Day: November 27, 2010

The Dangers Of Extreme Income Inequality! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, and millions are facing the loss of their homes, all of this caused by Wall Street, the banks, and the powerful corporations, we get news that the corporate world has seen its best quarter of economic growth and profits in the sixty years since such records have been kept! 🙁

While the elite flaunt their wealth and arrogance in the face of the “little people”, who they have helped to exploit and put into dire poverty and desperation, the country faces a social crisis of massive proportions, and yet it is the corporate wealthy who spent extreme amounts of money to put their Republican allies back into power on Capitol Hill in the House of Representatives! 🙁

Against any regulation or reform of the Obama Administration, the intent of the super rich is to continue the exploitation of the masses that they have been engaged in during the past decade! 🙁

No amount of arrogance seems to be enough, as no matter how much profit these corporations make, and no matter how much personal materialism the super rich gain, it is never enough! 🙁

The level of selfishness and greed is unlimited, but there are signs that the social tensions that are rising as people become cornered and desperate might reverberate on all of us in increased bloodshed and violence by victims who see nothing to lose! 🙁

The situation we face is extremely scary, as constant exploitation could lead to violent revolution and destruction of the entire society, all because of the small percentage of the population who possess no ethics, no conscience, no morals in their pursuit of personal gain! 🙁

What a sad commentary it is that the American capitalistic system could be sowing the seeds of its own destruction through unwillingness to realize limits in the public interest! 🙁

South Florida Gains Two New Controversial GOP Congressmen! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

In the recent midterm Congressional elections, South Florida saw two new GOP Congressmen elected, both of whom are bound to make news, but probably not in a positive way! 🙁

David Rivera is the new Congressman for the 25th Congressional District in Miami, who has been accused of domestic violence against a woman years ago, and was involved in a car crash into a truck carrying fliers accusing him of domestic violence, even though he denies the whole story. But the Miami Herald has done investigation on this and claims that Rivera is covering up on this matter! 🙁 So the matter is not likely to go away anytime soon!

Even more controversial is the new Congressman for the 22nd Congressional District in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and one of two newly elected African American Republican Congressmen. Allen West was a lieutenant colonel in the US Army who retired under fire for his tactics in Iraq in 2003, and he is seen as one of the most right wing members of Congress, similar to Michele Bachmann in using loose rhetoric! He had a motorcycle gang as a security detail, and briefly hired right wing talk show host Joyce Kaufman, a Fort Lauderdale radio celebrity, as his Chief of Staff until she backed out two days later, after her fiery speech during the campaign advocating using the Second Amendment if the election results were unsatisfactory! 🙁

These two Florida Congressmen will give the GOP leadership headaches in all likelihood, and will not follow the old line that freshmen are seen but not noticed! 🙁

Will “Permanent War” Lead To Decline Of America As A Superpower? :(

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A retired colonel in the US Army, Andrew Bacevich, has written an important book about perpetual war, which makes one realize that such a situation, as we have now in Afghanistan, and with continued involvement in Iraq, and now possibly a war in Korea renewed, is a tragic situation which will lead to the downfall of the United States as a superpower! 🙁

Bacevich, a former West Point instructor, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a professor of international relations at Boston University, has published a book about the Vietnam War and the opposition, at the time, of Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.

Bacevich utilizes this book on Fulbright to point out that we now have a situation that is being made permanent with the unwillingness of President Barack Obama to decide to withdraw from a war in Afghanistan which cannot be won, is bleeding our economy, and preventing us from dealing with the domestic crisis we face as a nation since the collapse of Wall Street in 2008! 🙁

Pointing out that we spend $700 billion per year on defense, more than all of the other nations of the world combined, Bacevich warns that we are going down the road of disaster, and that Obama is caving in to the defense establishment by continuing the involvement in Afghanistan at a time when many NATO nations are cutting back, and others, such as Great Britain, are making clear their limits on future commitment!

Bacevich asserts that we need to rebuild our own society, and that we cannot afford the financial cost for “permanent” war, and have limits on troops available for constant warfare! We cannot be global policemen, and occupy dozens of countries with our military so many years after World War II and Korea! Bacevich concludes that the Founding Fathers would be shocked to see us as much involved overseas as we are now in the 21st century! 🙁

Of course, others come out in support of what our government is doing, and call Bacevich an old style isolationist, but when one realizes that a great portion of our national debt has been for war and defense, and that we are hemorrhaging so much funding for the military at a time of desperation at home, Bacevich just seems to make a lot of sense, and causes one to have to sit and reflect on his message in a serious manner! 🙁