Response to yet another excellent ThinkProgress.com article found here
The people ultimately behind sequestration are guilty of hypocrisy, greed, and treason. A republic's economy is wholly unlike a family's budget. A family can cut their way out of debt, but a nation can not. When an economy is depressed and the government cuts its budget, money stops flowing. The problem isn't a lack of money, it's the lack of movement of money. Government should monitor but generally stay out of the way of a healthy economy, but just like a doctor giving you an annual physical then getting out of your way when you're healthy, he must step in and do something when you're sick, and cutting the medications that have kept you healthy isn't the way to do it.
When an economy is sick, it takes the government to make money available at no or low interest in order to get the blood - money in this case - flowing again. Failing to do so would be like a doctor stepping back away from a patient when the patient goes into cardiac arrest and saying, "Hmmm. Maybe it will fix itself". Or likely not.
Sequestration is a failure of our government to take the shock paddles of money flow and zapping the heart of our republic back into health. Like a sick patient, the worse the recession, the longer it takes to get back to healthy, but pulling the plug will kill the patient, just like sequestration will kill our republic.
The BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - are breathing down our necks as it is. Now Congress has essentially said, "Come on, guys! You can overtake us! And we're here to help!" Cutting scientific funding is analogous to failure to fuel your car before a long trip. Yep, you'll have more money in your pocket...when you're on the side of the road out of gas watching others who planned ahead go flying past you.
Showing posts with label treason. Show all posts
Showing posts with label treason. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Sequestration, Greed, Hypocrisy, and Treason
This is a response to an excellent article found on ThinkProgress.com about the effects that are already happening under sequestration. The article can be found at the link here.
Don't think for a second that this result of sequestration is accidental or "collateral damage". The religiots and their fellow ignoratti in Congress knew that this would happen, and they desired it. Cutting research funding, that is to say funding for pure science, plays right into their hands in their push for religious dominance and in the ability to show their voters that they hold the upper hand in the battle against science. But it's the very voters who put these traitors in office that stand the most to lose.
Remember, there's a cycle that must occur before new technologies come to market: Pure science > applied science > engineering.
Before a product can be engineered and manufactured, scientists whose job it is to find applications for newly discovered materials or processes must take the results of pure science and study them, then create and test ways to use them. BUT before that can happen, researchers - pure scientists - must study new fields of science or push the bounds on existing fields in order to discover new materials and new processes never before encountered. That means that the raw, bleeding edge must always be out front expanding our base of knowledge. Sometimes, that research yields nothing, just like going into a jungle or rain forest somewhere to look for new sources of drugs might yield a treasure trove, or it might come up dry, but either way, you won't know until you go there. Exploration is essential not only to expand the knowledge base of science, but it is the fuel that powers the engines of our economy.
The US has lead the way in many or most fields of scientific exploration due to programs like NASA and ARPA, but since the Large Hadron Collider at CERN came online, we've taken a back seat to others in the field of physics who will now lead because some people think that research funding is wasted. They don't understand that studying monkeys for something seemingly arcane might result in a breakthrough in medicine or psychology, or something else that they would consider unrelated. They're told, and they believe, that the LHC and it's smaller cousin in Chicago, the Tevatron at Fermilab, have no value and are black holes for funding dollars. They will believe people who say we didn't go to the moon, but they line up for chemotherapy, MRIs, and use velcro, microwave ovens, cellular phones, and thousands of other technologies that have come from research into pure science.
But here's how you know that it's greed and ignorance playing out, and not reason: When they get hurt, do they call for a priest, or do they call for someone who will use medical science to rescue them?
The ultimate forms of treason and hypocrisy are failing to support funding for the science that will move humanity forward in the times of our children and grandchildren, and the use of the technologies whose research was paid for by our parents and grandparents when they simultaneously deny the funding that will benefit future generations.
The ultrawealthy will be able to afford new medicines, and take advantage of technologies that they themselves fund, and which will be denied to those not themselves wealthy. The rest of us will go without because some among us refuse to pay their part of funding for the future.
Greed. Hypocrisy. Treason.
The BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, are breathing down our necks and each wants to be the world's next superpower. If we stop funding, we stop leading. If we stop leading, we kill our economic engine, and that's just stupid.
Don't think for a second that this result of sequestration is accidental or "collateral damage". The religiots and their fellow ignoratti in Congress knew that this would happen, and they desired it. Cutting research funding, that is to say funding for pure science, plays right into their hands in their push for religious dominance and in the ability to show their voters that they hold the upper hand in the battle against science. But it's the very voters who put these traitors in office that stand the most to lose.
Remember, there's a cycle that must occur before new technologies come to market: Pure science > applied science > engineering.
Before a product can be engineered and manufactured, scientists whose job it is to find applications for newly discovered materials or processes must take the results of pure science and study them, then create and test ways to use them. BUT before that can happen, researchers - pure scientists - must study new fields of science or push the bounds on existing fields in order to discover new materials and new processes never before encountered. That means that the raw, bleeding edge must always be out front expanding our base of knowledge. Sometimes, that research yields nothing, just like going into a jungle or rain forest somewhere to look for new sources of drugs might yield a treasure trove, or it might come up dry, but either way, you won't know until you go there. Exploration is essential not only to expand the knowledge base of science, but it is the fuel that powers the engines of our economy.
The US has lead the way in many or most fields of scientific exploration due to programs like NASA and ARPA, but since the Large Hadron Collider at CERN came online, we've taken a back seat to others in the field of physics who will now lead because some people think that research funding is wasted. They don't understand that studying monkeys for something seemingly arcane might result in a breakthrough in medicine or psychology, or something else that they would consider unrelated. They're told, and they believe, that the LHC and it's smaller cousin in Chicago, the Tevatron at Fermilab, have no value and are black holes for funding dollars. They will believe people who say we didn't go to the moon, but they line up for chemotherapy, MRIs, and use velcro, microwave ovens, cellular phones, and thousands of other technologies that have come from research into pure science.
But here's how you know that it's greed and ignorance playing out, and not reason: When they get hurt, do they call for a priest, or do they call for someone who will use medical science to rescue them?
The ultimate forms of treason and hypocrisy are failing to support funding for the science that will move humanity forward in the times of our children and grandchildren, and the use of the technologies whose research was paid for by our parents and grandparents when they simultaneously deny the funding that will benefit future generations.
The ultrawealthy will be able to afford new medicines, and take advantage of technologies that they themselves fund, and which will be denied to those not themselves wealthy. The rest of us will go without because some among us refuse to pay their part of funding for the future.
Greed. Hypocrisy. Treason.
The BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, are breathing down our necks and each wants to be the world's next superpower. If we stop funding, we stop leading. If we stop leading, we kill our economic engine, and that's just stupid.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Bring Public Enemy #1 to justice
Typically, in US politics, we don't go after the liars, because we understand that politicians ARE liars by nature. But the current crop of conservatives, many of whom are Tea Partiers, have gone beyond simple politics and have engaged in treasonous behaviors. For example, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the infamous 2011 debt ceiling increase debacle that the US's credit rating was "a hostage worth ransoming". By that admission, he stated that he and his fellow Republicans knew, and approved of, the coming credit downgrade, and that they approved of it as long as it resulted in political gains for him and his cronies. Of course, the creditworthiness of the US doesn't affect his real constituency, the wealthiest 400 people in the nation, it only affects those who can't secure loans from other sources and so end up paying more in interest than they would have if the nation's credit rating hadn't been downgraded. McConnell and his buddies screwed the entire nation in order to support the ones who least needed it. By any other name, that is treason. And treason is a capital offense. More on that later.
McConnell isn't alone in Washington, D.C., he has friends like Eric Cantor who seconded the charge on the national prestige and who helped him put the shaft to the country for political capital. And others from the sidelines included Sarah Palin, the usual radio trash like Limbaugh and Beck, Newt Gingrich, and a plethora of middlemen who sought to ride the Tea Party Express to fame and fortune. Instead, they rode the train off the tracks in the fashion of the 1970s-era poster which adorned the walls of many of us who were teenagers then and featured the two gentlemen standing aside and looking at the derailed train with the caption, "Oh, shit!"
The United States's 'Oh, shit' moment came when our credit rating was downgraded.
The same posse of incomprehensible, treasonous behaviors continues to ride and its now lead by Grover Norquist, a man whose concern for his country is devoid of reason, thought, or rationale that doesn't include cutting taxes. The fact that the nation has prospered when the tax rate was higher eludes him, not that he would care to acknowledge the fact, anyway. He has callously thrust aside historical truths which show his idol, Ronald Reagan, acting prudently 11 times in his 8 years in office by raising taxes in order to pay the nation's bills. That's an immutable fact, yet Norquist tries to spin it in his favor. He has held the intent of reason of GOP lawmakers in contempt and has forced them to sign his treasonous pledge not to raise taxes. If you want to point to a single person who's most responsible for the collapse of our nation's infrastructure, the rust of American industry, and the common sense that says if a bill is due, you must have the funds to pay it and you can't continue to pay the bills by simply cutting funding for other projects. It's crazy. It's insane. It's treason. And he needs to pay the ultimate price for his treason.
Our nation holds treason as a capital crime. Norquist's crimes are treasonous. He has single-handedly brought down the house that great Presidents have engineered and the sweat of American workers built. The great edifice of American strength has been crumbled by a single traitor, and the Republican party has hoisted him onto their shoulders for doing so.
You'll know this is true by this sign, that our great republic is weaker today than it was 20 years ago.
And you'll know the traitor by name by the proof of his authorship of the one document that he alone has championed and which has lead our nation to ruin.
His name is Grover Norquist, and he is Public Enemy #1. Demand that he be brought to justice and when found guilty, and he will be, demand that he pay the price for treason with his life.
McConnell isn't alone in Washington, D.C., he has friends like Eric Cantor who seconded the charge on the national prestige and who helped him put the shaft to the country for political capital. And others from the sidelines included Sarah Palin, the usual radio trash like Limbaugh and Beck, Newt Gingrich, and a plethora of middlemen who sought to ride the Tea Party Express to fame and fortune. Instead, they rode the train off the tracks in the fashion of the 1970s-era poster which adorned the walls of many of us who were teenagers then and featured the two gentlemen standing aside and looking at the derailed train with the caption, "Oh, shit!"
The United States's 'Oh, shit' moment came when our credit rating was downgraded.
The same posse of incomprehensible, treasonous behaviors continues to ride and its now lead by Grover Norquist, a man whose concern for his country is devoid of reason, thought, or rationale that doesn't include cutting taxes. The fact that the nation has prospered when the tax rate was higher eludes him, not that he would care to acknowledge the fact, anyway. He has callously thrust aside historical truths which show his idol, Ronald Reagan, acting prudently 11 times in his 8 years in office by raising taxes in order to pay the nation's bills. That's an immutable fact, yet Norquist tries to spin it in his favor. He has held the intent of reason of GOP lawmakers in contempt and has forced them to sign his treasonous pledge not to raise taxes. If you want to point to a single person who's most responsible for the collapse of our nation's infrastructure, the rust of American industry, and the common sense that says if a bill is due, you must have the funds to pay it and you can't continue to pay the bills by simply cutting funding for other projects. It's crazy. It's insane. It's treason. And he needs to pay the ultimate price for his treason.
Our nation holds treason as a capital crime. Norquist's crimes are treasonous. He has single-handedly brought down the house that great Presidents have engineered and the sweat of American workers built. The great edifice of American strength has been crumbled by a single traitor, and the Republican party has hoisted him onto their shoulders for doing so.
You'll know this is true by this sign, that our great republic is weaker today than it was 20 years ago.
And you'll know the traitor by name by the proof of his authorship of the one document that he alone has championed and which has lead our nation to ruin.
His name is Grover Norquist, and he is Public Enemy #1. Demand that he be brought to justice and when found guilty, and he will be, demand that he pay the price for treason with his life.
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