Shortly after the various Tea Party groups came to prominence and began holding meetings (conclaves?) around the country, I began to take note of their positions on various issues. In the early days, some advocated for secession from the Union. As a veteran, I took umbrage at that. Fomenting secession is tantamount to treason. Treason is a capital offense. It was at that time that I named them the Tea Party Taliban. Their recent crimes and misdemeanors in the debt debacle bear out that I was right and I'll add this to my earlier caveat: The Tea Party Taliban are accomplishing in Congress with Eric Cantor at the helm what Al Qaeda couldn't do - Bring the USA to its knees.
Treason is a capital crime and after due process the punishment for treason is one that the "Eye for an eye" crowd wholly supports. I'm sure you catch my drift.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
DEBT DEFAULT EXPLAINED IN LAYMAN'S TERMS
Governments themselves aren't rated, their bonds are. When a government needs money, one way to create it is to sell bonds - that's how debt is created. The credit rating is how secure the bond is, in other words how likely the issuing government is to repay that bond on time with the promised amount of interest. We've always paid on time, in full, so we've always had a triple A rating. Some governments, say Zimbabwe, might pay late, not pay the full amount of promised interest, or might not pay at all, so their bonds have a lower...much lower...rating. BUT...when they need to borrow money that they can't get from selling bonds, then the creditors look at how they repaid their bonds and they charge them interest to get that money based on their repayment history; full repayment of bonds, on time, means they get a high rating, providing the rest of their fiscal house is in order. If they didn't fulfill their promises on their bonds, they get charged more interest. That higher interest is then passed down to banks which issue credit (say as a credit card or auto loan, etc) and then it's passed down to the consumer. So the effect of the US defaulting on it's bonds on August 2 could be the government having to borrow money at a higher interest rate and then that comes down to consumers at a higher interest rate in the form of credit and loans; basically a "tax" on EVERYTHING. Why don't the Republicans care? Because they're already wealthy and they can access sources of money that the average consumer can't, and they can get that money cheaper than the average consumer will be able to get it, too. The end result of debt default will end up costing consumers...taxpayers...billions if not trillions. But the Repukes are holding up the process for political gain. I told you back when they first formed that I named them the Tea Party Taliban. Well, I was wrong about one thing: The Taliban can't damage our economy like the Tea Partiers are about to do. Our worst enemy isn't Al Qaeda, it's the Tea Party. Fact!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
WHY WE WANT WORLDWIDE REVOLUTION
I recently read an article on Salon.com, 'The New “Let them eat cake”' by John Sirota. I've also been keeping abreast of the budget battles going on in the US legislature, as have many others. What's struck me as surreal is how little attention is being paid to the very root of the problem: The disparity between the richest and the poorest Americans, and by extension, the world's rich and poor. If every news outlet jumped on this topic and covered it 24/7, enough couldn't be made of it until the playing field is level. There will always be entrepreneurs and there will always be ne'er-do-wells, but when the difference between the working class and the wealthy is as great as it is today, something is desperately wrong...broken...in our way of doing things.
The poor want a better life, one with some sense of security in both their finances and abode. The wealthy simply want, how and from whence that money flows to them is of minor consideration. In America, we have created the false sense that to own a home is a privilege, not a right. Thank the wealthy for that notion; they own the rentals. There isn't and will not be anything approaching equality until every person who attains adulthood has his or her own home, a place that can't be taken away save by death.
The notion that a home in the US of 2000+ square feet is a minimum requirement for a family of 3 or 4 was created by the same people who profit from the sales of the building materials, land, and occasionally even the homes themselves to the working class who dreamt of a better life, but were thwarted by a "bubble" created by the very same people who ripped them off the first time around. The notion that the wealth built up prior to the Great Recession just disappeared would be laughable if it didn't have such dire consequences for the great middle and working classes. That money didn't disappear entirely - it merely flowed back uphill to the ultrawealthy and disappeared from view. Make no mistake, the Rupert Murdochs, the Brothers Koch, the oilmen and arms manufacturers and their friends are all better off today than they were at the peak of the housing bubble. Oh, their mouthpieces will show you nice charts and graphs showing that the poor billionaires are suffering too, and then ask if you have no pity for them. Well, I don't.
At the turn of the last century, the ultrawealthy - the Morgans, the Vanderbilts, the Duponts and others - were building empires for themselves just like the Murdochs and Kochs of today. They were raping resources and stepping on anyone who got in their way, just like the Murdochs and Kochs of today. And they were amassing wealth in a fashion never before seen...just like the Murdochs and Kochs of today. If we learn nothing else from this, let's let this one thing be our history lesson: We fail to learn our history lessons.
For example, why do we keep having these budget battles? They're a sideshow, nothing more. Why are we engaged in 3 wars? They're a sideshow, nothing more. Why are we watching yet another televised murder trial? It's a sideshow, nothing more. It's all distraction, all the time, everywhere, every when, and every damned day. It's a sideshow, nothing more.
The Arab spring and the rioting in Europe, those are the real deals; people saying, like the ubiquitous commercial, “It's MY money, and I want it NOW!” And they're right, they should be upset, damned upset. Upset enough to strike, to riot, to picket, to protest. Angry enough to challenge the status quo, to stick it out until real change is made, to be prepared to be arrested, beaten, pepper-sprayed, jailed, even imprisoned. Do you REALLY believe that the police in the US “protect and serve” the people? Open your eyes! Because the wealthy will be angry and upset too, and they're the ones with their own private armies, their own police forces, their own national armies, and in some cases their own countries. They'll be mad, mad enough to kill...and kill they will. They'll do anything to protect their wealth and themselves. They'll be like rabid dogs when cornered, and they'll need to be dealt with in the same way that rabid dogs are dealt with because they suffer from a disease. Their disease isn't fatal to the carriers, only to those who dare to oppose them. Their disease is greed.
How do we go about wiping out greed? That's a great question and it's beyond me to answer it. Greed may be so deeply ingrained in humans that it can't be rooted out without killing the host. But perhaps it could be somewhat mitigated. I believe that a world where the disparity between the bottom and top is small would be a world that would inhibit the formation of greed, a world where greed would be looked at as the vice it is, and not something to be emulated as it is in the world in which we currently live. I believe that a world where poverty is nonexistent, hunger is unknown, a world in which one's sense of security is never questioned would be a world where greed couldn't get traction. But it would also be a world that would threaten those who just can't stand to view others as equals. And that's why it will take a worldwide revolution to bring that world to fruition.
One day, and that day may not be that far off – I do believe that the United States' time in the sun draws closer to slipping away – one day Americans will wake up, they will realize that they've been lied to by corporations, by politicians, by the ultrawealthy, by the entertainment industry, and even by the media, the Fourth Estate, the one institution which should have remained above the fray. But didn't. Americans will wake up and as someone once observed about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which served to draw the United States into World War II, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
Americans will indeed be filled with a terrible resolve and the purpose of that will be to bring down the ivory towers in which the ultrawealthy hide. Americans have been lied to in such an insidious way that their anger will be unlike anything seen before and it will reach out far beyond the shores and borders of their nation to find the culprits and grind them to powder. The institutions that have been built to rape the meager treasuries of the poor and working classes will suffer their wrath. The great banking houses will be plundered. The world's armorers will find their own manufacture deadly when they themselves become the target. The multinational corporations which control the food supply will know the hunger that the bellies of small children from Appalachia to Asia Minor have felt. And perhaps worst of all will be the special celebration which will obtain for the middle men, the stockbrokers, the moneychangers who produce nothing but consume wastefully. The gluttony of Wall Street will provide tinsel and garland from the sinew and bone of its hacks. Only those who sought to fatten their own larders on the backs of those least capable of withstanding it will rue its loss.
There will come such a day. There always comes such a day at the changing of the guard of empires. As China rises, so America shall wane. It will be at that time that the argent light of truth will shine brightest on the dark machinations of greed.
But...as we look around and see the brightest, the boldest, the best informed and the most informative waging war on the unwary warrens of waste and class diminution, we may be looking at the genesis of our own struggle. Our time to strike out and strike back may be NOW. Look around. LOOK around. Open your eyes and LOOK. Turn off the TV. Put down your games. Pull your heads out. Stand up. And get mad, very very mad. Why are you unemployed? When has “trickle down” economics ever actually trickled down? If the Bush Era tax cuts were supposed to create so many jobs...where are they? That horse has been beat, shot, grilled, milled, and now resides in a bottle of glue; it ain't gonna run no more. Why do they really want a lower tax rate? Why the hell do you THINK they want a lower tax rate? They want it ALL. Every. Last. Dime. Because there're a couple things that they don't want us to know.
One: You've heard that there are two sets of rules - one for the rich, and one for the poor. That's wrong; the rich have no rules.
Two: In the end, the ultrawealthy...and when I use that term, I don't mean the guy down the street who bought the Jag, has a pool, and vacations for a month in the Caribbean; I mean the WEALTHY...billionaires...families worth...megabillions... In the end, the ultrawealthy just don't give a good goddamn about you or me. No, there's no selfless thought to them. They don't do anything for the greater good unless it may serve to substantiate their legacies. In the end, hell from the beginning, it's always been us versus them, in their minds.
So I say, OK. Fine. You want to dance? Let's! Let's see Wikileaks, Anonymous, and anyone else who can provide evidence that the bastards have been crapping on the working poor and middle classes show us the evil. Let's get up, get dressed, get to our posts and stand guard. And steel yourselves because the light at the end of the tunnel will only shine after the tunnel is dug, as as yet not a single shovelful has been lifted. The moguls will fight hard, and they will use any arms and means at their disposal. Their propaganda war began the day that Murdoch's media empire fired the first tyrannical shot over the heads of the dispossessed.
Let's get the word out, fire people up, and let's get this party started!
28 July 2011 addendum: "The U.S. is experiencing an 'end of empire' moment and the dollar share of global reserves is likely to fall gradually," said Jim Leaviss, head of retail fixed income at M&G Investments in London." - regarding the US debt ceiling debate currently before the US leadership.
28 July 2011 addendum: "The U.S. is experiencing an 'end of empire' moment and the dollar share of global reserves is likely to fall gradually," said Jim Leaviss, head of retail fixed income at M&G Investments in London." - regarding the US debt ceiling debate currently before the US leadership.
WHY WE WANT WORLDWIDE REVOLUTION
The poor want a better life, one with some sense of security in both their finances and abode. The wealthy simply want, how and from whence that money flows to them is of minor consideration. In America, we have created the false sense that to own a home is a privilege, not a right. Thank the wealthy for that notion; they own the rentals. There isn't and will not be anything approaching equality until every person who attains adulthood has his or her own home, a place that can't be taken away save by death.
The notion that a home in the US of 2000+ square feet is a minimum requirement for a family of 3 or 4 was created by the same people who profit from the sales of the building materials, land, and occasionally even the homes themselves to the working class who dreamt of a better life, but were thwarted by a "bubble" created by the very same people who ripped them off the first time around. The notion that the wealth built up prior to the Great Recession just disappeared would be laughable if it didn't have such dire consequences for the great middle and working classes. That money didn't disappear entirely - it merely flowed back uphill to the ultrawealthy and disappeared from view. Make no mistake, the Rupert Murdochs, the Brothers Koch, the oilmen and arms manufacturers and their friends are all better off today than they were at the peak of the housing bubble. Oh, their mouthpieces will show you nice charts and graphs showing that the poor billionaires are suffering too, and then ask if you have no pity for them. Well, I don't.
At the turn of the last century, the ultrawealthy - the Morgans, the Vanderbilts, the Duponts and others - were building empires for themselves just like the Murdochs and Kochs of today. They were raping resources and stepping on anyone who got in their way, just like the Murdochs and Kochs of today. And they were amassing wealth in a fashion never before seen...just like the Murdochs and Kochs of today. If we learn nothing else from this, let's let this one thing be our history lesson: We fail to learn our history lessons.
For example, why do we keep having these budget battles? They're a sideshow, nothing more. Why are we engaged in 3 wars? They're a sideshow, nothing more. Why are we watching yet another televised murder trial? It's a sideshow, nothing more. It's all distraction, all the time, everywhere, every when, and every damned day. It's a sideshow, nothing more.
The Arab spring and the rioting in Europe, those are the real deals; people saying, like the ubiquitous commercial, “It's MY money, and I want it NOW!” And they're right, they should be upset, damned upset. Upset enough to strike, to riot, to picket, to protest. Angry enough to challenge the status quo, to stick it out until real change is made, to be prepared to be arrested, beaten, pepper-sprayed, jailed, even imprisoned. Do you REALLY believe that the police in the US “protect and serve” the people? Open your eyes! Because the wealthy will be angry and upset too, and they're the ones with their own private armies, their own police forces, their own national armies, and in some cases their own countries. They'll be mad, mad enough to kill...and kill they will. They'll do anything to protect their wealth and themselves. They'll be like rabid dogs when cornered, and they'll need to be dealt with in the same way that rabid dogs are dealt with because they suffer from a disease. Their disease isn't fatal to the carriers, only to those who dare to oppose them. Their disease is greed.
How do we go about wiping out greed? That's a great question and it's beyond me to answer it. Greed may be so deeply ingrained in humans that it can't be rooted out without killing the host. But perhaps it could be somewhat mitigated. I believe that a world where the disparity between the bottom and top is small would be a world that would inhibit the formation of greed, a world where greed would be looked at as the vice it is, and not something to be emulated as it is in the world in which we currently live. I believe that a world where poverty is nonexistent, hunger is unknown, a world in which one's sense of security is never questioned would be a world where greed couldn't get traction. But it would also be a world that would threaten those who just can't stand to view others as equals. And that's why it will take a worldwide revolution to bring that world to fruition.
One day, and that day may not be that far off – I do believe that the United States' time in the sun draws closer to slipping away – one day Americans will wake up, they will realize that they've been lied to by corporations, by politicians, by the ultrawealthy, by the entertainment industry, and even by the media, the Fourth Estate, the one institution which should have remained above the fray. But didn't. Americans will wake up and as someone once observed about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which served to draw the United States into World War II, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
Americans will indeed be filled with a terrible resolve and the purpose of that will be to bring down the ivory towers in which the ultrawealthy hide. Americans have been lied to in such an insidious way that their anger will be unlike anything seen before and it will reach out far beyond the shores and borders of their nation to find the culprits and grind them to powder. The institutions that have been built to rape the meager treasuries of the poor and working classes will suffer their wrath. The great banking houses will be plundered. The world's armorers will find their own manufacture deadly when they themselves become the target. The multinational corporations which control the food supply will know the hunger that the bellies of small children from Appalachia to Asia Minor have felt. And perhaps worst of all will be the special celebration which will obtain for the middle men, the stockbrokers, the moneychangers who produce nothing but consume wastefully. The gluttony of Wall Street will provide tinsel and garland from the sinew and bone of its hacks. Only those who sought to fatten their own larders on the backs of those least capable of withstanding it will rue its loss.
There will come such a day. There always comes such a day at the changing of the guard of empires. As China rises, so America shall wane. It will be at that time that the argent light of truth will shine brightest on the dark machinations of greed.
But...as we look around and see the brightest, the boldest, the best informed and the most informative waging war on the unwary warrens of waste and class diminution, we may be looking at the genesis of our own struggle. Our time to strike out and strike back may be NOW. Look around. LOOK around. Open your eyes and LOOK. Turn off the TV. Put down your games. Pull your heads out. Stand up. And get mad, very very mad. Why are you unemployed? When has “trickle down” economics ever actually trickled down? If the Bush Era tax cuts were supposed to create so many jobs...where are they? That horse has been beat, shot, grilled, milled, and now resides in a bottle of glue; it ain't gonna run no more. Why do they really want a lower tax rate? Why the hell do you THINK they want a lower tax rate? They want it ALL. Every. Last. Dime. Because there're a couple things that they don't want us to know.
One: You've heard that there are two sets of rules - one for the rich, and one for the poor. That's wrong; the rich have no rules.
Two: In the end, the ultrawealthy...and when I use that term, I don't mean the guy down the street who bought the Jag, has a pool, and vacations for a month in the Caribbean; I mean the WEALTHY...billionaires...families worth...megabillions... In the end, the ultrawealthy just don't give a good goddamn about you or me. No, there's no selfless thought to them. They don't do anything for the greater good unless it may serve to substantiate their legacies. In the end, hell from the beginning, it's always been us versus them, in their minds.
So I say, OK. Fine. You want to dance? Let's! Let's see Wikileaks, Anonymous, and anyone else who can provide evidence that the bastards have been crapping on the working poor and middle classes show us the evil. Let's get up, get dressed, get to our posts and stand guard. And steel yourselves because the light at the end of the tunnel will only shine after the tunnel is dug, as as yet not a single shovelful has been lifted. The moguls will fight hard, and they will use any arms and means at their disposal. Their propaganda war began the day that Murdoch's media empire fired the first tyrannical shot over the heads of the dispossessed.
Let's get the word out, fire people up, and let's get this party started!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Tax equality for all, not just ‘tax the wealthy’
This morning, I had a great conversation with a friend in Portland via chat. We agree about quite a bit, but differ along some lines, just as friends should do. Where we differ is this: When I think tax equality, I think that means that everyone should pay the same rate regardless of who you are, where you're from, your religion, color or creed, and regardless of your income. I believe in a national sales tax which would replace ALL other taxes.
The way I have this envisioned is this: First, we would have a star-chamber panel of non-politically-aligned experts...that is to say not politicians...who would pore over each and every part of the Federal budget, as well as similar individual panels for each state, in order to assure that any waste in government that could possibly be eliminated would be, and that duplication of services, offices, and programs would be erased. Then, we would remove all other taxes, whether we call them taxes or not - if you pay it to the government...ANY government whether Federal, state or local...it's a tax - and replace them all with a national sales tax. Built into this system would be the ability to adjust the rate up or down as needed, quarterly or yearly. We may find it necessary to have a sliding scale built in so that luxury items would be taxed at a higher rate than standard items; a Mercedes taxed at 50% vs a Chevy at 40%. If those rates sound high, then consider that in 2007, MSN Money stated that the average median tax rate was 40.3% across all income groups. They took into consideration the same principles I set forth here that all taxes were considered - Federal, state, and local, sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes, et cetera. The advantage of having a luxury rate, and the equality, is that if Joe SixPack happens to score a lottery win and buys himself a Jaguar, then he still pays the luxury rate for it, just like a regular buyer of that car would. Equality. Also, this would encourage saving more money than we currently do, which would have the long-term benefit of people having enough money set aside to make large purchases rather than borrowing money on which they would have to pay interest as in the current system. And that means a higher standard of living.
But the other side of the coin is what's really on my mind, this morning. I notice when I talk to people, especially those of lower income groups, that they want tax parity for the wealthy. But at the same time, they'll tell you that they think that working families with children shouldn't have to pay taxes, or should be taxed at a lower rate. If that were done, or if these people were allowed to have their taxes rebated, even the sales taxes, then this breaks tax equality out of the gate. It's not tax EQUALITY if lower income groups pay LESS. The only way that it's e-q-u-a-l-i-t-y is if every income group pays the same for the same items. Again, luxury items could be taxed at a higher rate, but all income groups, that means any buyer from any group, pay the same amount of tax on that item.
I have the fortune ("fortune" being defined as hard work, ingenuity, and an entrepreneurial spirit) to have hoisted myself out of the lower and middle income groups. While I had help polishing the ideas I dreamed of, it was my own determination that put me into an upper income group. I state this for one reason: I know what it's like to grow up poor. My parents worked hard to pay for me and didn't take handouts. But like every other average parent, they received help in the form of a free education for me. My healthcare, dental, and vision needs were paid for by them, not by a government agency. They clothed me. They fed me. We got no WIC or food stamps. But we also didn't take lavish vacations or drive cars that were priced beyond our means; we ate well and dressed modestly, too. In sum, we lived within our means.
And there lies the rub. Americans have come to expect to live beyond their means. At first, that meant driving a nicer car and wearing designer clothes, but it's come to mean buying more house than we could afford and having others pay for our kids...or ourselves. The wealthy are justified in their anger at having to pay for others when those others are the recipients of handouts, regardless of whether we call them handouts or not. BUT...the wealthy are NOT justified when they shirk their tax obligations. And that happens far too often. Some of my wealthy friends tell me that they feel justified paying no or little income tax because they pay so much in sales taxes for the many things they buy. I understand that. But I also know that many of them shop exclusively online or in states with no sales tax (yes, those exist, in fact Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have no sales tax, but they compensate with higher income and/or property taxes). So in a sense, even the wealthy are living beyond their means, or at least beyond their desire to pay their fair share of taxes.
What we have is a national tax-disassociative disorder. We're fraught with debt and don't have the national will to pay it down because we're so used to living beyond our means. We have politicians tell us every day that we need to lower taxes in order to stimulate growth, but what they don't tell us is the pain that will follow. And it WILL follow. Except for the super rich.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in, and actually do, pay my full tax rate. Honestly. I take no deductions. At all. Why? Because I believe that the tax money I pay goes to fund programs that I have used to my advantage, and many that I continue to use. In a sense, I'm just paying the system back for that I "borrowed". And it's important to remember that we have the luxury of having a national freeway system, not a national toll-road system. We have a national park system that is the match of any. We have institutions of higher learning that are subsidized by our tax payments that provide education for those who wouldn't be able to pay the rate that for-profit, private institutions charge. We have a Coast Guard that keeps our nation's shoreline safe from invasion, and rescues us when we tip over our boats or our cruise goes awry, not to mention the heroic work they do for the fishermen of our oceans. We have a military that keeps us as safe as they possibly can from foreign invasion and whose clandestine work often goes unheralded, and unappreciated; but not for certain military units dismantling terrorist cells worldwide BEFORE they can reach our shores, bombings and other acts of terrorism would be as common place here in America as in parts of the Middle East, if not more so.
But, we have rancor and dissent, too. We have a new political faction that feels that taxes are evil and should be repealed, eliding the fact that many of the services they take for granted would simply vanish without them. We also have a segment which believes that government should provide for them cradle-to-grave, despite the fact that we have a national debt that's staggering and not one, but two political party entities which purport to represent the will of an America that wishes them gone, dead, divorced from the marriage of our union.
So, what path do we take out of our morass? I know no one with a crystal ball who can provide that answer. But I do know this for certain: If we do not address, civilly, all of the issues which plague our nation then we can expect that divorce to happen sooner rather than later. It would not surprise me to see the new South attempt secession again. I could foresee the Midwest going along with them. But I also have faith in our ability to weather even this perfect storm. Perfect shit storm, would be more like it. And it's all of our own making.
Failing to have a real leader with real, prudent ideas...not a Ronald Reagan whose trumped-up legacy is as much a fiction as any children's fairy tale...means that we'll continue to stagnate and will take our places as a has-been along with Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal. What we need is an FDR, a George Washington, or an Abraham Lincoln. We need someone with the clarity of mind, the willpower, and the charisma to lead us to a new place, a new road at the least, one that would take us to a common goal of respect for our fellows, civility in politics, and concern for our fellow planetary citizens. What we don't need is one of the loony tunes nut-fudge-fringe candidates put forth by some, today. We don't need leaders who seek to serve only their benefactors. We don't need leaders who seek to lead by division like so many in our current situation. We need someone who will lead us firmly together while respecting our differences, but like a good nanny or school teacher, one who will glance sternly at the offending parties to quieten them to maintain order while never stopping, slowing, or looking over her shoulder to see if the kids are following; she will know they are because they're holding hands, not pushing and shoving and trying each to run his own way.
And perhaps that's the real problem: We've forgotten as adults what we were taught in kindergarten - how to be nice to one another, share and share alike, and that everyone has to do her and his part to make the project work, whether it's the kid who came to school chauffeured in luxury or the poor kid with the hand-me-down wardrobe who rode the bus. Everyone. Together. "...One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".
The way I have this envisioned is this: First, we would have a star-chamber panel of non-politically-aligned experts...that is to say not politicians...who would pore over each and every part of the Federal budget, as well as similar individual panels for each state, in order to assure that any waste in government that could possibly be eliminated would be, and that duplication of services, offices, and programs would be erased. Then, we would remove all other taxes, whether we call them taxes or not - if you pay it to the government...ANY government whether Federal, state or local...it's a tax - and replace them all with a national sales tax. Built into this system would be the ability to adjust the rate up or down as needed, quarterly or yearly. We may find it necessary to have a sliding scale built in so that luxury items would be taxed at a higher rate than standard items; a Mercedes taxed at 50% vs a Chevy at 40%. If those rates sound high, then consider that in 2007, MSN Money stated that the average median tax rate was 40.3% across all income groups. They took into consideration the same principles I set forth here that all taxes were considered - Federal, state, and local, sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes, et cetera. The advantage of having a luxury rate, and the equality, is that if Joe SixPack happens to score a lottery win and buys himself a Jaguar, then he still pays the luxury rate for it, just like a regular buyer of that car would. Equality. Also, this would encourage saving more money than we currently do, which would have the long-term benefit of people having enough money set aside to make large purchases rather than borrowing money on which they would have to pay interest as in the current system. And that means a higher standard of living.
But the other side of the coin is what's really on my mind, this morning. I notice when I talk to people, especially those of lower income groups, that they want tax parity for the wealthy. But at the same time, they'll tell you that they think that working families with children shouldn't have to pay taxes, or should be taxed at a lower rate. If that were done, or if these people were allowed to have their taxes rebated, even the sales taxes, then this breaks tax equality out of the gate. It's not tax EQUALITY if lower income groups pay LESS. The only way that it's e-q-u-a-l-i-t-y is if every income group pays the same for the same items. Again, luxury items could be taxed at a higher rate, but all income groups, that means any buyer from any group, pay the same amount of tax on that item.
I have the fortune ("fortune" being defined as hard work, ingenuity, and an entrepreneurial spirit) to have hoisted myself out of the lower and middle income groups. While I had help polishing the ideas I dreamed of, it was my own determination that put me into an upper income group. I state this for one reason: I know what it's like to grow up poor. My parents worked hard to pay for me and didn't take handouts. But like every other average parent, they received help in the form of a free education for me. My healthcare, dental, and vision needs were paid for by them, not by a government agency. They clothed me. They fed me. We got no WIC or food stamps. But we also didn't take lavish vacations or drive cars that were priced beyond our means; we ate well and dressed modestly, too. In sum, we lived within our means.
And there lies the rub. Americans have come to expect to live beyond their means. At first, that meant driving a nicer car and wearing designer clothes, but it's come to mean buying more house than we could afford and having others pay for our kids...or ourselves. The wealthy are justified in their anger at having to pay for others when those others are the recipients of handouts, regardless of whether we call them handouts or not. BUT...the wealthy are NOT justified when they shirk their tax obligations. And that happens far too often. Some of my wealthy friends tell me that they feel justified paying no or little income tax because they pay so much in sales taxes for the many things they buy. I understand that. But I also know that many of them shop exclusively online or in states with no sales tax (yes, those exist, in fact Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have no sales tax, but they compensate with higher income and/or property taxes). So in a sense, even the wealthy are living beyond their means, or at least beyond their desire to pay their fair share of taxes.
What we have is a national tax-disassociative disorder. We're fraught with debt and don't have the national will to pay it down because we're so used to living beyond our means. We have politicians tell us every day that we need to lower taxes in order to stimulate growth, but what they don't tell us is the pain that will follow. And it WILL follow. Except for the super rich.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in, and actually do, pay my full tax rate. Honestly. I take no deductions. At all. Why? Because I believe that the tax money I pay goes to fund programs that I have used to my advantage, and many that I continue to use. In a sense, I'm just paying the system back for that I "borrowed". And it's important to remember that we have the luxury of having a national freeway system, not a national toll-road system. We have a national park system that is the match of any. We have institutions of higher learning that are subsidized by our tax payments that provide education for those who wouldn't be able to pay the rate that for-profit, private institutions charge. We have a Coast Guard that keeps our nation's shoreline safe from invasion, and rescues us when we tip over our boats or our cruise goes awry, not to mention the heroic work they do for the fishermen of our oceans. We have a military that keeps us as safe as they possibly can from foreign invasion and whose clandestine work often goes unheralded, and unappreciated; but not for certain military units dismantling terrorist cells worldwide BEFORE they can reach our shores, bombings and other acts of terrorism would be as common place here in America as in parts of the Middle East, if not more so.
But, we have rancor and dissent, too. We have a new political faction that feels that taxes are evil and should be repealed, eliding the fact that many of the services they take for granted would simply vanish without them. We also have a segment which believes that government should provide for them cradle-to-grave, despite the fact that we have a national debt that's staggering and not one, but two political party entities which purport to represent the will of an America that wishes them gone, dead, divorced from the marriage of our union.
So, what path do we take out of our morass? I know no one with a crystal ball who can provide that answer. But I do know this for certain: If we do not address, civilly, all of the issues which plague our nation then we can expect that divorce to happen sooner rather than later. It would not surprise me to see the new South attempt secession again. I could foresee the Midwest going along with them. But I also have faith in our ability to weather even this perfect storm. Perfect shit storm, would be more like it. And it's all of our own making.
Failing to have a real leader with real, prudent ideas...not a Ronald Reagan whose trumped-up legacy is as much a fiction as any children's fairy tale...means that we'll continue to stagnate and will take our places as a has-been along with Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal. What we need is an FDR, a George Washington, or an Abraham Lincoln. We need someone with the clarity of mind, the willpower, and the charisma to lead us to a new place, a new road at the least, one that would take us to a common goal of respect for our fellows, civility in politics, and concern for our fellow planetary citizens. What we don't need is one of the loony tunes nut-fudge-fringe candidates put forth by some, today. We don't need leaders who seek to serve only their benefactors. We don't need leaders who seek to lead by division like so many in our current situation. We need someone who will lead us firmly together while respecting our differences, but like a good nanny or school teacher, one who will glance sternly at the offending parties to quieten them to maintain order while never stopping, slowing, or looking over her shoulder to see if the kids are following; she will know they are because they're holding hands, not pushing and shoving and trying each to run his own way.
And perhaps that's the real problem: We've forgotten as adults what we were taught in kindergarten - how to be nice to one another, share and share alike, and that everyone has to do her and his part to make the project work, whether it's the kid who came to school chauffeured in luxury or the poor kid with the hand-me-down wardrobe who rode the bus. Everyone. Together. "...One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
A Mens’ Primer: Horror And Etiquette In The Library Restroom as suffered through by Jim Chatman
What’s the difference between a fairy tale and a war story? Fairy tales begin, “Once upon a time…”. War stories begin, “This ain’t no shit…”. Well…this is the latter.
Back in 2002, while I lived and worked in Eugene, Oregon,I was in the process of being promoted from Field Rep to a management position and needed to pass on the files for the clients in my district to the person taking my place. In order to do so in an orderly manner, I decided that a meeting room at the local library would be a good place for us to lay out the files as I briefed him on each client before turning them over.
As usual, I arrived a few minutes early and decided to take the opportunity to visit the restroom before our meeting. Files in hand, I ascended the steps to the second floor, juggling files to be turned over in one hand, files to be kept in the other, and trying to turn off my cell phone and pocket my keys with both. Upon arriving on the second floor, I glanced up to locate the restrooms, then proceeded into the nearest one, head down.
Not wanting to expose the files to the restroom environment, I tucked them into my briefcase before selecting a stall and proceeding. I hung the briefcase on the door hook and went about my constitutional, happy that I had wisely chosen to do so prior to the meeting which would need close attention to detail.
After a few moments, I began to notice that the woman shouting to her kid in the restroom was actually IN the restroom. I thought it was pretty rude of her coming into the mens’ room like that, kid or not, but I kept quiet and tried to tune her out.
I’ve never been one to sit idly when there is something within grasp to read or check out, e.g., toothpaste labels, shampoo bottles, under-sink cabinets in others’ homes, or in this case the silver container which hung on the left stall wall above the toilet paper dispenser. Not having seen one before, I decided to explore.
A warning to my gay friends: Looking into one could make you ill.
A warning to my straight friends: Looking into one could make you gay.
For inside that innocuous-seeming container was the proof that women did indeed receive a ‘monthly visitor’ and therein was the bloody evidence. I dropped the lid like it was a Republican Party membership card and recoiled in horror. My cartoonishly-fast shrink to the far wall gave me a clear view underneath the partition into the stall to my left and I noticed a svelte, toned and tanned leg terminating in a rather petite foot shod in a size, oh call it 6, brown, woman’s pump, which, for some bizarre reason at that moment, I found both tasteful and elegant.
I want to take a moment and address the manner that horror filmmakers rely on to properly elicit the shrieking screams that come from their duly frightened audiences. One might be of the mistaken assumption that having Jason or Freddy Krueger jump out with no warning would create the maximum amount of fright, but that’s not the case. No, the best way to create wealth for heart surgeons is to let the victim KNOW that the bad guy’s there, and THEN have him jump out. Yeah, let her or him catch a glimpse of the evil that waits, let that dread build and gnaw for a moment, and THEN spring it on them. Fortunately for me, I was already on the toilet.
Yep, I was in the womens’ restroom…in Eugene, Oregon…the last resting place of every patchouli-wearing-long-haired-former-hippie-chick who ever walked a shoeless mile on the West Coast. Feminazi Central. They were going to drag me out of the restroom and hang me with the braided hair from their ne’er-been-shaved-or-deodoranted armpits, I just knew it.
This is probably not the time, but it’s important to understand restroom anonymity and etiquette. We males understand that the resulting greenhouse gases caused by the enormous spicy Mexican meal we had the night before…as indeed I had enjoyed the evening prior…will never be mentioned by our porcelain-rocket fellow travelers. The sole agonized, astonished face I happened to glimpse on my egress indicated that no such rule applied in the ladies’ room.
I made it out alive, though. After 20 or so minutes of imagining every possible form of hell and damnation that they would visit upon me, I got up the nerve and just walked out. I walked completely out, out of the restroom, out of the library, out to my car and I drove hastily away. A couple hours later, when I had pulled myself together and recovered from the maniacal laughter that only comes from the criminally insane or those who’ve suffered-through-yet-survived a horror like mine, I called my replacement. He was still at the library and had to go outside to take the call. It was fine anyway, he told me, because a couple hours ago, library security and a SWAT team showed up and rushed the upstairs womens’ restroom and we probably wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on our meeting anyway…
Friday, November 5, 2010
I was reading an automobile magazine today and the author of the article that prompted this was lambasting President Obama and government intrusion into business because he thinks that light rail is a bad idea. Two thoughts: One, who the fuck is this douchebag anyway; Two, if there are ever any more bailouts or TARPs or stimuli, I damned well better be getting the bulk of it/them.
But what the article about EVs did was to get me thinking. I'm sure that oil companies are in a dither about their business models what with Peak Oil having been reached, EVs hitting showrooms, and the general attitude globally (minus the US where we still have our collective heads up our collective asses) concerning humankind's contribution to global warming. But, I have a plan...and it will require that a consortium of oil companies and automobile manufacturers coalesce to form a new infrastructure paradigm OR it will require massive government intervention.
I recognize that the EV battery market is new, still in its infancy. But now's the time to set standards for commonality of battery forms the same way that the electronics industry has standards for, say, hardware interface. In that industry you have HDMI, USB 2.0, Firewire and a host of other connection standards. If they can do it, so can the automotive industry with batteries. Clearly there exist standards today for automotive batteries, tires, motor oil, fuels, windshield wipers, and a host of other components. Narrow the battery size/shape/voltage/connection types to a handful and you're set to go. Over time, allow new types into the market, loosen restrictions, and let market forces dictate design.
Let's take another industry as an example: Propane grill gas. Your BBQ grill probably uses a propane gas tank, if it's like most peoples' grills. What do you do when you need more propane? Do you take your tank to have it filled? Probably not. Not anymore. Now, you take your tank to Walmart, Kroger, Lowes, or...a gas(oline) station and swap it for a pre-filled tank. Blue Rhino is very well known and has kiosks all over. It's fast, safe, easy, and relatively inexpensive. You take YOUR empty tank, give it to Blue Rhino or another propane company, take THEIR full tank, and off you go. A swap.
And that's exactly how the battery issue for EVs should work (*See Comment 1 for clarification). We don't need battery CHARGING stations all over the country. We need battery SWAPPING stations all over the country. Here's the secret to how oil companies are already positioned to be early adopters: They're already exactly where motorists who need a fully charged battery need them to be. Here's the double plus ultra bonus: It will require attendants! Extra labor in the workforce to swap the heavy batteries for people who don't want to dirty themselves doing it, CAN'T do it themselves due to physical limitations or lack of automotive expertise, or those of us who're just too damned lazy to do it ourselves. It seems that the technology might be made in such a way that a person who can today fuel her or his own car might also be able to swap the batteries themselves, so like many gas stations there might be both full-serve and self-serve islands with a price difference reflecting the labor needed for full-serve. (I realize that the current designs bury the batteries in the middle of the cars for several reasons, but future designs might be made to allow quick changing; this would be in the automobile MANUFACTURERS' best interests, too, to make EV range extension attractive)
Here's another plus for oil companies: Their "product" - electricity - doesn't have to come in on a truck; it comes to every gas station already. No shipping costs, no delay waiting for the truck to come, no cluster as the tank truck fills the underground tanks. For that matter, no underground tanks! (OK, some stations already have those and there might be a tax incentive instituted to help offset the cost of having them removed or safely deactivated in situ). There'll probably be some necessary changes to the wiring connecting them to the power grid in order to handle the necessary additional electricity, but that's a one-time deal. The beauty of that, if it's actually needed, is that there are how many tens of thousands of gas stations across the country, meaning how much work for electricians?
So, how does it all play out in practice? Two cars pull into a "gas" station (call it what you will, but I like 'swap shop'). Car A driven by The Little Old Lady From Pasadena pulls into the full-serve island. An attendant steps to her window, asks what she needs/wants, and takes payment. He can slide her card at the pump or she can use the digital, encrypted hand-reader that sends her payment request to her bank for processing, eliminating the need for her to get out of her car. That done, the attendant opens the hood/trunk/vehicle-side panel and pulls out X number of drained batteries that are docked there. He puts those on the waiting cart, wheels it over to the battery bay, slides them into the charger, grabs X number of charged batteries, returns to the customer's car, slides them in, and thanks her for shopping at XYZ Swap Shop. Off she goes. Time lapsed: 5-7 minutes.
Car B is driven by a strapping 19-year-old jock who jumps out of his ride, slides his card, punches in the battery type and number of batteries he needs, gets the approval, grabs a cart, removes his drained batteries, wheels them over to the battery bay, hands the attendant the white copy (the customer keeps the yellow copy, just like now) of the receipt printout showing the type and number of batteries and the approved payment (the attendant would also have a screen so he could have the battery order ready), gets his batteries, returns to the car, slides the new ones in, and off he goes. Time lapsed: 4-5 minutes.
[The Car C scenario - In the event that batteries must be serviced from under the car (surely at some point that would change), quick oil change companies like Jiffy Lube become the new 'swap shops' as they already have the work bays and drive-over work pits. A customer would drive in, get out, walk in to the attached convenience store, make his purchases there and pay for his batteries which will have been identified and put into the system by then (the customer could be given a number or a token to identify his order), and by the time he gets back to his car, it's ready to go with fully-charged batteries.]
Most of the swap shops would also have a convenience store, some would have a car wash, some fast food...just like now. The only major change is the type of "fuel" sold, with the minor change of delivery and storage infrastructure. Just as with the swappable propane cylinders, you leave your property, take their property, pay for the "fuel", and off you go. Quid pro quo.
Down the road (Punny!), I can envision 'instant charge' stations which would flash charge batteries. And at any time, your car could be charged at home using your standard charger. Swap shops would be there for those occasions when you forgot to charge, didn't have time to charge, are going on a trip, or like many of us are just too damned lazy to do it ourselves. Over time, I believe that charging will become less and less of an issue and the number of swap shops will dwindle, not grow, but they'll get us over the hump as we convert to a new technology. I can see where they may always be needed for trucks which might not be able to make a long-haul without swapping batteries or making long charges.
The future is bright! I'm excited.
But what the article about EVs did was to get me thinking. I'm sure that oil companies are in a dither about their business models what with Peak Oil having been reached, EVs hitting showrooms, and the general attitude globally (minus the US where we still have our collective heads up our collective asses) concerning humankind's contribution to global warming. But, I have a plan...and it will require that a consortium of oil companies and automobile manufacturers coalesce to form a new infrastructure paradigm OR it will require massive government intervention.
I recognize that the EV battery market is new, still in its infancy. But now's the time to set standards for commonality of battery forms the same way that the electronics industry has standards for, say, hardware interface. In that industry you have HDMI, USB 2.0, Firewire and a host of other connection standards. If they can do it, so can the automotive industry with batteries. Clearly there exist standards today for automotive batteries, tires, motor oil, fuels, windshield wipers, and a host of other components. Narrow the battery size/shape/voltage/connection types to a handful and you're set to go. Over time, allow new types into the market, loosen restrictions, and let market forces dictate design.
Let's take another industry as an example: Propane grill gas. Your BBQ grill probably uses a propane gas tank, if it's like most peoples' grills. What do you do when you need more propane? Do you take your tank to have it filled? Probably not. Not anymore. Now, you take your tank to Walmart, Kroger, Lowes, or...a gas(oline) station and swap it for a pre-filled tank. Blue Rhino is very well known and has kiosks all over. It's fast, safe, easy, and relatively inexpensive. You take YOUR empty tank, give it to Blue Rhino or another propane company, take THEIR full tank, and off you go. A swap.
And that's exactly how the battery issue for EVs should work (*See Comment 1 for clarification). We don't need battery CHARGING stations all over the country. We need battery SWAPPING stations all over the country. Here's the secret to how oil companies are already positioned to be early adopters: They're already exactly where motorists who need a fully charged battery need them to be. Here's the double plus ultra bonus: It will require attendants! Extra labor in the workforce to swap the heavy batteries for people who don't want to dirty themselves doing it, CAN'T do it themselves due to physical limitations or lack of automotive expertise, or those of us who're just too damned lazy to do it ourselves. It seems that the technology might be made in such a way that a person who can today fuel her or his own car might also be able to swap the batteries themselves, so like many gas stations there might be both full-serve and self-serve islands with a price difference reflecting the labor needed for full-serve. (I realize that the current designs bury the batteries in the middle of the cars for several reasons, but future designs might be made to allow quick changing; this would be in the automobile MANUFACTURERS' best interests, too, to make EV range extension attractive)
Here's another plus for oil companies: Their "product" - electricity - doesn't have to come in on a truck; it comes to every gas station already. No shipping costs, no delay waiting for the truck to come, no cluster as the tank truck fills the underground tanks. For that matter, no underground tanks! (OK, some stations already have those and there might be a tax incentive instituted to help offset the cost of having them removed or safely deactivated in situ). There'll probably be some necessary changes to the wiring connecting them to the power grid in order to handle the necessary additional electricity, but that's a one-time deal. The beauty of that, if it's actually needed, is that there are how many tens of thousands of gas stations across the country, meaning how much work for electricians?
So, how does it all play out in practice? Two cars pull into a "gas" station (call it what you will, but I like 'swap shop'). Car A driven by The Little Old Lady From Pasadena pulls into the full-serve island. An attendant steps to her window, asks what she needs/wants, and takes payment. He can slide her card at the pump or she can use the digital, encrypted hand-reader that sends her payment request to her bank for processing, eliminating the need for her to get out of her car. That done, the attendant opens the hood/trunk/vehicle-side panel and pulls out X number of drained batteries that are docked there. He puts those on the waiting cart, wheels it over to the battery bay, slides them into the charger, grabs X number of charged batteries, returns to the customer's car, slides them in, and thanks her for shopping at XYZ Swap Shop. Off she goes. Time lapsed: 5-7 minutes.
Car B is driven by a strapping 19-year-old jock who jumps out of his ride, slides his card, punches in the battery type and number of batteries he needs, gets the approval, grabs a cart, removes his drained batteries, wheels them over to the battery bay, hands the attendant the white copy (the customer keeps the yellow copy, just like now) of the receipt printout showing the type and number of batteries and the approved payment (the attendant would also have a screen so he could have the battery order ready), gets his batteries, returns to the car, slides the new ones in, and off he goes. Time lapsed: 4-5 minutes.
[The Car C scenario - In the event that batteries must be serviced from under the car (surely at some point that would change), quick oil change companies like Jiffy Lube become the new 'swap shops' as they already have the work bays and drive-over work pits. A customer would drive in, get out, walk in to the attached convenience store, make his purchases there and pay for his batteries which will have been identified and put into the system by then (the customer could be given a number or a token to identify his order), and by the time he gets back to his car, it's ready to go with fully-charged batteries.]
Most of the swap shops would also have a convenience store, some would have a car wash, some fast food...just like now. The only major change is the type of "fuel" sold, with the minor change of delivery and storage infrastructure. Just as with the swappable propane cylinders, you leave your property, take their property, pay for the "fuel", and off you go. Quid pro quo.
Down the road (Punny!), I can envision 'instant charge' stations which would flash charge batteries. And at any time, your car could be charged at home using your standard charger. Swap shops would be there for those occasions when you forgot to charge, didn't have time to charge, are going on a trip, or like many of us are just too damned lazy to do it ourselves. Over time, I believe that charging will become less and less of an issue and the number of swap shops will dwindle, not grow, but they'll get us over the hump as we convert to a new technology. I can see where they may always be needed for trucks which might not be able to make a long-haul without swapping batteries or making long charges.
The future is bright! I'm excited.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Conservative vitriol, liberal retrenchment, and historical revisionism
I don’t know that I should be surprised, but as far out of bounds as the political discourse had already been prior to the 2010 mid-term election cycle, it has recently moved the needle completely off the gauge. There are 3 main problems that affect the ability of people who differ in their political views to communicate in a manner befitting people who share one nationality. The first is the elevated vitriol coming from the right. While it’s not that unusual to find more anger coming from people who “feel” their beliefs rather than from those who actively research the facts and think, the accelerated pitch of the right’s vitriol has shut down any sort of amicable, constructive conversation. That anger isn’t directed merely at politicians of the opposite stripe, it’s being directed at anyone who doesn’t jump up and down screaming and shouting and wildly waving the American flag to the tunes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. I was recently shouted at by a woman who appeared to be in her 40s and called me a coward and traitor because I said that I was glad that combat operations in Iraq had ended. I pulled out my Veteran’s ID card and quietly pointed to the “Service Connected” identifier showing that my disabilities were incurred as a result of my service to my country. Her husband seemed pained and wouldn’t look at me as he pulled her away, but it was clear that he understood. When she rolled the window down in their pickup, I simply asked her “Ma’am, what branch did you serve in?”. I’m not sure what her response was after the initial glass-shatteringly-screeched “That ain’t got nothin’ to do with it”, but I do know that spittle was flying and her husband was holding onto her to keep her from getting out as he backed out of the parking spot and quickly left the parking lot.
She called me a coward and a traitor. And that’s the thing; she had no idea who I am, not that I’m anyone special. She just knew that I had a different opinion and that sent her into a towering tirade. Why? Because the sheep have been flocked by the conservative-controlled media shepherds. The right seems lost in a maze of national scale, unable to do the simple math of subtraction that points an accusing, sharpened pencil at conservative policies that created the conditions for the Perfect Storm that lead directly to the Great Recession. When asked by others when the Great Recession began, I tell them that it began the day Ronald Reagan took office, and there’s truth in that that conservatives don’t want to see because they’ve elevated him to godlike status and any admission that the Great Communicator’s fiscal policies were anything but flawless causes the firmament to shake and the sky to darken in their eyes. But it’s true. They’re loathe to admit, if you can find one educated well enough to be able to do the research, that the greatest tax increase in American history – still to this day – was enacted by Ronald Reagan the year following his massive tax cuts. Why? Because even the Gipper could see that it was impossible to balance the budget when there was no revenue stream. But, when many of those tax cuts were repealed, a good deal of others were not. And it was those that were not that is the rub because 1981′s massive tax cuts remained in effect for the wealthy when in 1982 the middle class had their taxes raised not just back to the pre-1981 level, but even higher. And that’s a fact.
These annoying facts are the inconvenient truth that gives the political right nightmares. But rather than deal with them, or even admit them, they have bent space and time to reinvent the truth and hammer it night and day with the bludgeon of conservative commentators to subtly, slowly, but certainly reshape it to their desires. The conservative political laity drink the wine and eat the flesh and the truth has been transmuted. The now-warped history as told by Beck, Palin, Rove, Gingrich, Limbaugh, et alia, has been swept clean of any right-wing wrongdoing, and in fact now points the fickle finger of fate at liberals, divesting the GOP of blame and casting it onto their enemies.
All of that would be bad enough of itself, but liberals have let them do it. Liberals have allowed conservatives to rewrite history and to relegate the very word liberal to the opprobrium normally reserved for felons. Liberal lawmakers – barring a few like Representative Barney Frank who himself has faced down the name-callers and political backstabbers – shrink from the appellation ‘liberal’. Some, like the cowardly Jim Marshall, D-GA, try to distance themselves from Speaker Pelosi and President Obama in their mid-term TV ads going so far as to boast that they’ve voted with the Republicans more than with their own party. It’s disgraceful, the craven behavior of these political quislings who just 2 years ago were riding so high on a wave of political capital generated by the goodwill forged by Madame Speaker and Mister President themselves. Capital that they then squandered with infighting and intra-party bickering.
Liberals have turned out to be less fitting of the title of citizen than in a long while. It used to be a liberal notion that once the ball was rolling they would keep it rolling and roll right over opposition to programs which benefit those of lesser means and let the success of those programs show over time that they were indeed the right things to do, e.g. PWA, CCC, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. FDR’s massive public works programs are a great example of what liberalism has done for our society. The biggest expenditure by our government at any time for any project not related to war resulted in a stronger economy, vastly improved and extended infrastructure, and jobs for people when they needed them. It was a double bonus that the jobs many of the jobless got through those programs resulted in the magnificent, enduring structures in our national parks, built for pennies on the dollar and returning an abiding profit from their initial investment in the forms of recreation, leisure, and appreciation of the grandeur of our parklands.
The times have changed, and now even a liberal president with the backing of both chambers of our national assembly helmed by those of his own party can’t get his own party’s programs enacted. FDR, JFK and LBJ would all be embarrassed to learn that he belongs to the same party that they lead to lift the country out of the Great Depression, to build a space program and journey us to the moon, and to establish the Great Society in order to help those who were mired in poverty.
So here we are. The Republicans will surely sweep to victory next month, and I can’t say that the Democrats deserve anything less than losing. A political xenophobia has set in, preventing people of either major party from even attempting to understand the points the other side tries to make or from having civil discourse about them. Both sides have painted themselves into opposing corners and like a couple of dogs who can’t quite reach each other, they bark endlessly, tiringly, annoyingly, and have forgotten why the first bark was barked anyway. While we’re on dogs, I just have to think that the poor scraggly starved and scarred puppy who came to our door a month ago begging for food after having either escaped a cruel master or possibly being thrown out has more sense than these politicians do; even a dog won’t shit in his own house.
She called me a coward and a traitor. And that’s the thing; she had no idea who I am, not that I’m anyone special. She just knew that I had a different opinion and that sent her into a towering tirade. Why? Because the sheep have been flocked by the conservative-controlled media shepherds. The right seems lost in a maze of national scale, unable to do the simple math of subtraction that points an accusing, sharpened pencil at conservative policies that created the conditions for the Perfect Storm that lead directly to the Great Recession. When asked by others when the Great Recession began, I tell them that it began the day Ronald Reagan took office, and there’s truth in that that conservatives don’t want to see because they’ve elevated him to godlike status and any admission that the Great Communicator’s fiscal policies were anything but flawless causes the firmament to shake and the sky to darken in their eyes. But it’s true. They’re loathe to admit, if you can find one educated well enough to be able to do the research, that the greatest tax increase in American history – still to this day – was enacted by Ronald Reagan the year following his massive tax cuts. Why? Because even the Gipper could see that it was impossible to balance the budget when there was no revenue stream. But, when many of those tax cuts were repealed, a good deal of others were not. And it was those that were not that is the rub because 1981′s massive tax cuts remained in effect for the wealthy when in 1982 the middle class had their taxes raised not just back to the pre-1981 level, but even higher. And that’s a fact.
These annoying facts are the inconvenient truth that gives the political right nightmares. But rather than deal with them, or even admit them, they have bent space and time to reinvent the truth and hammer it night and day with the bludgeon of conservative commentators to subtly, slowly, but certainly reshape it to their desires. The conservative political laity drink the wine and eat the flesh and the truth has been transmuted. The now-warped history as told by Beck, Palin, Rove, Gingrich, Limbaugh, et alia, has been swept clean of any right-wing wrongdoing, and in fact now points the fickle finger of fate at liberals, divesting the GOP of blame and casting it onto their enemies.
All of that would be bad enough of itself, but liberals have let them do it. Liberals have allowed conservatives to rewrite history and to relegate the very word liberal to the opprobrium normally reserved for felons. Liberal lawmakers – barring a few like Representative Barney Frank who himself has faced down the name-callers and political backstabbers – shrink from the appellation ‘liberal’. Some, like the cowardly Jim Marshall, D-GA, try to distance themselves from Speaker Pelosi and President Obama in their mid-term TV ads going so far as to boast that they’ve voted with the Republicans more than with their own party. It’s disgraceful, the craven behavior of these political quislings who just 2 years ago were riding so high on a wave of political capital generated by the goodwill forged by Madame Speaker and Mister President themselves. Capital that they then squandered with infighting and intra-party bickering.
Liberals have turned out to be less fitting of the title of citizen than in a long while. It used to be a liberal notion that once the ball was rolling they would keep it rolling and roll right over opposition to programs which benefit those of lesser means and let the success of those programs show over time that they were indeed the right things to do, e.g. PWA, CCC, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. FDR’s massive public works programs are a great example of what liberalism has done for our society. The biggest expenditure by our government at any time for any project not related to war resulted in a stronger economy, vastly improved and extended infrastructure, and jobs for people when they needed them. It was a double bonus that the jobs many of the jobless got through those programs resulted in the magnificent, enduring structures in our national parks, built for pennies on the dollar and returning an abiding profit from their initial investment in the forms of recreation, leisure, and appreciation of the grandeur of our parklands.
The times have changed, and now even a liberal president with the backing of both chambers of our national assembly helmed by those of his own party can’t get his own party’s programs enacted. FDR, JFK and LBJ would all be embarrassed to learn that he belongs to the same party that they lead to lift the country out of the Great Depression, to build a space program and journey us to the moon, and to establish the Great Society in order to help those who were mired in poverty.
So here we are. The Republicans will surely sweep to victory next month, and I can’t say that the Democrats deserve anything less than losing. A political xenophobia has set in, preventing people of either major party from even attempting to understand the points the other side tries to make or from having civil discourse about them. Both sides have painted themselves into opposing corners and like a couple of dogs who can’t quite reach each other, they bark endlessly, tiringly, annoyingly, and have forgotten why the first bark was barked anyway. While we’re on dogs, I just have to think that the poor scraggly starved and scarred puppy who came to our door a month ago begging for food after having either escaped a cruel master or possibly being thrown out has more sense than these politicians do; even a dog won’t shit in his own house.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
And the dumb get dumber
I suppose that I should find it no surprise that the most conservative, most hateful candidate for governor, Nathan Deal, won his party's primary runoff this week in Georgia. In a state whose largest city has one of the largest gay populations in the nation, there is certainly at least a 10% demographic of gays here. So Deal's win is both frustrating, and frightening. The vitriol-filled ads he ran in the runoff versus Karen Handel showed him to be an ultraconservative, homophobic hatemonger, willing to go to any extreme to win, and likely to do the same to appease the hateful Christians and Tea Party Taliban who supported him. If he wins the November general election, who knows what will happen next. Politicians these days are quick to change their views whenever the winds of political chance shift. Deal is a cut-of-the-same-cloth as Sarah Putin and the rest of the Tea Party Taliban. The Republican far right has their candidate machine in high gear and it's churning out new clones every day. This is what happens when you cater to the lowest common denominator rather than to try to lift society to new heights. Will Deal be the next one to promote secession from the Union?
On a different tangent, but one that will certainly work to serve the best interests of the ultracons, a new poll shows that most Americans now do not want the Federal government to fund or support the installation of high speed internet lines, something which the governments of many technology-leading nations has done to the benefit of its citizenry. South Korea comes to mind, as well as...of all places...Romania(!), both of which have far higher internet speeds than the US. Why wouldn't ultracons want high speed internet in everyone's home? Because knowledge is power, and when a person can see that the world is marching on at the rate of 1 second per second, the ultracon's desire to go backwards to a mythical place and time, such as the 'Ozzie and Harriet' period, starts to come undone. In the ultracon world, ignorance is power. Ignorance keeps their constituency from knowing how much they're lied to on a daily basis by the ultracon media giant Faux News. Ignorance keeps money flowing into the ultracon treasuries, much of it filtered through churches. Ignorance allows them to spew lies, hate and vitriol without fear of the truth coming out. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and in words from the film 'Brazil', "Suspicion breeds confidence".
I'm always amazed at how ignorance has kept politicians from understanding that at some point, people will find a way to learn the truth. That the actions of the conservatives to keep themselves in power at the expense of the voting public will some day come to light. That the lie about progressives or liberals creating Big Brother can be disproved by simply asking and answering this question: Was it a conservative or a progressive who created the Department of Homeland Security, Big Brother if there has ever been one on American soil? Which bloc is responsible for rights-limiting laws, for attempting to foist itself on private citizens through wiretapping? Which bloc is it that repeatedly tries to block freedom of speech, a woman's right to choose, and the right of every American to marry? Make no mistake about it, Big Brother is here, now, in this time and in this place, and its name is the Republican Party. It even brought its sibling, the Tea Party Taliban, to enforce a nationwide ignorance on the citizenry. Rather than move ahead, they want to move the country backwards. Rather than enhance the individual liberty of Americans as they falsely claim, they have instead created laws to bind the hands of those Americans they feel threaten the institution of marriage most: Gay Americans. Who are their mouthpieces? Three time divorcée Rush Limbaugh, for one. Or how about a man who served divorce papers on his dying wife in her hospital bed, Newt Gingrich? Who vociferously supported the ban? Mr Wide Stance himself, Larry Craig. Who collected vast sums of money to fund those campaigns? Mr Escort Lover Ted Haggard.
Wake up, America. Stop pretending to be offended by things that don't affect you anyway, like gay marriage. If you have a strong marriage, how does gay marriage affect you? If you have a weak one, still, how does it affect you? Stop pretending that the opinions spread by radio and television commentators are facts. Stop acting like we can go back in time. Pull yourselves up out of the miasma of talk-show-quality journalism and READ.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The New PWA/WPA/CCC
Call it what you choose, our elected officials in Washington have before them the opportunity to create a legacy to rival FDR's. In their 'Where Oysters Grew on Trees' article in the July 24, 2010, issue of the New York Times online, Rowan Jacobsen and Michael Beck describe how the Gulf of Mexico's shoreline has been considered for repair even since before Hurricane Katrina. Now, with the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster ruining what's left of what we've already laid virtually bare, a cleanup is necessary to restore the Gulf waters to their pre-spill condition. I believe that we have in our capacity to restore the entire Gulf shoreline from the Mexican border to the Florida Straits using money from BP, stimulus funds, private groups like the Nature Conservancy and others. What it will take in money will be dwarfed in comparison to the political will that would be necessary to undertake and complete such a mammoth project. It would be a project of such magnitude that it would necessarily outweigh public opinion that might form against it in the short term. It must be done for our children, for the animals that call the Gulf home, for the fisheries that begin their cycles in the Gulf...for everyone.
The largest man-made ecological disaster in history must be met with the largest public works program in history. There really is no other way. The man or woman who leads that recovery should go down in history as a global hero. We are currently mired in 2 wars; Afghanistan, a legitimate war, and Iraq, one questionable at best. As we retire those troops to home by means of force reduction, let's consider how many will be discharged from active duty - a full time job - and will hit the unemployment rolls . Why not offer them positions with the Gulf Restoration Force? In our military we have women and men accustomed to the rigors of relentless combat operations. The act of offering them employment on a priority basis would do several things for them, and for the greater good. I list below a few of my ideas.
First, it would give returning combat veterans the chance to reintegrate into society while keeping mind and body occupied and utilizing their prime leadership and motivational skills. It's well documented how many soldiers returning from combat operations have difficulty readjusting. It's fairly certain that the army of Gulf Restorers would need to be billeted near the Gulf, so why not use FEMA housing that's already paid for, which would allow many of the veterans to remain close to their comrades and to slowly spin out the post-traumatic shock that many understandably experience. It would even be proper to have on-site counselors in those areas with a high concentration of veterans to help them through the PTSD and with their return to society-at-large.
Second, with the return of high numbers of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of unemployed will skyrocket, certainly not a situation we need at a time when we're only beginning to emerge from the Great Recession. Why not authorize funds to keep as many of those vets employed as possible? Money now used for the 2 wars could be used in our own 'Gulf War'. It's a win-win for everyone: Politicians of all stripes who support the plan could point to how they supported a public project that not only restored the ecosystem of the entire Gulf of Mexico, but how they also prevented a spike in unemployment that might very well have tipped the US into a double-dip recession. Beyond just veterans, the Restoration will also need workers of all kinds from across the country; engineers, heavy equipment operators, barge pilots, manual laborers, managers, supervisors, facilities management for the housing areas, food services personnel and support, fuels technicians, health care workers, and on and on. Pretty much the same people we now have in uniform, but with a lot more added to that list.
Third, we owe it to the following generations because it's we who made the mess. We can blame BP all day long for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but there was already a disaster up and down the Gulf coast in lost wetlands, lost habitat and lost fisheries, much of it resulting from our need and greed, oil and seafood. If we have to be in those areas to fix them because of the spill, why not go ahead and fix them right, return them to their fully productive state as Jacobsen and Beck encourage. Politicians are fond of pointing fingers and holding others' feet to the fire, but perhaps its time to see if they can pass the same test themselves by doing what has to be done and looking towards the long goal rather than just the next election. Maybe they could even work as part of a bipartisan effort between The Party of No and The Party of Spend Spend Spend. Imagine a plan so big that people from the Green Party to the Republicans, conservatives to liberals, Progressives to Libertarians all work side-by-side for the greater good. In doing so, they might just find that they have more common ground than they thought. It could even lead to politicians backing down from their current Defcon 1 positions towards each other and working together for the sake of the nation and not for their own political ends.
Fourth, it's just the right thing to do. We all know it. We know the task of Restoration will be enormous. It seems like a daunting challenge, but like any other emergency, it calls for triage. We'll need to identify the highest priority areas and those are likely to be the areas affected by the oil disaster. Next, we'll need to marshal our Restoration Forces to strike those areas hit hardest. We're lucky to have our Field Marshall already there, already familiar with the situation, and already working on solutions: Admiral Thad Allen, USCG (Ret.)...if he would stay on for a while. Then we'll need to examine what worked and what didn't, and move to the next area. I believe that one approach might be to find the hardest hit areas, clean them of oil and restore them first, then break out into specialized forces to move east with one team and west with the other until the entire area is clean.
Beyond being our current leaders' legacy, it could be the enduring legacy of multilateral cooperation. Coming together in our nation's time of need to fix the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States would show that We The People can put aside our partisan beliefs and work together to solve this problem. The question is, do our leaders in politics have the political will - or the moral courage - to realize that if we do not fix this problem, we have lost within ourselves one of the very things that make us American: Courage in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.
25 July 2010
The largest man-made ecological disaster in history must be met with the largest public works program in history. There really is no other way. The man or woman who leads that recovery should go down in history as a global hero. We are currently mired in 2 wars; Afghanistan, a legitimate war, and Iraq, one questionable at best. As we retire those troops to home by means of force reduction, let's consider how many will be discharged from active duty - a full time job - and will hit the unemployment rolls . Why not offer them positions with the Gulf Restoration Force? In our military we have women and men accustomed to the rigors of relentless combat operations. The act of offering them employment on a priority basis would do several things for them, and for the greater good. I list below a few of my ideas.
First, it would give returning combat veterans the chance to reintegrate into society while keeping mind and body occupied and utilizing their prime leadership and motivational skills. It's well documented how many soldiers returning from combat operations have difficulty readjusting. It's fairly certain that the army of Gulf Restorers would need to be billeted near the Gulf, so why not use FEMA housing that's already paid for, which would allow many of the veterans to remain close to their comrades and to slowly spin out the post-traumatic shock that many understandably experience. It would even be proper to have on-site counselors in those areas with a high concentration of veterans to help them through the PTSD and with their return to society-at-large.
Second, with the return of high numbers of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of unemployed will skyrocket, certainly not a situation we need at a time when we're only beginning to emerge from the Great Recession. Why not authorize funds to keep as many of those vets employed as possible? Money now used for the 2 wars could be used in our own 'Gulf War'. It's a win-win for everyone: Politicians of all stripes who support the plan could point to how they supported a public project that not only restored the ecosystem of the entire Gulf of Mexico, but how they also prevented a spike in unemployment that might very well have tipped the US into a double-dip recession. Beyond just veterans, the Restoration will also need workers of all kinds from across the country; engineers, heavy equipment operators, barge pilots, manual laborers, managers, supervisors, facilities management for the housing areas, food services personnel and support, fuels technicians, health care workers, and on and on. Pretty much the same people we now have in uniform, but with a lot more added to that list.
Third, we owe it to the following generations because it's we who made the mess. We can blame BP all day long for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, but there was already a disaster up and down the Gulf coast in lost wetlands, lost habitat and lost fisheries, much of it resulting from our need and greed, oil and seafood. If we have to be in those areas to fix them because of the spill, why not go ahead and fix them right, return them to their fully productive state as Jacobsen and Beck encourage. Politicians are fond of pointing fingers and holding others' feet to the fire, but perhaps its time to see if they can pass the same test themselves by doing what has to be done and looking towards the long goal rather than just the next election. Maybe they could even work as part of a bipartisan effort between The Party of No and The Party of Spend Spend Spend. Imagine a plan so big that people from the Green Party to the Republicans, conservatives to liberals, Progressives to Libertarians all work side-by-side for the greater good. In doing so, they might just find that they have more common ground than they thought. It could even lead to politicians backing down from their current Defcon 1 positions towards each other and working together for the sake of the nation and not for their own political ends.
Fourth, it's just the right thing to do. We all know it. We know the task of Restoration will be enormous. It seems like a daunting challenge, but like any other emergency, it calls for triage. We'll need to identify the highest priority areas and those are likely to be the areas affected by the oil disaster. Next, we'll need to marshal our Restoration Forces to strike those areas hit hardest. We're lucky to have our Field Marshall already there, already familiar with the situation, and already working on solutions: Admiral Thad Allen, USCG (Ret.)...if he would stay on for a while. Then we'll need to examine what worked and what didn't, and move to the next area. I believe that one approach might be to find the hardest hit areas, clean them of oil and restore them first, then break out into specialized forces to move east with one team and west with the other until the entire area is clean.
Beyond being our current leaders' legacy, it could be the enduring legacy of multilateral cooperation. Coming together in our nation's time of need to fix the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States would show that We The People can put aside our partisan beliefs and work together to solve this problem. The question is, do our leaders in politics have the political will - or the moral courage - to realize that if we do not fix this problem, we have lost within ourselves one of the very things that make us American: Courage in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.
25 July 2010
Why we need a national sales tax
Under our current byzantine tax schemes, it's virtually impossible for anyone who holds a job not in the tax field to understand how much he or she is paying to whom. And, since it's so difficult to understand one's own taxes, how can a person possibly understand where he or she stands compared to everyone else without listening to "advocacy journalists", an oxymoron, or devoting every waking hour to keeping abreast of tax laws while still holding down a job and having a life? Right. Difficult if not impossible.
We're all very concerned, understandably, that we pay our fair share of taxes, and no more. We're also concerned that OTHERS pay their fair share of taxes, and no LESS. We're concerned about the rich getting tax breaks, the poor being given a free ride, and the bulk of the tax burden being borne by the middle class. Well, there's a solution to this: A national sales tax to replace the national income tax and ALL other taxes, regardless of what we call them - payroll taxes, telephone taxes, FICA, including the ones not labeled as taxes. If we pay it to the government, IT'S A TAX!
Here's why this makes sense. First, it completely prevents the wealthy from receiving tax breaks; if they consume more, they pay more. To insure that items bought abroad aren't excepted when brought back to the US, they will pay tax, on a preset electronic schedule available to all via the internet, at the Customs checkpoint immediately upon return to the US. Anything bought abroad and shipped to the US will be subject to search and taxation before delivery. While that will require more manpower, it could be discouraged by doubling the tax rate, and the savings in IRS manpower should more than offset the increase required by Customs. (4 July 2010 addition - Another advantage of 100% of all imports being searched is that we virtually eliminate the possibility of anyone sneaking anything into the country that could be used by terrorists, e.g. fissionable materials, poisons, biological agents, et cetera.)
Second, the poor already pay sales taxes, and they have withholding and income taxes, so since they consume less, theoretically, then they PAY less when the national sales tax REPLACES all other federal taxes. This must be written into the Constitution as an amendment.
Third, the national sales tax would be IN ADDITION TO other state and local sales taxes, but this amount is offset by having more in a person's paycheck due to the repeal of all other federal withholdings. Basically, a person would receive his full paycheck minus any state, local, personal, or other non-federal withholdings. Employers would return to the employee in the form of increased wages that portion of an employee's federal tax THAT THE BUSINESS CURRENTLY PAYS (most people don't realize that employers pay HALF OF THE EMPLOYEE'S federal income tax out of the COMPANY'S funds), which should result in increased spending which will, in turn, increase revenues to the federal coffers AND increase business revenues.
Fourth, yearly filings of federal income tax would cease. It's a certainty that some lobbying group or another would protest that it would result in loss of jobs, but the system would work for the greater good. Perhaps those same people could be offered jobs with Customs on a priority basis.
Many have suggested that a flat tax would be the fairest system, but there will always be tax cheats if a filing system like that used for the current federal income tax scheme is used. A sales tax system should be much harder to cheat as long as the sole requirement be 'If you buy, you pay tax'. Simple is difficult to get around, in this case. When businesses/employers purchase raw goods, they're charged tax. When they sell those goods, they collect tax. No exceptions. When an employee is paid, she or he purchases food, shelter, clothing, and other items, and pays tax on each item. No exceptions.
To enact these changes, it would take an uncharacteristic move by the current US Congress: A true non-partisan effort. Not "bipartisan" and certainly not "unilateral". NON-partisan is the only way it would work - congressmen from both sides of the aisle, as well as third parties, would need to work together to draft and enact legislation that would repeal ALL other federal taxes (remember, if you pay it to the government, it's a TAX!)
Five states - Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no sales tax, so they would need to institute the system from scratch, and Hawaii would too although its "sales tax" is paid by businesses, not directly from the consumers.
That's it. One flat-rate federal sales tax everywhere in the United States. The more you spend, the more you pay. No exceptions. Originally posted 15 April 2010
Don't make me go all Nostradamus on your ass
I don't have a crystal ball. I don't throw chicken bones, read tea leaves, nor do I use tarot cards. I read. A lot. As my friend Edwin once said, "I read all kinds of shit". I do. I read things I agree with, and I read things I disagree with completely. One of my former Army unit's motto was "Hostem Cogere". It's Latin for 'Know the enemy'. I've had that as my personal motto ever since. I also read things to try to UNDERSTAND opposing points of view, not merely to know what those differing opinions are. I CAN be influenced by opposing views, at times. So, like my friend Edwin, I read all kinds of shit.
I'm a Progressive. For those who're unfamiliar with the term, it's not synonymous with 'liberal', as the GOP/Tea Party/Faux News would have you believe. There have been four periods of Progressivism in American history, the first being in the early 20th century, and the fourth underway today. A few notable Progressives were/are President Theodore Roosevelt, explorer John Wesley Powell, activist Susan B Anthony, writer Upton Sinclair, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, author/activist Noam Chomsky, journalist/author Thom Hartman, Senator Al Franken, and former Vice President Al Gore.
But the point of this article is prognostication - what I believe lies in our future, some good, some bad. What seems a long time ago to me, my late teens and early twenties, I began noticing how the course of American events mirrored the events we were taught about the downfall of major civilizations and empires. I would ask questions about the thoughts of the instructors, but most were Christians and I saw a pattern in their answers, which was that they all believed, some more some less, that within their lifetimes they would experience the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. My early religious training had expired, due I guess to a short shelf-life or something, but I think because I began to see inequities between what I saw Christians saying and what I saw them doing. And because no one could explain to me why the Bible was so full of contradictions. The answers always referred to faith and belief, not reason and logic, and really weren't answers at all. Pressing for answers only lead to suspecting glances and frowns, and deflection of my inquiries by making small talk about the weather and birds. But, I'm hardheaded and like to get to the truth of any question, even if I don't or won't like the answer. So I set about studying how civilizations break down.
A few of the most prominent characteristics of a civilization or empire in decline; a breakdown in civility, political hubris, polarization of secular and religious factions, a decline of the civilization's standing amongst its fellow states, and economic breakdown. Today, we see all of these things happening. While virtually the entire world economy is going through a period of stagnation, some elements, like the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China - are showing merely a dip in an otherwise upward trend. The same isn't so certain at home. In fact, national-wealth-building industries such as heavy iron and steel works, ship construction, heavy equipment , automobile and aircraft manufacturing, businesses that take decades to establish, have gone overseas to cheaper labor markets in Asia. High technology which was once the forte of the US has now followed the same cheap labor escape routes. For decades, some of us have been telling anyone who cared to listen that allowing our economy to become service-industry based was a huge mistake, and now we've seen the rise of China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea to displace us as the new masters of industry. Today, there are half a dozen car companies in the US; China has 47, and they're coming here.
So it's all gloom and doom, right? Well, those are just a few of the harbingers of the future. The real gloom and doom will come as a social shift. In the past century, we've seen what radical shifts in national policy and social thought in either direction can do. Germany, Japan and Italy shifted radically right while the Soviet Union and China shifted left. The end results of both shifts was close to the same - the new regimes sought to eliminate their opposition by whatever means they felt necessary. The Nazis at first used a banner of radical Christianity to send Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, and others, to their deaths, or to concentration camps, at best. The Soviets sent intellectuals, political opponents, members of certain religious groups like Jews, and others, to the firing squads, gallows or gulags. The one certainty of revolutions with a zealous religious element is that someone's going to die. In the 20th and 21st centuries, we saw peaceful revolutions like Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, resulting in the Czech and Slovak Republics, but this was a movement AWAY from authoritarian, totalitarian rule...not toward it like what's facing us.
Here it is:
1) A fight for oil will create wars around the world, resulting in the first TRUE world war. The wealthiest nations will come out on top, not the nations with the best armies. At the same time, rising seas from global warming will have begun inundating low-lying coastal areas around the world creating climate refugees even in places like the US and Europe.
2) China will become the most powerful economic force in the world, but will lag behind the US militarily, initially, but might in arms will follow economic power.
3) The BRIC nations will become 2nd world countries, much like Britain and France following WWII, with good standards of living, decent human rights policies, and relative security since no one is out to knock second best out of its niche.
4) The US will no longer be a superpower economically, and its military power will diminish as a result of the loss of economic power. Perhaps as a result of the loss of its economic supremacy, but certainly after the loss of military primacy, the US will fall into a period of revolt and will simultaneously face foreign aggression and even invasion. The best organized entities will come out on top; the wealthy and organized religions will create zones ruled by themselves, some as theonomies and theocracies, some as oligarchies, some as virtual monarchies, but all will claim that absolute rule by them alone is necessary for their survival.
5) A long period of persecution of homosexuals will begin, the flames of which will be fanned by the radio and television hate mongers, most currently found on Faux Noise, and more yet to be trained. The Tea Party, the new American-bred Taliban, will find a banner behind which to rally the troops having already sown the seeds of that particular discrimination. Eventually, an interfaith synod comprised of leaders of authoritarian religions such as Christian reconstructionists, radical Muslims, ultra-orthodox Jews, and possibly even others like tribal African religions, will meet and declare homosexuality a capital crime and sin, following the same beliefs about homosexuality that they hold today. Immediately, homosexuals will be rounded up and, once again forced into labor camps for use until extermination.
As we gain more and more scientific knowledge and venture farther into space, we also retrench in areas of social progress to the same point we were when we left the cave and went hunting and gathering. Down through the ages, it seems that whenever people need someone to use as a common perceived enemy, it's homosexuals. Yes, Jews have had their share of tribulations too, but today the most fanatical of them have joined the ranks of the gay haters. And that's where we are, right now, one step away from the next homoholocaust. Originally posted 21 March 2010
I'm a Progressive. For those who're unfamiliar with the term, it's not synonymous with 'liberal', as the GOP/Tea Party/Faux News would have you believe. There have been four periods of Progressivism in American history, the first being in the early 20th century, and the fourth underway today. A few notable Progressives were/are President Theodore Roosevelt, explorer John Wesley Powell, activist Susan B Anthony, writer Upton Sinclair, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, author/activist Noam Chomsky, journalist/author Thom Hartman, Senator Al Franken, and former Vice President Al Gore.
But the point of this article is prognostication - what I believe lies in our future, some good, some bad. What seems a long time ago to me, my late teens and early twenties, I began noticing how the course of American events mirrored the events we were taught about the downfall of major civilizations and empires. I would ask questions about the thoughts of the instructors, but most were Christians and I saw a pattern in their answers, which was that they all believed, some more some less, that within their lifetimes they would experience the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. My early religious training had expired, due I guess to a short shelf-life or something, but I think because I began to see inequities between what I saw Christians saying and what I saw them doing. And because no one could explain to me why the Bible was so full of contradictions. The answers always referred to faith and belief, not reason and logic, and really weren't answers at all. Pressing for answers only lead to suspecting glances and frowns, and deflection of my inquiries by making small talk about the weather and birds. But, I'm hardheaded and like to get to the truth of any question, even if I don't or won't like the answer. So I set about studying how civilizations break down.
A few of the most prominent characteristics of a civilization or empire in decline; a breakdown in civility, political hubris, polarization of secular and religious factions, a decline of the civilization's standing amongst its fellow states, and economic breakdown. Today, we see all of these things happening. While virtually the entire world economy is going through a period of stagnation, some elements, like the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China - are showing merely a dip in an otherwise upward trend. The same isn't so certain at home. In fact, national-wealth-building industries such as heavy iron and steel works, ship construction, heavy equipment , automobile and aircraft manufacturing, businesses that take decades to establish, have gone overseas to cheaper labor markets in Asia. High technology which was once the forte of the US has now followed the same cheap labor escape routes. For decades, some of us have been telling anyone who cared to listen that allowing our economy to become service-industry based was a huge mistake, and now we've seen the rise of China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea to displace us as the new masters of industry. Today, there are half a dozen car companies in the US; China has 47, and they're coming here.
So it's all gloom and doom, right? Well, those are just a few of the harbingers of the future. The real gloom and doom will come as a social shift. In the past century, we've seen what radical shifts in national policy and social thought in either direction can do. Germany, Japan and Italy shifted radically right while the Soviet Union and China shifted left. The end results of both shifts was close to the same - the new regimes sought to eliminate their opposition by whatever means they felt necessary. The Nazis at first used a banner of radical Christianity to send Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, and others, to their deaths, or to concentration camps, at best. The Soviets sent intellectuals, political opponents, members of certain religious groups like Jews, and others, to the firing squads, gallows or gulags. The one certainty of revolutions with a zealous religious element is that someone's going to die. In the 20th and 21st centuries, we saw peaceful revolutions like Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, resulting in the Czech and Slovak Republics, but this was a movement AWAY from authoritarian, totalitarian rule...not toward it like what's facing us.
Here it is:
1) A fight for oil will create wars around the world, resulting in the first TRUE world war. The wealthiest nations will come out on top, not the nations with the best armies. At the same time, rising seas from global warming will have begun inundating low-lying coastal areas around the world creating climate refugees even in places like the US and Europe.
2) China will become the most powerful economic force in the world, but will lag behind the US militarily, initially, but might in arms will follow economic power.
3) The BRIC nations will become 2nd world countries, much like Britain and France following WWII, with good standards of living, decent human rights policies, and relative security since no one is out to knock second best out of its niche.
4) The US will no longer be a superpower economically, and its military power will diminish as a result of the loss of economic power. Perhaps as a result of the loss of its economic supremacy, but certainly after the loss of military primacy, the US will fall into a period of revolt and will simultaneously face foreign aggression and even invasion. The best organized entities will come out on top; the wealthy and organized religions will create zones ruled by themselves, some as theonomies and theocracies, some as oligarchies, some as virtual monarchies, but all will claim that absolute rule by them alone is necessary for their survival.
5) A long period of persecution of homosexuals will begin, the flames of which will be fanned by the radio and television hate mongers, most currently found on Faux Noise, and more yet to be trained. The Tea Party, the new American-bred Taliban, will find a banner behind which to rally the troops having already sown the seeds of that particular discrimination. Eventually, an interfaith synod comprised of leaders of authoritarian religions such as Christian reconstructionists, radical Muslims, ultra-orthodox Jews, and possibly even others like tribal African religions, will meet and declare homosexuality a capital crime and sin, following the same beliefs about homosexuality that they hold today. Immediately, homosexuals will be rounded up and, once again forced into labor camps for use until extermination.
As we gain more and more scientific knowledge and venture farther into space, we also retrench in areas of social progress to the same point we were when we left the cave and went hunting and gathering. Down through the ages, it seems that whenever people need someone to use as a common perceived enemy, it's homosexuals. Yes, Jews have had their share of tribulations too, but today the most fanatical of them have joined the ranks of the gay haters. And that's where we are, right now, one step away from the next homoholocaust. Originally posted 21 March 2010
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