America, Somehow, Surviving

FIFTY YEARS AGO everybody thought America was going to hell in a handbasket. The country was divided over the Viet Nam War, civil rights issues had folks out in the streets, all kinds of unrest and turmoil. I was just a kid, and utterly fascinated by it all. Keeping up with the weekly combat casualty list fronm Viet Nam was just another baseball related activity, which never failed to generate numbers, and never had an off season. American history strongly suggests that throughout it many if not most people believed that the U.S.A. was going to hell in a handbasket. It always seems to be. In 1967 I thought that by the year 2015 everybody on earth would either have starved to death, or would be living on Mars. I wasn't sure which. What impresses me now is that whereas America is still going to hell in a handbasket, and has been, seemingly, since time immemorial, it never seems to get there, and that might be a good thing. This crazy system we have now of somebody purchasing the American Presidency every four years for an ungodly amount of money is, well, incredible, and would be hard to believe if it weren't really happening. A relatively small group of hugely wealthy powerful corporations own and control just about everything in America, and yet we, the American people, seem largely unconcerned, as long as we get our crumbs. Obama paid a little over a billion per term, Hillary is promising to raise two point five billion, and Jeb Bush has over a hundred million as the starting point for his money race, and he hasn't even announced that he is running for president yet. The idea of actually doing something about this insanity doesn't seem to cross our collective consciousness. But, likely as not, it'll all get worked out, somehow...

Giving Our Great Grandchildren Half A Chance

SURVEYS INDICATE THAT AMERICANS haven't the first clue how to save water. The answers almost always have something to do with shorter showers or less lawn watering, turning off the water while brushing teeth, and so forth. But the real answer, dear fellow citizen of earth, which we all know and pretend not to, is in the toilet. The answer is to not flush as often. Feces and vomit only. Pee is a no flush proposition, unless it gets to three pees. Three pees, and you flush. three pess you're out. We Americans are so totally hung up about what comes out of our boeies that we don't even want to talk about it, and we keep building smaller and smaller and more efficient toilets instead of just..doing..what is obvious..you might wish to start using the "toilet", au naturell, in your backyard, and showering but once a week like they do in France, but that might also seem a bit extreme. And that isn't a criticism of the French; we Americans are obsessed about showers and baths, requiring at least one a day. Every hour on the hour enough energy comes pouring down on us from the sun to provide enough energy for the entire world, running full blast. Easy, free, energy. Makes you wonder why so many fossil fuel companies don't seem to be all that fanatically fired up about this obviously perfect idea; start using solar energy, then, the cost of energy needed to purify ocean water will be next to nothing, and we can have all the fresh water we want, plus, we can keep the ocean level down in so doing. Also, of course, we can then eliminate all the extra carbon in the atmosphere, save the planet from runaway global warming, and give our great grandchildren half a chance.

Reducing the Size of Government, While Increasing It

WHAT WE HAVE ALL LONG SUSPECTED turns out to be true. Congress passed the "Patriot Act" over a decade ago in a hysterical response to nine one one, to the toppling of the trade towers. It gave the American federal government much expanded powers of surveillance, particularly surveillance of its own citizenry. Or perhaps the Patriot Act wasn't so much a response, as an excuse, an excuse, in the name of "the war on terror", an excuse to finally establish and put into place, once and for all, the great American police state. Quite a chain of events. George Bush 41 encourages Saddam to invade Kuwait, the U.S. becomes involved in the middle east more deeply than ever, and the corporate masters succeed in gaining vast oil resources, great personal wealth, and absolute control over us. Simply ingenious. And the American Police State has vastly abused its powers by spying on the American people totally above and beyond the powers granted to it in the Patriot Act. A federal court recently demonstrated this sad fact. Our big brother has in fact, during the last decade, found out everything there is to know about all of us, and has all that info stored, organized, and ready. This is beyond anything in "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley or "1984" by George Orwell. This is the real thing, here and now. Interestingly, nobody seems to care all that much, as if the body politic is a great slumbering beast. Fascinatingly, the Patriot Act's staunchest defenders are the most conservative, anti-big government republicans, like Senators Tom Cotton and Richard Byrd. How, exactly, Senators, does the Patriot Act reduce the size of government, gentlemen? These small government conservative republicans want to cut spending and government bureaucracy by reducing or getting rid of welfare programs for poor people, and they don't want national health care, because they believe in "small government", but they want to turn America into a police state, and already have. And that certainly is not "small" government.

Meeting In the Middle Class

I HAVE GROWN QUITE TIRED of hearing about the American middle class, the plight of it, and so forth, ad nauseum. For one thing, it no longer exists, or barely does, so why bother talking about it? Our pandering American politicians love the term "middle class", and they endlessly extol its virtues and express the most profound sorrow at its current, plight, blah blah blah, pandering to voters. and of course, they all have the very best solution to every conceivable middle class American problem. Smart move, really, since most Americans think of themselves as members of the mmiddle class, members, in other words, of some great amorphous, virtuous masss of citizenry to which shockingly few of them actually belong. Rich and poor alike deem themselves to be members of this mythical American class. The truth is, most Americans more properly belong to something which might be termed the "poor working class", because they live paycheck to paycheck, even if the paycheck is decent, which is usually isn't, they have much debt, and little or no savings. Doesn't sound very "middle class", huh? Why don't we start talking about the bottom of the pyramid, which is the poor rather than the middle class, and how to pull it upward to a more middle class level? Do we want to bring down the wealthy to the level of the poor, like socialists, or do we want to elevate the poor to the level of the wealthy, like capitalists? Maybe we could split the difference, and agree to meet in the middle.

Fulfilling Our Corporate Masters Intentions For Us, Or...

OUR PRIVACY FENCES protect us from our neighbor's social onslaught, neighbors we've never met, and never will. We are well hidden behind sunglasses and tinted windshields. Our text messages provide a convenient barrier to direct communication. Our childhood friends, the ones we played sandlot baseball with in the nineteen sixties, are long gone, and we never bothered to replace them. Our isolation is complete, just the way we wanted it. Nonetheless, something is mmissing, and I wish I had written down exactly what is missing, several weeks ago when I wrote down everything up to the word "complete." You just can't let 'em lie fallow too long. I like the idea and come back later to develop idea method, but, it has its limits, and must be used properly. What's missing, you would think, and it seems obvious, is a sense of community. Facebook can only do so much. After millions of years evolving with our friends and family close by, right next to us, face-to-face, it is difficult to transition to a virtual world. But we must continue to try, because transitioning to a virtual world is evidently exactly what our corporate masters intend for us to do, and, by all means, we must fulfill our corporate master's intentions. That is, if we want to have even the remotest chance for success in the corporate owned and dominated mainstream world. Our only chance, our last, best chance to end corporate tyranny, is the creation of an international labor party. More properly, a poor people's worker's party, internationale', unconstrained or restricted by any national governmental entity.

An Open Letter to the Government and People of China

YOU ARE TRYING TO CONQUER the world, economically, and replace the United States as the world's lone super power police officer. That fact can no longer be denied by keen eyed, percipient American observers. Awaken, my fellow Americans, here come the Chinese, to take our places. We Americans owe you Chinese trillions of dollars, which we don't have. Will you settle for California? Your tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment in developing countries tells us your intent. Helping the poor, are you, after the fashion of your communistic, socialistic, community oriented philosophy? Or, are you more like my United States, building an empire while pretending to help the poor? Perhaps you Chinese leaders should read "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy", by William Appleman Williams, and avoid making the same mistakes we did. Those mistakes have a way of coming back to haunt you. When, for instance, you support a brutal dictatorship government in a small country merely because the dictator claims allegiance to your cirporate superpower country, complications can arise. Do not repeat American failures in Viet Nam and Latin America. A wealthy China runs the risk of concentrating its wealth among a very few, elite people, as does the United States. If this happens, the Chinese people are not likely to remain subservient and obedient, while they live in poverty and their overlords and master live in opulance and splendor. Share the wealth. Share the power. Sincerely, T.L. Reconciler

Racism In America; Denying the Obvious, Easily

AFRICAN-AMERICANS FOUGHT FOR AMERICA during the Civil War, and during World Wars One and Two, among others. Each time, when the war was over, they transitioned right back into their former lives of segregation, discrimmination, and exclusion in post war, victorious, grateful America. Truman finally ended segregation in the military after World War Two. Kennedy issued an executive order requiring minority hiring. About time, eh? Even as we speak, income and wealth among American black people is but a fraction of that among American white people, and most or all of it has to do with federal American government housing and hiring policies. In a word; racism. Fast forward to today's conservative America, and our brilliant conservative leaders and would be leaders tell us that the only racism in Today's America is the type being invented and sold by people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who make an industry out of it. All these "incidents" involving African-American perps and European-American law enforcement officers are mere flukes, anomolies, which have nothing to do whatever with any widespread racism in America. Brilliant scheme: exploit their talents and patriotism, treat them like an underclass, then deny that they are being so treated. Here, in the great American fun hosue that is the United States of Amnesia, we simply imagine the world the way we would like it to be, and we live it, denying any and all evidence to the contrary. Can you imagine electing someone president of the United States who believes that racism, global warming, and evolution are all liberal hoaxes?

Presidential Candidates, Saying Funny Things

DOCTOR BEN CARSON will prove to be a most entertaining addition to the mad men and women running for president. Some of his statements clearly reveal his lunacy. Consider this one: "Obamacare is the worst thing to happen to this country since slavery". He went on to say that Obamacare is actually a form of slavery, because it enslaves the American people to the government health care system by law. How can anyone fail to be amused and entertained by this kind of talk? And just think, the great spectacle has just begun; most of the talking is still to come. Dr. Carson also indicated that he believes homosexuality is a choice, since there are examples of men who enter prison a heterosexuals, but are gay when they are released. He really said that. later, he apologized for it, which indicates that he sometimes reflects on his comments, which could spoil a lot of fun for the rest of us. It could get real conservative this time around out there on the olde republican campaign trail, as all the right wingers try to outdo each other for the party base. Of all the republicans so far in the race, all believe in cutting social programs such as social security, medicare, and medicaid, and they all believe that global warming is a liberal hoax intended to steal money from the wealthy. So you begin to imagine how delightfully, humorously entertaining this wacky crew is likely to later become.

What's the Point?

ONLY TWO PEOPLE were shot and killed at the recent Dallas, Texas prophet Mohammed drawing contest, which is a miracle, considering that the place was inundated with angry, aggressive, well armed idiots. Idiots? Look, everybody knows, when you live in the United States of America, and you feel you must ostentatiously project hatred in order to prove to yourself or somebody else that you have first amendment rights, you're an idiot. In this great country we all know we all have freedom of speech and response, and we prove it by using it, all the time. Why flaunt it? Why not just use it intelligently? When I was a kid, I secretly supported the anti Viet Nam War protest, and wanted to join it. I was smart enough to keep my opinion to myself. I finally got my chance at war protest in 1991, enjoyed every minute of it, and to this day I remained amazed at being able to do such a thing, namely, walk down the street with five hundred other people, carrying a sign reading "no war for oil" - and not get hit, shot, or thrown in jail. I knew before, during, and after the anti-war protest march that I had the freedom to participate, freedom of speech. We weren't exercising our freedom of speech just to insult people by drawing forbidden pictures, we were trying to stop a war, to stop the killing. What is the point of "good" Christians deliberately insulting the Islamic faith? We are fortunate that more people weren't killed, and we the people of the United Sane States of America sincerely hope that our conservative Christian friends stop doing insane things trying to make stupid, self evident points.

An Open Letter To the Russian government and People

What we need ,above all, is an international political pary for the working poor, to eliminate poverty, and to break the monopoly and tyranny of the wealthy in international political power. Power to the people. As the arctic melts, our two countries, among others, are going to compete for its resources, and I would be willing to bet good money that my country is going to win. There's just something about that special feeling which comes with being an American. That feeling of impending, ultimate triumph. One way or another, the wealthiest one percent of the population is going to control the arctic, the resources of the world, and they are going to own almost all of it. Unless we unite and do something about it now. We the Poor People's @ workers Political party can and must. Shouldn't most of the world's population be eligible for membership in the poor people's party? More, much more, maybe. The poor people have the power, if they choose to exercise it. In human history, no system has ever been designed to give power to the people. Now is the time. Sincerely, T. L. Reconciler

Getting In The Race

THE G.O.P. FIELD is getting more entertaining by the day. the token republican African-American and the token republican woman candidate have now joined the show. The most entertaining is going to be Mike Huckabee. And he could be the winner. He has a gresat sense of humor, and does not come across as malicious when debating opponents. All of the half a dozxen candidates, and there are many more to come, want to avoid attacking each other, and go after Hillary and Obama, but that won't last long. Soon enough, all these upright, conservative christian types will be at each other's throats, and that's where the real fun begins. it is truly a far right aggregation of talent, farther right than we ahve seen in years, and the entry of Bernie Sanders on the democrat side adds a strong left wing component to the 1916 presidential campaign. Most of these republicans want to eliminate the I.R.S. and the federal income tax, eliminate or fail to raise minimum wage, eliminate the federal reserve, and eliminate all federal bureaucracy related to education, human welfare, or the environment. That might not be the best formula for winning a national election these days.

An Open Letter To the Government and People of Iran

DEAR FRIENDS; As an American, permit me to apologize for the rudeness of many of my fellow Americans towards you. As neither a Christian nor a Moslem, I sometimes wonder why so few people emphasize the common core of the two religions. Let's jsut say that we all worship the same God, or that we all worship a different god, and leave it at that. Religious strife is uttterly unnecessary, juvenile, unworthy of our better, enlightened selves. Surely we can all agree that we want a world without atomic weapons. Those things aren't safe no matter who owns and controls them. Maybe the United States intends to either talk or coerce everyone else out of their nuclear weapons, and then get rid of their own. Who knows? Please understand, the forty six American Senators who sent you that letter advising you to ignore President Obama because anything he does will be overturned later - they were lying. The American people will respect and uphold your agreement with President Obama. The reason the very American Senator Tom Cotton is harassing you is that he is obviously insane, which you can plainly see. In other words, he is an extreme religious and political conservative, which is dangerous for anyone. Extreme religious and political conservatism is dangerous because it is fanatically devoted to resisting change. Change is necessary for progress, and surely we can all agree that much progress is needed to eliminate povetry, war, and disease everywhere. May the forces of change in America and Iraq unite to create a better world for all. Sincerely, T.L. Reconciler

Talkin' Tom, At It Again

TALL TALKING TOM COTTON, freshman U.S. Senator from Arkansas, is at it agin, and you begin to think he might be at it a long time, since he'syoung, motivated, and popular among America's right wing neanderthal crowd. Trash talking, again, is Tom. Harmful, unproductive, unprofessional, undiplomatic B.S., again. And to think, this clown has a law degree from Harvard. He'd be much better off, as would the rest of us, if he's just shut up, and go away, but that aint gonna happen, not until he is publicly disgraced, alla Joe McCarthy. For Talkin' Tom to shut up would be a violation of the laws of nature. First, he backstabbed President Obama, committing treason by writing a letter to the Iranian government telling them that Obama, in the middle of sensitive treaty negotiations with Iran, is totally powerless and irrelevant, since anything he does will be undone later. Undermining the President of the United States in the conduct of foreign policy is treason, isn't it? Now, Talkin' Tom has descended to a new low, trolling on the internet, looking for trouble. He is having a twitter-tweet war with the Iranian foreign misiter, who himself has spent much time in the United States getting a very good education. Tom started all the troubleby responding to a reference the Iranian diplomat made during a speech in teh United States. Talkin' Tom Cotton seems to be very angry, and to live to make trouble. Perhaps he should have pursued a career in the ring, and should go up against Floyd mayweather. The Iranian foreign minister correctly identified Cotton-mouth as a loudmouthed bully who should study internationl law and diplomacy a bit more closely. Tom keeps slinging slander, calling the Minister a coward, challening him to a debate on the U.S. Constitution, aounding every bit the belligerent, arrogant, narcissistic American right wing religious nitwit fanatic. An incredible national embarrassment.

Going Back To School, Old, And At Home

HIGHER EDUCATION is transitioning from brick and mortar to the internet. This transition, and its ramifications, is the topic of discussion on "The End of College", by Kevin Kerry, who uses the term "the university of everywhere" to describe the phenomenon. Just recently a sixteen year old boy from the middle of nowhere in Outer Mongolia took an online class offered by M.I.T., got a perfect score in the entire class including the final exam, and is now physically on campus in Boston at M.I.T. as a full time student. His exact program of study is unknown, but possibly includes higher math, medicine, classical literature, or rocket science. then, who knows? On to save the world, most likely. In another few years someone in his position might not even have to leave Mongolia and travel in person to live on campus at M.I.T. in order to achieve all this. Ah, the many wonders of the computer age. Anything seems possible. For some years now my plan has/had been to work hard, save money, then retire at sixty and go back to college, and learn like hell. maybe computer studies, programming, web site design, whatever. Sociology and psychology classes, definitely. Also, German and Russian, and maybe a smidgeon of Italian. Just the other day I turned sixty, retired, and my plan now is to enroll at the University in the fall, and get started. may my journey be long as glorious. I am, like, soo totally excited. My question is; how much time will I spend in physical classrooms on physical campus, and how much time online, in the comfort of my own lovely home? who knows? I certainly don't. I'm sure I'll find out though. Maybe a combination of both would be best, some time at home, some time on campus. somehow, though, I have the distinct feeling that in the future we are going to be seeing some very, very educated people, all over the place. And how can this be other than good? Rest assured, though, that if there is any way to derive evil from this modern marvel, we'll find it.

Thinking Maybe War Isn't the Answer

MAYBE ITS MICROWAVE RADIATION, and cell phones. Food additives, perhaps. plastic containers are suspect. or maybe its just that most Americans are overworked, sinking further into debt, angry, frustrated. America is a land of alpha males, where is in charge, and must be.hence, our anger. Our cell phones fill us with distant love, and frustration. So often when two American strangers approach and pass each other on the street, there is n o eye contact, no communication, or, when there is, it is cursory, pedestrian, unfriendly. Few smiles are exchanged out on the street, between strangers. A highly competitive society with highly competitive people, because we are taught, trained, brainwashed into being that way. Despite lame attempts by mealy mouth liberals to soften our education indoctrination with such brilliant innovations as no win no scorekeeping baseball, we the America people still rank high on the global scale of competitiveness, in a competitive world. We have a few winners and many more losers. You can actually imagine, in America a civil war between the rich and the poor. You can imagine this because we know it has happened before, with striking regularity, on various scales. Rich Britain and the poor colonies. The rich north and the poor south. The bonus army of 1932, with their cute little invasion of Washington D.C.. Not at all uncommon. But, for the moment, American society strikes me, and maybe other people as well, as angry. maybe some of our anger has been vented in all these many wars we have launched adn lost over the past few decades. problem is, paying for these wars in the future, or trying to find a way to, is not likely to generate anything other than more anger and frustration. So, maybe war isn't the answer.