Having a dream

Wait a minute! I know I have memory problems, but it looks like the whole country does too. We just "celebrated" 50 years since the March on Washington and not once was there any mention of Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Angela Davis? No mention of angry black voices? Are they whitewashing the civil rights movement? Ohhh, Kennedy was so pleased that nothing happened, he invited the Rev. MLK and friends for a photo op. Why do you think that is? Because people like Malcolm and Eldridge, etc had them scared shitless. Let's tell the real story of the civil rights movement America. It wasn't all that peaceful, a lot of strange fruit hanging from Southern trees and angry black men carrying guns, and cops with dogs and fire hoses and national guard troops shooting at people on hill tops. Oooh, that's all behind us now. We can all hold hands and sing cumbaya now, while Sheriff Joe and Mayor Bloomberg continue the traditions of killing the dream.

Red Lines or Red Vines

Hey, never mind the almost 2 million people who have been displaced and are now refugees, dependent on the good will of their foreign neighbors, or the 100,000 plus killed by gunfire, air attacks, conventional missiles, bombs, and assorted explosive devices that have not discriminated in dismembering and slaughtering untold numbers of women and children, on top of the total destruction of homes, businesses and means of self support. Somebody used a chemical weapon and now by golly we are going to do something about it. How about killing some more people with cruise missiles that only kill the bad guys and destroy their mechanisms of war? That will make Assad feel bad for sure. And it will mean our arsenal of expensive, smart, no kill of innocent people weapons, will be depleted and we'll have to crank up the war machine to make some more, only these will be even better at not killing women and children at a slightly increased cost. (I hear they have developed a new gas that only kills people with beards). Does anyone know what a cruise missile goes for these days? Might as well throw in another nuclear powered Carrier or Destroyer, (don't you just love it - build a Destroyer for peace) can't ever have too many. Who knows what horrible thing some country might do to its own people that we will have to go straighten out in the name of humanitarian decency, by killing lots more people and blowing things up. Then of course Halliburton will have to go in and rebuild everything at a huge profit and Congress will take the money out of Social Security to pay for it. "War is Peace"

State of Affairs

Gee, what a surprise!  One group hates another and is willing to abuse, discriminate and if necessary massacre them to ensure their own self interests. Interesting angle is that this is usually driven by a perceived economic disadvantage/advantage couched in religious  or racial/ethnic terms.  It's not only OK to have a Crusade/Jihad; it's seen as  doing God's will.  Mix in racial/ethnic identity and all stops are open.  It's not only seen as acceptable to violate the Constitution and target a whole race and generation in New York, or Florida, or anywhere really; it's essential to do so; and for those with short memories, been going on everywhere from the very beginning.  "It's in their own best interests", whites proclaim.  "Look how many lives it saves and crime is down".  Am I hearing echoes of the justifications for slavery?  Before being enslaved, they were naked savages you know.  In fact: elimination of indigenous peoples was a fundamental principle of the conquest of the "New World".  "New"  to the European invaders.  Too bad the "old" inhabitants didn't have gun powder and canons, horses and chicken pox.  Oh, well, that's progress.

Interesting though how the world is rapidly deteriorating into waring camps.  It's nothing new.  It has been going on forever, but there does seem to be an acceleration taking place around the globe.  People are much more willing to blow each other up in the name of their own particular tribe.  Everybody now has access to the tools of mass destruction and they seem more than willing, if not anxious to use them.  Vehicles of all sorts being used as bombs targeting the general public is rampant.  We already are hearing reports of the use of chemical/biological weapons, how long will it be before the unthinkable becomes doable?  After all the people in Egypt are at war with their own military.  The military doesn't seem to have any compunctions against slaughtering crowds with machine-gun fire or "suffocating" prisoners with tear gas while incarcerated.  Insurgents, seem to have a penchant for blowing up churches, occupied or not and I'd be careful about gathering too many police or soldiers together without securing the perimeter in the future.

So what am I driving at?  Simply that this is nothing new, but something that seems to be gaining momentum everywhere.  I'm not sure what is driving it, but as I said at the beginning: economic self interests always seems to be playing a significant role.  Unless governments learn how to spread the wealth, it seems to me we are headed  in the direction of greater polarization and that seems to lead to either violent turmoil or heavy handed oppression.  We can see an extended period of both that only seems to lead to more of the same.  Maybe, Mayor Bloomberg and other apologists for fascism, the reason crime went down in the neighborhoods is because there were more jobs available to young people who were otherwise left hanging out on the streets?

Letter to Congress on SS Reform

I seriously doubt that any actual person in government, much less member of Congress will actually read this, but let me put it down and be among the millions of Americans whose voices will be ignored in the name of a newfound austerity for the masses in favor of empire building for the oligarchy.  A kind of reverse New Deal. Let's bail out the banks and Wall Street and have the elderly, retired and working poor pay for it and while we are at it take down all the safety nets for those unable to support themselves through a near depression.  It is clear that our entire government from the President on down has been bought and paid for by the ruling class of wealthy international corporations and super rich 1%.  It no longer matters who we vote for, because no one gets to be a viable candidate who is not already aligned with their donors, or mere distractions of simple minded solutions who serve to keep our attention diverted from what is really going on.

So go ahead, screw the elderly.  They aren't going to be around much longer anyway, even more so once the impact of these "necessary adjustments" to save the program, begin sucking out the food and shelter they can now barely afford.  You want to save Social Security? Then why are you making it untenable for those receiving it after paying into it all their working lives, to survive?  We keep hearing how bad the economy is and there simply isn't enough coming in to support the programs we established during the Great Depression.  How is it that the Stock Market is at unprecedented levels and wealth is being accumulated hand over fist by those magicians who just a few years ago made trillions of dollars disappear that we, the real tax payers, had to pony up to keep them from suffering the consequences of their own pocket lining schemes?  We could certainly afford it then couldn't we?  So I'm resigned to trying to get a job at 68 in order to make ends meet. Because it is much more important that the super rich not pay their share of the wealth they earned by bilking the system.  That would be detrimental to the economy.  Better to pit the elderly against the young for minimum wage jobs.