My occasional resort to language of a somewhat bombastic flavor may lead some to believe that I generally take an aggressive stance on practically every issue. That’s not necessarily so, but in the matter of class war, I am a super hawk.

Oh, am I not being divisive? No. It’s several generations too late for that. The war has been in progress since before Old Hickory was president. And that’s just in this country. It actually began millennia ago.

For those who think that the prostitutes of the elite, otherwise known as politicians and media mouths, are on to something when they accuse the victims of fomenting class warfare, think again. Most people have failed to notice the war because they have not been drafted. The actual war has been deliberately obscured by an extensive, expensive, all-pervasive campaign of disinformation.

Wall Street was bailed out by John Q. Public in order to protect their multimillion dollar bonuses.

College students were not bailed out of their onerous student loans.

You thought you had a right of free speech? You’re getting that mixed up with the Supreme Court ruling that money is free speech. You don’t have enough money. Sorry.

Over 800 people of Occupy Wall Street have been arrested. No Wall Street executives, those creating the problem, have been arrested. Hmmm. How many arrests were made of Tea Party demonstrators that were making threatening statements and even carrying guns on federal park land? Well, anyway, we are all equal.

Homeowners who are victims of mortgage companies or the disappearance of their jobs, or both, are on their own, while the government turns a blind eye as the mortgage companies ignore the niceties and laws of foreclosure.

Have you selected your park bench for retirement?

If you think the country’s economy is the nirvana our beloved leaders and Wall Street guaranteed, go back to sleep. If you want to do something to improve the situation for yourself, your family and your country, get yourself a draft card. How’s that?

Replace your present credit cards and accounts with the Wall Street casinos with cards and accounts from local banks and credit unions. Obviously, there are a wide range of other measures you can take but his has to be a minimum, a first step.

Was the economic meltdown just one of those things? Was it something that periodically besets us that cannot be avoided? Was it an accident? Was it the result of a mistake? No. It was caused by the unbridled greed of simpletons that considered themselves and referred to themselves as Masters of the Universe. They actually thought they had triple digit IQs. If they are so intelligent, why do they worship such a simplistic ideology? How can intelligent people fail to see its absurdities?

Investment banking, if you consider it a necessary evil, cannot justifiably represent more than 3-4% of the national economy. It now represents over 20%. It rakes in 50% of all of the country’s profits. One percent of the people own as much as 90%. Four hundred people have as much wealth as 150,000,000. This represents a gross distortion of the economy. So what?

There was a similar distortion in 1929. In fact, every such major financial meltdown was preceded by this type of distortion. An economy cannot function properly when class differences are so pronounced.

The irony is that the elite are doing themselves a great deal of harm in their pursuit of this folly. They seem satisfied to be oligarchs in a banana republic. For some reason a strong nation with a vibrant economy isn’t appealing to them. By nurturing a large, healthy middle class, the economy is more stable. Business failures decline. Poverty declines. People claim to be more satisfied with their lives – people, not oligarchs.

These intellectual giants appear to be convinced that their happiness can only be based on the misery of the serfs and peons. Strangely, the elites’ happiness goes down as the people’s increases. I guess that’s okay, because the happiness levels of the majority of the elites never are positive.

If you won’t do it for your own benefit, get involved and participate in the class war for the 1%. We don’t want these brilliant people failing in 80% of the businesses they create in only 5 years. It might cause them to have self-esteem problems; problems that can only be remedied by wreaking havoc on the poor and the remnants of the middle class. They can only win the class war if they have no opponents, if you won’t fight back.

Since you persevered, I have a video for you as a reward. Enjoy.

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I am not a fan of ceilings. Well, at home is good. Maybe in most any building.

But that’s not the kind that we have as the subject today. We’re talking about the debt ceiling of the federal government. It’s possible one or two people may not be as familiar with this issue as they think.

For instance, we are the only country in the world with a debt ceiling. Another minor point is that a debt ceiling is unConstitutional. Now, are you ready for some football . . . er, uh, facts?

Yes, Virginia, the Congress of these United States, in their infinite wisdom, made us the only country in the world subject to such a nonsensical, unnecessary and useless stricture.

It isn’t merely a matter of embarrassment. It represents a potential threat to this country, and the world, that can only be guessed at. Why would they put us in so precarious position? Why would they so jeopardize us?

The debt ceiling took years to develop. It was intended to help the United States Treasury. The original intent was laudable. Its present misuse as a political weapon is despicable.

Until the time of WW I, ‘The Big One,” Congress would authorize each specific debt that was incurred. For a couple of decades, efforts were made to provide the Treasury an easier way of dealing with debts. Those efforts were formalized into a law in 1939 that provided for a debt ceiling. No good deed goes unpunished; particularly when the good deed doer has no idea what they are doing.

Most debt is incurred by action of the Congress. However, the executive branch can cause some debt. Even the courts can subject the government to debts, intentionally or not, as the result of some rulings.

However debt may be incurred, if it is legal, the Treasury must, by mandate of the Constitution, pay that debt. The Constitution makes no allowance for failure to pay any and all legal debts.

Additionally, while the above is stated quite explicitly, the Constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is. In 1935 the Supreme Court very clearly ruled that Congress did not have the power to cause any legally incurred debt to go unpaid. There would, otherwise, be no way to promise the “full faith and allegiance of the United States” to any obligation.

Those great patriotic worshipers of the Constitution may tell the Treasury that they can’t pay any bills once the ceiling is breached. They need to actually read the Constitution. It would help if they would also read an occasional ruling that the Supreme Court hands down.

While the above is true and easy to understand, there is a political consideration. It is very unlikely that any Secretary of the Treasury would be willing to be seen as defying Congress. It’s a sure bet that Secretary Geithner and any of his predecessors and successors see, or saw, their only option being to bow to Congress and pretend they have the final word.

Hey. We have a president who used to be a professor of Constitutional Law. Surely he’s familiar with the original part of the Constitution. Surely he read all of way down to Section 4 of the 14^th Amendment. But, even though he may know better, he has no more political room for maneuver than the Secretary of the Treasury.

We are stuck under the thumbs of the super patriots who don’t understand most of the Constitution and disagree with everything they do understand.

Now, we hear that there is a certain amount beyond which the Treasury will be barred from borrowing. We are told that once the cash on hand runs out the Treasury will be barred from paying any bills or other obligations. Were that it was that straightforward.

They say that our armed forces personnel, those on Social Security and many others cannot be paid . . . but guess who can. Did you say banks? You are either absolutely brilliant or at least have a realistic perception of the way our system works.

How do they justify that? Ask them. The IRS collection personnel will continue to be paid as you and I will still be required to come up with the wherewithal to keep those bankers bonuses flowing.

Okay, you say. What’s so bad about not raising the debt ceiling? The truth is, we don’t know. I can recall nothing even close to this happening before. We have no real analog for guidance. We must depend on educated guesses.

Some of the guesswork can provide a relatively high degree of confidence. We know the level of greed that guides the majority of players. We know the inane ideology they will use to rationalize their actions. We know that fear mongering will likely set new standards. Put them all together Dr. Frankenstein.

Usually, interest on the debt is one of the largest items in the annual budget. It continues to be while significantly diminished. You may have heard that interest rates are at historic lows. That has allowed us to borrow at very low cost for the past few years. It is obviously to our government’s, and taxpayers’, benefit to extend those low interest rates as long as we can.

That makes sense, you say. Won’t we? Many in and out of Congress are determined that we pay higher rates. How could they be so unconcerned for our country’s economic well-being? Some because they are ideologues. Some for putative political advantage. Some for both reasons.

It is difficult to understand the ‘thinking’ of some politicians. They are owned by the banks. The banks love the essentially free money they can borrow now. The banks have told their representatives not to shut down the government. They likely will obey their orders but for the sake of their ideology and their ever credulous constituencies they want to push it to the brink.

The banks, our creditors and other major financial entities relying on our “full faith and allegiance” will begin to get fidgety at some point before the actual deadline. The automatic, ideologically-based response will be to raise interest rates. Our government, we the taxpayers, will lose those low interest rates ahead of the final due date.

Here we have the true believers screaming that the debt is too large. They threaten massive cuts to every program that helps the middle class and sustains the poor. Though our taxes are the lowest in more than 60 years, they bemoan such an intolerable tax burden on the top 2% and are willing to increase the debt for their benefit.

Now comes the kicker. They are willing to cause the government’s interest rates to increase incurring additional debt in the hundreds of billions. Don’t forget to send these self-described debt haters a thank you note.

Why all of the concern by the banks, China, the Saudis, the Brits and all of the other major players? Because the US Dollar is the currency of the realm. Everyone puts their “full faith and allegiance” into the Dollar. Everything in international trade is denoted in the Dollar. There is the stability required for the financial world to function because there is a common coin.

So, just replace it with the Euro. You may not have heard that several members of the European Community are experiencing even greater financial discomfort than are we. Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal and others. This is putting heavy stress on the stronger national banks of the Community. There is not inconsiderable talk of some members leaving the Euro. Some even talk of abolishing it.

That doesn’t sound to me like a promising alternative. What about gold? Give me a moment. Let me stifle my paroxysm of giggling.

The Washington Monument measures 55 feet on each side at its base. It stands 555 feet high. All of the gold ever gathered by mankind in its entire history would equal about one-third of the volume of the Washington Monument. That doesn’t seem to be all that much. Use that as the basis for finances of the entire world? And that doesn’t even take into consideration how much would be needed for the egos of both the rich and poor in Rolexes and teeth.

Allow me to translate that for sports fans. The playing field for football is 300 feet long and 160 feet wide. This, of course, doesn’t include the end zones. All of the gold gathered in the history of mankind would stack up on that playing field a bit less than 11½ feet high, barely higher than the crossbars on the goalposts.

People usually fail to take into consideration how advantageous it is to have our currency accepted as the de facto world standard. When OPEC quotes prices in Dollars we have both a slight real and a psychological advantage. We are, to a degree, insulted from most of the zigs and zags of currency values. In many cases, the cost and convenience of currency exchange works to our advantage as tourists or direct buyers from other countries.

If the world holds our credit worthiness or solvency in question, the pedestal of world superpower will start to crumble at an alarming rate. Our national strength has always been intimately yoked to, indeed based on, our perceived economic dominance.

It is impossible to quantify the potential damage from shutting down the government, to us and everyone else. The loss of the standard will mean economic turmoil around the world until a new system can be developed. The present system developed in the aftermath of WW II and was possible because the rest of the world was prostrate. I don’t recommend revisiting those conditions.

The politicians, most of them, are presently playing games with this issue for some expected political advantage. It’s time to realize that it isn’t a game and hope some adults come to the fore.

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I pay more taxes than General Electric. You pay more taxes than General Electric.

Technically, they pay more, just not to the United States Government.

For some reason, though the bulk of their business income comes from this country, they always seem to lose money here and make tremendous profits overseas. Why didn’t TurboTax do that for me?

General Electric’s slogan is “Imagination at Work.” That’s nice. It would be nicer if some of that imagination devoted to tax law was diverted to something their customers could use. A truly imaginative act would be to bring jobs and tax revenue back home.

GE is known to have the premier tax law firm in the country. It is an in-house law department consisting of about 900 lawyers. While making massive layoffs elsewhere, it appears that department is safe from cuts. This, of course doesn’t count their lobbyists giving congressmen pre-written tax law changes that some of those 900 have developed.

Where do they find these imaginative tax experts? The IRS. The Treasury. Every tax-writing committee in Congress. While they propagandize you to believe that government can’t find its rectum with both hands, they find it to be a recruiting goldmine. Is it possible our bureaucrats aren’t overpaid riders on a gravy train?

One of the services the government is supposed to render is to regulate and inspect nuclear power plants. It turns out they are very shorthanded. It has been years since some of the 104 plants in the US have been inspected. GE is the leading builder of nuclear power plants in the world. They even have them in far off exotic places, like Japan. I’m wondering if they might be shorthanded because they are insufficiently funded.

GE hasn’t forgotten its poor, bedraggled executives. It generously gives $14,000 to each one to pay the costs of having their individual returns done. This payout is deductible, of course.

How many times have you heard that lowering the taxes on corporations and the wealthy will allow them to create jobs? In 2009 GE reduced its workforce by 19,000. That is a little misleading. They actually eliminated 35,000 jobs. It doesn’t look quite as bad because they acquired 16,000 new employees when they purchased a Central American bank. I am unaware of a lot of their US employees relocating southward.

The following are some figures cribbed from Senator Sanders web site.

Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg. A study covering 1998 to 2005 found more than three-quarters of major corporations paid no tax. Major appears to be defined as revenue of $250 million or more. That doesn’t seem so major with so many raking in the billions.

You often hear the tools proclaiming that the US has the highest business tax in the world. Not true. Japan leads in that category. If we count what is actually paid, rather than the published rate, we would find the US at the bottom.

Companies don’t move overseas because of taxes. They move to pay lower wages, avoid health and safety rules and to employ more compliant workers. Do you like that iPad that was made in China by what the international community has called slave labor and child labor?

Apple admitted their Chinese factories used child labor. However, they did get upset when an audit showed that even the lax Chinese labor laws were being violated and the children were being poisoned by having to handle some of the components without protective gear. Is it possible that Steve Jobs would have a billion or two less if he didn’t take advantage of these kids?

The governors of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida and, I feel certain, other states, quickly offered tax cuts to businesses. Then they try to compensate for the lost revenue by cutting education ($900 million in Wisconsin alone), police, firemen, unemployment compensation, parks, health and other services you might use.

Is the budget deficit a major problem? Yes. How are we going to deal with it? French fry fryers and Walmart greeters will just have to dig a little deeper. Personally, I think we can do it. I found a quarter on the sidewalk only yesterday.

In case you didn’t realize it, you are very generous to these corporations. Back in the 1950s, when our economic engine was hitting its best performance levels ever, the corporate share of the governments revenue was 30%. By 2009, their contribution had fallen to 6.6%.

Not only is a one-sided class war being waged against the people of this country, they are subsidizing the enemy.

I have never been eligible for the Alternative Minimum Tax. You may have noticed some mention of it. I was surprised to learn that there is also an AMT for businesses. It’s on the books but I find no evidence that it is being implemented. Enforcing that could go a long way towards making the deficit smaller.

How about putting our IRS ahead of tax collection entities of other countries? The law could easily be written to require a company that pays taxes to other countries to pay the full corporate tax rate on domestic income, without deductions, unless they pay the US tax, with deductions, on all income.

How could we justify taxing them on overseas revenues? How many billions do we spend defending and representing their interests around the world? How much do these other countries provide for them?

Unless the Congress makes changes of this nature that require corporations to share the burden, they should not be taken seriously, nor be considered our representatives.

President Obama is concerned about the economy. He recently appointed Jeffrey Immelt as his chief outside economic advisor. By the way, Jeff is the CEO of General Electric.

I understand GE is to be banned from Gitmo, for humanitarian reasons.

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We need to send some senators to Guantanamo. They are far more dangerous to our country than any of the people already in residence there.

I’m certain you have at least heard the name of Christopher Bond, Senator from Missouri. You, however, may be forgiven for not recognizing Martha Johnson’s name.

Miss Martha was the President’s nominee to head up the General Services Administration. It’s difficult to think of a political appointment to a less political position. The GSA is primarily the nation’s landlord and maintenance arm. They do the grunt work so that government employees have a roof over their heads.

What connection is there between these two?

Little Chris (Kit) was pissed about something to do with a new Federal building in Kansas City. So, he did what any grammar school kid would do. He took “his” ball and refused to let the others play. He put a hold on her nomination.

Believe it or not, the Democrats finally showed some backbone and forced a vote. What was the outcome of this controversial nomination? She was confirmed: 96-0.

Senators are so impressed with themselves that they refer to the Senate as the world’s most exclusive club. Sometimes they call it the world’s most exclusive debating club. One problem – they no longer debate. They just pose for the cameras and talk past each other.

Given how impressed they are with themselves, they feel they deserve special privileges. So, they give themselves a bunch of special considerations. My problem with that, beyond the attitude that engenders it, is that essentially all of these privileges are anti-democratic. Somehow that doesn’t seem meet in, arguably, the world’s most successful democracy.

The privilege pertinent to the above embarrassment is the rule that permits any Senator to put a hold on any nominee or bill, for any reason, or for no reason. Any single Senator can put the whole country on hold, at his pleasure. It this any way to run an airline?

Now, another Senator has taken the next illogical step. He has put a hold on all nominations. Who is this terrorist? He goes by the American-sounding name of Richard Shelby. Unsurprisingly, he comes out of Alabama, our leading state – at least alphabetically.

Surely there is a serious national danger that calls for such a drastic measure. What could it be?

Old Dick wants a government contract to go to a defense contractor who would do assembly work on a new tanker back home in Alabama. I’m convinced that he merely wants government-funded jobs for his constituents. It has nothing to do with his being on the contractor’s payroll.

Actually, the Dick has another reason, as well. He wants the FBI to build an explosives testing facility in Alabama. We mustn’t locate such a facility too conveniently to the FBI’s primary offices in Virginia. That would only help one part of the government function more efficiently. That would violate one of his “conservative” tenants.

The Dick is famous for how tentative his tenants can be. He once pontificated, “Far too many of the president’s nominees were never afforded an up or down vote because several Democrats chose to block the process for political gain.” That, of course, was when Bush had a majority of Republicans in the Senate.

Another rule has become a “privilege.” That is the rule requiring a super majority. When the Democrats had 60 votes, that meant any Democratic Senator could stand in the way until he/she got what they wanted. That worked out so well we ended up with a joke called a healthcare reform bill. It was more like a ménages à cent.

Now, with the Republicans having 41 votes, one of that group can either stop the majority or broker a deal to get what they want. What about what the people want? Silly question.

How do they justify these privileges? They sometimes resort to calling them a part of the system of checks and balances. Pure BS.

The Constitution provides for several checks and balances. There are what are considered to be the main ones: between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. We also have another between the two branches of Congress. The primary one was to be between the people, on the one hand, and Congress and the White House on the other. That one has been effectively eliminated by the Senate.

There are several ways to eliminate these anti-democratic privileges. The Vice President could, at the beginning of the next session, declare them eliminated. It seems he is not so inclined. The Senate Majority Leader could also lead. Not much chance of that.

The Constitution begins, “We the People.” Forget the Constitution. The Rules of the Senate take precedence. The people have been beaten into complete submission. Do you really think the people are prepared to take time away from their 50″ flat screens and video games to regain the power promised by the Constitution? Sure, there are the teabaggers but they are a thankfully small group of yoyos that are too easily led by faux populists such as Dick Armey and the corporate interests he represents. They are ready and willing to blindly follow con men to support policies that are against their real self-interests.

It doesn’t make much sense to depend on such as the corporately mislead teabaggers to help rid us of the corporate-owned legislators. What is the solution? Realistically, there seems not to be one. They say knowledge is power. How I wish that were true.

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Have you heard anyone say, “Executive Experience?” Have you heard it relating to the presidential election? You have? Aw, shucks. Here I was hoping I could be the first. I bet it’s far less likely that you’ve heard an explication of it that rose above the level of a middle school civics class.

First, let’s cut through all of the garbage. There is no position that one can hold which guarantees a person is qualified for the presidency. George Bush has held the job for eight years and still isn’t qualified.

Some people are so ridiculous as to say that Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama and Biden. On what basis? On the basis that neither of them has held executive positions. The only logical conclusion then must be that she is also more qualified than McCain. Oh, really?

Why do these people insist that executive experience is the only kind that matters? Because they are partisans, or idiots, or both.

How many presidents have come to the job with more executive experience than George Bush? Didn’t he run about seven businesses before holding public office? Wasn’t he in his second term as governor of Texas? Didn’t he hold a Masters of Business Administration degree from Harvard? Hadn’t he been a fighter pilot?

I recently saw someone, I think it was Karl Rove, promote Palin as having been mayor of the second largest city in Alaska. What? A town of 7,000 is the second largest city? The entire state has a population approximately the same as Charlotte, North Carolina. Perhaps we would have a more accurate picture of her level of qualification by referring to her as the Mayor of Alaska.

As farfetched as these and many other attempts have been to support her as qualified, someone topped them all. Palin was qualified because her government experience was in Alaska and Alaska is close to Russia. Just who was this brilliant political analyst? Cindy McCain. She couldn’t have said anything that stupid. Oh but she did; in an interview on ABC with George Stephanopoulos. Perhaps John shared with her his thoughts and the results of the almost three days of vetting.

How many times have we heard about her ‘experience’ as commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard? Her experience includes not one single order to that organization. It does include some photo ops. Even Dick Cheney had more military experience in finagling his five deferments.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC asked Palin about her possibly being a veep candidate a month before she was tapped. This is her response: “As for that v.p. talk all the time, I’ll tell you, I still can’t answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the v.p. does every day? I’m used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that v.p. slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question.”

How can any high school graduate not know what the v.p. does? And we must all agree that the most important consideration would be what it accomplishes for Alaskans. We might want to give this point a little more consideration. I’ve never embedded a YouTube video before so I am not certain I have done it correctly. If it doesn’t work, the link is here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4iCDBIAde8

Did you listen carefully? Those mentions of the Alaskan Constitution are important. The Alaskan Independence Party espouses, naturally, the independence of Alaska. They claim that government employees and military personnel were not eligible to vote on statehood. They don’t want to be Americans. We’re not good enough for them. They shouldn’t have to share their energy with us. The v.p. job has to benefit Alaskans. No, I didn’t make this up. I couldn’t possibly.

Is she really connected to the AIP? According to Dexter Clark, Vice Chairman of the AIP: “Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . .” Her husband admits to being a member for seven years.

AIP party founder Joe Vogler once said he had “no use for America or her damned institutions.” While McCain’s slogan is ‘Country First,’ Palin applauds and shares AIP’s slogan, “Alaska First – Alaska Always.

As mayor she fired the librarian for refusing to ban a book. And then there was the firing of the police chief and, and, and. Perhaps she can be convinced to take the job of v.p. if we let her fire the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and, ultimately, John McCain, since he obviously disagrees with her. This is someone who is totally unfamiliar with the entire Constitution, other than the 2nd Amendment. Yeah, sure, let’s put this dingbat a heartbeat away from the button.

Qualified? Because of executive experience? This former mayor of a town smaller than many high schools is qualified for not much beyond clubbing and gutting moose, polar bears and baby seals. She is totally ignorant of what America is all about. She is a dangerous zealot. How can she deal with the complexities of the positions of v.p. or president when she neither sees nor comprehends anything complex?

Everyone says that Biden must handle her with kid gloves because she is a woman. I’m afraid that is true but she certainly doesn’t deserve such consideration. Neither will she appreciate it. Anyone voting for her deserves her, but the rest of us don’t.

The positions of v.p. and president call for something beyond selfishness. The positions call for devotion to all fifty states. They call for allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. They call for a sense of and history of responsibility. They certainly don’t call for whatever putative experience she can claim, executive or otherwise.

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