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What has happened to this country…
This song and video pretty much nails the American malaise. It is a little dated as Bush is the president, but the sentiments still work.
I have several disappointments with Obama, one of the biggest is that he has not gotten us out of these wars. Another is that he seems to be in the pocket of the korporate overlords.
Click here to share: Bernie Sanders’ Guide to Corporate Freeloaders on Facebook
The link below is a page on the whitehouse.gov website that will calculate where
your tax dollars go based on what you have paid in or some common income levels. I found it very interesting and informative to see how my tax bill is divided up.
Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt
I think we need to quit our bellyaching about Foreign Aid and a bunch of other smaller programs. Their bite on the Federal budget is minimal.
Below is a link to a somewhat pessimistic article about the tax calculator form Slate.com
Can I Get a Receipt for That? An idealistic—and probably hopeless—plan to educate Americans about the budget by sending them itemized “tax receipts.
I am not alone in thinking Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing…
“Tragically, Obama’s lasting legacy will have been to create a wave of cynicism and disillusionment and to have squandered a genuine opportunity for progressive social change.” ~~ Harold Jacobs:
I got what I expected from Bush so I will not claim disappointment. I had some small degree of hope for Obama. Continue reading “Obama the Betrayer”
Here is a link to an article that details how our schools are being taken over by korporations for purpose of creating commodity style workers. It sounds like a conspiratorial type idea, but… I don’t know if we have a bunch of corporate types in a back room planning this, but the effect is the same. And I believe real. Korporations want compliant workers. Besides lower wages, I think part of the rush to H1-B workers and off-shoring was to get a more compliant workforce. My experience, having worked with a multitude of H1-Bs, is that they do not buck the system and accept whatever is dealt out. Korporations 1, workers 0.
The link: Our Public Schools Are Churning Out Drones for the Corporate State
For whatever reason there seems to be a head long rush to divide us into a classed society. A rush to divide us into a society of the educated and the poorly educated. Education does not seem to be valued any more for the sake of knowledge, but only for what it can do for you career-wise. Most of the Meta values I am aware of are not derived from the korporate workplace.
This two class society scares me in another way. For a democracy to really work well, it is better to have an educated population. To have a population that is not influenced by every Glenn Beck that comes along. A population devoted to the NFL and reality shows, is not going worry too much about state of the nation until it is too late.
Most of my adult life I have worked for large korporations that include several Fortune 500 companies. While I do not think I am exceptional or different, I have always chafed in these places. There is something about being stuck in a little gray cube 8 hours a day that is not conducive to the soul’s health. The folks that run these companies know that. So the question becomes how do we keep the work force under control, and with the illusion that this is what life is all about? They obviously think the answer is to hijack the educational system. With control of the education system the values and skills that benefit the korporations can be instilled early and often. They are well on the way to doing that. Continue reading “Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools”
This one of the many things that float around the Internet. It may have been meant to be funny, informative or both. It was sent to me as Texas translations of Californiaese. I think it works very nicely to expain the difference between Red states and Blue states.
Enjoy.
| Blue States | Red States |
|---|---|
| Arsenal of Weapons | Gun Collection |
| Delicate Wetlands | Swamp |
| Undocumented Worker | Illegal Alien |
| Cruelty-Free Materials | Synthetic Fiber |
| Assault and Battery | Attitude Adjustment |
| Heavily Armed | Well-protected |
| Narrow-minded | Righteous |
| Taxes or Your Fair Share | Coerced Theft |
| Commonsense Gun Control | Gun Confiscation Plot |
| Illegal Hazardous Explosives | Fireworks or Stump Removal |
| Nonviable Tissue Mass | Unborn Baby |
| Equal Access to Opportunity | Socialism |
| Multicultural Community | High Crime Area |
| Fairness or Social Progress | Marxism |
| Upper Class or “The Rich” | Self-Employed |
| Progressive, Change | Big Government Scheme |
| Sniper Rifle | Scoped Deer Rifle |
| Investment For the Future | Higher Taxes |
| Healthcare Reform | Socialized Medicine |
| Extremist, Judgmental, or Hater | Conservative |
| Truants | Homeschoolers |
| High Capacity Magazine | Standard Capacity Magazine |
| Religious Zealot | Church-going |
| Reintroduced Wolves | Sheep and Elk Killers |
| Fair Trade Coffee | Overpriced Yuppie Coffee |
| Exploiters or “The Rich” | Employed or Land Owner |
| The Gun Lobby | NRA Members |
| Assault Weapon | Semi-Auto (Grandpa’s M1 Carbine) |
| Fiscal Stimulus | New Taxes and Higher Taxes |
| Same Sex Marriage | Legalized Perversion |
|
Overseas Contingency Operation
|
War
|
| Mandated Eco-Friendly Lighting | Chinese Mercury-Laden Light Bulbs |
|
Global Warming or Climate Change
|
Weather & it ain’t rainin?
|
|
General Welfare of Americans
|
Gov’t Hand-outs at Taxpayers? Expense
|
|
Outdated History
|
Constitution & Declaration of Independence
|
” Sadly, the foot soldiers of Conservatism do not understand that they are winning a Pyrrhic victory, one which indicates a deep and systemic rot in this country, as opposed to a triumph of ideas and values that can lead us through the decline of empire and towards a brave new future.” — From article below
It has long been very perplexing to me why blue collar workers and the poor would support Republican/Tea Party/Conservative values and positions. Apparently, I am not the only one that feels this. I have not phased it quite so eloquently, saying they were “shooting themselves in the foot”, as opposed to calling it a Pyrrhic victory, but same thought.
The mega corporations do not care about America anymore. Profit is their god, and the planet has become open with all the Free Trade agreements. A dollar made in Cambodia is the same as a dollar made in Flagstaff, as far as they are concerned. I have no idea what the Tea Party wants except the demise of our government and thus our country.
What is that old Irish curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Interesting are these times, but they are also very sad.
Link to an article about how America has become more conservative.
Link is no longer valid.
More conversation about the wealth gap in this country.
From the referenced article, “Michael Moore joined the demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin on March 6, and mentioned that the 400 richest Americans have more money than all of their 155,000,000 fellow citizens at the bottom of the pyramid combined.” As much as I dislike Michael Moore personally, I have to agree with his positions on many things.
Here is another way to think about this number. The current USA population is 311,000,000 more or less. Half of that is pretty close to 155,000,000. So 400 people have as much wealth as 1/2 of the total US population. Mind boggling.
400 = 155,000,000. I started to quip, “in what universe”. I then realized it is in our universe.
This is one of most dramatic demonstrations of that concept I have seen. You have to strain hard to see the white dot that represents the rich among the sea of “commoners”. Call me a socialist, but nobody needs or should be that rich. I’m back on the one pie analogy. In order to have an over sized piece of pie you have to take some from someone else’s piece of pie. Or in this case a bunch of someones.
Link was not longer valid….sorry
What really slays me is that our politicians seem to be on a tear to make these folks richer. Call me old school, but I firmly believe that to whom that more is given, more is expected.
Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days. In this day of union busting, growing wealth gap, and some say outright class warfare, maybe we need to be reminded of Woody’s words. This is land is for all of us, just not a few, and certainly not the corporations that seem to have hijacked our government.
By the way, the gal in the middle of the 3 women singing back up is Moncia Taylor who I do a website for…check it it out.
Enjoy!
Mauritius is an island nation off the west coast of Africa. Up until 1968, it was a colony of Great Britain. Chaos and 
poverty were predicted for post independence, but that did not happen. Quite the opposite. It is a wonderful case study in what can happen if you forgo maintaining the gap between rich and poor, and stop wasting money on military.
Every time I think of the senseless, unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think of how that money could have been put to good social use in this country or other countries. I have no idea what we bought for our blood and treasure.
Below is the link to an article at Slate.com about this little country. Is is short, quick read and gives a little fodder for thought.
