There are times when it seems as if there is no rhyme or reason to life. After this long and hard fought presidential election, I had begun to hope that maybe America would settle down. That just maybe we could come together and share a common bond that places the future of our nation above our differences. The older I get, the harder it is to hang on to optimism.

Don't get me wrong, I am still absolutely certain that the number of good people in America far outnumber the evil. What amazes me is how dedicated to evil that minority is, and how no matter what happens they will not allow themselves to ever see themselves as having anything in common with those they are convinced are inferior to themselves. Throughout history we have seen that often an aggressive minority changes a nation. No place is this phenomena more clear than in the case of Nazi Germany where a majority of people stood by and allowed themselves to be taken over by an aggressive, focused minority. We saw it during the days of segregation in America where the majority stood by as organized minorities like the Ku Klux Klan rampaged without fear of being brought to justice. Radical social conservatives are keenly aware of this possibility which is why they never stop their campaigns to misinform and confuse the people, ever aware that misinformed people will often act against their own best interests and thus help create the climate in which they, like Hitler and his cohorts are able to take control by proclaiming themselves the saviors of the people.

My point in all this is the fact that I have begun to see what I call The Obama Effect. The Obama Effect is what I call the growing incidences in which it is made clear to me that some whites hold educated and accomplished non-whites in contempt in the belief that their success somehow is leading to an erosion in their access to opportunity. I have experienced this especially in dealing with bitter underprivileged white people, often unemployed or under employed who are convinced that a rising black ruling class in America spells disaster for them. They hold all liberals/progressives responsible and are a big reason why you see so many people who support the causes that benefit the ultra-rich despite the fact that this support works against their own best interests and in fact contribute to the factors causing the misery they attribute to educated and accomplished non-whites.

What alarms me is also the number of Blacks, Asians and Latinos who align themselves with these people, somehow lost in a misguided belief that their best interests are served by attempting to curry favor with them. Too bad they don't understand that history has proven that if such people as radical social conservatives do somehow become in control, the first people they subjugate and kill off are those who were willing to betray their own, even if it did benefit them. I defy in fact anyone to find anytime in history in which people betrayed their own and wound up better off in the long run as a result.

The most stunning example of the Obama Effect is finding myself in places of business in which I disappear. It has happened so many times recently in such wide spread and unrelated places that I cannot help but begin to see a pattern. In these places I simply am not there. Only if I speak up and insist that I be recognized am I served. At first I could not understand the point, but now I get it. I may seem affluent, educated and/or accomplished, but I am made to feel belittled by being forced to  demand to be acknowledged. It is in fact a very subtle and powerful way of discriminating, one in which it becomes very difficult to prove you are being mistreated, but very powerful nonetheless. If you become angry and demanding, you can easily be provoked to a point in which you become the problem and the police can now be called. If you handle it well, in a careful pragmatic way, you get what you came for but must leave with the knowledge that you had to make this extra effort to be served.

I do not know where this will lead. But I see clearly that there are those who will never accept anyone who is not white as equals. For these sad people the illusion of being superior is all they have.

The results are in and as an African American I have to admit they are awe inspiring. Four years ago America elected its first Black president. Now that first black president has been reaffirmed for another term.  Not only has his efforts been recognized and approved by the majority of Americans, it was done in a resounding fashion. These are days I wasn't sure I would live to see. While as a young man in my twenties I was sure I would someday see a black president, the older and more experienced I became, the more skeptical I grew. In fact, in recent years my biggest fear has been losing many of the hard won gains blacks have achieved socially in America. I still have great fear that my grandchildren may yet have to re-fight the battles that cost us so much.

While we celebrate the re-election of Barack Obama, we must quickly begin to also consider the other ramifications of what has happened. I would submit that if we are not careful, this could be the beginning of a great slide back to a past we do not want to see. I am certain that as the dust settles, there will be a great deal of soul searching among those who fought so hard but lost. Especially among those who spent so much money only to not achieve their goals, there will be a great deal of discussion about how that money would have been better spent. I predict that with the realization that elections cannot be bought solely through the use of media, we will see an increased commitment to other possible measures.

The one thing Obama's re-election has clearly proven is that the greatest fears of the 1% has been realized. The nations diversity has already reached the point where the old time power of the WASP ruling class can be overcome. While the main stream republicans debate how to re-frame their message to attract more diversity  the nefarious few, the far right conservative fringe exemplified by the 1% will take a different course, I predict. There is absolutely a desire by conservatives to eliminate altogether majority rule. We have seen this effort grow since the 80's, beginning with the Reagan revolution. Until now conservative strategists felt that control of the supreme court was the key to re-litigating and therefore re-defining the social change this country has gone through since the end of segregation. But now that long term control of the court has been thwarted by the re-election of Obama, I predict there will be an increase of more direct action to reduce the number of people who can vote in any election. Not only will there be a dramatic increase in efforts to rig the vote and to reduce voting rolls, there will be even more dramatic efforts undertaken to legally limit the right to vote that so many Americans think is guaranteed by the constitution that in fact are not. Historically the term conservative has always meant those who oppose majority rule. What the majority of Americans need to come to grips with is that this imperialistic minority want to be the ruling class, and so no matter what they say publicly, they do not care about the fate of the common person, Democrat or Republican.

If you go back and take a long look at what Franklin Roosevelt did to insure the success of the New Deal, you will also see the answer to our current situation. Roosevelt not only put people to work, employing them in public works when private industry could not fill the need, which produced the much needed revenues to pay the nations debts through the increased number of taxpayers, which actually benefits the rich and the poor, he also led a social change in our society. People were urged to become involved in local politics. Roosevelt knew the conservatives would do all they could to undermine his efforts, so he got democrats to become precinct committee people at their local election boards and to take active roles in making sure the process could not be rigged for failure by those who opposed him. In every area where conservatives tried to undermine his efforts, he took swift action to deal with them and the more obvious his policies were working, the more aggressive the people became in supporting what he did. This is how we overcame the great depression and this led directly to the industrial revolution and the creation of the worlds strongest middle class. This kind of action is what we need now.

It is very important that we remember that in just two years, 2014, there will be another election. Progressives must get involved now to take back the House of Representatives from the obstructionists of both parties and elect progressive democrats and republicans who will work together to serve the best interests of the people. The willingness to compromise and work together must become the new bench mark for measuring the success of our elected officials, and when they fail to do so, they must be replaced immediately. We cannot allow a repeat of 2010 which gave us the most dysfunctional congress in history. If we do not take these actions, and we revert to the kind of complacency that allowed 2010 to happen, we will surely be laying the foundation for what can only ultimately end in bloody revolution. We must also push our officials, Obama on down, to create a constitutional amendment affirming every citizens right to vote and setting the criteria by which it is to be carried out, with severe penalties for those who attempt to undermine or violate it. We must put in place tariffs and restrictions on access to our markets by those who manufacture elsewhere, and we must reaffirm the role of the supreme court as a legal body without powers to legislate, as was the purpose of the constitution. The time is now.

There is no greater irony than Latinos, Asians, Blacks and others like them supporting people like Romney and Ryan. What they don't want to accept is that these peoples greatest fear is that their kind will lose power to an ever increasing population of non white voters. Their plan is to empower a permanent ruling elite class in advance of the coming time when non whites will outnumber whites as voters in America. So what do you think they will do with those who they used, that they know will someday realize they were duped? The idea that these folks will be grateful and therefore they will reward those who helped them even if they are not part of the people they desire in their world is ridiculous. First off, why would they ever trust someone who betrayed their own people and their own best interests in the name of greed? No one worries about being robbed more than a thief. No, the first thing to do is rid yourselves of those who remind you of your own treachery. It is  a basic part of self preservation for the paranoid to feel you must remove those who you fear may someday retaliate. And no group of people are more paranoid than far right conservatives, who generally have enriched themselves by taking advantage of the less fortunate. Out of sight, out of mind.

Never in my 58 years of life has it been more important to vote, to stem the tide that has been the result finally of years of trying by the far right conservative and Libertarians (who are actually the most extreme in hiding) to finally undo Americas social and economic advances that go back to the New Deal. We have a clear choice, we can elect a man who will continue the trend of appointing justices to the supreme court who have no allegiance to the Constitution but rather desire to remake this nation in an image they have had for generations, to abolish majority rule and establish a plutocratic system in which all power is held by the ruling elite. This is not anything new, these types of societies have existed since the beginning of time, and in every case they are ultimately overthrown, often violently by the majority once they have finally had enough. But in the meanwhile they have generations to enrich and engorge themselves with wealth and power. The people who promote this approach are the offspring of many of the same people who supported Hitler, because they had the same long term goal. 

The most prominent and outspoken of the founding fathers of America were most afraid of this happening. They were all too familiar with the powerful East India Companies and what they felt could be the ultimate outcome of allowing such concentrations of money and power. In reaction to the Supreme Courts ruling on Citizens United, The Harvard Review published "What The Founding Fathers Really Thought about Corporations", by Justin Fox, which  contained within his blog an e-mail conversation with Brian Murphy, a history professor who is recognized as an authority on the aims of the founding fathers in writing the constitution. Among his comments: "Early Americans had a far more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of corporations than the (Supreme)
Court gives them credit for. When you read Madison in particular, you see that he wasn't blindly hostile to banks during his fight with Alexander Hamilton over the Bank of the United States. Instead, he's worried about the unchecked power of accumulations of capital that come with creating a class of bankers. They saw corporations as corrupting influences on both the economy at large and on government — that's why they described the East India Company as imperium in imperio, a sort of "state within a state." This wasn't an outcome they were looking to replicate." http://blogs.hbr.org/fox/2010/04/what-the-founding-fathers-real.html

Nothing will more surely lead to the final destruction of America as freedom loving people see it than electing the people whose ultimate goal is to establish an elite ruling class. And make no mistake, that is what Romney, Ryan,the Koch Brothers, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and others like  them are working for. 

Vote, and urge everyone you know to vote, because never has it been so important, and it is a right that may not always be something we can take for granted if we elect some of the people who are plotting the takeover of this nation. When I was a child, it was black people who struggled to be able to vote, soon it may be all who are not among the ruling elite, and that will be a lot of more of you than you realize.

The first presidential debate took place last night. Virtually everyone agrees that President Obama did poorly. I wonder if we will ever know what happened with the president, because we all know he is capable of so much more. Is he growing tired? You can't blame him if he is. Who has ever endured so much as he has had to since being elected. Between the general evil that just seems to be part and parcel of the Republican agenda, he has had to carry the added weight of his skin color, and what has to be among the greatest load of expectations that any president has had to face. But if there is one thing Barack Obama has shown us as president is that it is much easier to get him down than to keep him down, and only a fool would count him out even after such a poor performance.

What I find more compelling is the performance of Mitt Romney, and the reaction of his supporters and of those who claim to be still uncommitted. Clearly Romney did what he had to do. He was arrogant and bullying; displaying the kind of strong will some admire. But what he mainly did was to look down his nose at the American people and  lie. And he didn't just tell huge lies, he changed his lies in many cases from the lies he had been telling since he started campaigning. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have both set a new standard in telling lies about their lies. Many of these lies have already been proven to be lies. Even his own supporters have at times admitted that, well yes, he lied. More than anything else Mitt reaffirmed that he will tell any lie in order to get what he wants, which, of course, we  already knew. But what is truly astounding is the willingness of fellow Republicans, seemingly decent people, to accept and even embrace this strategy.

Among the things my mother taught me as a child was to never trust someone who lied so easily. Even if they were lying to someone else, and even if the lie benefited you, it was important to understand that people who succeed through lying grow ever more bold with those lies, and no matter how strong an ally you think they are, someday you will catch them lying to you. People who have become accomplished liars cannot really respect other people. How can you respect people who you can fool so easily? And ultimately you must have even less respect for those who know you are lying but support you anyway, because they have shown they are as dishonest as you, so whatever they ultimately get from you, they deserve. The most amazing thing about this all is that any of Romney's supporters believe that after all this lying, they can trust him to do what they want once he is in control.

Which to me brings up another point to consider, have the people of this country gone too far to ever be redeemed? I'm not saying that most Americans are so lacking in moral character, but how can the fact that we have allowed such a group of people, many among the richest and most powerful of our nation to become so arrogant that they openly demonstrate their disdain and utter lack of respect for any of us, not be a sign that the end of this nation as we have known it must be near. History has recorded that every empire that has ever existed eventually implodes, and that always happens when that nation becomes torn apart by those who become so obsessed with power that they work to undermine their nation, ensuring their own demise in the process. Whether you believe in any religion or not, it would seem just common sense that humankind's greed and obsession with power will eventually undermine it. But then it becomes even more crazy when you see the large number of so called Christians who support this man knowing full well he totally lacks any shred of moral decency.

The media celebrates his decadence, even as they occasionally admit that he is embarrassingly full of shit. The rest of the world stands astonished that the nation that for so long claimed the moral high ground so shamelessly panders to this charade. Not just the privileged few, but millions of those who don't have much more than a pot to piss in but delude themselves into believing they might someday become one of the wealthy privileged few listen to these lies, know they are lies, but aren't bothered at all. Meanwhile, these people like the Romney's barely are able to contain the obvious fact that it is their mission to do all they can to make sure as few as possible ever have that chance to be among them, even as they lie about it with that smirk on their faces.

How can we not believe that the prophecy of the bible is clearly coming to pass. How can we not see that we may have reached a point of no return in our willingness to put up with such evil. Even as we wink and laugh at how ridiculous Romney is, he is still accepted as a viable candidate to lead and represent this nation.

I fear, and I predict that no matter who wins this election, this nation is on a very short journey to its end. It is time for those who are decent thoughtful people to prepare, and to start considering where we go once this has all collapsed. Because it will. It must. Nothing built on lies and deceit can last. Surely your mother told you that.

Since March this year, 2012 I have been pretty much on the road non stop through out America. Ultimately I will visit all 48 contiguous states. Hanging out a lot in truck stops and low budget motels, I have had a chance to meet a lot of very interesting people. My mission has been to answer one question, what do Americans really think about the condition of this nation. Eventually the results of my journeys will be available to the general public, but right now, as we approach this upcoming presidential election, I have decided to share some of what I have learned.

It is, of course no surprise to find out that the majority of Americans are really good, decent people just trying to survive difficult times. It is at times difficult to digest all the many ways people perceive the state of our nation and sometimes really surprising to realize how many have very extreme, radical views. It is also a major surprise for me to see how many's views are very regressive and based on little more than revisionist history which many only know in passing, and accept as truth with little or no actual time invested in learning the truth. Most alarming is realizing how successful those who use the "Big Lie Theory", have been and how it has shaped the beliefs of a small but vocal and aggressive number of Americans. The Big Lie Theory, utilized by many throughout history, but most infamously embraced by George Rommel of Hitlers inner circle, is the idea that if you tell really big, outrageous lies and keep repeating them no matter how often they are challenged or debunked, a sizable number of people will believe them and adopt them as unshakable truths. We can cite many examples throughout history in which this ploy was successfully used. Most pertinent to me was the lie that black people lack the intellectual capacity of non white people and therefore could not be taught difficult concepts, a lie I grew up with and spent my life trying to prove wrong. Even after 400 years there are those who still believe this lie is true. Ironically they are often the most intellectually challenged among us themselves. Grasping for straws my mother would say of them.

This past week I stood with a group of long haul truck drivers and we talked about the upcoming elections and who was telling the truth, and who was not. One pleasant surprise has been meeting more and more people who would normally be staunch conservatives, but yet have come to realize that the people who represent themselves as conservative, like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, are not actually conservative, instead using this designation as a smoke screen to get power with the real intent of subjugating the middle class, regardless of political beliefs. But I have also been shocked at the number of people who have been brainwashed into supporting policies that clearly will not benefit them.

 Last week during a spirited debate there was one man who aggressively supported the policies of Romney/Ryan. He had earlier told me he had lost everything in a divorce and was living in his truck. Credit trashed and unable to get a manufacturing job like the one he lost when his employer moved the jobs to Asia, he was convinced that his problems were the result of too many people dependent on the government for survival. He took special umbrage at my asserrtion that there was something wrong with attempting to limit the number of people eligible to vote, arguing that the founding fathers never believed in majority rule, that they wanted to limit the right to vote to citizens in good standing who were property owners. He felt we should return to this policy, because he favored making sure Whites remain in control in the face of the nations growing diversity, after all he said, without European influence there would be no America as we knew it. He was totally in denial regarding the fact that he, because he owned no property would not be able to vote insisting that if this were the policy of the land, what happened to him would not have been. He, like a surprising number of others I have met this year have no problem with limiting education, the better  jobs, retirement benefits, etc to the privileged few, apparently convinced that this group will include them. They argue the conservative line that this will guarantee stability and promote a strong and prosperous nation.
And the freeloaders will be better off because they will not have to deal with the illusion that they matter.

 Maybe they reason, they will even leave.

It is rare when these people outright admit this is what they believe, but it is clear when you listen carefully to what they are saying. As I have said, these people are in the minority, but they are aggressive and growing. And I pray that the rest of us will be diligent in making sure they don't get the America they want. Please vote.

It is time for the majority of Americans to recognize and accept one uncomfortable truth. There is a segment of our nation whose sense of entitlement and whose basic sense of greed is so pervasive that they will never be able to accept the majority of us as fellow Americans. You know who they are. You see them on TV talking about how lazy and despicable we are. They believe that the rest of us are parasites, and that no matter how hard we work, how decent and law abiding we are, no matter how much wealth we produce for them, that we are beneath them and they would never be able to see us as equals. This is not an issue of race, even though many of them try to convince us that it is. But those of us with wisdom understand that this is just a ploy to keep us from focusing on what the true issues are. Its not really an issue of religious beliefs, even though they exploit those differences for the sames reasons that they exploit racial differences, because in the end they believe we are not smart enough to recognize that nothing else matters to them but money and power.

We, the majority, the hard working and dedicated patriots of America must recognize

•  that they have no problem with sacrificing our children by sending them off to fight in foreign lands, often solely for the purpose of making it safer for them to get richer by exploiting those lands. 
• They have no problem with trying in every way possible to limit the rights of as many of us as possible to vote because they believe majority rule is equal to mob rule and that only they deserve to make decisions that impact what happens in America.
•  These people do not want a middle class because they believe the nation will be more stable when everyone other than this ruling class has to spend every working hour focused on survival, and helping to make them richer with our labor. 
• They do not believe the majority need quality educations beyond that necessary for us to be able to do the work they need us to do because they are sure knowledge leads to instability because the more we know about how things work, the more we think our families deserve more than they want to allow us to have and that has a detrimental effect on their profits and sense of stability.

 These people will never identify with you and I, which is why you hear them constantly saying that the government wants their money. They say, the government thinks their money belongs to them. They do not want you to realize that we are the government. The government of this nation will be whatever we allow it to be and this is exactly what this nations founding fathers wanted, for the government to be the way that average people counter the power of the unscrupulous and greedy. They do not want to admit that what they mean is that they do not want to share the great wealth they have acquired as a result of  all the hard work and contributions to this nation we all have made in so many ways over so many generations that made their success possible. They were like us at one time, but the richer some people get, the more they want to separate from the rest of us. Everyone wants to share misery, but beware of those who gain an advantage and become obsessed with exploiting that advantage no matter who it costs. And saddest of all are those who have little and are so totally brainwashed by the greedy that they actually defend them and advocate for them in a the misguided belief that this will somehow allow them to become rich and elite like them.

This is the America Thomas Jefferson worried might be. This is the America George Washington warned us about. Dwight Eisenhower spoke constantly about the need to make sure these people never are allowed to undermine the middle class. Abraham Lincoln went to war to stop the last major insurrection that was the result of this same idea of a "socially conservative America", which is code speak for a nation divided against it self and thereby easy to control.

There is a lot of advantage in growing up poor in a relatively small, segregated town. I grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, on the East side of the tracks. That was how our world was divided. The East side is where you lived if you were black or Latino. The West side is where white people lived. Children are not born with prejudice, and because my mother, who I would come to understand had experienced much heart wrenching prejudice in her life was focused on earning Gods love, prejudice was not taught or passed to us in our house.

Next door to our small house was  the neighborhood grocery store. It was run by brother Amos, an aging man, huge, but gentle and loving. He always had his bible with him and everyone in the neighborhood knew if you needed something, he would find a way to help you. He felt being a Christian obliged you to feel that way. Brother Amos store is where in warm months, the elderly men of the neighborhood gathered to talk about the worlds issues. I was fascinated with sitting and listening to them, and only years later did I marvel at the fact that these men, who must have endured some amazing things in their time, never displayed anger or hate, but instead talked about hope and dreams and how things would not always be as they were.

For me, this was the last straw. I sat at the counter of a Denny's restaurant, eating chicken noodle soup as I watched Anderson Cooper on CNN. On the screen was a woman with blonde hair, flawlessly done, dressed in obviously expensive clothes and jewelry, pointing a well manicured finger at the screen as she went on and on about how too many people only want to sit around and live off the benefit of her taxes. She was so mean and so wrong in the way she made it sound like all poor people were just scum who did not deserve to live on the same earth with her.

All week I have listened to an ongoing diatribe from people attending the Republican convention accuse the poor and down trodden of being lazy and only wanting to live on welfare and to steal from them. I listened to  Anne Romney and her phony appeal to Americans to think she or her husband actually cared about us even as every other action by them clearly proved the opposite. Then we saw Paul Ryan give a speech that according to a Fox News correspondent seemed designed to set a new record for most lies in a single speech. Then came Mitt himself piling more lies on and promising exactly the opposite of what every thinking person knows is his real agenda. I've had it. Enough is enough.
My question is, where are the real people? Where are the people of integrity who despite their political or religious beliefs are loyal Americans first? When will enough be enough for the hard working honest people of this nation? What is more insulting to honest hard working people than to have an overdressed privileged bitch stand on television and accuse us of loving to sponge off her. It is easy to just say she just doesn't realize that its impossible to have any quality of life on welfare and food stamps, that very few people would choose welfare or food stamps over a decent job.

 Watching this woman reminded me of the woman my mother worked for when I was a child. My mother worked for several years for a family in Wichita Falls, Texas as a housekeeper. She nurtured their children, cooked their meals, cleaned their houses and  and provided support to this family in whatever way was asked of her without complaint. She made just barely subsistence level wages. She never took a dime from welfare, food stamps or any other government program and every day she got on that bus in time to have a hot meal on the table when I got home from school. Then one day the lady of the house became angry at my mother because she felt her children had begun to show more affection for my mother than for her, so to punish my mother she tells my mom that from that day on my mother must take her lunch break on the screened in porch where the family kept their dogs. Of course my mother quit, but she felt hurt and betrayed, and watching her cry is a memory I will never forget.
What is really crazy about all of this is that without the rest of us these rich, privileged people would not have their wealth and status. No matter how any successful person makes their money, they benefit from all of the things our society collectively provides. Even if you are on welfare, you spend that welfare money on food and supplies that these peoples businesses sell and even this pittance ends up back in the economy, circulating and contributing to the strength of our economic system. Consumers are two thirds of our nations Gross Domestic Product, without our spending we have a pitifully weak economy, that means every single one of us.
We all pay taxes that whether through the federal government, or through sales taxes and all other taxes and fees, make the roads possible for these superior people to be able to drive their expensive cars back and forth, for trucks to get their products to the places where they are sold. Our revenue provides the post office which allows them to send out bills and other correspondence more efficiently than any other such service on earth. We make the courts and police possible to protect their assets and give them a way to sue when a debt isn't paid to them. We, as a nation, from the very poorest among us to the wealthiest, collectively make this the best nation on earth to do business and we provide to the rich a quality of life unattainable anyplace else on earth so easily and with so many choices.

For these people, the ultra rich, to now point their fingers at us and accuse us of being the problem is amazingly foolish and short sighted. Even many Republicans of more sane times like Dwight Eisenhower and Henry Ford, knew that in order for the rich to thrive they must protect the rights of the middle class. But today's Republicans, led by right wing conservatives determined to return America to the stone ages socially are leading the greatest attack on Americas constitution ever in this nations history.  We must understand that what we are witnessing in America is no less than a coup attempt by ultra rich oligarchs who want to end majority rule in America. No matter how hard you find this to believe, it is exactly what is happening. Think about it; making it harder for people to vote, ending your rights to bargain collectively, dumbing down education while attempting to rewrite history. Whether they claim to be Republican or Libertarian, what they really want want is to drastically reduce or eliminate the governments as a way to take away your ability to have a say in running this country. And just as Hitler promised the German people peace and prosperity, so are today's far right extremists promising peace and prosperity through reverse social engineering that very few seem to understand can only destroy the ability of their children and grandchildren to live in a free nation and have any chance to improve their lot in life. It is exactly what a majority of the framers of America constitution feared most, and of which this nations foremost patriots from Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, on down over history to even Republicans like Eisenhower warned us to be ever vigilant to make sure never happens. This is not the first time this element of our society has tried this; rigging the supreme court and attempting to buy and rig elections so that they could establish themselves as the ruling class of America, but never before has this nation been so vulnerable to this attack. The racial climate, the decision by the supreme court legitimizing Citizens United, and the attack of right wing Christians making the ridiculous assertion that God wants to us to turn our backs on the poor and needy while taking away the rights of anyone we choose to not like has put this nation on the edge of disaster. Why is it so hard to believe that the same people who ruthlessly pollute our environment, who foment wars to make it easier to exploit other nations, who ruthlessly wage war on your right to collectively bargain for decent wages and who move their money to off shore banks to make sure it cannot contribute to the vitality of the nation that made their wealth possible would plot to end majority rule, and once they have used you, will immediately move to make sure you can never make trouble again. It ought to be so obvious.
And now these people have become so bold that they accuse us of being responsible for the conditions their actions have put upon us. What kind of person moves jobs to whatever nation is cheapest, keeps their money out of circulation in our economy, pushes for policies that make it harder and harder to survive no matter how long and hard you work and then turns around and says that  you are the problem.

The Final Solution

As we look upon the spectacle that is the 2012 Olympic games, I can't help but feel that we may never see the world is such harmony again. I am sure many of you will say, what harmony, the world is in chaos? And this is true, but nothing like the days to come.

Syria represents, in my opinion the striking of the match that will ignite the fire that will ultimately consume the middle east and eventually the world. The acceleration will be the Israeli/US military strikes against Iran. I believe military action against Iran is inevitable regardless of who wins the US presidential election. It will come with great cost no matter who is US president. If Obama is America's president, I believe America has a chance to recognize its mistake before it is too late and save itself from total annihilation. If the president is Mitt Romney, the only result can be all out world engrossing war. I will explain why.

The US industrial military complex has put in motion the tide that will carry America into conflict with Iran. This is further fed by the fervor of evangelical Christians to see biblical prophesy fulfilled. Nothing is more powerful than the belief that something is already certain, and too many with control of the purse strings not only believe it, but believe their money can insure that they are the ones who will survive and enjoy the thousand years of peace to follow. The fact that Iran poses no credible threat to America is immaterial. Israels Zionist paranoia will insure that it will act, and not even President Obama will be able to stop this country from rushing to Israels aide once it is staring down the barrel of those who will not let this aggression expand. Evangelicals, with the help of Fox news and the other clones will beat the drum for the idea that it is the duty of America to save Israel at all cost. North Korea, China and Russia will all fear such dramatic expansion of the power of American and Israeli ambitions in their part of the world, and I expect they will oppose it at all cost. I do not believe that China and Russia will allow both Iran and Syria, their biggest allies and best customers in the middle east to fall under US and Israeli control.

Once the move by Israel is put in motion, it will become quickly obvious that a mistake has been made. If Obama is president, his superior skills of diplomacy will immediately begin to work for a solution to avoiding all out war.

But I truly believe that If Romney is president, his advisers led by Dick Cheney and John Bolton, urged on by evangelical Christians and Neo-cons will leap at the opportunity to exert maximum force in an all out effort to subjugate and dominate its enemies and competition with the intent of creating a modern day empire to exceed even the greatest ambitions of ancient Rome. In their zeal to become Kings and Queens of the universe, the ultra rich neo-conservative movement will create a massive military made possible by mass unemployment, idle hands ready to be put to work; and ready cash fresh from gutting every possible program that does not support their nefarious plan. Medicare, medicaid, social security, the post office; all gone and their massive funds diverted to fight this war to extend American exceptionalism. The media that began being commandeered under Ronald Reagan and even now serves their masters by putting out massive ongoing propaganda will crank into full force to convince the American public that indeed it is America and Israel who are the victims, and our very survival is at stake.

And indeed, the prophecy of the bible will play out in self fulfilling certainty. The anti-Christ is the phony Christian movement, who completely ignored the true teachings of Christ to force the realization of prophecy formulated by opportunists who counted on not being around to ever see it come to pass, and who believed by describing it in painstaking detail, no one would ever be foolish enough to actually allow it to happen.

The racists will insist that purity must be restored, and those bearing the marks of Gods enemies, dark skin, must be eliminated. The elitist will assert that their survival with their fortunes not only intact but extended by the spoils of war prove they are clearly the ones with the right to be the ruling class. And all will be right with the world.

When will Americans see the light?

THE GOVERNMENTS MOST IMPORTANT MISSION

It is astounding how thoroughly many Americans have been misled regarding the specific intent of America's founding fathers. It is truly surreal to hear so called patriotic Americans attempt to wax eloquently about the intent of this nations founders to limit the power of government, while at the same time ignoring that the very people who promote that argument are attempting to use government to take over every aspect of Americans lives. Conservatives would control womens rights to make decisions regarding their own health and bodies. They would turn control over citizens health care to people whose only purpose in life is to make money, which of course they expect will spill over into their hands. Under the efforts by conservative, right wing, tea party republicans every aspect of American life would be controlled and regulated by those who have the least amount of interest in any of our actual well being. And they do it by saying that this is what the the founding fathers wanted.

Yet, read the personal writings of Americas founding fathers and most will reveal that exactly the opposite was true. In fact, what conservatives are attempting to do to this country is exactly what Americas founding fathers attempted to protect this nation from.

One of the ideas aggressively promoted by republicans is that the idea of redistribution of wealth is an evil thing. But in fact, our founding fathers most feared that if this government did not serve to protect the rights of the poor and middle class that they would be subjugated by the extremely wealthy in exactly the way they are attempting to do right as we speak.

While living in France, and seeing that the French revolution was inevitable, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to James Madison. In it he said that America must have a progressive tax system. What he meant was, poor people, and those below a certain income amount should pay NO income taxes. The more money a person made, the larger percentage of that money they should pay in taxes. This was based on the idea that the government should be responsible for protecting peoples abilities to raise themselves up in their society. They believed the government should be redistributing money because the more money we make, the more we utilize the infrastructure that all of us own and contribute to. People love to say they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, but without infrastructure like roads, utilities, police protection, etc. there would be no boot straps to pull yourself up by. No one succeeds without the contribution and sacrifices of the others around them.

Economies thrive when money circulates. The more hands that money moves through, the more everyone, including the rich benefit. Henry Ford thrived because included in his vision of his company was that  those who worked to produce his cars had to be able to afford to buy them. Look back over Americas history and you will find many truly patriotic wealthy Americans who understood that the country was stronger when the economy thrived, and the key to that is a strong middle class. Nothing right wing conservatives offer will benefit the survival of the middle class. Privitizing health care, the postal service, and everything else possible is a recipe for disaster. Simply look at gas prices, which is unregulated and compare them to electricity which is regulated, and the truth should be obvious. Look at the banking industry when it was regulated as it was during Americas most prosperous years, and then look at what has happened since the so called Reagan revolution when regulatiuon was removed or undermined.

AMERICA IS IN THE FIGHT OF ITS LIFE!

What do you think people like Rick Santorum mean when they say that higher education creates liberals and atheists? I have long been aware that one of the foundations of modern social conservative thought is the idea that higher education in the wrong hands leads to civil disorder and instability. This crowd is convinced that all of America's social problems are the result of allowing access to higher education to all of our citizens. They are convinced, and are probably right, that if not for the University experience, America would never have embraced racial integration, women's rights, gay rights and other changes that have made America a more inclusive experience for so many who are not white, male and straight.

When I was young I was very optimistic about America's future. This was largely because I was convinced that education was the key. My mother raised me to believe that racial prejudice was largely a result of ignorance and that the better educated people were, and the more people were able to have shared experiences, the more racial injustice would fade away into the past. To some degree this has been proven to be true. The part I didn't realize is how much basic greed, and the desire to hold power would move some among us to resist movement in positive directions, and just how hard they would fight to keep a status quo that they felt kept them with the upper hand.

I now see clearly that America is presently in the fight of its life. While it is easy to believe that the election of Barack Obama proves that America has turned the corner and can never go back to its legacy of racial and gender based injustice, it is clear to me that the social conservative movement has been invigorated. What they see is the chance to convince as many as possible that Obama is the proof that America should never allow such people to have power. And they realize they don't need a majority to agree with them, they only need enough of the wealthiest and most powerful to share their agenda and that such a minority can create a smokescreen that will allow them to do all that they would like to while convincing the majority it is in their best interest. It may be a tired, worn out example, but no example rings as true in modern times than the example of Adolph Hitler and how successful he was at executing exactly this type of plan, and the people were not only fooled but invigorated until the horrible truth came to light.

I urge all Americans to clearly see and understand what is at stake in America right now. Santorum has become so confident he is openly hinting at what he believes. Realize that what he is really saying is that this is why we must reduce funding of schools. This is why we must abolish the department of education. This is why we must shrink government so that there are no impediments to the local citizens council executing whatever policy they see as just, without interference by the people at large. Realize that there is no way this kind of thought will lead to a better economic climate in America for anyone but the privileged few, who will rule like the oil barons, railroad barons, manufacturing barons of our past did before there was organized labor and federal regulation to protect the average person. We have already seen in our history what happens when we leave our fates up to the whims of the rich and powerful, and  no one other than the privileged few who really understands what America was like before organized labor would want to return this nation to those days.

Understand that the policies advocated by the right wing, social conservative movement as promoted by Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and all the others who preach this doctrine can only lead to a violent, bloody revolution in this nation. I, like many others, will not allow America to go back to a nation that would allow my grandchildren and their children to face what my mother faced growing up. I will fight to my last breath, and trust me, the dynamics of America today are much different than they were in the 1920's. There is no chance this type of social conservatism can work or last in the long term. And the attempt to implement and enforce it will destroy America as we know it along the way, and is in no ones best interests, not even the people advocating it.

And also understand that the Ron Pauls of the world, who may seem as if they are pursuing different goals by explaining their ideas in different terms, are pursuing exactly the same result as the Rick Santorums economically and politically. Who do you think takes control of the power vacuum that results when the federal government is rendered all but powerless as advocated by Ron Paul? Surely you realize it will be the same privileged few that social conservatives like Santorum insists should be the only ones allowed access to higher education in a responsible society.

If we do not learn from the mistakes of the past, we are doomed to repeat them

Let me start by admitting that I am worked up today. Pissed off. Because I believe there is a fundamental problem facing us all that is undermining our ability to flourish. Many of you will disagree with what I am about to say, but I'm still gonna say it. Quit lying to people. Quit spreading this phony propaganda that some lame opportunistic motivational speaker came up with to help himself sell books and book speaking engagements that tells you to let go of the past and only focus on your future. This is among the worst advice that anyone, but especially people trying to take their life to a higher level can ever get. Its just bullshit.

The greatest gift we get from our elderly is the benefit of their experience. More than anything else, learning from their past mistakes and the unfortunate things that happened to them gives us an edge in moving our families and our society forward. It is the fuel of growth. I admit that I like, most everyone went through a time in my life when I thought I knew more than my parents and grandparents. From 14 years of age to about 19 I thought it was amazing that my parents even survived being so clueless about how life really worked. But as I left home, went out on my own and had to suffer the consequences of making my own decisions, it was amazing how truly wise I began to remember my elderly family really were. I say remember because I now realize I had more common sense at the age of 10 than I did at 15. And somewhere around 22 I regained the proper perspective. The ages at which this happens may be different for you, but most people would admit they had this same experience. If you meet someone who is beyond 30 and they cannot say they had this experience, whatever the reason, run. You have entered the life of someone living in the dysfunctional Twilight Zone.

It is very important that we as people mature to the point of being able to let go of the pain of the past. It is critical to our growth that we not dwell on whatever suffering occurred, but only a fool fails to hang on to the lesson learned. If we do not hang on to the lesson learned, the suffering was for nothing. We must not only hang on to the lesson learned, we must talk about it whenever appropriate. Teach the lessons to our young and promote respect for the wisdom of those who have experience throughout our society.  We must make it a goal of our society to return to the idea that only by understanding what the past has taught us and how to turn those lessons to our advantage can we survive and grow as a nation and individually.

Every problem that we face as a nation today has happened before. There is nothing new under the sun. It is amazing to me how few Americans realize how many times this nation has had to face difficult economic decisions, or that many of the things we complain about today actually began as a way of trying to solve an often bigger problem of the past. What changes is modern technology's ability to inform ever greater numbers of people of the problems at hand almost instantly. Truly at no time in our history have so many known what the nation was facing as today.

The problem however is that most people only know about the problems from the perspective of who ever they get their news from. Too often it is hard to get the complete unbiased truth, and so many people weigh in with their suggested solution while reporting the news, we are really not encourgaed to reflect on our own, drawing from the wisdom passed on to us by those who raised us and taught us about life. I believe that in this way we are cheated of the common sense wisdoms that many have to offer. In fact, rather than encouraging a discourse that will encourage more citizens to contribute to a solution, we are often made to feel as if we just are not smart enough to truly understand and so must depend on the wisdom of those who too often are serving an agenda not necessarily in our best interests.

And in the midst of every crisis, we are bombarded with messages at every turn, sometimes even by well meaning people promoting the idea that the holy grail is in letting go of the past. We must embrace the lessons of our past. We must honor and never forget the struggles of our people and the price they paid for us. And we do that by looking for the wisdom in the lessons learned from their experience and passing those basic truths on to each succeeding generation. Not only will we benefit from such wisdom, but we sow the seeds of self respect in our young because we have encouraged them to respect where they come from.

America is under attack in an unprecedented way

On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Contrary to poular belief, it did not end slavery immediately, but made clear that ending slavery was a central goal of the US government in fighting the Civil war. In January 1865 the US Congress approved the 13th amendment officially abolishing slavery in the United States .The end of the Civil War was followed by a period that has been known historically as reconstruction. The central goal put forward for reconstruction initially was to protect the civil rights of former slaves in places still hostile to the very idea of freedom for black people. By the end of the period generally recognized as reconstruction, that goal had been manipulated to primarily become to insure that the Republican Party would be in permanent control of certain southern states under the widely accepted notion  that only they could guarantee that the result of the Civil War could be insured long term.

It took from 1866 to 1884 for the new freedom of Black Americans to be changed into a system of terror and apartheid so shameful that most of the details have still been kept from succeeding American generations.

Today we see the reemergence of the principles that led to the undoing of reconstruction. It seems clear to me that among the underlying motives of the so called social conservatives of today is to return as much as possible to the kind of localized control of government that guaranteed the ability of those who created and maintained the system known as segregation in America free of federal government interference. What I find most disturbing is the lackadaisical way most Americans view what is taking place; Blacks, Women, Gay people, Immigrants seem to be totally unaware how easily this goal can be accomplished if social conservatives and Libertarians realize success in their efforts to return America to good old days that were never very good for anyone, not even most whites. Even some Black Americans are seduced by the seemingly pro-American rants of people like Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Scott Walker, Palin, Bachmann, O'Donnell and others of their ilk. But if you look carefully below the surface, if you look carefully at the actions of these people when they have been given power, and listen to the things they say when talking only to those they consider their own, you see a picture that is clearly American only if you think America is white, male, wealthy, straight and stingy. These are people who shamelessly cast themselves as basing their goals on Christian values while violating every tenet of the teachings of Christ. These are people who, when given the chance, seize every dollar and benefit for themselves while fighting valiantly any effort to extend those same benefits to the vanishing middle class and the despised lower classes.

Nothing I can think of would ever cause me to vote Republican. I, just at the bottom of my heart, cannot support the basic tenet of Republican politics that government should be diminished in order to increase the coffers of the obscenely wealthy when I have seen over and over in my life what happens when average Americans are left without adequate protections from those who would rig every aspect of life for their profit. I have paid the price repeatedly in my life for opposing the unfair treatment of those who are powerless in my own jobs in management, clearly understanding that if I don't stand up for the rights of others, mine cannot be guaranteed. But I submit that this trend we see taking hold of the Republican party goes far beyond the basic disagreement I have with Republican politics. It is no less than tyrannical and anti American in its desire to limit its guarantee of freedom to the chosen few in opposition to the very purpose of the establishment of the United States of America.

The Great American Con Job

Todays America is a con artists paradise. Among the great American con jobs of this century has to be health care. You get it from all sides. Insurance companies pay off congress to tell you that they have your best interest at heart. Meanwhile they charge you ever more for the substandard care they are willing to authorize, and the medical establishment helps by coming up with ever more ridiculous reasons for you to seek health care. Among the greatest current boondoggles is "sleep apnea". You see, now its a major medical problem if you snore, snort, or fart during sleep. It requires a sleep study, which a panel of pulmonology specialists must study, to tell you that you don't sleep right. Then they fit you with a contraption that they must laugh themselves silly about called a c-pap machine which blows air into your mouth so you can sleep better and oh, most important of all, everybody involved except you gets paid.

First they said that obesity is a major indicator of sleep apnea, then they discovered that the same number of people who are not obese get sleep apnea as who are, but yet they still use obesity as a risk factor to decide that you must undergo a sleep study while allowing the non-obese people who fall alseep on the job to carry on without interruption. This used to be called discrimination, but no one cares if you discriminate against the obese, after all who likes fat people?  I am 6 foot, 280 pounds with more stamina than almost any of my co-workers, yet I am a risk factor for sleep apnea because my neck is too big. So if you are killed by a driver who falls asleep whose neck is less than 17", don't expect sympathy because that person was not considered obese.

The Day The Music Died

It is with ironic sadness that I report that the end is indeed near. Humankind, at least the way we know it is soon to pass away. It is inevitable. Just as it was certain that dinosaurs would eventually eat, produce waste and waste byproducts to the point the earth could no longer sustain them, so will it be with humankind. Of course, prevailing wisdom, (more aptly described as hope) is that humans will outsmart mother nature and that technology will ultimately save the day.

The biggest problem with humankind is that the problem is not simply eating through the earths abundance or the enormous amount of waste we leave behind. Add to this our natural predisposition to destroy each other through war and others forms of violence. Add also an ever growing sense of panic (sometimes known as greed) that pushes more and more of us to abandon any reasonable relationship with integrity in an effort to have more for ourselves. The more obvious it is that we have doomed ourselves, the greater the numbers of those who conclude that the only reasonable strategy is "every man and woman for himself". When you realize and accept this ever growing consensus among the people, you began to understand both the confusion that grows daily among people who are not sure what they support or believe, and the popularity of the conservative mindset which would be much more aptly named if it was called preservatism rather than conservatism. There really is little conservative about the actions of right wing conservatives, it is largely about self preservation and is a by product of the fear that people have when they think they are forced to live with those inferior to themselves and genuinely believe that this situation will ultimately bring them down.

Among modern preservatism  you have those that call themselves social conservatives. And while they would have you believe their beliefs are based on sound fundamentals of faith, look deeply enough and you see that there is little faith evident. In fact the strongest element that you can see among them is a general lack of faith in humankind at all beyond the concept of themselves as the chosen few. In the 70's we called it what it really is, a God complex. The belief that God must favor them and only them and therefore they have a unique insight into what is right and what is wrong, and any discussion of flexibility of viewpoint is at best foolish and at worst downright evil. Especially ironic when so called Christian social conservatives are considered, because they cling so tightly to a notion totally the opposite of the fundamental principles taught by he who they claim redeems them.

Unfortunately conservatives are not the only ones who are dedicated preservatists, many so called liberals  move back and forth daily between opposing extremes of emotion often based on what the individual issue is of  and are generally no less confused about what integrity actually is and when to apply the given principle. The only real redeeming factor that moves me to consider myself a liberal is at least among us there is an ongoing dialogue and this willingness to at least consider other thoughts and ideas separate us from those with the God complex. Among real  liberals our greatest weakness is the fact that we cannot help but constantly re-examine how we feel and ask ourselves if we are doing the right things. Ironically, this is also our greatest strength and the most redeeming factor in our favor.

Our end is clearly near, or at least the end of the way we have known it to be because we have come so close to the edge and there is no turning back now. In America the preservatists have begun to feed on each other and the rest of us. And the world all follows in their own ways. The all out attack upon the rights and freedoms of the middle and lower classes, while not really new, is unprecedented in its scope and the amazing support it receives from so many who will ultimately suffer most is a clear indication that a level of awareness has been lost. Ignorance and confusion has always been humankind's greatest weakness and never before have so few had the ability to mislead and confuse so many so easily.

It is said that what goes around comes around and I see clearly in America a return to the racist and social revisionist principles that so nearly destroyed our nation repeatedly before. The saddest thing about America today is the many young people who have no clue or respect for the price that was paid for their freedom and the blinders that have been put on by those who should know better. The young are in grave danger of losing it and being returned to a time that was never as good as some would have you believe. Having so little understanding of the true nature of humankind, they cannot conceive of that which many around them long to return to. Freedom is not free and history shows clearly that when you do not respect where you come from, you have no future.

But it does not really matter because we are approaching the edge of the cliff at remarkable speed and and overall change in the way life will continue to exist upon this planet is inevitable. We are much like fleas on the back of a dog. The dogs masters try everything to kill or wash us off, yet we hang on thinking we are winning. But inevitably we simply insure the coming of the final devastating conclusion, and only God knows who or what will survive and what that will be like. Enjoy your day. They are numbered.

Red Tails comes at a Good Time To Be Reminded About Our Soulful Journey

As I proudly observe the renewed interest in the story of The Tuskegee Airmen that is the result of George Lucas new film Red Tails, I am reminded of how much we as Americans have to be proud of that is either a direct or indirect result of the scourges of slavery and segregation. For so many years the main focus of slavery and its aftermath has been the negatives. I would like to see a renewed focus on the positive things that came as a result of or in spite of one of America's most  infamous times in history, especially for the sake of the young who grow ever more distant from any memory or understanding of what Americans have faced together and overcome. It can be said that we as a people are as much a product of what we have triumphed over as anything and in America, we have triumphed over many difficult times in our history, slavery and segregation being only two.

I personally would like to believe that if Americas young people had a better understanding of the pride and determination so many of their ancestors maintained despite suffering through indignities that most of them could not even imagine, they would have more respect for each others lives, and the lure of gangs and drugs would be at least a bit easier to resist. It is with great pride that I urge all Americans regardless of ethnic origin to go and see Red Tails. And I hope it will promote a conversation among families and friends about other examples of Americans overcoming their circumstances to triumph in pride and glory that are closer to home. What better time could there be than now when our nations future seems so tenuous, when we are a people strained by the worst depression in the nations history and divided against each other over ideology and even religious beliefs as we search for answers to restore what in reality has never really been. The problem for Americans is that each generation tends to not understand that Americas history is one of struggle. When the economy flourishes, and when it is in decline, we struggle with many of the same issues that divide us today. The only real difference is who is suffering most at any given time and how we collectively perceive what the solutions are.

As a child growing up in North Central Texas, raised by a poor mother who grew up in East Texas, I heard over and over the stories of the pain and difficulty of living in a place where the Ku Klux Klan flourished. Lynchings, beatings of innocent people and the daily humiliation that was a natural byproduct of segregation was not some distant memory or stories in a book. I watched my mother cry with the pain only someone who had to support her children by devoting so much of her life to cooking, cleaning and raising the children of people who required her to take her meal breaks on the back porch where they fed the dogs. Yet what I remember most about my mother was the forgiving spirit she had. Her faith in God. The way she insisted that all people were not bad and that most racists were in fact victims themselves of the ignorance promoted by those who profited from maintaining such a climate. I remember my Great Aunt Maude, a proud woman of Native American and African American mix who told me stories of unthinkable atrocities in the area of Oklahoma where she raised her children at a time when it was worse to be Native American than African American. I treasured the stories my Great Aunt told me because her sister, my Grandmother, died at a young age due to the racist policies of hospitals of the area at that time, a subject that was so painful to my mother that it was never discussed in our house.

Among my favorite things to do when I was very young was to sit and listen to the elderly Black men who gathered daily at the neighborhood grocer where they sat outside during nice weather and talked about everything in the world and their view of a world that even after they had served in world wars and worked them selves to the bone for meager wages still subjected them to sickening insulting treatment daily. Yet these men didn't speak with anger, they spoke with pride about what they had survived. Proud that despite all that was done to take away their dignity and self respect, they had made it through and could still hold their heads high in the knowledge that they had helped to insure another generation would have an ever increasing chance to set things right.

Enemy Expatriation Act is itself an act of treason

Throughout America's history, after every great challenge; the civil war, World Wars I & II, The Great Depression, part of what helped America recover was that America felt it clearly saw it self and recognized who it was. But the America of today has its greatest challenge in  that when it looks in the mirror it does not recognize what it sees. Since the end of segregation, because of immigration coming  from all over the world, thanks to the result of years of oil profiteering, America no longer resembles to power wielding conservatives the country they wanted to believe they lived in. This is why they are now willing to gut it. They want to rip it apart and remake it in the image they want. Only a fool believes this will benefit anyone who believes in freedom and democracy for all. And I think this problem will define how history judges America of this current time period.


 I think historians will say today's Americans lived during the last gasp of a great society. That America became a victim of itself. Like a fat, ignorant, greedy child, lost in the woods surrounded by predators anxious to eat it, the most dangerous of whom we thought were friends,  we put on blinders to what was really happening around the world and allowed ourselves to be seduced by ideas like Amercian Exceptional-ism, even as we saw a steady decline in the nations quality of education, health system and the very idea that a free market should be inclusive and reward all who contribute to its success, not just those who get themselves to the top. Like every accomplished society in history, our decline was made inevitable by an ever increasing focus on greed that inhibited our ability to see the forest for the trees.

Against the backdrop of these times,  our government debates the legislation being promoted by Joe Lieberman and Charles Dent known as the Enemy Expatriation Act, it is clear that we are facing one of the greatest attacks on the very foundation of the principles of the constitution of the United States in our lifetime. No matter how innocent these supporters of this bill claim their intentions are, it is clear that this will ultimately become a tool for those who would silence any form of dissension of US citizens aimed at any part or member of the US government. Is it merely a coincidence that this legislation should be proposed now, when terrorism, which sponsors of this legislation claimed this act is designed to deal with, is actually on the run, but more and more Americans are awakening to the erosion of their rights by those who would break unions and give ever increasing power and benefits to the conservative elite.

I feel that the most powerful thing America's founding fathers did was to assert that the citizens of these United States should always have the right to protest the actions of their government and further, if they found that this government no longer served them, to change it for the best interest of the majority. The Enemy Expatriation act would clearly be most effective at limiting the number of people who can participate in their duty to oversee their government and supporting it is no less than an act of treason. It is time Americans take a long look at people like Lieberman and Dent and others who would propose legislation designed to limit the ability of ordinary Americans to participate in their government. They need to be removed from their offices and banned from ever holding a leadership role in American politics again. 

The fundamental foundation of a free market system is the win-win situation.

One of the things that concerns me most about the world we live in today is the way the concept of free markets has become interchangeable with the idea of anything goes. As much as any single thing this frame of thought has contributed to the decline of morality in the way business is done, oddly enough most often seen in those who constantly claim to be filled with integrity.

I believe that the concept of free markets are based on the idea that when markets work, everyone who contributes has a fair chance to earn. And that the dynamic of having as much participation in the markets as possible by competing forces keeps them honest and contributes to the vitality of the markets. Throughout history this idea has been proven to work when markets are in development and are free to grow without interference. But in our world today, there are those who would insist that regulation is the chief culprit that stymies the effectiveness of free markets. Problem is, an honest examination of history proves otherwise.
Almost without fail, when markets thrive, someone will eventually become greedy and start to look for ways to gain a greater share of the markets by creating unfair advantages for themselves. They use their wealth, power and influence to try to shut the door of opportunity on those who would compete with them, and by doing so they become the force that inhibits the natural order of a free market. As this perversion of the markets grow, the markets become less and less free and the result is a market controlled by the ruthless.
The most effective tool to combat this occurring has been responsible regulation overseen by those who have a vested interest in keeping the markets free, and by the ability of those who work for these competing forces to be able to level the field for themselves through collective bargaining. When the people whose labor helps to make the difference between success and failure are no longer able to bargain for a fair wage and instead they are forced to work for wages that will not fairly sustain them, the markets are not free and the offending business is not successful, because  ultimately these businesses suck the life out of a community rather than contributing to their vitality. That is why once the vitality is sucked out of a community, the offending business feels it has no choice but to go someplace else and begin the process of sucking the life out of another community somewhere else. In today's world we call that out-sourcing. In the beginning, the new location of these blood sucking businesses welcome them and laud them as progress, but without fail in time they will be seen as a pariah when it is understood that they will pack up and leave as soon as they find someone willing to do the job cheaper and allow them less regulation. They tell us regulation, again is the bad guy, ignoring the fact that without rules, too many simply cannot be counted on to make a long term commitment to the vitality of that community. When America thrived in the past, it was because owners of business felt a need for their own good to make such a commitment to the communities they operated in. They understood that if people could not afford their products, they would not thrive. This was a dynamic of the free market concept that became somewhat obsolete when small and medium sized local businesses began to disappear in the wake of the mega-corporation. Ironically, the people wanted them. They wanted cheaper prices and convenience, somehow not realizing, or not caring that they were contributing to the perversion of the free market system by removing its most important ingredient, competition. And by contributing to the decline of dynamic localized competition, they set the stage for the loss of jobs and their rights to negotiate fair wages and benefits.