Me lie, you lie, we all lie, and people die...

Since the justification for going into Iraq, WMDs, the Iraq-Al Qaeda link, and the imminent threat caused by the Saddam Hussein regime was non-existent, how do we resolve and absolve the crimes committed by our country against humanity?

If we as a people, citizens of the United States, allow murder in the name of our defense then we are not worthy of our heritage, legacy, or presumed sense of superiority.

It is not by chance that action, sanctioned by our belief in god and our self-proclaimed belief of god's belief in us, has resulted in a diminished world, diminished freedoms, and squandered opportunities to lead. When led by fearful emotions, inculcated by the steady drumbeat of leaders with ulterior motives, the result is a population of cowards who deserve not, that which was won by honorable actions, the American Legacy.

The so called political leaders, Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld with the hands of the military corporations controlling their words and actions brought us back in time 50 years, when lies brought us to Vietnam. Where is the hue and cry now, where are the brave and fearless, they linger and wallow in the mess of their possessions and the satiety of their excesses.

At what point do people become sell outs? How and when do the rationalizations overwhelm the underlying good nature of people where they can then justify the corruption they enable?

At some point the noble ideas of creating a world that benefits the most people while destroying the least amount of the world has been left far behind in our rear view mirrors in the name of capitalism. Our economic model is based on rampant unchecked consumerism in the name of promoting capitalism. And this is not to say that the best aspects of capitalism cannot be appreciated though they cannot be if they inhabit only the far end of the spectrum.

Consumerism, entrepreneurship, businesses, and corporations are representative of capitalism’s success but these exist because our system allows them, they exist because citizens have allowed them in their present form. They are not possible without the support and collusion of citizens that provide the engines that make them possible they are marketed to us, propagandized, and their value to our lives an inculcated mantra of things we can’t live without to the exclusion of everything else. It is a symbiotic relationship and ignoring this fact, taking the capitalist constituency for granted, is what brings us to the brink of anarchy.

The hubris, I need to create a word that defines prideful hubris, that the champions of capitalism possess totally ignores the contribution, resilience, and faith of the people which endure despite their exploitation. To listen to those on the far right talk all that is good in our nation resides solely in realm of capitalism.

The greatest accomplishment of this uber-capitalism is the elimination of accountability. By leaving tort reform unresolved, occasionally paying it lip service, along with escalating the costs of, and ubiquitous applicability of, insurance, the once sanitizing act of responsibility is taken out of our society as a way of identifying and eliminating corruption. The evil aspects of human nature, the worst of which are the exploitation of our fellow global citizens and earth’s resources, are now sanctioned and accommodated through the equation of costs divided by benefits. There no longer is any value to holding anyone accountable for anything. The payoff happens the parties involved are placated with monetary awards and the cost of all of it is dissolved into the vast wealth of our consuming passion labeled capitalism.

Home of the free, Really?

Home of the free, really?

We are not free from fear it is fed to us by our leaders on a daily basis. It is the reason we illegally overthrow governments under the guise of protecting our country from small groups of fundamentalist religious fanatics. The fear mongering has depleted our national defense capabilities, eroded the very freedoms we proclaim as our reason for the illegal wars, and has compromised our economy through borrowing and increased deficits.

We are not free to speak our minds or debate because our views will be used against us to limit our opportunities. You and I are not free to have opinions lest we will be ostracized. We are not free to worship unless it is the Christian religion that has become the de facto religion of this country.

We are not free to live in our homes without an annual tax lien imposed by our government to “support” social services. And if anyone has seen our school systems you can see how well that has worked for us.

We are not free from the corruption in nearly every sector of our society crimes are committed by corporate officers.

Food producers do not maintain adequate control of their processes as evidenced by salmonella, e coli, and the colossal mistake of industrialized farming causing us to rely on the high cost of transportation and single providers.

Banking and financial companies are constantly guilty of fraud and abuse, creating financial trading vehicles that are impossible to understand and manage.

Corporations receive federal subsidies in way of contracts that are not negotiated, not regulated, not verified, and with no accountability for failure to deliver. Especially sacrosanct defense (offense) industries, when profits lag, start a war.

Mine safety, oil rigs, ships and vessels, pipelines, transmission grids, drug companies, schools, food processing etc. all sectors are unregulated, not scrutinized, and cheat on their process controls.

Insurance companies can change their policies indiscriminately. On the Gulf Coast, insurance companies cancelled wind policies for homes below I 10 immediately following the hurricane seasons of 04-05. Then there were few storms for the next 4-5 years. They request a rate increase to make up for the money they would have received in wind coverage which would have been all pocket money because of the low hurricane incidents.

Insurance companies lobby for seat belt laws, the resultant windfall, fewer damages paid for injuries is not refunded to policy holders or realized as reduced cost in policy charges.

There has been no tort reform or caps on insurance awards, why, because the capitalist pyramid scam only works when the cost of insurance overwhelms the money paid out in awards. We all lose, insurance have a license to print money.

We still wage a war on drugs, when, to hold a decent job you need to take a drug test. Another “war” to maintain and subsidize the defense industry sector, or corporate welfare.

How absurd is it that employees have to sign vows to behave ethically, when we are surrounded by corruption at every level of leadership?

Health Care Solution

Everybody, all of you, each and everyone...

STOP PAYING FOR HEALTH INSURANCE TODAY!

This isn't a conspiracy rant but a factual rendition of the problem. What started out as a noble endeavour, to provide care for all by spreading the cost over a large population, has turned into an evil pyramid scheme to enrich a very small group.

Tenet number one, First Do No Harm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

Health care is not a privilege.

The health care axis of evil is;
The FDA, HMOs, Health Insurance industry, and Lawyers...

Corporate Motivation

Whenever a corporation was interested in increasing its profits and improving its bottom line there would be an annoucement declaring a reduction in its workforce.
Operating lean reduces overhead through payroll reduction, benefits reduction, and supposedly improved efficiency.
So in this economy what motivation does any business have to hire more employees? This entire economic downturn is a contrived disaster. As citizens of the US we are held hostage by corporations. They have no interest whatsoever in our welfare.
As was the case after 9/11 and it was also the case after the debacle of this depression, our leaders tell us to buy, buy, buy... What little most of us have is to be spent so that corporations can profit.
Here in Alabama, the Governor, sells out his citizens to lure corporations to this state. Speculating that the corporate investment within the state will result in higher employment, greater tax revenue, and an improved situation for everyone. How has that worked out so far Bob? What you aren't told is that most companies don't hire as many employees as negotiated when they get their lucrative tax breaks but this is so far of most of the populations radar that it is invisible and not reported.
And with the collusion of the media in perpertrating this fraud it is never revealed in any news story.
But this story goes even farther. The most affected demographic of this economic downturn is middle aged people. Those older than 50 years old. This group will not be hired because their experience though vital and valuable is not an asset sought by corporations. This "lost" age group will see a reduction in their social security benefits as a result of this strategy, an issue that has yet to be reported.

When you rule by fear, Expect cowards to reign...

America, Home of the Naïve, land of the Corporation…

This once mighty nation of patriots, craftsmen, and leaders has become the crucible of mediocrity, the foundry of fraud, and the abattoir of accountability.

Through the most recent past generations the bedrock of what our democratic republic stood upon has been eroded by greed. What it represents now is a cash machine for the entitled few, not the huddled masses, nor the citizens that have made all of it possible.

It is a pyramid scheme, all of it, designed to control the most wealth by the fewest people. It is the Prescott-Walker Prospect. And it has been done by manipulating its people as most cons are.

One, enslave the masses to consumerism. Create an economy that not only needs, but demands, consumption. True worth of all things is diminished so that more is needed, more is wasted, and fewer are secure and financially solvent. How else could SUVs come to be? All traffic patterns were and are designed to consume the most fuel. All you can eat buffets where gluttony is sanctioned. Bigger houses, bigger boats, bigger salaries, bigger TVs, bigger motorcycles, bigger pets, bigger, bigger, bigger. The ugly “B” word.

Two, change the dynamics of food production and population. Under the guise of providing more food to the starving masses, we create more starving masses, but also more consumers. Then we convince the new second and third world consumers that the American lifestyle model is the one they should emulate. The corporations get new consumers and markets, ones that aren’t as saturated with things as the American people are and then the American people are abandoned. Jobs are shipped overseas so that new consumer societies, aka the middle class with expendable income, are created and the standard of living for Americans diminishes. This in the eyes of the world is our comeuppance, hurried along by the greed of corporations.

Three, eliminate accountability, integrity, and character. Redefine leadership to mean that the new leaders become the minions of capitalism and those that do not go along, and reflect the most light of those that lead them, do not belong to the new “republic”. The counter-culture members become marginalized. Do you think it is just coincidence that the onset of the 21st century depression affects the middle of the baby boom generation? The group that was responsible for the culture wars of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Payback is a bitch.

Four, create sector pyramids, divide and conquer through fear and destruction. For example the health care industry. You create a federal agency, which approves and regulates food and drugs; let us call it the FDA. They in turn support additives in food chain without understanding the effects on the population; e.g. corn syrup. They also approve drugs that, in another framework would constitute poison e.g. Avandia, Vioxx, and Celebrex. Then limit the options/actions that the citizen consumers may avail themselves of to resolve the problems resulting from their consumption of these products. To further the profits of this sector of the economy, we will have an insurance racket its sole purpose is to take more money from the citizens. It will then divide services, services which were once covered under the original health insurance plans, are sliced off and create new services which require, get this its brilliant, more insurance to be covered adequately for the services which were once covered. Now people that suffer the deleterious effects from the food additives that are poison and drugs that are poison have to pay more of their monetary solvency to live. Then through marketing and propaganda you can tell them all how you’ve extended the average lifespan but leave out the part where you steal more of their money. The other sectors include the banking industry, investment firms, aerospace, chemicals, etc. Why else would the regulatory agencies designed to check the inherent greed of all the sectors be neutered?

Five, divide the population through rhetoric, religion, education, class, and regions. Play up the fear, play up the fear, and play up the fear. So that now the once brave people, now citizen consumers, come to value things more than freedom. Appearance, illusions, and diversions triumph over substance, truth, and the things in life that really matter.

Six, bring back the politics of dirty tricks and lies to the democratic process. How else could people like John Kerry, John McCain, and Max Cleland be assaulted and compromised while campaigning. How else could an idiot and coward, relatively speaking, like George W. Bush be elected dog catcher, let alone Governor of Texas and President of the United States. Change the laws that limit control of media outlets so that the propaganda supporting this, New American Agenda, is more efficiently spewed and consumed. And thus dividing the consumer citizens even further from one another.

Seven, create a new entitled class to take the place of the “Greatest Generation”. Create a fairy tale of how the “military”, Reagan, and capitalism defeated the Nazis, fascism, and communism and in turn made the world safe for democracy and freedom. Leave out the facts of how until Pearl Harbor most of America was unwilling to go to war in Europe. Leave out the fact that after Pearl Harbor it was American citizens that volunteered or were drafted to fight the war and that it was just a very few of these citizens that fought the war comparatively speaking. But all that participated in the armed services have benefitted from the few. Never has a generation benefitted so much by the sacrifice of so few. And those few succeeded in spite of their military leaders. Leave out the facts that communism was defeated by the GNP of the US and the productivity of all of its citizens. Leave out the facts that the corruptive extremes of an ideology like communism had as much to do with its destruction as we did. Leave out the fact that our own destruction is certain because of the corruption of our extreme, i.e. consumerism. The new “entitled class” are the military. The facts, although relevant, will have no bearing on what we are made to believe. It is only the military that die for freedom, though 4000 Americans die on the job each year thousands more are injured. And the “Military Establishment” all of it, thrives, suckles, and flourishes on the deaths, injuries, and honor of those that die in our ongoing, and fraudulent, military actions. The Military Conglomerate’s foundation is built on the graves of soldiers, citizens, and truth. It is the only way they can thrive, the only way. This is the same sector that benefitted with the compromise of the Gays in the Military. The other side of the compromise, what nobody asked and what nobody was told, was how there was no longer a waiting period between separation from the military and entry into the private sector that served the military. Thus was established the continuity of corruption. For now the industrial sectors that support the military had their “sanctioned and certified” employees. Once learning in the military how to reflect the most light of those that promote you would you be able to transition into the private sector to a job where they become complicit in the “Theft of Honor” and destruction of American democracy. They get their pensions which aren’t earned on top of the money they get paid for jobs they aren’t qualified for.

A fair solution for unreasonable people...

Utilizing a technology bars have used for decades we should have a code reader on gasoline fill nozzles that read the type of vehicle they are filling.
If people want to drive gas guzzlers they should have to pay more for the gas they are purchasing. If people want to go to the tanning salon in a SUV, or drive 70+ miles an hour in a huge pick up truck than they should have to pay a higher amount for the gas they use.
It can be a graduated cost, vehicles getting below 15 mpg will pay twice the baseline price of gasoline, 16-24 mpg the price will be 1.5 times the cost, 24-35 mpg the cost will be baseline cost, and anything above 35 mpg they will start getting a discount.
Rather than giving subsidies for vehicles that increase our dependence on oil and petroleum, as we did for SUVs, we should have these gas guzzlers susidize our country.