College Students Pay for More Border Control Agents?

Well, the House has just passed a bill to double the number of Border Patrols from about 20,000 to 40,000.    Is it what the Border Patrol asked for?  Of course not, who cares what they want.  It is simply a bill to make the Republicans look tough on Border Control so they can vote for the immigration bill.  That's all.  Does anyone think it will stop the flow of drugs into our country?  Does anyone think terrorists are going to stop coming in through the southern border ... oh yea, never mind, they fly in on an airplane from Europe mostly.  Does anyone think it will stop the flow of drugs from Mexico, see Our Drug War is the Definition of Smart.

By the way, much of the pot on the street now comes from California ... medical marijuana is considered the good stuff with good quality control.  That is reducing the pot from Mexico more than the border patrol.  

Where do the billions come from to pay for hords of Border Patrols.  Simple, the Republicans are letting the interest rate on the trillions of dollars of student loans double on July 1.  As I understand it, they are asking the Democrats to come up with savings in other areas to off-set the lost revenue from the students.  So, are students, yea the ones with too few jobs in this economy, going to pick up the tab for Border Control Agents?   That should endear the Republicans to the youth of this nation.  And, what about savings to off-set the billions of dollars proposed for more Border Control Agents?  Of course, it would be too easy to just decriminilize Pot; that would be stupid, think of all the drugs lords that would be jobless.  

 H.R.3116 (Department of Homeland Security authorization Act for FY2012) - would authorize programs and appropriations relating to border security. Among numerous provisions, this legislation: requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to present a 5 year comprehensive plan for “operational control” of the border; authorize no fewer than 21,300 border patrol agents, including 2,200 agents assigned to the northern border; establish the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) to collaborate and share information between federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement; conduct a GAO review of border patrol training; allow Customs and Border Protection to patrol federal protected lands including the use of motorized vehicles and tactical infrastructure; commission science and technology experts to pursue new border security enhancements; deploy canine units at the 5 busiest northern border ports of entry; initiate a six month pilot program for unmanned vehicles on the border; and require in person interviews for those applying for student visas from questionable nations. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is the bill’s main sponsor. 
Cosponsors

Meet America's Future: Detroit

Jonathan Dalar: The Dystopian Reality Around Us

Detroit defaults on up to 18.5 billion in debt to avoid bankruptcy, at least for now.  

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, appointed by the State of Michigan, is putting a plan together to avoid bankruptcy.  But, city pensioners and the debt holders will all have to take pennies on the dollar to keep the city out of bankruptcy. Too many people have to agree, bankruptcy is almost certain.

Detroit will be the largest city ever to go into bankruptcy.   

In 1909 it required 303 man-hours to make one car; in 1929 the time had been reduced to 92 man-hours, today it is 32 hours. The maximum production was reached in 1925-6 with 8,000,000 cars, now Detroit produces less than half that number. Use Google Image search to look up slums in Detroit.  The slums in Detroit remind me very much of the slums in Lima, Peru where I lived once upon a time.

So, what is the connection between how many people it takes to build a cars and bankruptcy in Detroit.  Try taxing the unemployed, the hopeless, the disenfranchised.  Then try to pick up trash, provide police and fireman, etc. using those taxes.  Then ignore the reality and borrow money trying to keep the city going, hoping for a miracle.  

Of course, salvation doesn't come, because the core problem is being ignored.  We no longer need many blue collar workers and of course, we need less white collar workers to manage the machines than we did the workers.  In the blog "If They Don't Work Neither Shall they Eat" , we look at how the entire system breaks down when we lose workers, who were also consumers, but are no more. 

Yes, there are still parts of the city, where the "Haves" live, versus the have-nots, that are beautiful including
the huge Cultural Center, freewheeling Royal Oak, posh Birmingham, the Ford-town of Dearborn, nearby Windsor, Ontario, and the college town of Ann Arbor, a short drive west.  Christmas, see below, is still celebrated in parts of Detroit.

Rochest in Metro Detroit ...

And parts of Detroit still believes in God, which is a mystery to me, see below.

Heidelberg Project Detroit, Michigan |

If They Don't Work Neither Shall They Eat

MICHELE BACHMANN: ‘IF ANYONE WILL NOT WORK, NEITHER SHOULD HE EAT’ | GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann promised to significantly lower funding to social safety net programs during a speech at the Family Research Council this morning, going so far as to suggest that people who can’t work should not eat. “Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves,” she said. “Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”

Hers is a misquote in spirit to the Biblical quote found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10:  "For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either."

What if someone is willing to work but there are not enough jobs to go around.   This is not the future, it is now and it is going to get worse, much worse and much faster than you can imagine.  Moore's law will insure the rate of change in our society will remain mind boggling. 

We are at a fork in the road in this country.  This fork is more significant than any fork we have faced in my life time.  Since World War II,  we have not had a decision to make that could lead us to continued prosperity and an abundant life, or to a prison state with the have and the have-nots. It all hinges on whether or not we can change our cultural biases and absorb the fact that we need less and less workers with every day that passes -- and it is going to snowball, very very fast.

Some have called it the New Machine Age, some have called it the End of Work, some claim there is no solution for the upcoming mass unemployment..  Machines, computers, robots, networks, simulators, automatic controls, neural networks, automated answering services, Watson the Computer, automated warehouses, software than learns, cell phones connected to the cloud, the cloud, etc. are all taking jobs that used to be done by humans.   We can produce all the good and services required to feed and cloth our country, and even the world, with less and less workers every year.  Yes, we have the capacity to feed and cloth the entire world with our technology.  Technology is not what stands in the way, it is US.  

We do not have a problem with production side of the equation.  We can produce as much of anything that we want to produce.  But, we need less and less workers, so we have less and less consumers.  And with less consumers, we turn down the output of the factors another notch and we need less workers ... less consumers, etc.  (The smart ones should have gotten it by now.)

There are two possible futures:  in one, the machines (and computers) feed and cloth the world, in the other, the machines are used to make the rich richer and the rest of the world scrambles for the crumbs.  Surprisingly, the rich are even richer in the first scenario, the egalitarian state, than the second, the prison state, because of economies of scale, i.e., the rich have a middle class to sell the goods and services created by the machines.  But, in the second, much of the resources of society is engaged in a police state, a prison state, where the poor and desperate fight for the crumbs like many in third world countries.  It can't happen? It is already happening:  capitalism is no longer lifting everyone, it is only lifting a small and shrinking elite to the top.  We are one or two generations, a dozen iterations of Moore's law, before a worker will have little to no value.  See American's Future : Detroit.

If we follow people like MICHELE BACHMANN and reduce the social safety net -- as we are already doing -- then our ultimate path to a have and have-not society is insured, and it is only a few more steps to a third world country.  All the guns in the world will not change that when we no longer have money for food, clothes or bullets.  Bachmann assumes that man is inherently bad, lazy, good for nothing.  If that is true, then we are doomed anyway, but if you believe man has an indomitable spirit that strives to achieve, to accomplish, to grow, then keep reading and reach out a hand, believe in people and help keep the social net in place.

The irony is that by installing a safety net that includes food, clothing and basic housing our machine age can flourish and people will be freed to do the types of things this new machine age will require: creating, entertaining, teaching, networking, coaching, encouraging, and most of all, learning and adapting to a new way of life where working is a privilege.  We will need to find purpose in our lives, we will no longer have the sole purpose of surviving that has driven man since they first stood upright on two legs and threw a stick at a tiger ten times their size.  Imagine having a safety net that allows you to pursue your dreams.  We are not talking about having everything with this social net, but at least some food and a roof over your head.

If you need to be reminded how wealth is being created in this world, just look at Apple.  $400 billion of cash in the bank.  American industry alone is sitting on trillions of dollars of cash.  They are not investing because their factories can produce all the IPhones required without less workers each year.  IBM just announced layoffs.  Microsoft just announced it is laying off 16,000 (2014). Apple and Microsoft are companies that helps other companies use technology to reduce their labor force and be more profitable.  As our prisons fill American companies have no where to use their trillions of dollars of cash generated by the new machine age because as the number of workers decrease the number of consumers decrease.  They also run the government via PAC's and the good old boy club, so their wealth is not likely to be taxed away -- nor will that alone solve the problem if that money is not used to create the social net or create some jobs.

Here is another sad thing about this police state we are headed toward ... it will destroy all that we have accomplished in individual rights, including those freedoms we have fought for around sex, race, and religion. This is serious stuff.  I realize I have not made a complete case on how we move from trillions sitting in corporate America to the police state, but perhaps I have given you enough doubt that you will start challenging your own belief system.

We can have the new machine age create a Utopian world, or a hell on earth.  It is our choice.  We either see and adjust to the new reality or we will spiral downward. Right now, America is behind the rest of the world in seeing this looming tidal wave.

A Carbon Tax Will Destroy Our Economy

The idea of taxing carbon-based fuel by charging for every pound of carbon put into the air has been dismissed by Congress and the American public without much thought of the possible benefits and exaggerated claims on what it would do to our competitiveness. 

The typical fee quoted is about $30 per ton of carbon, although there is nothing sacred about this value.  At this fee level it would cost perhaps a trillion dollars a year.  Or, put another way, it would pay off about a trillion dollars of debt a year.  What the tax level should be depends on what we are going to do with the money, what other countries charge, and how serious we are about setting an example to the world on minimizing climate change.

Okay, the biggest argument is that it would make American business non-competitive.  First, competitiveness does not depend on absolute costs but relative costs.  If every country had a carbon tax, no advantage would accrue to any nation.  Perhaps, those countries that use less energy per capita, would have to pay less, but in general they have less.  So, it is a tax that is automatically prorated according to the ability to pay and the efficiency with which the energy is used.

With regard to competitiveness of the U.S. with a carbon tax we have to look to China first, are they likely to pass a carbon tax.  China is drowning in pollution, the air around its biggest cities is atrocious.  A carbon tax would be a first step in fighting pollution in China and they are seriously considering a carbon tax.   Of course, there major concern is competitiveness with guess who, us.  A chicken and egg problem. 

So, we negotiate with China the phasing in of a carbon tax in both countries.  Europe, Australia, and most of Asia will probably follow as America takes a leadership role in global warming.  America could phase in a carbon tax, say $5 per ton, and wait for the world to follow us.  When the major players commit to $5/ton, we go to $10/ton, etc.  It's called leadership, it was what America used to do.

Now, here is some inside scoop.  America has the cheapest natural gas in the world and even with a carbon tax the U.S. is positioned as the global leader with energy intensive projects such as making fertilizer, ammonia, urea, electricity, aluminuim, magnesium, silicon, solar panels, titanium, etc.   The problem is not our compeititive position in America, our problem is that we are destroying the middle class and with it the customer that keeps the market place humming.  

If competitiveness is not an issue, then what should we spend the money on?   Paying off the debt seems like a area where we would get across the board acceptance.  Perhaps some large energy projects such as intelligent power grids, solar and wind farms, energy research, more efficient and electric cars, public transportation, improved train freight initiatives, intelligent traffic control, and perhaps education, especially in the math and sciences.

Another option would be to phase in a carbon tax while phasing out corporate taxes.  If we want American profits to stay in America the corporate tax, which encourages nothing but going aboard to countries with low corporate taxes would be replaced by a tax that was at worse incrementally higher than our competitors (China) by the staged approach above.  And given that a carbon tax encourages energy efficiency and reliance on substantiable forms of energy such as nuclear, wind, and solar, it is a win-win.  (Calling Nuclear Power substantiable is another blog.) 

All Student Deaths are Equal

Ever heard of Harper High School?  Ever heard of the 27 children killed there last year?  You didn't because they are not important like the rich white kids at Columbine High School.  Just poor black kids shot in the neighborhoods around the school. Gang shootings.  If you want to survive, you have to be in a gang.  Your gang protects you, other gangs kill you.

We just sent Pakistan $240 million to help them secure their country.  Is that right?  How much goes to Chicago to secure the neighborhoods around Harper High School.

When I lived in Peru, I always felt safe in downtown Lima because a soldier stood guard on all the key intersections with a machine gun, probably an assault weapon, I'm not a gun man.

 I once went to a beautiful waterfall in the Amazon forest.  A soldier with a machine gun waved me into my parking spot.  More soldiers lined the top of the mountain ridge as I walked down a path for a few miles on the way to a glorious waterfall.  I was told not to go beyond the waterfall because the Shining Path still controll that part of the jungle.  (Cocaine funds the Shining Path, so again, thank you America for the market.)  People always react when I tell them of such stories with shock on their face and with comments, I would never want to be in such a place.

Guess what?  I would gladly go back to Peru instead of hanging around in the neighborhoods around Harper High School, or in most big cities after dark.  A white man, after dark in a gang controlled neighborhood of Chicago.  Get real, a white man stupid enough to be there after dark is going to die.  I suspect policemen are not going to be caught out alone at night in those neigborhoods.  Peru would care enough to secure the neighborhoods, but in America we send our troops to a 150 countries around the world to secure the world, forget poor black neighborhoods.  Forget our pathetic Congress taking on such issues.  No election is ever going to be won by addressing security in poor black neighborhoods.  

There are two Americas.  The one for rich Americans, like Lehman Brothes CEO who walked out with about $500 million in cash as his bank collasped and his country got plunged into the second depression/ big recession.  And a second America that exists in the slums where unemployment runs 25 to 50% and children try to stay alive long enough to get out of the neighborhood.  Our government meanwhile sends serious  money to Pakistan and Eygpt to buy friends and sends in troops all over the world to secure our financial interests (oil, etc.).  

And as Americans, we don't give a shit.  Screw Harper High School kids.  We can't even pass background checks even though 90% of Americans favored the act.  Congress works more for the NRA than us, accept it. Will Congress do anything to stop gangs from controlling streets in America?  We don't even officially track the deaths (again thanks to legislation backed by the NRA).  

In the America I grew up in at the age of eight I road a bus down town (without a cell phone) in El Paso, walked a half mile from the bus stop to the YMCA.  I lost my nickel sometimes for the ten-mile ride home, but the bus driver took me home anyway because I told him my mom would give me an extra nickel to pay him the next time I went downtown.  Where did that America go?

Accepting Death with Courage and Compassion

In 2010, my wife ended a two year battle with cancer.  The cancer won.  My daughter who tried to help me with the ordeal had an emotional break down and is still struggling with the after effects.  My wife fought well, she fought death with courage, but we as a family never had the compassion to let "her accept death with courage."  We never got to the point where we said enough of the painful chemo and radiation treatments.  Enough fighting battles in a war that is already lost.  We didn't have the compassion to let her know it was alright if she wanted to accept death and enjoy the end as best she could.

I blame a lot of this on our medical profession who has not learned to face death with courage much less coach their patients to do so.  Of course, euthanasia is deemed immoral by most religious groups and therefore forced upon me (in the land of the not so free).  But, even short of euthanasia, there needs to be coaching/therapy to the patience, family, and friends.  It doesn't happen in this country from my experience with my wife and a few friends.  No time is set aside to accept death and say our goodbyes. 

On a bigger front, a significant amount of our growing medical cost crisis comes from keeping people alive at all costs for as long as possible.  It is legally challenging to let someone die even when they have a living will.  To begin preparing someone for death at the beginning of the treatment cycle for critical diseases might be seen as giving up on someone, but the price we pay is that we do not make rational, informed, and caring decisions on how to live our last days.  And, we can easily run up millions of dollars of medical bills for our society and hundreds of thousands of dollars for our family above what insurance will cover. 

I have always said I hope I get to live my last days well and then die in the woods.  I mean that a little metaphorically, but the spirit of what I am saying is this: "I want to live well and then, when it is time, accept death with courage."  I would like the support of my family and society when it is time.

No Honorable Way Out

Guantanamo Bay.  Ugly situation.  89 of the 160 prisoners there have been cleared for release by the military.  This of course does not mean they are innocent, because in the military system you are guilty until you're proven innocent -- except of course you don't ever get your day in court to prove your innocence.  So basically, once picked up you always guilty.  So, some of the guilty ones have been cleared for release ... perhaps a form of less guilty.

Ignore the 100 prisoners whose hopelessness has turned into a hunger strike, or the 27 that are being forced fed to keep them alive.   Let's just think about the 89 that have been cleared for release, some of which are on the hunger strike.

Will the 89 less guilty prisoners (where do they get the term detainees, is that supposed to make us feel better) ever be freed.  Apparently, it takes action by Congress to make that happen; at least to finance their move back to their native country.  Yea, in reality, it is probably bribes paid to high officials in the other countries to accept the return of these prisoners.  Any one in Congress that takes up the cause of the prisoners is probably not going to be re-elected.  It is not accident that Obama did not push too hard on Guantanamo Bay issue in his first term.  So, a Congressman doing something just because it is the right thing to do ... fat chance of that happening.  (Look at immigration reform and see how well Congress is doing.  NOT.)

So, what is going to happen to the prisoners.  Simple, they are going to die for the most part in prison.  The military is currently building a cardiac care building anticipating caring for these prisoners as they age.  And some will be successful in killing themselves despite the military's efforts to stop them.

In all there is no honorable way out for America, at least none that we are likely to take.  Or perhaps, there is no honor left in America? What have we created?  The best recruitment tool for terrorism since the Iraq invasion.  We have created 160 martyrs for the cause of Jihad.  We have also decided that security is more important than our principles.  We have gone further than that even, we have shown the world how callous and uncaring we Americans can be.  

Just Let Them Die -- Guantanamo Bay

Imagine that you were taken prisoner by a foreign government.  Perhaps you are visiting the Middle East and get caught up in a riot and are swept into custody with the mob you find yourself surrounded by.  You are moved to a prison far from the scene of the supposed crime without being charged of doing any wrong.  You are kept in a small cell for ten years.  You lose hope of ever seeing your family again.  You have children growing up that will never know their dad.  At some point, you give up hope and stop eating, a hunger strike.  But, you are not allowed to die, you are punished for trying to die, they tie you to a bed and ram over sized feeding tubes up your nose, but neither do they give you any hope.  They take all possessions away as further punishment, even your tooth brush and all reading materials.  You have a mattress and bed.  And periodically you are dragged to chair especially designed by the military for force feeding  upon which you are tied and then force fed with oversized size 10 tubes.

Of course, that is very similar to what WE have done to 160 people at Guantanamo Bay.  We do not even try to make their life better, or negotiate with them, or in any way treat them as humans.  

I am sure some are as guilty as hell of whatever you want to imagine, but I also suspect that some of them as guiltless as you as a reader ... and as innocent as the scene imagined above, i.e., being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

WE as AMERICANS are doing this.  Is this justice?  Justice for what?  Can our fears justify such actions against fellow humans.  What could they believe or think that could justify such treatment.  And obviously, we don't of anything WRONG THEY HAVE DONE or we would have charges against them.  So, we think they might of been guilty of something.  We even have three children we are abusing.  If we as Americans allow our country to do such things, are we good people?  Are we proud of belonging to such a country?

The entire world is lining up on the side of the PRISONERS not us.  Every international organizations including the UN are saying forced feeding is not humane.  Every person should have the right to deny medical treatment --- the concept behind a living will.   We as Americans simply do not care what happens to them as we have proven for ten years.  The humane thing to do is to let these people die. But, can we even be humane. 

Myth#14: Justice is Enough

Of course we want justice, and even vengeance perhaps in our hearts for what happened in Boston.  It is hard, as a knee jerk reaction, not to blame Muslims in general for this crime.  And there are those that are professed Muslims that are turning out terrorists, driven by revenge for real and imagined crimes against Muslims.  They are not the majority of Muslims or even a significant minority, but a small group.  We would call them a radical hate group perhaps if they were Americans on our soil, for example, if they were White Supremacists.  

Muslims can easily point to things like three wars in the Middle East, the killing of innocent people with drones, backing Israel in their denial of statehood for Palestinians, profiling of Muslims (however incompetently it was done), our right wing almost hate propaganda against Muslims, pushing back against Turkey's entry into the European Union, our treatment of enemy combatants, our continued abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, etc.  Who wouldn't want to hate a country that has the power to do all these things largely unopposed.  The instinct is to fight these with the only weapons they THINK they really have, home made bombs, crude missiles sent into Israel, largely ineffective resolutions in the United Nations on Palestine statehood, and suicide bombers.  What else do they have to fight with, sticks and stones?  But perhaps, there are more weapons with the right allies.  

So, our gut reaction is revenge against all Muslims for the crimes of a few, their gut reaction is to oppose the Military Industrial Complex that runs this country by any means possible. 

Perhaps Muslims should realize that many Americans feel as helpless and frustrated and even outraged by America as our likeminded Muslim friends.  We are a minority for now that truly grasp that PAC's and not Americans run this country, that Congress's number one job is getting re-elected.  We also realize that America as a land of opportunity and a strong middle class is disappearing which is fueling a lot of desparation and eventually hate -- hate to be directed at Muslims and other minorities, gays, Hispanics, etc.  We realize that our government is non-functional but still very powerful and dangerous. There are a lot of Americans who see the same problems that Muslims see.  Our biggest crime, our apathy in losing control of a once great nation. 

This reminds me of a screen in War Horse the movie where Germans and Americans are in foxholes separated by a field covered with bobwire.  A horse runs through the bobwire and becomes entangled.  Both sides can see the horse thrashing around in the wire.  Both sides ache with the pain the horse is enduring.  Both sides agree to a cease fire to save the horse.  A beautiful scene that fills my eyes with tears from the love and humanity shown in that one moment.  But so often that humanity and love is missing when we become so afraid of a wounded 19 year old terrorist that shut a whole city down. 

Perhaps the Muslims can join with Americans that want to take our country back and base our actions at home and abroad on our principles, the principles that our father's died for in some wars that really were against injustice in the world, not for oil.  Good Muslims have the same principles from their heritage.  Because they are not principles created by our  fore-fathers, they were simply recognized by our fore-fathers.  They are principles inherent to all good people  based on fairness, a hand out for those weaker and those in need, kindness, acceptance of differences, tolerance, diligence, perseverance, courage, etc., etc.   

We should be united against the autrocities being committed from vengence, intolerance, and hate.  We need to seek ways to unite as good people against those of us that would seek to make us enemies.  Justice should include correcting the patterns of behavior leading to the conflicts between us.

Myth#5: We are safer after three wars and spending trillions of dollars.

Are we safer after three wars, expansion of many security agencies, spending trillions of dollars, and losing many personal liberties? Is there anything we might be doing that makes people hate us?

We have now fought three wars in the Middle East, spent about $4 trillion in wars, expanded security to about fifty agencies and government departments and created homeland security.   We have caused a quarter of a million people to die and displaced about 8 million people from their homes.   I am sure the world loves us for these accomplishments, but are we safer?

If anyone doubts our persistence in killing, then we have the ongoing drone attacks.  If you want to see how the Arab world views these drone attacks, read this article on Drone Attacks in Arab News.   Again,  I am sure people love us for killing their families, but are we any safer?

And of course we favor countries getting their independence and establishing democracies, so it is ironic that we are one of nine countries (all U.S. buddies) who voted against Palestine in taking the first steps in being recognized as an independent state via the United Nations.  The 138 countries that voted for it and the 41 that abstained (afraid of the U.S.?) of course don’t know anything about creating democracies; they must do it our way to be correct.  Surely, the world will soon recognize the error of their ways, but are we any safer by opposing statehood for Palestine?

Our constitutional rights have been abridged for our safety.  You can be declared an enemy combatant and scheduled for a drone attack without any due process of law … or you can just be put in jail without trial.  The Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act is very similar to McCarthyism were you could be destroyed for real or imagined links to the communist party.  Doesn’t this make you feel safer, by golly!

So, the FBI is saying there is no evidence there is a broader plot in Boston marathon attacks.  First, there is no evidence either way.  I suspect that this was said just to make us feel better.  But, let’s summarize.  We have killed many more innocent people and continue to do so than the innocent people killed on 9/11.  Do we expect people to love us? to help us?  

The way you stop a bomber is from tips from people that are sympathetic to the U.S., not people that have lost friends and families to our military and our drones.  Have we increased the number of people that want to help us by the wars?

How much good could have been done in the Middle East with say $4 trillion dollars.  Let’s see we could have given 80 million people in the Middle East full scholarships to U.S. Universities.  What impact would that have on human rights in the Middle East, in the U.S.  We could have built and operated thousands of hospitals, or Universities, or Walmarts in the Middle East.  In short, we could have improved the lives of millions of innocent people.  But, we had to revenge the deaths of the 2000 people that died at 9/11.  But, funny how we have ignored the 100,000 deaths in the U.S. from gun violence over the last decade, many of them children, much of it gang related.  (NRA keeps us from keeping good records, really, but another blog.)   Who gets vengeance for them as we flounder around with the most powerful and most expensive military force in the history of the world.  

WE HAVE BOUGHT INTO A PLAN THAT WE CAN USE MILITARY FORCE TO CHANGE THE HEARTS OF OUR ENEMY.  I guess we think we can scare them into obedience.  Do you think this makes the U.S. safer?

In any case

Myth#20: Assault Weapons are Different From Machine Guns (Poll Included)

NRA contends that not being able to own an assualt weapons violates 2nd Ammendment rights.  They felt the same thing about machine guns, but the Supreme Court did not agree. 

Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Machine Guns

Now the question is do most americans think it is alright if their neighbors have some serious fire power at their finger tips.  Think of your most beloved (not) neighbor and answer these questions.  

Myth#2 Justice for All

In first thinking about this topic, I thought of the well-known affect of rich people avoiding serving jail time compared to poor people.  Prison is filled for the most part with poor people and a much large portion of African American and Hispanics than in the general population.  Justice is not blind to money.

I was listening to NPR and they were talking about 10 million people go into and out of our jails and prisons each year.  It turns out that there are thousands of clerical errors.  Some prisoners get out early, a lot stay longer than their sentence.  Of course, the poor often have no advocates either from family or lawyers so they can essentially get lost forever in the system.  They forgot one man in solitary confinement for two years.  Oops, he was released without charges.

And then there are the mentally impaired.  Our mental hospitals are over flowing so justice turns a blind eye and many mental patients are boarded in our jails and prisons simply because there is no where else to put them, unless you want them to be homeless. Often without a trial, or even after a trial, innocent mentally impaired people are sent to jail because the judge knows the mental hospitals are over-booked.  We simply as Americans can't be bothered.

So the above refers to the unequal enforcement of laws.  But, even a bigger category of injustice comes from laws that are inherently injustice.  For example, if you are a gay person in those country and your mate just died, or you just tried to use your partner's insurance or to collect your partner's pension you can't believe our laws are just.  If you got sentenced to prison for smoking pot by a judge that has three martini's at lunch, you can't feel our laws are just or even rational.

Then there is the IRS where we are all guilty until proven innocent.  There is nothing just about how the process with the IRS works where you have no rights, when there is no day in court.  Just pay up or face big fines and interest rates.  The best you can hope for is to beg your IRS representative for some leniency and then hope you are one of the few lucky ones that gets a break.  Not.

Many of our drug laws mimic the IRS in the person being guilty unless proven innocent.  If you are a contractor paying your workers in cash, better not be caught with $10K on your person. You are assumed to be a drug dealer and your cash is taken.  No trial.  There is another law about having too many CD in your possession at one time.  It is assumed you are making illegal copies and your CD's are taken and you are fined.

Lately, Expert Witnesses have been coming forward and saying their new methods prove in some cases that their testimony was wrong decades ago.  One prisoner tried to get released based on the expert witness recanting his previous opinion that sentenced the prisoner in the first place.  The judge said their needs to be some finality of judgment, otherwise trials would have to be redone too often (see NPR a few days ago).   I bet he feels the world is just after being in jail for 20 some odd years with no hope of getting out even though it is quite clear he probably didn't do it.

And of course, there are those 165 inmates at Guantanamo Bay that our military said they made a mistake on.  They were not terrorists.  If we had due process of law in the first year instead of a decade later, perhaps these people could go home.  Now their homeland countries say they don't want them and we try hard not to let them starve themselves to death on hunger strikes.   Justice for these people is just too much trouble.  Can you believe they would rather die than live in prison for the rest of their lives?

Justice it turns out is just too much trouble, just too expensive to extend to all.  What a foolish concept.

Myth#1 It's Best to Leave Radioactive Waste Where It Is Until You Have a Perfect Plan

In the state of Washington, six tanks storing high level nuclear waste are leaking.  

Now here is the story.  In the early 1980's I interviewed for a job to be the Project Manager of Facility that was to take this waste, melt it into fused glass, and then encapsulate that glass in an exotic stainless steel canisters and then place it far underground in salt domes in Yucca Mountain, Neveda.  Then I discovered they had been waiting for several years to pull some samples out of the tank to do material balances until they could find an absolutely safe way to pull the samples, and until they could get consensus their sampling method was full-proof.  

Here we are three decades later.  The project is still delayed.   Hundreds of tanks are in danger of leaking, all well past their 20 year design life.  Tens of billions of dollars have been spent trying to get consensus. 

Why?  Because of irrational fear.  The people of Nevada have fought the Yucca Mountain repository on the grounds that no one can guarantee that there will not be a spillage in the next 10,000 years.  As I understand it, some waste has now been put in Carlsbad New Mexico.  But, every step of the way environmentalists insist that it can not be safely stored and that there is no guarantee that it can be made safe forever. 

Environmentalists point to the leaking tanks as evidence that radioactive waste can not be stored safely.  Duh ....  Engineers had a master plan, the tanks were only step 1.   Environmentalists that say nuclear waste can't be stored safely have made a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Guess what? We can guarantee that hundreds of tanks in Washington will probably all start failing in the ten to twenty years (80 years into their 20 year life).  Radioactive waste will  find its way into the water table, the Columbia River and flow out to the local cities in the Tri-City Area.  

And the environmentalists will be correct, "It's Best to Leave Radioactive Waste Where It Is Until You Have a Perfect Plan."   NOT.

Anti-Myth #4 Machine Guns are a 2nd Amendment Right

Anti-Myth #4 Machine Guns are a 2nd Amendment Right

According to the 2nd Amendment, the State Militia's and the People are guaranteed the right to bear arms in case the Federal Government, which would be the United States, gets out of hand and begins to oppress the People -- or so the argument goes.

It is quite clear given the one trillion year budget of the Military Industrial Complex in this nation, that the bare essentials with regard to armament for the People  to be successful at this task are modern machine guns.  And not only do we need the best machine guns this country has to offer, we need lots of them.  And we need to start young.

Of course, they will be expensive, so we need some government grants to enable the distribution of machine guns on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis.  The government supports programs that give away condoms so likewise the government of the people should help defray the cost of arming the people with this needed deterrent.  If nothing else, some tax breaks are called for.  The NRA lobby is busy securing the needed help.  Congressmen that are not cooperative, will be replaced.  They have the POWER, and are feared by Congress, Democrats and Republicans.

Then we need some local organizations.  To save time, we are going to use the existing structure offered by the boy scouts.  They have thousands of chapters already in place with people like us.  Each den father would become responsible for training the children in their pack on how to use and maintain their assigned machine guns ....  first, with safety training taught in the homes then later graduating to NRA gun ranges with live ammunition.  When they are able to gun down two or three jack rabbits running across the range then they could earn their Jack Rabbit Machine Gun Merit Badge (JRMGMB).   Of course, we can use our imagination and use deer, kangaroos and other more challenging targets as the kids move up through the Eagle Scouts, etc. and become more proficient.  

In our local neighborhoods, we will need to organize with  sergeants on each block, and neighborhood lieutenants, etc.  The local Churches can be used to recruit children into the ranks and teach them their duty to protect us against the government.  The churches can also be used as ammunition depots with 24/7 staffing by the Eagle Scouts and war vets.  We will teach them the uselessness of the democratic process and the need to prepare for the future.  We should be sure to screen neighborhoods to make sure we are recruiting people of like mind and background.  The high command of the NRA will find and bring you into the national fold when you are ready and the time draws near.

The NRA is officially against public ownership of the machine guns, but we all know this is a ploy until they can secure national approval for assault weapons, large gun clips, semi-automatic weapons and the freedom to buy guns without registration or background checks.  Once this is secured, then machine guns are the obvious next step.  So, they are with us, but just playing the political game for now.  (This is not a secret, the apathy of the American people (non NRA members) is so great they will peaceably go along as NRA coerces Congress.) 

Although Machine Gun Training will be primarily for men and young men, in order to win public support, an advertisement campaign will be undertaken to portray young women, fashionably attired, as supportive of the cause to defend our great country.  As the public becomes more accustomed to machine guns, we hope to train and arm our teachers with machine guns to stop the bad guys from every again killing our children in schools.  The time for action is now. If your congressman is not supporting the right to bear assault weapons, he is not one of us and he will be replaced.

Of course, we need more than machine guns, but all in due time. 

Myth #127 Republicans Can Keep Their Old Beliefs and Just Sugar Coat Their Message

Myth #127  Republicans Can Keep Their Old Beliefs and Just Sugar Coat Their Message

Republicans did an autopsy of their party's failure in the 2012 elections.  They decided they needed to put more feet on the ground and try to appeal to minorities, women, etc.  Big Problem.

Sugar coating their message doesn't change their message.  For example, 53% of American approve of same-sex marriages by a CBS Poll.  A Washington Post-ABC Poll found 58% of Americans in favor of the same.  In true Romney style, the republicans explained why the polls are not true.  Of course, among the young adults same-sex marriage just seems normal.  The Republican platform is clearly against it.  

11 million immigrants want a path to citizenship.  They have a lot of Hispanic friends and many sympathetic white supporters.  Most Americans want there to be a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.  Republicans do not.  Republicans think they should be punished for breaking the law even if most of them have a good cause ... helping to support their families back home.  Republicans could come up with a plan to base immigration on a policy to bring talent into the U.S. like Australia, Canada and many other wise governments.  But, Republicans have nothing. 

Most Americans like Planned Parenthood which helps prevent abortions via birth control.  Republicans do not.  Really?

Most Americans favor at least background checks on people buying guns.  Republicans do not.  NRA owns the Republican party and unfortunately many of the Democrats.  In this case, what the majority want is not relevant.  So, this may not hurt the Republicans since the Democrats are cowards on this issue.

Most Americans have a problem with no health insurance being available for those who have a pre-existing condition.  So, if the Republicans knock Obamacare, they should come to the table with some plan on that issue.  They should come up with something better than the emergency room for treating the common cold for the uninsured.  They've got nothing. Again, the majority wants a plan on Health Care.  Given no alternatives, they favor Obamacare. 

So, Republicans are mostly in disagreement with the majority and lacking any real substantive alternatives. They are in denial like they were with the polls that showed Romney losing.  In a democracy if you are on the side of the minority on most issues, it is really tough to get the votes.  

Republicans, you need to change your position away from the far religious right.  Holding on to that group will lose you the hispanics, gays, blacks, women, and young voters.  But, you may hold on to the old white men -- the group that has a poor record in getting out to the polls.  More sugar is not going to fix it this time.

Plan B?

Myth #12 It is America's Duty to Be The Unpaid Policeman of the World

Perhaps you know that North Korea has nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles.  What we don't know is if they can make their nuclear weapons small enough to fit on their ballistic missiles.  The bad news is that the North Korea's are making threats against South Korea, Japan and the United States to use their nuclear weapons in a preemptive first strike.

The United States of course responded with plans to beef up anti-missile missiles on the West Coast and plans will surely follow to beef up defenses in Japan and South Korea.  All of course for big bucks to the American taxpayer. 

But why?  If you are Japan or South Korea what would you pay to get anti-missiles installed in your turf to keep North Korea from dropping a nuclear bomb on your head.  I am thinking we could even make a handsome profit.  Of course, we can stick with the current plan of borrowing money from China, passing the debt on to our children, and pretending like we are rich.

Myth #147 Obamacare will be repealed.

Myth#147 Obamacare will be repealed.

Ryan just came out with a new budget.  In his budget that says we will have a balanced budget by 2023 (just in time) he assumes Obamacare will be repealed.


REALLY?  

Lets face it.  Obamacare is the law of the land.  It has a lot of problems but it is not going away.  Assuming that it is going away invalidates everything Ryan is saying.  As McEnroe would say, "you've got to be kidding!"

If Ryan and the other Republicans want to be taken seriously they will start improving Obamacare with ammendments -- working with democrats that know much needs to be changed to make Obamacare efficient, even functional.  But, be real guys.

Myth#27: Capitalism Is Good For Workers

I grew up taking pride in calling myself a capitalist.  At the simplest level it is simply letting individuals and companies freely trade with each other -- but a set of rules has evolved that defines what is fair.   The question is, "are the rules fair?".  Is there a balance of power between the various groups in our capitalist system?

Is our capitalism dominated by special interest groups just like our government?  Is it possible to have free and fair trade when the government that governs our capitalism is dominated by special interest groups?
  

"Free" Capitalism puts a value on everything relative to the value of everything else.  There is no other system that works better than this... how many pounds of bread is one pound of steel worth.  The Soviet Union didn't know how to  do this during their prime.  They looked it up in Western newspapers.  Really.  Of course, if they were having a drought in Society Union and not in the west, the Soviets were using a low value for bread.

Capitalism optimizes a system based on the underlying rules and power groups that operate within it.  For instance, print more money and capitalism lowers the value of that currency, although there may be a lag.   Raise taxes, something painful, and the system adjusts to avoid taxes more.  Make business taxes cheaper overseas then business moves overseas to minimize taxes.  

There are four primary groups in American capitalism, shareholders, customers, government, and workers.  All of these groups have power/representation except for the American worker.  Unions used to represent the worker, but their power has been minimized; government used to represent the worker, but our pathetic Congress no longer represents anyone but themselves in getting re-elected.

There is another huge factor working against the worker, there are seven billion humans on this plant.  Capitalism automatically discounts anything that is in excess supply. 
We are also replacing humans with machines, computers, and technology in general, see Myth#3 There are No Solutions for Unemployment.  Also not good for human's value in the capitalistic machine.

BUT sadly ... it goes further than this.  If capitalism just valued things based on their scarcity,  all still might not be too bad for workers.  But, the value of all things are adjusted by what I will call the Good Old Boy Club.  If one factor of production has the power to adjust its value, for instance, labor unions fifty years ago, then the value of an item is raised or lowered by this power, this leverage.   More on this in later posts. 

But for now, let me just say our form of Capitalism has been fined tuned by the Good Old Boy Club to optimize things for those in power.  And who is in power ... in corporations it is The Board of Directors and Upper Management, and in Government it is the Top Layers of Government and the Military Industrial Complex, see Eisenhower. 

In companies, it is easy to see how upper management serves on the Board of other corporations who in turn serve on their board.  They take care of each other.  The Good Old Boy Club has also reached from corporations to the government for decades, but with PAC's from corporations buying elections the connection no longer has to be secretive ... the buying and selling of officials is out in the open.  Congress for example has only one mission ... get elected, get re-elected.  And a complacent population that does not know history is easy to control. 

Most companies, like most families, just get by, making a modest profit, paying their bills, putting a little in the bank for a rainy day.  But, from time to time companies by the brilliance of their workers or simply being at the right place at the right time make a killing.  This is not bad because it means they have met a need or a want extraordinarily well. Government gets their cut via taxes and then the Good Old Boys in Congress spend it for their special interest groups. But who decides where the rest of it goes? 

To pick on Apple ... it has $400 billion in cash that has been generated from the combined brains of its workers and management and meeting the need for a great cell phone, the Iphone.  Shareholders have also put up cash to get the whole show started.  Who is going to decide how this bounty is destributed: hint: a few key shareholders and upper management.  The workers gave up their rights to any of this extraordinary bounty the day they signed a pile of papers in the personal office on their first day of work. If they wanted a job, they had no choice.  For example, they signed a paper saying any patents they create will belong to the company -- which strangely does not include them in this context.   The Good Old Boy in Upper Management will throw them a few crumbs to keep them happy, but they have no legal right to the wealth they helped create.  (Apple will take care of their workers better than most companies, but in our present world, they certainly are not expected to.)

How created wealth is distributed/shared is not automatically determined by capitalism.  It is a construct that develops by a series of laws and legal decisions and past practice that establishes the rules of capitalism in our country.  Of course, recall who writes the laws ... industry usually .. upper management ... the good old boy club.  If workers are employed because of their special skills, they do not have final say about matters affecting how money is distributed, or much of anything else.

So, we have developed our flavor of capitalism that very effectively distributes money to the good old boy club ... upper management, the Board of Directors, preferred shareholders (read good old boy club),  Congress (good old boy club), etc.  BUT NOT THE WORKERS.  

As jobs become more scarce (End of Work by Jeremy Rifkn), will we as workers and citizens fight over the last scraps or will be informed enough to unite together to change the rules of distribution. Will we unite to set up Term Limits for Congress? Will we even care enough to know what rule changes we want for our form of capitalism, or will we meekly follow the good old boys?