from the Strait of Hormuz, which especially China and India rely upon as their main source.

- Turkey is tied indirectly, but moreso on the financial front.  There have been several public demonstrations to the recent ascendancy to a non-secular, Islamicized political party especially by the youth who want to keep Turkey a secular state.  Should their political leanings sympathize with the Syrians, foreign investors, who have flooded their markets over the past few years, will be less willing to trust their money over.

We then discussed the impact on the price of oil.  The reality is that OPEC has had some internal dissension of late that prevents it from throwing about its full weight.  For instance, as a result of some Iranian threats on Israel last year, Saudi Arabia was pressured by the "international community" into setting up oil sanctions against Iran. 

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

In addition, it's chief player, Saudi Arabia, has historically been bent upon meeting the worlds growing demand for oil by increasing its output.  However, this is not what countries like Venezuela want, who are dependent on the price of oil and want it to be sold as expensively as possible, to fund their nationally subsidized programs.

This is also not to mention that emerging replacements to oil, like Canadian shale oil and ethanol, could begin to play larger roles and so the demand for oil would decrease, certainly over the long-run.  So the resulting scenario could be that should there be an increase in the price of oil, it may primarily be from speculation and not so much with any change to fundamental market forces.

Syria has, of course, issued military threats of its own, naming certain "repurcussions" should the U.S. issue a military strike.  Tommy went on to mention so-called "Dead Man Switches" which are authorized by Congress for unilateral retaliation towards any country who "threatens our national security interest". 

In other words, should Syria send over a chemical weapon to be used against the United States that causes large-scale casualities, the Dead Man's Switch ensures that militarily everything is done to wipe out the enemy. 

Tommy went on and mentioned how the Dead Man's Switch does not need approval from Congress first and was initially used during the Cold War to cope with the countless threats from the Soviet Union and their tremendous stockpile of nuclear weapons. 

VJ mentioned that the U.S. did not unravel this plan after the Soviet Union collapsed and is therefore in existence today, which he feel is unfortunate given that the U.S. has urged and pressured other nations to dismantle their weapons of mass destruction.

The New Energy vs. Old Energy

Tommy discussed that the emerging technologies regarding energy, such as solar, wind, hydrogen, natural gas, etc. will be made available by the same companies who control the main forms of energy today, namely oil and coal.

The reason for this is that given the extensive backing of sheer capital these companies possess, many of them have been smart enough to already see the coming tide and have bought out patents regarding these emerging technologies and they have purposefully shelved them as long as the current cash cows continue to lay their golden eggs.

He went on to say that market forces, along with political ones, in the desire to unfund and weaken terrorism, will naturally push energy technologies off of oil and onto other forms of energy.  According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are about 16 million cars sold in the United States each year.  By some estimates, electric car sales will account for 20% of these sales by 2020. 

Also the average Miles Per Gallon estimates, according to U.S. committments to the EPA, are expected to double by 2020 to 50 miles per gallon, from 25 today.  Therefore, the need of large quantities of oil may be reserved for those nations who cannot afford these technologies, but most of those top quartile nations will be making these shifts, which will naturally weaken the demand for oil.

The Path of Least Resistance - The Lemming Mentality

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few people engage in it." - Henry Ford

"We are animals that are taught to be human beings." - Mark Twain

We all turned our thoughts to a very philosophical topic which really stemmed from the premise of how exactly political scientists calculate the risks and potential consequences of an action in any given situation. 

The conclusion we came to is that since it is very likely for the people of a certain region to identify with a certain belief structure, whether it is religion, race, nationalism, sex, etc., it is therefore very probable that that the likely reaction of the people in a region is going to be the same.

In other words, and respectfully, most people do not have a mind of their own and are content simply following the crowd.  It is why Plato remarked back in antiquity, that it is the rare individual who will have the fortitude "to stand strong amidst the wave of the masses."

This observation can be made in any aspect of life that, according to Tommy, that combines higher order cognitive thinking, emotions, and the survival instinct.  Nationalism and religion (especially religious extremism) are such examples. 

VJ mentioned, for instance, in World War II, it was only when the nation of Germany identified itself as belonging to the Nazi party with the Aryan supremacy agenda that it was able to wage war with united front.  VJ remarked that just as culpable as Hitler was for the atrocities of the Holocaust, the German people are equally culpable. 

In fact, VJ continued it could even be argued that the Allies in World War I were to blame as well as the Treaty of Versailles required the German people to pay back the debts of all involved in the war, which crippled their economy and led to enormous hyper-inflation in the Reichsmark.

Elena explained that most people choose the norm because it is the path of least resistance.  In fact, the markets have bought into this fact completely and that is why billions are spent on market research because companies believe that consumers are predictable because they gravitate towards a mean. 

The method of trial and error, she continued, that leads to the formation of principles and character in a human being requires a person to take accountability and responsibility for their actions - and this most people simply do not want to do. 

It is the reason that most people are content having sometimes completely incompetent politicians make decisions for the people because most individuals simply do not want to take the accountability for their actions.  Once things go awry, it is convenient for them to play the blame game, which is very prevalent in the culture of Washington today.

Tommy mentioned that this very "Lemming mentality" (a lemming is a mammal that has characteristics of a herd mentality) is the basis of issues such as racial discrimination today.  He bought up the example of a Cheerios commercial that featured a biracial family.  The Cheerios ad, which was posted on YouTube received such vitriolic racial comments that comments had to be disabled altogether.  It is reproduced for your viewing below:

Thankfully the next generation is more progressive in their thoughts about the issue.  Enjoy!

Miley Cyrus and the Ongoing Feminist Movement

VJ bought up Miley Cyrus's performance at the VMA music awards and how Miley has been castigated by many for the excessively provocative nature of the performance. 

Although it is no doubt provocative  VJ asked the question why should Miley be castigated for her performance and not men who engage equally provocative performances on stage?  Does it not seem very unfair to treat both sexes differently?

Miley Cyrus

Also, VJ added, many people fail to realize that Miley is an entertainer and she took her performance out of Madonna's playbook, who did the very same thing in the 1980s. 

Madonna was castigated in the 80s for encouraging freedom of expression of women and found the prevailing attitude that is was okay for a man to express his sexual side and taboo for a woman to do the same, very hypocritical.

Madonna

Today, Madonna is worth over $500 million. So there may be reason be believe that she won the argument on that case.

We discussed how there may be more to the picture than what is on the surface.  Tommy mentioned that the men-to-women ratio in colleges around the country are 1:1.5, in other words the compilation is 40% men and 60% women.  Single mothers are becoming more a norm in society due to the financial independence today's economy has made possible for women.

In fact, Tommy continued, that the service economy of today favors women over the dying manufacturing economy that was run predominantly by men.

As Miley Cyrus and entertainers like her continue to push the gender issue, Tommy believes that this gender inequality issue will become rapidly more and more important in the coming couple decades.  It will no longer be the norm, he says, for the man to be the sole breadwinner or even a breadwinner for the household in the near future. 

These roles may, in fact, be switched up, and it will actually be done that way by choice.

The next meeting will be on Sunday, October 6th, 2013. 

For those who have not attended a meeting, but would like to attend, please email your wish to VJ Arjan at scarletkings@gmail.com

Also it seems that there are many domestic and international readers who are following our blog posts not only in the United States but all over the world including Europe, Latin America, and Asia. If you wish to be added to our email list, please email at scarletkings@gmail.com