The Passage of Times

The more with which time passes, the more one sees how some things always stay the same.

This is something unrealized by youth… I certainly couldn’t see it, though many elderly tried to project their insight into me.. I simply lacked enough background to understand.

But seeing the return of things you fought to vanquish and were once successful, as well as expanding ones knowledge-base across many cultures, times, and distances, one tends to see a larger pattern in effect that probably is conducive to our survival…

Here is how it relates to conservatives and liberals, democracy and our ultimate survival…. .

No matter who you are, when you are, or where you are, if you are comfortable in your position, you tend to lean towards conservatism… Why wouldn’t you?  It’s what enabled you to get and keep what you have… On the other hand, when you have nothing but dreams listed as your assets, you’ll insist on change, or newness, or something better than what you have.. Why shouldn’t you?  Who would want to stay in the same decrepit conditions one finds themselves when they don’t have to?

And so democracy is simply a mechanism that allows for the ebb and flow of fortunes to change policy so parity is maintained for the most part…

When a majority of people are doing better than those who are not, then keeping what is working now is best for that society as a whole.  On the other hand if it it not working, then changing ones course is better for that society.  That makes so much sense, does it not?

So being a liberal in a time of economic well being is, how should we say politely, being “very forward thinking”?… Likewise being a conservative in a time of turmoil, could be rather dangerous, being so outnumbered so… you better hope you are “well liked”….

It is rare that events outside the human experience impact us on a large scale. Most of what affects us drastically (wars, Depressions, power grabs) usually comes from mankind’s own doing:… acts where we consciously chose to go a certain route, and more or less, damned all the torpedoes that got in the way.

Today we are in a bru-ha-ha of our own making…. Most of it directly came from our choosing to go towards giving the top 1% all of our money and keeping less for ourselves… It was a conscious decision on our parts.  We elected enough Republicans to allow them to do what they told us they would do.  It was no secret. We made a bad decision.

The experiment failed.  They kept all the money and none trickled down, at least here within our borders… Our wealth actually built up China, which is great for them, but that hasn’t helped us much.

When one finds out one is losing something important, one hangs onto it harder… Which means someone has to try harder to take it away, right?… This gives insight into the harshness and lack of decorum in politics today… The ugliness we see today in Conservatives, and the hard clenching tenacity we see in Liberals, we’ve seen before in this country.  We had it in the 1820’s between the old guard wealth of the Eastern Seaboard, and the wide individualistic wealth newly available across our national heartland.  We saw it in the 1850’s as slavery hit the hot button and both sides became bitterly entrenched as support for slavery evaporated into a cauldron of gunpowder.  It only took one spark.  We saw it in the 1890’s as the capitalists grabbed up more and more companies, crushed workers rights, and the workers in cities became less and less empowered. Finally Republican Progressivism broke out of the chokehold. Then WWI flipped the scales back to big business and an investment boom followed by a Great Depression again created the necessary environment for another total sweep of old for new.  That “new” lasted 60 years until it succumbed to having been so successful so that so many numbers who had previously benefited from liberal policies switched allegiances to keep their assets to themselves… And that leads to today, where our individualistic efforts to improve ourselves simply were not enough to balance ourselves comfortably against wealth and power and we are again looking at more government interaction…

So rawness and candor have always been part of politics.  Always will be. Some things never change. (Some of us love it, btw.)

So what is happening today is that the post Republican Depression economy has made mockery out of those “traditional” Republican values and the only thing they have to hold on to power right now, is their appeal to the prejudiced.  Against this direct solicitation, Progressives continue to offer a new vision of hope to millennials, or the return to the old vision of what actually worked well for 60 years to those still alive who actually lived it.

The conservatives count the votes and know their time is numbered.  Population trends have pointed this out for many years. Which readily explains why they focus on ways and methods to limit large numbers of those voting, and have vacated all plans to appeal to new members… No surprise here.

In this election conservative policy has been reduced to stem complete annihilation of their party… For whereas they have failed over the past 16 years, Progressives have succeed across that same time. By going hog-wild on bigotry, they are using the only tactic with which they know how to keep some members in their party from flipping…

Bigotry is a “thing” unfortunately… And right now…. it is the only “thing” Republicans have to garner one single vote this November…  Unless of course, it is ….. “wild hair”…

 

R. A. C. I. S. M

Two things this past week:  Charter schools sued locally, and courts across this nation absolving white cops for crimes against black humanity …

What both speak of is an overriding, institutionalized standard intended to regulate black people to second class citizenship…

Before continuing, let me knock down some incoming pitches.

A) There will always be racists… The seeds may lie in part of our genetic code for sub-species survival.  But ever since mankind began and until mankind finishes, if racism didn’t exist in primitive cultures, civilization created it. The only thing changing across 8,000 years is whether that embedded racism is allowed by one’s institutions to become a bedrock piece of that society’s structure, or not.

B) Most people are sheep… When told to be racists and given a reason, they become one.  Once racism has been installed top down by one’s power structure, society’s economic survival overpowers its moral guilt and keeps it thriving.

C) Most people do not care about race unless it becomes thrust on top of them.  Children raised in racially co-mingled environments have to be re-programed to then become racists, and fortunately for all, childhood bonds are usually more resilient than propaganda.

D) The more poor and ignorant one is, the more likely racism will do their thinking for them….

E) Because of our susceptibility to quickly hate what is different, racism is a very useful tool for behavior modification and social control.

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Those who grew under and saw televised racism and read first-hand accounts of its segregated effects, are shaking their head over how we returned to this point again…. These are not isolated cases.  It is a pandemic.  But why now? What happened from those days in 1999. back when it looked like racism (if not defeated) had been banished forever to negligibility?

It appears two things.

• One… Americans allowed a political party to run their government, whose firm belief is that it should purposefully look the other way if and whenever racism occurs.
• Two… An Afro-American was elected (over-top all the best efforts of racists to prevent it), which indirectly now allows racist’s noise machines to spew vitriol under the guise that it is an expression of political freedom.

So we got a lot more overt racism and a lot less policing over it.

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This same party fully backs and supports the statement of one Supreme Court Justice who paraphrased:  “racism doesn’t exist anymore”. America woke up this week to find out that this Justice could not have been more wrong!

The charter school situation shows the slow slide across this decade better than  do our courts.  Charter Schools almost always only occur in  predominantly black districts.  They are to either separate whites out; or to cull out blacks …Schools are segregated today in ways that would be illegal under the finding of Brown versus The Board of Education if charters were indeed considered to be public schools.  But because Charters are considered “outside” of all normal regulations, such confining laws (unless individually ordered by a court), do not apply.

Whereas in public schools opportunity gaps are closing; in charter schools they are widening.  Once again, separate is not equal.  But in most states the expansion of charters is being encouraged by governors and education chiefs regardless of party.  For them, this is seen as a way of shirking the responsibility to properly educate all our children… First privatize the schools and then,… blame their failings on someone else’s incompetence… ” It’s management’s fault, not ours; we’re going to close that school.”

The grand point one must understand is that this did not happen overnight.  Ever since Delaware’s Charter law was pushed through in the early nineties, there have been relatively very few charters until recently.  Now there is an explosion.  This mushroom cloud didn’t happen on its own. Fake non-profits and for-profits have lobbied and pushed both charters and pro-charter legislation into reality!  No one was watching. No one cried foul. No one cared because they didn’t know.  The point I’m making is that without this concerted institutional push and lobbying of legislators by large amounts of wealth, this segregation of schools could never have happened naturally on its own.  Today’s schools would remain public open to all, and whites and blacks would be receiving the same education at the same time in the same schools.

In other words, this Charter School racism was instituted from the top down.

Similarly in our court systems we have allowed our police leeway over what used to be considered our Constitutional rights.  As conservative judges became appointed to vacancies on the bench, and as non-Conservative judges were denied conformation, the bench overall began applying conservative principles whenever it dealt with our local police forces.

This anointed our police forces to the point of where they could do no wrong.  This is now Communist Russia, Communist China, or Hitler’s Germany. or Tojo’s Japan.

Both these two grand juries had their outcome predetermined by their prosecutors who had the (not so hidden agenda to not incriminate a police officer.

If the actual visual proof of an execution happening before the viewer is still not enough evidence of wrong doing, then anything done against black American citizens can now be allowed… And that is a problem. A very big problem.

Most experts believe another Grand Jury under another prosecutor would have given another verdict… Both these two verdicts were orchestrated from the top down.  Those institutions holding the real power in those two communities, told their prosecutors that they needed the policeman to go free… and the prosecutor obliged.

The relief point here is that on the whole, most Americans are not really into racism.  But a few in power since we first put a “2” in front of our millennium, have worked very hard to make us appear that way…  and now their efforts appear to have been successful. Today based on social media reporting, we are a very racist society.  And since 1999, racism has been put into place by Republican bureaucrats from the top down…. primarily during the Cheney-Bush administration and then later  in Obama’s, the Tea Party Republicans blocked all Democratic attempts to undo the damage. (Remember the Republican meme that Katrina was not a terrible disaster because only Black people lost their homes? It was a disaster, they admitted, but not a terrible disaster.)

As long as Republicans are not held accountable, racism will grow only worse. The attempts now to hold a clear conversation about race, without holding the Republican party responsible are meaningless.  If you don’t get rid of Conservatives, this issue will never go away….  Yes. We could kill them… But that takes approximately 5 years and they still get to keep their horses and guns.  Better to use the majorities embedded in the American voting system to eliminate that party which privately promotes and publicly condones racism. Next we need to use our economic power of withholding purchases to blacklist all those companies who advertise on and stop it cold….Fox TV who as of right now, is the biggest force driving race divisiveness across this once-great nation.

We got past it once.  It took a long time.  In less than 14 years of FOX and the Republican party, racism has now been institutionalized again from the top down….  The grand point of all this, is that no change will ever come about; no matter how many demonstrations you through; no matter how many petitions you sign; no matter how many police cars you overturn; no matter how many shops you loot and trash…. The problem will not go away until you A) both vote en masse and B) shut down Fox’s Propaganda….  it is completely ridiculous to believe that any change will come for any person of color, as long as Mitch McConnell is running the Senate and John Boehner is running the House….   Because racists run that party; only super-majorities of Democrats in both houses can change things now.

So in your discussions about the proper ways to execute white people for revenge (which based on the two injustices you have just witnessed, it would be foolish to assume it is not going on among the most vitriolic of you right now), please make allowances for separating out those whites who voted Democratic, and focus your revenge expressly on those who absolutely deserve it all, Republicans. Because the problem is not… all whites… The problem is…. as little children well know and say everywhere….Republicans…

Democrats and Independents… if you don’t take it upon yourselves to go to a rally for equal rights and equal justice for our black brothers and sisters. you too are the big part of the problem.  Passive racism is:   “Oh, I’ll stay home and watch my college alma mater get their butts whipped in a conference game; black people getting lynched in St. Louis or New York or Cleveland, yeah, I care a little, but it is no problem of mine”…   For if only black people show up at these rallies, white Republicans say:  “look, only black people show up at those rallies; let’s hurt them some more to punish them enough so in the future, as we take all their rights, they will be too afraid to even have rallies..”  

No, it will take all of the 83% of us who are non-racist to stomp out the 17% who are…  The minority population of Republicans have no power except that Fox Propaganda makes you think they have all the power… Our odds are 83% to their 17%.  Just curious. Have you ever fought off 4 people? One doesn’t usually win, and one tends to get hurt pretty bad… So show up at the demonstration. Make racism go away. Dis-associate yourself from die-hard Republicans and show them there is a social price to be paid for working overtime to bring institutionalized Racism back into America.

 

 

 

 

 

Economic Stagpression

It’s a pun off of the word stagflation which was short for stagnant inflation.  Stagpression is short for stagnant depression.  It is the most accurate indicator of our economic situation today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…

We seem to be in a Depression. but we aren’t.  The Housing market is recouping, jobs are consistently growing, energy costs have dropped,  corporate profits are now at record, higher than just before the 1929 crash, and an all time record high stock market..  We should be booming. But we aren’t.  We still have too high of an unemployment both on and off the books, we still have depressed low wages, we have lost massive wealth within the middle class over this century so far, we have record high student loan debt, we have low consumer confidence,  Hence, one class of America is booming.  The other class is still in Depression mode.  Hence we are in Stagpression….

It is easy to see why.

Here is a chart showing the free cash flow of businesses……

Record highs. See?  Record highs.  We should be growing faster than China, we have so much investment money at our fingertips. But no.

Here is our investment track record…

Ironically as we gave our businesses more and more money with lower taxes, less regulation, tax funded price supports, hand-tied their unions, and made free new technology at our taxpayers expense, despite all these perks and incentives, they invested less.  So what are they doing with their money?   Pick up any financial publication and read the headlines. They all will let you know.

Rather than invest in plants and equipment, businesses are primarily using their funds to repurchase their own stocks in order to boost management earnings and ward off hostile take-overs, pay dividends to stockholders, and accumulate large cash and bond holdings.

None of which help our economy. It is as if we work hard, buy their products, and they put that money into a mattress. Soon, we are going to run out of money. Fortunately the Fed has filled the gap by printing more and giving it to banks for free. It too, filters though the system, and when it gets to the top, it goes into the mattress.

Instead of recycling money, we are letting the tap flow from our printing presses to the top echelon of our society… Now do you get it?

What is missing is a system that recycles the materials back into our economy so we have less money we need to print. If we were talking about paper, we would be saying we need to recycle paper to keep from cutting down more and more trees simply to fill up our landfills….

We need a system to return that money to the bottom so it can rise again and again and again.

Here are the options that have been tried.

• Price and pay freezes.
• Government set and regulated prices.
• Lower tax rates.
• Cash incentives from taxpayers to reinvest.
• Pleas and entreaties from the Oval Office.
• Higher marginal tax rates.

Only one of these has worked.  Can you guess which one?    If you guessed higher tax rates spur reinvestment you are absolutely correct.

Notice the rates of reinvestment climbing in each of these presidencies:  Eisenhower, Kennedy-Johnson,  Carter,  Clinton each time  Congress legislated higher marginal tax rates.  Also notice the drops under Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush as Republicans cut the taxes…  The Bush Tax Cuts held through Obama’s first term, and account for today’s sluggish reinvestment. More precisely, the reinvestment turned upwards under Obama  until 2010 when Republicans took over Congress, and has fallen since. I can’t wait to see 2013’s numbers, for I expect to see real investment increase there as well. However those higher tax rates on the top half percent implemented at 2013’s beginning, sent financiers scurrying and bargain empty homes were bought up by investors with lots of cash which brought up the floor of the housing market (perhaps to our future peril).  It also accounts for stocks becoming an area of liquidity to hold cash,..explaining the record highs ….

So we have an opposite relationship:  cutting taxes increases corporate profits which go elsewhere other than reinvestment back into the ecnomy.

Increasing taxes, cuts into the Free Cash Flow, and funnels some of that flow over to reinvestment projects.

Ever wonder how Delaware’s 3 banks lasted for decades and then all disappeared very close to each other?  Bank of Delaware, Delaware Trust, and Wilmington Trust. are now owned  by other entities. (Wilmington Trust had some hand in cutting off its own foot).  Commerce Bank, which was New Jersey based had the same fate.

They lasted for years because big banks never had enough free money to buy them out.  Just think.  In Delaware there are now 3 less bank presidents.  18 less bank officers,  and who knows how many clerical workers are missing because the work goes to the owners headquarters, not located here…. One still wonders if our state could be better off, had MNBA not been bought up by an outside conglomerate.

So giving more money to businesses and corporations in this case, cost us jobs… and destroyed 3 long termed Delawarean corporations…

That was one example.  Across this nation, in every city,  every county, every state are millions more….

Raising the tax rates drives re-investment.  It is the only thing we know of so far that consistently works to drive re-investment.   Everyone who insists on cuts and de-regulation, no matter how they spin it, is pursuing a policy that has been completely disproven by reality and fact and of course, recent history..

Are you better off than you were under Clinton?  Your income level will probably determine your answer…..  Because yes, some people are indeed, a lot better off.   John Carney.  Tom Carper.  Chris Coons,  Jack Markell, to name 4 off the top of my head….  Better off too, are those who these four represent… the 1%.  Much better off!

If you find someone willing to raise taxes, stick to them like glue. They are the ones who will lead us back to prosperity…..

Until then, economic stagpression will continue…. continuing through tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow….(at a) petty pace that creeps from day to day….

The Tamping Down of Delaware’s Minimum Wage Bill.

The bill entering law this session is very different from that of last session.

Here is the original bill:

This Act would increase the minimum wage to not less than $8.00 per hour effective July 1, 2013, and not less than $8.75 per hour effective July 1, 2014. If the federal minimum wage becomes higher than the Delaware minimum wage, the Delaware minimum wage would increase by $1.00 above the federal minimum wage….

Here is the amended version that passed the Senate last year…… which dropped the rates by a half a dollar, and excluded the possibility that Delaware could be over the Federal Minimum Wage…

“(a) Except as may otherwise be provided under this chapter, every employer shall pay to every employee in any occupation wages of a rate i) not less than $7.75 per hour effective January 1, 2014 and ii) not less than $8.25 per hour effective January 1, 2015. Upon the establishment of a federal minimum wage in excess of the State minimum wage, the minimum wage in this State shall be equal in amount to the federal minimum wage, except as may otherwise be provided under this chapter.

The House Amended it this year, primarily to update the dates by 6 months.

AMEND Senate Bill No. 6, as amended by Senate Amendment No. 2, by deleting on line 3 of Senate Amendment No. 2 the text “January 1, 2014” and substituting in lieu thereof the text “June 1, 2014”. FURTHER AMEND Senate Bill No. 6, as amended by Senate Amendment No. 2, by deleting on line 4 of Senate Amendment No. 2 the text “January 1, 2015” and substituting in lieu thereof the text “June 1, 2015”.

Then came the first Republican torpedo, later stricken…. to poke multiple holes in the minimum wage, thereby making it a minimum seive. Allowing for the payment of $5.81 per hour to the following….

(e) A wage no less than 75-percent of the minimum hourly wage required under § 902(a) of this Title shall be paid to the following:

(1) employees under the age of 18; and

(2) employees during their first 180 consecutive calendar days of employment with the employer; and

(2) employees employed in a seasonal capacity.”

Here is the real Republican torpedo. (Defeated naturally like everything Republican in this wonderful state) to extend implementation by half a year.

“(a) Except as may otherwise be provided under this chapter, every employer shall pay to every employee in any occupation wages of a rate (i) not less than $7.75 per hour effective January 1, 2015; and (ii) not less than $8.25 per hour effective January 1, 2016. Upon the establishment of a federal minimum wage in excess of the State minimum wage, the minimum wage in this State shall be equal in amount to the federal minimum wage, except as may otherwise be provided under this chapter.”

Then the third Republican attempt at poking holes in the minimum wage to allow businesses to exploit child and migrant labor by paying them $5.81 an hour….

e) A wage no less than 75-percent of the minimum hourly wage required under § 902(a) of this Title shall be paid to an employee satisfying any of the following:

(1) is under the age of 18; or

(2) is within the employee’s first 180 consecutive calendar days of employment with the employer; or

(2) is employed in a seasonal capacity.”

As it stands now, the minimum wage will rise to $7.75 per hour on June 1, 2014, and then again one year later.  On June 1, 2015, the minimum wage will be $8.25.. unless the Federal wage is passed at a higher amount:  $10.10….

But the real question is this:  how is it remotely possible that we still have 16 people in the civilized world, much less in our Delaware legislature, who still think it is ok to pay $5.81 for minimum wages therby putting Delaware in a slot between Slovenia and Greece on a chart of international minimum wages….

How is it possible that Blakely, Briggs-King, Dukes, Gray, Deborah Hudson AGAIN!!!!, Q. Johnson, Kenton, MIRO, Outten, Peterman, Ramone, D. Short, Smyk,  Spiegelman, Walker, Wilson, are still living in the 1990’s back when $5.81 was considered the barest acceptable minimum wage?  Roll back time 20 years… Sure, no problem say these 16.

Greece.  These people want us to be Greece…. GET RID OF THEM!  GET RID OF THEM ALL….. 🙂   (it is an election year, you know?)

Incessant Arguments Over Guns….

I cannot hear an argument over guns where before long, one or two of the people end their defense by pulling out the same platitudes that surfaced just after December 14, 2012…. Apparently, there is nothing new anymore. The same arguments have now gone on for over 100 days, and we are into their fourth month….

There is nothing new to argue over… The proposals are in legislators hands.

But during the argument, there was wisdom on both sides.  And to be honest,there was foolishness on both sides.

A.  In regards to making every gun purchase require a background check, the NRA failed across the board to defend why doing such is a bad idea. In the end logic was not on their side.  As long as one convicted murderer awaiting sentencing can walk into a gun show and buy a weapon and kill, our regulations are too loose.    The NRA lost this one.    Now their only argument in use is this:  if you vote for it we will destroy you…  A threat, not an argument.  Such a retort may benefit their short term needs, but in the long run it  must fail because it runs against society’s interests.  Sooner or later, mandatory background checks have to happen.

So Background checks are to be a sure thing.

B.  Next, banning assault rifles.  The NRA has some facts here.  Assault rifles are not used in very many crimes…  In fact the only crimes they are used for are mass murders.  Like Newtown. Like Aurora. Like Tucson.  Almost all mass murders were committed by assault rifles.

This begs the question: do we or don’t we want to ban assault rifles for mass murderers?   Most mass murderers are not previous criminals.  They are good boys who flip and go bad.   Allowing every one to own a weapon that is only used for mass murder when one flips,  is our option.  Although sketchy, there is evidence that during the previous ban of assault weapons, the number of mass murders went down.  Furthermore, the biggest callers for a ban on assault weapons are our men in blue, those we hire to protect us from crime. On the front lines they understand that their survivability probability, goes up if the person shooting them has a one shot rifle or pistol, and not a 4000 rounds per minute weapon. (Google it) .  And this is the point.  Shouldn’t we side with our police over those wacko’s who own considerable weaponry, and one day, just get pissed off?

Few people are killed by assault weapons.  True.  But those that are, are our children, aunts and uncles and loved ones who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. ” Hey, who wants to see a movie?”

C.  Which brings us to clips.  The argument against large capacity clips as in the 100 rounds in Aurora,  is that when a psycho killer has to reload if anyone is left, they can bring him down.  A girl would be alive in Tucson today if the reload had occurred at bullet 15, instead of 30…  Again, the NRA states that these are trifling murders compared to the national death rate.  The opposition says, sorry NRA.  We don’t kill pigeons in boxes.  To us, every life is precious.  We’d like to keep our daughters alive too , thank you.  Most Americans would rather have someone’s daughter as their lifelong partner, than become betrothed to an assault rifle.  Living people are just better to be around than guns and our priorities should reflect that.

Banning large clips, will not affect the national death rate that much.  But it will change the death toll each time a member of the NRA goes whacko, and starts his life-long dream of his own personal random killing spree….

When you have something that is deadly and dangerous,  yet serves no helpful or productive purpose….. you get rid of it.  Done deal!  There is no reason to have these clips around and getting rid of them  (at least in the future as the mass amounts recently bought  get used), should dry up the possibility that 100 shots will get fired into people before the gunman can be tackled.  Tackle him at 15 and save lives.  People aren’t pigeons you know?

Again the NRA has not come up with a good enough reason these should continue.  The NRA’s ammunition has been reduced to their threat of retaliation, and that threat has now lost all of it’s logical underpinnings.  It is nothing more than the threat of a bully to a chump.  Don’t vote for this good piece of legislation or we will ruin you; there is no good argument otherwise…. That may be the reason Delaware’s extremely weak-kneed, cowardly, chicken-hearted republicans will vote for the continuation of future mass killings.  There certainly  is no logical explanation for the illogical backing the chicken- hearted Republican party gives to the NRA.

D. Finally the notion of safe school zones.  After much argument back and forth, I have yet to see how designating an area to be a safe school zone will work, unless it is protected by people bearing arms.  If  one chooses to designate any area as a safe zone, yet does NOT  have armed people like TSA agents forcing everyone to remove their shoes, empty their pockets, and ban all cell phones in order for one to enter, you are asking for trouble.

The smart method would be to tax the wealthy as much as is necessary so that every school district can afford to hire enough congenial policemen covering the property of  every school during school hours. After all, the wealthy are rich. Why should  anyone’s children have to suffer only so the rich can get richer?  The wealthy don’t need more money.   The notion of making a few words on a piece of paper to punish someone harder after the effect, of what a proper level of taxation should have prevented, is wasteful and makes one wonder whether  that person even considering it, exists in the ionosphere.  Republicans like Greg Lavelle are always quick to write up a new paper law to take care of real problems, that could be easily fixed on the ground if only the wealthy were simply required to pay their fair share….

That said, nothing new on this topic ever gets argued.  Gun blogs hardly raise an eyebrow anymore….

So it is time to pass the bills that are good….

A. Background checks

B. Banning Assault Weapons

C. Banning High Capacity Clips

And not pass the school law.

Dumb Arguments From Boehnor, Cantor, and Moseley

This erupted on a right wing blog here in Delaware and for future historians who may wonder how Republicans collectively lost their minds, I preserved it right here….

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“Excuse me. Federal spending in 2008 was $2.9 trillion.

For 2011 it was $3.8 trillion.

For 2012 it was $3.7 trillion…..

Even if we cut $85 billion that still leave $700 billion we are over spending!!! “

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Of course, it certainly makes a difference in what is being overspent and what therefore needs to be cut.

In 2008, our defense budget was $671 billion. (Includes $190 billion for two wars not listed in budget but funded outside by appropriations).  This year it is $670 billion, including the two wars.. In 4 years there has been some creep downward of $1 billion.

Back in 2008, our non military discretionary budget was… $488 billion    Today it is  $615 billion.   The breakdown is below.

2008 ———-(+ or – 2007)—–  Cabinet Department——-(2013 budget)

$69.3 billion (+0.3%) – Department of Health and Human Services  ($81)
$56.0 billion (+0.0%) – Department of Education  ($68)
$39.4 billion (+18.7%) – Department of Veterans Affairs  ($60)
$35.2 billion (+1.4%) – Department of HUD  ($41)
$35.0 billion (+22.0%) – Department of State and Other International Programs  ($56)
$34.3 billion (+7.2%) – Department of Homeland Security  ($55)
$24.3 billion (+6.6%) – Department of Energy ($36)
$20.2 billion (+4.1%) – Department of Justice ($24)
$20.2 billion (+3.1%) – Department of Agriculture ($27)
$17.3 billion (+6.8%) – NASA  ($18)
$12.1 billion (+13.1%) – Department of Transportation ($24)
$12.1 billion (+6.1%) – Department of the Treasury ($14)
$10.6 billion (+2.9%) – Department of the Interior ($12)
$10.6 billion (-9.4%) – Department of Labor($13)
$51.8 billion (+9.7%) – Other On-budget Discretionary Spending ($53)
$39.0 billion – Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending  ($31)

A four year creep of $127 billion.

And we are proposing to cut $85 billion of that per year….  how much is 85 billion?  Well if you parked 85 billion cars, bumper to bumper, it would stretch to the sun and back, and back again as far as Mercury….

Imagine that huge amount instantly disappearing from our economy?

That is a pretty big worry.

Now we know where $100 billion of that $700 billion difference  came from.  Granted, it costs more to run our government now.  We have tighter security in our airports than we did in 2008.  We have tighter border security than we did in 2008.  We have a lot more people on food stamps than we did in 2008.  We have a lot more baby boomers retired or retiring… than we did in 2008…. We pay more in servicing our debt, than we did in 2008….

None of these can be cut.  Therefore we must cut out of our military.  We must cut out of our non military discretionary services…

Republicans have underestimated how painful these will be.  CBO says 700,000 jobs will be lost.  Regional pockets of unemployment could cross 40%.. Northern Virginia and Bethesda Maryland, will be very hard hit.  For when government workers get laid off, it is a  little different than if one closes a plant that makes widgets for the Chinese.  People in government facilitate other peoples lives.

Our food is safe, because of government.  Our planes are safe, because of government.  Our roads are safe because of government.  Our schools are safe, because of government.  Our neighborhoods are safe, because of government.  Our health is safe, because of government.  Our retirement is safe, because of government….

After March 1st, that safety provided by the government disappears….  the safety net has developed holes all through it…

Now when flying on the trapeze  through private sector jobs, flitting from one to another,  one must add the worry that if one misses his timely catching of the next bar,  he may just fall through one of the many gaping holes scattered across that net so far below….

And Fox News Brings Back The Laughter Curve–Oops– Laffer Curve

Today in order to capitalize upon the fact that the fourth quarter economy sank (even though it was because of the downward pressure due to the threat of sequestration forced upon Congress by the Tea Party), they wheeled out Arthur Laughter Laffer to make a dire predictions….

He is on their short list of who-to-call-when-we(FOX News)-NEED-a-dire-prediction…..

Because….. He is well known for making “dire predictions”..

“Economist Arthur Laffer told his clients on July 26, 1982, that (Ronald Reagan’s) Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raised taxes by about one percent of GDP, “will stifle economic recovery,” “retard economic growth,” and undercut “the economy’s ability to enter into a period of expansion.” On August 20, 1982, he told his clients that TEFRA, Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, “will tend to lengthen and deepen the recession.”

Instead, ….. No one could have been more wrong…

“Looking at real gross domestic product, it grew 4.5 percent in 1983 and 7.2 percent in 1984 – an exceptionally strong performance. The stock market had one of its best years ever in 1983 – both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index rose 35 percent. There was no increase in the rate of inflation, which was exactly the same in 1983 and 1984 as it was in 1982. The unemployment rate fell from 10.6 percent in December 1982 to 8.1 percent by December 1983 and 7.1 percent in December 1984.”

On August 20, 1993, Laffer told his clients, “Clinton’s tax bill will do about as much damage to the U.S. economy as could feasibly be done in the current political environment.” He said that interest rates would rise and the stock market would fall.

Once again, it would be hard to find a forecast that was more completely wrong….

“The unemployment rate fell from 7.1 percent in January 1993 to 5.4 percent by December 1994. Real GDP growth rose from 2.9 percent in 1993 to 4.1 percent in 1994. Stock prices rose and interest rates fell. More importantly, the 1993 tax increase and accompanying spending controls, which were opposed by every Republican in Congress, laid the foundation for the phenomenal growth of the late 1990s that actually produced budget surpluses before Republican tax cuts in the 2000s dissipated them.”

And now! Today,… well, there he goes again….

“You have the whole output of the economy shrinking. Not just expanding more slowly, it`s absolutely shrinking,” (lol, see by how little, below)… Laffer told Fox News’ Eric Bolling…

“That’s catastrophic,” the former adviser to President Ronald Reagan added. (Did anyone else catch the stupendous irony of that? Oh, Wow. You can’t make stuff like that up).

“You can explain some of that by sequestration, and defense spending was down lot and all that. But you still have a rotten economy. And it’s still too bad. We know how to fix it, by the way, a low rate flat tax, spending restraint, sound money, free trade.” (See George Bush’s Economic Record.) Laffer was responding to reports Wednesday that the U.S. economy contracted 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012…

Yes. Laffer was responding to reports Wednesday that the U.S. economy contracted 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2012. Quote: “You have the whole output of the economy shrinking. Not just expanding more slowly, it`s absolutely shrinking,”

Recalling his years as one of Reagan’s top economic advisers, Laffer said Reagan actually cut the highest tax rates (From 70%-50%; they are 35% now) He said “we made a mistake” by phasing in the cuts, which he said caused the 1981-82 recession. But he said the economy took off in 1983* when the cuts (and 1%GDP tax increase) went into full effect. *

“This place just went like a rocket ship,” he said. “I think we had 7.5 percent growth in 1983 and 5.5 growth in 1984, just this boom that lasted for years and years.”* (*lol)

(Conversational excerpts provided by Newsmax)

The Fat Goose Is Getting Stuffed

The reason I began listening to local station WDEL, was because they dropped Rush Limbaugh from their afternoon programing. Instead of hate and stupidness, I got to hear of matters important to me. My county government. My city government. My state government. And of course, national politics always interjected.

I can’t get enough of it. I read the paper in the morning, and I can’t wait for the local talk shows to come on. The progressives own the morning. The conservatives own the afternoon, and I’m still trying to figure out who owns the evening…

It is kinda silly, I know, but because I listen and hear the advertisements, my kids sing their jingles in the car. Driving down Main Street in Newark, they’ll blurt out, “there’s Alex and Ani’s“. The older kids insist they want music on, but I’m the boss.

Some of the advertisers seem like old friends. One hears them over and over, and even can go back and note the different commercials back through time. Calvert Plumbing and Heating is one I hope to use next time fate strikes. The best one, besides the “Alex and Ani” with sitar music put in place by Rick Jensen, is the DelmarvaJobs.com featuring the harp player. I hope that gets nominated for CLIO, the advertiser’s equivalent of the Oscars….

And this should be in everyone’s Northern Delaware bookmarks. It is the tower cam. One rarely thinks of us being in eyesight of downtown Philadelphia, but we certainly are. One can tell the weather with one visual click.

Anyways, the point of this was not to brag on WDEL and extol how fortunate we were to have it at our disposal, but to point to the dark side, which is about that human being whose leaving is what drove me to begin listening to WDEL in the first place.

Rush Limbaugh is in trouble. For a while he was harmless harping at Democrats, and we all know, sometimes Democrats need harping at. But as his worth became higher, he had to push buttons to justify his high expense. His audience no longer consisted of regular Joe’s, but had to become fanatics who would listen and respond. And the biggest thing fanatics crave, is more fanaticism, and Rush obliged.

Now, he bashes the poor. Now he bashes every gay person. Now he bashes Liberals. And last March, he bashed a woman for simply being a woman.

That made people take notice. WHOA, this guy is an ass…… Seriously, when you demean 53% of the population (women), knowing that at least half the men are married and will dutifully side with their spouses (YOU’D BETTER!)….. ticking off 75% of the American population, can’t be good for business.

That is bearing fruit.

Arising from that, several organizations are targeting his advertisers. This is not a hate campaign. It is a calm, respectable, and very businesslike campaign. They are calling up advertisers and saying …”yesterday your ad played on this station at this time, and this is what went before and after it… Advertisers were appalled…. Most of them do not support Rush Limbaugh, but buy ads with a local radio station…. The radio station then puts their ads in holes where ever they need them… Radio stations that carry Rush Limbaugh are bound by contract to still do so, and are having a terrible time scheduling just those advertisers who … so far… have not expressly said…” Make sure we aren’t on Rush.”

2200 sponsors have pulled their ads so far. At first these were mentioned but Rush supporters attacked these businesses with threats of shooting them with NRA sanctioned assault weapons (they were idle threats, no events occurred) that now, the names are kept hidden. But anyone listening over time, can certainly, after hearing only one advertisement on his program get played over and over, realize his brand is in deep trouble.

The show is doing so badly that Freedom Works, the Karl Rove PAC that garnered $300 million dollars, is using their money just to keep Rush on the air…

So in what seems like an outrageous chain of events, the only reason Rush Limbaugh is still on air it appears, is because billionaires have too much money on their hands… In 2013, Freedom Works plans to spend between $25 and $30 million. Glenn Beck is also included in its largess.

Freedom of speech is a right. No one is arguing over whether Freedom Works benefactor Stepheson can say what he wants with his $100 million donations. But that right goes both ways. Advertisers have the right to know what their money appears to be saying about themselves when their ads show up on Rush Limbaugh.

It says, “I the advertiser, support the embarrassment of the poor. I support the deportation of Mexicans. I support the incarceration of the entire black comminity. I support the killing of Liberals with assault weapons, and I support the rape of women”… In fact, supporting Rush, say something like this: ” Hey, woman, come take your clothes off and dance for me….. After all, that’s all you’re good for!!!! Ha, ha, ha.”

You too must join in taking him down, for the simple reason that it allows many more Americans to enjoy the benefits of local radio programming as we have here in Delaware for 6 years….

https://www.facebook.com/groups/flushrush/

https://twitter.com/search?q=stoprush

http://www.change.org/petitions/sign-here-tell-40-of-his-sponsors-like-amberen-sweetjack-and-genesis-diamonds-we-will-not-buy-products-that-support-misogyny-and-racism

The stuffing of the goose is done. Time to cook the goose, and at the feast, get back to being Americans again. Working together, and not against each other…..

So,… Who’s On The Bus With Mitt Romney?

In our hearts, we are all campaign coordinators..  That’s why when other people are fixing their yards for the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, we are reading poll results.  That’s why when our neighbors have picks down and paid for for Sunday’s games, we are mulling over the nuances of Sunday morning’s talk shows…  In our hearts, we are all campaign coordinators….

When looking back one of the most fascinating aspects that historians will see from this race, is that one of the candidate who is running in October, is a completely different individual from the one who  stood up on the Republicans stage back on August 11,2012  and raised his hands saying the deficit would be balanced solely on the cuts to necessary programs; not one penny from additional revenue.  In one appearance, at his first time on stage with the existing President, they will note we had an extreme conservative make himself into the more liberal of the two moderates on stage.

So if we assume this new Mitt Romney is for real,  we have to look at who he will be bringing into Washington with him.   Who are the people riding the Romney Express into Washington?

(This list was compiled from googling “dumb republican rape comments” …  And one important fact to consider, is… not a single one of these are complaining about Mitt Romney’s new Moderate stance.   Were they previously assured of something before the conversion took place?   Here is a short list ….

Akin, a congressman running for U.S. Senate in Missouri, said rape survivors don’t need abortions because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

King, an Iowa congressman up for re-election, deflected a question about abortions for 12-year-old rape victims by saying, “I just haven’t heard of that being a circumstance that’s been brought to me in any personal way.”

Walsh, a House incumbent in Illinois, asserted that “with modern technology and science, you can’t find one instance” where abortion is necessary to protect a woman’s life or health. “There is no such exception as life of the mother,” Walsh concluded. “And as far as health of the mother, same thing.”

Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, opined that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Paul Ryan’s opposition to abortions for rape victims.

Abortion should be prohibited even in cases of sexual assault—is the party’s official position

12  Republican nominations for US Senate—went to candidates who would ban abortion even for survivors of sexual assault.

Ted Cruz, the former Republican solicitor general of Texas, also opposes a rape exception.

So does Pennsylvania nominee Tom Smith.

So does West Virginia nominee John Raese: “I will proudly stand against the destruction of innocent human life unless the life of the mother is in jeopardy.”

When Vermont Republican MacGovern was asked whether “a woman should be forced by the government to give birth to a rapist’s baby,” he answered: “I’ve always in my career and to this day been loyal to the principle of life. I’m pro-life. I’m profoundly pro-life. I’m pro-life to my core.”

Rep. Deb Fischer was pressed for her position on the Republican platform’s call for “a constitutional amendment banning all abortions with no exception for rape or incest.” She responded: “I am pro-life, and I believe in the sanctity of life. I do believe that there should be an exception made for the life of the mother. (not for rape?)

In Ohio, state treasurer Josh Mandel rejected a rape exception and declared, “I’ll do everything I can to protect innocent life.”

In Michigan, Rep. Pete Hoekstra was asked whether a woman should have to bear her rapist’s child. Hoekstra, who was already on record against a rape exception, replied: “I believe life is a gift.”

Wendy Long, a member of Romney’s Justice Advisory Committee, boasted during her primary that she was “100 percent pro-life,” whereas her opponents would grant “exceptions” to an abortion ban.

In Washington, state Sen. Michael Baumgartner admitted that “rape is a tragedy” but concluded: “I still believe life begins at conception. That is consistent with my Catholic beliefs. And I believe we must protect life.”

In North Dakota, a reporter asked Rep. Rick Berg: “You would not make an exception for rape?” Berg replied: “No.” The reporter asked about punishment for a woman who has such an abortion: “Should we put her in jail? Should we fine her?” Berg answered: “Those are things that need to be worked out through the legislative process.”

Three of the party’s candidates seem not to have addressed the rape question. Kevin Wade, the nominee in Delaware, has repeatedly said he opposes “taking human life.” Dan Bongino, the nominee in Maryland, opposes federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research and believes “life begins at conception and should be protected.” Kurt Bills, the nominee in Minnesota, reportedly sidestepped a rape question but opposes embryonic stem-cell research and boasts that he’s been a “co-author on every … anti abortion bill”

According to Slate, of the 28 nonincumbent nominees, 12 to 15 share the view of Akin, Mourdock, and the party platform. They believe a rape victim should be forbidden to terminate her pregnancy. This is no longer a fringe position..

Romney may be a moderate.  From June 13, 2011 to February 22nd, 2012, he got pummeled for it by all the other Republicans in every debate.  But Bush W also ran as a moderate.  But once in office, Bush W. didn’t run his agenda.  Those riding on his bus  did…. 

Hey Romney! Walk Like An Egyptian….

As usual… when you tie a cow bone to a string, and a string to a used broom handle, and then, dangle that string before an American Reporter…  they jump up and down like Pomeranians…. “yip, yip, yip”…  hind leg dance…. “yip, yip, yip”.

99.0% of American news media coverage is focused on Romney the man.   And with an election approaching it is probably safe to attribute that to human nature…  Even I was  sucked in for a while.  But being an election year, that makes it rather hard for our government (yes it is still intact) to rectify its newest foreign relations problem, the  Arab Inflammation as it is now beginning to be called….

Since the more intelligent of our species tend to browse these pages, lets investigate the history, and delve into both short and long term solutions.   This may be long.

No matter what the crises,  and no matter at what level, there are some elements of truth that remain consistent.  Lack of communication always creates problems; it never solves anything.  Are you divorced?  Could be perhaps that better communication might  have prevented it?  Are you fired?  Could be perhaps that better communication might  have prevented it?  Are you in competition at work over something?  Gee, wouldn’t all being on the same team working together be much better?

In fact, most wars are started over misunderstandings.  The only truly reasonable excuse for starting a war, is…. “you have something I want, and I’m taking it by force”; and the other side’s response is… “over my dead body….”

That is one,  boiled-down reason for starting a war.

Every other excuse is superfluous.  It doesn’t  mean we don’t sometimes go to war for superfluous reasons…  But all those silly reasons can somehow be twisted back to that maxim mentioned above:   “You have something I want, (___________), and you won’t give it up unless I force you, It.. is.. on….”

There is one more thing to keep in mind.  A lot, a lot, a lot of people make a lot of money when there is fighting going on…  Therefore even in very peaceful times, you will hear made-up reasons as to why we should go to war…   They are created around boardroom tables,  they are fed to gullible people, then those people are whipped up by whips, and the leaders have no choice but attend to their follower’s needs or get replaced….   Some of those:

Pride, Prestige, Patriotism, Patrimony, Alliances, Reputation, Religion,  and Idiocy, all get exploited to further the economic gains of those few involved in producing war’s items.

This movie now at the epicenter of global outrage is a case in point.  Have you ever noticed how these hate religions now popping up in the USA preaching  hate, and have no sense of decency (as in protesting at military funerals) are always boasting they were founded by “former Marines”?  Steve Klein who produced this latest clip, is no exception.  Whether true or not, he is definitely boasting it.

Now, we all know someone who is a man of the cloth.  Some of us  are lucky enough to know many from across a very wide religious spectrum.  Not just the European religions, but those also spread across other continents and yes, sub-continents.  No matter what the name of the God is, to which they pay reverence, in every form of a religion there are consistently two types of preachers.  Those who are there for themselves; versus those who are there to help others.  No religion is immune; no religion just has only one side.

Therefore, something like this hate group, which only does have one side, fails the test of all religion.  How does or will it’s philosophy make all people better?   How could any religion that you know,  show sodomy of young children? Really?  How could any religion that you know, show cunnilingus?  Really?  As a religious person, you might at some point in your life have to allude to it, but actually show it?  It goes against your own core.   Even if you were using those scenes to put down someone else or describe evil,  as long as you had any religious bone in your body, you couldn’t do that.  Just couldn’t.  You would be worried about your own life in the hereafter.

So who could?

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that all the acts portrayed in this movie were the exact same ones used at Abu Ghraib  in Iraq by our counter-intelligence staff as forms of torture?   Women’s periods, homosexuality, child molestation, cunnilingus, sexual arousal, falsifying  the Prophet…. Someone from that environment has a history of knowing exactly what hot buttons these are to Islam’s believers.  And I bet, they could even rank them in order of effect.  Someone from that environment who has perfected that technique upon individuals,  who has crafted the technique to elicit the desired responses, has now for whatever reason, chosen to use a broader medium, Youtube,  to foist that  knowledge upon 1/7 th of the world’s population.

It is pretty obvious to all, that this film’s raison d’etre comes from some intelligence or military network, and the easiest way to mask those origins is the time-honored way of using the untraceable networks in religion.

And from those of us who know people, (you know, like that sixth sense of when you walk into your home, and something has been done, you know who did it because you know they are the only one whose framework is wired as such that they could think of it?)  the one place on earth where you are guaranteed to find people who would see no qualms with using anything in this film to achieve their end, and who also would profit from a holy war involving West versus East,  is Arlington, Fairfax County, Virginia.  Incidentally (for those of you outside the Beltway) that is the home of the Pentagon and the headquarters of what a really good man, Eisenhower, once called the ” growing military-industrial complex.”  That is where the focal point of finding who is behind this, by the investigations of the fourth estate,  by he next wave of investigative hard copies for sale at Barnes & Noble, should be aimed.   Weird, fake, made-up  religious groups are just the patsy. They don’t make a penny if we suddenly go to war.

But to return the focus,  why the Arab violence over some really dumb film made by someone supposedly in California that surfaced and we didn’t even know about it,…  create such a fracas?  And can any of it be blamed upon any administration?

To understand the answer, there is one important thing you have to understand about Arab governments.  They killed all the liberals off a long time ago.  As autocratic powers,  anyone who challenged their religious government or was thought to one day possibly have the future presumption to challenge the religious government in the future, was made to disappear.   There are no liberals to provide a balance in Arab populations.   To even imagine what that is like as an intellectual exercise, imagine a society where there were no Democrats to say, “hey, that is not right!”  Imagine an America ruled by only Republicans headed by the Tea Party.  Give all the money to the wealthy?  No problem.  Take all the money from the middle class?  No Problem.  Instigate wars and draft and send the middle class out to fight them?  No problem.  Cut your benefits because you don’t worship our God?  No Problem.

Arab countries have what we consider as our center, anchoring the left end, and the caliphate anchoring the right.  In that environment it is easy to see, that the middle, is one who conforms with the caliphate, but provides a little balance against them by nuancing the edges.

Both Ronald Reagan and Romney would be too liberal to govern Egypt today.  Paul Ryan would be about right in the center.

Against this, no leader can go against the Caliphate.  It will take the development of a large cadre of liberals to rebalanced the power structure of every Arab nation, in order to deal with them in a rational and secular method….

It is to that development that the American foreign policy needs to point.   The very fact that America itself  has as large liberal population, speaks solidly that a free environment, wisdom tends to flourish and rise to the top.

The easiest and simplest method to accomplish this task, is to figure how to combine these liberal aspects and marry those to Islamic principals.  After all, how can the Caliphate denounce Islamic principals?  When we stress a policy we believe will help the Egyptian people become stronger,  we need to provide the Muslim framework coupled to it so they see it as part of their religion.  Failure to do so,  makes all our good ideas appear to be nothing but a method of control…  We laugh at that over here, but in our history, whenever someone tried to control how our money was spent, how our possessions belonged to us, whenever someone “far away” tried to control our life, we rebelled.  (A lot to think over in that sentence).

That is human nature.

Another prime factor that pushes Arabs to embrace the caliphate, is shame.  Yes, shame.  It is unspoken to foreigners and one has to deeply know someone who Arab before he is let in on a secret.  There is shame at being an Arab.  When one looks across the spectrum of the Muslim world, who are the successes?  Turkey.  Iran. Indonesia. Malaysia.  None of these are Arab.  Compare those successes  to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Qatar, Ali Dubya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and of course, now Syria?

There appears something to be really wrong with being an Arab… Really wrong. “Why can’t we get it right” is on every Arabs mind twenty-four seven.

Of course the four success stories have outside influence.  Turkey has tried hard to win EU status.  The changes it had to undergo to get there are what has propelled it forward.  Iran is Persian and as a former US satellite under the Shah, had enormous gains in infrastructure, and has been able to maintain and grow it primarily because it did keep its intelligent liberal and social force intact. The two eastern Asian countries have embraced democracy and are flourishing as a result.

Turkey is the player in Palestine.  Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and Iran, are concerned about what Turkey does.   Iran is challenging the USA.   Palestine, Saudi, the Gulf Region, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, are day to day, concerned about what Iran is doing.   Indonesia has economic clout. China, India, and Australia keep tabs on it.

Against this.  Egypt can’t control what happens on the Sinai Peninsula.

The creators of the concept of  empire-building 7000 years ago,  a brave wonderful people who ruled the entire known world at that time , now, can’t control what happens on the Sinai Peninsula.   It hurts.   Just like it would hurt us to go to China in fifty years (5 if Romney gets elected) with hat in hand, asking for money to buy some food for our citizens.  Yes, we will have to do it so we can live… and yes, we will be grateful for our politicians who brought back the goods, but yes, it will hurt our pride still the same.

This feeling is exploited by the Caliphate.  “Join us and be great again.  As Mohamed hath declared, we will be feared.”  or something along those lines.   So set fire to a few cars, and whoa….  television crews pop up all over your city. You are important.  Set a few more and the leader of the entire world, the most powerful person in humanity, the President of the United States, is asking to meet your feeble countries leader.. He’s asking you (for a change), not the other way around, remember?  Where you had to take a number, and then do your best to convince him to put you on his busy schedule?

Suddenly you are powerful again.  It feels good.

How does or can the US combat that influence?

Ahh ha, the trillion dollar question with no yet known answer.  But here is what not to do.

One, go to war.  That solidifies resentment, and even upon a total USA victory, you did nothing but simply reinforce the root of the problem.  They are still ashamed of how weak and non-influential they are.  And all you did, was just shove that in their face one more time again.

Two, use shame.  It too solidifies resentment.  It too, builds resolve against us.

Three,  isolation.  It proves the Caliphate was right.  We, the West, obviously cannot be trusted.  Look how quickly we turn our backs. Better to suffer in squalor of poverty and abuse, but have consistent attention, than  it is to “flee to what they know not of”.  (Battered Spouse Syndrome).

So the one method that will work, and ironically Arabs are so good at this, is to make it our policy to divide and conquer, to separate the Arab’s well-being apart from their religion.   We use the rewards of recognition,  of extending equality, of true respect,  and bestow that upon the elements of the country who are not so inclined to follow the 1000 year admonitions of the Caliphate.

Somewhere in the future, someone there will stand up, and say:  “wow, look at all the rewards I was able tol get by disavowing the Caliphate!  How prosperous are you, who are still following them?’

Crazy as this sounds, if Obama were to visit Egypt,  not in an official capacity, but to tour the ancient ruins, and make a few remarks of how inspiring it was to see people of ancient times who then were so far ahead of  everyone else, so advanced, and to hope that he would live to see the day when the entire known world may once again come together and be prosperous as the known world was back in that time, some indirect captured  off- mic comment  like that would go a long way to counter the influence the caliphate now has over the Egyptian people.  An influence no one there really wants, but all there are powerless to now obstruct .

We then open up American colleges and universities to Egyptians, and pay their way.  We then advise them on regional disputes but allow them to make their own mistakes and revel in their own successes.

We help make Alexandria the financial headquarters of the Eastern World.  No where else, except  Israel and Iran, will you have access to a smarter bunch of people.

We then  invite their soccer teams to tour America and compete against our National League….

We invite their military to Fort Ord to teach them our desert techniques and partner with them.

All of these are aimed at building up the pride of the Arab and Egyptian.  With self pride and self confidence,  one is never defenseless.  One can grow on its own.  And as their national pride over their own accomplishment grows within themselves, the old ideas of the Caliphate are seen in their true perspective, as being  over 1000 years old.

With the Arab Spring, the USA has inherited a foster home full of growing young rambunctious teenage boys.  We have the duty to grow them into men.  As with any dad, sometimes you will have to be tough.  But to succeed, your goal has to be clearly that you do not wish to turn them into carbon copies of you, clearly.  Instead, you wish to give them the tools and advice they will need to chose, to pick through all the options in order to decide who and what they want to be.  But as it is with every child, it is always those honest and non-bullshit moments of tenderness that we remember which are actually the ones that  make the real difference in our lives.

The US Foreign Service is being very ably guided.  If  we threw our own children out on the streets to fend for themselves, every time they got mad at us, we’d have a very sorry, poor, and sinful society right now.   Obviously we don’t do that to our own flesh and blood for good reason.  Instead, we set the limit. We contain the anger. We provide a better alternative. We let them make their decision.  Then we provide the consequences, good or bad, for that decision they chose to make.  That is exactly what we are doing on the global scale under the able leadership of Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the public servants who make up our State Department, many who were hired by the previous Republican Administration.

The Republicans are trying to capitalize on violence right now.  As expected, they are failing miserably.  It would be wise to remember that it was the fruits of their philosophy that gave us  9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda,  Iran,  and super-de- dooper high oil prices.  They also sent trillions to the development and building of the tools of war.

The Democrats are responsible for calming the Balkans.   How is that going now?  Exactly.

We are on the right track.  Romney is on the wrong.  What we have accomplished so far in three years, will be views by historians as amazing.  We have inherited a home of children who have no dad, or mom.   We have the obligation to make them full members of society.  It will be a miracle if we get them all to succeed, some kids break bad.  But the obligation is there nevertheless to try for a 100% success rate.

The fact that Romney doesn’t “get it” and Obama does, is reason enough not to vote for Romney. The fact that Romney’s foreign advisors are the exact same hard core right wing people (Boulton? Seriously?) that embarrassed the USA of the Bush administration over it’s 8 years of  activity,  is reason enough NOT to vote for Romney.

You in the military-industrial complex can yell, scream, holler, hoot, high-five all you want.  But when it comes down to facts.  Romney is very bad for this country.

Mitt.  You’ve never heard of the “Bangles”?  I don’t believe it. You copy her eye motions exactly when you are before a camera.