Understanding and Protecting the 2nd Amendment

The 2^nd amendment grants every American citizen in good standing the right to keep and bear arms.

  Throughout history governments had kept this right exclusively for themselves and used it to control their citizens. In fact it was only in America that such rights were actually written into the Constitution by the Founders and flow directly to the citizens.

 

The Founders had a reasonable fear that the nation that they had struggled so hard to build would at some time in the future become enslaved by a tyrannical government.  They felt strongly that armed citizens would be insurance against that possibility.  That is why the writers of the Constitution established the 2^nd Amendment.  It protects the future of our freedoms.  Here are just a few examples of their thoughts

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Daniel Webster- “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe”

George Mason- reminding his compatriots of England's efforts "to disarm the people; that it was .the most effectual way to enslave them”.

George Washington- “Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth”.

Thomas Jefferson – “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"

There are many ways foolish politicians that along with the media are against this important amendment.  They ignore its critical purpose and try to end its effectiveness. The vast majority of Americans have wisely and strongly resisted them. Surrendering this important right is unthinkable to most Americans, It should remain so.

Austerity Hawks are Bringing the Europe Union To Its Knees

The focus of the austerity hawks is on banks’ balance sheets-- not creating wealth through real productive achievements. There is little attention being paid to developing a broader, people sensitive programs that are tuned for the growth (not shrinkage) of the specific economies. As one result of its continued emphasis on austerity the European Union (EU) is faced with a recession that crosses 27 member countries. There is severe social unrest in many of them.

Austerity is not synonymous with efficiency. It creates social unrest that works against any possible improvement in efficiency. Funds sitting on a bank’s balance sheet will not increase demand or wealth unless applied to real projects. Austerity is a clumsy attempt at a pure financial fix when a more subtle correction in governance is required. The only way to real growth is intelligent effort and productive labor.

To beat a recession you must get the wheels of productivity generating cash flow and demand for its products. Bank balance sheets mean nothing unless they are providing the resources needed for the excitement of a producing free market. The prime task of the financial sector of each country should be to ensure that the resources and attitude the population needs to efficiently operate in a productive mode are available.

There is a substantial difference between economic growth and the damage caused by the politically inspired elimination of services that accompany austerity programs Focusing on creating wealth rather than destroying it seems a far superior approach It does require gaining real value from your national resources, including the labor of citizens.

We will have a chance to compare results of a growth based economic solution as opposed to austerity oriented plans. The French Socialist Party has just won a strong victory in France, replacing the austerity oriented UMP Party as President and Head of Parliament. They now have their sought for mandate to push for growth strategies, not austerity measures, to battle the Eurozone’s debt crisis. Although results will be influenced by many factors this could be an important data source in a complex problem that no one fully understands. We need to play close attention to how it performs.

Here Are the Some Questions For the Candidates

It is very annoying to get one of those phony political surveys in an official looking package that claims to be interested in gaining your opinion on a list of self serving questions.  Then, as you reach the point where you are ready to submit your opinion you find that they want a political donation for $50 to $500. Off course it is the donation, not your opinion,  that they really want. It is easy to visualize them ripping the check off your opinion submission and throwing the opinion part into the trash.

We know the characteristics we wish to find in our elected representatives but they never seem to be there in our two party offerings. This year I intend to return the following note to each of the “surveys” I receive:

Thank you for your interest in my views on items which our critical to our county.  I have taken the liberty to provide a listing of a few of my specific issues along with a few explanatory comments.  If you or your office would respond that you plan actions that are in essential agreement with these items I would be very likely to support you with my vote and contribution.

I am looking for a candidate who would:

Push the government to take aggressive actions to revive the economy.

When there are trillions of dollars worth of necessary investment grade infrastructure works to be done and millions of people looking for the work there is no excuse for the government not to arrange the financing.  That the work remains undone is a tremendous failure on the part of the two party system, Congress, and the Administration.  This past failure may preclude my voting for an incumbent.

Not be a believer in some ill thought-out austerity program rather than economic growth.

Knee jerk cost cutting based upon political rather than economic goals is the only kind of deficit reduction this Congress knows.  Having accomplished outrageous damage to our present economic environment Congress is now preparing to destroy the future.  This must not happen.

Maintaining a carefully managed defense that cannot be directly challenged by any totalitarian government but not unwisely used.

We must continue to apply the very hard lesson from our WWII experience where lack of preparedness allowed unthinkable tragedies to occur while the allies were building up the arms required to stop a psychopath dictator.  During the early period of unchallenged German success 15 European countries were occupied and over 50 million people killed as a result of Nazi actions.  In addition millions of the conquered populations were placed in concentration camps and slavery to the German war machine.   “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William L. Shirir is recommended reading that documents the horror of showing any weakness in dealing with an aggressive psychopathic dictator. 

We performed the same preventive service in the defeat of Japan, and the Soviet Union.  We were the only democracy powerful enough to have stopped these identified aggressive and expansionist fascist regimes. However, if the opposition would be fighting on its native soil against an “invader” US the chance for lone term success is small. We must learn to avoid the responsibility of wars of this latter type no matter how noble our intentions.

 Strong on reforming the financial sector

We are letting the financial sector buy into aggressive activities that do not support useful growth.  This is placing hardships on the citizens and wasting our resources.  It must be stopped and the financial sector returned to its appropriate supportive role.

Do nothing that will reduce existing rights of citizens 

Our country is defined most strongly by its respect for personal rights. They must be continually defended as our greatest treasure.  Our 2nd amendment stands out as a strong example of a unique right of the US that is under continual attack. There is no reason to give up any personal rights to our current government.  My expectations are to keep 2^nd amendment rights free of any United Nations interference and a strict policy of protection of all other constitutional citizen rights

 Minimum government involvement in Gay marriage

There is nothing in the Constitution or discussions among the founders that would support having the government define marriage.  If secular, marriage between gays should be treated like a normal contract between adults.  If religious, the church should decide on its’ specific religious components.

Revision of the special privileged practices of Congress

You cannot find a citizen that is not outraged at the special privileges and ego boosting management privileges that Congress has voted itself.  The candidate should strongly support proposed any amendment that precludes special privileges for congress.

Runs a truthful campaign with a career record of honesty

Without truth we can never make wise decisions.  Candidates who falsely direct our actions using untruthful information must not be elected.

As a special note I am sure you realize how our non-performing Congress has become a serious problem to our democracy. I don’t believe that our Founders anticipated that Congress would ever be run by an entrenched two-political party system whose primary interest was in itself rather than the country.  This has been true for over 100 years but the situation has come to the point that is doing severe damage to our democracy. We have elections as the way to correct the situation, but need candidates which are independent thinkers.  I hope you will be one.

Convictions Are More Dangerous Enemies of Truth Than Lies

The quotation in the title is by the philosopher Nietzche.  It clearly explains what has happened in the US political environment.  Our two-party system is devoted to creating convictions that are displacing truth.  We are being served convictions consisting of self-serving lies and misrepresentations with an absolute minimal backup of truth.  It is almost impossible for the citizenry to pick out the pure truth that is necessary for wise decision making.  They are confused.

It is difficult to imagine how the country will finally work itself back to health without a major influx of truth into our political campaigning.  However, neither the political parties nor the media seem interested in this happening.

 

One site, .FactCheck., founded in 2003. and supported by the Annenberg Foundation is a leader in focusing on examining modern political statements for truth.  It does this by applying tough journalism and scholarship to both parties’ releases.Spend some time at the FactCheck site and you will be amazed at the level  of misleading information  detected in releases by both parties that is not challenged by the traditional media. Also impressive is the effort of FactCheck to remove bias from their analysis.

The lock the political parties have on our election process is very harmful to our country. Congress must be turned independent.  This will be difficult if the public only receives confusing and self serving information from the two parties.  That is the situation now.

There are those who feel that lying for political gain in no less serious than lying for financial gain or to a federal agent, both of which are illegal.  On the other hand it is very disturbing to have the government involved at all with regulating political speech.

 

Like most reforms, the only solution is a more diligent and better informed citizen. Maybe someday politicians will issue their statements accompanied by a FactCheck stamp.

Event Overreach Junkies Are Bad for the Country

I don’t have a firm count on how many there actually are, but it seems that every time a national event calling for careful judgment occurs hordes of these specialists appear with crowds of demonstrators and TV appearances to amplify the situation into a national emergency.

The triggering environment always has at least three characteristics. The first is that the truth is not yet known. Secondly they stress that we must act immediately and as directed before the truth is known. Thirdly the situation must provide the media with at least several weeks to promote turmoil before wiser minds will prevail. It is an additional attraction if the situation can be used to promote otherwise rejected legislation.

When these forces are present someone, somewhere, makes the decision that the event qualifies for national media exposure. This means that the media is about to make a bad situation much, much worse! We are about to be swamped with sanctimonious opinions of TV analysts and numerous talk show appearances all ranting again some chosen villain. There will be pre-truth demands for justice. If possible the event will be politicized. There will also be a tsunami of bias, exaggeration and half truths. Truth that is counter to the main show is not presented. The majority of the media is happiest when in the truth-free portion of its act it can somehow assign guilt to American racism.

After some time the appointed villains eventually find some space to present their views. Although earlier implanted images are difficult to replace hopefully the truth as to their guilt or innocence finally prevails.

Unfortunately this habit of presenting what is falsely called news as truth in the early stages is very harmful to the nation. Making good decisions requires truth as input. Because it is used to lead you away from truth, the biased and invented news of the early stage is worse than none at all. Many people made their decisions early and don’t readily revise them. It certainly reflects badly on those who use it as a common tool.

What can we do to make it more difficult to deceive us in these early stages? Remember that truth will stay consistent for several levels of information while deception drops out after a few questions. Ask your own questions before reaching an opinion.

Democratically Rebuilding Congress

The 2012 Congressional elections will indeed be strange. Many incumbents of the worst Congresses in our nation’s history will have the nerve to try to convince you to re-elect them. It is critical that those who have contributed to the abysmal 9% approval rating of the 112th Congress are not returned to office.

This election is our first chance to begin the path to a productive Congress. Unfortunately the process that is in place was designed to greatly favor the candidates of the two political parties that failed us in the first place. Our two party system offers only one individual to serious consider for replacing a incumbent. If you are fortunate there might also be some occasional seriously underfunded independent candidates.

It may take several election cycles until we have a Congress that will make the necessary reforms. This makes the quality of those that are selected this time extremely important. It will set serious standards for our future. A strong statement by the voters will certainly speed up the transition.

What are the characteristics a replacement candidate Senator or Congressman should show? For starters, basic intelligence, honesty and a respect for truth will go a long way. A dishonest campaign is a marker for a dishonest candidate. Criticism of an opponent should be factual and specific. A campaign based on deceit and half truths must be rejected.

I personally intend to also look for these addional characteristics:

Strong intentions to solve the country’s problems and improve quality of life by actions. Not a bean counter in full retreat.

Strong supporter of bi-partisan actions that support the goals covered in the introduction to the Constitution, regardless of party or special interest implications.

Dedicated to ending money and introduce qualifications as controlling factors in our democracy.

Willingness to study and understand the basics of our current financial system as preparation for knowledgeable reform.

Supports a long term plan to reduce deficits when the economy stabilizes.

Supports conducting a public review with the subsequent elimination of inefficient Congressional administrative practices.

End special privileges for Congressional, Judicial, and Administration staff.

Will I find candidates who meet my criteria? I hope so. They would certainly go a long ways toward ending the Congressional management disasters well recognized by conservatives, moderates, and liberals alike. Maybe we then could turn this ship away from the existing governing icebergs that endanger us all.

Support of UN Small Arms Treaty Will Cost Democrats Plenty of Votes

One of the prevailing strengths of the Republican Party, (but not all Republicans) has been its support for the very popular 2nd Amendment. This is the amendment that protects the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms. Our founders insisted upon it to approve the original constitution. It is uniquely American. Unlike many of the other amendments this is one about which that the public remains adamant. They are not going to surrender the rights it grants to an inept elected government. Pro-control Democrats, however, do not seem to realize to what extent this is true. It may cost the party dearly in the next election.


Background

Governments, dictators, and kings have always feared citizen access to firearms. The US Constitution is unique among nations in that citizen ownership of firearms is protected. However, there is a small and insistent element of the US and global establishment that has continually attempted to weaken this amendment by generally ignoring it. Supreme Court decisions which reinforce the power of the amendment are putting an end to this practice.

As citizen confidence in the elected government has plummeted the right to keep and bear arms has gained soaring strength with the citizens. 2011 was a record year for US firearm sales to civilians. In spite of biased support from the main stream media advocating increased firearm control remains political suicide for politicians in all but a very few states. This is one area where the people are drawing the line against a self serving government. A recent Gallup poll showed that 70% of the population opposes any further attempts by the government at gun control.

Wrong Actions

Unfortunately the destruction of this amendment has become a hardened goal of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Years ago a damaging quote from a prominent California Democratic Senator, (Dianne Feinstein), shocked a lot of Americans. She said that she looked forward to the day that only the police and military would have access to firearms. She would bide her time until that was politically possible. She is still a Senator and those statements have not been rescinded by the party..

Unable to elect a Congress that will serve their purpose, a new attempt is being made by the anti-2nd Amendment throng. It is through the forthcoming UN treaty on small arms. Although the draft is not yet officially released it is described by this article in Forbes Magazine. You can see that the elements which have been successfully defeated in the US are prominent in the proposed treaty.

The National Rifle Association has over 4 million members while what is left of the Brady anti firearm organization is almost negligible. In no way do any anti-gun organizations approach the energy or membership of the NRA and the several other organizations supporting protection of the 2nd amendment. They include many citizens who would normally be voting Democratic but now vote Republican. Opposing the 2nd amendment is an obvious losing proposition for the Democrats –but they continue to do so.

The Results

The Constitution wisely requires a two thirds approval vote by the Senate to ratify a treaty. The current Congress is strongly against granting the UN any authority over the 2nd amendment. 45 Republican and 12 Democratic senators have already signed a letter saying that they will not approve of any treaty that infringes upon American gun rights. But strangely, the UN small arms treaty program remains supported by the Obama administration. It is being reported that Clinton has promised to take the treaty before the US Senate.

A Sportsman site has been established and recommended by Guns and Ammo magazine with the goal of leading a balanced discussion and review of Presidential candidates’ position on sportsman issues. It appeared to be an opportunity for the Democrats to start to shed their anti-2nd amendment reputation by distancing themselves from the treaty and showing respect for the 2nd amendment. They would be in a much stronger position by focusing on other critical issues such as jobs and energy.

Their support of the UN small arms treaty proposal eliminates this possibility. The American citizens will not cede any control of the 2nd amendment to the UN. Support of the treaty by the administration will further mark it as anti-2nd amendment. No amount of spin can reverse that. It will work against the positives that the Democratic Party should be pursuing and create additional momentum for the Republicans.

An opportunity missed and now gone.

The US Congress is an Embarrassment to Democracy

In his introduction to the Federal Papers Alex Hamilton made the following statement.

“It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to thepeople of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the importantquestion whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or rather are they forever destined todepend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”

At the time of his statement the success of a democratic government was widely felt to be impractical. There were no democracies. Outside force was required to maintain existing governments. American had a hugh responsibility to prove that people could govern themselves without a king or dictator.

Through the 20th century Americans could proudly proclaim that they were proving their point. Although there were problems their democratic system was effectively governing itself. As we began to absorb the 21st century however the failure of our legislative branch became obvious. It is beholden to moneyed special interests and completely remote from the responsibility of guardian of the public good envisioned by the founders.

Sadly, our system is also is locked into a two party system that greatly restricts the citizens’ ability to replace the offenders. Congress currently has an approval rating of only 9% and is generally felt to be the most inefficiently managed in US history. To reach this sorry state we have ignored the basic advice first given to a Chinese city government over 2600 years ago by a student of Confucius .

“The greatest fortune of a people would be to keep ignorant persons from public
office, and secure their wisest men to rule them.”

Because wisdom brings truth and honor while ignorance brings lack of understanding and disaster this is a must for a long term government. It is difficult to maintain if the voting population accepts ignorance. If you follow current Congressional hearings you will be shocked by the level of ignorance that is displayed. This is reflected directly into performance. It must be corrected if we are to reach the long term success that Hamilton was seeking. Although some obviously ignorant candidates were defeated in 2010 elections there also were many elected.

Voters must now face the aggression of the superpacs. They thrive on voter ignorance and our inability to identify half truths. They are only available to moneyed candidates and are generally pushed by narrow minded ideologues. They are a great source of revenue to the media.

We are indeed facing a challenge to the question of can democracy survive or is it being replaced by a pseudo democracy that cannot govern itself. We must all pull hard to keep the 2012 election worthy of our obligations for the future. This requires a special attention to truth, a rejection of ignorance, and detailed attention to the general good of the citizens. Above all, investigate the voting record before you vote for an incumbent.

Post Constitutional Rule Making- A Conspiracy Against The Majority?

This Congress has proven one thing-the system as it is now being implemented doesn’t work. Congress, with a public approval of only 11%, has become useless in solving the nation’s problems. Further, the problem is not with the Constitution but the post constitutional rulemaking of Congress. To understand the situation you must consider that there are really two sets of rules running our country. This article gives some useful details.


The Federal Constitution contains first of all a set of rules that are the constitutional law behind congressional procedure. These are rules that regulate the operations of the government as directly specified in the document. To change these rules requires an amendment of the Constitution in the manner specified in the document itself. The second sets are procedures also necessary for governance but which are too voluminous to be specifically written into the Constitution by the Founders themselves. Ideally these procedures should provide the detailed follow-up required to implement the Constitution. They are established by subsequent legislatures and should follow the general intent of the founders. Establishing this boundary is difficult and was worked on diligently by the Founders. Unfortunately subsequent Congresses have created a management nightmare that has had a terrible effect on how we are operating our government. It is not the constitutional rules set by the Founders but the inept post-constitutional rule making that has brought our Congress down to a 11%approval rating.

We need only look at a few examples. One set of rules which has brought the organization to a halt is the requirement for a supermajority for too many actions. The Founders after long discussion decided on a 2/3 majority in overriding a veto and expelling a member and 3/4 of states in a constitution amendment. None of these requirements are affecting the management of Congress. Unfortunately future legislatures set an excessive number of actions requiring a supermajority in subsequent operating rules and procedures. This has created major operating problems where nothing can be passed.

If you look into the Constitution you find nothing about committee rules with chairman being appointed by political party; nothing about 60% required to override a filibuster; or of Congress taking all of the special privileges it has granted to itself. There are no provisions for the senatorial courtesy feature such as a single senator holding up an appointment. All of these anti-democratic actions that grant excessive power to a few over the majority are purely the work of post Constitution legislators-and far from the very democratic nature of the Constitution.

With such a terrible legacy of inefficient and bad management that has allowed a few to paralyze the majority Congress has become useless. There is indeed a necessity for an audit and review of the post-constitutional rules and procedures that have destroyed the Congress as a legislative body. That report should then be presented to the citizens for action.

The Nations Problems-Now Listed For Action

One of the most discouraging items of this problem ridden recession has been the feebleness of the Government’s low energy attempt at fixing the problems. There is a characteristic dance. Democrats propose a greatly lobbied-down correction. This is criticized by a bloc of Republicans. The democratic response to the criticism is to then forget the whole idea and disappear. In spite of the seriousness of the times essentially no action has been taken by Congress.

The nation therefore essentially has given up on the Washington elected government. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans seem to have any driving concern for the citizen welfare. We have been left alone with a large and unanswered need to restore the economy and prepare our country for future global competition.

There is a long list of critical tasks. Some examples are:

Restore a weakened manufacturing sector and balance our trade

Regain control of the financial sector and return it to its proper role

Resolve the paradox of a deteriorating infrastructure with the large unemployment of construction workers

Provide all citizens with an education opportunity suitable for future global competition

Develop an immigration policy that will strengthen the US

Control corporate special interest influences on legislation

Adjust the Department of Defense to reflect changes in threats and warfare.

Establish an equitable trade agreement with China

Somehow gain a functional Congress.

The State of the Union address was a pleasant surprise. Finally the President identified the problems and explicitly recognized actions aimed at addressing them. He pleaded for congressional cooperation and promised to take the issue directly to the people of the country if no cooperation was forthcoming. Let us hope.

A CBS poll taken at the completion of the presentation showed unheard of approval Ninety one percent (91%) of the citizens that heard the speech favored taking the actions discussed.

A Gallup poll analyzed the proposed actions item by item and also showed how strongly the public favored the proposed actions.

The suffering and disillusioned public is begging for action. So far this Congress has taken none. It is doubtful that the current Congress will change its useless ways. Hopefully the items will be brought up item by item so the voters can observe the votes and take appropriate action on Election Day.

Then perhaps the restoration of a great country can begin

Simple Missions That Morphed Into Monsters

An income greedy financial sector, corrupt political parties, and bean counter corporations are all having lethal effects on the countries welfare.

All three areas once had a specific limited service to contribute to the country. Over the years, however, they have been allowed to expand their activities and boundaries to the point where they have become self serving and are now harmful to the economy, our democracy and our welfare  They have done this by abandoning service to the country and its citizens and focusing instead on creating in-house benefits. This has been accomplished with the full complicity of our elected government. All of these activities have been gained through expansion of their activities outside of constitutional requirements.

The Constitution granted Congress responsibility for the fiscal activities of the country. The Congress utilized private sources to assist it to perform specific functions and to assist in ensuring that funding was available to companies and citizens for productive use. Because they are managing national funds their focus should not be maximizing their own profits. This situation has reversed itself and these functions are now managed by central banks that are corporations focused on creating revenue for themselves, not for the productive sectors of our economy. Combine this with lax overview by the Government and we have hugh misallocation of funds misdirection of national goals, and financial disasters.

The Constitution does not mention political parties. Their potential for doing harm was warned by several founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, Geoge Washington, and John Adams. This was done on the fear that it would create primary loyalties to the party instead of the general welfare. This has proven to be true. There is a natural tendency of citizens to start groups that would organize to jointly advocate their position for pending legislation. Now, however we have only two parties that have been jointly untouchable in power for over 150 years. They have become a major anti-democracy factor by their tight control of the selection process that determines the candidates that are finally presented to the citizens. Their control of the elected government has allowed them to define an election process that greatly favors the current system. The result is that our election process is governed by two private organizations that have their primary loyalty to themselves rather than the nation

Reflecting the feelings that English corporations had been exploiting the colonies in the days before independence corporations in early America were rare, They were treated as unique organizations formed for a special business activity, such as building a canal. They are not mentioned in the Constitution and were initially solely a state responsibility. They were forbidden to become involved in politics. Over 200 years of mainly Supreme Court decisions have reversed this to give them all rights of a natural person and the right to use their profits `to exert enormous power over our legislative and electoral processes. To restore our democracy all three institutions must be put back into their proper position in relation to national governance.

The financial sector must be put back in the position of a service to the productive elements of the economy and not focused on non productive attempts to increase its own revenues.

Political parties must be reduced to equality as one of many organizations promoting candites and have no special advantages over unaffiliated candidates.

Corporations likewise must be focused on producing useful services and products, not on government and electoral process manipulation for special privileges.

These corrections will be difficult and take time. All three institutions will fight strongly to preserve their positions. It will only happen with an overwhelming demand from the citizens. It will require a drastic reduction of the funds that can be applied to influencing the government and elections.

Super PACS- Another Tool for the Governing Elite

Here is the situation. We have a worthless Congress choking on its self made problems. It has an all time low 12% positive rating by the citizens. We are saddled with an ineffective executive branch which is baffled and outmaneuvered by the worthless Congress. The entire mess is managed by two self serving, and corrupt political parties whose primary interest is to stay in power with the status quo. The national ruling elite have no answers to this status and little inclination to try to find any. They are awash with tired ideologies that have been proven not to work 20 years ago. Our great country is being wasted and unable to serve its citizens. It is so serious that the citizens are beginning to occupy the streets in serious protest.


We need productive change to our governance. We will only get it when we elect effective governments. For that we need truthful and useful information on the candidates.

Working against truth and balanced discussion is a 2010 decision by the Supreme Court that allowed corporations to make unlimited contributions to Political Action Committees (PACS) directly from their treasuries. They cannot make these contributions directly to a candidate so they make them through “super PACs” that are formed especially to create large political expenditures for political purposes. This allows corporations to provide then with unlimited funds. With these resources they can instantly create floods of negative media against reform candidates.

For an example of the role super PACS can play consider the Republican Party primary elections. Of the six potential candidates there are two that are proposing several anti statist solutions for consideration. In view of the shortage of productive ideas with which the part y has been plagued you would hope that the party would welcome an informed discussion of these ideas. No so. When polling showed that the citizens were swinging strongly toward both of the candidates it caused a panic throughout the Republican establishment. Gingrich took a commanding lead over the statist Romney, while Paul also climbed rapidly in the polls.

The statists immediately released a barrage of super PAC funded negative media directed at the two unflavored candidate. Those shown in Iowa are loaded with ignorance, misquotes and half truths related to events going back over 20 years.

They were effective. Gingrich admitted the difficulty of countering the cash rich super PACS media supporting Romney. NPR reports that the attempt to counter with positive ads is not working. Within a week the Gingrich large leads in the polls have disappeared.

We have just put another powerful tool in the hands of the governing elite. They are apparently anxious to use it to further muddy up our already weakened election process. Regardless of your candidate this is bad for democracy.

Two Important Events Last Week

Occupy Comes to DC

The 99% have come to challenge what many people feel is the primary obstacle to reform.  The corrupt Congress of the United State and the special interest lobbyists that feed them. The lead organization is Occupy DC which is a solidarity partner with OccupyWallStreet.
Their intent is to call attention to all of the Washington landmark institutions that are favoring the 1% to the detriment of the 99%. First actions were marches to the lobbyist’s offices on K Street, the Capitol Building, the White House, and the Supreme Court. There are additional actions on many more Washington landmarks.

They have been tightly controlled by police. A temporary building installed near K Street was forced to be dismantled by the police. Lots of arrests but the occupiers have been peaceful-no violence. The effort to shut them down seems to be underway.

They say they will stay until the government responds. It will probably be a long visit. We wish them luck.

Newt Gingrich Takes a Commanding Lead in the Republican Presidential Race

This really has the leading elite and their media confused

Newt has a distinguished list of enemies. He is hated by the party elite, the media, and those who were his colleagues in Congress. Considering the job this bunch have been doing Newt may be just the person we need.

Remembering his activities in the 90’s It is hard to imagine that once elected he would follow the irrational do nothing policies of the current Republican party. Surely with his pride he will be looking for aggressive and radical solutions to our problems. Backed up by his intelligence he could apply some major reforms to the party and our whole corrupt system. But there is a predictability problem. At this point we don’t know his real intentions because they are masked by the stupidities he must spout to win the primary.

Those 90’s years when he was leading the House do look pretty good in comparison to today. Granted, he used a lot of hypocrisy to reach his goals. Working with a Democratic President he brought us a balanced budget, got rampart welfare under control, and is a rare Republican that favors cutting the oil company subsidies. The House of Representative that he led with Clinton as President makes the current Congress look feeble. He certainly is not a run-of-the-mill politician.

The Democrats say they would love to run against him, but they had better be careful.

His 20 yr old personal baggage that they hope to use against him seems pretty mild when compared to our current embedded government corruption. You can review his personal history in Wikipedia and reach your own conclusions.

Both important events to watch.

Disastrous Elected Government Causing Strong Remedies

Background on Occupy Wall Street/99 %(OWS)
The OWS/99% movement is described more completely in the October 22, 2011 and November 22, 2011 posts on this blog.

The core conflict has occurred because those who call themselves the “99%” of the population refuse to accept the broken economy and dysfunctional society that the current system has brought us. The elected government shows no capability of correcting the problems.

The OWS/99% has chosen the First Amendment as the primary mechanism to call for reform. The First Amendment clearly establishes freedom of religion, speech, and the press, along with the rights of peaceable assembly and ability to petition the government for redress of grievances.
The standard method of protest is the “occupying” outside of an institution by hundreds to thousands of protesters at a symbolic site. Signs and activities at the sight outline the reasons for the protest. The “occupy” is to be non violent so as to meet the protection granted “peaceable assembly” by the First Amendment.

Responsibility for the mismanagement is placed on a 1% component of the population that holds the positions of power. The goal is to shift power from the 1% to the 99%.
 It is impossible for the hard core 1% to deny the economic and social problems that are not being addressed by the governance. Sadly, we have elected a Congress which is doing nothing to address the protests. In fact many of the hard-core members of the 1% were deeply involved in the creation of the problems and continue to benefit from them. They have chosen a counter strategy that ignores the problems but instead relies upon attacking the 99% as socialistic, left wing, and un-American and the real source of the problems. In short, they are substituting public relations for reform. In so doing they have committed the country to a clash of philosophies that could have very dangerous consequences.

Recent Events
November 17 marked the 2nd month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street (“OWS/99 %”) invasion of Soccotti Square in New York. They have established solidarity with hundreds of additional organizations that are also protesting the actions of the government and financial sectors. The November 17 Day of Action created “occupies” of hundreds of institutions and facilities that were felt to being wrongly managed by the 1%.

This date is also marked as the first large scale coordinated counterattack by the hard core governing 1% of the population. On this date numerous cities, including New York, moved to remove the 99% from their protest camping areas. Although this was generally done peaceably there was the use of excess force. Thousand of arrests were made. The claim by those cities and other institutions were that the protesters were not being “peaceful” and that the First Amendment did not therefore apply.


One series of damaging videos of the police spraying pepper spray on sitting non violent students is circulated widely on the internet and has added to tensions. A damaging proposal by a Washington public relations firm to the American Bankers Association (ABA) was also leaked. The proposal offered to initiate a program that would warn politicians of future penalties if they sided with the protesters and to initiate research to present negative information on the protesters. Although the ABA reported that they had refused the proposal it represents a discouraging attempt to substitute public relations for real reform.

State of the 99%
The OWS/99% movement has become large, global and distributed. It is being very aggressive in pursuing its protests. The question is whether it can withstand the forthcoming public relations firestorm when the 1% fully unleashes its vast financial and media resources. There is also the difficult task of converting public sentiment to legislative action with an ineffective Congress that has only a 13% approval rate.

Of special interest is a plan by OWS/99% to soon “occupy” Congress. Here they will address their most inept and fault ridden institution and hopefully have the entire nation cheering them on.
OWS has prepared a proposed vision statement with supporting goals. They propose major changes to some current financial policies.

State of the Hard Core1%
It is impossible to deny the existence of serious problems that were largely created by many of the hard line members of the 1% themselves. The obvious way to defuse the situation would be to correct the reasons for the protests. However this is not being done by either the government or responsible institutions.

Polls show that only about one half the population currently understands the situation and its seriousness. That uninformed half will be a prime target for their PR campaign.

The Near Term
In the near term we will continue to see major “occupy” efforts by OSW99% and strong public relation counter measures by the hard core 1%. It is unknown how far the hard-core ideologue members of the 1% will go to attempt to preserve the current status. Nor do we know how the 99% will be able respond to their attacks. There is a real danger of losing public support if the “occupies” are unwisely overused.

The 1% does have powerful control of the financial sector and elected government, along with almost unlimited financial resources. A little attention to the internal traffic of the competing groups, however, shows that there is considerable overlap between the 99% and the 1%. Many people who fall in the upper 1% in a financial test recognize the problems being cause by the current environment and would support many of the reforms proposed by the 99%. It is hoped that this group can eventually contribute to a reasonable, non violent , and just middle ground. As of now, however, there are no indications that either side will accept a compromise.


Stand by for Round 2 and hope for a peaceful and just constitutional resolution

The OWS and 99/1 Movements-A Quick Update

On the Oct 22 post we described how the one- sided self serving actions of the current governing elite finally aroused the population into forming a fast growing organization dedicated to shifting governance responsibility away from the 1% elite to the 99% middle class citizenry. The movement started with the Occupy Wall Street (“OWS”) actions to occupy Succotti Square near Wall Street. This immediately let to similar organizations being formed in US cities and towns and spread throughout the world into a global network. This post brings you more information on the progress and environment they have created. There is so much action it only touches on high points.


Positioning

After 6 weeks the total movement is beginning to take form as hundreds of local organizations outside of New York establish “solidarity” with OWS on the global network. The movement has continued to establish itself as the center of the 99% who are demanding corrective action after a bungling Government and allied institutions have proven to be disastrous to the nation. Wisely, the movement has been extremely careful to avoid being co-opted by other movements, agendas. or political labels. It is clearly described as a pro-democracy movement to correct major deficiencies in the nation’s governance by moving to a more democratic middle class environment.

Organization

Each local organization in the network is self managed but must be non violent and democratic. The local governing body in each node is a General Assembly that must approve all actions. They use a decision support system called “People’s Assembly” that focuses on distributed consensus decision making across a group environment. All members can participate. A methodology of hand signals express positive and negative positions and keeps discussions moving and on topic. Communications is open between nodes to all members via Twitter or other social systems. This system continuously maintains real time communications with hundreds of local organizations through the world and allows instantaneous coordination of activities. There is a tremendous volume of information flowing. You can follow much of it through Twitter. The information system plus the large number of people involved is impressive. This is an advantage over the many layered hierarchy of the 1%.

Competition

Significant portions of the 1% are not hardened ideologues and recognize the disaster that the remainder of the 1% has dealt the nation. They are supportive of reform and could eventually be a basis for reasonable compromise. But there remains the hard core ideologues and the plain greedy that are profiting from the current situation and viciously resist any change. Unfortunately they are deeply embedded in positions of wealth and power in Congress, the media, and the corporate and financial sectors. It was in those positions that they created the very situations which are the point of contention with the 99/1 % movement..

This hard core 1%seems to feel that with their power they can eventually make OWS/99/1% meaningless. They do not yet seem to understand the scope and intensity of the OWS/99/1% movement. They are going to find it difficult to hire the energy and intelligent dedication which is standard within the 99/1% movement. Their only hope for survival is to turn the general public against the OWS /99/1% movement.

They have embarked on an extensive misinformation and infiltration program to try to create in the public mind an image of a left wing, communist, violent, and unlawful agenda made up of drug addicts and sexual predators which must be brought under control. If the movement stays true to its current path, however, the public will surely recognize the falseness of these accusations. This site gives you a better perspective of the typical 99% membership.

Summary

The 99% have made a good start by gaining worldwide exposure and in identifying the critical issues that need reform. The strong infra structure of the 99% is already showing its ability to call broad attention to the thoughtlessness of different government policies by holding thousand person plus “occupations” of the offending institutions.

The movement is an intelligent core being applied to financial and governance issues that the public recognizes. Because it has no legislative authority, however, it must face the next critical step. That is to elect a new Congress that will provide the required legal actions.

This is setting up to be a very competitive and important contest for the mind of the American citizen. It is encouraging to find a force that is still fighting hard for the American Dream.

OWS-The Citizens Finally Run Out of Patience

The greed of the financial sector, the ignorance of the ideologues, and the unimaginable incompetence of the 111th and 112th Congress has been causing excruciating pain to American citizens for almost three years. We could not be expected to quietly accept this situation indefinitely. A common sense Congress could have defused the situation by correcting obvious errors and sincerely addressing the underlying problems. Unfortunately the guilty parties have refused to offer serious solutions.


The nearest opportunity for citizens to replace many of the current non performing members of Congress through elections is over 12 months away. Continuance of the current ineffectiveness by Congress is longer than the citizens could wait. Thus a far reaching global protest movement has become activated. The movement is serious, and growing at an explosive rate around the world. It has been joined by numerous additional organizations. Initiated by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest movement it has as its battle cry the taking away financial and political power from the self serving portion of 1% of the population and returning democratic control to the 99%. Polls show that this concept is strongly supported by the majority of middle class citizens.

No one knows where these protests will lead. At this time they are wisely adamant about remaining independent of political parties. The organization has not been in place long enough to present a code of demands but one is being prepared. I saw a listing of eight demands that were being suggested for inclusion by one protester. All were legitimate, practical, and addressed needed actions. Some were addressed to laws already passed that were nullified through congress cutting funds to the intended enforcing agency. One demand dictated that all laws passed by Congress would apply equally to them as to the citizens. Reducing the influence of unlimited money and special interests on the democratic process was an important theme.

The protests are definitely legitimate and aimed at correcting the overreach practices by the established institutions that is damaging our country and our democracy. They should have been corrected long ago by Congress. It is extremely important that real progress on the major issues happens while the protests are controlled by citizens strongly motivated by patriotism and democracy. This will require the elimination of many practices of the financial and political systems.

I suggest you follow the protests closely. Read and understand the demands when they are presented. Offer advice and criticism. Be prepared to resist the forthcoming propaganda assault by those who brought us down to the current state.

American Jobs Act Update

On September 5, 2011, after over 2 yr years of recession and 14 million citizens still unemployed the President announced a $447 billion American Jobs bill which included $140 billion in infrastructure construction work. On September 13 this blog applauded the bills’ focus for finally providing direct help to the middle class. We concluded, however, that it could only pass the current Congress if forced to by strong public support.


On September 20, 2011 Gallup released the results of a detailed public opinion poll on the citizen’s response to the bill. It was overwhelmingly favorable for the bill. The infrastructure element was favored by 72% of the citizens polled. A blow-out 80% favored an accompanying tax deduction for small businesses. The reference covers the results by element and political party affiliation.

It is now October 5 and in spite of numerous presentations by the President the bill has not been submitted to either house by party leaders. No target dates have been set. (Of course, the Congress did have a week of vacation to get in). On Sept 28 the Democrats announced that they don’t have the votes for passage in the Senate and won’t bring the issue to a vote until they do. Republican leaders in the house have called the bill “campaigning” and have not announced a date when they would bring it up for debate,--if they do it at all. Today they announced it DOA.

With trillions of dollars worth of infrastructure work to be done and 14 million American citizens out of work you would think that leaders of both parties would be all over each other to work out a plan. They should want to flood the country with projects that would get the citizens off unemployment and back to value-added work. But you would be wrong.

The question is why would the US Congress prefer to write unemployment checks and watch our infrastructure crumble than provide productive value-added work to its citizens? My only observation is that this is the expected behavior of our current Congress. This is exactly why the latest Gallup poll shows citizen approval of Congressional job performance is down to13% and 9% with Independents.

There are many studies which point to the benefits of an immediate national infrastructure plan. On March 5, 2011 the New America Foundation released a widely distributed evaluation estimating that our inadequate infrastructure was costing the nation more than $192 billion a year in wasted fuel consumption, lost time, additional handling and other delays. As a specific example, this article by USA Today discusses the waste and additional costs that inadequate infrastructure is causing the grain export business.

It is apparent that there are ideologues and special interests that do not want the act to pass, but in view of the public support are afraid to be seen voting against it. Hence every delaying trick available will be pulled to avoid a vote.

What can the citizens do to force a vote when Congress refuses to even consider an issue that is so important to the citizens? Although national referendums are common in municipalities and states there is no mention of them in the constitution. (The Founding Fathers apparently never considered the possibility of incompetence at the level we now have.) In the short term we have only the advisory force of public opinion as determined by the countless political polls. In the longer term we have our 2012 election where we have the opportunity to replace all of the Representatives and one third of the Senators.

Keep up the pressure. What are your representatives doing?

The American Jobs Act-A Critical Decision

The American Jobs Act presents an important choice for America. We will have to determine if we want to give up and join the bean counters in their rush to the economic bottom or fight to regain a booming American economy. This decision is so important that a wrong choice could portend the concluding stages of the American dream.


It is not that the proposed Act is the final solution. There is much more to do and this Act is over two years late. But at last there is an aggressive middle class oriented plan put before the nation. It shines when compared to the special interest actions of the ineffective congress with which we have been living. We need it to pass now, however, not in fourteen months with a new congress. Sadly, the only way we will see significant action with the current congress is through such overwhelming public support that each congressman decides that to oppose it would be political suicide.

Your understanding is very important. You will need to educate yourself on its’ contents to withstand the misrepresentations, half truths and delaying tactics that are on their way from the ideologues and their politicians. You can move toward an independent and knowledgeable judgment by reviewing the American Jobs Act Fact Sheet.

The Act addresses four major areas, all focused on middle class issues.

Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow ($70 billion)

Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America ($140 billion)

Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs ($62 billion)

More Money in the Pockets of Every American Worker and Family ($175 billion)

The items in each area are explained in detail in the fact sheet. There is also a detailed cost table in the fact sheet. The fact sheet further claims that it is fully paid for as part of the president’s long-term deficit reduction plan.

As the proposed Act is further understood we should begin to see the results of legitimate public polls as opposed to the unscientific self serving ones starting to be published now.

Understand it and you will support it.

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Americas Economic Problems are Political - Not Resource Limited

The founding fathers were not bean counters. So they must be confused when they hear the ideologues and bean counters tell us that we can no longer afford to do the good things for our citizens that are described in the Preamble of the Constitution.


What exactly are they saying? That we don’t have enough science and talent to support a health care system for our citizens? We don’t have enough engineers and skilled tradesmen to manufacture everything we need? Are we short on farming and the land needed to grow our food? Are there not enough engineers and construction workers to fix our infra structure?

They talk nonsense. We have an ample supply of all of these assets. The country is filled with everything we need to satisfy the material and creative requirements of all our citizens.

There is one thing that we don’t have--a thoughtful and honest Congress. One that will make sure everything that should happen on the national level does happen, regardless of party ideology. It is the absence of a willful elected leadership that is pulling us down.

With a thoughtful and honest Congress we would not be in the current mess. They would have recognized that having everyone together in productive work is the only way to financial and social stability. We would by now have an all out program focused on that. Instead the two parties have wasted over two years bickering with each other over unproven ideologies while the confidence of the nation is destroyed. They have yet to provide the citizens with a substantial plan for economic recovery.

The current Congress has had its’ chance and failed miserably. Remember this. Be very careful how you spend your vote in 2012.

Congressional Cost Cutting Obsession is the Tail Wagging the Dog.

When will the bean counters acknowledge that deficit reduction should only be one element of a national economic plan? Nothing would be more slipshod than to create a cost reduction plan without careful attention to how it affects a national economic recovery plan. The trouble is, after over two years of recession, the US has never built a national economic recovery plan. What our congress is doing with this single minded devotion to cost cutting is similar to only studying seat covers while trying to build an automobile.


We do need a comprehensive plan but it should be for economic recovery. It should address all sectors that impinge on the economy such as citizen employment, expanding the manufacturing sector, correcting the trade imbalance, protecting our science leadership, restoring financial integrity and a general return of the principles of the American dream. Obsessive bean counter concentration on cost cutting without understanding the consequences on the rest of the economy will lead to disaster. It is discouraging that this nation is being managed by leaders who do not seem to grasp such a simple principle.

The lack of basic management skills had created a Congress that is badly failing the country. Americans realize this. The current Congress has no creditability with the citizens. The latest Gallup poll shows that only 9% of independent voters support the way Congress is handling its job while 84% of all voters disapprove. These are disastrous results.

What can the citizens do? What can be done to restore the citizens’ faith in its governing institutions? In spite of these failing ratings I have not heard of a serious proposal for extensive reform of Congress from either party. If these polls haven’t energized them what will?

The Constitution makes no allowance for the early termination of an existing Congress. We will have to wait until 2012 to exert our voting power. Unfortunately, unless the situation changes, our choice of candidates in 2012 will come from the same process that created the current gene pool.

The known solutions of letters, emails, and calls don’t seem to be providing the driving force for the level of reform we need. We definitely must open the election process to have more choice in candidates. In fact it may be time for that risky street-driven movement that says “Don’t vote for an incumbent.”