I hate to be the one to tell you this but the dear old U.S. of A. is the biggest shop of horrors on this planet. For all the greatness spawned here in the past -- and still some things to this day -- we are also the major producers and purveyors (and exporters) of guns, war products, alcohol, air pollution, water pollution, chemical and biological weapons, raped and empty-calorie food products, sugar-fizz drinks, aspartame-fizz drinks, filthy and violent music and movies, war toys, pharmaceuticals for children, pornography, Godless psychology, mind control programs, government surveillance (domestic and foreign), tobacco products and Tom Green films.

But none of that stops people from looking up from reading their Better Homes and Gardens or Maxim magazines and saying things like, “Is this a great country or what?!” (I'm starting to lean towards "or what".) Or putting all those stickers and flags on their cars. Or voting for the politicians who most shamelessly push their patriotic buttons.




Most Americans, befogged as they are by their own pursuits, as well as the Bush Administration's patriotic prattle, don't even recognize who these guys are who are running the country and threatening the world with their pro-pollution, pro-corporations, pro-military con jobs. Maybe this will help.

Dick Cheney is the real estate developer who makes his nature-despoiling deals at the country club with the other fat cats, and if you asked him in the street for the time, he’d snarl and blow right past you.

Donald Rumsfeld is the banker who prefers to deal with the big businesses, and if he finds on your loan application that you had a spot of trouble 12 years ago he'll turn you down.

George W. Bush is the somewhat dull-brained and smarmy guy who inherited the big car lot from his father. He doesn't care much for people but pretends to, because that's good business.

And Colin Powell is the minority-hire Chief-of-Police who smooths things out between the mayor and the newspaper people. He’s loyal and persuasive and knows who butters his bread.




It's an old joke, but worth repeating. The U.S. is only 4 men away from renewed greatness. Unfortunately, those men are George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.




To the extent that a country's people is gung ho "My country right or wrong," that nation is susceptible to making grave errors of judgment, especially in its foreign policy and actions abroad. The best example, as in many things, is Nazi Germany, but virtually all national leaders of powerful countries have the grand egos that are requisite to evil adventurism (to have gotten to the top in the first place) and without the restraints of a soberly discerning public, their most rapacious objectives might graduate from temptation to deployment.

Let’s do a “compare and contrast” between the U.S. and the old Soviet Union, where the government controlled the information and could lie at will. When they went to war in Afghanistan — a purely territorial, acquisitive venture -- the people were told it was a war of liberation. Only later, after many casualties and enormous cost, was the truth discovered. (The attendant demoralization that this incurred in the populace became a factor in the USSR’s fall.)

In the case of the U.S. going into Iraq, another instance of a superpower invading a smaller nation for stated reasons later found to be suspect (not to fully equate the two; there was no dangerous madman in Afghanistan) the American people had access to the full truth, if you include the Internet, the texts of U.N. deliberations and the work of independent journalists.

But these sources were overwhelmed by a White House barrage of misinformation, which the mainstream media went along with, and a population heavily distracted by a combination of their own survival, the pursuit of personal pleasures and a fixation on non-news entertainment.

The Democrats are in bed with special interest groups like the unions, teachers, lawyers and blacks and will actively promote (or block) legislation affecting these groups, in many cases contrary to what may be in the best national interest. Likewise for the Republicans, only with a seamier group, including the Pat Robertson Right, the gun lobby, Wall Street, oil, tobacco and financial companies, and most of the major (high pollution) manufacturers.





While satisfying to the hard-liners and election-year voters, the 3-Strikes policy has had two large downside effects. First, crowding prisons with non-lifer types, those guilty of marginal crimes who deserve prison time, but of a shorter duration. Second, the murders committed by two-time losers to evade being caught a third time.




Most of what you need to know about American politics and politicians can be deduced from the following. In 1992, after decades of Democratic control of the House of Representatives, the amount of federal money spent on districts with Democrats as their congressman was 310 million dollars more than in the Republican districts.

By 2001, 7 years after the crossover to a Republican House, Democratic districts were receiving 615 million less from the big-ladled federal budget than the in-charge GOP. This further proves the axiom that the Republicans are more expert (some would say cold-blooded or avaricious) when it comes to money-gouging activities.




Sure, the liberals overreached on welfare, busing, business and environmental regulations, criminal rights, and most of that PC stuff, but these were generally in response to legitimate problems and real issues of malfeasance.




There's an old expression, "It's a free country." This was never more than a half-truth but nowadays, between an overabundance of laws and regulations, perpetrated by a many-layered law enforcement structure, a litigious society (squeamish, whiny citizens and voracious lawyers) and the damn PC police, it's more like a quarter truth. And all this is currently being compounded by Ashcroft's Army and Poindexter's Police, all in the name of Homeland Security. (But that's mostly aimed at dark-skinned foreigners, at least for now.)




Question: What do the My Lai Massacre coverup (Viet Nam), the Iran-Contra coverup and the since-discredited Iraqi invasion justification have in common? Answer: The reports and testimony of one Colin Powell.
_________________________

For my untold millions of readers waiting breathlessly for my Reagan comments ...

At the time of Reagan's presidency, I disagreed with him on most issues and resented his phony-baloney persona and staged photo-op manner of conducting himself. (That last phrase is a misnomer as, in truth, he was conducted — primarily by Michael Deaver and his wife Nancy.)

They say ‘speak not ill of the dead,' which in this case will prove difficult, but I'll start by admitting that his "Tear down this wall" speech was perhaps the greatest presidential moment of post-WWII administrations, and did contribute, as did his stalwart actions, to the demise of the Soviet Union.

My paramount concern isn't the debate about the late President Reagan, but the current policies of the now President Bush, and how we should react to them. Perhaps the Reagan model can be useful in dissecting the anatomy of this president, especially considering that conservative partisans spent a full week spinning like crazy that GWB was the heir of RR, and cut from the same mold. This is a lot of (pardon my French) malarkey.

The only similarity — besides, OK, a basic simple-mindedness — is that they both cut taxes immediately upon attaining the White House. But Reagan, when shown the facts that his tax cuts were too much, and would overly burden the economy and cripple the next generation, raised income and payroll taxes. Pragmatically and responsibly.

Junior Bush, in practically the same circumstance, and with the knowledge that the U.S. was conducting war in Afghanistan, and about to conduct war (and occupation) in Iraq, pushed through even more tax cuts -- because that was the most important thing to his friends, family and rich/corporate clientele.

There are other compare and contrasts that can be done, and I'll plug those into this blog as we go along.




The upper middle class suburban population, which has quite a bit of clout politically, socially and economically, lives in a kind of fool's paradise, a pseudo-reality island of green lawns, sparkling malls, modern office buildings and pro-active schools. This is their world — and a good world it is, one that they deserve to enjoy — but they often (as in almost always) lose sight of the fact that, while they're living on their 30 square miles of well-kept civilization, not all that far from them is a city with 20 square miles of urban crime and grime, with vermin-infested housing, and crumbling schools.

What should they do about it? Well, that's hard to say, as the first step toward action has not even been taken, which is the acknowledgment that this problem — the deprivation, degradation and desperation of millions of fellow human souls — even exists as something of importance.




Take note, America. History is replete with the rise and fall of great nations who dominated the world, got rich and powerful, then fat and lazy and arrogant and decadent. Then were defeated by the next lean-and-hungry to come along.



I think that, after a heady few hundred years of freedom run rampant, that people in general are about to be re-coralled for the duration of human history by the forces of conservatism, repression and "order." (Hey, it was a good run, especially these past 50 years!)

If Bush/Ashcroft get re-elected, this curtailment will become an even quicker certainty. Plans underway at the Pentagon (under the aegis of that old gamester and anti-constitutionalist John Poindexter) will lead to a virtual repeal of the Fourth Amendment. Rebuffed earlier with a similar plan when news of it leaked out, these scary folks are back with a few similar plans with different names, including something called LifeLog which would catalog all Americans' credit card purchases, phone calls, e-mails and web-page visits into a giant database. (I don't think that "Kafkaesque" quite covers the legitimate paranoia this should engender.)

They even want the means to know what TV programs we all watch. (I kind of like this last idea, but only until we can determine who exactly is keeping Anna Nicole's TV career alive and beg them to stop.)

U.S. leaders compare themselves oh-so-favorably to how some dictators act and consider themselves very noble men -- for only being duplicitous and politically cut-throat, and not sending their deserving enemies to be beaten, tortured or shot like some of the other leaders they know. (What did you think they talk about when they visit Washington? The U.S. leaders gather around them and say things like, "Tell us again what you did to that guy who called you a no-good liar?")




"Leave no child behind." The Bush administration cutbacks and lack of program funding, coupled with the blow-back budget cuts at the state and county levels as a direct result, have left several million children behind. But people who were aware of Texas' so-called gains in this area under GWB could see that he was putting forth a boatload of rhetoric and statistical manipulation. By this blatant subterfuge, the most cynical portion of his campaign promises (by which he convinced the less astute that he was a "compassionate conservative"), he probably gained 5-10 million votes, enough to put him in office as the most powerful leader in the world.




How many of you know about the congressional "redistricting" that is constantly going on? Not many, I suspect, as it's considered a boring subject by most people. Both parties are guilty of it, but it's perpetrated by whatever party is ruling the roost.

What they do is get maps made showing numbers of registered Democrats and Republicans in each neighborhood, draw lines around those zones, then mix and match to get the desired results, even if it means district shapes are left horribly cockeyed. There are districts that have corridors only a few blocks wide and stretching for miles. (Is this what the framers of the constitution had in mind? Probably not.) If there's an opposition party stronghold, they jigsaw and truncate it in such a way as to weaken it's chances of voting that way again.

Greasy, shady stuff, but considered a legitimate exercise by the rascals whom we are oblivious enough to call our leaders.




We as a world have successfully passed into our third great epoch. The first was governed by the creed Safe Makes Right, during that long pre-dawn of human history when the best man was the alive man, the one who survived to hunt and eat and procreate another day.

Then, around thirty-thousand years ago, when people started forming into bigger groups, it became Might Makes Right, when they who controlled the biggest warriors with the biggest sticks, or most tanks, or accumulated nuclear throw weight, ruled over the others.

But in the last few decades a new dawn (or perhaps it's a sunset) has initiated, one in which Money Makes Right. Those individuals and corporations who have the most financial resources have the clout to make much, much more, and easily stifle competition and attempts at restriction from smaller entities, including governments, who in effect become their pawns.




Here's a question for you: If someone wanted to start a company that would kill over half-a-million people a year, most of them Americans, and give health problems to several million others, could they start this manufactory? Or, if already doing this, stay in business? (For the answer, refer to the previous piece.)




I write a lot of things about America, mostly of a disparaging nature, as I believe that this country has a serious set of negative trends -- commercialism, rampant irresponsibility, lack of business honesty, corrupted politicians, overly violent TV and movies, erosion of personal integrity, declining ability to communicate effectively, food pollution, etc. -- which only seem to be worsening.

But a fully objective look at the U.S. reveals that it is, for the world, the living, breathing tree of good and evil. We assisted Europe in getting back on its feet after WWII, and conducted a comparatively benevolent form of occupation in Germany and Japan. (But, OK, we firebombed Dresden and Tokyo and dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)

We've aided many Third World Countries to save lives during droughts and other emergencies, donated tons of grain, built bridges and schools, etc., but then we hooked them on bad food and cigarettes. Our State Department, CIA and military have a horribly mixed record of supporting both freedom and tyranny, depending on what we perceive to be in our "best national interest."

People around the world who are coming in contact with Americans may be meeting missionaries or educators or happy, well-heeled vacationers, or someone looking to exploit the local populace with a high-pollution factory.

Or even within our own borders, a person can choose to live a life of pure asceticism, devoted entirely to spiritual growth, and find places and people to support that lifestyle. Or they can conduct themselves in quite the opposite manner and live in abject degeneracy, suffused with alcohol and drug abuse, and find plenty of easy access to that sort of life as well.

Born of the seed of freedom: the tree of good and evil. Pick your fruit and take a bite.
________________________________________________________________

6-14-04 (Flag Day)

Liberals and conservatives in the U.S. are like two 4-engine planes that each have one engine out. This doesn't stop them from flying, but each side, instead of fixing their broken engine, spends its energy criticizing the broken engine of the other.




The fact that any of the Clinton lynch mob in Congress are still in office, let alone in positions of increased power, is a disgrace and a hard slap to the face of good governance. This hyper- partisan pack of jackals practically crashed the country trying to impeach the man -- for a ludicrously shabby non-reason, and against the obvious wishes of the majority of Americans. During the whole sorry episode the rest of the world could only shake their heads at the foolish American spectacle.




No candidate for president who doesn't vow to expose, fine and close corporate offshore tax dodges should be taken seriously. Enron had well over a hundred of these set up, while writing here-ya-go big checks to dozens of politicians, mostly Republicans, and mostly George W. Bush.

These thinly-veiled deceptions (the company doesn't actually move to the Caribbean) rob the U.S. Treasury of an estimated 60-70 billion dollars annually, money that the rest of us have to pony up.




From the What-If Department (Or, more accurately, the Dangerous Thoughts Department): Imagine what could occur if the 50% of eligible voters who don't vote were activated somehow to partake in the electoral process. Even if only 50% of them voted, they would constitute a larger number than either the D's or the R's. But who are these people? For starters, it must be pointed out that only 9% of the 18-25 group voted. As for the rest, for the most part they are the unemployed and the working poor, but also include a segment of people intelligent enough to have become cynical about politics. These are, by-and-large, the individuals who have been the most jobbed by the unholy alliances of this country, from the politicians and CEOs to the doctors and lawyers. Or else people who know how the levers of power work, and that corruption and cronyism have replaced conscience and constructivism as guiding principles of the major parties.

Who or what could activate this sleeping giant? If any latter-day pied piper has the answer to that, and can effectuate such a thing, the result would be a historic sea change for this country.




After all the promises and posturing of the politicians, all the elucidations and elections, all the sanctimonious mouthing about freedom and prosperity and responsibility, it has become abundantly clear that a shell game of gargantuan proportions has been perpetrated on us the people.

The power-tripping 1% of this nation, whether they be corporate fat cats, political bigwigs, or blueblooded aristocracy, has established a system of un-checks and un-balances which is very much to their liking, i.e., the rich are getting richer at an increasingly high pace while the rest of us are struggling to stay even. Where were the majority of the constitutionally empowered populace while all this has been going on? Apparently distracted from their citizenly duties by shiny objects, bells and whistles -- their TVs, computers, super-phones, stereos, cars and SUVs.

Fun Fact. The current U.S. defense budget is 396 billion dollars. The defense budget of those countries who are ranked 2nd to 21st in military spending totals 393 billion.




When the Bushies were making their promises and pronouncements about getting in and getting out of Iraq, I was hooting in disbelief. Jiminy Christmas, we're still in Germany, Japan and Korea with 150,000 troops, over 50 years later!




A congressman's work keeps him on the floor of the House a few hours a day. But far more time is spent with lobbyists, usually parked over an expensive meal. Most representatives in Washington have a life filled by meals and drinks and corporate “accessing,” followed by meals and drinks and more corporate accessing, then back to the Capitol Building for a vote on something (often something that will please their sponsors) and a few fund-raising phone calls, followed by a return to a restaurant to meet some more fat cats.

Where does the public interest fit into all this? The answer is barely at all, shunted to the side while our so-called representatives line their pockets with campaign cash and their bellies with free food and booze.




The fact that any of the Clinton lynch mob in Congress are still in office, let alone in positions of increased power, is a disgrace and a hard slap to the face of good governance. This hyper-partisan pack of jackals practically crashed the country trying to impeach the man -- for a ludicrously shabby non-reason, and against the obvious wishes of the majority of Americans. During the whole sorry episode the rest of the world could only shake their heads at the foolish American spectacle.




No candidate for president who doesn't vow to expose, fine and close corporate offshore tax dodges should be taken seriously. Enron had well over a hundred of these set up, while writing here-ya-go big checks to dozens of politicians, mostly Republicans, and mostly George W. Bush.

These thinly-veiled deceptions (the company doesn't actually move to the Caribbean) rob the U.S. Treasury of an estimated 60-70 billion dollars annually, money that the rest of us have to pony up.
_______________________________________________________________________

Call this the story of The Bad Shepherds. What can one say about a country’s leaders when they haven’t adequately protected the citizens under their care from corporate predators? From the tobacco companies that have addicted 30% of its citizens -- and millions more in their early graves? From the alcohol industry, which ruins countless lives in its lust for profits? From the many-tentacled food, snack, soft drink and fast food industries, which have "shaped" this country into one in which over 60% are overweight and eating their way into a hospital? From the pharmaceutical companies that are successfully achieving their agenda of pushing pills on millions of children? From the gun merchants, who won’t be satisfied until every 17-year-old in the country is packing? From the television purveyors, a marketing machine for everything unhealthy, be it morally or physically?

The sad fact is that our shepherds, our so-called leaders who have been entrusted with the public welfare, have been well-paid to not intervene forcefully in these fleecings. Almost without exception these individuals (and you can include the top persons in the regulatory agencies), live a lot higher on the hog after their tenure than they did when they entered “public service.”




The general mood among European people these days is very anti-Bush/anti-U.S., especially regarding our actions in Iraq, our general unilaterism, American support for what’s perceived as Israel’s bullyism, the U.S.’s opposition to the World Court, and our environmental intransigence. Add to this our continued massive export of unhealthy food, cigarettes, and trash entertainment, and one can see where the Europeans (who’ve been around the block many, many times) are getting their anti-American attitude.




Fun Fact. The U.S., with 5% of the world's population, has 25% of the planet's prison population. (Maybe the police are just lazy in those other countries.)




After decades of caterwauling (i.e., bitching and badmouthing) by the Republicans about how the Democrats were big profligate spenders and couldn’t balance the budget, etc., lo and behold the Republicans get control of the presidency and the House of Representatives and immediately turn a projected four trillion dollar surplus in the next decade into a projected five trillion (and counting) deficit.




This red-white-and-blue waving nation has become Number One (Way Number One) in murders, number of guns, rape, illegitimate births, drug addiction, alcoholism, divorce, abortion, child abuse, child sexual molestation, suicide, venereal disease and every other gauge of moral degeneracy that can be cited. (Also, Number One in denial that anything is seriously wrong.)

Before long, it will just be the military power that we excel at -- and with progressively fewer friends in the world, we'll surely need it.




It may be fifteen or twenty years away, but America is sailing toward a gigantic iceberg -- fiscal suicide, ecological disaster and unparalleled social unrest. And so we sail, the CEOs at the wheel, the politicians smiling at the passengers, the entertainment industry playing the music, and the so-called journalists re-arranging the deck chairs.

The first step in not hitting the iceberg is knowing that it’s there, but these mislabeled leaders are so caught up in their own egos and materialistic success that there’s little chance of them steering the ship in a different direction.




All romantic versions of history aside, most popular uprisings against the established order in the past 3000 years have been squashed, and most of the leaders of such protest movements tortured and/or killed. In modern-day America, protesters and anti-government types are just ignored by the media, shunned by polite society and written up in detailed FBI files. (OK, I suppose that’s some progress.)




Almost fifty million Americans (including yours truly) without health insurance is a national shame -- all the more so considering that most of the other industrialized nations have this problem covered, and compounded by the fact that U.S. healthcare costs have become obscenely expensive. And yet, the Bush Administration and the country at large remains shamelessly blasé about it all.




Possibly the biggest all-but-uncommented-on (at least in the U.S.) scandal in the world is that in dozens of countries a small oligarchy controls all the wealth and power. In many of these nations, concentrated in Arabia and Africa but also found in Asia and South America, there is a plentitude of oil or some other natural resource that could allow for a reasonably high standard of living for everyone. Instead, less than 5% greedily gobble up the income and mercilessly punish those who resist the shackles of their rulership. (With almost no exceptions, the U.S. is allied with these countries, and invite their leaders over for State Dinners and tours of Washington.)




Did I dream this? I fell asleep in front of the TV again so I'm not really sure. A spokesman for the Bush Administration was explaining the budget cuts which would impact hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged children. "These are poor kids, they're not important. Hell, most of them ain't even white. Let me show you what is truly important, and why this administration is committed to tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."

On the screen appears a women in a huge walk-in closet filled with hundreds of dresses and pairs of shoes. She starts pulling new things out of Gucci and Versace bags, showing them to the camera. Then the video switches to a man in a large garage filled with cars, some antique, some newer models. He's standing beside a brand new Rolls-Royce, and says something to the effect of how he's paying 150 thousand less on his taxes this year, and thought he'd "reward" himself with a new toy, “and a mink stole for the missus.”




The vast majority of Americans don’t understand why most of the world resents or hates us. A large segment of our society is composed of middle class folks who are doing a good job of being upstanding church-going people. Their houses are lemony fresh, their bodies are zestfully clean, they bake great cookies, they give money to Jerry’s kids and occasionally an earthquake relief fund. And they teach their children to be nice to everyone, even the dark-faced ones.

In their own minds, America is a kind of utopia, and they can’t comprehaend why so much of the rest of the world is against us. Their comprehension would be improved if they could transport themselves into the life of someone in a Third World country and see what America means to them.

America is the place where the factories along the river came from, the factories that make it impossible anymore to drink from that river or fish from that river. The good old U.S.A. is the place where the cigarettes come from that so many people in that person’s family and town are now addicted to (and are spending upwards of 10% of their meager income on). America is where the pornographic magazines and videos are made that have the young (and some of the older) males in a tizzy. It’s also the source of the shoot-‘em-up action movies that have created a market for the kids buying plastic guns and rifles -- also made in the U.S.A. And America is the backer of their repressive government which deals harshly with those who seek to have fair elections in their country.

So, yes, I’m quite sure that they don’t care that your lawn is perfectly manicured and edged, or that you haven’t missed a PTA meeting since 1997, or that your little Sally was recently Citizen of the Month at her school.