Americans must stand up!!!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Americans-Can-Get-Up-a-by-David-Swanson-110426-832.html

Obama releases his birth certificate but the birthers will say that the certificate is forged.

Here, in Berkshire County, MA, the Berkshire Eagle is the regional daily newspaper. I was astounded, and grateful, to find that a long letter to the editor, signed by a resident of Williamstown, MA, extolled the extravagant wonders of Ayn Rand ! The sly incursion of beliefs of Ayn into American political thought and action is now, at least here in the front yard of Williams College, on the record.

The letter's author trumpeted the wonderfulness of Alan Greenspan's adherence to Ayn Rand's line, and quoted the fictional words of protagonists in "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" as statements of proper freedom while condemning "compassion" as the feeling one has when a caterpillar is squashed.

The culture war is underway, and the generals on the right are denying their attacks on the rest of us while they condemn all references to income inequity in public debate as, "divisiveness" by the radical lefties.

I say, "radical lefties, unite!! The only things we have to lose are the destructive silliness of the folks who haven't bought into the Christianity of Jesus while they promote anti-Muslim panic among the struggling middle class and unemployed to distract us from the ghastly truth about how much our beloved country is about to pay for the self-indulgence of the stinkin' rich!

The campaign of the Ayn Rand-ers is the real culture war, folks! Watch out!

Could I spend 1 million a year on me? This is the Reality Show we need- "How Much Do I need?" How many bathrooms do I need? Seven! I need authentic pink grout from Firenze between my tile and bottles of champagne to smash upon my pleasure yacht. I need acrylic nails, a hundred shoes, frocks and the remains of birds to wear on my head. Have I reached a million a year yet?

My opponent has a cousin whose only book was eaten by a rat. However, I have to guess, "How Much Do They Need?" How about two bathrooms vs seven. Sheets for beds that are on box springs and frames, and one bed for everyone in the house. You know, a clean man for every house for every man a clean bed. Food is nice to have on a regular basis, and perhaps a bookcase with some books, and a computer.

After so many shows we would find taking care of the needs of mankind and cleaning up our social illnesses is much less expensive than the More Fortunate probably realize.

Most of the Less Fortunate would be satisfied with a cute house, a nice yard, and recent model economy car, and are not anxious to acquire more than they can take care of themsleves. Naturally, The More Fortunate need More Servants, but the Less Fortunate need Less. They need smaller houses, but they need them just the same. There is, therefore, no excuse for anyone to be without a pleasant place to live and food to eat when there is so much abundance on the earth.

Why force socialism or redistributions? Shame ought to do it. We need a public exhibition of the daily and monthly Needs of The More Fortunate and The Less Fortunate, each opponent reading their list facing the other.

XXXXX

I'm sorry that these super rich are suffering from such greed! The more they have the more they covet! Truly they do. Their fear is they won't be able to buy that next property they someday may covet. It's so bad, even our politicians can't remember how many houses they own!

I feel those who are blessed to be in this top one percent, fail to appreciate and thus compensate our country for their blessings. Surely they rely on our government to protect their financial needs through our financial institutions, and their foreign investments requiring our world class military budget. Our schools, roads, and bridges were all used to produce that wealth. They should pay exponentially more taxes than others.

Sensibly now, after a couple of million in earnings, a tax code should tax eighty-nine percent of each extra dollar to prevent this greed. Heck, I wouldn't mind knowing that ball player was earning twenty million a year, knowing our schools, roads, bridges, national parks, and veterans were getting about seventeen of it.

A greed based tax code is what we need.

@Palindromedary, I want to apologize for missing your words on April 25, 2011. I try to respond to comments directed to me. There are times when I am very tired and I will miss comments. I hope that no one will take my missing of some comments personal. I enjoy debate and dialogue.

"@Gerald:
I watched the same program and had exactly the same thought about the 4th Reich right here in the US."

Palindromedary, the parallels between Naxi Germany and Nazi America are truly frightening. George W. had a grandfather who would tell W. about Hitler's great leadership qualities. W. tried to emulate Hitler in every way as a mass murderer and a war criminal. This is my perceptual opinion on W.

There can be little doubt that our Anti-Christ nation is evil, vile, and wicked.

@dianhow, Barilman, and 2950-10k, let me first say thank you for your comments!!! I would also like to say that there are times when I dislike saying somethings but I believe ideas, thoughts, and words need to be expressed. We are in battles against Satan's disciples who talk about family values and all the time these devils are laughing at family values. Here is one example. Let us eliminate child labor laws and have children work and not pursue an education. If you want to lose freedom, you must put a blanket over education. I say horse pucky to that Nazi idea. I truly BELIEVE THAT THE UNITED STATES OF MORTAL SIN IS THE ANTI-CHRIST!!!!! Please read the words below!

We are now hearing about Obama and whether or not he attended Harvard and there is also talk about his grades. No Nazi or Satan’s disciples are willing to talk about real issues, such as the impoverishment and slavery for the poor and the working classes. Hypocrisy reigns supreme among Satan’s disciples. The devils are winning in our Anti-Christ nation.

Florida has passed a bill that would curtail voter registrations and making it next to impossible for low-income persons, students, and racial minorities from voting. Florida is definitely a Nazi-controlled state where Satan’s disciples prevail over the citizens. There should be minimal doubt that Nazi America has more disciples wearing brown shirts and jackboots. These devils are truly Nazis who prowl the fifty states seeking the ruin of souls.

How can inequality be reduced? We need a political system representing the best interests of the vast majority, instead of the current model which caters to the selfish interests of a few. This could be achieved with a political system known as Democratic Socialism. One good definition of this is posted in Sunday’s member blog for anyone wanting more info. It's basically functional Democracy "rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern". ~Thomas Paine

Many things need to happen for this inequality reducing form of Government to become a reality. The first and most important is for progressives to get organized and get control of the message. The one America is hearing, is manipulative and deceitful, especially to low information citizens. The destructive results of this message have been reflected in the election of radical tea party individuals to positions of significant political power. Their wreckless and disrespectful conduct is an insult to our founders and a bastardization of democracy. It's a full blown Republican freak show.

We need to boom out a message filled with truth and economic hope, one as strong as the megalithic lie of trickle down, deregulation, and free trade which has destroyed the working class. Go to town hall meetings, call your elected reps, use your computer, phones, local newspaper opinion columns, talk to everyone you know, march in the streets...."We The People" might not own Fox, but with the same ardent spirit our founders had, we can succeed in the restoration of our democracy.

My hope is that we are headed for a planetary society that has more liberty, more justice, and is ecologically sustainable. It could be that we are headed in that direction but we can't really see the forest due to the trees. I see this movement to a more free, fair, and sustainable world in the work of Dr. Paul Raskin at the Tellus Institute for a Great Transition. http://www.tellus.org/index.php

I believe that if we comprehend how we as individuals are working toward the Great Transition we wouldn't feel so frustrated or alone. Part of our work must focus on reforming the tax code. I suggest that we start by reviewing the work of Henry George who called for the removal of taxes on honest work and would, instead, charge user fees on the use, monopoly, or destruction of our Earth's natural resources.

Check out http://www.cgocouncil.org/cwho.html

"So, it's all baloney. The economy isn't growing. How could it be? Wages are flat, credit is still shrinking, (excluding student loans) and the only reason the unemployment numbers keep dropping is because more and more people are falling off the unemployment rolls."

"Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession."

"People have lost faith in Obama, the congress, and the political process itself. They can see that the system is broken and no longer responds to the will of the people, which is why they're throwing up their hands and giving up. It's obvious."

"Americans are practical people. They know they're getting screwed by both parties which is why their support for capitalism has eroded even faster under Obama. It fell "15 points in a year" since 2009."

"But that doesn't mean Wall Street will suffer. Hell, no. The markets will continue to bubble ever-higher fueled by lavish injections of monetary stimulus from the Fed just as they have for the last 3 years."

"Looking ahead, it will be more of the same. Stocks will continue to rally, the red ink on the Fed's balance sheet will continue to build, and the dollar will continue its agonizing descent into oblivion.

The Fed is running the whole shooting match now and the rest of us are just bystanders with no say-so.

Welcome to Banktopia."

--Welcome to Banktopia--by Mike Whitney--An Article in Counter Punch--http://counterpunch.org/whitney04222011.html

"As president, Obama has maintained the occupation of Iraq and escalated the war in Afghanistan," said Heaney, U-M assistant professor of organizational studies and political science. "The antiwar movement should have been furious at Obama's 'betrayal' and reinvigorated its protest activity.
"Instead, attendance at antiwar rallies declined precipitously and financial resources available to the movement have dissipated. The election of Obama appeared to be a demobilizing force on the antiwar movement, even in the face of his pro-war decisions."
--http://counterpunch.org/umich04252011.html

Evidently some of those antiwar movement people were not really bothered by all of the criminal butchery we did in Iraq and Afghanistan...they were just, superficially, against Republicans. But they turned out to play right into their hands anyway.

Now tell me again how President Obama wasn't part of the diversion by the neocons/neoliberals and will not continue to do their bidding for them. Obama's smoke and mirrors trinkets essentially continue the policies of the Bush regime. I foolishly fell for Obama's promises of real change but how stupid do you have to be to continue believing he is still on "our" side. What the right wing idiots on Fox News says is not relevant anyway. It is a complete waste of time to continue participating in a corrupt system where your vote only puts puppets into the Presidency. It is worse than that because it helps to prop up the lie that we have a fair system. There is only one thing that will make real change...when the corporate fascists realize that they could face that same kind of violence, or other discomfort to them, like what the Egyptians showed their corrupt President and ruling elite.
I will not be repeating the same mistake I made before...I will not be voting for Obama this time around...unless he starts making some really about face actions...like really fighting for a 'single payer health system' or at least a 'public option' and not the disgusting give-away to the healthscare system of forcing people to pay into a corrupt corporate criminal system. Unless he does an about face on Bradley Manning, and lays off of Wikileaks. Unless he pulls our troops totally out of the middle east. Unless he stops his support of the war crimes of the Bush regime and works for prosecution of the war criminals...like Bush and Cheney, etal. And the list goes on...and on.

I really think enough people will be against it that Nuclear power will not be the force it might have been. I'm sure more plants will be built, but I suspect mostly in China, or other places where the people have no say.