We watch our children die from lack of adequate health insurance. The ones who survive are saddled with a lifetime debt if they choose higher education of any value. Relationships among the young are diminishing. The birthrate declining. Single income families are now prevented from home ownership. They are forced to rent for more money.

Baby Boomers are dying younger many before retirement. Many seniors who make it to social security are found at the recycling centers to supplement their income. The ones that have lost their jobs and have no savings are forced to survive without shelter. There has been no discussion for those who use to be middle class.

Without shelter you either have a car to sleep in or go off into the woods to lay on a cardboard box and rug. They fear being hunted down and tased. Police use tasers to drive people from their vans. It is a crime to sleep without shelter. People die from taser. Being poor is more than a crime. You could be executed by taser. Where is the safe harbor for the homeless?

We must create socially responsible capitalism. Create an economy with a 4 day work week and 3 day alternate shift with a liveable wage. End overtime exempting medical and agriculture. Give equal employment rights for agriculture workers. Raise the minimum wage. Allow single payer option for medi-care. Bring back home ownership for single income families. Develop affordable higher education for everyone. Give the Americans who use to be middle class a chance at life again and the American dream.

For more from a local coastal Redwood California perspective go to bushforsccouncil.99k.org

I'm with you, NACHOS. I had a dream in which Congress repealed NAFTA, the Patriot Act, and the NDAA, dismantled the Dept. of Homeland (sic) Security, and told the "War on Terror" (and enhanced airport security) to "go bye-bye." They also told the Pentagon they had $10 million expressly for the return of all troops state-side, and cut the Intelligence Community by 2/3.Then, they pushed for a massive research program toward Alternative Energy production and new engine technology. Next, they passed a modest "single-payer" healthcare plan, based on Medicare, and announced that they were considering repeal of the Federal Reserve System. In the interim, they mandated a comprehensive audit of the system. The Majority Leader claimed that they were working on a measure to reverse the "Citizens United" decision, and another to break up the media conglomerates. Man, what a dream!! I tried to call the president, but was told he was on vacation in the Bahamas, trying to re-group after his nervous breakdown. I just wish we had a big chunk of this dream, in place of the nightmare we inhabit today.

I'm with Palindromedary

The "Fiscal Cliff" scenario is a hoax...a "strawman" argument. The nation's economy has been running on a deficit basis since at least the nineteen-thirties. Not that this is necessarily a good thing, but for the Republicans to complain about this now is about the same as complaining about the ocean rising at "high tide." Both parties were responsible for this crazy system (and for the Federal Reserve System, which should never have been created-in 1913). Am I missing something here? Did I miss the demand by the Neocons to repeal the "Fed?"

Is inflation a bad thing? Mostly yes, as inflation is essentially a hidden tax on regular American families. The trouble with these mindless knuckleheads--in both parties--who keep ranting about the budget, is that a sensible person would recognize that these perpetual wars and enhancement of "Intelligence" and domestic security programs, are not only stupid and representative of ghastly barbarity (and unacceptable and unconstitutional compromise of fundamental rights like due process, and the right of privacy), but are terribly expensive (and massively inflationary). One might also want to reflect for a moment on the real reasons for our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oil and geopolitics.

You want to yell about "entitlements?" FINE!! Then yell about the corporate and military contractor entitlements. There are huge corporate subsidies, there are contractor "sweetheart deals" (awarding of contracts sans competitive bidding)--just like in the Vietnam War era--and there are tax loopholes you could drive a tank through. Some corporations like G.E. pay no federal taxes.

What is wrong with this picture? Congress should "pull the plug" on this military and intelligence fiasco, and, decide to end the gradual slide into fascism that we have been witnessing for the last ten years, and--at the same time--impose reasonable and uniform taxes on the corporations and the richest among us. And, enough of the stupid rant about "terrorism." Terrorism is just another example of a "straw man" argument...a "red herring," to control the citizenry and bamboozle us out of our money and our republic. In recent history, this was introduced by the Bush-Cheney regime, and is still "alive and well" under Obama. The very same policies of "shock and awe" and plenty of propaganda (and a massive war-economy). The United States government is probably the biggest purveyor of terrorism in the world. Couldn't we rise up and "Just say no?!!!"

A final word: Has it occurred to anyone how much fossil fuel is being consumed by these lunatic military ventures? Pull the plug, and do it NOW!!

Oh my god, am I scared! They're coming to disarm America!

Get real. Every gun in pivate hands are pea shooters if you're going to stand off a modern army, might as well have mussle loaded arms as what we have in the private sector. If you are really worried about a military sweep of the US, then work at getting rid of the mercenary forces we now keep. Work at taking back the authority given to the police to do as they please and stand as witness next time you see some cop bullying someone around.

Disarm America. What laugh, all 300 plus million of them. Don't worry you can always buy some back from the drug cartels.

I think that what passes for progressive media today is the most responsible for increasingly turning the US into something like a feudal society. The issue of poverty was censored out. Today, it's all about/only about middle class workers, the better off. Because of this, we lost track of the fact that the conditions of our poor directly effect the conditions of the middle class. There is no way we can "rebuild the middle class" without addressing poverty, and no way to save the middle class unless we take a legitimate look at all those factors that so powerfully trap people into permanent poverty today. Instead, all we hear is a relentless pandering to middle class consumers.

We now have mandatory no-rights workfare labor that can be paid a fraction of the minimum wage. That's cheaper than keeping people in prison. It's also an adequate replacement workforce, much cheaper than middle class workers -- and according to what I've read, the middle class supports workfare labor.

Quote MMnnNachos:"someone" needs to hack into the drone program and start targeting these self righteous assholes...Game on!

You said it! I guess if someone can hack into the Pentagon and then into the Montana Civil Defense Alert system and scare the crap out of people about "the dead rising up out of their graves and attacking people" "very dangerous...do not approach them"...then someone surely would be able to hack into the Drone system...maybe that's just what Iran did to that one drone they captured. ;~)

I understand that we are pretty much already in a kind of quasi-war with China...an internet war. Well, why not? The US has conducted internet warfare already in releasing their viruses on the world when they used them against Iran. And N.Korea is ramping up with yet another underground nuke test. And unless they actually launch any against the US, the Japan reactor accident has already put tons of radioactive wasted into our oceans and atmosphere.

I sure wish someone would hack into the automated dialing system that keeps calling me multiple times everyday...and dial the CEO of those damn collection agencies every hour at random times and see how they like it. The phone company won't help me...blocking is only for local calls (they say!). Ever since I got a new phone number I've been plagued by these calls. I have never actually answered the calls because I know who they are by the device I have connected to my phone and I have no wish to help them out...even to say they have a wrong number. I looked them up on the internet and know that they pester lots of people. I'm kind of curious as to how many years of daily calls from their auto-dialer I will get before they give up...maybe they never will.

In re: your last message...yeah, man, I have not been through half the stuff you've been through but I'm not a happy camper either. I'm not the sort that would go all ballistic like Dorner did...I haven't been through what he went through either. I'm fine until something drastically unexpected happens but that could happen any time...a death in the family...which I've already experienced...just recently...but someone closer would be just horrible.

Very good points, DAnneMarc! I don't think most people are born crazy...some, maybe. People are usually driven crazy and driven to do crazy things. Like Dorner.

The LAPD believed he had PTSD and they just brushed him off. I read somewhere that the LAPD was making claims that they were trying to avoid hiring cops who were suspected of having PTSD. That would mean, most likely, that many of the returning soldiers from the Middle East would likely have an even harder time finding a job. They have the skills necessary to be in a fire fight, and even a "fire" fight now ;-\ it seems but, perhaps, not the skills to control their temper when under ridicule. Dorner was under a lot of ridicule and racial antagonism by fellow cops and felt he was constantly being treated unfairly by his bosses. Many of the people who shot up schools were also ridiculed and antagonized and made to feel different. The root of the problem is that those in positions of authority let this all go unchecked....they let the antagonism by fellow classmates, or workers, go uncorrected...which would fester over time and lead to outbursts that we all regret. Then everybody asks...why? Let's blame it on some inanimate objects, that's it! It was the ease with which someone was able to obtain a gun. That's it! Now, let's make everyone suffer for what one neglected individual has done. Take away everyone's guns! But, then they'll use other methods.

I agree with you DAnneMarc, Reagan just screwed us when he did all the things he did. Everything went down hill from there. Our wages. Our benefits. Our security.

And AMEN, DAnneMarc!

It seems to me like mass insanity that every thinks that the best solution to this problem is taking guns away. Yet somehow, seriously mentally ill people walking around on the streets without being cared for is perfectly acceptable. Even Thom only briefly ever touches upon this issue. Nobody has the guts to say that the policies of Ronald Reagan, in particularly defunding of Mental Hospitals, is destroying this Nation.

When I was a kid it was irresponsible to let children play with matches; but insane to give them to a seriously mentally ill patient. These people had 24 hour care. Some of them were placed in padded cells to protect themselves and other patients. There were also things called Straight Jackets to minimize the danger.

Ronald Reagan decided that it was a great idea to open the doors of these asylums and let these dangerous individuals roam free amongst us were they could have access to anything we do including assault weapons. Now we wonder why innocent people are being killed by these would be patients. Instead of addressing the mental health care issue we're considering banning assault weapons? What do we ban next? The patients that used to be confined to padded cells had nothing. Is that the ultimate goal of this solution? To turn our society into a padded cell and strip our citizenry of everything? Thats the only logical conclusion for this course of action!

Come on Thom! For crying out loud, USE YOUR MICROPHONE TO POINT OUT THE FUTILITY OF THIS SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM! Put the blame where it belongs--The Reagan Administration policies.

Leave LaPierre and the NRA alone. They are right for once!

Quote Outback: I'm wondering if some of these guys aren't refugees from Iraq or Afghanistan suffering from PTSD.

Well, once a killer, always a killer! Our military trains them well. Many of these trained killers do gravitate to positions of authority...like in the police forces. Not that it is necessarily the fault of the soldier returning from such duty. They are brainwashed and trained that way by a murderous criminal system. Many, never heal from that brainwashing and urge to kill. If they were actually DEFENDING the US against attacking forces that would be one thing but they are just being used as cannon fodder to force other countries to be controlled by the will of the blood sucking murderers in the top few percentage points of our greedy and corrupt economic system....the Crapitolists!