Failure of Will

Today I read in the Sacramento Bee an article on the increase in gasoline prices. It seems that as the economy improves, demand is once again going up throughout the world and prices are rising. We may see the $4.00 per gallon of a couple years ago.

Meanwhile, the state of California, in a short sighted attempt to raise more revenue, went to a “flat tax rate” on instead of a percentage for its sales tax on gas. This means more revenue right now, but the amount cannot increase as the price of gas goes up.

Unbelievable! In other industrialized nations, gas taxes are very high, and variable. What this means is as the price of a gallon of gas goes up, say from $5.00 to $6.00, the amount of tax goes down so that the actual cost of a gallon of gas stays about the same. As the price of a gallon goes down, the amount of tax goes up, so the price stays about the same.

The trade off for this price stability and relative stable revenues is revenue for mass transportation, highway repair; etc.

Not in California: We see a tax system that actually adds to the volatility of gas prices.

Most countries began taxing gasoline at a high rate thirty years ago. Because Europe does not have native gas reserves, they realized that they simply could not tie their economic vitality to gasoline. So, they taxed at a high rate, working also to stabilize prices, and drove millions away from cars as their primary mode of transportation.

The United States, in contrast, because of access to cheap and supposedly endless petroleum reserves, allowed the price of gasoline for the consumer to rise and fall according to supply and demand.

The results of this were prosperity and convenience at first. But now, as cheap petroleum ends, and world demand goes up due to other economies growing, the prices of gas are damaging the American economy.

Americans were sold on the idea that a forty mile commute, stuck in traffic going 15 miles an hour, was somehow a desirable life style. Moreover, the petroleum industry has morphed into a greedy political and economic giant, refusing to face the reality that the American energy glutton lifestyle must change. It is ironic that the industry’s profits will continue to soar, as world demand goes up. However, the oil lobby stubbornly resists all American progressive efforts to change transportation modes to lessen individual reliance on cheap gas. In short, the oil companies want Americans to stay in their cars on the freeways until they literally bankrupt themselves.

So, California actually cuts their tax on gasoline in the middle of a chronic budget deficit.

California was the leader of the United States in lifestyle advances. The commuter, suburban lifestyle was copied in all but the most densely populate areas. Home buyers thought nothing of purchasing a home a hundred miles from work. Gasoline was cheap and cars were easy to purchase. Urban sprawl has been the standard; shopping centers were located miles from the center of a city, destroying downtown areas, spreading people away from one another.

Bus and train systems were junked in favor of private automobile travel. And, freight transportation was shifted from trains to truck; all in the name of efficiency.

The result of this madness is a system of transportation that relies completely on cheap gasoline and diesel that are running out.

This leaves the United States and an incredible disadvantage relative to the world economy. Other nations have transportation systems that are dramatically more efficient and less reliant on cheap gas. Many Europeans, for example, do not even own cars, but rely on public transportation to get to work. Cities have not sprawled, so commuting to work is often a walk.

Now don’t misunderstand; as fuel prices increase due to dwindling supply, other nations will suffer as well. The diesel to run trains will be more expensive, air travel will suffer; etc. But, the dependency on cheap fuel is so much less, that economic damage will be far less than in the United States.

A dollar increase in the price of a gallon of gas will wreck havoc on the American economy, changing political power, causing unemployment and huge dislocations the American way of life. A two dollar increase, which will happen in the next five years as “peak oil” becomes apparent, will force Americans to look for alternative transportation methods that simply do not exist: passenger train travel is a museum piece in California in most areas.

And, the state government, bowing to conservative anti-tax FANATICS, has actually cut taxes on gas. This has eliminated the best method to force Californians out of their cars and to fund mass transportation.

Americans just don’t have the will to change; and petroleum companies intend to keep it that way.

And, conservative nihilists, who hate government in every form, push to rely on the free market to resolve this dilemma. These fanatics are backed by a petroleum lobby, intent on virtually enslaving Americans to a system that will ruin lives and what is left of the economy.

Do not Tolerate Barbour

Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s presidential hopeful, a few days ago distinguished himself as a cracker, and hopefully disqualified himself from the Presidency.

Mr. Barbour, who is being given credit for the Republican “landslide” of 2010, decided to again rewrite history, as a conservative southern Republican. His rewrite efforts, typical of what we call a southern “cracker” (white southern male, bigoted, white supremest, racist but quiet about it, and apologist for the treason of the south during the Civil War), was centered on his memories as a young confederate loving lad that “things were not that bad” in the ‘60s Mississippi racist society.

He is referring to Mississippi in the 50s and 60s. He is referring to to White Citizen’s Councils, whose history during the Civil Rights struggle was one of violence, segregation and economic punishment, trying to destroy the NAACP and drive “uppity Negroes”, and Jews by the way, out of Mississippi. The White Citizens Councils did not only target the NAACP but any individuals who dare challenge the institutionalized segregation and racism.

Mississippi was the worst, its overt and indirect racism and violence were the most toxic anywhere, according to Civil Rights workers and federal authorities at the time. Medger Evers was assassinated by a member of a White Citizens Council, three Civil Rights workers, one Jewish one White and one African-American, were murdered and buried in a levee, and found only after an intensive manhunt, utilizing federal marshals and finally, troops. Members of the local White Citizens Council, who knew where the young men were buried, kept silent, forcing a week’s long search.

Those responsible were first acquitted, and I still remember the Life Magazine photograph showing the sheriff of the county, who also participated in the killings, chewing tobacco and mocking the court. Eventually some of the perpetrators were brought to justice. Medger Evers’ killer was finally convinced in the 1990s, almost 40 years after the murder! His killer had been free for almost half a century, and his White Citizens Council friends knew he had done it. They knew he was a murderer and accepted him, in fact protected him.

This would be similar to a child molester being protected by a church??? Hmmm..

Lynchings, church bombings, discrimination using firings of “uppity” blacks, and attacks on federal officials who were trying to stop the insanity were the norm, not the exception in Mississippi.

And, today, under Mr. Barbour’s leadership, Mississippi still has a long way to go. The state has one of the worst public education systems in the United States, one of the highest poverty rates, highest unemployment rates, and most of the victims of this economic injustice are still African-Americans. Basically, not much has really changed.

What Mr. Barbour has been able to do, under the guise of conservatism, is to maintain a de-facto society of racial discrimination and injustice that rivals the Jim Crowe era. If you are African-American or a person of color in Mississippi you still are a second class citizen.

Every once in awhile, he slips, and the truth comes out. There is no doubt who is in control in Mississippi, even though there are now African American judges, sheriffs, and even mayors. White Citizen Councils simple changed their names to Conservative Committees.

In 1968, southern Democrats, angry about the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voter Rights Act, abandoned their century long allegiance to the Democratic Party and switched over to the Republican Party. The party of Lincoln, who had led the north to defeat the Confederacy, was joined by segregationists (crackers) under the guise of states rights, local control, and hatred of the federal government.

I can just imagine Lincoln or Grant’s reaction to this, the G.O.P. who had led the destruction of slavery, and whose Radicals had actually tried to help the freed slaves in the post Civil War south to attain some freedoms and justice, now welcome the same bigoted crackers into the party. The Party of Lincoln has now become the Party of Barbour!

The crackers are in the G.O.P. now. They not only belong, but they now run it!

Senate Republicans, with endless filibusters, are aimed directly at destroying an African American President. The Republican Senate leader, from Kentucky of course, has actually proclaimed that the primary aim of his caucus is to destroy the President.

I cannot remember ever an opposing Senate leader making such a statement. Of course, this is a southern Republican Senator.

Both Barbour and McConnell share the same cracker backgrounds. They both don’t think segregation and racism in the south wasn't “all that bad” because they are WHITE SOUTHERNERS!

Barbour represents the racist Republican southern wing, who has taken over the Republican Party. Many current Tea Party leaders are from the south. Mitt Romney, who almost comically tries to be a conservative, has two huge problems: 1. He is a northerner. 2. He is a Mormon. There is no way the southern dominated Republican Party will nominate him.

So, we are looking at a political fight, pitting an African American President against a cracker Republican in 2012.

In a real sense, we are looking at the Civil War replayed politically, because the south has never accepted, still doesn't accept, African Americans as human beings.

That may sound harsh, but it is true. Barbour represents a resurgence of racism in the United States. Every time this has happened the results have been tragic for the United States.

I only hope, that if this does happen, and if the federal government (the north) again prevails, like it has in the past fifty years, that this time we do it right, and destroy the racist south forever. That means jail, punishment of treason by death, and war!

That’s right, war! Barbour and his ilk, know only one thing, and that ultimately is domination and violence. The Radical Republicans in the post Civil War era, wanted to permanently occupy the south, and radically alter the racist foundation of white supremacy. At the end of the upcoming struggle, we need to follow their example.

“Subjugate the south, punish the south, lead a crusade of social and economic justice down on the heads of the southern bigots and traitors, and eradicate their evil forever.”

These are the words of Radical Republicans in the 1870s. Lincoln, and Johnson (a southerner), both sought to reconcile, and “bind the nation’s wounds”. Unfortunately, the south took this as a weakness, and were able to maintain the same injustice that had existed before the war, dooming African Americans to racial inequality not only in the south but also in the north for one hundred years.

The struggles of twentieth century Civil Rights are a direct result of this failure to adequately reform or punish the south after the Civil War.

The Civil Rights Act has proved that racism can be stopped, but only if people are punished under the law. Racism is a crime, and the resulting discrimination and injustice ruins communities and nations. Only by really losing something, like freedom, will a racist stop. Jail has a way of reforming racists, especially when confronted with angry African American prisoners!

Barbour should not be tolerated; he should be destroyed as a viable candidate and hounded until he gets out of public service. Only by being punished will he learn the evil of his ways.

Let Them Go!

It is absolutely amazing what the “lame duck” Congress has done in the past few days: a controversial, and possibly deficit busting tax cut extension, repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a tragic failure to pass the Dream Act (but a good effort); all these come in spite of southern Republicans continuing their mindless nihilism.

It is almost like McConnell, one of the worst Senators in United States history, is trying to desperately stop any hint of bipartisanship. He came out against the Start Treaty, with some flimsy excuse that things were too hurried. This comes after literally months of research, debate and minute vetting of the treaty.

Meanwhile, Korea is about to blow up. And McConnell needs more time to anger Russia, by dragging his feet. We just might need Russia to help temper the emerging crisis in Korea. But McConnell’s sensabilities are more important. He is one of the most selfish bigots in the parade of southern bigots that make up the core of the Republican southern racist block.

Of course, an armed conflict in Korea, costing thousands if not millions of lives, would be part of the Republican playbook; anything to defeat Obama, even if it means the end of the world.

So, again we watch as a southern senator basically hopes for a catastrophe just so the black President can be discredited. The racism and hatred is so thick you can almost taste it

Sometimes I wonder what would have been so bad if the south had stayed out of the union. There is little doubt that after the Civil War the south would have remained a poor backwater, all the slaves would have left and gone to the north. And, it is probable that the north, growing immensely stronger, would have invaded and destroyed the south in subsequent wars, leaving the south in a state like say, Peru, or Chile. No, that would have been too good a fate for them.

It would have been interesting when football teams like Alabama ventured north in a “goodwill game”, in between wars, to be annihilated by Ohio State 120-0, since the small, slow all white players could not even compete with the integrated northerners.

We have lived with these bigoted jerks for over 100 years, and now, the conservative racist southern block is once again stopping progress for the nation. Just as with the Jim Crowe era, southern Senators are becoming more racist and reactionary, blocking reforms, forcing their minority bigoted ways down the rest of our throats.

And it isn’t like we need this right now. Global warming is beginning to have direct effects on the world, while southern conservatives block critically needed change. The economy is beginning to resemble the southern oligarchy that so dominates that area today, where a few rich control the many poor. Democracy is attacked at every turn, the Senate filibusters everything, denying justice to millions.

It is the same thing that the nation endured from 1870 to 1965. Southern racists were able to stop progress, dooming entire generations to economic and social injustice. The consequences of this are evident every day, in high African American drop out and prison rates. The damage the twisted southern culture renders on everyone who is not white or rich, is massive.

So the next time some southern Governor make some comment about considering secession, let’s take them up on it, and tell the traitorous jerks to get out.

Then, once they are out, destroy their economy and their culture like the north should have finished in 1870.

I am fed up.

Accountability

Today, for the ubteenth time, the Sacramento Bee carried another article on how the courts are forcing California to reform its health care of prisoners. A critical part of this issue is the huge overcrowding of California’s prisons.

Moreover, I have read a multitude of articles about the federal deficit, and the recent “compromise” that will continue tax cuts; adding dramatically to the deficit.

I also read articles about the health insurance industry, noting increasing costs and unfairness.

And don’t forget Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq’s latest disappointment is the exodus of Christians from Iraq vis-à-vis radical attacks on Christian neighborhoods. Afghanistan is an endless pit of American lives and resources, with little progress in sight.

I could go on with more examples, but I will briefly comment on our conservative friends contributions in: 1. Prison reform. 2. Federal spending and the deficit. 3. Health care. 4. Foreign policy and terrorism.

Prison Reform: We can thank the conservative philosophy for our mess in California’s prisons. Several years ago, the conservative approach prevailed in California criminal law, lavishing money on building more prisons to house a criminal population thanks to the “three strikes law”, ending indeterminate sentences; basically “cracking down” on criminals with tougher laws and less tolerance. Conservatives prevailed with the public in attacking “bleeding heart liberals” who pushed for rehabilitation and treating drug abuse as a disease and not a crime. The get tough on crime crowd pushed tougher prisons, taking education and rehab programs out, making the medical care spartan, and ran straight into lawsuits that show what this insane approach can produce: more crime, out of control spending overcrowding, inhumane medical treatment, and “cruel and inhuman punishment”.

A by-product of California conservatives being flat wrong is a prison system that is sucking the financial well-being of the state down a hole of corruption; prison guards who are paid like brain surgeons; etc. California is bankrupt, while incarcerating record numbers of non-violent offenders. The War on Drugs and the War on Crime are having the effect of destroying the public schools and public health programs. We spend more on warehousing drug addicts in prison than we do on kindergartens and colleges!

And it has not worked! Drug abuse is at record levels. Crime has not declined, in fact is even more violent. Recidivism rates are above 35%, prisons are becoming schools for teaching more violent behavior. “Law and Order” has produced lawlessness and disorder.

There is no accountability for these boneheaded mistakes that are harming our society. No conservative think tank has done any study on this train wreck of public policy. They just don’t talk about it, while the rest of us are left with the mess.

Federal spending and deficits: The Tea Party Movements, at least according to their own propaganda, declares that Republicans blew it during the Bush administration that produced record deficits. They promise, in their congressional declaration, to address overspending and deficits. But, they neglect to count tax cuts as cuts in revenue that directly result in drops in revenue that add to the deficit.

Tea Party members also deny any connection between two wars and tax cuts on the deficit. Finally, Republicans push for a “compromise” while holding unemployment extensions hostage, that will add massively to the deficit.

In California we have seen the Republican Party embrace tax cuts on everything including park fees but no real effort to embark on any spending cuts other than on “waste”. They do not have the stomach to actually cut the public schools, they just set up a deficit that results in starving the schools to death.

This tax cut mania has resulted in a chronic deficit in California that has resulted in the virtual destruction of public schools, highway construction, parks; you name it.

Do the conservatives show any accountability for this disaster? Of course not, they only push for more tax cuts, declaring that taxes are job killers, while their tax cuts result in an unemployment rate over 10%!

Health Care: American’s health care system has been increasingly privatized in the past fifty years. Public health once non-profit and community based, has now become part of the national for profit insurance industry. Private insurers enjoy a virtual monopoly on health care, dictating to doctors, hospitals and consumers everything from basic care, to prescription drugs. Death panels exist alright, but not in government, but in private insurance cabals, who literally decide who will live and who will die based on their profit bottom lines. This is the “wonder” of free enterprise reform according to the conservatives, leading us to economic disaster. Nearly 40% of our GDP will be spent on health insurance if this continues, which is unsustainable.

Of course, conservatives take no blame for this. In fact, they have now vowed to destroy the federal health care reform, at the bidding of the health insurance monopoly. Every indicator of health shows the United States to be paying far more for health care than other countries with deplorable results. This sounds like the prison reforms shown above. We pay more for a reform that gives us less. We pay millions for prisons, and get more crime and prisoners. We pay more for health insurance and get less care for our money; more suffering, less medicine. And the rich get richer.

Foreign Policy and Terrorism: We have been engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade with little results. First, there were no weapons of mass destruction so President Bush made up the policy of bringing peace and democracy to Iraq. The results are massive amounts of money spent, with a country that cannot protect its citizens from each other. Trillions have been thrown away on “privatized contractors” who have failed in every area to provide water, electricity, or security to the citizens of Iraq. The rich get richer.

Afghanistan, where the policy is to deny its area as a terrorism training ground, has deteriorated into a terrorism training ground and a rallying area for resistance and hatred toward America. Again, trillions are being spent and the country is in turmoil, not able to govern itself, with little progress.

And, Bin Laden is still at large after all this money spent and lives lost. The architect of 9-11 is still alive and guiding international terrorism.

Again, no accountability for the neo-cons who got us into these messes. None! Conservatives now criticize President Obama as he tries to extricate the United States from both wars as they bankrupt us. The hypocrisy is legend.

Conservatives have been wrong time and again. But they cleverly package a message, based on lies, that Americans and Californians find compelling. If the public would just apply the basic accountability standards in a cost-benefit analysis, they would be appalled by the cost benefit ratio: in all areas it will be negative, far more cost than benefit.

The conservative philosophy has no tangible results to prove that their ideas have worked. If held accountable by any fair standard, they have failed, at great cost with negative benefits.

More Dropouts

Today, in the Sacramento Bee, dropout statistics were released for several local districts. One district, with a high minority population “improved” from 33% to 25%. This “improvement” has occurred in the past year

A dropout rate of 5% would be reason for serious concern. A person simply cannot function at ANY level in the current economy with no high school diploma. Moreover, the lack of actual education is telling, and there are hosts of studies that show a high school dropout is virtually assured of a life filled with poverty.

So, why in the world do we have 1/3 of our inner city youth dropping out of high school all around the country?

Meanwhile, yet another “school reform” movement is gaining steam, this time assaulting teachers and unions for allegedly blocking reform. Yet again, we will see months of effort and lots of money thrown at reforming education, new studies, endless debates, and little progress.

What happened, why can’t America get this right?

First of all, we blew it over 50 years ago; in the 1960s, due to the prodding of Martin Luther King, America finally addressed the social, psychological and economic damage that over three hundred years of institutionalized racism had caused. Studies of this damage were done, and college classes developed to study this damage (I took several). The Civil Rights Act was passed over southern filibusters, in 1964 and the Voters Rights Act followed. Jim Crowe finally died, and the S.E.C. had its first black football player in 1972. 1972? I thought the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, why an eight year hiatus?

Why indeed… In 1968 Bob Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated. And, Richard Nixon was elected President. In 1968 real reform that was embodied in President Johnson’s War on Poverty stopped; meaning only four years (1964-1968) dealt with three hundred years of discrimination, violence and racism. And, we were fighting the Vietnam war during that time. Four years was all we took to try to address 300 years of discrimination. No wonder we failed.

Nixon won the Presidency with a “southern strategy” that essentially was a rebirth of centuries of racism and prejudice. Forced integration through busing was resisted and defeated, fair housing was resisted, everywhere a backlash took place and the “silent majority” reacted, flooding into a new Republican Party that now houses the southern racist Democrats who had successfully resisted civil rights reform since the Civil War.

There was no systematic approach socially, politically or economically to mend the centuries of abuse and racism. Anything that was started was snuffed out. “Law and Order” was the reaction to the riots of the 60s. Jim Crowe, cleverly disguised this time, re-emerged on the Republican side.

Education had been selected by the Supreme Court in “Brown vs. the Board of Education” as the institution to lead civil rights reform. It took a little more than 20 years to stop this fledgling reform in its tracks.

Private schools in the south moved the rich white students out of public schools, and now Charter Schools do the same thing, moving African American students out of public schools into Charter Schools, with the mistaken idea that segregation from poor public schools will somehow help the inequalities of the society.

And the schools? Well, in the last 50 years we have removed almost all vocational classes from the curriculum, transforming the schools to college prep academies for all. Any vocational orientation is attacked as racist, relegating minorities away from college.

The problem is, many young people do not want to go to college; or their family backgrounds have no college tradition in them.

What this actually has done, is to discourage millions of students, of all backgrounds, who need vocational orientated curriculum to keep them connected to school.

Students drop out of high school because they encounter failure constantly and find the college prep curriculum irrelevant. They do not want to go to college; they want to graduate and go to work. They want to work in technical fields. They want to farm. They want to be trained to work in specific, non-college required fields, like air conditioning repair, install solar panels, etc.

For three hundred years, African Americans were subjugated, discriminated against, and beat down. There are lasting social and economic consequences of this injustice. America has never adequately addressed this injustice.

The Black family was destroyed; African American men were attacked if they attempted to move up. The consequence of this, especially in the ghettos of the north, was to develop a caste system of American males, relegating them to low paying jobs and essentially emasculating them. Soul on Ice was a classic that explained this, and was immediately attacked by the white majority as reverse racism. The book hit too close, that is why it was attacked.

In the black community, a matriarchy developed, with men practicing a kind of polygamy, not held accountable for their multiple families, with women bearing the family responsibility. The male African-American was attacked, reviled, and belittled.

The damage to male African-Americans persists today and is reflected in the 25% incarceration rate. There are positive role models that have emerged in the past fifty years, we do have an African-American President after all. And, African-American men have emerged in professional circles and in the athletic arena, but gang activity, rap, and unemployment has once again dragged them down to the lower ranks of society.

The fact is black men still occupy the lowest rungs of the social and economic ladder, with upward mobility still a dream for many. Black males make up a large proportion of the 1/3 of students who drop out of American high schools every year.

White Americans have traditionally been repulsed by this socio-economic reality, and deny any responsibility. Whites, especially the working class, constantly stereotype African Americans as promiscuous, lazy and welfare cheaters. This is a core value of the Tea Party Movement, that poor people, especially those of African Americans and Latino immigrants, are lazy, cheat, do not work hard. The stereotypes of America's racist past are still very strong in the white, uneducated working class middle class male, who make up most of the reactionary political right.

They conveniently forget 300 years of slavery and discrimination, and act like the Civil Rights Act fixed everything. It did not! The fact that the vast majority of what is left in the"reformed" (cheaper) welfare system are white is ignored. By weakening welfare, the racist white male, feels they can punish lazy men of color. Of course, by attacking welfare, poor whites are most affected, AND children of color are damaged, resulting in high drop out rates. It is tough to attend school, when your family is broke and you need to work so there is food. The streets win again.

These are all social facts that scores of studies have determined. All of these studies have been ignored for years, because of huge social, economic and political costs. To really address the damage will take billions of dollars in retraining, education, building a nation where social and economic justice is the norm, not the exception.

And the results of these efforts will be slow in coming, taking great patience. It could take 100 years to undo the damage of 300. Real change will be generational.

So, who did we assign this almost impossible task to, without any real funding or national commitment: the educator; the individual teacher, who decides to teach in a poverty area, for less pay, more stress, more danger, and no appreciation whatsoever.

What do the other “bright” college grads do? Why, they go into investment banking and cheat/steal their way to riches. Or, they quickly pass though a superficial association with education then declare themselves born again reformers, write books, and get rich like Ms. Rhee.

Only “losers” go into teaching and stay there; according to Michelle Rhee only the dull get credentials. Of course she was in Teach for America, a Cornell Grad, who then got a Masters from Harvard, spent three years teaching, not bothering to get a credential, gets appointed chancellor of Washington D.C., screws that up, and now is touted by Oprah as the answer to America’s educational “crisis”.

Please….this is nonsense! It is yet another excuse to not really pay legitimate attention to the social and political disaster that is already consuming the nation.

This sore on the nation’s conscience has been there for 150 years. Radical Re-constructionists failed during the 1870s to go into the south and protect the freed slaves, resulting in Jim Crowe repression. In the north, institutional racism existed until the mid-twentieth century. Then, as I have explained, there was a brief, glimmer of hope, which was crushed by the conservative wave of the late twentieth century.

And Michelle Rhee, a Korean immigrant, somehow can change this? Give me a break!

How do I know this? I taught and worked in schools and districts where students came from the aforementioned families, where you could taste the anger, smell the frustration and lived the violence every single day. I sat across from Native American children, and even though I am part Native American myself, listened to the hatred of the white ranchers who “stole our land”, and" raped my grandmother". This came from a 14 year old Native American, who hated white people so much she would not attend school (she suffered from fetal-alcohol syndrome).

We cannot ignore history. We have tried and it keeps catching up with us. It is finally manifesting itself in the slow decline we see today, as a 10% unemployment rate is the norm and is made up mostly by people of color.

That is why there is widespread disdain and distrust for educators in these communities. History follows us. People lash out at those closest to them. Investment bankers do not go into Watts!

It is not cool to like school in the Hood. Some even see schools as white man’s repression. And, negative images of education are supported with comments like the ones Michelle Rhee constantly makes: teachers are selfish, dull, underachievers, who worry more about retirement than kids.

She stresses that we need to talk about the students, and not the adult problems. She preaches that educators spend more time on themselves than on the kids. She obviously has not spend ANY time in a typical elementary school lunch room, where all they talk about EVERYDAY are kids, their problems, their issues; endlessly. What planet is she on? Go by any elementary school, and note the teacher cars in the parking lot at 5 or 6 o'clock. These are teachers who only care about themselves?

And wealth can be stolen, or cooked in the drug market: Rap music and the popular culture looks down on education as not hip. It is cool to drop out, sell dope, live in the fast lane, join a gang, resist authority, be a street tough; which for some lands them in prison. Why listen to that loser teacher, nobody else does!

And, to make it worse, schools today do not offer any valid alternatives to a strict college prep curriculum, leaving nothing for students who want to pursue a career as a mechanic, or technology specialist. In California you have to pass Algebra to graduate, and because the state does not trust schools, a high school exit test has to be passed, at about the 8^th grade level, even though billions have been spent on “standards based textbooks”. The mistrust of teachers and Principals is palatable.

It is always interesting to talk to most of my college graduate friends. A vast majority pick Algebra as there most hated subject in high school, and least utilized in their adult lives. But, all California high school graduates must now pass a subject that the vast majority hate, and find useless. No wonder so many drop out! How about forcing all seniors to pass a class in everyday economic skills, how to avoid being taken by banks who sell credit cards that are traps, how to figure a mortgage so you don’t walk into foreclosure, things like that? Oh no, we graduate algebra students, who as adults are incurring huge debts, making horrible consumer decisions, and don’t know how to balance a checkbook!

The only thing everyone keeps harping on is going to college; not telling students that the economy can only support about 20% college graduates, while churning out 40%. Someone is going to lose!

There is no alternative but the street for the young man or woman who does not want to go to college. So, they drop out!

In a sense the streets are winning out over college, because there are no other choices. And politicians like Rhee are insuring this continues, because of the unremitting attack on teachers. If the system does not trust you, and blames you, how on earth are the kids going to respect you?

And, what better way to set up an excuse for the lack of a student’s achievement? The student comes to school already being told the teacher is lousy, lazy and selfish. How does that build any kind of trust in a population that already hates school? It’s not MY fault; it’s the teacher’s fault!

Progressives and racist conservatives are actually both contributing to a system that encourages students to drop out. Progressives hate vocational courses because they think students would be “discriminated against” by being in a vocational track. Racists are happy with the highly charged curriculum, because they know a student from a broken home, with little parental support, will rarely succeed in a college track course of study.

They then stand back and say, “See, I told you the Blacks couldn’t learn. My great great grandfather was right not allowing Blacks to learn how to read, they are inferior”.

The racist myth is encouraged by progressives trying to do the right thing, in the wrong way.

Reformers like Rhee push for standardized tests to evaluate teacher performance, and want to apply them to inner city school systems. Now we see pre and post tests in the year a teacher has a student, which is somehow “fair”.

Of course, the fact that at risk students usually come into a class, years behind in grade level reading, and the longer they are in school, the more behind they are (try reading a 12^th grade textbook with a 5^th grade reading level), and the smaller the annual growth.

High school teachers in poverty areas are guaranteed to fail! I will bet Ms. Rhee NEVER took a class in how to teach a child to read. That’s right, read! Reading is the cornerstone of a student’s learning tools, without an at level reading level, failure is almost certain.

Most people, who proclaim themselves experts on learning, do not have a clue about basic learning skills. Reading achievement is a building block of all learning, yet is ignored by politicians like Rhee.

A teacher is expected to perform miracles, with students who literally hate her guts because they can’t read the book. We content ourselves with the occasional “Stand and Deliver” story, of the exceptional teacher who actually breaks though and gets smart underachieving kids to produce, while the vast majority fail.

And, those “exceptional teachers” usually quit teaching and get rich writing a book, or making a movie. Like Rhee, their experience with schools is from a distance and is fleeting, but profitable.

So, the public schools fail. And the teachers who have the courage to go into inner city schools are lambasted as incompetent, or worse, and made scapegoats for the failings of American society. Everyday, thousands of young, bright teachers are consumed by this monster. Everyday, they fail, and take thousands of students with them.

Everyday, another reformer pops up, spouting the nonsense that gives America the excuse to continue the failure.

Meanwhile, Charter Schools, Private Schools and Religious Schools are celebrated, offering sanctuary for students fleeing the dysfunctional public schools. A recent movie “Finding Superman” pathetically shows students waiting for the results of a lottery, so they can escape the poor public schools for charter schools, where they might have a chance.

What about the millions who don’t have anywhere to run? Why not fix the public schools rather than run from them?

Racists love this, since it returns us to the segregated schools of the past that were a bulwark of the Jim Crowe system.

And, statistics show that American’s schools are as segregated today as they were in the 1960s. We are going the wrong way.

As America competes in the global economy, with nations of color, we segregate our schools based on color. Doesn’t anyone wonder what an Indian Engineer might say; walking through a Charter School that is all African-American, while the nearby public school is a cesspool of failure and violence, where the whites are all living on the hill, sending their kids to private schools?

I will bet that Indian businessman will think twice about building a factory in such a dysfunctional community.

Here are my credentials: Two years in Del Paso Heights, Sacramento, teaching Opportunity Class for kids on Probation and Learning Handicapped Jr. High kids. Eight years in a rural school, half as a teacher of at risk kids, half as Assistant Principal and Principal with a Native American population of about 20% and a very low socio-economic population. Two years as a Superintendent of a poor rural district with a 40% Native American population. The rest of the 35 years were in a suburban/rural district; however four years as Principal of an Alternative Education Continuation High School.

So I have been there. At least 16 of my 35 years were spent in at risk, low socio-economic, minority dominated schools, encountering everyday the learning problems/challenges listed above.

I started as a Stanford graduate, from an elite college like Ms. Rhee, wanting to make a difference precisely because of the civil rights history explained above.

I remember encountering the “old pros” that had to adapt a tough, almost non-caring exterior; otherwise the poverty and injustice would drive them mad. This exterior, I think, is what so turned Ms. Rhee against teachers. She never taught long enough to find out why the teachers were so jaded. Try spending a career dealing with difficult children who hate you and the system you represent!

I saw many of my peers quit because they got tired of literally risking their well-being to teach. We used to call it the seven year itch, the most dedicated lasted about that long, and either quit or transfered to suburban “safe” schools.

I saw assaults, verbal abuse, and was more than once threatened with death by students and parents. In fact, my last year, was completed under a death threat for suspending a Native American student. That is the way I went out, with sheriff deputies protecting me.

Those are the realities of teaching in “mean street” schools. It pounds you, it smashes your idealism, and more often than not, you are ignored or hated by those who try to help, you fight the fight alone, everyday for years, unappreciated and scorned.

What does this do? It creates the “loser teachers” than now are being blamed for the “failure” of inner-city schools in America. People like Michelle Rhee, blame the teacher for the failure of inner city schools, blame the unions, blame everyone but who is REALLY to blame: the American People.

We are to blame. A citizenry that ignored three hundred years of brutal racism, people who have no feelings for genocide that killed over 90% of Native Americans in 300 years, and who then incredibly expect everything to be “fixed” because a couple laws were passed and a Supreme Court ruled a certain way.

This is patently nonsense. Ask the teacher in the failing school; ask them why it isn’t working. They will tell you because America does not care. Americans have been allowed to run away, to hide, and to not own up to the damage that has been done.

America everyday brutalizes its children, fixes the game so over 30% drop out of high school, and then cuts programs to help the poor because of political agendas.

And the cost is enormous. In my native state of California, we spend far more on incarceration than on higher education, our prison population per capita is one of the largest IN THE WORLD.

We incarcerate more people of color as a percentage of our population than anywhere else on earth! That includes the dictatorships of North Korea, Iran; etc.

An African American male has about a 25% chance of being in prison during his lifetime in the United States!

And it’s the teachers’ fault. It’s the teacher unions’ fault. And the solution is to privatize schools, shut down public schools, give up on the American Dream.

The only good thing is that history cannot be conned. Social and economic rot ultimately will bring a society, even one so dominated by the rich as ours, DOWN.

Talk to a teacher. Ask them what is wrong. They will tell you. One is telling you right now. WE ARE WHAT IS WRONG. QUIT BLAMING THE TEACHER. START TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MESS WE HAVE CAUSED.

Finally, we are not an “exceptional nation”; look at any statistical ranking, test scores, or health care, and we rank well down the list.

We are a country that has ignored the racial, social and economic injustices of the past, and carry them over into a future that is looking bleaker all the time.

Yet Again

I read with great distress, the recent brainstorm that the Gates Foundation is evidently backing: using digital video to improve what conventional wisdom uses to blame failures of our educational system: evaluating teachers.

I must say I was amused. Years ago, when video tape cameras became cheap enough for school districts to use them, some administrators got the bright idea to video tape classes. Of course, the cameras were large and bulky, made noise, and were distracting. That was only the first problem.

There were a lot of problems. One obvious one was that the camera was one dimensional. The sound was usually awful, because the classroom did not have multiple microphones. And, the scope of the camera was very limited. So what you got was a picture of the teacher all the time, barely in focus, with rapid blurry shifts from the teacher to whoever answered a question. This lasted for a few minutes, and then all you got was a steady shot of the teacher, the teacher, the teacher. You saw no student reaction or on task behavior at all.

I am sure the new digital equipment will be more adaptable. But, who will run the camera? If it is not an experienced teacher/administrator then forget it. Just as the person who runs the camera determines the accuracy of the picture (and quality for that matter) the cameraman is essential when using video to improve instruction. So, you will have to pay someone to run the camera who knows what they are doing.

“Knows what they are doing”, is the operative phrase here.

The entire thing is knowing what you are doing. I am listening to Michelle Rhee, who just said tenure and the teacher’s unions are the problem of education. She was recently responsible for her boss getting fired; he lost re-election, in Washington D.C., because she ran the schools not knowing what she was doing. She admits she did not build consensus, did not relate to teachers, did not relate to parents, but she closed a bunch of schools, and improved a few others. And she got her mayor fired by turning the system upside down. She didn't have a clue. Now, she is an expert of school reform? What?

Why tenure? Just go to one school board meeting anywhere. The United States’ educational system is failing because of the local school board system. We put people in charge of the schools who don’t know what they are doing. Then we worry that the system is not working.

What other profession on earth has lay people running them? Would Doctors allow lay people on their regulatory boards? Would lawyers let shop keepers on their bar committees; of course not! But, educators at the K-12 level, even Charter Schools, are governed by “the people”, who don’t know anything about education; who resent educators, who have hidden agendas, and sometimes are not honest.

School boards have political and personal agendas. Teachers were fired before tenure, for their political views, if they got married, if they were seen having a beer on a Saturday; all sorts of nonsense. There were women who were fired because they got pregnant scarcely thirty years ago!

That is why you have tenure, for professional protection from unprofessional school boards.

Our local elementary school district was just ripped apart by a Board President whose wife was stealing money from the school she worked at as a library aide. He was able to hide the crime, and threatened the Superintendent, who hesitated to do anything since he had the votes to get her fired. When the crime was finally exposed, by the Principal of the school, who was almost fired for her courage, the Superintendent quit, the Board President quit, the Board is left with a mess, and the children suffer. The credibility of the Board and the Superintendent was destroyed. How does this mess lead educational reform?

This kind of nonsense happens all the time. Local school boards have meetings with hundreds of furious parents, because the board has decided to do something that is completely nuts! Read any local newspaper for a short time and you will find school board malfeasance all over the place! Superintendents, highly educated and highly paid, spend 90% of their time “babysitting” school boards, dealing with irrational behavior and worse by board members. Capable leaders are fired all the time, because they take on school board tyrants, only the Superintendents who can “get along” with wacko board members survive. How do I know this, because I was one!

If you stand up for rational behavior, you risk being fired.

Our educational system does not work because of the fundamental flaw in its governance. We need to do away with local school boards, and install professional Boards, organized regionally, that enforce national learning standards and goals. And, this needs to be federalized. States have no reason to be running schools. Check out China, I will bet their system is nationalized, as is most of the developed world!

We need to professionalize our school system from top to bottom. If this is done, the need to unionize will decline rapidly. And, we will see a viable and effective evaluation system because professionals will be running the system.

So, put away your video cameras Mr. Gates, and start pushing for more fundamental reform; change the governance system, centralize it and streamline it.

We spend so much on education without much pay off, because we have a labyrinth of governance that discourages effective reform. Until we make that fundamental governance reform, we are wasting a whole lot of money to accomplish nothing.

It’s the system stupid!

On Taxes, Promises and Other Things

So the deal has been struck, but not yet ratified. The Republicans, operating from a position of strength, forced the President’s hand, and in one feel swoop discredited all their propaganda about deficit concern that got them elected (according to their propaganda).

Of course, the true engine behind the Republican taking of the House, was the economy and job loss. The reason for the Republican surge was that many Democrats stayed home, and the conservative base was energized through the use of Tea Party creation and lots of money.

And who put up the money? The rich of course.... And who gets paid back with two more years of a tax cut they don’t need, the rich. The Republicans are able to pay back for the millions they received from the super rich during the election, with a sweet deal that not only gives a huge tax cut but weakens the estate tax.

Both of these developments sharply curtail efforts to redistribute income in the country. Every analysis I have read about the Great Depression, lists an imbalance of the riches toward the rich, as a major reason for the Depression. There is only so much wealth in an economy. If that wealth is concentrated in a few, the many suffer, and a dynamic growing economy is stifled.

This reality is even more credible given the world economy of today. The rich don’t invest in America with their extra money; they invest in China, Brazil, India; etc.

Tax cuts don’t stimulate the economy. They only serve to increase the deficit, unless the government makes equal cuts.

The “trade”, continuing unemployment benefits for over a year, is more government spending at the same time tax cuts are made. This is a double whammy, that drives up deficits.

Of course, this is exactly opposite to the conservative fiscal discipline that dozens of tea party Republicans were elected on.

Get ready for a battle to cut government spending: Social Security and Medicare.

Conservatives must do this, because they were elected with they erroneously claim is a mandate to cut the deficit. Some of the tea party new congressmen, actually believe the B.S. they got elected under.

If the President resists these cuts, they will immediately accuse him of being a big spender. They, of course, will take no responsibility for any of this, as they always do.

However, what else could the President do? If he does not compromise, a huge tax increase begins in January, and could destroy any hope for economic recovery. And, the Republicans seemed intent on not extending unemployment which could have led millions homeless, and take billions out of a struggling economy.

The true test will come if the extension of tax cuts doesn’t stimulate the economy. The history of stimulus is not encouraging. Then, all we get is a growing deficit, no job growth, and a disaster. This is a great danger!

If the tax cuts and modifications don’t grow the economy, the deficit will explode, and we are in for it. We could reduce the deficit by getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan now, which could dramatically help with the deficit. Of course, our conservative friends are right there to stop any withdrawal.

In short, we are in more trouble today than we were yesterday.

Tax Cut Madness

Nearly ten years ago, President Bush delivered on his campaign pledge to cut income taxes. One large reason for this pledge was that the federal government was forecast to run a budget surplus in a few years. President Bush used the logic that the government was in a sense paying back over-collection of taxes.

Of course, the flaw in his argument was that this assumption was made BEFORE the nation embarked in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. In 2001 when this was first introduced, nobody knew of the trillions of dollars the United States would be investing in foreign adventures.

To gain passage of these tax cuts, that in fact were paying nothing back, the Bush Administration included a sunset of the tax cuts in 2011. This was the price paid with a wink and a nod to the increase to the deficit the tax cuts might cause.

Of course, Bush assured everyone who would listen that the economy would grow and make up the difference and the tax cuts would somehow be revenue neutral. This followed the conservative philosophy that tax cuts stimulate economic growth enough to actually grow tax revenues. The stark fact that this was empirically unproven, did not concern the Republicans. This is no evidence that tax cuts grow the economy!

Two things ruined this forecast: 1. It was based on a lie, the federal budget was never balanced; in fact the budget balance was forecast years in the future. 2. The Wars and the 2008 Recession/Depression caused the deficit to grow to historic levels.

Now, as 2011 approaches, the Republicans are breaking their pledge with the American People: that the tax cuts would sunset if there were negative implications for the federal budget. In an act of breathtaking irresponsibility, Republicans are demanding that all the tax cuts continue, with no admission that the defict will be dramatically increased.

And, the sunsetting of the tax cuts are now being cleverly called a “tax increase” by the Republicans who passed them almost 10 years ago, with the promise that they would sunset if the country was in the economic shape we find ourselve in today. How in the world is the sunset of a tax cut a tax increase? The same people, in most cases, who voted for the sunset part of the tax cuts, now call sunsetting a new tax increase. Incredible!

But, we must remind ourselves, they just recently massively fooled the American People into believing that the economy is all President Obama and the Democrats’ fault. They also campaigned on the danger of the federal deficit to the economy, but then turned right around and broke their sunset pledge.

This is very troubling. This proves that the Republicans really believe they can fool the American People ALL the time.

Their boldness was just demonstrated again, with Senator McConnell going public with a vow to fillibuster everything until tax cuts are continued for all taxpayers, even millionaires. Extending the tax cuts for the rich is very unpopular with most voters. But Republicans have learned that the American People, at least most of them, are tone deaf relative to economic and political realities.

So, they do it, because they can get away with it.

The only good thing is that history will judge this madness, and so will economic reality. Expediency rewards in the short term, but loses long term. The implications our democracy are not good.

Compromise with the Rebel?

President Obama is continuing to do what he promised the American People he would do. And he is being slammed for it. It is almost as if Americans EXPECT that the elected President will not deliver or even address the issues that elected him.

President Obama promised post partisan politics. He has reached out to a Republican Party that is getting increasingly partisan and racially charged to its core.

This partisanship is reflected in a most disturbing statistic. The south is becoming almost completely Republican, both nationally and locally. This conservative strain is a direct reaction to the Civil Rights movement and the election of a Black President.

This year marks the 150 mark since the outbreak of the Civil War. I can remember 1960, which was the Centennial of the Civil War. In 1960 legal segregation still ruled the south. African Americans, in fact all of color, were kept from voting in the south. Racial segregation in housing and jobs existed throughout the country. “The south shall rise again”, was a common rallying cry.

What kept this from happening was that the south was almost exclusively in the Democratic Party. The reason for this was twofold: 1. Southern whites would not join the Republican Party of Lincoln and Grant, because they had defeated them in the Civil War. 2. Democrats in the south embraced the New Deal, because it fought against the Wall Street establishment and northern business community that had been such a critical factor in the Civil War.

In short, the Civil War, even though it was 100 years old, still directly affected American Politics in 1960. Southern Democrats were a vital part of the Democratic Party. And, some of those southerners were becoming more progressive in many ways, including race relations, because of the Democratic Party’s affinity for the labor movement. Moreover, the African American contribution to the nation during World War II and Korea had moved some southern Democrats to begin to entertain concepts of equal opportunity and the destruction of the Jim Crowe system in the south.

The 1960s changed all that. When Lyndon Johnson helped pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voter Rights Act; the hard core race haters in the southern democratic wing of Democratic Party left the party. They held their breath and moved into the party of Lincoln because the democratic party was beginning to not only fight for equal rights, but actually was courting African American voters; the progressive southerners stayed in the democratic party; the racists left.

Nixon’s southern strategy proved the seismic shift in politics. From 1968 on five Republican Presidents were elected, only three Democrats; and the last one was Black!

This has prompted another shift in American Politics. The south is becoming more reactionary in response to the election of Obama. Rural areas of the nation, including border states like Missouri and Kansas, are becoming more Red, as a racial reaction of white middle aged men ripples across the nation. The Tea Parties, who are almost exclusively white, are the vanguard of this reaction.

So, as we “celebrate” the 150 anniversary of the Civil War, that killed almost 500,000 people in a country of a few million and we again see the country dividing. What is amazing is race is again the catalyst, masquerading as a revolt against “big government”.

And the consequences of this? We hear from the Texas governor that his state may secede, because of the federal government (Black President). We hear southern Republican call for celebrations of the Civil War and leave slavery as a cause completely out of them. Then, when reminded about things like the Emancipation Proclamation, a strained apology is reluctantly offered.

These are the facts: the southerners who seceded from the Union were traitors. Under the Constitution of the United States (that conservatives like to use in its literal application) traitors were to be executed! The south seceded because the north would not allow slavery to expand, and the slave trade was finally condemned by the rest of the civilized world. The south was the only place in the world with such an extensive and lucrative system of slavery. Lincoln was elected with the promise to end slavery. Abolitionists were pushing the fledgling Republican Party to actually enforce what Lincoln campaigned on. The south seceded because the “peculiar institution” of slavery was being directly challenged. This institution had produced a life style comfort and privilege amidst incredible poverty. Essentially the rich plantation owners of the south motivated the poor whites to fight to the death to protect their immoral, and unjust economic system (sound familiar?).

So we witness the first African-American President, and his bi-racial background is a perfect definition of the term, grovel to the southern dictated Republican Party, reaching out to compromise.

And the compromise is allowing the richest Americans to continue a totally worthless tax cut, that is bankrupting the government. Once again, the rich, benefiting from an unfair and immoral system, are using southern racists to protect their interests.

Obama should stop compromising with these rebels and follow the example of Lincoln.

Traitors are traitors, no matter which century they occupy.

Check the Rankings

If you want to see why the United States is truly in trouble go to this website: http://www.photius.com/rankings/.

The site has a variety of rankings of nations from general health to life expectancy. And, it appears the rankings are from reputable sources, the World Health Organization for example.

The results are shocking. In many categories measuring quality of life, the U.S. comes in 20^th or 30^th or worse. In government debt, we are not in the top third. What does that mean?

It means that we are not devoting enough of our national GDP toward things that enhance the quality of life, and even though our federal deficit is high, it is not high compared to other industrialized countries. Our tax burden, for example, is relatively LOW, while our quality of life is lower; what does that tell you?

You can also look up almost anything else you want to, including percentages of circumcised men!

The point is this. We have an entrenched political party in this country whose anti-tax and public investment policies are dropping us in almost every rank that means anything, from health care to education. And, we just put them in control of the House of Representatives.

We may make ourselves feel better with our small government is best and other insanities, but the record proves otherwise.

Check the site out, compare and contrast, and learn!

More Good News

Today more good news. The economy is expanding over 2.5 percent and corporate profits in the United States set a record for the past 60 sixty years these statistics have been kept.

So the economy is definitely rebounding, right?

Wrong! Unemployment still hovers over 10 percent in most states and worse in others. Extension of unemployment benefits are being held up by Republicans, allegedly because of deficit concerns. The Fed is frantically trying to find ways to spur employment because demand in the United States for goods and services are at all time low. Republicans keep saying no to any attempts to develop jobs, while saying they are for jobs; a classic P.R. trick.

A depression gets its name from depressed consumer demand and prices. The United States hovers on that precipice right now.

Meanwhile, newly elected tea party Republicans are taking pledges to not vote for a raising of the Federal debt ceiling in the spring. This will have the effect of putting the United States in financial default, not able to pay its bills, and shut the government down.

An immediate effect will be suspending Social Security payments, Medicare payments, payments to loans the United States has made with China; etc. This will mean large scale economic pain and suffering, especially for seniors. Republicans will offer to raise the debt ceiling in trade for massive permanent cuts to entitlements, Social Security and Medicare. They just might succeed.

If you want a preview of what this will mean for the world economy check out Ireland right now. Ireland is essentially in default, and is depending for its very economic survival on emergency loans made by other countries. The ripple effect of this, like Greece previously, has seriously damaged world financial markets.

If the United States does the same thing, thanks to the mindless tea party run Republican Party, the effect will be catastrophic. Ultimately, Wall Street financial gamblers could lose billions, as the financial system essentially grinds to a stop. That would be poetic justice, but for the fact that millions of Americans (senior citizens) will lose everything as well.

And the middle class, angry white voter, put these fools in office to punish the over-spending Democratic Party and the President who did not do enough for the unemployed.

What? Are you kidding me? What planet do these people occupy?

Read Wendell Potter’s “Deadly Spin” and the answer will become very apparent.

The middle class in the country has been "Public Relationed, or P.R. ed" to death.

It is all in the message. Republicans began this effort with the “Astro Turf” tea party movement, that never came from the grass roots, but was organized and financed by fat cat corporate conservatives. They were successful in discrediting the President during the Health Care “debate”. Actually there was no real debate. Republicans just said no, and did not even engage. For profit health insurance companies (I left out the word care because these companies do not worry about care, only profit), spent almost a billion dollars in a clever campaign, pretending to be for health care, while working hard to kill it.

The result was a law that is flawed enough that Republicans may even be able to repeal it. More importantly, the public was propagandized to the point that a majority still have serious concerns with the law, even though they know very little about it. In short, the public was massively fooled!

And who wins: The insurance corporations who spent billions defeating an effort to provide decent health care to the American People. And remember, the United States ranks low in the actual quality of our health care system. Basically, the richer you are the better the care you can receive, with over 50 million uninsured. If you are poor, you can use the emergency room as President Bush so famously suggested. And, during the health care debate, the poor using emergency rooms was pointed to by the insurance corporations as a major reason for the increase in health insurance premiums. So, they blamed the poor for their greed and the middle class bought it!

Nancy Pelosi, a favorite whipping boy/girl of the conservatives, recently responded to a question about her taking responsibility for the conservative tide in the 2010 elections and she responded, “How would you do if 70 million dollars were spent against you?”

The comment went right by the media; most things do. The point was the Supreme Court’s decision that allows corporations to contribute unlimited amounts anonymously to political campaigns has irrevocably changed the political equation in the United States.

The P.R. efforts of the Health Insurance Industry, the P.R. efforts of the tea parties, are based on misrepresentation, lies and greed. Their collective efforts are having the effect of reducing the United States to Third World Status. The middle class has been so fooled, that they actually carry the signs and attend the rallies that are destroying them.

So we probably will see an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts, at least in the short run. This will be followed up with a refusal to raise the debt ceiling, which will lead to massive cuts in Social Security and Medicare, as a ransom by the Republicans. The Health Care law will be gutted, and we may be looking a Sarah Palin as President in 2012.

Along the way the United States will be in a full blown depression by 2012 (for the middle class and below), and if Palin gets in as President, nuclear war by 2013.

Oh, I forgot, if we do by chance happen to survive these things by incredible luck, within 25 years global warming will have decimated most of the civilized world, flooding vast areas, making other uninhabitable, because the Tea Party does not believe in it.

God help us!

And the United Stated insurance and other corporations will still be making record profits, shared with the top ½ percent of the people, the rest will be left literally in the dust.

I would close with a plea for people to wake up, but that has already been tried to no avail. We proceed as a sleepwalker toward the precipice.