Money Is Crushing Our Nation

I think we Americans love the fact that we are supposed to be the wealthiest nation on the planet, in the world. A "nation among nations" I think we believe ourselves. Partly in what is--or was supposed to be--our "democracy" or "Democracy" and then, too, in our success, our money, our wealth. I think it's a pretty widespread and common thought and assumption.

Ironically, though, we've come to a time where, in at least several ways, our money is crushing us. It's crushing the people and so, the nation. I'll give examples.

First, there is our healthcare. The evidence:

• We are the only nation that ties health and healthcare to profit and profits
• Ours is the most expensive in the world
• Our citizens, lots of them, go bankrupt, due to healthcare costs and expenses
• We are the only Western, industrialized nation whose citizens do go bankrupt due to healthcare costs and expenses
• More of our citizens go bankrupt due to these healthcare costs than any other reason or source of expense
• Some, far too many, of our citizens die, actually die because they can't afford healthcare

Second, next, is higher education--colleges and university study. We did and do the same with it we did with healthcare. That is, we've made it outrageously expensive, just because we don't limit corporations over-arching need and goal to make money above all costs, students and citizens be damned.

The U.S. Leads The World In Tuition Fees

Then there's what we call defense, military defense of the nation. No one even remotely comes close to what we spend on bombs and tanks and bases around the world. It's crushing us.

The Military Imbalance: How The U.S. Outspends The World

Meanwhile, our schools and roads and highways and sewage treatment and all we need the nation over, goes wanting so we, the people go wanting. And let's all keep in mind, it was military spending the world over that bankrupted the now-former USSR. We learn nothing. (And under the "We Learn Nothing" file, look at Vietnam and Afghanistan as just two perfect example).

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we let business ruin us, ruin the nation--we legalized bribery of our government representatives, most specifically in Congress, in the nation's Capitol.

Jimmy Carter Calls US Campaign Finance Ruling "Legalized Bribery"

And this is the result.

Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy

We have to take our nation back. We have to take it back from the money, back from the big money, back from the corporations and already-wealthy. We have to take it back, honestly, from the Republicans and their political party.

And it's got to come from us, people.

Quote of the Day -- On Patriotism

"We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens. We are ready to hang, electrocute, or lynch anyone, who, from economic necessity, will risk his own life in the attempt upon that of some industrial magnate. Yet our hearts swell with pride at the thought that America is becoming the most powerful nation on earth, and that she will eventually plant her iron foot on the necks of all other nations.

Such is the logic of patriotism."

--Emma Goldman, "What is Patriotism?", 1908

The costs of war

The cost of war - Another week:

6758 - Number of Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command.

4 more dead since Dec 17th. 
- Marine Sgt. Daniel M. Vasselian, December 23, 2013 - 27, of Abington, MA.
- Air Force Capt. David I. Lyon, December 27, 2013 - 28, of Sandpoint, ID
- Marine Sgt. Jacob M. Hess, January 1, 2014 - 22, of Spokane, WA
- Army Sgt. First Class William K. Lacey, January 4, 2014 - 38, of Laurel Hill, FL

Another $2 Billion spent in Afghanistan. Total bill to U.S. Taxpayers = $1,505,178,618,274

How long are you going to tolerate this, America?  How long are WE going to tolerate this?

We've been at war in Afghanistan 12 years.

This is crazy.  Insane.

They don't want us there and we don't want to be there.

Let's get out.  Let's end this nightmare.

Stop the endless wars.

An important video most Americans should see---but won't

The best 1 hour, 35 minutes and 42 seconds Americans will ever not see, possibly.

We got and will get the government we deserve.

Bring them home

Happy birthday, Gloria Emerson

"Gloria Emerson was an American journalist and writer, who with passion, insight and art documented some of the darkest scenes of our times. She was best known for her award-winning reporting of the Vietnam War for Te New York Times."

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gloria-emerson-6163682.html

The US: We don't learn lessons

I've said this for some time--we, the US, just don't learn lessons. We don't learn our own lessons and we don't learn from other country's. I first realized it with Vietnam. The French had been in that country for years. They got out. They failed and left. What did we do? We marched right in. More than 50,000 dead soldiers later, we finally realized there was no winning. The renowned writer for The New York Times, Gloria Emerson wrote so brilliantly about our not learning from the Vietnam War in her highly-acclaimed book "Winners and Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, And Ruins From The Vietnam War."

There are a lot more examples. I'll only give a few.

The first President Bush said this about attacking Saddam Hussein and Iraq in his book "A World Transformed" in 1998:

"Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible.... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.... there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

Did we learn? Did we listen? His own son took us into Iraq and quickly proved the first President Bush correct.

How about learning from the old Soviet Union on spending for defense? Their nation collapsed. What are we doing? We spend more--far more--than any other nation in the world on defense to the expense of the nation. It's as though we're still in the old, long since ended Cold War. It was just announced in The New York Times that the National Guard's budget was being examined for cuts but no, we're going to keep their money flowing.

Finally, how about learning from England and their Empire? We can all see now how that turned out and why. It just isn't sustainable, let alone wise.

Afghanistan? Let's see, how many nations over humankind's history could we have possibly learned that invading that region would be a mistake? Many. How about if we only looked in the last 50 yaars, when the Soviet Union went in, got bogged down and finally called it quits and walked away? Could we not have learned from that?

We need to start learning. We need to start, as a nation, paying more attention, evaluating and doing the right things. This isn't sustainable, in so many ways.

Links: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x399751; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/us/air-national-guard-lobbies-successfully-against-budget-cuts.html?ref=us; http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/emerson/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Emerson;
http://www.amazon.com/Winners-And-Losers-Battles-Retreats/dp/0393309258#_