Monday, May 16, 2016
MILITARY SPENDING A NATIONAL CANCER AND DECEPTION IN DC
The US military budget is way over the top. We spend more for so called "defense" than any other nation on earth. And our "defense" expenditures are growing like a cancer enlarging and metastasizing so rapidly, just the cost of servicing the debt alone will consume its host. But the American people would never know. Republican and most Democrat members of Congress in Washington, the Pentagon, and the military prefer to deceive the public regarding our true spending in this category. Indeed, this year the Republican and Democrat candidates for President all continue to call for a laughable EXPANSION of military spending, while simultaneously decry the (paltry) spending on our nation's infrastructure, and the health and welfare of its citizenry. One good reason for this situation is the lack of understanding on the part of the citizenry directly related to a very misleading and commonly displayed pie graph, called the "US Federal Budget for 2015"!
In our 10th grade math class, our good and wise mathematics teacher, Mr. Wilson, cautioned us about misuse of statistical data. He often emphasized how very easy it was to manipulate numbers to make a graph twist the truth. I am sure our math teach would just cringe over the very widely published 2015 US Federal Spending Pie Graph. It appears so informative, is easy to read, colorful and attractive. However, it is grossly misleading. I would call it an outright lie...a criminal distortion of how this nation actually spends the tax dollar of its hard working citizenry.
This misleading graph presents the right side of a large colorful circle with two big "pie cut outs", labeled "Social Security" and "Health Care". Social Security is represaented as the largest, at 24%, while Healthcare accounts for 23% . Those two "pie pieces" represent almost half of the total (or 47%) on one side of the circle. They take up just about all of the right hand side of the graph. The left hand side has smaller categories of pie, like the cuts on a pizza you might make for the little kids of a group. On this side of the circle you will find "defense" spending. It is represented as a measly slice representing only 16% of the total. The overall impression the graph leaves its observer is that our leaders in Washington apparently have crafted a budget in which the the welfare of our citizens is paramount. It attempts to portray our nation, one which spends more than any other in the world on so called "defense", rather as a cuddly, socially responsive, Nordic European, peace-loving, home-grooming nation which cares so much about the health and welfare of its citizenry that it spends half of its tax income annually on healthcare and social benefits. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The real cost of military related spending is very different. Yes, the Defense Department has a 2015 budget of about $610 billion, (that is about 16% of our budget) but that is only about HALF of what is actually spent on military hardware, personnel and military related debt service. The actual total costs of our military is more than $1.2 trillion dollars annually. That is nearly a full ONE THIRD of our budget and the largest chunk out of our budget. That is something the Washington crowd would rather not have you know.
Those pie-graph artists in Washington know how to obscure the facts. Mr. Wilson would have loved to have been able to use them as an example of what NOT to do with a pie graph if you wanted to actually represent the truth. Those in Washington are more interested in deception. They would prefer the US citizen does not know how we really spend our hard won tax dollars.
The pie graph makers took a good half of the "defense related" costs AND SPREAD THEM OUT among other budget categories to obscure the facts.
The pie graph category "Defense" does NOT include:
1.Service on Debt Defense Related Interest on Loans (remember those Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars we fought and payed for "on the cuff".) Add in $400 billion dollars annually for this component to our "defense spending".
2. Veteran's Affairs. Add about $180 billion to the Defense budget to pay for the needs of veterans who served in our wars, of those receiving care related to their grievous wounds and the care and welfare of those that those who fell in battle left behind. The following all have defense related activities which are misleadingly spread over into other categories:
3. State Department. Defense Related Activities 4. Homeland Security Defense related /activities 5. Energy Department Defense Related Activities (those atomic bombs need to be cared for too)
A fair appraisal of the the costs of the military component indicates that were we to add up all of these costs, our total, real world, so called "defense" expenditures to taxpayers is closer to two times, or one hundred percent greater than what is indicated in the misleading US Spending Pie Graph, or about $1.2 trillion dollars!
It is noteworthy to underscore the fact that the interest on defense related loans which cost us now about $400 billion annually is more than we spend on the Energy Department, State Department. Homeland Security and Federal Defense Related Law Enforcement.
In fact just to service the debt on past military expenditures and adventures abroad, (Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya) and the veterans affairs costs related to those past unwise adventures now amount to almost $580 billion or very close to the misleading DIRECT DEFENSE COSTS ($610 billion) the Defense Department spends annually.
That is the amount we spend each year out of the annual income of about $3.9 trillion dollars in tax and other revenues. We spend more than 30% of our income....Military spending is the biggest component of our budget.
The decision to spend so prolifically on military has its consequences. With a good third cut out of the budget for military expenses, the remaining two-thirds is just not enough for the excellent schools, health care, infrastructure, and broadband that other nations of our wealth level offer to their citizens.
When we ask why our nation's bridges, roads, tunnels, railroads, broadband, and all its infrastructure is crumbling into Third World levels of decay, and our citizens live shorter, more disease ridden lives than other nations of our wealth you can look toward the over the top, bloated defense budget and the purposeful misrepresentation of our actual spending preferences by the Washington crowd and their enablers in the pie graph publishing house.
Friday, May 13, 2016
PAUL RYAN, GENERAL WITH NO ARMY
Paul Ryan Conductor with no Orchestra, General with no Army!
Paul Ryan can't seem to get the message...insulated as he is within the Beltway--that his Ayn Randian pseudo-philosophy and its out-dated economic and government policies have been, post Donald Trump, soundly rejected by the "army" and "orchestra" . Ryan, were he not so blinded by hubris, arrogance and gross misperceptions of his own importance, needs only to look at the results of the recent nomination elections to understand why he is now seen by the rest of the nation as a lonely orchestra conductor, pathetically waving a limp baton at empty chairs and idled musical instruments.
Mr. Ryan has too long bowed before the monied elites in their the gilt-covered halls, faithfully making obeisance to the demands of the Washington mega-donor class while ignoring the needs of the masses of his hard-working fellow Americans. Ryan curried favor and accepted cash from the rich to support polices which cut taxes and spending, ignored our wide open borders, pursued costly foreign adventurism, spent blood and treasure on world-wide militarism, and encouraged job- destroying hyper free-trade agreements. These ideas and polices have all been wisely and soundly rejected by the average working men and women who ARE the "Republican Party". These average folks have in 2016 turned their backs on the present GOP leadership and its elite favoring policies. They have wisely voted "NO!" to Mr. Ryan's brand of Republicanism all across this nation, north and south, east and west and in the heartland too. Mr. Trump's successes have illustrated this fact over and over in a decisive way all through the nomination elections...and most damming and decisively in the last few weeks when he racked up massive wins over his Ryan-like conservative opponents in New York and Indiana. Mr. Ryan may be wearing general's stars and gold epaulette's but he has no army to command.
Kudos to "the Donald" for slaying the evil dragons of the elites, the neocons, and the moneybags in Washington. Now let us pray he never forgets who sent him there.
Paul Ryan can't seem to get the message...insulated as he is within the Beltway--that his Ayn Randian pseudo-philosophy and its out-dated economic and government policies have been, post Donald Trump, soundly rejected by the "army" and "orchestra" . Ryan, were he not so blinded by hubris, arrogance and gross misperceptions of his own importance, needs only to look at the results of the recent nomination elections to understand why he is now seen by the rest of the nation as a lonely orchestra conductor, pathetically waving a limp baton at empty chairs and idled musical instruments.
Mr. Ryan has too long bowed before the monied elites in their the gilt-covered halls, faithfully making obeisance to the demands of the Washington mega-donor class while ignoring the needs of the masses of his hard-working fellow Americans. Ryan curried favor and accepted cash from the rich to support polices which cut taxes and spending, ignored our wide open borders, pursued costly foreign adventurism, spent blood and treasure on world-wide militarism, and encouraged job- destroying hyper free-trade agreements. These ideas and polices have all been wisely and soundly rejected by the average working men and women who ARE the "Republican Party". These average folks have in 2016 turned their backs on the present GOP leadership and its elite favoring policies. They have wisely voted "NO!" to Mr. Ryan's brand of Republicanism all across this nation, north and south, east and west and in the heartland too. Mr. Trump's successes have illustrated this fact over and over in a decisive way all through the nomination elections...and most damming and decisively in the last few weeks when he racked up massive wins over his Ryan-like conservative opponents in New York and Indiana. Mr. Ryan may be wearing general's stars and gold epaulette's but he has no army to command.
Kudos to "the Donald" for slaying the evil dragons of the elites, the neocons, and the moneybags in Washington. Now let us pray he never forgets who sent him there.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Alberta Wild Fires, Global Warming, and Gas Prices--Ironic
It's Ironic! Global warming caused by tar sand oil extraction, generates freak weather in Alberta, which results in forest fires that shut down tar sand oil extraction in region--a major source of global warming.
Not everyone appreciates the irony regarding the devastating Alberta forest fires which have shut down the Athabaskan oil companies which extract synthetic petroleum from the gooey black tar sands of the region. But it is worth understanding the situation, since it affects us all so intimately.
Forest fires in northern Alberta have been raging for days now through a region of taiga spruce and hemlock forests normally not affected by the scourge of wildfires, more common in more southern and broadleaf forests. But the massive amounts of carbon dioxide modern man has dumped into the atmosphere, as a result of burning fossil fuels, (like tar sand oil) have changed all that.
Winters have been unusually warm and dry in Alberta recently. And for weeks now a deep and uncharacteristic low pressure center in the northern territories of western Canada, most probably a meteorological result of global warming, has been drawing warm, dry air to the north. The source of air for this low Pressure center, comes in over the northern Rockies and then descends down into central and northern Alberta. This is a region where the main industry is extracting oil from tar sands. As these moountain winds sink over the Northen Rockies the air heats and dries up (a result of orographic pressure changes). These dry winds flow north through central Alberta as a strong and hot southerly breeze. Somewhere along the course of its flow, a smoldering campfire, a tossed cigarette butt, or lightning strike must have ignited dry brush which the steady winds fanned into a great conflagration. The outbreak of wild fire may be one of the most expensive "natural" disaster in Canadian history. The flames have consumed over 600 square miles of forest, thousands of homes, in and around the regional city of Fort McMurry. Nearly 100,000 resident of this region have fled the area. Many of them are workers at the several tar-sand extraction open-pit mines in the region. Most of these industries were closed or operations curtailed due the evacuation of personnel or the threat of being overrun by fire.
The wildfires are claimed to have cut back Canadian daily oil production by about 20%, or roughly about 800,000 barrels of oil a day. That amount, nearly a million barrels of oil, has had a significant affect on oil and gas prices at the local pumps here in the USA. The world consumes about 95 million bbl of oil a day. But up to just recently, just before the Alberta wild fire disaster, global producers have been generating about 96 million bbl per day. That slight glut of oil ( a million bbl per day) as kept the prices of oil and gasoline too down in this region at about two dollars a gallon. But the Canadian wild fires have put a dent in the supply. With consumption and production now about nearly equal, the sale of oil futures have spiked up from under $40 dollars a barrel to more than $44 dollars per barrel. In turn the price of gasoline at the American pumps has climbed too, reaching close to $2.50 in some localities.
So human induced climate change, or what I call "climatic intensification", is having its UNHAPPY effects in northern Canada, and on our pocketbooks too.
Not everyone appreciates the irony regarding the devastating Alberta forest fires which have shut down the Athabaskan oil companies which extract synthetic petroleum from the gooey black tar sands of the region. But it is worth understanding the situation, since it affects us all so intimately.
Forest fires in northern Alberta have been raging for days now through a region of taiga spruce and hemlock forests normally not affected by the scourge of wildfires, more common in more southern and broadleaf forests. But the massive amounts of carbon dioxide modern man has dumped into the atmosphere, as a result of burning fossil fuels, (like tar sand oil) have changed all that.
Winters have been unusually warm and dry in Alberta recently. And for weeks now a deep and uncharacteristic low pressure center in the northern territories of western Canada, most probably a meteorological result of global warming, has been drawing warm, dry air to the north. The source of air for this low Pressure center, comes in over the northern Rockies and then descends down into central and northern Alberta. This is a region where the main industry is extracting oil from tar sands. As these moountain winds sink over the Northen Rockies the air heats and dries up (a result of orographic pressure changes). These dry winds flow north through central Alberta as a strong and hot southerly breeze. Somewhere along the course of its flow, a smoldering campfire, a tossed cigarette butt, or lightning strike must have ignited dry brush which the steady winds fanned into a great conflagration. The outbreak of wild fire may be one of the most expensive "natural" disaster in Canadian history. The flames have consumed over 600 square miles of forest, thousands of homes, in and around the regional city of Fort McMurry. Nearly 100,000 resident of this region have fled the area. Many of them are workers at the several tar-sand extraction open-pit mines in the region. Most of these industries were closed or operations curtailed due the evacuation of personnel or the threat of being overrun by fire.
The wildfires are claimed to have cut back Canadian daily oil production by about 20%, or roughly about 800,000 barrels of oil a day. That amount, nearly a million barrels of oil, has had a significant affect on oil and gas prices at the local pumps here in the USA. The world consumes about 95 million bbl of oil a day. But up to just recently, just before the Alberta wild fire disaster, global producers have been generating about 96 million bbl per day. That slight glut of oil ( a million bbl per day) as kept the prices of oil and gasoline too down in this region at about two dollars a gallon. But the Canadian wild fires have put a dent in the supply. With consumption and production now about nearly equal, the sale of oil futures have spiked up from under $40 dollars a barrel to more than $44 dollars per barrel. In turn the price of gasoline at the American pumps has climbed too, reaching close to $2.50 in some localities.
So human induced climate change, or what I call "climatic intensification", is having its UNHAPPY effects in northern Canada, and on our pocketbooks too.
Monday, April 4, 2016
APOLOGIA PRO VITA TRUMP
Why support Trump?
American voters are used to going to the polls to pull a lever for a compromise. Too often we are faced with no real choice of policy change or alteration in the direction for our nation. We are forced to choose from among several less than ideal options. The American system is not a true democracy...or perhaps even a fair representative one. The recent circus-like events in both the Republican and Democrat nomination elections this season have exposed the ugly behind the scenes certainty of just how much our systems favors the super wealthy, the autocrats and oligarchs. Our founders did not favor us with a parliamentary system in which the voter has a better chance to elect a more representative government. So we often must just make do. This time, perhaps by lucky happenstance we do have actual options. Mr. Trump, though not an ideal candidate, still he provides us with a rare opportunity to change the course of government for the better.
How and why?
Trump is the non-politician that the founders may have envisioned as our representatives when they crafted our Constitution. He is perhaps the only candidate who actually has a record of achievement in the real world. He is demonstrably a successful businessman and multibillionaire. He has worked all his adult life at growing and managing a business empire. He comes with exceptional experience and skills in several areas which would stand him in good stead in both the Oval Office and in front of the TV cameras as a political leader.
Trump also "thinks out of the box". He sees problems as a businessman and has demonstrated a unique ability to craft novel solutions, unthinkable to Washington insiders. Our nation desperately needs such ability and expertise.
Most importantly,Trump gives us the opportunity to send a strong message to both parties that voters will no longer tolerate the massive and unwarranted influence of the mega donors in our elections and the evils of unlimited money in politics. Trump, who never fails to remind us that he is self-financing his campaign, is, as a result, not controlled by big money interests or the establishment types which are trained to beg for cash and take orders. He can and does "tell it like it is". He is the only one (along with Bernie Sanders) who can actually go to work in Washington for the average citizen, and give the middle finger to the Kochs, the Paul Singers and the Adelsons and their ilk, who in the past decades have had such a damaging effect on the political system and American policy, both foreign and domestic.
Trump, uncontrolled by the establishment and the megadonors, will place America, and the well being of the USA and it citizenry, in the forefront of his decision making. We can all agree that some "America First" thinking is needed in Washington. His foreign policy aims are to reduce our entanglements abroad. He will end our bloody, disastrous, expensive, self-defeating, neocon-inspired and supported adventures abroad in "unending wars" of the Middle East and elsewhere.
He sees NATO as useful but unfair to our citizens and a drain on our military and our economy. Why should the American taxpayer, who works harder, lives more frugally, and not as healthfully or as long as our German, Japanese and European allies, pay the lion's share for THIER defense expenses?
He favors renegotiating NAFTA and other trade agreements which have drained our nation of wealth and meaningful and well-paying jobs.
He favors strong border controls and limits on uncontrolled immigration which has held down middle class salaries and had devastating effects on jobs for middle and working class Americans.
He promises to "make America great again". That can only be accomplished, as Trump rightly states, by "bringing jobs back to America", and by revitalizing the middle class.
Cruz, the once "so called outsider", has somehow hypocritcally morphed into the new "establishment candidate". He is now the "Jeb Bush" candidate. Cruze along with Kasich, and Clinton would bring us only a return to the same old corrupt system of big money-megadonor-controlled, politics, foreign wars, and economic stagnation.
Think change, think of abandoning the disastrous policies of the the Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama-Bush regimes of the last decades. Unlike in recent past elections where voters could make only the meaningless choice between Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum, this fall Donald Trump is giving us a real choice---make use of it.
American voters are used to going to the polls to pull a lever for a compromise. Too often we are faced with no real choice of policy change or alteration in the direction for our nation. We are forced to choose from among several less than ideal options. The American system is not a true democracy...or perhaps even a fair representative one. The recent circus-like events in both the Republican and Democrat nomination elections this season have exposed the ugly behind the scenes certainty of just how much our systems favors the super wealthy, the autocrats and oligarchs. Our founders did not favor us with a parliamentary system in which the voter has a better chance to elect a more representative government. So we often must just make do. This time, perhaps by lucky happenstance we do have actual options. Mr. Trump, though not an ideal candidate, still he provides us with a rare opportunity to change the course of government for the better.
How and why?
Trump is the non-politician that the founders may have envisioned as our representatives when they crafted our Constitution. He is perhaps the only candidate who actually has a record of achievement in the real world. He is demonstrably a successful businessman and multibillionaire. He has worked all his adult life at growing and managing a business empire. He comes with exceptional experience and skills in several areas which would stand him in good stead in both the Oval Office and in front of the TV cameras as a political leader.
Trump also "thinks out of the box". He sees problems as a businessman and has demonstrated a unique ability to craft novel solutions, unthinkable to Washington insiders. Our nation desperately needs such ability and expertise.
Most importantly,Trump gives us the opportunity to send a strong message to both parties that voters will no longer tolerate the massive and unwarranted influence of the mega donors in our elections and the evils of unlimited money in politics. Trump, who never fails to remind us that he is self-financing his campaign, is, as a result, not controlled by big money interests or the establishment types which are trained to beg for cash and take orders. He can and does "tell it like it is". He is the only one (along with Bernie Sanders) who can actually go to work in Washington for the average citizen, and give the middle finger to the Kochs, the Paul Singers and the Adelsons and their ilk, who in the past decades have had such a damaging effect on the political system and American policy, both foreign and domestic.
Trump, uncontrolled by the establishment and the megadonors, will place America, and the well being of the USA and it citizenry, in the forefront of his decision making. We can all agree that some "America First" thinking is needed in Washington. His foreign policy aims are to reduce our entanglements abroad. He will end our bloody, disastrous, expensive, self-defeating, neocon-inspired and supported adventures abroad in "unending wars" of the Middle East and elsewhere.
He sees NATO as useful but unfair to our citizens and a drain on our military and our economy. Why should the American taxpayer, who works harder, lives more frugally, and not as healthfully or as long as our German, Japanese and European allies, pay the lion's share for THIER defense expenses?
He favors renegotiating NAFTA and other trade agreements which have drained our nation of wealth and meaningful and well-paying jobs.
He favors strong border controls and limits on uncontrolled immigration which has held down middle class salaries and had devastating effects on jobs for middle and working class Americans.
He promises to "make America great again". That can only be accomplished, as Trump rightly states, by "bringing jobs back to America", and by revitalizing the middle class.
Cruz, the once "so called outsider", has somehow hypocritcally morphed into the new "establishment candidate". He is now the "Jeb Bush" candidate. Cruze along with Kasich, and Clinton would bring us only a return to the same old corrupt system of big money-megadonor-controlled, politics, foreign wars, and economic stagnation.
Think change, think of abandoning the disastrous policies of the the Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama-Bush regimes of the last decades. Unlike in recent past elections where voters could make only the meaningless choice between Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum, this fall Donald Trump is giving us a real choice---make use of it.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
US:NO JOBS, NO $, NO DEMAND, NO INFLATION, NO YELLEN
At the end of April, Janet Yellen speaking, before the Economics Club of New York indicated that there would no Federal Bank rate hikes this year. She mentioned the stagnant global economy, flat lining commodities, and a strong dollar. There is no inflation to raise rates hikes to protect against. Her earlier rate hike was not necessary either.
Yellen has no worry about inflation! Far from it. Inflation is a measure of demand. Demand of people with money in their hands chasing after commodities, goods and services. There is no demand in our stagnant economy because money is scarce...as are good paying jobs for the vast majority of the workforce.
Also at the end of April we learned that the US economy produced a few more than 200,000 new jobs. That number, touted by the Obamians as a success sign, is unfortunately not quite enough to offset new recruits into the workforce each month (a workforce which continues to stagnate at one of its lowest levels of participation in decades). In fact, even government employment figures for those seeking work for the month inched back up to 5%...but of course that number does not tell the entire story of the partly employed, underemployed, and those who have given up seeking jobs.
With our present system of inequality in wealth and income...almost all economic growth goes to the few at the top. They are by definition very few....only one percent...Think of it. One percent of 300 or so million of this nation.. is 3 million. Three million wealthy,even very wealthy ones can not have much effect on the economy of the remaining 297 million who have seen only paltry increases or no increases in their incomes. This vast majority of US citizens, the remaining 297 million, are those, each of which have the small effect, but in total have a massive impact to stir the economy, increase demand and yes even cause a bit of inflation. The 99% need money in hand to increase demand....increase economic growth..and cause the inflation that Janet Yellen is ordered to control.
The question is how do we get that money down from the three million wealthy into the hands of the rest of us? Could it be that we might need government to raise minimum wage rates? Perhaps government must increase taxes on the super wealthy and redistribute that wealth downward. Perhaps government should increase entitlements, instead of cutting entitlements?
Our present system, which permits the wealthy to enjoy the benefits of their position, as well as control both the economy and the political agenda...seems to be such that we can simply not help ourselves.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
TRUMP APPEAL: FIGHTS BIG MONEY
MR. TRUMP'S APPEAL: UNTETHERED FROM THE BIG MONEY MACHINE. ITS THE MONEY!
Mr. Trump's campaign has unintentionally underscored and exposed the evil influences of big money donations on our political campaigns and the sinister effects it has on the way our government operates.
Donald Trump has garnered massive support during these 2016 Republican nomination elections. To date, Mr. Trump has out-voted, out-appealed and out-lasted all but one of his opponents, almost all of whom were highly experienced politicians, who were massively-financed and well connected politically or descended from established political dynasties. He has (almost) withstood all the many ambushes, and mine fields planted for him by his many enemies in the political establishment and the media, two groups who too often collude and closely support each other. The Donald remains the GOP front runner with nearly double the delegate strength of his closest competitor. Yet, the print and electronic media elites, the nation's top editors, TV talking heads, and the blogosphere pundits have all been at a loss to explain his popularity.
He appeals to "the racists, the anti-feminists, the under educated and ill informed," they claim. "He's a bully, a brute and a fascist..and worse", they rail, claiming that is why voters like him. He appeals to "the angry white men" in the population, they state. But all of these Trump voters could not all be ill-informed, women-hating, angry white men, and these proffered reasons simply can not explain his massive popularity, the enthusiasm of his supporters and his manifest success at the polls over wide geographic ranges of this nation and with a highly diverse demography.
What is Mr. Trump's real source of popularity? The primary answer is that unlike all of his competitors, this candidate is untethered from the GOP money machine and its failed ideology. Mr. Trump can speak his mind. He is free of ideas framed and controlled by the big donor class, the monied oligarchs of the party. These 400 or so super wealthy ideologues have for too long commandeered the party of Lincoln with lucre. For the last decades they have doled out funds to their favorites. They have controlled the pick of candidates, the message and the GOP's governing policies. Their power is based on their ability to provide campaign funds, and as importantly, it rests on the threat of withdrawal of financial support. And even more fearful is their ability to quickly shift cash from a uncooperative (independent, perhaps a patriotic ) candidate to a different, more compliant one. Oftentimes these powerful oligarchs can squash a politician's long career by financially supporting an opponent in a primary challenge. You see---It is the money! The pols are so scared they almost always do exactly as they are told.
Mr. Trump is in large part financing his own campaign. He is not controlled by the the monied elites. His message can thus stray from their prepared script. His message can actually serve the needs of a the wider American electorate. The prepared script and policy serves only the needs of the one-tenth-of-one percenters who control the message and messengers.
Where has Mr. Trump taken us with his free message? His stated goals are clearly more in tune with the vast majority of voters than those espoused by the controlled establishment candidates. The electorate has responded favorably to Mr. Trump and rejected the establishment types. One has only to examine the list and pedigree of the failed establishment darlings: such as Mssrs Walker, Rubio, and Bush, who mouthed their prepared talking points and went down in flames in front of the unhappy voters.
Mr. Trump has shined a much needed light on the failings of the GOP policies of the past...and its slavish attendance to the needs of only a small sliver of the electorate--the donor class-- the one percenters---the Singers, Koch brothers, the Adelsons--while the Washington elites abandoned the vast middle, the working classes, the small businessman, farmers and the independent voter. The strategy of throwing the dry crumbs from the political table to these millions of hard working, voting men and women in the form of wedge issues, like abortion, marriage regulations, flag waving, a "strong military", and phony trickle down economics issues etc. etc. while astutely toeing the line for the rich to cut taxes, cut entitlements, deregulate banks, maintain a porous border, expand free trade agreements, and finance military adventures abroad, all in support of big donor wishes. These domestic and foreign policies have backfired and the failings have been duly noted by voters. They know that the Bush- neocon adventures in Iraq were a disaster. They know that our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges and transportation system are crumbling about our ears. They see us deploy troops abroad, expand foreign bases, butt our noses into the affairs of nations far afield while our own people suffer with poor wages, non-existent or poor-paying jobs. They find their expensively educated children still living in their basements. And in face of the government bail out of wealthy Wall Streeters, they find they are no better off then they were thirty years ago. They are still paying dearly in gold and blood for the misguided policies of the GOP.
Yes, Mr. trump is correct! NATO should be reevaluated and we should not be asking the American taxpayer to foot the vast majority of that bill to succor foreign nations who can well afford to pay for their own defense. What purpose do all of those 900 military base serve abroad? Yes we must staunch the flow of illegals at our porous borders. Yes we must bring back jobs to American workers and prevent the flow of jobs offshore. Yes we need better, wiser deal making with our trading partners.
All these issues would not have been raised or placed into public debate without the unfettered speech by Donald Trump a candidate untethered from the political money machine.
The appeal of Mr. Trump? Do not defame and berate the electorate as racists and fascists. It is the Washington money machine that is the cause.
Mr. Trump's campaign has unintentionally underscored and exposed the evil influences of big money donations on our political campaigns and the sinister effects it has on the way our government operates.
Donald Trump has garnered massive support during these 2016 Republican nomination elections. To date, Mr. Trump has out-voted, out-appealed and out-lasted all but one of his opponents, almost all of whom were highly experienced politicians, who were massively-financed and well connected politically or descended from established political dynasties. He has (almost) withstood all the many ambushes, and mine fields planted for him by his many enemies in the political establishment and the media, two groups who too often collude and closely support each other. The Donald remains the GOP front runner with nearly double the delegate strength of his closest competitor. Yet, the print and electronic media elites, the nation's top editors, TV talking heads, and the blogosphere pundits have all been at a loss to explain his popularity.
He appeals to "the racists, the anti-feminists, the under educated and ill informed," they claim. "He's a bully, a brute and a fascist..and worse", they rail, claiming that is why voters like him. He appeals to "the angry white men" in the population, they state. But all of these Trump voters could not all be ill-informed, women-hating, angry white men, and these proffered reasons simply can not explain his massive popularity, the enthusiasm of his supporters and his manifest success at the polls over wide geographic ranges of this nation and with a highly diverse demography.
What is Mr. Trump's real source of popularity? The primary answer is that unlike all of his competitors, this candidate is untethered from the GOP money machine and its failed ideology. Mr. Trump can speak his mind. He is free of ideas framed and controlled by the big donor class, the monied oligarchs of the party. These 400 or so super wealthy ideologues have for too long commandeered the party of Lincoln with lucre. For the last decades they have doled out funds to their favorites. They have controlled the pick of candidates, the message and the GOP's governing policies. Their power is based on their ability to provide campaign funds, and as importantly, it rests on the threat of withdrawal of financial support. And even more fearful is their ability to quickly shift cash from a uncooperative (independent, perhaps a patriotic ) candidate to a different, more compliant one. Oftentimes these powerful oligarchs can squash a politician's long career by financially supporting an opponent in a primary challenge. You see---It is the money! The pols are so scared they almost always do exactly as they are told.
Mr. Trump is in large part financing his own campaign. He is not controlled by the the monied elites. His message can thus stray from their prepared script. His message can actually serve the needs of a the wider American electorate. The prepared script and policy serves only the needs of the one-tenth-of-one percenters who control the message and messengers.
Where has Mr. Trump taken us with his free message? His stated goals are clearly more in tune with the vast majority of voters than those espoused by the controlled establishment candidates. The electorate has responded favorably to Mr. Trump and rejected the establishment types. One has only to examine the list and pedigree of the failed establishment darlings: such as Mssrs Walker, Rubio, and Bush, who mouthed their prepared talking points and went down in flames in front of the unhappy voters.
Mr. Trump has shined a much needed light on the failings of the GOP policies of the past...and its slavish attendance to the needs of only a small sliver of the electorate--the donor class-- the one percenters---the Singers, Koch brothers, the Adelsons--while the Washington elites abandoned the vast middle, the working classes, the small businessman, farmers and the independent voter. The strategy of throwing the dry crumbs from the political table to these millions of hard working, voting men and women in the form of wedge issues, like abortion, marriage regulations, flag waving, a "strong military", and phony trickle down economics issues etc. etc. while astutely toeing the line for the rich to cut taxes, cut entitlements, deregulate banks, maintain a porous border, expand free trade agreements, and finance military adventures abroad, all in support of big donor wishes. These domestic and foreign policies have backfired and the failings have been duly noted by voters. They know that the Bush- neocon adventures in Iraq were a disaster. They know that our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges and transportation system are crumbling about our ears. They see us deploy troops abroad, expand foreign bases, butt our noses into the affairs of nations far afield while our own people suffer with poor wages, non-existent or poor-paying jobs. They find their expensively educated children still living in their basements. And in face of the government bail out of wealthy Wall Streeters, they find they are no better off then they were thirty years ago. They are still paying dearly in gold and blood for the misguided policies of the GOP.
Yes, Mr. trump is correct! NATO should be reevaluated and we should not be asking the American taxpayer to foot the vast majority of that bill to succor foreign nations who can well afford to pay for their own defense. What purpose do all of those 900 military base serve abroad? Yes we must staunch the flow of illegals at our porous borders. Yes we must bring back jobs to American workers and prevent the flow of jobs offshore. Yes we need better, wiser deal making with our trading partners.
All these issues would not have been raised or placed into public debate without the unfettered speech by Donald Trump a candidate untethered from the political money machine.
The appeal of Mr. Trump? Do not defame and berate the electorate as racists and fascists. It is the Washington money machine that is the cause.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
TRUMP ACCUSED BY NEOCONS AS SECURITY THREAT
TRUMP ACCUSED AS SECURITY THREAT (? TO ISRAEL?)
Donald Trump was attacked again by the neocons. This time is was Max Boot of Commentary magazine who penned a piece entitled: "Why Trump is a Security Threat". Boot, like the others at "Commentary", have a world view colored too deeply by their unwavering, knee jerk, allegiance to Israel to act as objective observers of US foreign policy. In light of the pain of the Holocaust, I respect and understand their position. But they can not be taken seriously when, as in this piece, they try to make judgments concerning the positions Americans take as a nation regarding our foreign policy, our military stature, our relation to NATO, our economy, and the best interests of the majority of tax paying, working people of this nation who find we can longer sanction, support or afford the overly aggressive foreign policy the neocons favor.
Viewed only by those who see the world through the pierced ear of Benjamin Netanyahu could Mr. Trump be seen as a "security threat". But that view should not overly concern an American voter, and is no recommendation for a commentator, or advisor to the US electorate or to its leaders. The Republican primary election voters have spoken out loudly with their enthusiastic support of the new, sensible, practical policies that Donald Trump has espoused.
The crew at Commentary and their neocon allies may not like what Trump has to say. As our late Supreme Court member, Antonin Scalia was fond of saying: "Get over it!"
Donald Trump was attacked again by the neocons. This time is was Max Boot of Commentary magazine who penned a piece entitled: "Why Trump is a Security Threat". Boot, like the others at "Commentary", have a world view colored too deeply by their unwavering, knee jerk, allegiance to Israel to act as objective observers of US foreign policy. In light of the pain of the Holocaust, I respect and understand their position. But they can not be taken seriously when, as in this piece, they try to make judgments concerning the positions Americans take as a nation regarding our foreign policy, our military stature, our relation to NATO, our economy, and the best interests of the majority of tax paying, working people of this nation who find we can longer sanction, support or afford the overly aggressive foreign policy the neocons favor.
Viewed only by those who see the world through the pierced ear of Benjamin Netanyahu could Mr. Trump be seen as a "security threat". But that view should not overly concern an American voter, and is no recommendation for a commentator, or advisor to the US electorate or to its leaders. The Republican primary election voters have spoken out loudly with their enthusiastic support of the new, sensible, practical policies that Donald Trump has espoused.
The crew at Commentary and their neocon allies may not like what Trump has to say. As our late Supreme Court member, Antonin Scalia was fond of saying: "Get over it!"
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