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Central Intelligence Agency Spies On All But Four Nations!

Ronald 18 Comments

The news has come out that the Central Intelligence Agency, created in 1947, and often under attack for its actions, and its illegal doings much of the time, often without knowledge of the President of the United States, has seen its leader in Germany expelled for spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, including her cell phone.

This action to expel the CIA leader came about without the knowledge of President Barack Obama, and it has caused an embarrassing incident between a friendly nation and the United States.

But it is nothing new for the CIA to go around Presidential control or awareness, and it has been a constant problem, much of it exposed by the Church Committee (headed by Idaho Senator Frank Church) in the mid 1970s!

The CIA is often seen as a shadow government within our government, not accountable to the White House or Congress or the Supreme Court, all in the name of national security.

Thus the National Security Agency and 15 other spy agencies have a budget that is not public knowledge, and we have learned that they are eavesdropping on ordinary Americans in the quest to keep our nation secure, but worrying civil liberties advocates tremendously.

The most interesting revelation coming out of the expose of the German situation is that only four nations, all English speaking, do not have CIA spying going on in their nations–Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand!

So even such allies as Israel, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, among others, are being spied upon regularly!

Fathers Day And Dads’ Responsibilities To The Family Unit

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The role of dads in their children’s lives has dramatically changed in the past half century!

Today, more than one out of five families with children under five years of age with a working mother has his or her dad as the primary caregiver, many of whom also work.

In the last 25 years, the number of stay at home dads with a working mother has doubled.

In the past 30 years, the number of father only families have more than tripled, and almost all are working dads.

Seven percent of families with children are father only families.

Dads are doing nearly an hour more childcare and housework a day than fifty years ago.

62 percent help with housework; 65 percent read to their children; and 95 percent bathe and diaper their children.

Yet, 30 percent of both moms and dads do not have access to either paid or unpaid leave for the birth of a child, and suffer negative career outcomes, due to family responsibilities.

It is time for updating the attitude toward families, on the part of companies and employers, way behind other advanced industrial nations in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand!

29 Americans Killed In Afghanistan This Year, And 30 Killed In America By Firearms Every Day!

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It is depressing to know that 29 Americans have died in Afghanistan this year, as our troop involvement winds down, and with a total of over 2,300 killed over the 13 years of the Afghanistan War.

But 29 Americans killed in a war zone over six months, while disturbing, is nothing when compared to the reality that on the average day in America, 30 people of all ages, many of them children and teenagers, are murdered by firearms.

This means about 900 victims per month, or 11,000 per year, and that is only the deaths, not the injuries suffered by other victims.

We are the most violent society in the civilized world of Western Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and it could be said the true war is here at home, not in Afghanistan!

74 school shootings have occurred since the Sandy Hook Massacre in December 2012, and yet no action of any kind, totally unconscionable!

We are witnessing mass murder before our eyes, and we are desensitized totally, a disgraceful situation!

America’s Defense Budget More Than 13 Other Nations Combined!

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America’s defense budget is over $600 billion per year, more than the next 13 nations combined, and one can be sure that the intelligence agencies, all 16 of them, are not included in this total, as their budgets, and in many cases their actual existence, are a deep dark secret!

China, by comparison spends one sixth of our defense budget annually, about $100 billion, for a nation with four times the population of the United States.

The other countries on the list include Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, India, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Iran, and Italy.

The military budget is far higher than it was during the Cold War, and too much is being spent on nuclear weapons, and weapons systems that will never, in reality, be used.

But the Pentagon budget has long been one of massive cost overruns, and corruption by corporations that produce our war goods, and meanwhile the one half of one percent spent on “welfare” is being targeted for massive cuts by the Paul Ryan GOP Budget!

It is time for smart spending on defense, not massive waste at the cost of basic decency for our poorest citizens in a country that likes to think it is the most advanced in the world, but yet is too ready to sacrifice “social spending” in the name of mindless defense spending!

The Most Significant Long Range Events Of 2013

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Now that we are in the last day of 2013, it is time to reflect on what the most significant long range events of 2013 are, events that will affect us in the future, and are signs of progress, which can never be reversed.

They include in no special order:

The accomplishment of national health care, a dream since Theodore Roosevelt first mentioned the concept in his Progressive Party campaign in 1912, later suggested by Harry Truman, partially enacted by Lyndon B. Johnson, attempted by Bill and Hillary Clinton unsuccessfully, promoted by Senator Ted Kennedy, and finally becoming law under Barack Obama. Even with all of the kinks and quirks now and in the future, national health care is here to stay, finally making America reach the stage of all other democracies in the world, but as usual the last to adopt social and economic reform, as compared to Europe, Canada, and Australia.

The acceptance by the Supreme Court of the concept of gay marriage, and the expansion from nine to eighteen states of acceptance of same sex marriage, and nothing will ever reverse what has happened, and eventually, the Supreme Court will mandate its legality throughout America, just as they did for interracial marriage in 1967. Many may not like it, but just as with interracial marriage, one does not have to engage in either interracial or same sex marriage, but it is nobody’s business to tell someone else who he or she is to love and to have the benefits of marriage, and no religious institution needs to accept it, as civil marriage will always be available.

The civil war raging in the Republican Party, which will determine if the party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike will survive or go into the dustbin of history, which Is certain, if the right wing Tea Party Movement is allowed to take over the party apparatus, and control the House and Senate Republican caucuses, and control major state governments around the nation. An extreme right wing Republican Party will not survive, and will give the Democrats such dominance that a moderate centrist party, maybe on the pattern of the Whig Party of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln in the 19th century, will then emerge as a valid alternative to the more leftist Democratic Party by comparison.

The rise of a permanent Democratic majority in the Electoral College, as Georgia, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina will turn “blue” over the rest of the second decade of the 21st century, due to the growth in the Hispanic-Latino population, and the alienation of women from the Republican Party, which is working to control the reproductive lives of women. Both groups will swing these Sun Belt States to the Democrats, and with the Atlantic Coast from New England down to Virginia, and the Pacific Coast and the Upper Midwest more “blue” all of the time, there will be no way that Democrats will lose the White House over the next couple of decades, whether they nominate Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, or someone else, for the Presidency in 2016 and beyond.

The Supreme Court will turn more liberal, as over the remaining years of this decade, the likelihood of new Supreme Court appointments, as well as circuit and district courts, will fall to Democratic Presidents, who no longer have to worry about a filibuster proof majority of 60 votes. The need for only 51 votes or 50 with the Vice President breaking the tie, insures that the courts, and eventually the high Court, will take a different view over time on same sex marriage, abortion rights, civil rights, and civil liberties, reminding one over the next two decades (due to lifetime appointments) of the history of the Warren Court.

A happy 2014 to all my readers and contributors!

Sandy Hook Elementary School One Year Later

Ronald 8 Comments

It has been one year since the massacre of 20 children and six teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut,

Just yesterday we had another tragedy, with a student in a high school in Colorado wounding two students before killing himself.

The threat to schools, theaters, shopping malls, churches and all other public places continues, and the country seems paralyzed by inability to do anything about the mounting number of gun deaths, and the reality that many mentally disturbed people have access to guns.

America is the most dangerous nation in the civilized world, and we are looked upon in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan as a nation out of control when it comes to violence.

And every day, President Obama is subjected to rhetorical and real threats to his life, in a nation where the right wing will not stop in its quest to poison the atmosphere with hate and division, and fears that the government is coming to get one’s guns.

The question is what future tragedy will finally move the Congress and the state governments to face the threat to civil order represented by the gun culture, with the sad feeling that nothing will change the national illness we have amidst us!

The Gap Between Rich And Poor Greatest It Has Ever Been!

Ronald 2 Comments

President Barack Obama yesterday drew attention to the massive and growing gap between rich and poor., which has reached its greatest extent in American history, more than in many European democracies, Canada and Australia.

The middle class reached its greatest prosperity in 1973 during the administration of Richard Nixon, after the years of the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, the fruition of the expansion of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Since then, with the rise of conservatism under Ronald Reagan, and reaching its greatest abuses under George W. Bush, we have seen a stagnation in the economy which is shocking, to such a point that the top one percent now owns about 40 percent of all wealth, and the pay for CEOs of corporations has risen 725 percent, compared to workers and 5.7 percent growth in wages in the past four decades.

And yet, the Republican Party and conservatives are out to cut Food Stamps further; refuse to renew unemployment compensation; reject any increase in the minimum wage, which is down 35 percent in inflation adjusted value since 1968; and refuse to consider any increase in taxes on the wealthy at any time in the future!

At the same time, any thought of caring about the millions of people who had no health care, but are covered under ObamaCare , does not cross the minds of the right wing!

If people are forced into bankruptcy by medical bills, so be it is the attitude, and of course, the bankruptcy laws were made more difficult in recent years after the Great Recession of 2008 hit the nation!

And education, the major way for people to have social mobility, has been made more difficult too, and students are burdened with such debt from attending college that there is no hope ever to advance in economic status, while banks and corporations and their stockholders always know that they will be taken care of by Republicans, as they fight any regulation or accountability for bad behavior and reckless actions.

The future is extremely gloomy, unless one is from the top ten percent of the population, and the threat to democracy and social order is massive, if this situation of total deprivation of such a large portion of the population continues without any action or concern by Congress and the courts!

America The Leader Of The World? On Health Care Access, NO WAY!

Ronald 2 Comments

Americans love to brag that we are the leaders of the free world, and the model for other nations, and that we are exceptional, better than any other nation.

And then we look at the issue of access to health care, and discover, how backward we have been, and yet we have Republicans and conservatives doing everything possible to insure that access to health care is denied to tens of millions of less fortunate Americans! They are fighting ObamaCare as if it is the greatest evil possible!

And while many say they believe in a right to life, that does not, apparently, include the right to a decent life, with good health care options, that insure a long life, now does it?

The hypocrisy is so apparent, and yet, there are no apologies or alternatives offered by Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, or really ANY Republicans in Washington, DC, who offer no alternative and could not care less about people with pre-existing conditions, or poor, or disabled, or senior, or single mothers with children, who are being forced to go bankrupt and lose their homes over medical costs, because they have no health care coverage, or inadequate coverage

And these hypocrites have the gall to call themselves religious, claiming that their belief in Christianity or Judaism does not include concern about those less fortunate. Their only concern is how to avoid spending an extra penny or dollar that might help others obtain what they have always had, decent health care coverage!

When one examines what nations have universal health care, they include almost all nations in Europe, plus major nations in Latin America and Asia and Canada and Australia, and even a few in the Middle East! And yet, we are still fighting over this basic right that all people should have–access to decent health care!

Economic Reality Grim For Most Americans, Whether Based On Race Or Education Level!

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Growing evidence shows that the effects of the Great Recession, and really the policies of Republican Presidents and Congresses since 1980, have created a grim reality for a vast majority of Americans—likelihood of poverty, deprivation, and lack of opportunity, even for college graduates in large numbers for a long period of years! And where one lives does, and will have a dramatic effect on the long term futures of millions of citizens!

A study shows that four out of five adults in America will struggle with joblessness, near poverty, or reliance on welfare for part of their lives! 76 percent of whites will experience such a situation by the age of 60!

15 percent of the American people, nearly 47 million of the population, are in poverty, with higher percentages of African Americans and Hispanic-Latinos, but in absolute numbers, whites are 41 percent or 19 million of the poor, double what African Americans are in numbers. Most of these poor whites live in Appalachia, the industrial Midwest, and the heartland of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the Great Plains, areas of rural communities , and even in many suburbs, in areas where 60 percent of the poor are whites.

So working class whites, those without college degrees, are in a terrible state, unable to look forward to the accomplishment of the “American Dream”!

But the problem is that even those who have a college education are facing a horrible job market. Many are unemployed, while even more who are working, are underemployed, working part time, and also, many are working in jobs that do not require a college degree, so are wasting years trying to break in to the job market they planned for, but are unable to engage in, due to the Great Recession and its aftermath!

Additionally, it has been demonstrated that where one lives has a dramatic effect on climbing up the income ladder! Social mobility up the income ladder is MUCH harder in the Southeast and industrial Midwest, including such cities as Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis,. Raleigh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Columbus!

At the same time, social mobility and rising up the income ladder is best in the Northeast and the West, including New York, Boston, large areas of California and Minnesota, and Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Salt Lake City.

It is extremely disturbing that earlier studies of social mobility demonstrate that a smaller percentage of people escape childhood poverty in America than in Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan.

Affluent children tend to remain so, achieving a lot of success by as young as age 30, while children from poverty rarely see much improvement, and that is not just a race issue, as whites have the same results, based on how they were born, rich or poor!

The need to deal with social mobility and opportunity, for working class whites and minorities, are the agenda that Barack Obama is pursuing as he travels the nation, calling for an economic plan for the future, including improvements in education, infrastructure, new technologies, and environmental challenges to overcome climate change!

There is no more important agenda for the nation than the providing of economic opportunity, in a nation where the middle class has been decimated, from its high point, 40 years ago, in 1973!

Al Qaeda And Other Terrorist Groups Have Won: The Battle For Civil Liberties And Personal Freedoms Has Been Lost!

Ronald 3 Comments

This is a very depressing time in the world, with the battle against terrorism being fought, and the victims of this battle are our civil liberties and personal freedoms!

The author is in Toronto on vacation, and just read this morning of a similar eavesdropping and snooping program being exposed in Canada, as it was revealed in the past few days in the United States that the National Security Agency is engaged in such a program of all phone calls and emails and other electronic communication. And we know the same thing is going on in Great Britain, France, Australia and all other “democracies” in this world, all of which are supposedly “better” than totalitarian or dictatorial regimes, which dominate much of the world.

It is hard NOT to be depressed, and to realize that no matter how many protests we might lodge, none of what is happening will ever change, and there are bound to be innocent victims, as there were in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and in the Cold War Era, but this present war on terrorism will likely NEVER be over, and therefore, all “democratic” governments will come to dominate and monopolize our lives and freedoms!

We are in the era of “1984”, George Orwell’s realistic novel, published in 1948, and in many ways, way beyond that stage of government control and interference in our lives. No matter who is elected President in the United States, or Prime Minister in Great Britain, Canada, or Australia, or President in France, as well as other “democratic nations”, we will never regain what we had, or thought we had, and we will have to be even more concerned when a leader or a political party in any of these nations becomes the government, and is a leader or party which we do not trust, which is inevitable!

So Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have won, and continue to win, no matter how many such individuals or groups we kill or destroy!

I wish to give credit here to one of my critics on this blog, Juan Domingo Peron (the name he uses), for making me reflect and realize that while I may trust Barack Obama, I would be alarmed if George W. Bush had been the one to authorize the NSA eavesdropping, or if in the future, any conservative Republican or Libertarian were to become the leader of our nation, because as he said, nearly half the population at any time does not trust whoever our President is!

A dose of reality set in when I read what Juan said, and while I want to trust Barack Obama and his good intentions, the bureaucracy of national security makes me worry about what is being done, and the reality that someday, maybe sooner or later, a leader will emerge who I will NOT trust!

So we all need to be sober and realistic about our struggle for civil liberties and personal freedoms to be preserved in a world gone mad in the fight against terrorism!