Meet The New Class System And The Newest Head Of The Class

We used to have something called “the Middle Class”.  We were hard working blue and white collar workers who basically were the backbone of this country.  We made your cars and cashed your checks, helped you buy hat new suit or opened your bank account or get you a loan.  We bought the TVs, stereos, hone theaters, cars, latest gadgets for our kids, and basically put our disposable income into the economy.  Now the economy has made us disposable.  For we are no longer the Middle Class…upper or lower.  We are now all the working poor; a nice wake up call for me (who was raised in an Upper Middle Class Household as a kid…but I watched my dad bust his ass until he made six figures, then retired with a nice package at age 60).  My immediate family was solidly mid-upple middle class.  I was a Wall Street guy who made six figures, and forget about it when my wife worked and we had no kids…we were doing VERY well, but then again, so was everyone else in the Clinton years.  But that was before my wife became a full time mother and I was able to afford things on one salary because of my recent promotion to Vice President.   That was before 9/11 and I became disabled.  We now survive on my wife’s salary as an RN and my Social Security (which I am now slated to receive for life because of the nature of my disability: Acute PTSD from 9/11 and Bi Polar II).  We make ends meet, we’re cobbling money together from here and there to send my oldest daughter to a Private High School.  We have few debts, and we are luckier than most people are…but trust me, if we’re hurting by making it paycheck to paycheck, I can only imagine what’s going on with those less fortunate than us.  While I would usually call us the middle class, I am now putting us in the bucket with everyone else who works, pays their bills (or sometimes cannot), and goes paycheck to paycheck.  We have become part of the Working Poor.

Then there is what used to be the Upper Middle Class, the ones who live in their Mc Mansions, buy a new car every week, work for a large corporation or own their own businesses.  For them, nothing much has changed except for the fact that they now pay less in taxes than at any time since 1950.  True, these are the guys who basically ARE the economic drivers right now…they are the only ones who can afford to buy big ticket items such as TVs and cars.  They are also the ones who have disposable income to do so on other things: manicures, pedicures, weekly trips to the beauty salon, pay a pool boy to take care of their pool.  I cannot quite call them rich, because they’ve moved the bar on that…they’ve moved it so high, it’s become part of a ceiling one must break through in order to achieve some financial success in America.  I’ll just call this the New Middle Class.

We have the Rich, pretty much self explanatory…the ones who own most of the wealth in this country.  Now we have another entity altogether different, one which has only shown its hand in the past few years.  They have always been there, but buried in the Middle Class or Rich, or even sometimes the Lower Middle Class.  These are our representatives in Washington, 535 members of millions of us chosen to govern and set policy supposedly based upon the demands of the people.  But this they do not do…this has become passé, for now the time has come with the recent Great Recession (actually a Depression according to many economists) to truly show their colors.  What used to be done in back door rooms (I’d say smoke filled, but Nancy Pelosi would have a fit) with not so much obviousness is now being conducted in public.  Those who govern are owned by the Corporations that lobby for their votes.  And once you take their campaign cash, you are theirs for life.  Look at John Boehner, once caught handing out checks from tobacco companies to Representatives on the floor of the House (point of reference: I smoke and I think this was deplorable).  That used to be done behind closed doors.  The connections between various Representatives and oil companies, drug companies, and insurance companies that used to be met with silence or denial are now met with, “So what?” by those that Govern.  They themselves have become like what once happened in Rome…they have become a class unto themselves: The Political Class.  They are the marionettes whose strings are pulled by Corporate America for the benefit of Corporate America, the Rich, The Political Class, and the New Middle Class.  It is the latter that keep them in power.

Does it mean there are more of them than us?  No.  They just have more money, and money means power, and power means control over the masses.  So what used to be an honorable profession in serving your nation as a representative has become a full time job and/or a business.  And these are the same people who arrange the Congressional redistricting lines to keep them in power and their corporate masters happy.  So they keep the New Middle Class Happy to ensure their support (and some of the support from the Working Poor who are transfixed by the eye candy delivering so-called news on FOX).  My question now is a simple one, and it really is one that’s starting to be asked more and more: WHY DO PEOPLE VOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO HURT THEM?  I honestly can’t figure that one out except that it’s the Orwellian Nightmare come to pass.

THAT my friends is the new class system in this country.  We can blame the Rich all we want, but they are only benefitting from what the Political Class decide.  We can’t blame the New Middle Class for the very same reason.  We can blame ourselves, those of us in the Working Poor for not speaking out more vociferously and getting involved in government.  We just don’t give a damn…we are angry, but we have no constructive use for that anger.  And we are working just to live.  But in order to change this, we need to focus that anger on upending the apple cart.  The Corporations may be powerful, but the People are stronger.  We can enact term limits to prevent the wholesale buying and selling of candidates and eliminate gradually a layer of The Political Class, but it will always exist now that we have let it.  They have come from the shadows and gained form, and they like being able to come out into the daylight and exist…and exist at the expense of others.

Thus the great debate on the Debt Ceiling…it is not just a fight for the simple borrowing power…it is a fight for the very soul of this nation.  You see, all the progress of the New Deal is being scale back as I type.  All the progress we’ve made on good working conditions and the foundation of a solid Middle Class are being dismantled in washington DC right now.  And in the end, those of us who get Social security will be happy we are getting our checks and will shut up for a month.  And those of us who have never even knew this so called debt ceiling now know one exists, that Congress is in it only for themselves, and Emperor Obama is indeed without clothes in the Oval Office.  and we are not better off than we were 4 years ago, or even one year ago.  The debate was controlled by the Corporations who created the so-called grass roots (more like Astroturf) movement of the Tea Party.  They are the ones that moved the Political Class, and the President with it, to the Right and away from the vast majority of us who believe in social Programs and fair taxing of everyone…especially and including the Rich and the New Middle Class.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of paying for their tax breaks…even more than they are tired of paying for the Social Programs of the masses.  And the time to begin to move as one is NOW.  This debate has been a crisis that was wholly manufactured by the Political Class for its benefit and that of the Corporations that control EVERYTHING.  We need to organize, and to become a movement ourselves, for as surely as they attempt to destroy the Working Poor now, we will be eliminated if we don’t fight for ourselves now.  Your children and grandchildren’s future doesn’t depend on some damned debt ceiling…it depends on our ability to stand up to the New Order and change it to OUR Order, the order of the people.  The freedom of those children and grandchildren ride on what we do over the next few years and we must be the ones to start the movement.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.” – Winston Churchill

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Event Horizon

A Black Hole is a collapsed star.  The star expends all of its energy and explodes into a nova in one final burst of energy before the sun cools completely, and begins to collapse upon itself.  What happens next is that the sun turns inside out and takes part of the surrounding space with it, creating a huge hole in space with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing…NOTHING, not even light itself can escape being sucked into it  There is a point though at which it is not too late to pull away, and that is just before the final piece of space where light can no longer escape and falling into the unknown black abyss is called an Event Horizon.

Regardless of the outcome of the debt ceiling negotiations, one thing is for certain: we have reached the political equivalent of an Event Horizon.

For the President, the next 48 hours will make or break his Presidency.  For the past year he has aquiesced to every single demand of the Republicans and acted more like one every day, rather than that champion of the Left I thought I was electing in 2008.  His leadership skills have been awful…he is not a strong leader.  He has let the tail wag the dog; instead of getting involved head on with everything from the Health Care Debate to this latest debacle that shouldn’t have happened, he has let circumstances dictate his responses.  He is reacting, not ACTING.  He is being the complete opposite of the Hope and Change we demanded in 2008.  What we got instead was not only more of the same, but more of the same and then some.  He is a horrible manager, because any good manager would have had his subordinates in line by now.  There would not have been any question of who was in charge and who was the Boss.  What’s more the country would have seen that.  When you have the small Tea Party faction calling the shots for the Republicans AND the Democrats by making them move farther and farther to the Right causing chaos.  The Freshman Senators and Congressmen don’t follow established protocols.  They are the lunatics running the asylum now, the children in the playground acting up…and their parents are helpless to control them.  We are literally at the abyss, the edge of destruction financially, and this same small group will cheerfully go down with the ship.  It doesn’t matter…it’s all for principle.

And this President lets them.

The Senate debates now trying to cobble legislation after holding the required symbolic votes so the Political Class can have something to fall back on when they have to run again and were asked, “How did you vote during the debt ceiling crisis”.  And there’s a word for you…”crisis”.  There shouldn’t have been one; this is usually a one sentence Bill that is pushed through the House and Senate so quickly it’s done by voice vote and the President simply signs it and the nation can pay its bills for another year or so.  Not this time; this time the game changed because this lunatic fringe decided that they would hold the country hostage in order to push through their agenda.  There was no serious discussion with the American Public about cutting their social safety nets.  There was no vetting in the polls.  There was no debate anywhere because this group held America and Americans hostage.

And this President let them.

We now have a new set of rules…a small minority can get what it wants by skirting the checks and balances of the Constitution by forcing people to vote the way they normally wouldn’t…and thus putting into place their agenda without so much as even the courtesy of open debate.  (The British used to do this to us back in Colonial Days; so these guys took those lessons to heart.  Not only to they have the spirit of the Revolutionaries on their minds, they have the tact and political will of our oppressors in our first battles for independence).  There will no longer be a majority getting what it wants in any deliberative body.  The President can be forced to compromise his own positions (if he truly had any) no matter what…except there is one way to escape this awful Event Horizon we approach and the only way to save this country now and our political system as we know it for future generations with our current Constitution: INVOKE THE 14th AMENDMENT.  Use that Constitutional avenue to say, “OK…I’m done.  You guys had your chance.  I’m not letting this happen, so by Executive Order I’m authorizing Treasury to pay anyway because there really is no ceiling…and now there never will again under my watch.”  he can with DECISIVE ACTION END THIS CRISIS.  Or he can be the one man who let Default happen on his watch.  This Congress will have every ballot box ready to carry votes against them.  Or perhaps People will see this as a way of adding more of the fringe lunatics.  No matter…this may have been several Presidents debt (including his own), but this President couldn’t control his Congressional Leaders let alone Congress.  This man is a compromiser…a wimp who has absolutely no pair of balls.  He had under-negociated on everything with compromise on his mind.  Instead of starting out with 100% and ending up with 90-95% of what he wanted as a compromise; He starts at 70% and winds up with 40%.  This is a weak, ineffectual leader…and I am a proud Progressive Democrat saying this.  So now my Republican friends and I have one thing in common

This man does not deserve another term.  He needs a Primary Challenge.  He has created a Black Hole from what was once a sun burning brightly heavens, and taken us to the Event Horizon.  He has let the Constitution be re-written without so much as a pen being lifted.  He has now only one chance and only one: INVOKE 14.  Do it now.  Tell Congress to take a hike and say you’ve had enough.  But he won’t.  Because he prefers compromise over confrontation and standing up for your principles, something I thought the man did when I voted for him.  Well, I was wrong.  He won’t be getting my vote, my time campaigning…nothing but my respect for office and a hole in my heart because he had greatness.  He could have been one of the greats, but he let the lunatics run the show.  And if America defaults and our Democracy is never the same again (unless he invokes 14)

It is because he let them.  He took us to the Event Horizon, and no light will ever escape again.  We will not stare into the abyss, we will have become a part of it.

“The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

In The Crosshairs

Yesterday I noted that I was an observer of the human condition.  Well, let’s take the following observation I’ve made after careful consideration and extrapolation of important data:

Congress needs to be replaced.

Every member needs to be voted out.  Every member should be held accountable for the delays on what has traditionally been a one line passage of raising the nation’s debt ceiling (which covers the bills already racked up, not increases more spending).  It’s like getting your paycheck and paid your mortgage, utilities, and any credit loaned to you.  This is money due.  All you are doing is paying it off.  The problem is that the US hasn’t seen a raise at the job in several years, and that paycheck isn’t coming on Tuesday unless we go to the boss and beg for the money, something that he has never failed at doing: meeting your paycheck and those of your co-workers.  Now the boss can’t meet his payroll because he has had the same clients paying the same payments every month for years without any increases to cover his increased expense to operate a business.  With me so far?  Our favorite Uncle is in the same situation, because it hasn’t raised his own receivables because…well, he liked a few more clients more than others.  So he cut their monthly bill.  And so he found himself with less money…and now his usual bills are coming due Tuesday.  He can’t borrow because the bank won’t let him.  So in the long run, you don’t get your paycheck.

For millions of us on Social Security, that nightmare begins Tuesday.  The first thing on the table to prevent default is the billions of dollars due to Social Security recipients on that date.  The will make the Government solvent for two weeks, but will leave millions without any money for their mortgage or rent; money for utilities or food; and perhaps might cause a HUGE amount of other unintended consequences for our creditors.  If you have auto-deduct on anything and timed it around your Social Security, the money won’t be there…so every check you wrote, every deduction (including perhaps bank statement charges) will cause an overdraft.  So the banks will be getting VERY rich on Wednesday morning and for several days after that.  You have to decide between the bills or food; food or medicine; medicine or death.  THIS IS REAL, MISTER PRESIDENT, MISTER SPEAKER, AND MISTER MAJORITY LEADER.  There are MILLIONS who will blame YOU when this mess happens.  There will be chaos and possible unrest.  And we will blame YOU the entire time.  Would you like to know why?

Because a few right wing fringe lunatics were allowed to hijack what had once been a great political party and turn it into the biggest group of xenophobic misanthropes the world has known.  And they are intractable in addition to not being very good with a calculator.  They are more interested in protecting the special interests that keep them firmly in “the Political Class” (another post on this theory of mine forthcoming in a few days) than they people they represent.  They are more interested in saving face, because the first thing to go is SOCIAL SECURITY…and what a coincidence…they finally sent us back to the 20’s, made millions poor overnight, didn’t even have to use legislation to do it.  because they did NOTHING.  The Democrats are no better, because they didn’t see this coming; the budget to keep the government running should have been the first indication that this was their next big fight.  As always, Democrats never seen the inevitable because like Ethel Merman singing, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”…the fat lady has indeed sung.  And they allowed it to happen.

Then we have a man who I thought would be one of the greatest political leaders of all time, who has turned out to be more than just a disappointment…he has become a travesty and a shadow of his former self.  The guy didn’t even have a good bracket for March Madness this year.  He’s lost his political touch and his skill with the people.  He is being weak.  He is being the most ineffectual leader in a time of crisis since Herbert Hoover.  He deserves a Primary Challenge (but no one will give him one).  He has not used his power to get legislation through; he has done nothing but compromise after he’s constantly being kicked in the political nuts.  Now I don’t know about you, but when someone’s kicking me in the nuts, they get a right cross.  It’s time for him to do the political and constitutional equivalent of one…

Invoke the 14th Amendment.

Under sections 4 and 5 of the 14th, he can invoke Executive Orders ordering that all payments continue and unilaterally raise the so-called debt ceiling on his own, because that Amendment says that “the debt of the United States shall not be questioned”.  This basically means we’ve been operating an unconstitutional thing called a debt ceiling for almost a hundred years.  Well, we have a crisis.  The bills need to be paid…and rather than seriously look at this option, he’s considering not paying Social Security.  That’s going to have A LOT of people mad…fighting mad.  And it doesn’t matter of you’re a Republican or Democrat, you have a crosshair at the ballot box on you the very moment this happens because EVERYONE GETS THE BLAME.  No one will be safe…and banks will be richer on Wednesday morning because they have all those nice overdraft fees.  Our credit rating as a nation will have plummeted.  Our means of taking care of our elderly, disabled, and our soldiers will be gone.  All this will happen unless one thing happens:

MISTER PRESIDENT, GROW A PAIR OF BALLS AND INVOKE THE 14TH AMENDMENT.

You may have a Constitutional crisis on your hands, but it will be preferable to the alternative: chaos and certain destruction of the economy, this country, and more importantly people’s lives.  In my world there are 4 inclusive of myself I care more about…and right now we are about to suffer because of all the political posturing and bullshit in Washington is more important than my medications which keep me sane and out of pain.  Or food on my table.  Or a roof over my head.  You will not have my vote, nor will my Congressman or Senator.  I will vote for a third party.  I will not waste my vote on business as usual.  It’s time to stand up and be counted.  It’s time to put these bastards in the crosshairs of the ballot box and let them know in no uncertain terms that they will NOT be going back to DC and that is what will happen…unless the President takes decisive action NOW…INVOKE THE 14th Amendment.

“We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view. “
Mao Tse-Tung

An Observer Of The Human Condition

Today I received my signed copy of “Brain Movies” by Harlan Ellison (also signed by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczinski) in the mail, and I couldn’t have been more ecstatic.  Here was a collection of ORIGINAL  scripts, scanned from the original documents written on Harlan’s old Olympia Typewriter (he still uses an Olympia Electric for his work), with all the notations, deletions, notes in the margin.  It was a brilliant look into the creative process of the world’s most awarded writer (and hands down my favorite author of all time and my personal hero).  It was a look into what makes a writer great, and what makes the man tick…and what makes him tock.  It was a full and beautiful view of some of the best scripts ever written for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, and two from “The Outer Limits” (among others).  It was my own personal gold…it was something that gave this humble writer a few short moments of joy in his day and in his life.

As I was looking at what were some rather interesting videos of Harlan on You Tube, the thought occurred to me that the very reason why I connect with him so much is the fact that he is an observer of the human condition.  So am I.  He is one angry at the world son of a bitch, and so am I.  He doesn’t give a damn what people think, where he is or who he’s with, if he has an opinion it’s going to be out there regardless of its appropriateness for the occasion.  That’s me too.  Once when I was watching the great documentary about him called, “Dreams With Sharp Teeth”, Harlan was on a rant and my daughter who was on the computer nearby said, “Dad, he sounds just like you”.  Needless to say, I took that as a badge of honor.  My wife has always said he and I would get along like a house on fire and maybe one of these days I’ll get a chance to meet him where he’s not behind a table and I’m waiting as a fan to get my head ripped off by him.  Perhaps I can meet him on a street, shake his hand, and simply say that I enjoy his work and walk away.  (As a native New Yorker, that’s kind of how we do things; it’s rare we kiss anyone’s ass unless its Anna Kornikova’s and I’d do a hell of a lot more than kiss her ass, believe me).  Better yet, perhaps one day in the next decade Gods willing he’ll still be alive and I can share a panel discussion with him having my second novel just behind me.  Or maybe we can have a pastrami on rye at Katz’ Deli on the Lower East Side after a bowl of Matzoh Ball soup washed down with a Doctor Brown’s Cream soda.    One of the things that I do is observe what the rest of humanity is doing; it’s foibles and how stupid and wonderful we can be…sometimes simultaneously.

All writers are observers of the human condition.  I don’t like what I see now politically, with the debt ceiling about to cave in on us and we get to say hello to our upstairs neighbor Mr Chang.  I don’t like the fact that I’m stuck in a marriage that is the closest thing to paying off all of your karma in one lifetime that you will ever see.  I love the fact that my kids get great joy out of a stupid insta-pool that we bought for the backyard complete with filter and ladder (4 deep and 15 round).  I love the fact I can float in that thing and fall asleep on a floating bean-bag like device like I did the other day.  I dig that I have 3 very cool cats.  People say I tend to have a pessimistic outlook .  I like to refer to it as “stark realism”; after all, the glass is neither half full nor half empty, it is simply at 50% capacity.  I state it the way it is.  I don’t sugar coat anything.  I’m blunt, but I will admit to holding back and sugar coating when the situation mandates it.  (My daughter however, is a work in progress…).  But I look at things and I write about them.  I’m writing about my life now for Christ’s sake.  I mean, you survive a terrorist attack, alcoholism, acute PTSD, Bi Polar II, and start to get yourself together when your wife suddenly decides that she’s no longer in love with you.  Not only that, she’s acting on her urges.  Now THAT my friends, is a book.  THAT my friends, is the Human Condition…

…and it’s MY Human Condition.  And sometimes it sucks, and sometimes it’s great…but it beats the alternative.  Then again, after completing all of my karma by staying in a failed and loveless marriage…the other side has got to be amazing.  But I still have a lot more work to do here.  So I’ll write, and finally get that damned book finished so I can help someone out there realize that THEY need help.  I’ll write to get my own beliefs and philosophies out there, because no one is going to do it for me.  And I’m going to try and make the second half of my life better than the first, because I deserve a little island of happiness on this sea of storms.  For I am the lookout on the mast, lashed to the ship and yelling down at the helm.  I am the one who is going to save your ass from the rocks looming ahead and my own soul in the process.

For I am an observer of the human condition.

“We walked for some time, and grew to know each other, as best as we’d allow. These are some of the high points. They lack continuity. I don’t apologize. I merely pointed it out, adding with some truth, I feel, that most liaisons lack continuity. We find ourselves in odd places at various times, and for a brief span we link our lives to others and then, our time elapsed, we move apart. Through a haze of pain occasionally, usually through a veil of memory that clings, then passes, sometimes as though we have never touched.”  – Harlan Ellison

Independents Day

For the past several weeks, we have seen both political parties posture and play with fire regarding the nation’s debt ceiling.  This is akin to tossing a newborn up in the air and hoping it lands in someone’s arms when you are the only person around.  All you can do is look at the horror you created at the end and say, “Well…I didn’t mean to…” because trust me my friends, that is exactly what the excuse will be on August 3rd when the world’s Economy tanks; Moody’s will lower our credit to a “D” rating (as they have threatened); and all that you saved for in your 401 K takes such a beating you will have to work at least 10 years past that which you planned to retire by.  Social Security will stop (and so will 20% of my household income) and Medicare will stop paying the bills (my treatment for that which causes my disability is Medicare paid).  You are going to have a lot of angry, disabled, and white haired people with walkers out there.  This will not be what either Party expects, because the backlash of those people (I might as well say “us” because I’m in that group) will be intense.  How about a massive march/roll/limp/walk on Washington for starters?  Go right up the the steps of the Capitol and tell them just what they have done to your life.  Tell them how you can no longer live, or pay your bills, or eat, or get the medicine you need…it’s almost like Paul Ryan’s plan put into motion by the simple act of a few key Republican right wingnuts not understanding the world and national impact of their selfishness.

And then the time will come when we realize that all our lives, what we have been fed are lies and more lies by people who govern with the consent of the governed for the benefit of the corporations.  We will all realize, every single one of us, that every single politician in Washington needs to be replaced NOW, starting with our disappointing President on down (and don’t worry Supreme Court…you’ll be in line too).  The major problem is that we have a two Party system that is more than broken; it is simply the tattered remains of a once great nation.  It is a system that treats Corporations as people and allows them the right to have a voice in the election hiding behind groups like, “People For The American Way” and “Freedom Works”…both of which are neither.  They are groups that do not have to divulge where their funding comes from, so we know not which corporate slave master is responsible for attempting to steer the ship of state their way…but in this case, all we have are a bunch of rocks and sirens who can’t sing in key.  So the ship travels onward aimlessly because our Captain is way too busy trying to make nice with those who seek to destroy him.  And this is the biggest disappointment to me of the past four years: President Obama.

When he was nominated, I cried…because I was the one who ran in to tell my mom that Martin Luther Kind had died.  I remember the marches, and the body counts on the news all during my formidable years as a youngster in the late 60’s; most assuredly born ten years too late.  When he was elected, I wept with my daughter because we were so happy that a person of color could finally reach the highest office in the land…and while I remember growing up in Brooklyn and Staten Island and the “hidden” racism of the North…my daughter was crying because her friends had something to be proud of the next day.  Whereas I went to school in a lilly white borough of NYC, she grew up in a suburban town of mixed backgrounds socially, economically, and racially.  There was so much promise, especially after 8 years of having my beloved Constitution treated like a gum wrapper rather than the sacred document it was.  There was hope again…a hope a dream of a new beginning for all of us.  Unlike the first time we heard the expression, I truly believed that it was indeed “morning in America”…until someone turned out the lights that is.

Closing Gitmo?  Not yet done although it had been attempted.  War Crimes persecution for those who lied us into a war that cost the lives over several hundred thousand human beings let alone close to 6,000 of our own precious blood…and scores more of wounded?  None…taken off the table, just like impeachment was two years prior by Pelosi and Reid.  To think that Congress had once tried to impeach a man for lying about a blow job under oath rather than impeach a man who lied about starting a war and not following the same Constitution he had sworn to protect…if this isn’t the height of folly I don’t know what is.  Lowballing his demands on what he envisioned as a national healthcare system led to a fight that damaged  his credibility and created a program with no teeth that costs a lot more money than Medicare for all would have (and in fact would have made that program financially solid).  His repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” should have happened on January 21 2009…screw McCain and the others who want American Empire to continue although we cannot afford to maintain it.  He gave in on the Bush tax cuts extending them a year…giving the wealthy more for their pockets instead of the treasury getting its fair share.  He has been remarkably silent on the Union busting going on and has for some reason delayed the card-check bill that was supposed to be on the legislative calendar years ago. He has become owned lock stock and barrel by the corporations and basically is now in the untenable situation of either having to acquiesce to their demands on the budget or not have the debt ceiling raised.  And here we are…

…in the midst of the most turbulent period in this country’s history although it may not appear that way now.  History will not be kind to these men and women in power; these 535 people who do not listen to their constituents but who may have a lot of listening to do in the next few months as the new poor and dying come to their offices and march on the Capitol.  History will remember the names of those few who plunged the world economy into the abyss.  More importantly, the populace will remember that it was both Republicans and Democrats who did this to them…and then begin to look at alternatives.  Can a Third Party emerge?  Will it be possible to publicly finance elections and not allow private contributions, so that all have an equal shot at office…not just the rich and powerful or those whom they support.  Or will it finally be time for “Independents Day”, when the People become so backed into a corner that they come out fighting mad.

And rather than the tears of joy I once shed at the election of this man, I now shed tears of sorrow at how fast he was turned into something else…a man who no longer resembles the man who gave us all hope 4 short years ago.  And as I write this on the day of our Independence from Great Britain,  I only hope that we can find the inner strength to do it again to those in power now who seek to use America for their own nefarious ends rather than the bastion of freedom and justice it’s supposed to be.  Use the ballot box.  Run for office.  Write and speak at rallies.  Make your voice heard in any way possible, because you never know when even that simple right may be taken away…because you are too damned tired from working three jobs to make ends meet to get involved.

You’ll be more than happy just to sit and watch it all unfold on Fox, or CNN, or MSNBC (or whatever channel will feed you the Party Line because they will all be saying the same thing in a few years) and let someone else do the work.  After all, you have now been mollified by your 50 inch Sony Plasma TV and comfy chair.

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? – Thomas Jefferson