Our Government of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite

          As you know, I have been talking about this subject for a very long time now. You may even be growing tired of hearing about it—probably are. But I really hope not. This should mean so very much to you, your children, your grandchildren, and all who follow whom you love. As I think about it, even those you don’t. Really! Our very democracy is at stake.

          As we look back over our nation’s history since its founding, we have come a long way, and we have changed mightily. Notwithstanding the many similarities that remain just below the surface, there is little comparison of what we were then to what we are as a people and a nation today. We were born on a farm, an agrarian people, raised in the city during the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and graduated to the current age of technology in which we live, today. We have seen an agricultural revolution, an industrial revolution, a revolution in technology; and, continuing throughout, not the least of which included a civil war, and a political and social revolution.

One can argue the details; but, essentially, our country was born in an age of mercantilism at the advent of capitalism which has given us the highest standard of living in the history of the world. It has, also, given us some of the deepest and longest depressions along with abject misery. Today we are seeing that what it has given us on the one hand, it has taken away with the other—a rapidly increasing disparity between the very rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots, unemployment, poverty, and misery. As prophesied by Joseph A. Schumpeter in his book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, we are on the brink of seeing the self destruction of capitalism (just as we saw the self destruction of Socialism through Communism) and its evolution into an oligarchy of fascism—the death of democracy and our democratic republic. Those of you who are old enough surely remember Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini in the 1930’s and 40’s.

          Recently, PBS, The Public Broadcasting Service, an American broadcast television network, presented a program titled “The Roosevelts”, a commentary summarizing their history and that of our country from the beginning of the twentieth century through the end of World War II. It displays for all to see a picture of the rise in the Corporatocracy during the twentieth century and the great depression of the thirties. Before that, “tack on” the rise in the Corporatocracy in the eighteen hundreds and the following great depression of 1873. After that, “tack on” the rise again of the Corporatocracy in the last quarter of the twentieth century and the great recession of the first part of the twenty-first. In conjunction with that, take note of the great prosperity in this country during the fifties and sixties, the age of the middleclass, the greatest prosperity in the history of our nation, an age, relatively speaking, when the Corporatocracy was at a low point.

Now, look to the present. I ask you. With the Corporatocracy in control once again, where is the prosperity of the people now. I’ll tell you. It’s “down the drain”. The middle class is disappearing; the underclass is growing larger and larger, the top one percent has exploded, and we have millions of people (not on the books) unemployed, and many, men, women, and children homeless, sleeping in shelters, cars, under bridges, and on the streets while we walk around and over them every day. And where are the jobs? The answer is, they have been outsourced to slave labor overseas while many, too many, of the jobs that remain are priced at starvation wages. Just look at current welfare costs. Exclude corporate welfare, however, in your observation, as it is so great it obscures the welfare of the people.

          Am I opposed to business? No! Absolutely not! We need business. We need leaders. But we need them to serve the needs of man—to serve us. That is why man created business. That is why God created people with leadership abilities. We need business to serve. We need men (elected by the people) to lead. What we don’t need is for them to rule us. Service must be their priority—not profit. Profit is necessary. It is an expense of doing business (I have said this before) just like the rent or the electric light bill, wages, insurance, etc. The good of the nation, the good of the people—must be the objective of all. Rape and pillage of the people through theft and speculation by the Corporatocracy and Plutocracy (the Power Elite) is not acceptable.

          What do we do about this? How do we do it? We do it by doing our job as citizens in a democracy. Citizens have responsibilities beyond their back yard.

For one, we need, once and for all, to determine the direction in which our country should go and go there. Shifting back and forth, changing direction, every four or eight years is ludicrous and, in the end, unproductive and expensive. 

Next, we need to change our elected representatives, most of them anyway, getting rid of those who are just in their jobs for their own interests. We need representatives with values (we need people with values, too) who will sincerely represent the interests of the people.

Third, we need to amend our Constitution, keeping our Declaration of Independence, Preamble, Bill of Rights, and proceed from there. To this end, our first priority must be to take private money out of politics—every penny, lock, stock, and barrel. History has proven, if one penny is left, the thieves will find a way around the rules. All campaign financing must be paid through the medium of taxation. In conjunction with this, we need an amendment to provide for comprehensive voting law reform, which among other things; will eliminate the Electoral College and political gerrymandering thereby enabling the will of the people. I also believe every citizen should be allowed to vote, including convicted felons who have paid their debt to society, upon presentation of proper legal identification. Let us return to being a democratic republic of the people, by the people, and for the people. Let the people govern our nation—not multinational corporations and world governments. The foregoing are the greatest and most important issues facing our nation today because they are the very essence of our democracy, our democratic republic.

It is an obvious problem in our nation that we are badly in need of tax reform. Everybody, in one way or the other, needs the services of government, but they don’t want to pay for them. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, December 4, 1902 thru January 12, 1932, is quoted as having said, “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.” The fact is (everybody knows this) our government needs revenues to provide the services our people need from government, and those revenues must come from the people and business. To that end, it is only fair that everyone must contribute to those revenues according to their ability to pay, and that ability must be determined by one’s income and wealth. Your politics notwithstanding, everyone knows that our tax laws are way out of kilter and obsolete; and everyone is not paying their fair share in accordance with their ability to pay. Everyone knows this. This needs and must be changed. We must increase the rates within our progressive system of personal taxation, and the effective rates of taxation upon corporations must be adjusted to reality, including the elimination of loopholes and corporate welfare. Corporate inversions must be controlled, if not eliminated, and our lost corporate revenues must be recovered even if we need to increase tariffs on imports to compensate for their loss.

Presently, our Constitution provides for only the Civil Rights of the people. The emphasis is on individuality. What it has not provided for, to date, is the Social Rights of the people (most do not recognize that). Socially, in conjunction with our emphasis, civilly, on individuality, the rule is survival of the fittest (let the devil take the hindmost). We need, in amending our Constitution, to provide for Social Security and Disability Protection, Public Access to Single Payer National Healthcare modeled after Medicare, National Unemployment Insurance, and Public Education, among others.  I have suggested taxpayer paid education pre K through the first four years of college or vocational school, which ever the student chooses, the goal being gainful employment for all. The details can be worked out but attendance would be mandatory with severe penalties for non-participation. Also, there must be no discrimination, money or otherwise. There must be equal opportunity for all. The results will more than pay for the expense in reduced welfare, prison population, and increased standard of living for the country as a whole. Did we not see comparable results from the GI Bill? That’s how I acquired my education. There was no silver spoon in my mouth when I was born at the bottom of the great depression. I was almost homeless.

We need to restore equal opportunity to our people—all the people. This does not mean guaranteed success. It means equal opportunity for success for all. As we are now, equal opportunity is a myth.

In the mean time, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com signing off. Email me at mtss86@comcast.net.

P.S. Did I mention or say anything above about us needing war? I don’t think so. Although we might come to such, it should be only under our lifesaving need. War is negative productivity, gaining nothing in the long run except for the Corporatocracy and Power Elite. Really. What did we gain in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.?

A Selfie

I hope you will forgive my candor; but, over the years, I have observed that people in general (in our part of the world, anyway) seem to be narcissistic, lazy (mentally and physically), and more oriented toward comfort, ease, and entertainment, living a life of relative luxury and caring less for those less fortunate—if it ain’t in our back yard, to hell with it. They just need to get a job.

Except for the twenty-plus million who lost their lively hoods before and during the financial crisis of  2007 and 08 (and still haven’t found work) and those who have come to their senses since, most are still living beyond their means in a false economy, in debt up to their ears, personal and government, fat, ignorant, and deluded. For the most part, they haven’t experienced the poverty and misery of the 30’s (a side of the moon they have never seen) nor that of the present from which they have been temporarily saved, partially by financial safety nets carried forward from the past, e.g. Social Security, healthcare, unemployment insurance, etc., along with vast infusions of cash (borrowed money) by our government. Neither are they aware that, “as they sleep”, their livelihoods and their country are being stolen right out from under them by a Corporatocracy and Plutocracy (Power Elite).  This is sad; but, what is worse, we seem to not to want to know. We don’t want to deal with it. Let someone else. Our future generations—our children, grandchildren, don’t matter.

In the mean time, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com, signing off. Email me at mtss86@comcast.net.

You Know ²

          Despite our growing tolerance and de facto practice of sexual and social immorality, for the most part, in our country, fornication, adultery, and sexual sin remain socially unacceptable and legally de jure. We remain true to the Biblical standard until, you know, that special person comes along for whom we have that special attraction; and, you know, they, for whatever unknown reason, has that special attraction for us, you know; and then, all our needs come flowing out—you know (I must get all those “you knows” in there so as to keep up with the modern ignorance English which I hear all the time on television, C-span’s Washington Journal, for example), we just cannot help ourselves—the de facto cuts in. Insofar as our spouse is concerned, well, that’s another matter, now isn’t it? It’s hard to feel another’s hunger when our own stomach is being filled (or full), isn’t it—you know what I'm saying?

Time and events will pass until, down the road, we will revisit this question (That is if we haven’t been maimed, murdered, or consumed by the fire of nuclear warfare or other means of terrorism—our spouse for example). In the mean time, we will “mosey on”, doing our thing, creating children out of wedlock, single parent families, divorce, broken homes, running up the abortion meter and all those things—you know. Of course, Republicans will hate this because, you know, it runs up their taxes and all those things, you know, corporate welfare, outrageous executive wages, and tax favoritism notwithstanding—only Democrats do these things; and, well, everybody knows they are the bad guys, but we will leave a certain president for discussion later—you know what I’m saying?

In the mean time, this is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com, signing off. Email me at mtss86@comcast.net.

Culture Needs To Change

          The pundits say, “Throwing money at the education problem won’t help. We have spent billions to no avail” or something to that effect. “We have done this, and we have done that.” We give them welfare, housing, food stamps, and they just live on the dole, none of which has worked”. Perhaps so, but these responses, in my mind, do not fit the reality of the situation. Our problems are much more complex and consist of many variables, the greatest of which are cultural differences in the makeup of our people, differences which we have purposely nurtured over the past hundreds of years since our forefathers came to this land.

Until recently, we have purposely kept our black people segregated. We even enacted laws to insure such. As a result, they have been demeaned, degraded, under-educated, and left to live in poverty, deprivation, unemployment, crime, drugs, homelessness, and the list goes on. In that venue they have gone from a culture of slavery to one we see today. Now we throw a few trillion dollars at them and expect them to think as we think, act as we act, and compete with the rest of us economically on an equal footing as if the past never happened. I must also add that all this certainly hasn't occurred in a vacuum. Many white people have, for a variety of reasons, fallen or been sucked into this vacuum with them.  

I’m going to try and explain what I am trying to say using an analogy. Speaking in general, these people, our underclass (black and white) are like a sports team on a football field with their baseball suits on. We are expecting them to play football, and they are playing baseball. Our economy is capitalism (football)—supposedly highly competitive (another subject for another time). Throughout history we have held these folks in servitude, kept them in the dugout, effectively barred them from the game, and now we expect them to qualify? Are you kidding me? They’re not competitive. They’re not equipped. They don’t fit. They don’t meet the requirements. Of course there are exceptions here and there; there are those who have risen above all this; we all know that; but, by and large, they live in a different world than we do. We must still do all the other things previously discussed, i.e. jobs, education, housing, etc., but we must change the culture too. If we don’t, we are whistling Dixie—pouring money down the drain.

I hear one argument from the black community already. “You’re trying to make a ‘Whitey’ out of us.” No! I’m not!  I want you to become part of the middle class. I want you to have a higher standard of living. I want you and your family to live a better and safer life. I believe you want that too. I think you are sick and tired of sucking hind tit (I am too, by the way). The absolute fact of the matter is that our country can prosper only if our people can prosper, and you are part of our people. Rather than you and us, it must be “We”, we the people. I don’t mean this to be offensive, but let’s pull up our pants, roll up our sleeves, get ourselves educated, gain a vocation or trade, and go to work. And yes, we the people—all of us, are going to have to spend money and do that which is necessary in the process. May God Bless us all.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

A Great Nation

Do you know what it takes to have a prosperous, energetic, and thriving country? The answer is, it takes a prosperous, energetic, and thriving people. No nation, no institution is any greater than the sum total of its citizens or its members, their character, their values, their ambition and drive, their self-respect, their education, their quality of leadership—the degree to which they are civilized. If the people of a nation think only of themselves with little or no regard for their fellow man or their generations to come, they will eventually become a failed state. Have you ever asked yourself why people on our planet have existed for millions of years, and yet recorded history only goes back four thousand or so? Also, have you noticed, within this relatively short span of time (4,000 yrs.), how fast our degree of knowledge has grown and our civilization has expanded? Just think. Grandma and grandpa got away with not having to graduate from high school, but mom and dad had to Today, already, we almost need a college education just to get our “foot in the door”. Knowledge is literally exploding.

I remember back in 1964 while I was with a company in Illinois. There was a film published from BNA Films (I hope I remember the name correctly) on the subject of change. Using a chemical engineer as an example, the film stated that, if on December 31^st of a given year, the engineer was up to date and knew everything there was to know about chemical engineering and, for the next twelve months, all he had to do was study and keep updated on all changes in the science, at the end of the year he would be five years behind. The film went on to make the point that one who couldn’t adapt to change would be as out of place as a nudist trying to sneak through a barbed wire fence. That was fifty-one years ago. How far do you think that guy would be behind now? What will be the demands of our future if the economy of our nation will not be able to provide jobs and a decent standard of living for our people? Is there any doubt in anybody’s mind that education must be a major priority of our people?

Studies have shown us. The human mind learns the most in the early years of life. Positive attitudes and habits, values, knowledge, self-discipline, character, people and leadership skills, are begun during these years. To this end, education must begin in a child’s formative years, at home, in school, and in church or synagogue or wherever one worships, and continue on throughout life. This is a requisite for a strong, prosperous, and happy nation. Education must be mandatory, and it must be comprehensive. When we think of education, most of us think of jobs—math, science, and/or vocational skills; but a real education demands, also, learning in the arts, music, history, geography, social studies, business, finance, political science, and language, i.e. English, Latin, etc. A democracy demands the participation of all the people, and participation in a democracy demands the knowledge to responsibly fulfill the duty. Education and values are the direction we must follow for us to rise above ignorance, poverty, and degradation, i.e. unemployment, homelessness, crime, drugs, broken homes, gangs, and starvation.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

The Riots In Baltimore

We have a racial problem in Baltimore. We have a racial problem in Ferguson. We have a racial problem all over this country. In fact, we have had a racial problem since before the beginning of our nation. There is no question about this, so why haven’t we done something about it? We know the problem. We know the problem well. Its history is well documented; and we know its causes and solutions—all of them. We are sleeping in the bed we made. So, are we going to solve the problem, or are we going to let it destroy us?

I’m going to discuss this problem; but, before I do, I want to share a few personal observations and opinions with you:

First, we have come a long way in this country since our beginning. Whereas, in the beginning, the color of a man’s skin made a difference, I believe that is no longer totally true—not for all of us, at least. On the one hand, over the years, I have come to know, like, and respect many colored people very much. On the other, there are many whom I don’t like at all and avoid as much as possible. Then again, there are many white people whom I don’t like either for many of the same reasons, and I do my best to avoid them, too. As I think about it, it’s not the color of their skin I dislike. It’s their behaviour. I submit to you that our racial problem today isn’t race. The problem isn’t color. Our people today are more tolerant than ever. The root of the problem today is the behaviour of people—human behaviour. The solution to our racial problems will never be found until we address human behaviour. Then, we will immediately recognize that the problem affects both colored and white—vastly exacerbated by poverty, spawned by joblessness, broken homes, single parent families, lack of education, gangs, drugs, crime, and on and on. Books have been written about this, but the point here is that xenophobia is not the real issue. I believe most of us have risen above that.

Second, there are, at the very least, two extremely important professions serving our nation and our people everyday who in my opinion are underrated, underpaid, and from whom, sometimes, we expect and demand just too much—not infrequently, their very life. I am talking about our police men and women and our teachers. Yes, there are bad ones and there are good ones, but that’s what we pay managers for—to weed out the incompetent whom we shouldn’t have hired in the first place. We can do that.

Third, our Constitution was written from a purely civil perspective. In the very beginning, our Articles of Confederation didn’t even enable us to pay our bills—we couldn’t pay our army to fight the war. There was no provision for taxes; blacks were property; women couldn’t vote; we were effectively a dysfunctional nation, thirteen sovereign countries under one umbrella, the United States of America. When we finally adopted our Constitution, ratified in 1788, blacks were still considered property and women still couldn’t vote. In fact, our bill of civil rights wasn’t included either. It came later. Social rights, on the other hand, were not included in the Constitution at all. Socially, it was survival of the fittest and let the devil take the hindmost as it remains, for the most part, today. One would be deaf, dumb, and blind today, if he didn’t know who is advocating that. My point is that we need to add our social rights to our Constitution as we have our civil rights, an issue almost never mentioned.

Fourth, let me offer one more opinion before I go any further. An ideology of “survival of the fittest and let the devil take the hindmost” is immoral, reprehensible, sickening, and uncivilized. Such is certainly not advocated by Christian Doctrine which implores us to “love our neighbor as ourselves”. It’s inhuman. Animals deserve better treatment. To even approach a position of validity, such a position must be predicated upon the belief that we are all born equal, which is definitely untrue. We are all born equal in the eyes of God; we are all, supposedly, born equal in the eyes of the law; but we are not born equal when we are born. We are born different physically, mentally, sexually, and develop differently from a multiple variety of environmental differences, i.e. geographical, family, religious, political, and economic, etc. Under our law, the constitution, we (everyone) deserves equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, personally, socially, and economically, race, creed, and color notwithstanding. For this to happen, our Constitution must provide for our social needs as well as our civil needs. We are human beings—not property to be bought, sold, and used at the whims of the rich and powerful for their personal comfort and pleasure.

Now, let’s get to our problems and their solution, which, if we don’t solve to the satisfaction of all, I predict will erupt in a ball of fire, misery, and death—sooner, if not later, your choice.

I know I must sound like a broken record; but, first we must take back our democracy for the people, stolen from us by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite. We must eliminate all private money from politics, imposing strong penalties upon any and all abusers. I mean prison sentences for offenders. Our Congress must return to representing the people rather than the multi-national corporations and the very wealth, aka Plutocrats. Our corporations were created by man to serve man—not to rule over him.

Second, we must establish comprehensive voting and election reforms, including provision for a system of multiple parties. This only took one sentence to write; but it is of major importance to all of us.

Third, if we are to eliminate poverty, increase the standard of living and well being of our people, and return our nation to prosperity, we must enable job creation. We must educate our people (All OF THEM), and we must make it mandatory for all to the fullest extent of their abilities, beginning at Pre K through four years of college. Those who prefer not to attend college should be provided with vocational training as an alternate, the goal being to insure that everyone has a job skill and is qualified to hold a job. Everyone who is able must work. Everyone possible, regardless of color, must have equal opportunity, cradle to the grave, to support themselves. School dropouts must be illegal. This education must be taxpayer paid.

Fourth, every citizen should have public access to single payer healthcare, i.e. Medicare for all. This must be a standalone fund financed on a “pay as you go” basis, as is Social Security, by a special progressive income tax earmarked for that purpose and should not be part of the national budget. It must not run a deficit (I firmly believe this, properly managed, will have an extremely favorable impact on total healthcare costs as well as the achievement of a balanced budget “down the road”.

Fifth, Social Security must be brought up to date and continued with livable benefits. As at present, it must continue to be a standalone fund financed on a “pay as you go” basis financed by a special income tax. I believe we should remove the cap from the present tax; and, if necessary, amend it to a progressive tax. In any event, it should not be part of the national budget or run a deficit.

Sixth, and certainly not least, everyone, corporations as well as people, should and must pay their fair share of taxes in accordance with their ability to pay. Patriotism must be requisite to all. We desperately need and must have national tax reform.

In summary, we must enable the restoration of our middle class and the advancement of our underclass to the fullest extent possible. If we can’t restore the standard of living of our people and our democracy, we will never be able to help the rest of the world.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Our Democratic Republic

          Every opinion I expound and every goal I propose for our country is based on certain facts in which I believe firmly, with all my heart. The first and most important of all these facts is, God created the heavens and the earth. If you don’t believe that, pray tell me from where our world did come. Who else or what did create it? Second, on this earth, God created man whom he instructed to dress, till, and keep the earth, having dominance over all with requisite responsibility (You can find that in the Holy Bible in the book of Genesis. Yes, I may not have worded in the same exact way.).  The earth is the responsibility of man. Therefore, based on these facts, it goes without saying that a third fact is that the earth exists for man—all men. Obviously this refers to man the species which includes everyone, men, women, and children of all races, colors, and creeds. Nowhere do I accept that the earth belongs to 0.1%, 1%, or 10%, etc.—the rich, the powerful, or the smartest. This earth belongs to all 100% of us!

Just as I believe in that, I believe in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for our people—all of us, every last one of us, as declared in our Declaration of Independence. This means, at a minimum, people have a right to food, clothing, and shelter, i.e. the right to a job with livable wages and housing. For those who are disabled or can’t find work, these rights should be provided to them and maintained until their condition improves. Our instructions, “Feed the poor”, and “Love they neighbors as ourselves” demand no less. Also, in a great and rich nation such as ours which consumes 25% of the world’s production while consisting of only 5% of the world’s population, our nation’s total productivity, our GDP, i.e. our total income, is sufficient that we can afford to provide Public Education, Pre K through the first four years of college (or vocational school for those who prefer a trade school to college), Social Security for all, and public access to single payer Health Care for all.  This can and should be paid in full on a “pay as you go” basis, incurring no deficit or debt through designated income taxes, based on one’s ability to pay.

As you know, there are always those who abuse the system—those who want something for nothing, those who just lay around leaching off the productivity of others when they are able to work, those who lie, cheat, and steal. You know nothing is ever free. That everyone must produce to the best of their ability is imperative. These kinds of people must be dealt with, whether they be couch potatoes or large corporations on welfare, corporate inversions, or sandbaggers moving their income off shore. Patriotism must be returned to Capitalism.

I have said to you many times that the largest threat to America today, larger than anything else, is the threat to our Democracy, our Democratic Republic, the power of our vote. Not only should you be scared out of your skin about this, scared of becoming a fascist nation dominated by a dictator like Hitler or Mussolini, or scared of becoming enslaved proletarians ruled and dominated by a plutocracy, you should also be downright angry; but let me explain. When God put man on this planet many years ago, man soon found he had to work and work hard. You remember. God kicked him out of the Garden of Eden. The Bible says man had to henceforth earn his living by the sweat of his brow. As man progressed toward civilization, his productivity slowly became more and more complex. It took more than one person to produce a product and/or to perform a service. Eventually, man produced businesses, and soon, many businesses’s evolved. These eventually became institutions, later to be named Corporations. These institutions were created by man to serve man by providing a quality product or service in competition with others. Obviously, if they couldn’t compete, they would go out of business.

 Along that same path, as people grew in population, they tended to gather into tiny communities, then villages, then towns, and, ultimately, cities for which they needed to establish order, security, and self reinforcement. To this end, they established another institution to serve their needs—Government. Get this straight. These institutions, Corporations and Government were both created by Man to Serve Man for the good of Man. They are Institutions of the People, by the People, and for the People to serve man. They are Not people. What is more; you have (had?) a vote in both of these institutions. In your government, you can vote for your representatives. In the corporations, your vote is your dollar. Now what does all this have to do with anything?

I know you won’t like me saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway because it is true. As citizens of a Democratic Republic, we—each and every one of us, have, a personal responsibility to rationally and intelligently vote at every election, screening every candidate for whom we are proposing to vote, based on his/her qualifications, i.e. intelligence, knowledge, education, experience, leadership ability, and competence, in light of the issues and needs of the position which he desires to fill and your government at the time. When we vote, we are hiring a top executive for a very important job that might have a lasting influence on our lives and that of our children, grandchildren, and on and on. But what do we do? Most of us base our vote on the candidates looks, personality, party (My great grandfather was a Whig; my grandfather was a Whig; so was my father. By gosh and by golly, I’m going to vote for a Whig). We neither know nor think about the candidate’s position on issues and such. In fact, most of us don’t even know the issues. All we know is the propaganda spued daily by emails, gossip, and the media. This is documented fact. Check out the book, The Myth of the Rational Voter. In the election of November, 2012, only 1/3 of all the registered voters showed up at the polls to vote. I submit to you that issues weren’t, for the most part, even discussed during the campaign prior to the election. It seemed like everything but the issues were discussed.

As a result of our past failures we now have a government completely controlled by the large corporations (I call them The Corporatocracy) and the Power Elite (These are the very rich[the top 0.1%] and the powerful Think Tanks [The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and American Enterprise Institute, to name just three]). Your/our vote is almost worthless. Our elected representatives are bought and paid for, almost wholly, by these peoples. They no longer represent us. They really represent the “Haves”, to whom 90% of our nation’s income is going. It is documented fact that our middle class is disappearing and our “Underclass” is growing fast.

Take note. This isn’t just happening here. The Corporations are taking over all over the free world. You know what has happened with NAFTA. You also know about the Atlantic Trade Agreement. Now keep your eyes on the trade agreement currently being negotiated in the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The whole thing is being done in absolute secrecy. Think about what that is going to do with jobs.

You are going to do what you are going to do. I can’t change that. But, if you care about your country, currently a Democratic Republic wherein you have the right to vote, you had better start forgetting the party line and, instead, take back your right to vote and your right to have your vote representative of you rather than the Corporatocracy and Power Elite as is now. Am I against business? Absolutely not! I want business to serve the people as they are supposed to do. I want business to change their first priority from that of serving profit to that of serving the customer—you and me, like it is supposed to do. Your priority in voting should be for populist candidates such as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Robert Reich, etc., people who care about people, who represent the best interests of the people. There are others, but we must search them out. There are lots of fakes.

I am sorry. If you cannot look around you, read, study, and see the relationship of what I am telling you with what is happening before your very eyes, and do something about it, I don’t know what else I can do to help. On the other hand, if enough of you don’t care, we are in big trouble. What can you do for a start? Raise holy hell with your Congressional Representatives in the Congress, your Representative in the House and your Senator. Tell him/her you want money out of politics—no more campaign contributions in politics, public, private, or personal. Pay for campaigns out of the government budget with taxes. You don’t want to add another tax? Do you really think all the campaign contributions as they now are, are not being passed on to you? Trust me. You’re already paying the bill. You’re just getting it in the back. Secondly, let’s rewrite the voting laws and put them under Federal Law. Let’s get the discrimination and gerrymandering out of them and allow for more than two parties. Let’s have fair voting.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Financing Our Roads and Bridges

          A few days past there was a discussion on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal regarding the deplorable condition of our national infrastructure of roads and bridges, its state of repair, its safety,  and our need to bring it up to date, especially in light of our nation’s high unemployment in this economy and the requisite need to create jobs. As always, the question is how to pay for it.

          Traditionally, these types of expenditures have been paid by fuel taxes; which, essentially, are sales taxes based on usage of the product, differing from a normal sales tax only in that it is calculated on product volume rather than sales dollars. Until now, the fuel tax has been the fairest method of financing the building of our roads and bridges because those who use them pay for them. Those who use them the most, trucking companies for example, pay the most. Technology, however, is changing all this. Vehicles are getting better mileage enabling them to drive more miles while paying less tax so that the taxes are no longer sufficient to cover the expenses and the funds are running out of money.

Of course, this could easily be resolved by raising the tax; but, while this is being argued, the scope of the problem expands. More and more vehicles are coming into use that do not run on fossil fuels. Rather, they are fueled by electric or, currently less popular, hydrogen leading to the suggestion that meters be installed on vehicles and the mileage be taxed. This too has its opponents in that the applicable meters pose a threat to our privacy, enabling us to be tracked.

While all this is being considered, it also comes to mind that technology is being developed (and is just “around the corner”) for driver-less cars; which will obviously increase the cost of the infrastructure and, also,  negate the privacy argument in that our privacy will be affected anyway. As we consider increasing the fuel tax for now, we should consider the future as well so that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel down the road; but increase the tax we must, because nothing is free. I submit we should do it soon before the speculators run up the price again.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Open Letter To The President of the United States of America

Re:

Resettlement of Syrian Refugees To The United States of America

Dear Mr. President:

It is reported that “an estimated 7 million Syrians are seeking refugee status” in the United States, and that “500 have reportedly already been allowed in”. With all due respect, sir, this is a serious mistake political and otherwise. I urge you to please put an immediate end to this before it is too late.

Not only is this a serious threat to our national security at this particular point in time (I am sure you know this better than I—you, reportedly, are briefed daily), but also, it is a serious threat to the political stability of our democracy. As rough and tumble as the life of our great country has been over the past many years since its birth, never in my lifetime (and that’s a very long time) have we, as a people, been in such a polarized and politically threatened condition. The Ferguson incident in and of itself should be evidence enough of what I am saying.

In addition, given the loss of thousands of American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, a national debt of $18 Trillion dollars, including $3 Trillion dollars in expense of those wars (Ref: The Three Trillion Dollar War by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes), our experience with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and now ISIS (or ISIL, if you will), I, in all honesty, believe the American people are downright sick and tire of Muslims. To this, I am compelled to ask the question or make the statement—whichever; where have the Muslims in this country been while all this has been going on; or, if they’re the “good guys” while these others are the “bad guys” as you have been saying, why have these “good guys” not joined with us in protests against these “bad guys”?

Mr. President, with all due respect, I believe we should secure racial and political stability within our own country before we take on an even bigger load. On channel 4, on my television yesterday morning, I was told that one in six in our nation today don’t know where their next meal is coming from. We hear every day about the growing inequality in income and wealth among us. Also, we hear about the decrease in equal opportunity. This is not the time to “pinch the pimple” and increase our pain within even more. Trust me; I am not an isolationist; I am not a Republican; and, that I supported you in the last two presidential elections notwithstanding, I am not a Democrat. I am an American. Our nation is in dire straits, economically, politically, and spiritually. I ask that you do everything in your power to lead us out from under the yoke and oppression of the oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite that now rules over us indirectly through their lobbyists, campaign contributions, revolving door policies, corruption, and graft—ever increasing our poverty and stealing our democracy from us. In the final analysis, we need (as was said by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg) a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”.

Thank you,

Respectfully,

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Forwarded to:

          President Barack Obama

          Senator William Nelson of Florida

          Representative Ted Yoho of Florida

          Facebook   

          www.sageobserver.blogspot.com (My Blog)

Our Racial and Class Discrimination

          It has been said that in the beginning of our great nation, the American Union, there were three great civilizations. To quote Alexis De Tocqueville from his great classic, Democracy in America, published in 1835, there were “three naturally distinct, I might almost say hostile, races. Their education, their law, their origins, even their external features had raised an almost insurmountable barrier between them…. Among these very different men, the first to attract attention, the best educated, the most powerful, the happiest, is the white man, the European, the epitome of man; in a position inferior to him appear the Negro and the Indian.” The Negro, the white man, i.e. the Anglo American, enslaved; the latter, the Indian, he destroyed. I do not discuss the Spanish or Mexicans here because they did not join our Union until after the Mexican War; but, from their treatment, even now, can one not see similarities?

Alexis De Tocqueville goes on to say, “Would you not accept, after seeing what happens in the world, that the European is to other races what man himself is to the animals? He uses them for his own convenience and destroys them when he fails to bend them to his will. In one fell swoop, oppression has deprived the descendants of the Africans of almost all the privileges due to human beings! The American Negro has lost even the recollection of his homeland; he no longer hears the language of his fathers; he has renounced their religion and forgotten their ways. Ceasing, in this way, to belong to Africa, he still has not acquired any rights to the good things of Europe; but he is left suspended between the two societies; he has remained cut off from the two nations, sold by the one and rejected by the other; in the whole universe, his master’s hearth affords him the only semblance of a home. The Negro has no family; in a woman he can see only a passing companion of his pleasures and, from their birth, his sons are his equals” —not infrequently sold from their mothers’ wombs before they are even born.

The Negro, enslaved, raped, pillaged, and often beaten and even murdered, was frequently no more, and treated no better, than the animals to which De Tocqueville referred above. It was against the law to teach them to read and write, to educate them. Even when they were finally freed, after the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, what were they but, except for their souls, more or less, uncivilized animals unleashed into an enlightened society of survival of the fittest, let the devil take the hindmost—forced to fend for themselves, compete on an unlevel playing field literally scrounging for a living the best they could, and not infrequently ostracized by society and pursued by terrorists such as the KKK. It wasn’t until 1965 and the Civil Rights Act, one hundred years later, that they gained any semblance of real freedom; and, even now, fifty more years later, they continue to be oppressed by substandard education, unequal employment opportunity, questioned voting rights, and acceptance into society. Whether we like hearing this or not, these are, in short and speaking in general, the facts and the breeding ground for the state of the Negro in the United States today. Even more to the point, we created, cultivated, and nurtured the racial problem we have today.

One can argue with me if they wish; but, in my view, our racial problem(s) today, especially in light of current economic conditions and growth of globalization and power of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite within and without our nation, are becoming more intense and stressful with each passing day. Just one reference alone is the current racial unrest in and around Ferguson, Missouri. If we are to live as a nation, in peace among ourselves, we must solve our problems of racial and (I’ll add) class discrimination. Our nation cannot grow, thrive, be happy, and survive if we are constantly at war with each other within, the rest of the world notwithstanding.

Our problems are what they are; to seek their resolution, we can only begin from where we are; we sowed the seeds which created them; and now they must be solved. We must learn to live together and love one another, the very essence of Christianity. To this end, to the very best of our abilities, we must eliminate our underclass, be they black or white. We absolutely must. For the reasons I discussed above, the majority of our underclass is black, but so, also, for a variety of reasons, are there very many white people in this bracket. In a manner of speaking, the same solutions can help to resolve similar problems. This can be done, but it is not a one-way street. Let there be no misunderstanding. All sides of the street must do their part to help. Only a fool would fail to see that we all have flesh in the game. All must work to the utmost of their abilities.

One of the most important solutions to resolving our racial and economic problems is education. Let there be no argument about it. Every last one of us should have an education, pre-K through high school—bar none. Beyond that, every last one of us should, at a minimum, either have a four year college degree in pursuit of a career or graduate from a certified trade school of their choice. There should, by law, be no drop-outs with appropriate enforcement thereof, as well as reasonable allowance for those who are mentally and/or physically unqualified. Obviously, the intent here is to enable all to be employable, productive, and carry one’s own weight in society. All education should include the teaching of values, manners, behavior, people skills, and leadership. Financed by a special Federal Tax earmarked as such, the proposed educational program should also insure that the very poor should have equal opportunity from the bottom to the top of the spectrum to receive an equal opportunity to an education to the best of their ability. 

In regard to education, I want to make two more points. First, all people learn the most in the first years of their life, beginning with what they see, and feel, as well as what they read and hear from others. Examples they see all around them every day teach as much, if not more than, what they are told. A good and positive home environment is absolutely imperative. Secondly, I want to talk briefly about intelligence—individual intelligence. Lest one get “too big for their boots”, or, conversely, feel inferior in regard to others, none of us are equally intelligent. We are all born with intelligence at different points along the curve from the most stupid of us to the most brilliant. Most of us, the average person, race notwithstanding, fall in the middle of the curve. We call it “the average”. Many years ago, I had a college professor tell our class, “Genius is 95% perspiration and 5% genius”. I submit to you that hard work, reading, studying, and exercising your mind will enable almost everybody reading this to keep up with even those supposedly “smarter than you” on most any day.

To our political leaders I ask the following question. Are you more interested in enriching our nation making it more prosperous, secure, raising the standard of living of all our people and saving our democratic republic from fascism; or, rather, are you more interested in continuing on your present course of enriching yourselves and the top one percent, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite among us at the expense of undermining our democracy, our government of the people, by the people, and for the people?

To the people of our great nation I ask the following question. How long are you going to continue to allow our elected representatives to sell your vote through campaign contributions and bribes from the Corporatocracy and Power Elite? If you like your freedom, then give recognition to the fact that our freedom does not and has never been free. Our people over the years of our history have spilled enough blood to attest to that fact. Theodore Roosevelt saved our hind ends at the turn of the century from these bloodsucking Robber Barons. Once again, during the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and subsequently, Harry Truman, saved us again. You have only to look at the historic prosperity we enjoyed in the forties, fifties, and sixties as compared to the present to see what I’m talking about now.

The two greatest problems our nation is facing today, right now, is the loss of our democratic republic to the Corporatocracy and Power Elite and Racial and Class Discrimination within. If we don’t solve these two problems and solve them now, all else is a moot point. Everything begins with you and me. Let us get to work.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Same-Sex Marriage

On C-Span’s Washington Journal, Saturday, February 14^th, the subject of Same Sex Marriage was a topic of discussion. I just cannot help but comment on this highly contentious issue. The problem, however, in discussing the matter objectively, lies in its complexity—the definition of marriage, the law, religion, bias, prejudice, emotion.

To maintain objectivity, therefore, let us recognize what, to the best of my knowledge, are certain basic facts: (1) There is no mention of marriage in our Constitution. (2) Marriage is a legal and social institution, a traditional relationship between a man and a woman evolved over centuries of which love was not necessarily a criterion (For the most part, love has been a common factor only since the nineteenth century. Previously marriages were arranged by parents—the common motivation being expansion of wealth and power. To refer to an old song, “What’s Love Got to Do with it?”). (3) Neither does procreation necessarily have to do with marriage. A significant percentage of our population lives together and raises children outside of marriage today. (4) Separation of church and state is a matter of law in our nation; and, therefore, we live in a secular state. (5) A couple can be married either in or out of the church as one might choose as long as a legal license is obtained; and, therefore, given that a license is required, marriage is already defined by law.

Let the arguments begin. Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry? Same-sex couples can and already do legally cohabit. Given the aforementioned facts, an answer of yes has to demand a redefinition of marriage in licensing and a change in the law. It should be legislated and not decided by a judge. Judges should judge. They should not legislate. The ultimate decision for the nation as a whole should be secular in nature as we have a separation of church and state and freedom of religion. Your answer to the question, therefore, whatever it may be, should be secular—whatever you believe is good for the nation as a whole. Consistent with this, no religion should be forced to marry a couple within their religion with whom they do not concur. As a Christian, I am also compelled to remind you of one more thought. God gave us all freedom of choice. He gave us the law, but he gave us the freedom of choice to decide for ourselves as to whether we would follow. We, at the very least, should allow others to do the same, decide for themselves.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

         

Government by Oligarchy

In my posting to this blog on December 27^th, I told you that the two greatest problems confronting our nation today are one, that we lack a concerted direction in government causing us to effectively lose our democracy and, two, xenophobia, i.e. racial discrimination. If we are to move forward maintaining our democratic republic, our democracy, these must be overcome.

 Whether we want to “belly up” and face the facts or not, we are being ruled by an oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, signed, sealed, and approved by our Supreme Court in a variety of decisions the most well known of which, recently, was Citizens United v FEC, in effect equating campaign contributions with free speech—your vote vs. the dollars of the very rich and powerful. In conjunction with this, many, if not most, in our Congress as well as others in power have willingly acquiesced their responsibility in office for dollars, effectively selling their votes to the special interests and betraying yours. To my way of thinking this practice is tantamount to accepting bribes. It’s nothing new in politics. For that matter, it’s a practice “as old as the hills”, as they say. I think it’s dishonest, should be stopped, and future practice should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This government, “Our Government”, is supposed to represent us—not the corporatism of the Corporatocracy and the very rich. Again, there is no way we the people with our one vote per person can vie on an equal footing with the abundant dollars of the corporations. Also, let me tell you this. There is no provision or recognition anywhere in our constitution for corporations, another subject for another day.

Following the timeline of history, you can readily see the rise of the Corporate Oligarchy in the last half of the nineteenth century, subsequently quenched by Theodore Roosevelt, and again in the 1920’s during the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover, ending in the Great Depression of the 1930’s to be again quenched by the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Through the 1940’s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, we, our nation’s people, enjoyed the highest standard of living in our history after which, from the 1970’s until the present, this oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite has, once again,  raised its ugly head. All around us we can see the destruction and degradation this element of our society has wreaked upon our people and our standard of living. This is not a little matter for us to ignore. If our people don’t turn this around and do it now, all of our other problems will be a moot point. If we want to save our democracy and our republic for the people (that’s us, that’s you), we must turn this around and begin now lest what little freedoms we have remaining will be lost. If we the people continue to allow this to happen, we must ask ourselves if we do not deserve what we get, a life of serfdom.

Understand, folks, we are in a crisis. We no longer live in a country like the one it begun. Not only our future, but the futures of our children and descendants down the line depend upon us doing something—vote, protest, write letters, contribute money, if you can. Let your voice be heard. Outlaw private money from politics; reform the voting laws; reform the tax laws—insist that the corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes according to their ability to pay. Don’t let them kid you. There is enough money to pay for the needs of our nation if everyone will only pay their fair share according to their ability to pay and we take the graft, corruption, and wasteful spending out of our government. Take back our country for our people.

This is a blog. It’s necessarily brief. You don’t have to take my word for what I say. In fact, you really shouldn't. Read for yourself. Gain knowledge. Decide for yourself. You may not think so, but your life and those of your family depends on it. Keep in mind, though. Your opinion isn’t worth a “hill of beans” if you don’t have facts, the real truth, to support them. Everybody has an opinion. The lying propaganda and misinformation being thrust upon us today by the media, emails, and word of mouth cannot be trusted. Read When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten. You will be amazed at what has gone on around you to your disadvantage of which you weren’t even aware. It was published in 1995, twenty years ago. You can buy it used on Amazon.com for $4.00 ($.01 plus $3.99 shipping) plus tax. Also, another good book is Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, a best seller last year, an in-depth analysis and discussion of the extreme inequality in wealth and income. It is written for the lay person as well as economists. You can buy it from Amazon, also, for around $30.00, shipping, tax, and title. There are many other books, but these two will provide you all the information you need—just the first one will suffice.

In my next posting to this blog, I want to discuss our xenophobia, i.e. racial discrimination. I procrastinate on this because the subject is so argumentative and contentious. In fact, the subject can’t really be discussed objectively unless the participants are willing to view the elements with an open mind toward resolving the problems involved—and there are many. As I have said before, however, we are where we are. That has to be our starting point.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Our Constitution

          I refer you to The Constitution of the United States of America, the basic law of our land upon which all of our laws are based. Our renowned forefathers, as bright, intelligent, and farseeing as they were, could not, in their wildest imaginations, have foreseen the world in which we presently live, a world of travel into space, computers, the internet, advances in medicine, and on and on. When you read our Constitution, you read only what it says. What it means is another matter. Its meaning must be interpreted in terms of “today”. Our forefathers knew that. That’s why they provided us with a Supreme Court to interpret its many applications.

          There are those who will argue that our Constitution is inflexible. Others will argue the opposite, that it is flexible, with changes in customs, the times, etc.—an argument still unresolved; but, it seems to me—I believe—certain provisions of our Constitution are unquestionable, our illustrious and infallible Supreme Court notwithstanding. I read that ours is a government of the people. We are a Democracy, a Democratic Republic, with a representative government to represent we the people—All The People, All 100% of us. Do I hear any arguments to that? I read about equality—we are all equal under the law, we all have equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Do you think?

          Am I just whistling in the wind? Do you believe in the same Constitution in which I believe? Now we all know that, in the beginning, the blacks were left out of the picture—after all, they were slaves, and everybody knows slaves weren’t people. Slaves, then, were, sadly, property to be bought, sold, raped, pillaged, whatever. Even our Civil War with the loss of over half a million lives didn’t solve the problem. Even President Lincoln’s executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t really complete the job. It wasn’t until the Great Society of President Johnson and his Civil Rights Act that any real semblance of equality for the blacks occurred. Even then, have we really received them as equal? Under our law they are. Do we really have equality in voting? Think about such things as gerrymandering, voting restrictions, voter ID, job discrimination, inequality in education, etc. It took over one hundred years to fix the black problem; but, is it really fixed? I don’t think so. Just look around. It’s not fixed and that has to change.

          Let us look at inequality of opportunity from another aspect. You graduated from community college (because of costs, a rapidly growing trend today). John Doe graduated from a prominent Ivy League school. Who is more apt to be appointed to a high office in government; or, if you are a child of a commoner, how apt are you to be accepted into a prestigious school in competition with the child of a prominent leader even if you have the qualifications and the money. Where is the equality of opportunity there? We don’t have equal opportunity in America, and it becomes more fleeting every day with the rapidly increasing gap in income and wealth between the haves and have nots. What happens to the guy who worked his way up the ladder only to be shoved aside by another who begun in the middle or, worse yet, at the top.

          Speaking of the immense increase in inequality of income and wealth between the haves and the have nots, God created this earth for all of us—not just the 10% or 0.1% (If you don’t believe in God, have your way; the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, our Shadow Government, seemingly don’t either). So why should some earn hundreds percent more income than those below them who work just as hard, if not more so? They are more talented, you might say. Talent is a gift of God. It’s a blessing. Talent isn’t earned. I do believe one more talented should earn more. In some instances, maybe much more, but should they be paid hundreds of percent more as so many of our CEO’s are today? Also, should they pay far less taxes than we do, as they now do? Should they not pay according to their ability to pay (Fairness demands that comparisons be made in terms of percentages of income)? Some, including many corporations, pay no taxes.

          Let us come back to the subject of voting. I see absolutely nothing in our Constitution about Corporations. Nowhere do I see any mention of Corporations as people. For many years, Corporations have been deemed as legal entities for the purposes of determination of liabilities, taxation, ownership issues, etc. I believe that to be in the interests of the people. That’s acceptable. I read the mention of God and man in our Constitution, but nothing about Corporations. When our Supreme Court, in effect, declared a Corporation’s money as equivalent to free speech in direct competition for the votes of the American people, they were wrong. At this point, I’m not sure they weren’t corrupt. Our Congress has sold out. That’s a matter of record, i.e. campaign contributions, lobbyists, so what’s next? I don’t know, but I do know that Corporations should not be allowed to vote. They are not people. People were created by God. Corporations were created by man to serve—not to rule. Our present condition  must and has to change.

          To understand, all you have to do is look at the overall (the big) picture. These people are already in control. Contrary to our Constitution, they are running our government today. We didn’t vote for them. We the voters, in our lack of due diligence, have let it happen. We must now take it back. We still have the power of the vote. If we didn’t, they wouldn’t spend so much money each and every election to win. Vote only for those candidates who represent the direct interests of the people. Vote issues rather than party. Vote for a Constitutional Amendment to get money completely out of politics (If you leave even a little bit in, they will find a way to cheat). Vote for a Constitutional Amendment for voting reform—the right to vote for all citizens. Vote for Constitutional Amendments for universal access to single payer national healthcare, and Social Security. Vote for comprehensive tax reform—a progressive tax system for all based upon one’s ability to pay, including Corporations and control over Corporate Inversion (Tax avoidance by moving abroad). Vote for those who promote Fair and open trade—no more secrecy. Vote for those who advocate mandatory government sponsored education, pre K through college or trade school (Everybody has a trade, a job, i.e. is able to support themselves). Our nation needs a free and educated people—leaders. We don’t need a people encumbered with hardship, poverty, and student debt.

The very survival of our great nation depends upon our taking back our country from government by the Corporations and Power Elite less we become their slaves—the route in which, I believe, we are now going. Our government is us. The character of our government, any government, is a direct reflection of the character of our people. It’s past time for them to do the will of the people rather than the will of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite who have no sense of caring about anything except the price of their stock—quality product and efficient service to customers, loyalty to employees, dedication to their country notwithstanding.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

Our Unresolved Problem(s)

          Problems unresolved are not unlike cancers that fester and fester until they burst with pain and devastation. The longer they fester, the greater the pain, the greater the devastation. Such it is with our great nation, a nation of many problems—currently, it seems, tired, broke, hungry, polarized, and twisting in the winds.

          To solve a problem, any problem, one must first identify it, get to the absolute root of the matter, decide what to do about it, and do it—too often a problem in and of itself. For far too long, we the people of the United States of America haven’t done this, preferring to shift our problems to a “back burner”, dealing with them with temporary “fixes”, passivism, and procrastination, which has cost us dearly.

          I submit to you that in these, the greatest times in the history of civilization, the two greatest problems confronting our nation today are a lack of concerted direction and xenophobia, i.e. racial discrimination. We have many serious problems before us—very serious; but, before they can be effectively resolved, we must above all, first resolve these two.

          I have discussed this in prior postings to this blog, from various aspects. We are heading in a direction, if we are not already there, wherein we are being ruled by an oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite which, contrary to our presently being a democratic republic “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, the extent of our freedoms will be determined by them. This is just not The United States of America. This is a global thing. Even now many of the rules under which you and I live are under the control of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Agenda 21 of the United Nations, etc. which transcends national boundaries. Even now, our government is negotiating so called Free Trade Agreements in secret (I’m thinking specifically of the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP], which will affect jobs and living standards for millions of us). We the people will have no say in it. Some will tell you we freely elected those who facilitate this, our Congress. We did? Keep in mind all the money which flows into the coffers of our representatives through the lobbyists of these Corporatists. Some even write the rules which go into these agreements. Does your representative answer your phone calls? You can bet on it. He, or she, answers theirs.

In 2013, Keynesian economist Joseph Stiglitz, himself a renown economist, warned that the TPP presented “grave risks” and it “serves the interests of the wealthiest”. Organized labor in the U.S. argues that the trade deal would largely benefit big business at the expense of the workers in manufacturing and service industries. The Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Economic and Policy Research have argued that the TPP could result in further job losses and declining wages. In December 2013, 151 House Democrats signed a letter written by Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and George Miller (D-Calif.) opposing the “Fast Track”

Let me briefly explain what is meant by the “Fast Track”. From Wikipedia, “the fast track negotiating authority for trade agreements is the authority of the President of the United States to negotiate international agreement that Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster. Also called trade promotion authority (TPA) since 2002, fast track negotiating authority is a temporary and controversial power granted to the President by Congress.” Wikipedia also states that “The authority was in effect from 1975 to 1994, pursuant to the Trade Act of 1974, and from 2002 to 2007 by the Trade Act of 2002. Although it expired for new agreements on July 1, 2007, it continued to apply to agreements already under negotiation until they were eventually passed into law in 2011. In 2012, the Obama administration began seeking renewal of the authority.”

You can read for yourself in Wikipedia a history and summary of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is just one event going on with the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, our Shadow Government. There are many more; and, in my mind, they are not in favor of the people—only the 1%, the very very rich and elite. Whether you believe in God or not, God made people. People made business. Business is supposed to serve the people. People should be in charge—not business. We must turn this around before we become their serfs.

I submit to you this is the greatest problem for our nation today. This is not the direction in which we should continue, and we must change that direction now. We the people must take back our country; but, to do that, we must all participate by voicing our demands. We cannot do that with only 40%, or whatever, going to the polls.

As I said above, the second greatest problem for our nation today is xenophobia, i.e. racial discrimination. I will post a candid discussion of this subject in my next blog. I’m sure what I say will be controversial, but it must be said. The successful resolution of almost all our future problems will depend upon the resolution of these two, our domination by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite and our resolution of Racial Discrimination.

Please, think about these things. Do you really want our country/your country to be run by these people—the huge corporations, banks, and the extremely rich and wealthy; or, do you want us to be a democratic republic as per our Constitution, a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people? I tell you. It is going, going, gone—unless you do something about it. You may think this is all a big joke but it isn’t. It really is in your hands. What are you going to do and when? When?

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net

It’s Christmas

It’s Christmas, a day during which we celebrate the birth of the Lord–a day in which we rejoice. It is He who gave us love, love for everybody, that we may live in peace and harmony with one another. It’s He who gave us marriage within which we can establish a family, nourish and raise our children, and perpetuate our kind. It is He who gave us salvation that we, through His grace, may spend eternity with him. It is He who gave us everything we need, along with the ability to work it all out–if we only will. It is He who is the reason for the season. To those who believe, I urge you. Take a moment. Worship Him. Tell others about him. To those who do not, that’s your right–you have freedom of choice; but, should you change your mind, He’ll be there for you, waiting–His arms open wide. I wish a Merry Christmas to all of you. May God Bless you all.

Ronald Miller

mtss86@comcast.net

Government Funding Bill for 2015

          Once again, the American people are about to be screwed by the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, the Shadow Government which really makes the decisions and runs this country, our pseudo democracy notwithstanding. A new law would make taxpayers potentially liable for Trillions of dollars in derivative losses in the event of another implosion of the market.

To make a very long and complex story short, derivatives, aka credit default swaps are the mortgage backed securities that led to the creation of the massive bubble in residential and commercial real estate and triggered its market collapse along with the near collapse of our banking system and economy in 2008 resulting in our “Great Recession”. I have heard numbers all over the place ranging from $400 Trillion to $900 Trillion, centering around $700 Trillion of derivatives in circulation throughout the world at that time. Called Toxic Assets, many, if not most, continue to remain on the books of the banks throughout our nation and the world today. Despite our government’s bailout of the financial markets, i.e. Wall Street, and the establishment of stronger market controls by the Dodd Frank Act, derivatives remain relatively uncontrolled to this day.

Now, let me tell you this. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States as of Q3, 2014 was estimated to be $17.555 Trillion. You don’t have to get all wrapped up in details to see the comparison of hundreds of trillions of dollars in potential liabilities with less than $20 Trillion in productivity.

In this new funding bill, Wall Street bank lobbyists have lobbied our representatives to insert a provision that would allow big banks to trade derivatives through subsidiaries that are federally insured by the FDIC. To quote Michael Snyder in his article in www.economiccollapse.com, “This would mean that the big banks would be able to continue their incredibly reckless derivatives trading without having to worry about the downside. If they win on their bets, the big banks would keep all the profits. If they lose on their bets, the federal government would come in and bail them out using taxpayer money. In other words, it would essentially be a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ proposition”. Presently, under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, these banks are required to move many of the transactions to other subsidiaries that are not insured by taxpayers. This new amendment would change that.

It goes downhill from here. In addition to this effort to weaken the financial swaps rule, there is a separate provision that would Triple the amount of money donors can contribute to political parties. Is our Shadow Government telling us they need even more money after Citizens United v. FEC in 2010 and McCutcheon v. FEC in 2013 court decisions?

Must we sell our souls to prevent shutting down the government? Those of you who lived before and during World War II surely remember the rise and fall of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Fascism. What has happened to our great nation and the trend in which it is going is unacceptable. We must turn around before it is too late. We the people must take back our country.

Ronald Miller

Email me at mtss86@comcast.net