Debtor’s Prison

We see constantly in the media economic experts and pundits decrying the sorry state of the economies of several European countries __ Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland. Yet as this chart shows, Americans are individually responsible for more debt than any of the citizens of these troubled nations.

Japan is even worse. Its national debt last time I checked was 228% of their GDP. The Japanese are in hock up to their hairlines. But there is a big difference. 85% of that debt is owned by the Japanese people. They have invested in their own country and owe the money to themselves! American because of its borrowing spree owes everyone else in the world __ China, Germany, France, Japan. Next time you go to a Chinese restaurant, you might want to thank them for not foreclosing. Yet anyway.

I personally see no problem with a nation running constructive deficits. Under the current flawed relationships between banks and national economies, it is a necessary evil to both sustain and promote growth.

What is objectionable is having no genuine say in why we borrow. Granted that various social support and entitlement programs benefit us all. But the astounding and insulting truth to those of us who actually believe we live in a democratic country, is that America spends somewhere around $700 billion for war. Yet if you look at any unbiased polling, Americans don't want war. We want peace.

The defense spending of the U.S. nearly equals the total defense spending of all other nations in the world combined. Why do we spend so much to arm ourselves against real and imagined but all relatively weak, if not totally powerless enemies? Our leaders say its to protect our "national interests". This is but a euphemism for world domination and access to the resources of the countries we attack.

This investment in imperial control of the world comes at a price. It costs the lives of soldiers who go to fight pointless, self-destructive wars; it has eliminated the last shreds of credibility we once had in the world as a nation which stood for the most noble principles; it is sapping us of our national pride, the spirit that once drove the country's belief in its mission to spread democracy and lift the living standards of everyone on the planet.

We borrow for bombs.
We borrow to spread death.
We borrow to create enemies.

Someone has to pay for all of this. It's you and I. The invoice is in the mail. Soon it will be stamped 'Past Due'. Not long after that it will say 'Account Closed'.

To live in a country which has borrowed up to its eyebrows to build bombs and promote war is incarceration at its worst. It is living in the confines of a shameful and ruinous nightmare.

We truly live in a debtor's prison.




[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The Truth Hurts (Those Who Tell It)

"You are charged with suspicion of un-American thoughts and deeds."

Are we to continue to believe the myth that the Obama administration is for open democracy and transparency in government, as it presses on to silence those who serve our country by exposing its follies, waste and misdeeds?

As this Truthdig article clearly argues, the land of the free is becoming the land of the mute. Bradley Manning is but the most publicly visible example of a growing list of good citizens being put behind bars for doing the right thing.

Maybe it's time to wake up.

America is becoming a police state and its Chief Prosecutor sits in the Oval Office.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Turning A Blind Eye Does Not Change The View

Opponents of any kind of rational, constructive discussion of global warming and what modifications we must make in both personal behavior and official policy are always saying that the science is not in with respect to human impact on climate change.

Hate to break it to them but it is.

We know what we know and know what we don't know.

To try to make it simple for the skeptics and morons, here is where things stand.

We do know greenhouse gases are warming the planet.

We do not know precisely how high the levels of greenhouse gases will rise.

We do know other pollutants are cooling the planet.

We do not know how much the cooling from other pollutants will offset the warming resulting from greenhouse gases.

We do know that the planet will be getting considerably hotter.

We do not know precisely how much hotter but it will be significant.

We do not know how this heating will specifically impact each different region.

We do know that sea levels across the globe will rise catastrophically.

We do not know precisely how fast the sea levels will rise.

We do not know exactly how seriously rising temperatures will impact life on the planet.

We do know there will be more floods and droughts.

We do not know if there will be more hurricanes, tornadoes, and the like.

We do not know if and when we will reach the point of no return with respect to damage to the world's environmental systems.

The science on climate change is clear and can be summed up in a simple statement. Human beings are causing the atmosphere to heat up and this is going to make things pretty difficult, if not completely intolerable. Because we do not know precisely how difficult or how much of life on the planet will become intolerable is a strange rationalization for doing absolutely nothing.

Turning a blind eye does not change the view.

It just makes us blind.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Bank of America Declares War On the United States

Bank of America has declared war on our country. The recently announced transfer of $75 trillion in derivatives _ much of which consists of toxic assets _ has the potential for bankrupting the nation.

If the President and his economic team, led by already criminally complicit Tim Geitner, allows this quiet coup d'état against the interests of the American people of a magnitude that literally puts at risk our survival as a functioning nation, we will know where they really stand.

President Obama says he is serious about challenging the corruption of Wall Street and the banksters. I have a suggestion. I say we redeploy the troops which are allegedly returning from Iraq. How many branches and offices are there in the Bank of America empire? I think 60,000 battle-hardened soldiers would do the trick.

Unoccupy Iraq.

Occupy Bank of America!

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Chris Hedges: Speaking Truth To Power

In an OpEdNews essay titled "A Movement Too Big To Fail", Chris Hedges explains why we must never compromise our values or temper our legitimate criticism of America. Wrong is wrong. As he so eloquently puts it . . .

"What kind of nation is it that spends far more to kill enemy combatants and Afghan and Iraqi civilians than it does to help its own citizens who live below the poverty line? What kind of nation is it that permits corporations to hold sick children hostage while their parents frantically bankrupt themselves to save their sons and daughters? What kind of nation is it that tosses its mentally ill onto urban heating grates? What kind of nation is it that abandons its unemployed while it loots its treasury on behalf of speculators? What kind of nation is it that ignores due process to torture and assassinate its own citizens? What kind of nation is it that refuses to halt the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, dooming our children and our children's children?"

I cannot think of better words to lay out the moral and political crisis facing our nation.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Personal message from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to OWS

Occupy Wall Street No Longer Allowed Tarps and Sleeping Bags In Zuccotti As Of Tomorrow - Article in the Village Voice, posted October 13, 2011 at 3:05 pm.

"Hey, you wild and crazy demonstrators! Thanks for stopping by. We had some fun, didn't we? But all good things must come to an end. So please pack up your sleeping bags and go some place else. The southern states are a good bet this time of year. Much much warmer. Those of you who are unemployed and homeless, feel free to stop by one of the relief assistance offices we have set up here. Of course, we ran out of money so they really can't do much, but the people there are damn nice to talk to. And by the way, good luck with that overthrowing the system bit. When I was your age, I was quite the rebel too. I used to write funny messages on those little umbrellas they put in the fancy mix drinks at the cocktail parties my folks used to throw. So I know the whole rebellion thing first hand. Okay. Gotta go. My limo driver is pointing at his watch."

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

New "11-11-11" Book Review!

My recent novel "11-11-11" just received an excellent review at MadMikesAmerica. 

Check it out ... http://madmikesamerica.com/2011/10/book-review-11-11-11-by-john-rachel/