Trust No Incumbent!

   

          "The folks we democratically elect to be the lapdogs of the rich and powerful."

A very recent poll indicated that 74% of Americans are in favor of ending oil subsidies to companies like Exxon-Mobil and Chevron, oil industry giants who are reporting record profits as the price of gasoline soars. Yet on May 17, 2011 and then again on March 29 of this year, the Senate rejected a bill which would have accomplished just that.

A CNN poll on what has been termed the Buffett Rule showed that 72% of Americans favored its passage. The Buffett Rule raised the prospects of a more equitable tax rate on the rich. Yet it also was just defeated in the Senate.

Poll after poll all suggest that a minimum of 66% of the voting public believe the tax rates on the rich should be increased. With the deficit looming larger and larger, and threats that many of the fundamental components of the American Way of Life __ Social Security, Medicare, education, unemployment insurance __ must face drastic budgetary cuts, if not outright elimination, the public more and more supports significant increased taxation of the wealthiest in our nation. Yet it has been twelve years since taxes on the wealthy have seen any increase. On the contrary, they have been slashed and slashed to the point that the rich pay less than ever before in history and the federal government is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy.

In June 2009 during the intense national health care reform debates, 72% of Americans favored the inclusion of the public option. Mysteriously __ or not so mysteriously __ it dropped off the radar and was never included.

Polls also indicate that 76% of Americans are sick of the Pentagon spending tax dollars on military systems it doesn't need. The bloated defense budget, the ongoing ground wars all over the globe, the vaporous war on terror, and vast untold sums spent of surveillance and intelligence gathering, now suck up over 50% of all of the money the government receives from taxpayers and borrows from countries all over the world. Yet there is no end in sight to out-of-control defense spending.

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll on the war in Afghanistan shows 76% of the public opposes it and favors immediate withdrawal. Have we seen any serious signs that we are pulling out in the foreseeable future?

These are not marginal percentages. These are huge majorities!

While polling is not 100% accurate, as the above examples demonstrate, there are some polling results which make it patently clear what the American people are thinking. Yet our elected officials defiantly vote against the overwhelming tide of public opinion.

It is quite obvious our political representatives are not listening. They don't represent us. Across the board on too many key issues, their voting records do not reflect the stated will of the people.

In a representative democracy, there should be some discernible correlation between what the people want and what comes out of the legislative and judicial bodies. There should be some parallel between what citizens demand with their collective voice and the leadership proffered by their chosen chief executive in the White House and their democratically elected legislative bodies.

It's certainly no secret what is happening. Citizen voting is being made irrelevant by bullying monied interests __ by the rich and powerful elite __ as our elected officials consistently cave in to the might of the almighty dollar.

Sometimes it is an outright buy. Money pours into the campaign coffers and the favor is returned on the floor of the Congress, or with the manner in which laws are enforced, or not enforced, by the President and the executive branch.

Sometimes it is a defensive measure. A candidate up for election fears that if he or she does not vote the "right way", a massive campaign will be funded by the monied interests to defeat them in the coming election, either by support of their opponent or by using the nefarious Super PACS to malign and discredit them.

This bribery and blackmail has destroyed any semblance of representative government in contemporary America.

I believe there is a solution to this.  I also think that there is time to apply this remedy to the coming election. Nothing less than the survival of American democracy depends on it. It will require the immediate and total commitment by well-organized, motivated teams of community activists who want to decisively halt the stealing of our democracy by the rich and powerful. It will require mounting a campaign unlike any seen in recent history to mobilize and inform the voting public about what is going on and what can be done.

The bottom line on this solution is straightforward. It is time to draw a line in the sand. Every elected official must be put on notice. Here is what we tell them . . .

"Either you vote in the interests of the people __ not corporations, banks and Wall Street __ or you get a pink slip."

To avoid division and bickering, a focused campaign must be built around the core of critical issues the vast majority of Americans __ left, right, independent, Republican, Democrat, Tea, liberal, progressive, conservative __ nearly unanimously agree on.

A number of posts will follow which outline in specific detail the strategy I am proposing. Here is a partial list . . .

• Pledges: Candidate Contracts
• How Pledges Can Work
• The October Surprise
  
• Pledge: Oil Industry Subsidies
• Pledge: Social Security
• Pledge: Medicare
• Pledge: War
• Pledge: Tax The Rich
• Pledge: Campaign Finance
• Pledge: Town Hall Meetings
• Pledge: The Defense Budget
• Pledge: The Public Option
  

We have learned our lesson. The faith both in our democratic system and the politicians we entrusted with the future of our nation and the quality of our lives was misplaced. The system has been corrupted by money and the trustworthiness of our "representatives" in public office been sabotaged.

No more apologies.

No more excuses.

No more bullshit.

Trust no incumbent!


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

Leave It To The Experts?

                                          "The whole world is a stage ... we're just reading our lines."

As just living life becomes more complex and challenging, as our world offers seemingly infinitely possibilities and more rigorous demands, we have found ourselves outsourcing more and more activities. We hire a gardener, someone to clean our house or apartment, a professional to paint the trim. We go to a barber or hair stylist. An accountant does our tax returns. Who would think of changing the oil or tuning up their automobile themselves?
Despite the proliferation of specialists and experts, however, the past couple decades have seen a retreat from such blanket trust in others handling critical aspects of our lives. For example, many individuals have "taken back" responsibility for their health. They do their own research and ask their doctors tough questions, instead of nodding dumbly at every bit of medical advice he or she offers. Some parents have become increasingly involved in the education of their children, no longer having full confidence in public or even private schools. Within many communities, food co-ops and local markets are replacing the big box chain stores, as confidence in the food that is sold by corporate suppliers has fallen.

So why is it that we have found it so easy to outsource the running of our country to a small elite coterie of self-proclaimed experts?

I guess the question provides the answer. "They" have made it easy. The experts, our lovely professional politicians, have told us: 'This is very difficult, complicated stuff. It's better to just leave it to us. We know what's good for you.'

We believed them.

At the outset of the war on Iraq, President Bush told us all (paraphrasing), 'Don't worry. We got it covered. Just go shopping or go to Disneyland.'

Go shopping? Go to Disneyland?

That's precisely the kind of easy promises, the soothing reassurances we are hearing now in the thick of this election year. We have candidates with photogenic smiles, prepped by their handlers to say the right thing just the way we want to hear it, kissing babies, waving, leading the charge at staged rallies of unquestioning loyalists, telling us, "Hey, don't worry. We got it covered. Vote for me. Then just kick back, watch Jersey Shore. Go shopping. Hey! Go to Disneyland!"

Sounds good. Sound bites usually do.

But is running a democratic country ever easy? Has it ever been? Isn't it by definition a difficult __ if noble __ task, that requires hard work and active participation by each and every one of its citizens?

In a monarchy, we know who the "expert" is. By definition it's the king.

In a dictatorship, we know who the "expert" is. It's the dictator.

Who are the experts in a democracy?

Surely it's not these spit-shined, Photoshopped, say-anything-to-get-elected, millionaire robot-mannikins __ both Democrat and Republican __ running for office in the beauty contests we call elections.

No . . . it's you and I!

We're the experts.

It's time to face reality. There is no easy way for a democracy to run. It can't be outsourced. It's not something we can trust to some professional class who will get the job done for us.

If America is to survive, we have to do the work. It's up to us. No more outsourcing.

Some jobs are too important to be left to the experts. Like they say . . .

Sometimes the only way to get something done right is to do it yourself.

"Occupy America: Sowing the Seeds of a Second American Revolution" . . . http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Occupying-America-Sowing-by-Lori-Spencer-111019-246.html

"The Occupy Movement: How we reclaim our country" . . . http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/02/the_occupy_movement_how_we_rec.html

"Chris Hedges' Endgame Strategy: Why the revolution must start in America" . . . http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/96/chris-hedges-revolution-in-america.html


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

Open Mind Surgery

Sometimes we need something to cut through the noise and nonsense we are constantly bombarded with, something which puts things in a new perspective. This short video with commentary by the inspiring astronomer Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is something I think does just that and which I hope we can all appreciate on some level.

 
Ultimately, our world will come to an end.

The sun will cool, expand to twenty times its current size and become a red giant. Early in this process, the Earth will become uninhabitable. This is billions of years into the future.

The real question is: Will humankind itself put an end to its supreme reign over the planet long before this?

It doesn’t look good.

In what is the thinnest imaginable slice of history representing human ascendancy and tyranny over Earth and every other species on it, we see an unflattering and unpromising story of careless plunder, destruction, waste, and extermination. We see a history which shows no regard for other living creatures, except as they have practical value to the only life form which apparently deserves the plentiful resources of the Earth. We see within our own species utter disregard for those humans which become inconvenient or are deemed expendable. Humankind has even distinguished itself as the only species to create the means of completely destroying itself and probably every other living thing __ which by tragic hapless accident is forced to cohabit Earth __ with just the mere press of a button. Recently we see him overheating the planet but inexplicably refusing to remove the kettle from the stove. His numbers unchecked by the typical processes of natural selection and competition, continue to increase exponentially. Probably the food and water will run out and the air will become unbreatheable.

No, it sure doesn’t look good.

Humans are a deeply, perhaps fatally flawed species. But there are splendid stories of hope within the grander themes of annihilation. In these we euphorically hurl ourselves to fly among imagined gods and soar with Pollyannaish abandon in the sunny heavens above the yawning abyss which will in the end claim us.

It may be its limitless capacity for frivolous optimism coupled with its unmatched devotion to self-aggrandizement which ultimately drives humankind to its unceremonious self-destruction.

The road to annihilation is paved with the best intentions and a smiley face.

So it has been … and so it always will be.

Unless something changes.

Unless we change.

[ This in part is excerpted from my new novel "12-12-12" which is being published this month both in print and as an ebook. Please visit my personal web site for more . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Dennis Kucinich: Another Victim of Fragging

Fragging is shooting one's own military commander. Typically it is prompted by discontent with his or her leadership, which is viewed as a threat to the safety of those under direct command. Sometimes fragging can be a reaction to overall leadership or the conduct of a war, even an objection to the war itself. But it can also be inspired purely by hatred of an individual who is despised for personal reasons.
American politics conducts its own fragging. It shoots its leaders for political reasons. Usually that is tantamount to just wanting to win. It is the political assassination of a capable person by the opposing party or by the corporate media to eliminate a troublesome foe.

Dennis Kucinich is the latest victim. The gerrymandering of his district in Ohio has put his long and admirable career of outstanding public service in jeopardy. He will not be up for election to the next Congress.We have seen this type of hatchet job before. It takes many forms. The controlling party in a particular political arena manipulates the rules to its advantage. Honor and fairness, even the health of our democratic system, play no role. It's cage fighting. May the most vicious man win.

The media plays a big role. Al Gore was wooden. Ralph Nader a cranky old man. Ross Perot was ugly. Because these men were not Hollywood cool and beautiful, they were not fit for public office.

Under the current system, our best, most creative, most talented politicians can be sidelined and marginalized, eliminated altogether. That's the way it works now. Apparently it's the American way.

If you don't like what someone is saying or the way he looks . . . blam!
And we wonder why America is in decline?
Or maybe we don't.


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

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 ]