The Death of American Capitalism:

I am not at all sure these days what has become of American Capitalism. It certainly is “Not your Father’s Oldsmobile.” Today the American capitalist wants and gets huge flow of money from the American Government. This in the form of farm price supports for everything from corn to hogs. Add to this the unpardonable boon by failure to even include a clause compensating the federal government for royalty payments on oil removed from public lands. Now we are hearing a drum beat of tax reduction for the wealthy as part of the drive to extend the Bush tax cuts.

No ladies and gentlemen these are not the actions of Capitalists. These are the actions of hogs at the feeding trough; with their front paws in the feeding trough. When the federal government bailed out every single Wall Street bank including several investment banks these too became capitalists in name only. The days of JP Morgan attempting to single handedly staving off the specter of a market crash went up in a puff of smoke and like magic bankers as capitalists vanished.

Today we have large Wall Street banks that accepted truly vast amounts of taxpayer dollars throwing American citizens out of houses bought in the housing bubble financed risk free by the same federal government that bought bogus loans from these banks using Freddy Mack as a piggy bank. Enough is enough. I think it is high time for a roasting a few hogs. Firstly the inflated rate of pay for these male hogs needs to be reduced. Secondly charges need to be brought in federal court holding those responsible for the massive malfeasance accountable. Thirdly the average American citizen who suffered because of the recession and reduced market needs to be provided with bridging loans in order that their ownership rights are preserved in their homes. The funding for these loans would come from not renewing the Bush Era tax cuts.

There will be great outcry about socialism. And I expect that this outcry will come largely from the political right. What these folks fail to realize is their model of capitalism has somehow morphed into a pig grunting and squealing as he gorgeous himself on corn mash provided by the American taxpayer. Let the outcry begin because that way we will know the hogs have scattered and it only remains to capture them and then the barbeque can begin.

Republican Mistakes:

While most of the pundits think the Republicans will do well in the upcoming elections it may be the last time that will be true. You may ask why I should say something that sounds so foolish. Let’s consider the basic facts about America. America is basically a democracy. With very few exceptions the party that gets the most votes wins the election. I admit that there can be slight irregularities such as happened in 2000 where the candidate with fewer votes was declared the winner.

The election of 2004 was largely fear driven. And Americans hate to changes horses in midstream. Recall the war in Iraq was only 18 months old and hopes were high that America would be viewed as coming to the aid of the Iraqis who had received such brutal treatment from their own leadership. So the Republican president was re-elected. What followed can only be described as a receipt for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

While there may have been no weapons of mass destruction there was no shortage of weapons of small group destruction. Rocket propelled grenades and AK-47s were everywhere. Sadly the war was well led by the generals but the peace that followed was totally botched. First we dismissed the entire army and had to start over from scratch. Then we mocked and tortured political prisoners. The century’s long animosity between Shiite and Sunni was used to leverage our position, the hope that we could play one group off against the other resulted in both groups hating America.

The astounding thing is that none of the leadership saw these errors for what they were. You can see that today with the brouhaha over the Islamic cultural site that will be built 2 blocks from where the Twin Towers once stool. Rather than saying America is the land where all religions are free to worship as they wish; protest marches have been held. Rather than defending our history of opportunity for all some on the political Right are now planning on burning copies of the Islamic holy book the Quran. Think how offended we Christians would be if the Bible were burned. But the malaise goes far deeper. Some on the right want to repeal the 14th Amendment that gives citizenship to all children born in America. Then there is the Arizona law giving the police the right to demand citizenship papers of those citizens stopped for whatever reason. Thoughts of Nazi Gestapo certainly went thru my mind.

America demographics are becoming obvious. The Hispanic part of our population is growing ever larger. If we continue to alienate sectors of America these errors in judgment will result in losses in elections. Unless the Republican Party can moderate and moderate quickly they may well become the minority party regardless of what happens in the upcoming elections.

The American Dream and Social Justice:

Today marks 47 years since Martin Luther King said I have a dream. He said those words before the memorial to the president that had the power and the rectitude to actually free a race and by so doing make the words of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution mean exactly what they so clearly said. Martin Luther King sought social justice for all Americans. Think about that, for if injustice is permitted it does not harm just those who are unjustly treated. It in fact harms us all.

Some people will tell you that social justice is a myth. These people are wrong. While the law cannot make you love your fellow man the law damn well can tell you that you may not lynch your fellow man. I have for years heard the phrase you cannot legislate morality. Perhaps the spirit of justice cannot be imparted to the law. But what you may not do can be delineated. Those that would ignore this dual nature of the law are overlooking the true majesty of the law.

In some ways the law is a sewer in that it attempts to redress those things done by criminal elements against honest citizens. But more than that the law attempts to limit how far a powerful citizen may go when abusing a weaker citizen. That may sound like a shocking statement. And it is. The law does not say one citizen may not abuse another it says that abuse may not go beyond a certain point.

To better see these distinctions consider the payment of interest on borrowed money. Most Americans do not consider the charging of interest against the law. But most Americans would feel that an interest rate of 10% per month excessive. So it becomes a matter of degree not the thing itself. Interest is okay but excessive interest is not okay. The question becomes who says what is and what is not excessive. Those folks who are what I call raw capitalists would say that the folks making the loan have the right to charge any amount they wish. Those with more social scruples would argue that an external agency should regulate to insure the rate charged was not excessive.

The stated purpose of the American system of government is to insure to all citizens equality of opportunity to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These general statements are implemented by a series of statutes that regulate how citizens may treat each other. The most basic of the statutes governing citizen and government interaction is of course the Bill of Rights. Think of the Bill of Rights in the same way you think of the Ten Commandments. The major difference being the Ten Commandments came 3,000 years earlier.


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Immigration and Mosque Building:

I have watched two major issues in this silly season of politics. Yes the month of August is referred to by me and by many as the political silly season. There are serious issues to consider even though they are being raised by people that I consider not all that serious. Let’s turn this discussion on its head and see if that puts a different perspective on it.

Let us assume that the state of New Mexico tomorrow passes a law that forbids the construction of a house of worship by any religion that is not Christian. I wonder if there would be marches in support of the governor of New Mexico? I rather think not. Or at least I hope the silliness of such a law would be readily perceived. You see federal law over-rides state law. Further a state statute must not conflict with the basic tenants and sprit of our federal constitution. You do not need a Supreme Court decision to decide if a law is constitutional. Any federal judge can strike down a statute passed by any state legislature. Free expression of any religion is guaranteed by the federal constitution, no if’s ands or butts.

Control of America’s international borders and enforcement of America’s citizenship requirements has always been a federal responsibility. When certain American companies chartered busses to bring Mexican citizens illegally across America’s southern border I heard nary a whimper of protest. When drug dealers shipped American arms to their suppliers in Mexico once again the silence was such that you could have heard a shell casing or a pin drop.

Now however 22,000,000 American’s are out of work. Now a minimum wage job seems far more attractive than it did 30 months ago. Now the arms and bullets we have been shipping south to support America’s drug habit are being used to kill law enforcement agents in towns and cities with in rifle shot range of American citizens. We are not talking rockets such as are used in Gaza by Hamas to attack peaceful Israelis. Here we are talking about small arms fire that has the potential of killing innocent Americans. Why is there no protest march decrying the sale and shipment of arms to Mexican drug kingpins.

All of this is happening against a backdrop of members of congress decrying the president’s action to restrict unsafe drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico following the most massive oil spill since Saddam Hussein set fire to the oil wells in Kuwait. In fact the corporation responsible for this latest oil related disaster has been previously found to be negligent in the operation of their chemical plant in Texas as well as negligent in their operation of the Alaska pipeline. Yet the fact that a 20 mile wide section of the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida devoted to fishing and tourism has been effectively demolished goes largely ignored.

Now do you understand why it is called the silly season?

Green Energy and VAT:

I have for some time been advocating that America pursue a stronger green energy policy. I am adding a new leg to the stool. That leg is a value added tax (VAT).

Basically a value added tax is a tax that is levied only when a manufacturer increased the value of a product and then sells that product. This is in contrast to the current system of not collecting a tax until the item is sold to the consumer. The nice part of a value added tax is that all other nations tax this way. Because America does not use a value added tax foreign goods enter America essentially tax free. However goods made in America are taxed when imported into the country where we wish to sell that good.

The result is that American goods cost more in say China than Chinese goods of equal value cost in America due only to difference in tax systems. This is not a level playing field and means that America continues to be at a competitive disadvantage. We must change the largely ineffective corporate tax structure where for example large oil companies pay no taxes on billions of dollars of profits. The fairest way to do this is to collect taxes on the value added to a product such as gasoline as it moves thru the refining process that changes it from crude oil to gasoline. Value has been added and that value should be taxed.

Collecting taxes in this way will cause industry to pay their fair share of the cost of maintaining America’s infrastructure as well as funding items of nation concern such as national defense and national security. But more to the point it will permit America to tax imports in the same way that other nations tax American goods entering their markets. No longer will goods made in China or Japan enjoy an advantage in price due to an imbalanced system of taxation.

If America can develop low cost energy sources and a balanced taxation system who knows how many manufacturing jobs will flow back to America. We almost surely can reverse the trend of the past 20 years where jobs were lost to manufacturing in places other than America. Once again the American worker could be proud of his job and his country and even his company. Once again American’s would have jobs doing things other than making Subway sandwiches and MacDonald’s hamburgers.

Creating Jobs | The Jobs Crisis

Water Water Everywhere:

... And not a drop fit to drink, so goes the old doggerel I learned as a child. Today it was better said by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

For truly these days much that passes as political comment is nothing more than sound and fury and signifies nothing. I for one am sick and tired of facile lies told by self-serving political leaders who can see no further than the next election. Or the next attempt by them to cover their asses or feather their nest at the expense of their fellow Americans who are suffering.

Yes I am tired of the dictatorship of wealth and privilege riding rough-shod over the working men and women of America. Every single statistic I read points to the fact that the rich are getting richer and the middle class is being decimated while the poor in America daily slip further and further behind. Folks let me tell you the rich are getting rich at a vastly more rapid pace than the rest of American. For most, life is not improving to any measureable extent and is indeed declining in almost every aspect of quality of life.

The first task of a problem solver is to realize that there is a problem. Trust me my friends this is not another false alarm. America and our way of life is being threatened by the very people who have most benefited by the opportunities offered by America. The foxes are amongst the chickens and no one seems to realize that the foxes are not the good guys if you are a chicken. Chicken or fox? Which are you because foxes do not breed chickens and unless the chickens get their act together we will soon have no chicken house to call home. All that will be left is blood and feathers and foxes snarling at one another asking where all the chickens went to.

Do we Americans really believe the drivel being dished up by Sarah Palin and Jon Kyl?

Repeal 14th Ammendment | Sarah Palin "Moma Grizzlies"

Use More Color:

I have watched with increasing dismay what I call the dumbing of America. To put a slightly different twist on this let me say it this way. American minds are being encouraged to think in fewer and fewer colors. I say encouraged rather than taught because teachers if they truly are teachers want their students to think in more colors not fewer colors. So here is an easy test for all Americans: If a commentator or pundit or elected official or someone running for office is encouraging you to think in fewer colors or cannot express themselves using a full palette of colors simply withdraw or withhold your support of such people.

America has always been a country founded on diversity. We were founded by 13 colonies that differed widely in not only their approach to god but in their approach to life. These differences led to problems but the differences led also to a society that was open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

We have an American today who thinks coining new words is the same as coining new ideas. In fact she has compared herself to none other than the immortal bard William Shakespeare. A single act of one of Shakespeare’s plays contains more colors than all of the tweets this person has ever posted. Truly here we can see the dumbing of America in full bloom as it were. Sadly the flower is gray and will be hard put to attract any followers other than those that think in monochromatic terms.

I would encourage all of my countrymen to think in more colors not in fewer colors. Ockham’s razor always applies but not to the point of exclusion of concepts. Nor should Ockham’s razor be used to shave the corners and make a concept fit a narrow minded bigot.


William of Ockham