The drive to create American plutocracy knows no limits, and no shame.  In a never ceasing effort to “privatize” all aspects of American government, a smear campaign has been launched against the Veterans Administration.  The supposed story is the incompetence of the VA medical system.  The goal is to shut down the VA’s hospitals and direct traffic to private hospitals.  The “theory” is that private American hospitals – part of the world’s 37th best health care system – will provide superior health care for America’s veterans.  This is another example of the “market based” theory – the false idea that private is always superior to government.

The “Big Lie is well documented for you in a July/August, 2018, article in “Washington Monthly” magazine, “Unhealthy Skepticism,” by Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven.  They start by relating the nonprofit RAND organization’s study showing “gross inadequacies of New York State’s health care system to effectively treat veteran patients.  A month later, RAND found that the quality of VA care was generally better than private care.  These were just the latest of scores of studies that have come to the same conclusion foe nearly two decades now.”

Gordon and Jasper wonder how can this be?  20 years of reports saying VA care better than private, ignored.  Why?  “The answer is that studies like the RAND report are virtually ignored by the press”  So – why is that?  A good part of that is conservatives pushing “free market” solutions…for nearly everything….. privatizing Social Security……privatizing public schools…..privatizing prisons…..privatizing government itself.  And, of course, the gold standard of “free market solutions” is….America’s #37 best private health care system itself!

The real issue, for some, is that the VA is a successful example of socialized medicine.  If the “usual suspects” can discredit and demonize the VA, then they can use that to discredit and defeat something like “Medicare for All,” the “radical” [only for America] idea that the world’s richest nation ought to provide decent medical care for all its people.  Some might say where does that come from?  Well, perhaps, if one took the Constitution seriously, its Preamble says: “promote the general Welfare.”  If we can assume that a progressive middle class-oriented government might consider a healthy population as “Promoting the general Welfare,” then not so “radical.”

Unravelling the sensational Phoenix VA story, it is established that not 40, but 6 veterans died waiting for care – and it wasn’t clear delays caused the deaths.  They could have died while waiting, not BECAUSE of waiting.  Gordon and Jasper point out people die all the time in the private sector waiting to see a doctor.  So – part of the problem is the failure of media to compare the VA, accurately, with the #37 best private health care system.  For comparison, American “private hospitals and physicians kill more than 250,000 patients a year [and seriously injure 1.5 million] due to preventable medical errors.”  This includes some of America’s top rated hospitals.  When is the last…or perhaps the first time…you heard those statistics?  And, as the authors state: “no one suggests that these hospitals should be socialized.”

Perhaps the veterans would be referred to a private hospital under these circumstances: 84 million Americans live in a federally designated primary care shortage area; or perhaps try to find a psychiatrist or social worker in the 77% of U.S. counties that have acute shortages; or perhaps in the 55% of U.S. counties, all rural, that have no mental health care professionals at all?  So, or veterans would be driving just how far???  “Without the VA, these numbers would be even worse.”

The authors point out the VA scandal occurred because the VA reported problems – and got negative press.  The other side of that coin is: “the other healthcare providers were routinely covering them up.”  Most private companies don’t even attempt to collect such data, much less make it public.  So – we have a different set of rules.  “There are no inspectors general or standing congressional committees for private health care..”  But there is advertising!  Private hospitals “typically” invest $1 million in advertising; one prominent private hospital spent $l19 million in 2015 advertising.  And this: “When “Time” magazine named neuroscientist Ann McKee to it 2018 list of the world’s 100 most influential people, it DIDN’T even mention her position as chief neuropathologist for the Boston VA.”

And, of course, “Things have only gotten worse under Trump.”  The current VA national press secretary [surprise!] worked for a Republican congressman who pushed “drastic” privatization measures, and [surprise!] the press secretary is a “longtime VA skeptic” [something like the EPA Secretary is a climate denier, the Education Secretary a public school privatizer, etc]  And the current interim Secretary, “has highlighted negative news stories reported on “Fox & Friends,” urging Congress to outsource more VA care>”  YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!!!  But then, its a repeat of the 1980-2009 playbook: appoint enemies of a department, let them sabotage it – and call that “government.”  Imagine an NFL defensive coordinator who was a former 3rd string QB who hates the defense!

And then, as the authors mention, all the supposed VA “failures” come “as with other federal agencies, red tape and dysfunction is brought to you by Congress.  Considering that for the last 40 years, Republicans have controlled Congress much of the time; and considering the post-1980 anti-government ideology of the Republicans, are you surprised that Congress would deliberately sabotage government?  It is Congress that forced the VA to “adjudicate impossibly difficult eligibility standards,” forcing the VA to deny benefits.  Also “its members of Congress, not VA employees, who decide how much money to allocate to the VA, as well as where and how to spend it.” [saddling the VA with billions in expenses for operating obsolete facilities].  Then also, “VA hospitals and clinics have become strapped for cash because Congress..passed the CHOICE Act, which required that the VA divert more resources to paying private doctors for the treatment of VA patients.”  Does the word “sabotage” begin to wander through your mind here?

Informed readers will remember the last 40 years of Republican attempts to divert public taxpayer money [unconstitutionally] to private schools.  This has been a double win for them.  They subsidize private schools [again with little accountability], and by taking this money from the public schools, they make the public schools’ job more difficult – thus aiding that Big Lie – “failing public schools.”  Same playbook, just a different opportunity.  Just like American industry has used “the tobacco defense” playbook to justify all sorts of misconduct – the most recent and deadly – climate change denial.

And, given the current corrupt American political scene, would this issue be complete without “Dark Money?”  Readers in the know remember Jane Mayer’s book, “Dark Money” [how billionaires subvert American democracy]  So… Surprise!!! – guess what? – the Dark Money in the VA smear effort can be traced back to…..the Koch brothers!  It turns out t5hat a prominent corporate-sponsored “veterans group” is “Concern Veterans for America,” which regularly attacks the VA.  “Yet, unlike the VFW, the American Legion…CVA is not accountable to dues-paying, rank-and-file veterans.  Rather, it is largely financed by the Koch brothers and their network of wealthy funders and led by a narrow band of media-savvy professional advocates.”  One might ask why groups of billionaires are instead of doing every patriotic thing possible to aid the people who protected their fortunes, are doing everything they can to undermine the medical care the veterans earned with their blood on the battlefield.  Strange world.  There is another “Astroturf organization,” the “Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,” harshly critical of the VA.  The IAVA website claims 425,000 members, “but membership merely entails a mouse click; no dues required, nor proof of veteran status….funding..comes from “partners” who include major corporations that stand to gain directly from VA privatization.”  One of these contributed $500,000 “not long before becoming a major beneficiary of legislation that forces the VA to outsource more care..”  One might think that an administration that came to power by saying it would “drain the swamp in Washington” would be leaving no stone unturned to ferret what playground logic says sounds very much like corruption.

So, gentle readers, where is the real scandal involving the VA?  Is it what what a relentless smear campaign says it is?  Or, is it what the RAND nonprofit research organization determined, based on real facts, not “alternative facts” – that the VA was providing superior care over private care?  And then, you might be asking why we’re having all these “discussions?”  All of which supposedly concern government groups who are “incompetent?”  Who stands to benefit from undermining civil servants, police, public school teachers, government in general.

The real “privatization scandal isn’t limited to the VA.  The July/August “Washington Monthly” has another article by Paul Glastris dealing with this: “…focus on where some of the most egregious waste and fraud is really happening: private contracting…the biggest profligacy in government contracting is in ‘service contracting’: that is outsourcing to private consulting firms quotidian work..that could be, and often was, done in-house.  “Walk into any federal agency office and you’ll see service contractors and civil servants sitting side by side, doing the same work…The only difference is that service contractors cost the government [that’s you, taxpayer], on average, nearly twice as much…with typically no improvement in outcomes..the costly rise of outsourcing government work that began under Ronald Reagan.”

One of the definitive studies of “privatization” is by Naomi Klein, “The Shock Doctrine.”  It documents “privatization” around the world, with almost 100% negative results for democracy and citizen control of their own government.  From pages 363-400, Klein tells how the Bush II regime’s “central tenet” was not to govern but to subcontract work to “privatization.”  Credit is due also to the Clinton and Bush I administrations which enlarged the Reagan effort.  In what “can only be described as a privatized police state.” Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush II applied “market logic” to the U.S. military.  For corroboration, find fact-based audits of the Iraq war and occupation.  Beginning on page 376, Klein details the Bush II “corporate new deal.”  Also, the ‘war on terror’ was largely a privatized concept from the begging.  The result?  An explosion of the U.S. national debt.  Mr. & Mrs. Lower 95% – you’ve been paying, are paying, will be paying, and so will your children – trillions for this “privatization.”

We’ve come far from “the Greatest Generation,” the generation of people who believed in government, believed that together they could improve America.  Now, for the last 40 years, you’ve been fed a steady diet of “government is the problem” lies.  People, purporting to be patriots, have been instead following the totalitarian handbook of the “Big Lie” and steadily authoritarian regimes.  Just like infamous 20th century dictatorships, their Big Lies are, often daily, repeated in a massive, coordinated “echo chamber” of TV, talk radio, the internet.  Just like in the 20th century, false scapegoats are “identified” for you to hate, to distract your attention from the real perps – them.  Here we are in 2018, in the climate of “alternative facts.”  Bit by bit, we slide down toward Orwoll’s  scenario – governing the world’s most powerful “democracy” on the basis of grossly false lies.  I’m glad Mom and Dad aren’t here to see this.

 

Every lover of democracy should read Pulitzer Prize-winner David C. Johnston’s “Divided, the Perils of Our Growing Inequality.”  The book’s 311 pages detail and document the many parts of people’s lives adversely affected by income inequality.  Others have mentioned the current cost of raising a child [$233,000] inhibits the parent’s lives – and they may not have children because they can’t afford them… THEY MAY NOT HAVE CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD THEM…… Which means American society is writing its own obituary.  The perils of inequality are ancient:

“Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.”  Plato

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”  Plutarch

Consider the numbers.  Trade rules destroyed factory jobs – more than 50,000 factories and 2,8 million jobs offshored to China.  [WHO wrote the rules?]  The real cost must include the “multiplier” effect of factory jobs – 2.4.  The total number of jobs lost was 2.8 million, plus 6.72 million more jobs.  By 2012, the majority’s average income had shrunk 13% from 1973 [$35,584 to $30, 997 in 2012 dollars].  Almost 1/3 of Americans with any kind of job in 2012 made less than $15,000.  Since 1980, nearly 2/3 of households [32 of l00 million] have declared bankruptcy.

“The disposition to admire,  and almost to worship, the rich and powerful, and to despise, or at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and almost universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”  Adam Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”

In 2012, people whose jobs paid cash wages of $5 million grew by 27%.  Very highly paid jobs grew so fast, the Social Security Administration changed its top comp rate in 1994 from “more than $5 million” to “more than $20 million.”  And, in 1997, raised the top to “more than $50 million.”  The top 1% saw their income increase by 153% between 1973 and 2012.  At the very top, top 1% of top 1%, their income skyrocketed from $5.4 million in 1966 to $30.8 million in 2012.

“Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven….It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Jesus Christ, Matthew 19

After the top 1% caused the “Great 2008 Recession,” between 2009-2012, just 16,000 U>S> households took 31% of all increased income of America’s 315 million people.  Analysis of tax returns revealed the bottom 90% income shrank by 15.7%.

“We can either have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”  Justice Louis Brandeis

Between 1961 – 2011, the U.S’s top 400 taxpayers tax burden fell by 60%.  The total tax burden for the bottom 90% actually slightly increased.  The burden of government has been shifted to the lower 90%.   add to this, attacks in Congress on child labor laws, on unions of all kinds, on environmental laws of all kinds – which are actually attacks on the quality of life.”

“The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of the government.”  President Theodore Roosevelt

Part of the cost for inequality is less spending on what used to be considered essential public goods: 50% of roads/highways in “Backlog” – not maintained on time, so costs 2-5 times more & add minimum vehicle damage of $120 annually]; inspections of food imports are down 75% from 1981 [200-500 deaths]; slow upgrades in water supply systems [45 million endangered]; opposition to cleaner air [15,000 lives, 140,000 affected]; falling educational support [declining SAT teacher scores & bigger classes]; slashed funding for many social net services.

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories – which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacrilized workings of the prevailing economic system.”  Pope Francis I

October, 2012, the “Economist” magazine stated that the magnitude and nature of America’s inequality represented a serious threat to the country.  The International Monetary Fund noted a systematic relationship between inequality and economic instability.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz noted that inequality means many children will never live up to their potential.  More than 20% of American kids live in poverty.  Children in other rich countries – Canada, France, Germany, Sweden – have a better chance of doing better than their parents than American children do.  And – this is before the skyrocketing college tuition cost, and debt that follows.  This inhibits marriage, home buying, and even having children.

“American inequality didn’t just happen.  It was created.”  Joseph Stiglitz”

“…a sophisticated multimillion-dollar industry has developed to consult and advise employers on how to oppose unions and frighten workers…No other industrialized nation has such a powerful union-busting industry or weaker labor protections.”

“In the general course of human nature,  a power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”  Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist

It was estimated that in 2010,  Federal subsidies to corporations – loopholes, direct cash transfers, etc. totaled $170 billion.   State and local corporate subsidies were in the $700 billion range.  But “we can’t afford subsidized child care.”   RIGHT?

“Great wealth always supports the party in power, no matter how corrupt it may be.  It never exerts itself for reform, for it instinctively fears change.”  Henry George,  1884

sean f. reardon’s “No Rich Child Left Behind” documents one of the main consequences of income inequality: rich kids entering kindergarten much better prepared.  From 1972-2006, the rich increased amounts spent on their children’s enrichment activities by 150%.  This leads to a growing educational gap between rich and middle class children; and false culprits like “failing schools.”  Solution: do what the rich do, invest in children from the day they are born.

“communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the out-growth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil.”  President Grover Cleveland,  12/3/1888

Mike Rose says America cannot afford to ignore the 10 million community college students, many also working; nor can we ignore “tens of millions of young, marginally educated people who drift in and out of low-paying, dead-end jobs.”  And –  again, America spends “much less as a share of GDP than almost any other rich country” on these same people.  And – after the 2008 Crash, America started cutting back on public library services [only free internet sources in 2/3 of communities].

An estimated 22-100,000 people die annually in the USA – no access to health care.  Half of US emergency rooms report daily overcrowding; 500,000 ambulances are diverted each year.  Our overcrowded and underfunded emergency care system is ill prepared to respond to any major disaster – natural, disease, terrorist.

“What do I care about the law?  Hain’t I got the power?”  Cornelius Vanderbilt

In 2010, about 48.8 million Americans lived in food-insecure households.  40% had to choose between paying rent/mortgage and buying food.  America’s “Hunger Bill” is $167.5 billion yearly for lost productivity, compensation for low educational achievement, poor health, depression, suicides and charity cost.  A 2007 study, “The Economic Costs of Domestic Hunger,” said: “The nation pays far more by letting hunger exist than it would if our leaders took steps to eliminate it.”

“The children who go to bed hungry in a Harlem slum or a West Virginia mining town are not being deprived because no food can be found to give them; they are going to bed hungry because, despite all our miracles of invention and production, we have not yet found a way to make the necessities of life available to all our citizens – including those whose failure is not of personal industry or initiative, but only the unwise choice of parents.”  Senator J.William Fulbright,  1964

The $60 billion-a-year U.S. prison system is a “second line of defense” against people not helped by other social institutions:  welfare, education, employment and job training, mental health programs.  America is #1 for locking people up.  Inequality and punishment “are intimately linked.”  The U.S. jailed population rapidly escalated from 250,000 to 2.3 million by 2009; over 30 million have been affected in the last 30 years.  These people are usually negatively affected for life – a consequence inflicted upon their families and communities.  “Few doubt this system works.”

“We hold that the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying invented wants of courtly extravagance, ambition, and intrigue.”  Thomas Paine,  1791

There will be future costs.  A 1/30/2015 report said 47% of Americans spend all their income, go into debt, or use savings to exist.   TO EXIST   A major future consequence is well known: poverty in old age.  Old age medical bills will rise for Medicare.  Destitute seniors will be living on the taxpayers’ dime in nursing homes [as many already are].  Not only loss of old age dignity, but massive taxpayer expense will happen.  Another consequence of the skyrocketing 1980-2018 income inequality crisis.  The gains of American wealth have been “privatized;” the pains are/will be socialized.

And – we haven’t even discussed the coming robot-takes-your-job crisis.  People with money and power, and knowledge of the future, are already planning and investing in AI and robotics.  Without significant ideological changes, America could become a very unpleasant place to live.  Perhaps this will be the final consequence of the current  obscene income inequality.  Plutarch and Justice Brandeis will have been proven correct.

“God gave me my money.”  John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

 

There is considerable concern about the ability of American government to solve basic problems.  Sometimes reference is made to “gridlock” or “partisanship.”  Two long-time analysts of American politics, Thomas Mann {Brookings Institute} and Norman Ornstein {AmericanEnterprise Institute} studied this, and produced a book,”It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.”  They criticized media for seeking “safe ground by giving equal time to opposing sides and arguments and crafting news stories that convey the impression that the two sides are equally implicated.”  They emphatically state this is not the case.  They blame the Republican Party.  Summary of their argument follows.

“In every chapter of this book, we have documented the ways in which the Republican Party has become the insurgent outlier in American politics and as such contributes disproportionally to its dysfunction….The contemporary [2012] GOP, to the horror of many of its longtime stalwarts and leaders like former senators John Danforth of Missouri and Alan Simpson of Wyoming, has veered toward tolerance of extreme ideological beliefs and policies and embrace of cynical and destructive means to advance political ends over problem solving.  These tendencies have led to disdain for negotiation and compromise unless forced into them…”

“…the Republican Party of old – the party of moderates like Ray LaHood, David Durenberger, and John Danforth, and of conservatives like Alan Simpson, Mickey Edwards, and Bob Bennett – is no longer present in our political debates or governing dynamic….Republicans in office have driven both the widening of the ideological gap between the parties and the strategic hyperpartisanship on such crucial issues as financial stabilization, economic recovery, deficits and debt, health-care reform, and climate change….their leaders have embraced fanciful policies on taxes and spending and kowtowed to the most strident voices within their party.”  In the past, both parties would seek out nonpartisan technical, economic, and scientific advice.  “Republicans in the new era have dismissed nonpartisan analysis and conclusions about the nature of problems and impact of policies when they don’t fit their own ideology or policy prescription.

Even “respected inside commentators including National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru and American Enterprise Institute’s Steven F. Hayward, have challenged the destructive, take-no-prisoners approach of the movement within the Republican Party.”  Ponnuru: “…the real mistakes of the Bush years keep being made.  Republicans had nothing to say about wage stagnation then and are saying nothing about it now.  The real cost of Republicans fixation on ideological purity is that it distracts them from their real problems and the nation’s”  Hayward: “..notes that the ‘no tax increase’ mania…and its corollary… ‘starve the beast,’ has been proven empirically not to work.”

So – two of the main Republican pillars, by their own words – proven not to work.  And then – consider this:  David Broder’s 3/29/07 column about Reagan’s budget advisor, David Stockman.   It discusses the famous Stockman interview with Bill Greider, which appeared the “Atlantic” magazine article, “The Education of David Stockman: Stockman “told Greider that the Reagan budget was built on false premises, that it employed a ‘magic asterisk’ to conceal the size of its inevitable deficits, and that the tax cuts he had championed were really designed to benefit the wealthy.”

So, fellow Americans, add it up.  Two of the nation’s most respected and thoughtful analysts [they’re not alone] have documented – DOCUMENTED – the evidence for their case that Republicans are deliberately destroying the ability of American government to function.  Insiders from the right wing establishment are telling you that the very ideas Republicans are pushing as ‘solutions’ are ‘proven empirically’ not to work.

I urge every thoughtful American to read this book: “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.”  They tell you when things really got worse, 1995 and later.  They provide exact dates of congressional votes.  They give you quotes.  They tell you how the culture of the U.S. House was deliberately changed to a climate of hostility.  They tell you that former major Republicans such as Eisenhower, Nixon, Dirksen, Ford are “unimaginable” for the current Republican Party.  They – and others – have also said Reagan, Bush I and II might not be acceptable now.  Some things presented are just stunning in the cynicism involved.  For those puzzled and concerned about America in the last ten years, many of the answers lie in this book.

The United States of America is a place on the map.  But, it has always been much more than that.  Theodore Roosevelt said it was “the hope of the world.”  It has a “Statue of Liberty” in a harbor – a gift from another country.  It stands for an idea – the freedom and dignity of the individual.  Here are sentiments on that ideal.

“but in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.  And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get there.  That’s how I saw it, and see it still…And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurling through the darkness toward home.”   R. Reagan. Farewell Address, January, 1989 – on America as “the city on the hill” [J.Meacham, “The Soul of America”]

“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”   G.Washington,  4/30/1789

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”  Frederick Douglass, 10/22/l883

“The governments of the past could fairly be characterized as devices for maintaining in perpetuity the place and position of certain privileged classes, without any ultimate protection for the rights of the people.  The Government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”  C.Coolidge, 9/25/1924

“Poverty curtails individual freedom.  So do illiteracy, prejudice, lack of education, inability to obtain the basic needs of life.”  H.H.Humphrey, 1964

“What is freedom?  Freedom is the right to choose; the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice.  Without possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.”  Archibald MacLeish

“The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerers for his poverty and simplicity….his religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury….it was a rule of his life to share the fruits of his skill and success with his less fortunate brothers….Every religion has its Holy Book, and ours was a mingling of history, poetry, and prophecy….the Spirit of God is not breathed into man alone….the whole created universe is a sharer in the immortal perfection of its Maker.”  C.A. Eastman,   “The Soul of the Indian”

“Attack another’s rights and you destroy your own.”  J.J.Chapman, 1897

“America is not just a power; it is a promise.  It is not enough for our country to be extraordinary in might; it must be exemplary in meaning.  Our honor and our role in the world finally depend on the living proof we are a just society.”  N.Rockefeller, 1968

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”  E.R.Murrow,  3/7/1954

“The problem that has no name – which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities – is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”  B.Friedan,  1963

“Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace.  The politician who bids for the Irish or German vote, or the Irishman or German who votes as an Irishman or German, is despicable, for all the citizens of this commonwealth should vote solely as Americans; but he is not a whitt less despicable than the voter who votes against a good American, merely because that American happens to have been born in Ireland or Germany….A Scandinavian, a German, or an  Irishman who has really become an American has the right to stand on exactly the same footing as any native-born citizen in the land, and is just as much entitled to the friendship and support, social and political, of his neighbors,”    T.Roosevelt, 1894  [J.Meacham, “The Soul of America”]

“Privacy is absolutely essential to maintaining a free society.  The idea that is the foundation of the notion of privacy is the citizen is not the tool or the instrument of the government – but the reverse..”  B.C.Schmidt, Jr., 12/5/1986″

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”  M>L> King, Jr.,  8/28/1963

“Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”  T. Jefferson,  3/4/1801

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.”   W. Phillips,  1852

“No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”  Justice R.H. Jackson, 1943

“Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people.  Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.”  F.D.Roosevelt, 7/19/1940

“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”  Justice L.D. Brandeis, 1928

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  B. Franklin,  1759

“You inquire where I now stand…I think I am a Whig…others say…I am an Abolitionist….I am not a Know Nothing, that is certain.  How could I be?  How can anyone who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people?  Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.  As a nation we began by declaring that ‘All men are created equal.’  We now practically read it, ‘All men are created equal negroes.’  When the Know Nothings get control it will read, ‘All men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’  When it comes to this I shall prefer emigrating to some other country where they make no pretense of loving liberty.”  A. Lincoln, 1855  [A.Gross, “The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln”]

This leaves us with some questions.  Do these sentiments hold true in 2018 America?  If these greats were alive today, would anyone listen to them?  If not, why not?  Are we still “the city on the hill?”  Would any nation give us a second “Statue of Liberty” now?  Are we “a just society?”  Has the richest nation in world history been “so ordered as to assure the masses..reasonable security and hope for themselves and their children?”  Is the “American Dream” still alive?  What do we as citizens need to do?  Democracy is not a spectator sport.  A million Americans have died from 1775 to 2018 – does this country, in 20l8, honor that sacrifice?

Note;  quotes not attributed are from G.Carruth & E.Ehrlich, “The Harper Book of American Quotations”

In 2009,Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett wrote the international bestseller,”The Spirit Level, Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.”  In the first 5 years after publishing, they spoke at 700 seminars and conferences; they talked to the UN, the WHO, OECD, the EU, and ILO.  Their work was corroborated both before and after they wrote the book.  Irrelevant!    They were attacked by some of “the usual suspects” from the right wing.  The second edition contained a 25 page postscript; ‘Research Meets Politics.”  They also set up a web site:  www.equalitytrust.org.uk.  Every person on earth should read this book.

 

To make their evaluation of the 23 “rich” states and the 50 American states, they used data for these metrics: level of trust in a society, mental illness [including drug and alcohol addiction]; life expectancy; infant mortality; obesity; children’s educational performance; teenage births; homicides; imprisonment rates; social mobility [not available for US states].  They spent over 50 “person years” research time on this project – why are some societies more healthy?  Obviously, attacks occurred because some people don’t want various publics to know this information – might raise questions!

The following is a summary of their findings with little commentary.

“..the truth is that the major changes in income distribution in any country are almost never attributable simply to market forces influencing wage rates.  What we see instead is the use of political power…”

Widening income differences, “with the exception of Canada..widened most rapidly in English speaking countries…accompanied in each case by a free-market ideology and by policies designed to create a more ‘flexible” labour force..English speaking countries caught the disease quickly from each other..”

For Britain, “the truth is that both the broken society and the broken economy [of post-2008] resulted from the growth of inequality.”

“as affluent societies have grown richer, there have been long-term rises in rates of anxiety, depression, and numerous other social problems.”

“..if a country wants higher average levels of educational achievement amoung its school children, it must address the underlying inequality which creates a steeper social gradient in educational achievement.”

“Increasingly, researchers are..recognizing that stress in early life, in the womb as well as infancy and early childhood..affects physical growth, emotional; social, and cognitive development.”

“More unequal countries and more unequal states have worse educational attainment – and these relationships are strong enough for us to be sure..they are not due to chance.”

A vivid contrast in trust following disasters can be seen in the American response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Chinese response following a 2008 earthquake.  American “troops in New Orleans seemed to be used primarily to control the population [heavily armed & looking for looters], with the rapid deployment of unarmed soldiers in rescue and relief missions  in China..”

“America in the 1950s and 1960s was more egalitarian than it had been in more than a century.. those same decades were also the high point of social connectedness and civic engagement.. the last third of the twentieth century was a time of growing inequality and eroding social capital..Sometime around 1965-70 America reversed course and started becoming both less economically and less well connected socially and politically.”

“We also find that women’s status is significantly worse in more unequal states.:  “In the USA..over their lifetime more than half will suffer from a mental illness.”

“Low position in..social status..is painful to most people..the use of illegal drugs, is more common in more unequal societies.”

“In more unequal societies children experience more bullying, fights and conflict.”

“..more unequal countries have higher rates of imprisonment…people of lower class, income and education  much more likely to be sent to prison..”

“The harshness of the US prison systems at federal, state and county levels has led to repeated condemnations by..Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Committee against torture.”

In theory, imprisonment is for deterrence, retribution, incapacitation and rehabilitation; America’s prisons practice “three other purposes…class control…scapegoating…political gain.”  The Dutch and Japanese have far different principles [pg. 151].

Knowledgeable Americans will recognize the basis for the “law and order” political campaigns of the last 50 years – and the massive irony of what those “law and order” governments did in office – in the 3 purposes listed above.

“Societies that imprison more people also spend less of their wealth on welfare for their citizens…since 1984…California built only one new college but 21 new prisons [to 1998].”

“If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and more police…in the USA during the period since 1980, when income inequality increased rapidly…public expenditure on prisons increased 6 times as fast as public expenditure on education…”

“…after slowly increasing from 1950 to 1980, social mobility in the USA declined rapidly, as income differences widened dramatically.”

“…increased income inequality is responsible for increasing the segregation of rich and poor…poor people in poor neighborhoods [are] the ‘truly disadvantaged.'”

“Inequality seems to make countries socially dysfunctional across a wide range of outcomes.”

“The truth is that the vast majority of the population is harmed by greater inequality…BECAUSE THE EFFECTS OF INEQUALITY ARE NOT CONFINED JUST TO THE LEAST WELL-OFF.”

“even the children of parents with the very highest levels of education did better in Finland and Belgium than they did in the more unequal UK or USA.”

“…greater equality can be gained either by using taxes and benefits to redistribute very unequal incomes or by greater equality in gross incomes before taxes and benefits…”

“…government may spend either to PREVENT SOCIAL PROBLEMS or, where income differences have widened, TO DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES.”

“The scale of economic inequality which exists today is less an expression of freedom and democracy as of their DENIAL…THE TRUTH IS…modern inequality exists because  DEMOCRACY IS EXCLUDED from the economic sphere.”

“Robert Wade, professor of political economy at the London School of Economics, estimates that growing inequality meant in the years before the 2008 crash ABOUT 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR WERE BEING SIPHONED FROM THE BOTTOM 90% OF THE US POPULATION TO THE TOP 10%.”

Warren Buffett: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

“The Spirit Level” provides the results of what Buffett is talking about; the consequences of unprecedented greed; the consequences of deliberately hurting millions of people just to make another million or two; the consequences of corrupting the political and judicial systems to enrich the already obscenely rich.  Please read this book, and talk to your friends and neighbors.

A recent “Economist” magazine article, “How Democracy Dies,” discussed “How To Undermine A Democracy” in the context of newer world democracies.  It posited four stages of a democracy being dismantled: “First comes a genuine popular grievance with the status quo…Second, would -be strongmen identify enemies for angry voters to blame…Third, having won power by exploiting fear or discontent, strongmen chisel away at a free press, an impartial justice system and other institutions that form the ‘liberal’ part of liberal democracy – all in the name of thwarting enemies of the people…Eventually, in stage four, the erosion of liberal institutions leads to the death of democracy in all but name.”  The main lesson the “Economist” stressed was that “institutions matter.”  Other analysts have said that the basic process of government itself is extremely important.

President Grover Cleveland, 1894:  “the Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board..”

What would prompt this mutiny?  Once rebels take over the Ship of Democracy, what are they going to do with it?  What was their plan?  Once they’ve made the captain walk the plank, how do they propose to run the Ship?   Suppose the new leader turns out to be worse than the old captain?  What are the new rules?  Were they merely “cleaning house?”  Does the new strongman make up the rules on the fly?  Do the mutinous crew very quickly find themselves in “stage four?”  Whose head rolls now?

 

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are also concerned with what they have observed in recent years.  Their book, “How Democracies Die” is an examination of that.  They apply lessons learned studying European and Latin American democracies collapses.

“Over the past two years, we have watched politicians say and do things that are unprecedented in the United States..that we recognize as having been precursors of democratic crisis in other places….American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections.”

Democracies work best..where constitutions are reinforced by unwritten democratic norms.”  Two big norms: mutual toleration and restraint.  “.. the guardrails of American democracy are weakening.  The erosion of our democratic norms began in the 1980s and 1990s and accelerated in the 2000s.. if one thing is clear from studying breakdowns throughout history, it’s that extreme polarization can kill democracies.”

Levitsky and Ziblatt offer four key indicators of authoritarian behavior:

1]  Rejection of {or weak commitment to} democratic rules of the game.

2]  Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents.

3] Toleration or encouragement of violence.

4] Readiness to curtail civili liberties of opponents, including media.

Readers can judge for themselves whether any of these four indicators have been broken recently [2018}.  In their experience, Levitsky and Ziblatt found that the undermining of democracy “often begins with words.”  Critics are attacked in harsh and provocative terms [so – on various media, have you observed this?…in the public sphere, has this happened?]  Journalists are attacked as “grave political enemy” of the people  [heard any recent claims that “the fake news” people have been accused of bad things?].  “The capture of the referees is done quietly by firing civil servants and other nonpartisan officials and replacing them with loyalists [ any chance you might have heard about this recently?].”  The courts are stacked by any means necessary [you haven’t been made aware of any highly unusual power plays to – say stack the U.S. Supreme Court, have you?]

Why do Levitsky and Ziblatt say “the guardrails of American democracy are weakening?”  What did they observe in the 1980-2018 period that frightened then?  Was the “mutiny” already becoming visible?   why are they and other analysts talking about “authoritarian behavior, ” not elsewhere, but in America?  What did the “Economist” magazine see?

Who would benefit if a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” did perish from the earth in America?  Who benefits from the current polarization?  Why didn’t we have this level of polarization and extremism before 1980?  We did have various craziness, but it was confined to the fringes and considered to be fringe, not mainstream, ideas.  The Russian attacks on American elections weren’t the first attacks on our system – the first came from within.  Who did that, and why?

STOP!      What’s missing here?   It’s  YOU.  What have you done?  What are you going to do?

Democracy is   NOT     a spectator sport.

The Constitution’s Preamble says:  “We the People….”   People have died – at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Meuse-Argonne, Guadalcanal and Normandy, the “Frozen Chosin,’ in the Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan.  They’re still dying.  Others have died on America’s streets – fighting for economic justice and civil liberties.  The man who said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” died in Memphis, murdered, fighting for the rights of sanitation workers.

If we define American democracy by “government of the people, by the people, for the people”… FOR THE PEOPLE…          then it is clear that since 1980, and steadily escalating backwards – America is ceasing to be a democracy.  By many accounts and measurements – most notably rapidly worsening income inequality [and everything that comes with that] – America could now be called a plutocracy [“a class or group ruling or exercising power by virtue of its wealth”].  For confirmation, see billionaire Warren Buffett’s “class warfare” quote.

Robert M. Hutchins, 1954:  “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.  It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”  Slowly the heat in the frog’s boiling water is turned up.  Slowly “the guardrails of democracy” are violated and removed.  Slowly people accept wild accusations about “the Other,” about opposing politicians, about “the fake news” media, accept “alternative facts,” accept the claims that government is the problem [forgetting why “We the People” sacrificed and died for it].  The last 40 years is proving the if one tells “The Big Lie” often enough, some people begin to believe it.

by most numerical calculations, America as a middle class democracy peaked between 1947 and 1973.  America was the envy of the world – because ordinary people owned homes, cars, color TV sets, kitchen appliances.  One didn’t need a college education to accomplish all this – and usually, only one adult per home worked.  Before you vote in November 20l8 [2020], your task as a citizen is to establish why this is true.  Very importantly, to discover what government policies and citizen expectations did this.  Then, crucially, to discover how government policies changed to erode this world-class middle class achievement.  The downward change since 1980 is not an accident.

When families making between $100,000 and $150,000 are struggling, we need answers.  I recently talked with a small business owner.  She said that half her money was going to buy health insurance, with a $6,000 deductible – and no dental insurance.  This is why America is #37 in health care.  Why do we put up with this?   Why do we have so many “suicides of despair?”

 

We can, and should be better than this.  We deserve better than this.   We HAVE been better than this.  You’ve been lied to for 40 years.  Time to change this.  Insanity is voting for the same group that changed the envy of the world middle class democracy into just another country.  YOU can be a part of making American democracy real again – for all of us.  Please, do your homework – get past the propaganda, the hateful bluster, the outright lies – vote for an optimistic future America, not a fearful one that denies its own heritage, history, and heroes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your definition of “justice/”  Is it narrow, or broad?  Is it entirely legalistic?  One dictionary definition: “the quality of conforming to principles of reason, to generally accepted standards of right and wrong, and to stated terms of laws, rules, agreements, etc, in matters affecting persons who could be wronged or unduly favored.  2] rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim.”  A thesaurus: 1} “see fairness” – Impartiality, decency, honesty, truth, clarity, tolerance, balance, moderation, civility, reasonableness, rationality, humanity, equitableness, open-mindedness, benevolence; 2] lawfulness, equity, rightfulness, legitimacy, validity, constitutionality, legality.”

What jumps out here is the multiple parts of “justice.”  Certainly legalistic and constitutional; but also reason, right and wrong, not being unduly favored.  And – decency, honesty, truth, charity, balance, humanity, and open-mindedness.  By these definitions, in a perfect world, should one go to a court of law, any decision should be composed of several factors.  We start with law – assuming the law itself is impartial, not “unduly favoring” somebody. What is the court’s decision?  Is there any charity, humanity, and open-mindedness?  If this was us, could we accept this verdict?  Did the verdict follow “principles of reason?”  Is the judge in front of us a “Solomon?”  Or – is he/she a “hanging judge?” Did we get “a fair shake” here?

The moral foundation of the United States was set forth in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that amoung these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness..”

This was followed by the Preamble to the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure Domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..”

These sacred words implied many levels of “justice” and “Fair play.”  Certainly legal and constitutional.  If “all men are created equal,” then logic implies social justice to enable that.  “The pursuit of happiness,” without question, implies government policies enabling people to achieve it.

Economic justice is obviously intended.  “Happy ” people have a chance to find work.  “Domestic tranquility” would allow an economy to flourish. “Promoting the general Welfare” would be actively involved in aiding positive economic conditions.  “Justice” would mean a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work.

Wendell Willkie, 1944: “The Constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens.”  James Madison, Federalist #51: “Justice is the end of government.  It is the end of civil society.  It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.”  Thomas Jefferson, 1816: “I believe..that {justice} is instinct and innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our Constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing.”

Clearly, “justice” in America means more than the cold words of a law written on a cold piece of paper.  Willkie states the obvious – nobody is second class in America.  “The of government” and “the end of civil society” can only mean a government, a society, an economy exist only to “promote the general welfare” of all 330 million Americans.  Jefferson believes we’re born with the justice instinct “to do right,:” but collectively need the “moral sense” to make sure “justice” prevails.

But we haven’t always lived up to these scared thoughts.  Our failures have been monumental and well known.  Our original sin, embedded in the Constitution itself, was enslaving people kidnapped from Africa.  Our second original sin was the near extermination of Native Americans.  Henry David Thoreau, 1844: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the only true place for a just man is also prison.”  He had few takers.

Two of the worst Supreme Court decisions were “Dred Scott” and “Plessy-v-Ferguson,” defending slavery and segregation.  The American government broke every treaty signed with Native Americans, later didn’t fully pay for oil taken from their lands.  Some of the greatest 20th century Americans were Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Muhammed Ali.  They first endured persecution and humiliation.  Only much later were they seen as heroes.  They had one thing in common beside skin color – all they were asking for was simple justice.

We’ve had several infamous moments of war time insanity.  During World War I, German-Americans were persecuted; guilty of being identified with the real German Germans we were fighting in Europe.  This was followed by our first Red Scare – looking for Bolsheviks.  During World War II, we had the racially motivated internment of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast.  Falsely accused of aiding the real Japanese who’d bombed Pearl Harbor, 110,000 innocents were put into “camps.”  The infamous “Korematsu” Supreme Court decision supporting this travesty.  While their families were locked up, a Japanese-American unit fighting in Europe was the most decorated unit of the war.  Nisei language specialists in the Pacific were credited with saving 1 million lives and shortening the war by 2 years.

Our post-World War II communist scare included the infamous “McCarthyism” period.  Thousands unjustly lost jobs, were blacklisted, and persecuted.  Griffin Fariello’s “Red Scare, Memories of an American Inquisition:” and Herbert Mitgang’s “Dangerous Dossiers, Exposing the Secret War Against America’s Greatest Authors” provide tragic details of some of the many lives ruined by one lying ambitious politician and his enablers.

But you don’t need to read books – you can just read daily newspapers.  2018 America has the current version of ” the Red Scare.”  This episode is atrocities committed against Muslim-Americans.  Somehow, these citizens are, in some minds, connected to 9/11 and subsequent Taliban-ISIS Middle Eastern atrocities.  The fact that some Muslim-Americans are risking their lives is apparently irrelevant.  So the cycle churns on.  More irrational injustice.

The above examples reveal that “justice” doesn’t just come from courts or government policies.  More importantly, it comes from what Jefferson said we’re born with.  Lincoln would have said “the better angels of our nature.”

Much of the hysteria during the above incidents came from misinformation and false accusations.  In the current age of rampant falsities on the internet [is there more false than true content?], some from the Russians and other enemies, much of the fault is our own.  The Russians can put lies out there.  The question is then: why are some of us so ready to believe this garbage?  The Russians didn’t attack innocent people. Americans did that for them.  The Russians didn’t vote for or against somebody on the basis of lies.  Americans did that for them.

The Russians, and other enemies have won so far.  They’ve got us at each others throats.  Without firing a shot, the Russians have gained huge benefits in weakening the one organization that defended Western civilization against them for 70 years – N.A.T.O.  We helped them do it.

The Russians are winning this contest – because they got us to violate one of our own most sacred democratic principles:  simple justice.  A house divided against itself cannot stand.  A football team divided against itself will not win.  We once said: “united we stand.”

Little school children say the following: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  Adults will continue to forget this at the risk of our united peril.

Are you asking questions?  Real fact-based questions?  Questions NOT based around the latest “news” from the internet?  Facebook and Twitter are removing millions of suspicious accounts.  Facebook has hired thousands of people to do this.  The latest technique is doctored videos – you can expect to see a person you dislike soon doing some supposedly evil thing in one.  If the internet is your primary “news” source, with maybe a 50-50 chance of the truth, how do you know when you’ve been manipulated?  People, right now , are confronting celebrities, angry their love notes haven’t been reciprocated – problem was they divorced their spouse for nothing, an impersonator was the real “celebrity who was supposedly “in love” with them.  Seven people in India were murdered by a mob – false viral message.  Germany has 1,200 Facebook agents removing hate speech.  Are you asking questions?

Did Mexicans,Muslims, colored minorities ship your job overseas?  Seriously?  Did they cause the 2008-xx min-depression?  Did they raise the price of drugs your Mom needs?  Did they poison your grandmother with bad peanut butter?  Are they cheating your pay envelope? Seriously?  If all 330 million Americans don’t have”justice” who REALLY is behind that?  Not everybody’s pay has stagnated since 1973.  Who REALLY has the economic-political power?  Who has the ability to give millions to political candidates?  If labor unions and government are weakened, WHO benefits?  WHO decided to end the historic American middle class 1947-73 golden age?  WHO had the ability to do it?  It wasn’t the Mexicans, Muslims, colored minorities, Native Americans, Japanese-Americans, commies, socialists.  THINK.  Start asking logical, fact-based, peer-reviewed, internationally accepted fact-based questions.  When you do, justice will emerge.

Once again, ever since the 1930’s, alarms are being raised on how America “cannot afford” to pay for Social Security.  These are false, as they always have been.  Alarms are also being raised about the “affordability” of Medicare.  These, again, ignore serous discussion about why America has the 37th best rated health care system; about why Americans pay double for Health care compared to other “rich” nations {with frequent less satisfactory results]; about why Americans pay double for prescription drugs; about why nearly 50% of American bankruptcies involve medical bills – often foe people who supposedly had Health care insurance coverage.”

The immediate, and forever lasting, permanent cure for any supposed “Social Security shortfall” is simple. Tax all income’ end the Social Security tax income cap.  In 2018, the maximum Social Security taxable amount is $128,400.  So, once a millionaire pays the tax on that $128,400 – all other income is tax free.  The rationalization is the millionaire/billionaire “doesn’t get any benefit” from being required to pay Social Security tax on 100% of his/her income.  Seriously?  Living in the richest nation provides no benefits?  Having a legal system protecting his/her wealth is of no benefit?  Enjoying the infrastructure paid for by allAmericans’ taxes is of no benefit?  Being defended by the world’s best and most expensive military is of no benefit?  Enjoying the safety and security of being protected by some of the world’s best police, fire and EMT people is of no benefit?  Seriously?

The real, and perpetual question is this: will the wealth of America be shared in any democratic and civil manner  Will the lower 95% be “given” any meaningful share of America’s wealth?  American workers work harder, and longer, and more hours than most people in other “rich” nations.  They have, and use, less vacation time.  Increasingly, they take work with them on “vacation.”

Americans have never asked foe a “hand out.”  They aren’t asking for it now.  No – the request is simply this: let us live a life with some dignity.  After 50 years of work {age l8-68}, let us finish our lives with a modest retirement.  Or, increasingly, let us have a retirement.  “70 is the new 60” is an obscenity.  The idea that people should literally be worked to death in 2018 America is a monstrous insult.  Supposedly, slavery in America ended in 1865.

During the middle class “golden age” of 1947-73, this was assumed.  People had health care and guaranteed pensions from employers, plus Social Security, and then Medicare.  Leaders like President Eisenhower assumed and accepted this.  Then the top 1% revolted.  This was “too good a deal” for ordinary people.  First came the attacks on labor unions, and soon wages stagnated {that purchasing power stagnation has lasted to this day].  Then came attacks on government – government was “too friendly” with ordinary people.  You were propagandized that there were “too many regulations” [like safe working conditions].  You were propagandized that corporate and top 1% {“the job creators” – but never, of course, the job eliminators] taxes were “too high.”  It was forgotten that some people had fought and died to get benefits for ordinary people.  It was forgotten that the top tax rates during the “middle class golden age” ranged from70-90%; producing the greatest mass prosperity in world history.

The “conservative”-reactionary talking point of the last 15 years is “entitlement reform.”  What does this mean?  To the corporate-WallStreet-top 1% pushing this “reform” it means cuts in your benefits, Mr and Mrs Lower 95%.  But, by their definition, other “entitlements” like corporate subsidies, corporate welfare, tax law benefits favoring the top 1%, etc. are not up for any reduction.  These “aren’t really benefits,” because these have “been earned” by the brilliance and “hard work” of the top 1%.  In their minds, the top 1% are better than ordinary people.  The mere fact they’re rich proves it.

The Reagan and Bush II tax cuts, the 2017 budget-busting Trump tax cuts are sacrosanct, and not up for discussion.  Today’s paper just reported the Trump Administration is now pushing a new, $100 billion tax cut for the rich!  They want to bypass Congress to do it.  Stay tuned!  The fact these tax cuts blew up the national debt from less than $1 trillion when Reagan took office to now about $21 trillion and climbing [future Bush II and Trump costs] is irrelevant.  The fact that Bush II could have reduced the U.S. national debt to $0 had he followed the Clinton plan is irrelevant.

The blown up U.S. national debt will now be weaponized by the Republican-Wall Street-corporate-top 1% reactionaries to claim we “need”austerity.  The major “necessary” sacrifice is Social Security and Medicare benefits must be reduced.  These claims have already been made, repeatedly.  There will be no permitted discussion of reducing Congressional pensions, or of any sacrifice of any kind by the top1%.  Consider this quote from a Bush II White House memo to pro-privatization groups regarding Social Security “reforms:”

“Our strategy will probably include speeches…to establish an important premise:  The current system is headed for an iceberg.  That reality needs to be seared into the public consciousness; it is a pre-condition to authentic reform.”

There you have it, Mr. & Mrs. Lower 95% – the propaganda was to be “seared into your consciousness” by repeated messages.  Repeated lies.  Outside of of reducing Social Security benefits for you, another favorite scheme has been “privatization” of Social Security.  Bush II wanted there, was stopped.  Good thing too, his mini-2008 depression would have severely hurt seniors with their retirement savings in a Wall Street fund.   Great Britain tried a privatization scheme.  After 25 years they gave it up.  It was a failure.  Bothe the public and government lost money.  A major item, “administrative costs” [profits] – which is why Wall Street wants to get its hands on people’s retirement money.

another small point is that in all the “reform” propaganda, there is no discussion of paying back to the “Social Security Trust Fund” the trillions that Congress has “borrowed” to run your government {instead of raising income taxes}.  So, part of the “Social Security crisis” is totally manufactured.  This is a “win-win” scenario for the top 1% – didn’t have to pay the taxes, they’ll get debt financing income, and – they cut your benefits [is this a great country, or what?].  They’ll get away with this scam if you, the lower 95% don’t act.

So – Mr. & Mrs. Lower 95% – you should be asking lots of questions about any so-called “entitlement reform.”  In this case, “reform” really means regression.

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare mailed out a list of twenty things and events they’d done from 2005-2018 to protect Social Security and Medicare for you.  This involved stopping closures of Social Security offices; stopping a so-called “Balanced Budget Amendment” to the Constitution [various right wing forces badly want this to force all kinds of cuts]; stopping 20l5 cuts to pay for a highway bill.

The Alliance for Retired Americans just mailed out a warning about current Republican-backed legislation to pay for the Trump top 1%-corporate record 2017 tax cut [they will be working on the July 3l, 2018 scam soon]:  The bill will strip health insurance from14-15 million people immediately, more millions later; massively increase premiums for anyone with a pre-existing condition; charge an “age tax” for seniors up to five times more; drive up Medicare premiums by $8.7 billion to pay for a sweetheart tax break for pharmaceutical corporations [no dripping cynical irony here!]; put senior home-based care in severe doubt.  If you can think of a more immoral bill than this…….

Then there is Medicare itself.  Two books to read  here.  One is New York Times bestseller by T.R.Reid, “The Healing of America.”  Reid: “All the other developed countries on earth have made a different moral decision… guarantee medical care to anyone who gets sick…everyone has a right to medical care.”  And they do this without resorting to “socialized medicine.”  He tells you how they do it.  Reid opens his book with this:  “If Nikki White had been a resident of any other rich country, she would be alive today.”  But she lived, briefly, in America.  The other nations would’ve given her a standard treatment for lupus.  But, sick, with a “pre-condition,” Nikki died here, in the world’s richest country, at age 32; after spending the last few months of her life pleading for help.  Nope, “the market” can’t help you, Nikki.  Sorry, “the market” is never wrong.

Reid talks about the French “card of life.”  He talks about Otto von Bismarck’s l883 “Sickness Insurance Act” in Germany.  When Bismarck first proposed this in 1881, “He described it as a means for the more fortunate Germans to care for the least of their brethren…as “a program of applied Christianity.'”

The second book is from Pulitzer Prize-winners, Donald L. Bartlett & James B. Steele:  “Critical Condition, How Health Care In America Became Big Business – And Bad Medicine”   Page 34:  the #1 U.S. cost driver is “market-based” health care.  Page 75-76:  Wall Street corrupts medicine and increases costs.  The “financialization” of U.S. health care comes courtesy of the Reagan Administration, determined to alter health care drastically [sure did!] by “unleashing market forces.”  They cut off funding foe HMO’s and sold investors and venture capitalists on investing in health care’s “profit-making potential.”  The move to for=profit health care was “rationalized, explained, justified for one reason – as the only way to control costs.”  Yup, you read that right – restrain costs.

It might be difficult, but try to follow this “market-based” right wing logic.  Non-profit HMO’s were begun during World War II by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.  Kaiser’s goal wasn’t to make money, but to keep workers healthy so they could keep building Kaiser’s ships.  Republican President Nixon’s law helped increase American HMO’s to around 300 in 1980, with an enrollment over 10 million.  From 1973 to 1980, it cost $350 million in loans and grants, to promote quality care and restrain costs.  This wasn’t acceptable to the Reagan Administration.  So, here we are, talking about cutting Medicare benefits – because of exploding costs.  America has the #37 best health care system.  But, we’re #1 in fraud; pay double for sub-standard care; pay double for drugs – and see various health care for-profiters making billions.  The “free market” that didn’t work for Nikki White works well for others.

One would think that America, the nation of inventors and entrepreneurs, possessing the world’s [for now] #1 economy, might want to learn something from the 36 countries above us in health care.  You’d be wrong.  In all the crazy events from 2010 forward – Obamacare, Republican efforts to repeal/sabotage it – what is non-existent is any serious talk about actually creating a system improving health care for all 330 million Americans.  There is now some talk about “Medicare for All.”  But without a new U.S. government, this will not happen.  Too “socialist” you know.  Sounds like ‘communism.”  Funny, one wouldn’t generally think of Otto von Bismarck as either a socialist or communist.

A 2013 analysis of poverty with and without Social Security provided some shocking insights about its value.  11.9% of Arkansas residents lived in poverty with S.S. – but without S.S., 55% would live in poverty.  5.6% of Iowa residents were in poverty with S.S., but without Social Security, 47.3 would be poverty stricken.  North Carolina had a 10% poverty rate with S.S., without Social Security would be at 50.9%.   Vermont had 8.5% with. 49.1% without Social Security.  A normal person, looking at these numbers, might think this is a very critical part of America’s social contract and “national security.”

President Teddy Roosevelt, 1910:  “Conflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress.  In our day it appears as the struggle of freemen to gain and hold the right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will.”

My fellow Americans, it is no mystery.  Some of your ancestors fought, and some of them died, often shot in the back, or lynched, standing up for their rights.  You don’t have to die – but you do have to fight.  What Roosevelt said in 1910 is true right now.  For the last 40 years, the right wing forces have attempted, with much success, to wipe out the entire 20th century progress of humans on every field – health, education, fair taxation, a government of-by-for the people.  Nothing is more emblematic of this than their attempt to take away elementary dignity for people in old age.

Time is short.  Maybe another election or two.  The plans to turn America into a theocratic plutocracy are all too real.  The organizations that want to do this have announced it.  People in previous Republican administrations and the current one, were/are hostile to the agencies they led/lead – and they’ve publicly said so.  They’ve told you they want to “privatize” both Social Security and Medicare.   When the robots take your job, it’ll be too late.  The top 1% will own them too.  Start with the 2018 election.  Ask candidates tough questions about how they’ll protect your future.  No “canned happy talk.”  What is their track record of Congressional votes?  What is their party’s record?

Anybody that tells you America “can’t afford” to allow hard-working Americans to live a decent retirement with Social Security and Medicare is lying, badly.  We have the money.  The top 1% doesn’t think you deserve it.  If you work 50 years  [l8-68] earning $30,000 each year, you’ll make $1.5 million in your life.  Top 1% members make that in one year, maybe in one month – year after year.  America has the money.  The only question is this: will you be allowed to live with any kind of decent respect?  Start asking questions.

 

We’ve all heard the “pro-life” complaint that their “Religious Values” are violated if, in any way, they’re forced to pay for contraception or abortion.  OK.  People get that.  We can accept that – IF – there is a two-way street.  A good old-fashioned “fair deal” American compromise.

The second half of the “Fair Deal” is that other Americans, people whose “religious values” are violated by being forced to have their tax dollars support, in any way, the schools and churches of the “pro-life” camp.  All of these people are violated by being forced to support schools and churches of religions that are politically using government to enforce their religious values on ALL Americans.  They should be able to refuse their tax dollars going to groups that violate their constitutional rights.  This means they can prohibit their property taxes, their state, local, and federal tax taxes of any kind going to religions violating their constitutional right not to have to support any form of an “established church” [a church supported in any way by forced tax monies].

The list of churches violating other Americans’ religious freedoms is determined by any church that in any way has participated in the post-1973 “pro-life” agenda.  This includes not only the church and school, but any other group or person, in any way, has assisted the church or school in this effort.  Activities included would be running newspaper ads, media efforts of any kind {including internet], handing out flyers, any public manner of promoting the “pro-life” agenda in any way, people supporting the religion financially in this effort.

We can’t see any real opposition to this compromise.  After all in the American democracy, one of “equal justice for all,” this is a very reasonable compromise.  Each “side” gets to deny paying tax monies to groups that are violating their basic religious values.  If one “side” gets to choose not paying taxes to one side of an issue, than the other side should have the exact same right.  What could be more fair?  What could be more American?

 

We can end the great “culture war” over abortion with a compromise.  Part one is a universal ban on abortion.  Part two is a “Mandatory Motherhood Fund.”  All 1973 forward antiabortion organizations and people of any kind will be taxed.       All politically active people in federal state, and local political parties, advocacy groups think tanks, and churches will be taxed.  Any person who has publicly endorsed the “pro-life” position in any way; people who have financially supported the”pro-life’ agenda in any way will be taxed.  All women forced to carry babies to birth will be cared for and compensated for expenses and lost income from the fund.  Any woman whose health is adversely affected’ or dies from forced birth will be compensated from the Mandatory Motherhood Fund.

Part three is the adoption list.  All politically active people, those in antiabortion groups, state, federal , and local officials who supported antiabortion laws of any kind, church personnel who supported antiabortion laws, any person who publicly supported the “pro-life” position in any way, people who financially supported the “pro-life” agenda will be put on the adoption list.  Any time a baby is born because of the Mandatory Motherhood program, people at the top of the list will be required to adopt that child, and raise it to age 18, age 26 if the child wants college or job training.

If funding for the Mandatory Motherhood program runs out, abortions instantly become legal.  If the list of people required to adopt unwanted babies runs out, abortions instantly become legal.  If funding for the “social safety net” is not adequately funded, abortions instantly become legal.  The “safety net” includes health, public education, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, child day care, universal pre-K for age 3 up – all the public services a modern civilized developed nation provides for its people.

The genius of this program is that it gives “pro-life: people a public chance to demonstrate how very much they love born babies and children.