Category: Domestic Affairs

Recalling the George W. Bush Presidency

Remembering one of America’s worst presidents!

It appears that the folks in South Carolina have forgotten some major events that occurred when George W. Bush was president. Not all were his direct fault but he and his administration, in my opinion, did not take sufficient precautions.  I did not have to refer to any publication or website for these occurrences. They are all clearly in my mind.  They should be in yours too. 

  1. September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City did occur eight months after he was inaugurated into office. The prior administration had warned of a possible terrorist attack.
  2.   Hurricane Katrina occurred on the morning on August 29, 2005. When the storm made landfall, it had a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale–it brought sustained winds of 100–140 miles per hour–and stretched some 400 miles across the Gulf coast. The History Channel says “Officials, even including President George W. Bush, seemed unaware of just how bad things were in New Orleans and elsewhere: how many people were stranded or missing; how many homes and businesses had been damaged; how much food, water and aid was needed. Katrina had left in her wake what one reporter called a “total disaster zone” where people were “getting absolutely desperate.” The Bush administration was widely criticized for its slow response to the disaster.
  3. The invasion of Iraq occurred in the spring of 2003, the United States invaded Iraq in order to overthrow leader Sadaam Hussein (1937-2006), whose regime was accused of supporting international terrorist groups and possessing large caches of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No WMD were found. 4,486 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
  4. He began his presidency with a federal budget surplus; however, factors such as the enormous cost of fighting two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) and the broad tax cuts led to annual budget deficits starting in 2002.
  5. The 2008 financial crisis was the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. The president was mostly absent from the efforts to save the economy. Instead it was his Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, who made requests to congress for funds to support the banking industry.

Perhaps the above listing of George W. Bush’s major administration failures would be a reason to suspect another Bush would not be welcomed to the White House.

Poetic Justice

A grand jury in Houston was asked to investigate Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, a branch of one of the country’s most important healthcare providers for women, the grand jury found no wrongdoing on the part of the group, whose staffers were secretly videotaped talking about the cost of procuring fetal tissue for research. Instead, the grand jury handed down indictments against two of the antiabortion zealots involved in the “sting.”

If that’s not poetic justice, nothing is.

I understand there are many in the country who oppose abortions and want to find every avenue to stop them.

David Daleiden, the antiabortion zealot who created the Center for Medical Progress as a front for his deceptive efforts, has been indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a government record. (The reason for that charge is unclear, but Planned Parenthood has alleged that Daleiden and his associates used fake government identifications and used aliases.)

Once again it is men who are trying to tell women how they should handle an unwanted pregnancy. I am certain that there are women who oppose abortions too but it seems to be men who are in the forefront of the antiabortion fight. Carly Fiorina has been in the forefront of the fight. She claimed to have seen a video of a fully formed fetus kept alive to harvest the brain. Chris Wallace debunked that claim on his Sunday morning show.

So there is hope for the people of Texas.

Can We Trust Government Officials to Keep Us Safe?

Invariably when a government agency head or elected official makes a mistake he says, “I take full responsibility.”  What he doesn’t do is resign or pay a fine and most certainly does not go to jail.  So what does “taking responsibility” mean?  It really means I apologize for my errors and hope not to be caught again.  

The problems started after the push of a button, a toast with Flint River water and a budget forecast of saving $5 million that had to be tempting for a city in the midst of a financial emergency.

Despite the complaints that the water appeared dirty and had a peculiar odor and taste Flint, Michigan continued pumping water from the river.

The consequence is lead poisoned water that can result in brain damage to children and possible early death. The financial cost to replace the ruined piping is estimated at $75 million.

Porter Ranch residents suffering from headaches, nausea and other symptoms from a natural gas leak that has displaced thousands are assigning blame to a damaged well in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles. Some government agencies are questioning the claims that although some people have experienced some problems there will be no long term effects.

This reminds me of the high school built on an abandoned oil field in Los Angeles. The abandonment of that project took major community involvement. Or the Virginia communities that were impacted by the Dan River spill of coal ash in February 2014.

Is there any evidence that government and business officials can be trusted to provide honest information about health issues?

The answer is an emphatic NO.

Angry Versus Steady As We Go

Americans are upset with Washington. Some are angry. Some are VERY angry. Donald Trump says he is angry. He says the country is a mess. He is correct!

The “establishment” candidates are all part of the Washington group that has been running this country for decades. What do we have to show for it? Low paying jobs, crumbling infrastructure, high cost college education, high national debt, local governments struggling to avoid bankruptcy, and now even the stock market is in decline. And to top that off many other nations thumb their noses at the United States.

Is it no wonder then that Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders are drawing big crowds to their campaign events? They are talking about changing the country with some specific ideas. Now you may not agree with all of their ideas but look at the establishment candidates. It’s all about a “steady as we go” philosophy that lines the pockets of the well connected.

The base salary for congressional representatives is $174,000 a year. The typical American family income was $53,657 in 2014. You think those congressional representatives are concerned with your situation? They are concerned with their re-election and that translates to contributions from the wealthy that want to keep everything the same as it is now.

So will the angry turn out in sufficient numbers to overturn the establishment? We can only hope!

Goodbye to America’s Middle Class

Forget about the poor and the rich for just a few minutes. Think about the middle class. The range of the middle class varies by state. According to Pew Research Center in the middle class shrunk in every state between 2000 and 2013. The highest median income for that group was $72,483 in Maryland and at the low end in Mississippi it was $37,963.

Here is the real shocker. Household median income reached $48,474 in 2012 but in adjusted for inflation dollars Americans reached an income of $48,655 in 1978. The median income in 1978 was $13,234.

Pew Research writes: “The hollowing of the American middle class has proceeded steadily for more than four decades. Since 1971, each decade has ended with a smaller share of adults living in middle-income households than at the beginning of the decade, and no single decade stands out as having triggered or hastened the decline in the middle.

Based on the definition used in their report, the share of American adults living in middle-income households has fallen from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2015.”

Which presidential candidate is likely to change this situation? The answer is no one. While Bernie Sanders rails against big business he has not offered any solutions.

The Low Pay for Low Skills Lie

No one wants to be poor and no one wants to ask for aid from welfare offices. Unfortunately some people simply lack the abilities needed to successfully attend college. In fact some people struggle to graduate from high school. That is the reason we have a population of poor adults that will always have an income barely above the minimum wage for their entire lives.

In a world where high tech skills are the driving force and innovations that are eliminating many low skill jobs, the least able in society must accept simple jobs that do not provide a living wage.

Those poor people may be hard working but there simply is not enough family income to pay the cost of food, clothing, housing, and the other basics that the rest of us take for granted. Society’s solution is welfare.

The argument given by so many people against raising the minimum wage is that the jobs they do are not worth any more than that low pay.

Thus we, society, are subsidizing all industries that employ minimum wage personnel. We are giving them welfare. Society makes the poor feel even worse about their condition by requiring them to apply for welfare, present food stamps to markets, and other degrading actions.

The solution is to require employers to pay a “living wage” for the lowest skill jobs. Those people in that category would no longer receive welfare aid. The only people receiving welfare aid would be the mentally and physically handicapped. What about single mothers with young children? Require employers to provide child care either on site or through payments to child care facilities.

Of course there would be a chorus of objections to the cost burdens placed on employers. The answer is that society is currently paying the bill through welfare payments and that translates to higher taxes.

Conservatives who object to subsidies should be happy with reduced government size and Liberals should be happy to know that even the least able in society will receive a living wage.

Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1919

Theodore Roosevelt‘In the first  place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good  faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be  treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to  discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or  origin.

But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the  English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is  a loyalty to the American people.’ Theodore Roosevelt  1919

He advocated the compulsory learning of English by every naturalized citizen. “Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country,” he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. “English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools.”

He also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room for what he called “fifty-fifty allegiance.” In a speech made in 1917 he said, “It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us.” This information from Urban Legends

There was No One Left

Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German anti-Nazi theologian[1] and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his statement, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist …… and there was no one left to speak for me.”

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

 Donald Trump spreads the same kind of intolerance. First it was the Mexicans now it’s the Muslims. Who will be next?

Will you speak out?

America’s 20 richest people have more money than these 152 million people

This article appeared on End Of The American Dream and MarketWatch.

“America’s 20 wealthiest people — a group that could fit in one Gulfstream G650 jet — are now worth $732 billion, which means they have more wealth than the 152 million people who make up the least wealthy 50% of U.S. households, according to a report released Wednesday by the Institute for Policy Studies. What’s more, the “Forbes 400” wealthiest individuals in the U.S. now have a net worth of $2.34 trillion.”

So when Bernie Sanders says almost the very same thing you think “Well he is running for president and this is his hook.”

I ask you now what do you think?

Just yesterday the Los Angeles Times posted the following:

“The nation’s income gap increased 10% over the past 20 years, and roughly twice that rate for people in their prime earning years, according to a new study.

The income gap swelled 21% for those between the ages of 35 to 44, and 17.6% for people aged 45 to 54, according to the analysis by financial website Bankrate.com. The study analyzed the period from 1992 to 2012.

The study is the latest to highlight rising income inequality, and is troubling because it shows the dichotomy worsening for people in their key earnings years.

“The prime earning years for most people — when they’re in their 30s and 40s — are also the most important when it comes to setting up a future position on the wealth spectrum,” according to the study. “While some are quickly advancing toward becoming rich, others are just as quickly falling behind.”

According to the study, the income gap is widest among people 65 and older, although it grew only 3%, the slowest rate for any age group over the last 20 years.

Citing data from the Census Bureau, the bottom fifth of U.S. households earn an annual average of $11,490, the study said.

The next fifth take in $29,696. The middle tier earns $51,179 and the next group takes home $82,098. The top fifth earns $181,905, and the top 5% earns $318,052.”

The problem is that neither Hillary Clinton nor any of the GOP presidential candidates have even opened a dialog on this issue.

Thus even though there is more than enough data, none of the leading candidates want to face the unpleasant reality that the average American family is growing poorer.

Why should you vote in a presidential race when your needs are not even part of the discussion? Wait, there is one candidate who has brought this topic to the forefront.

Is the United States Becoming a Nazi Replica?

-Doctor Ben Carson: ‘We should have a database on everybody’

-Donald Trump told NBC News there should be a database of all Muslims.

-Senator Ted Cruz agrees with Donald Trump. He would winnow the field of acceptable refugees down to only Christian Syrians, similar to what Jeb Bush proposes.

-Kasich on Syrian Refugees: ‘We Don’t Know Who They Are, Where They Come From’

-There’s nothing outrageous about barring Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. unless they pass background checks, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on “The Kelly File.”

As reported on CNN
Shockingly, Trump told Yahoo News that he would consider requiring Muslim-Americans to register with a government database, or worse, mandating that they carry special identification cards that note their faith.

The reaction to this idea, fairly or unfairly, by many on social media, was to accuse Trump of wanting to mimic laws that Nazis had imposed on Jews, including requiring them to wear a gold Star of David on their clothes.

After Trump confirmed that he would set up a database for Muslim-Americans, an NBC reporter asked him point blank: “Is there a difference between requiring Muslims to register and Jews in Nazi Germany?” A clearly annoyed Trump at first refused to respond, but then told the reporter, “You tell me,” and walked away.

The likelihood is that a Republican will be the next president of the United States.

Trump is now reported to have “backed away” from tracking people. Still, the fear factor has taken over this nation.

With the rise of radical Islam and the non-stop reports on television we are all observing a frightening rise in those wanting the government to monitor every person’s movement. It is a form of fascism.

I wonder if any of these politicians have read George Orwell’s 1984. In that story the government spies on everyone’s personal life. Televisions are everywhere an each has a camera that watches what you are doing.

The data base idea is the most worrisome idea I have heard. Perhaps we could have the Muslims wear arm bands so they can be easily identified. Does this idea remind you of a past event? Yes! It reminds me of Hitler and the arm bands worn by Jews in Germany and all the places invaded by the Nazis.

The reaction of governors and the Speaker of the House to the situation in Europe is reminiscent of American reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

My reaction is what about other minorities in the United States? Will all of us be subject to data bases?

The only official definition of Fascism comes from Benito Mussolini, the founder of fascism, in which he outlines three principles of a fascist philosophy. 1.”Everything in the state”. The Government is supreme and the country is all-encompasing, and all within it must conform to the ruling body, often a dictator. 2.”Nothing outside the state”. The country must grow and the implied goal of any fascist nation is to rule the world, and have every human submit to the government. 3.”Nothing against the state”. Any type of questioning the government is not to be tolerated. If you do not see things our way, you are wrong. If you do not agree with the government, you cannot be allowed to live and taint the minds of the rest of the good citizens.

The use of militarism was implied only as a means to accomplish one of the three above principles, mainly to keep the people and rest of the world in line. Fascist countries are known for their harmony and lack of internal strife. There are no conflicting parties or elections in fascist countries.

Nazi Germany was extreme Fascism, better examples of fascist countries were Mussolini’s Italy, Iraq, Iran, and many middle eastern countries.