This country is upside down. It is a corporation, not We the People. We have a choice. We can rid ourselves of the corruption of politicians that obey their owners and refuse to represent the people or we can continue the downward slide to third-world status. We can do something other than complain or just let it slide and continue to be the nation of losers.
America is a cult. Americans believe the lies they feed us. They drum it into us that America is the best. Really? In 1973 we were the world’s biggest exporter of manufactured goods. Now we are the biggest importer of such. In 1973 we were the biggest importer of raw materials. Now we are the biggest exporter. In 1973 we were the biggest creditor nation. Now we are the biggest debtor nation. Household income reached a peak in 1973, if you account for inflation.
We are well on our way to qualifying as a third-world country. We are the best?
How could that happen? There was the first oil embargo, which quadrupled the price of a barrel of oil. Then a second one in 1979. They hurt a bit but the real damage was done by Reagan and the Bushes. Ronnie began by tripling the national debt. Bush pere couldn’t match that in only one term. However, Bush fils tried to make up for it..
Some remember the ’80s as good years. If I give you an unlimited credit card that you never have to pay off, you can throw quite a few parties. That began with St. Ronnie. He gave us supply-side economics, aka trickle down economics. They wanted to cripple the government and then claim government was incompetent. They wanted to privatize every function that could be profitable. Have you noticed the war against USPS?
We are at the bottom of the list of industrialized countries in education. We rank below some third-world countries in life expectancy, in infant mortality and in a host of other measures of national health. We show up so low on the list of happiest countries that nobody see us.. I have a couple of nephews living in Minneapolis. Have you forgotten that bridge collapsing? Just one of dozens. Have you been to the Newark airport in the past several decades? The world for the past 4 decades should have been infrastructure not tax cuts.
You’ve likely heard the word fascist thrown around lately. It’s always by people who are ignorant of what it is. I trust Benito Mussolini as having known the real definition: Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. Both Mussolini and Hitler ruled fascist states. There is a difference now though. Back then, the power of the state ruled. Now the corporations own and rule the state. Yes, Virginia, by the definition of the epitome of that word, we are a fascist country.
But we’re democratic, you protest. Bat feces. We began as a nation where only white male property owners could vote. You don’t vote for a president. The Founders didn’t trust the rabble to make wise decisions. They gave us the Electoral College, which is heavily weighted toward small states, which were easier to control. They gave state legislators the right to select senators. In this past Congress the minority party in the Senate represented 11 million more voters than the majority party.
The Republican have been a minority party for decades while controlling the majority of state legislatures. Democracy? The Republicans can claim only one win of the popular vote for president of the past eight elections. That would be 2004 but later investigations throws Ohio into question for that year. Blame it on gerrymandering and cheating.
Our infrastructure has been crumbling for decades. Have those incompetent toadies in D.C. addressed that problem? No. They have given us “Tinkle Down Economics.”
You build up an economy by the government supporting education, health and infrastructure. Those factors generate an increase of productivity, which benefits the entire country. Taxes are needed to support those factors. Tax cuts cut the ability of the government to benefit the country.
Large portions of tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy support their overseas investments. There is no need to send American jobs overseas when we are sending tax dollars overseas to create jobs over there. The remainder of the tax cuts are spent on corporations buying back their own stock to increase its value, which creates no jobs or develops no infrastructure.
Nor does that benefit the nation through education and health. Some of those tax cuts go to buying bigger private jets. The largest manufacturers of private jets are in Canada and Brazil. Some of those tax cuts go to purchase yachts. America is far from the largest manufacturer of those big, unnecessary penis substitutes.
They keep involving us in wars. Hey, we successfully invaded Grenada back in 1983. We did beat Panama. How’s that War Against Terrorism going? Vietnam? Korea? Isis? Syria? Are we going to conquer Yemen? Well, what would the “defense” industries do without all of these wars? I seem to remember Eisenhower warning against the “Military-Industrial Complex” in his farewell speech. He turned out to be a better prognosticator than president. He was our Cassandra.
Do we really need troops stationed in 159 country? We spend more on the military than the next 10 countries combined. But we can afford to because we don’t waste money on such frivolous things as education, health and infrastructure.
What To Do?
Deal with the real problem. Stop this idiotic fight between Red and Blue. You aren’t each others real enemies. The division is between those that control both Democratic and Republican politicians. You should be fighting together — not each other. You’re both getting screwed..
Are they all bad? No, but it would be nice if there were at least 5 percent actually on our side. How long before some of them get co-oped?
There needs to be the most massive demonstrations ever in this country. They need to be carried out by Red and Blue, conservative and progressive (and we need to rid ourselves of such labels). They need to last until the corporations and billionaires being paying taxes instead of getting the tax dollars of the people. There were 59 new billionaires created in 2020 during the pandemic. I am not going to elaborate here on how such massive disparities of wealth distribution disrupt and burden our national economy. Just accept that it does more damage than you imagine.
There needs to be a competently organized and led movement to track the votes of every politician on the state and federal levels. Recall petitions need to littering the entire country. Someone other than an ancient geezer confined to a wheelchair needs to get their rear in gear and make this happen.
Will it happen? I wouldn’t bet my bottom or my dollar on it. Too many Americans still believe the hogwash, the lies, about how America is the best. If you disagree, comment below and then get out and prove me wrong. I sincerely wish I were. It would be nice to see the fruition of those fantasies you and I were raised on.
One more video. It shows just one of the ways the government benefits the wealthy beyond tax cuts. You and I and all of the other readers of this don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all of the ways.
If you found this educational, edifying, interesting or otherwise worth your time, this geezer would appreciate a little supplement to those Social Security checks, They forgot to factor in the cost of publishing a blog.
Many thanks,
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