Victory against Al-Quaida?
Hardly.
Among the terrorist goals of Osama Bin Laden were these: to instill fear into Western civilization, especially the United States, and to bring the powerful financial system of the West to its knees.
Ever since 9-11, Republicans have used fear for their basic appeal to Americans, and Americans have bought it.
Ever since 9-11, we have spent—out of fear--trillions of dollars fighting two futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars are useless. No outcome will bring victory to the West. The so-called enemy is thousands upon thousands of years old and will remain no matter how great our effort to bomb them into democracy. As soon as we leave, everything will return to the way it was before we intervened, the only difference being the enormous profits which the military-industrial complex have collected.
Ever since 9-11, our economic system has failed twice in gigantic proportions, and Americans like you and me have lost wealth in significant amounts. Except for the upper classes. The wealthy continue to grow their wealth as the middle classes and poor continue to lose wealth. Corporations with the help of the political process, especially Republicans, are making record profits. Chief among the reasons are that they are finding labor in other countries which will work for pennies a day compared to significantly higher wages expected by Americans. Consequently, Americans are going unemployed which has the effect of reducing taxes and reducing economic activity in this country. It also has the effect of depressing wages. The vicious circle continues to spiral downward and will continue to do so until voters elect representatives who will represent them and not the wealthy interests, the corporations, the banks, Wall Street, and the insurance companies.
The irony is that we had ample warning by two iconic Presidents years before this situation arose. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made very clear the threat of the military industrial complex to this country. His words have been prophetic.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Now that we have forgotten or otherwise ignored those wise words and fear has taken over the country, we are seeing how it is tearing us apart and producing a politics, such as the politics of the Tea Party, which seems bent on destroying America as we know it.
Tom
Friday, September 2, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
To the Nation: GOP Wants Massive Profit Not Debt Reduction
To the Editor of The Nation,
Of all the columnists and talking heads I have read, William Greider (“Obama’s Bad Bargain,” August 15-22) comes closest to understanding the real function of the deficit/debt debate for Republicans. It is an understanding which Democrats must have in order save our country.
Greider nails it with this observation: “The president has done grievous damage to the most vulnerable by trying to fight the GOP on its ground—accepting the premise that deficits and debt should be a national priority.”
But even this falls far short of what Republicans are really after. They are after profits.
The federal government, starved by draconian cuts in “expenses” (regulatory agencies and the recent infamous FAA incident come to mind), will be unable to carry out its functions which will then be privatized, sold off to corporations piece by piece.
The grand prizes are Social Security and Medicare. Republicans have told us what they want to do to those programs but always in terms of reducing the debt and never in terms of the real purpose: profit. Hundreds of trillions of dollars from these programs would flow to Wall Street, banks, and insurance companies, yielding windfall profits of trillions upon trillions of dollars at enormous and debilitating expense to the poor and the middle class in increased premiums and lower benefits.
The ruling class will have expanded its wealth and power to untold dimension.
This is not about mean spirited Republicans or even about ideology. This is about profit, pure and simple. Mr. Greider identified the false front Republicans have used to frame this challenge and the gullible acceptance of it by Democrats, but he didn’t show why. That is the most important piece.
Thomas Hunter, Ph.D.
Of all the columnists and talking heads I have read, William Greider (“Obama’s Bad Bargain,” August 15-22) comes closest to understanding the real function of the deficit/debt debate for Republicans. It is an understanding which Democrats must have in order save our country.
Greider nails it with this observation: “The president has done grievous damage to the most vulnerable by trying to fight the GOP on its ground—accepting the premise that deficits and debt should be a national priority.”
But even this falls far short of what Republicans are really after. They are after profits.
The federal government, starved by draconian cuts in “expenses” (regulatory agencies and the recent infamous FAA incident come to mind), will be unable to carry out its functions which will then be privatized, sold off to corporations piece by piece.
The grand prizes are Social Security and Medicare. Republicans have told us what they want to do to those programs but always in terms of reducing the debt and never in terms of the real purpose: profit. Hundreds of trillions of dollars from these programs would flow to Wall Street, banks, and insurance companies, yielding windfall profits of trillions upon trillions of dollars at enormous and debilitating expense to the poor and the middle class in increased premiums and lower benefits.
The ruling class will have expanded its wealth and power to untold dimension.
This is not about mean spirited Republicans or even about ideology. This is about profit, pure and simple. Mr. Greider identified the false front Republicans have used to frame this challenge and the gullible acceptance of it by Democrats, but he didn’t show why. That is the most important piece.
Thomas Hunter, Ph.D.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Letter to the Talking Heads of MSNBC
It is about time that you stop talking about debt. It is time to understand that when the Republicans talk about debt, they are really talking about profit. They have told us so.
If Republicans were serious about reducing the national debt, they would be embracing revenues. It’s a no-brainer. But Republicans have steadfastly rejected revenues. They care so little about the debt that many of the measures they have proposed, including most shamelessly Paul Ryan's budget, have the effect of increasing the debt. The $32 million of lost revenue resulting from the defunding of the FAA also comes to mind not to mention the increased danger to American lives.
Republicans have told us in no uncertain terms that they want to bring the federal government down. For example, with a House majority and control of the purse strings, they have withheld funds from regulators to disable their regulatory function. They want business to do what they want for profits with no restrictions regardless of how it will hurt Americans. Even if it brings the economy down such as banks did with mortgages and Wall Street did with unregulated securities. The middle class lost trillions of dollars in the resulting crash, while banks and Wall Street pocketed millions in profits. We are still trying to recover while Republicans attempt to dig us deeper and deeper into the hole.
By starving the federal government by cutting expenditures, Republicans plan to privatize the many functions which the government will no longer be able to perform. They have told us all of this, although they mask it with the spurious purpose of reducing the debt without mentioning the trillions of dollars which they are really after for their bosses.
The ultimate prizes, of course, are Social Security and Medicare. The hundreds of trillions of dollars which fund these programs and which are taken in yearly by the government in taxes and premiums will all go to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies. That will result in trillions upon trillions of dollars of profit to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies.
Forget the talk about the budget and the debt. The government should be extending a New Deal to the American people, including hundreds of thousands of jobs essential to our infrastructure and to our future. It worked for FDR who also told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. It is time to listen to FDR. Ronald Reagan only stands in his shadow.
To Republicans, the debt is a subterfuge. They have shown that they don’t care about debt. While Democrats, particularly the President, are trying to out do them on debt, they are totally missing the point. Republicans are after the enormous profit that they and their corporate overlords see will be theirs as they sell off America piece by piece. This will all be at the overwhelming expense to the American people, to you and to me. That is what this discussion is all about, and it is time for you to frame it that way. Tom
If Republicans were serious about reducing the national debt, they would be embracing revenues. It’s a no-brainer. But Republicans have steadfastly rejected revenues. They care so little about the debt that many of the measures they have proposed, including most shamelessly Paul Ryan's budget, have the effect of increasing the debt. The $32 million of lost revenue resulting from the defunding of the FAA also comes to mind not to mention the increased danger to American lives.
Republicans have told us in no uncertain terms that they want to bring the federal government down. For example, with a House majority and control of the purse strings, they have withheld funds from regulators to disable their regulatory function. They want business to do what they want for profits with no restrictions regardless of how it will hurt Americans. Even if it brings the economy down such as banks did with mortgages and Wall Street did with unregulated securities. The middle class lost trillions of dollars in the resulting crash, while banks and Wall Street pocketed millions in profits. We are still trying to recover while Republicans attempt to dig us deeper and deeper into the hole.
By starving the federal government by cutting expenditures, Republicans plan to privatize the many functions which the government will no longer be able to perform. They have told us all of this, although they mask it with the spurious purpose of reducing the debt without mentioning the trillions of dollars which they are really after for their bosses.
The ultimate prizes, of course, are Social Security and Medicare. The hundreds of trillions of dollars which fund these programs and which are taken in yearly by the government in taxes and premiums will all go to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies. That will result in trillions upon trillions of dollars of profit to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies.
Forget the talk about the budget and the debt. The government should be extending a New Deal to the American people, including hundreds of thousands of jobs essential to our infrastructure and to our future. It worked for FDR who also told us that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. It is time to listen to FDR. Ronald Reagan only stands in his shadow.
To Republicans, the debt is a subterfuge. They have shown that they don’t care about debt. While Democrats, particularly the President, are trying to out do them on debt, they are totally missing the point. Republicans are after the enormous profit that they and their corporate overlords see will be theirs as they sell off America piece by piece. This will all be at the overwhelming expense to the American people, to you and to me. That is what this discussion is all about, and it is time for you to frame it that way. Tom
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Letter to President Obama
August 18, 2011
Barack Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Best wishes for a wonderful vacation with your family. I hope and pray that you return with a clear understanding of what you are up against and that you bring a will and a drive to the remainder of your first term to accomplish the goals you promised in your campaign. Please understand that my comments express views from outside Washington from a recent retiree from Michigan who has serious concerns for the future of my country.
When you return, if you continue to ask for co-operation, I hope you will also expect none. Your opposition’s primary interest is not to reduce the debt. Please escape this trap. They are interested—as they have clearly told us—in reducing federal government as much as possible. They do so by starving it of money. That is the primary purpose of their eternally unsatisfied appetite for cuts in spending. It has nothing to do with debt. It has everything to do with power. For example, if the regulators have no funds to do their job, then their job will not be done and the corporations will have carte blanche to run wild, even if it causes danger to the public as with the FAA.
Their ultimate goal is to weaken government so much that Social Security and Medicare are taken over by Wall Street, the banks, and the insurance companies, transferring hundreds of trillions of dollars to the private sector and—the real goal—trillions upon trillions in profits paid for by the middle class and the poor.
Republicans have announced that their primary goal is to get you out of office. They have turned down every proposal, every plea to negotiate and compromise, in their relentless push for power. They must be stopped, and you will have to use your executive power in new and creative ways to stop them. The debt vote should have been a no brainer. The Constitution tells us that the debt must be recognized. It is not subject to negotiation and compromise. If Congress refuses to recognize the debt, the President must declare an emergency and proceed under his Constitutional powers. No haggling. No compromise. You must find and exercise other such options to accomplish what is good for America, now including especially overcoming a steadfast, unreasoning opposition dedicated to selling America off for profit.
If Congress refuses to act to help jobs and the economy, as they will continue to do, the President must represent the American people and act for their benefit. I am afraid that there is now no other choice in this matter.
Warmest regards,
Thomas Hunter, Ph.D.
Barack Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
Best wishes for a wonderful vacation with your family. I hope and pray that you return with a clear understanding of what you are up against and that you bring a will and a drive to the remainder of your first term to accomplish the goals you promised in your campaign. Please understand that my comments express views from outside Washington from a recent retiree from Michigan who has serious concerns for the future of my country.
When you return, if you continue to ask for co-operation, I hope you will also expect none. Your opposition’s primary interest is not to reduce the debt. Please escape this trap. They are interested—as they have clearly told us—in reducing federal government as much as possible. They do so by starving it of money. That is the primary purpose of their eternally unsatisfied appetite for cuts in spending. It has nothing to do with debt. It has everything to do with power. For example, if the regulators have no funds to do their job, then their job will not be done and the corporations will have carte blanche to run wild, even if it causes danger to the public as with the FAA.
Their ultimate goal is to weaken government so much that Social Security and Medicare are taken over by Wall Street, the banks, and the insurance companies, transferring hundreds of trillions of dollars to the private sector and—the real goal—trillions upon trillions in profits paid for by the middle class and the poor.
Republicans have announced that their primary goal is to get you out of office. They have turned down every proposal, every plea to negotiate and compromise, in their relentless push for power. They must be stopped, and you will have to use your executive power in new and creative ways to stop them. The debt vote should have been a no brainer. The Constitution tells us that the debt must be recognized. It is not subject to negotiation and compromise. If Congress refuses to recognize the debt, the President must declare an emergency and proceed under his Constitutional powers. No haggling. No compromise. You must find and exercise other such options to accomplish what is good for America, now including especially overcoming a steadfast, unreasoning opposition dedicated to selling America off for profit.
If Congress refuses to act to help jobs and the economy, as they will continue to do, the President must represent the American people and act for their benefit. I am afraid that there is now no other choice in this matter.
Warmest regards,
Thomas Hunter, Ph.D.
Profit Not Debt
We have seen clearly by now that the Repbulican strategy is to starve government to disable it and privatize it so that corporations and corporate profits can run wild.
It is not to solve the deficit. If it were to solve the deficit, there would have to be revenue increases. If there are no revenue increases, the cuts come nowhere near reducing the debt in any significant way. But they do cut funding for essential programs. The less revenue, the more programs will be cut, continuing on to Social Security and Medicare.
Those two programs are the real goals of Republicans, and they have told us so. Should Republicans succeed, there will follow the greatest transfer of wealth in all of human history, including hundreds of trillions of retirement savings which Americans have placed with the government in good faith. The result: trillions and trillions of dollars of profit for the banks, the insurance companies, and the Wall Street firms who will take over.
Thus the policy of cutting essential, successful programs isn't because Republicans are mean-spirited. It's not even because of ideology. It's profit. You think executive compensation is high? You ain't seen nuthin' yet.
The cost of transferring that enormous wealth to the private sector will of course be borne by the middle class and the poor, who will become so impoverished and depleted that they will not be able to fight back. They will instead fight against each other competing for the meager store of jobs which corporations will offer in this country. Wages will plummet as retirees have less to live on and return to the work force. Lower wages further increase corporate profits. As wealth increases around the world outside the United States, corporations will find new markets for their goods. They will not be hurt by their vicious policies. They will only prosper. They will turn middle class America into a third world country, and the distance between the wealthy few and the rest of us, already at historic proportions, will increase exponentially.
If all this sounds familiar, it is because you have seen it already happening. Republicans are systematically dismembering labor unions across the nation. But most people aren't in a union. Why should they care? Because data since the 1920s show that wages for all Americans have spiraled downwards exactly as the unions have lost power.
There is one remaining hope: the vote. Even as Republicans are finding ways to exclude voters and limit the electorate to those who will vote for them, the vast majority of voters should identify their interests and vote for those who represent them. Republicans have found that Americans are influenced by advertising and have committed millions upon millions of dollars to media influence. Americans need to be critical about what they hear and not accept anything that comes from advertising since it is inevitably slanted and misleading. Also, Americans vote according to their ideology even when, for example, ideology such as making cuts in government programs is in reality a hypocritical cover for real goals such as massive wealth transfer to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies. Americans love to vote against their own best interest. Wisconsin farmers support Republicans even though Republicans support big agriculture which will wipe out the farmers. When Republicans talk about being free to choose your own health plan, they are really talking about the massive transfer of wealth to insurance companies for their profit which would result from ending Medicare.
To vote responsibly for their own interests, Americans need to pay attention and stop buying into the crazy subterfuges which politicians introduce to mask their real purpose. They need to be more interested in informing themselves on the issues than watching football on Sunday and drinking beer the rest of the week. They need to be electing representatives who will save our future and not sell it off piece by piece.
T. Hunter
It is not to solve the deficit. If it were to solve the deficit, there would have to be revenue increases. If there are no revenue increases, the cuts come nowhere near reducing the debt in any significant way. But they do cut funding for essential programs. The less revenue, the more programs will be cut, continuing on to Social Security and Medicare.
Those two programs are the real goals of Republicans, and they have told us so. Should Republicans succeed, there will follow the greatest transfer of wealth in all of human history, including hundreds of trillions of retirement savings which Americans have placed with the government in good faith. The result: trillions and trillions of dollars of profit for the banks, the insurance companies, and the Wall Street firms who will take over.
Thus the policy of cutting essential, successful programs isn't because Republicans are mean-spirited. It's not even because of ideology. It's profit. You think executive compensation is high? You ain't seen nuthin' yet.
The cost of transferring that enormous wealth to the private sector will of course be borne by the middle class and the poor, who will become so impoverished and depleted that they will not be able to fight back. They will instead fight against each other competing for the meager store of jobs which corporations will offer in this country. Wages will plummet as retirees have less to live on and return to the work force. Lower wages further increase corporate profits. As wealth increases around the world outside the United States, corporations will find new markets for their goods. They will not be hurt by their vicious policies. They will only prosper. They will turn middle class America into a third world country, and the distance between the wealthy few and the rest of us, already at historic proportions, will increase exponentially.
If all this sounds familiar, it is because you have seen it already happening. Republicans are systematically dismembering labor unions across the nation. But most people aren't in a union. Why should they care? Because data since the 1920s show that wages for all Americans have spiraled downwards exactly as the unions have lost power.
There is one remaining hope: the vote. Even as Republicans are finding ways to exclude voters and limit the electorate to those who will vote for them, the vast majority of voters should identify their interests and vote for those who represent them. Republicans have found that Americans are influenced by advertising and have committed millions upon millions of dollars to media influence. Americans need to be critical about what they hear and not accept anything that comes from advertising since it is inevitably slanted and misleading. Also, Americans vote according to their ideology even when, for example, ideology such as making cuts in government programs is in reality a hypocritical cover for real goals such as massive wealth transfer to banks, Wall Street, and insurance companies. Americans love to vote against their own best interest. Wisconsin farmers support Republicans even though Republicans support big agriculture which will wipe out the farmers. When Republicans talk about being free to choose your own health plan, they are really talking about the massive transfer of wealth to insurance companies for their profit which would result from ending Medicare.
To vote responsibly for their own interests, Americans need to pay attention and stop buying into the crazy subterfuges which politicians introduce to mask their real purpose. They need to be more interested in informing themselves on the issues than watching football on Sunday and drinking beer the rest of the week. They need to be electing representatives who will save our future and not sell it off piece by piece.
T. Hunter
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
How VotersSpring Was Born
I originally chose Voters Union or American Spring as the name of this blog.
Voters Union should be the name of the third party which is evolving throughout the American political landscape. It represents the millions of dissatisfied voters who clearly see that one of the existing parties is bent on following policies detrimental to them, while the other seems incapable of representing their interests and in fact has appeared more than enough times to be in bed with the opposition and their interests--Wall Street, the banks, the insurance companies, the giant corporations. We need representatives in Washington who listen to the people first before mouthing off about what the people want. So often, their version of what the people want has nothing to do with what the people want as shown, for example, by current polling. Unfortunately, the name Voters Union was already taken.
American Spring was a favorite choice of mine since it is also becoming clearer by the day that American poor and middle class are facing the same challenges as those that inspired the Egyptian Spring and other Middle East springs as well as riots throughout Europe and England, namely the oppression of the banks, investors, and huge corporations who control economies around the world and are hell bent to widen the wealth gap between upper and all other classes and so to increase their power and control. Such a strategy has become apparent on the part of Republicans who say they are concerned with balancing the budget but clearly, by rejecting revenue increases, are interested only in starving government so that its functions including the hundreds of trillions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare will go to the corporations, the banks, the insurance companies and Wall Street who in turn will take trillions upon trillions of dollars. You think there is a wealth gap now? Just wait. The understanding by voters of what is actually happening to them will be the foundation of our American Spring. I wish that title were available for this blog.
That is how we arrived at VotersSpring, which was available and, I suppose, combines the focus of my original choices. The important thing is that our voices be raised to protect our futures and the futures of our children. Unfortunately, if things continue headed in the direction they are going, what should have been the American Spring might very well become its fall.
Voters Union should be the name of the third party which is evolving throughout the American political landscape. It represents the millions of dissatisfied voters who clearly see that one of the existing parties is bent on following policies detrimental to them, while the other seems incapable of representing their interests and in fact has appeared more than enough times to be in bed with the opposition and their interests--Wall Street, the banks, the insurance companies, the giant corporations. We need representatives in Washington who listen to the people first before mouthing off about what the people want. So often, their version of what the people want has nothing to do with what the people want as shown, for example, by current polling. Unfortunately, the name Voters Union was already taken.
American Spring was a favorite choice of mine since it is also becoming clearer by the day that American poor and middle class are facing the same challenges as those that inspired the Egyptian Spring and other Middle East springs as well as riots throughout Europe and England, namely the oppression of the banks, investors, and huge corporations who control economies around the world and are hell bent to widen the wealth gap between upper and all other classes and so to increase their power and control. Such a strategy has become apparent on the part of Republicans who say they are concerned with balancing the budget but clearly, by rejecting revenue increases, are interested only in starving government so that its functions including the hundreds of trillions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare will go to the corporations, the banks, the insurance companies and Wall Street who in turn will take trillions upon trillions of dollars. You think there is a wealth gap now? Just wait. The understanding by voters of what is actually happening to them will be the foundation of our American Spring. I wish that title were available for this blog.
That is how we arrived at VotersSpring, which was available and, I suppose, combines the focus of my original choices. The important thing is that our voices be raised to protect our futures and the futures of our children. Unfortunately, if things continue headed in the direction they are going, what should have been the American Spring might very well become its fall.
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