Today I have read about marches for protecting 2nd Amendment rights that are not under attack by this current administration; civil lawsuits against Goldman Sachs for fraud, instead of criminal suits; the usual rantings and ravings of FOX News, Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party crowd about everything from health care to unfair taxes; and an article on HuffPost that was a follow-up to one here last week by Simon Johnson.  Add to this mix a smattering of articles on the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, local matters here in Washington State, and you get the impression that this nation is going NUTS!  So I felt compelled to add my two-cents worth of insanity to this mix.

First, I am not a conspiracy nut, but I do love puzzles.  I love a good mystery, and often read action thrillers like James Bond or Clive Cussler’s books or Tom Clancy’s books to relax.  I read history and public policy and books on educating our young people in things like democracy and civic participation as part of my doctoral work.  So please understand that what I am asking about is based as much on this rather quirky assessment of current events as it is on real concerns that maybe we are all being conned as a nation by something that we are not even aware of.

I cannot precisely point to a time when this suspicion began to tickle my brain, but over the last few years it has grown from a small question mark to a screaming siren in my mind:  Who is pulling the strings that are unraveling our nation?  Who is that person in the shadows that is as slippery as an eel and as ethereal of a ghost, yet through the use of power and money is controlling our nation’s destruction, and with it the world of freedom and free will?

Here are the facts:

1.  Corporate America is not led by stupid men or women, yet they have tanked our banking system, control our media, control our education, sent our jobs overseas, and took our homes.  This is not just stupid, it is not just self-serving, it is ultimately fatally destructive to them as well as the rest of us.

2.  Rupert Murdoch controls a media empire that not only twists the news, it also controls the news cycle for days as other media outlets refute everything he puts out thereby spreading his lies repeatedly across all networks.  Rupert Murdoch is a good businessman without ethics or moral conscience, but he is not that smart nor that capable to control that much “group think” effectively, which is why sites like this thrive on the Internet to spread the word.

3.  There is a concerted move by the telecommunications industry to restrict access to the Internet now that they have the immunity to tap our phones under government orders.  There seems to be a concerted drive to limit the availability of inter-personal communications so that people cannot talk to each other safely and exchange ideas or compare ideas in an effort to make sense of the insanity.  Disrupted communications leads to the spreading of rumor and innuendos, and lies that become truth without examination.

4.  The banking industry, thanks to the Clintons and the GOP, have all but trashed the world economy, not to mention ours.  And the US government has been forced to bail them out or have martial law shoved down our throats if one Republican representative is to be believed by the Bush Administration.  We, as citizens, have lost businesses, jobs, homes, college for our children, and our retirement funds, while the greed and excess of Wall Street has continued unabated.  Why?  Because our government is controlled by the same forces that control us – our bankers.  I am sorry, but I have listened to these guys and gals of Wall Street, and what I come away with is that not one of them would be smart enough to devise such a far reaching plan as the financial destruction of this nation – but they are more than willing to carry out orders to do so if it means more money to them.  I am not so naive as to believe that they did not know what they were doing, and so should be held criminally accountable, but I am not sure they know why they did it, the real reason they did what they did.  After all, what did it actually gain them other than money – fear of death, the inability to appear anywhere in public safely, threats against their homes and families, the undying hatred of their fellow citizens?  If they do not see this trade-off for their money as unacceptable, then they truly are stupid, and therefore, again, incapable of planning such a high level of financial manipulation.

5.  The industrial leaders that have led us into the failure of our American manufacturing and agricultural bases, as well as two wars that have cost thousands of lives, are also driven by greed and the belief that the US citizens will not hold them accountable for their part in our destruction.  When companies like Monsanto can destroy our food safety and security; when companies like Exxon and Halliburton and Massey Energy can control our energy future; when the auto industry is so integrated into our nation that its failure could cripple us – we have a problem.  Because we have allowed our government to engage in free trade agreements and to offer tax offsets for corporations with foreign operations, we have allowed our largest corporations to avoid the payment of taxes for years now while recording humongous profits.  Why?  Not because these corporate CEOs were all that smart or even that organized, but rather because they were promised money beyond their wildest dreams if they did exactly what they have done – take America hostage, quietly, subtly.

6.  And, we cannot forget the likes of the The Family or the other religious zealots who think we should be ruled by them in our personal lives as well as our public ones.  This particular group of citizens are especially dangerous because they seek power under the false banner of faith.  Faith is something that does not seek rewards – it is a belief in something unseen.  These people want you to see – they want to be seen for believing in something that is not about being seen, but rather about being anonymous.  The Family believes that only the wealthy are the Chosen of God, and they pander to those who seek power, and they offer the same services as any group of panderers offer to sexual dilettantes with money – a place and privacy for their actions in exchange for the coin of the realm in DC – influence.  They are not interested in the teachings of Jesus, but they love to watch when zealots like Bachmann or Palin preach their word.  They understand that nothing sells like sex, and these two women push it to the limit with their attitudes and their actions.

7.  And finally we come to our two American political parties – the Democrats and the Republicans.  Two groups who have proven themselves to be for sale to the highest bidder.  Their approval of our current Supreme Court Chief Justice and Associate Justice Alito was the final deliverance for this power in government.  Those currently serving are afraid, all of them, not of the American people but of something much greater, and it is why they always look so scared.  If they feared the reaction of the American People for their policies, they would not enact them so blatantly with disregard for the majority opinions of their constituents, but they continue to do so, on both sides of the aisle.  They are all cowards, but what they fear is not a loss of power, it is deeper and so strong that they will abandon their ideals to save themselves.  Paul Wellstone may well have been the necessary example to bring this group into line.  Any deviation from their path will be met with retribution of the worst kind, so “shut up, do as you are told, and forget what is in the interest of the American People” has become their motto in Congress for both parties, and probably even the White House would now fall under that umbrella with the level of hatred being manufactured against our current president by the very people his policies are helping but who have been conditioned to believe he is acting against him.  I fear for this President because he is trying to buck the conspiracy and that has never gone well for politicians in this country or in that office.

I could go on, but you can begin to get the picture.  None of the leaders of these groups could ever orchestrate such a long-term effort to undermine this nation so effectively (over 30 years).  While they are intelligent people, they have egos the size of Texas, and greed is their main driving force – greed for money and for power.  None of them is by themselves sufficiently strong enough to hold the group together for this long or to create this much damage alone.  So I find myself wondering who is behind this systematic overthrow of our nation, and the repercussions internationally its demise would lead to.  I find myself wondering who is pulling the strings and how do you find the one string that when pulled will unravel the whole thing. Who is so powerful, yet unknown to the outside world beyond power and wealth, that he/she can instill this kind of fear or exercise this level of control in all aspects of our democracy?
Call it paranoia, if you will, or call it confusion, but I find that all this talk of bad banking or corporate news management or corporate controls or right-wing radicalism as a smoke screen for something infinitely more sinister.  I look at Rupert Murdoch and his media empire and see a propaganda arm.  I look at the likes of Dimon and the bankers and I see a financial arm.  I look at corporate leaders like the Koch Brothers, of all the top industries, and I see an industrial base.  What I do not see is the person behind all these people who is pulling the strings, the one who is so subtle and so powerful that he/she acts without ever being seen, but is always there.  All of these individuals are intelligent and unethical in their actions, but to orchestrate what is rapidly becoming the benign overthrow of a democratically elected US government in such a coordinated fashion, that takes a cohesive plan which these people could not come up with individually or even collectively because there does not appear to be a leader.

So in my paranoia, I am going to ask this question:  Who is behind this well-orchestrated plan for the overthrow of the American way of life?  Who is sufficiently benign, but with ties into every aspect of American and World culture, that he/she could bring together so many greedy egotists in a concerted effort to destroy the world?  These people are not able to work long enough together to be successful at such a plan, but working within their areas of expertise, they could succeed with the proper leader.  So my mind keeps coming back to the question:  Who is pulling the strings?

Call me paranoid, if you must, but something is most definitely not right with the scenario we are seeing played out in this nation today.  It may seem like ignorance from the masses are the problem, but make no mistake, it is only the smoke-and-mirrors that hides the real agenda of just one person.  We need to find the puppeteer, and we need to find him/her NOW!

Today I have issued a challenge to those who read Alternet – envision the kind of America, and the world if you want, that my grandchildren, now 14 and 16, will live in when they are my age, 57.  That is a place approximately 40 years in the future.  I probably will not live to see it, but many of the readers here will, so it is also your futures.  If we do not know what we want to achieve in the future, how do we know that we are headed in the right direction, is the question.  So here it goes from my end:

Realistically, I know that certain things will have occurred by the year 2050:   peak oil will be a reality leading to ever higher fuel bills which will effect food prices and will ultimately be the most decisive factor of the future, so my vision starts there.

I see a future where my grandchildren live in an area that is no longer predominantly metropolitan or suburban, but a balance of both.  The suburban areas have been abandoned to mostly those people who can telecommute or farm as a means of supporting themselves and their families.  But, these citizens have embraced localized business ventures that are within walking distance of their homes; small scale agriculture on common lands in a manner that is sustainable; their educational systems encourage enlightenment not only about academics, but also about practical skills for everyday living and survival and are community and nature focused.  People know their neighbors and work closely to create supportive systems of social interaction for the benefit of the community.  When new buildings for housing are required, the standards are set based on renewable building materials, localized labor, and community involvement to help with the projects.  Every member of the community works together to insure that the overall community environmental and energy impact is minimal, with localized power grids based on solar and wind primarily with homes becoming self-contained power users of personal alternatives.  There are strong community social ties, where people come together for social gatherings on a monthly basis, and while there is a strong faith community, it is an open one where people are encouraged to share – not proselytize – the tenets of their beliefs in monthly gatherings just for that purpose to encourage understanding among faiths, not condemnation.

In urban areas, there is a stronger sense of neighborhood, with neighbors once again knowing each other and building bonds of trust and support as well.  They work together to create political blocks that can address their needs at the city council level, but they are based on the ideal of collaboration with other neighborhoods, rather than competition with them.  Urban centers concentrate on building from within, rather than seeking outside funding or resources.  The citizens work together to create and support localized businesses, housing opportunities, rooftop and common area agriculture to help offset energy usage as well as food needs.  Because of the close confinement of the citizens within housing projects or neighborhoods, communities have banded together to stop hate crimes, drugs, and violence of any kind from spilling over from one community to another.  They have driven out those who perpetuate hate and violence by making a united stand against it because they realize that to allow it to grow will destabilize the city as a whole.  These citizens have also adopted policies for energy usage being generated by the buildings that use it, with micro-grids connecting these power sources.  Buildings are using solar and wind as part of their construction, or as part of rehabilitation project that has been going on for about 15 years, starting when people finally accepted that oil was going to bankrupt the world.  New jobs are being created within this framework that rely as much on technical knowledge as on older skills to maintain refurbished buildings and agriculture efforts. Free public education and health care centers are placed in all neighborhoods.  Children are encouraged to be active, to be creative, and to practice good citizenship through community based education.  Health care is not as much about curative now, as it is preventative, and so healthy diets and exercise, as well as other practices are encouraged.  While abortion is still legal, the stress is on prevention of pregnancy, and stopping STDs, through a strong educational program in the schools, rather than the failed abstinence only programs of the early part of the century.

People who live in rural areas will have found that they can create a better quality of life if they are in food production than in fuel production.  They will become the backbone of a food system, servicing markets of only about 200 away maximum, thus leading to more smaller, localized farms, but with greater capacity to produce healthy, organic, seasonal food to supplement what is produced in suburban towns and cities.  By doing this, many farmers find themselves also acting as the stewards for the rebirth of forests and natural wetlands as a means of stabilizing environmental degradation.  By using permaculture techniques on their farm holdings and creating collaborations with conservancy projects, they begin to restore the natural wonder that this continent once held.  They create small farming communities that are more connected to the Earth, and allow for the return of many of the agriculturally centered jobs that agribusiness drove out in the late 20th and early 21st  Centuries.  Being less dependent on oil will allow for the expansion of animal husbandry in a more beneficial way, and the return of the use of animals as part of the agriculture land cycle will improve our lands once again.

Large global corporations will be having their last gasps at this point.  Their profits will have been maximized within 20 years, as nations begin another contraction because they have abused the Commons for so long.  This does not mean that they are completely gone, but for many of them, since they are oil dependent, will fade away over the next couple of decades.  Education of the next generations will show the folly of abusing labor and nature, and while new types of corporations will develop, they will be localized, environmentally and socially responsible, and they will be responsive to the public at large, rather than just stockholders.  Corporations will have been returned to non-person status several decades earlier, but the last of their political power will have faded by 2050.

Political scenarios will have been left behind, and new politicians will be working from the bottom up, addressing those issues at all levels that will allow the balance of power to remain at the local level, while helping to coordinate, not dominate, national goals.  Politicians who had depended on corporate sponsorship will no longer be tolerated and term limits will have been imposed via a new Constitution that restricts political terms on all branches of the government with a new structure.  A New Expanded Bill of Rights will be the first part of the New Constitution not the last, and it will insure that the inequities of the past 150 years are prevented in the future, so that the common people and environment are the dominant members of this nation, not corporations or the uber wealthy.

In all the communities, there has been a blending of old and new technologies.  Computers still remain a viable and useful tool, but people use them more for academic pursuits, communication, and coordinated collaborations, then as sources of entertainment, childhood education, or their sole contact with the outside world.  They have been relegated to their original role as tools, not as electronic babysitters or friends or virtual realities.  People have come out of their homes and once again connected with each other in positive ways to create a real world that they find more healthy and more pleasant than in the past.  Parents work along side their children to create better learning environments, dealing with peer-to-peer interactions, and in the process have learned how to do the same thing among themselves.  The level of encouragement for innovation and new invention still exists, but this generation of parents has learned the hard way that sometimes hard work goes hand in hand with creativity and critical thinking is imperative so that you avoid the mistakes of the past.

Now, I have laid out what my vision of this nation and the world could be in 40 years.  I would like to hear from others what they would want in that future world.  Maybe then, using forums like this, facebook, twitter, MySpace, and other sites, we can come together to create such a vision, for our towns, our states, and our nation.  If we know where we are headed, then we can work backwards to determine what needs to be done.  Transition Initiatives are doing this in many parts of the nation even now – so let’s try it here, on Alternet, and see what we can devise.  No idea is too far-fetched, naive, or idealistic.  This is future visioning, not rocket science or political ideology.  It is what we need to do now to make it happen then.  So join me here, and post your visions for a better America.  All I ask is that people not just condemn my vision as idealistic or naive – it is after all only my vision of what I would hope for all of us, not just for my grandchildren – but rather add their own ideas of what they would want for themselves or their children and grandchildren in 2050.

The following is a response today to a video I made last October about the danger of groups like the Tea Partiers and the Neo-Nazis to America.    The sender uses the YouTube id:  fuklibs. (The video is still up on YouTube – search for Devon Noll, Internal Threat to America)

“This lady is a RETARD!

Are MS-13, Blood, Crips, New Black Panthers, Nation of islam, LaRaza, CAIR also “internal threats”? LOL!
Gee, wonder why liberals never speak out on those groups?

STFU moron! Beck, O’Reilely, Hannity have NEVER incited ANYONE to violence you dumbass, however they DO get death threats themselves on a daily basis you propagandist!”

He is just the most recent respondent to this video from someone who is a member of hate group, I suspect.  The last one sent me an e-mail telling me he would love to see me on my knees crying and begging for mercy as he and his Nazi friends watched as a bullet was put through my head.   Nice guys!

This is the Pandora’s box that has been opened by the GOP and the Tea Party crowd.  The lack of truth and the unwillingness of FOX News to actually be journalists is dangerous.  With the passage of the health care reform, such as it is, the level of violence encouraged and incited by the commentators on this network is beyond pandering to a GOP base.  It is not just propaganda, it is most definitely not responsible free speech, and it is leading up to a war.  The fact that the GOP have adopted the same kind of violence in their comments as FOX shows that they are either ignorant of the effect of these words, or they are deliberately attempting to start a civil war to further the agenda set by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.  Either way, it is a danger to everyone, and it needs to be stopped.

Alternet has decided to adopt an editorial policy of printing at least one good item, with a positive spin, each day or week.  I am not sure how you can do this in the current climate, but here is a suggestion that might help, at least at the local level.  Start local campaigns to stomp out the hate by not tolerating it in your communities.  This has worked in many communities across the country during the civil rights days, and it must be instituted now across this nation.  It must be driven not by cowardice, but by education and civic engagement that is reasonable and civil.  I know that with many of these groups that is difficult, but when people stand together and say “NO, YOUR HATE AND YOUR VIOLENCE ARE NOT WELCOME HERE – IN OUR COMMUNITY AND IN OUR NATION!”, and they do so outside of every FOX affiliate station across the nation, at every Tea Party rally, and every time a hate crime happens in their communities, we can get it done.  And, hopefully, we can get it done without violence against anyone.

I am not so naive as to not understand that there is risk involved in this.  But if we do not want our nation to be destroyed by the likes of those who have written this about me or threatened my life, then we must take a pro-active stance, preferably non-violently.  If the mainstream media will not cover these efforts, then become citizen journalists, covering it through YouTube or through your local paper or through Facebook or Twitter.  If you are afraid to take a stand, then you give credence to those who would rule us with fear, lies, and intimidation.  If you allow mob rule, then you open the door to dictatorship, and there are plenty of people who would love to step through that door while hiding behind the Constitution.

It is important to note that this level of violence we are seeing now is similar to that seen in Nazi Germany in the early 1930s and it is no coincidence that it comes on the heals of Tea Party postings which are closely monitored by White Supremacy groups across this nation.  They have been allowed to flourish because this is a nation that allows for free speech and freedom of association, something that they know inherently would undermine their very existence if exercised as violently against them as they use it against others.  These people have found a home among the GOP and their leadership as the party now stands.  Moderate Republicans have left the party in droves over the last year because they do not embrace this rhetoric and they do not embrace the Policy of No from Republicans in Congress. They have in fact sent the message of we will not tolerate hate and violence  in our party or from its leaders as they obstruct policies that will help all Americans.  The GOP is afraid and like most bullies, when they are afraid they attack (ie Cantor’s blaming the Democrats for fueling the violence by reporting it), either with words or with actions.

It is time for the rest of Americans – Moderate Republicans and Democrats, Progressive Democrats and Republicans (yes, there are some out there), and Independents, both third party affiliates and true independents – to stand up in our communities and put an end to the FOX News propaganda/hate machine.  Do not just hold peaceful demonstrations, but publicize your campaign across all spectrum of your community – churches, schools, public offices, your workplace.  Ask everyone you know to join you in stopping the hate and the violence, to stand against it together.  We can stop this flood from overtaking us if we act now and we act together.  WE MUST OR WE ALL WILL LOSE TO THOSE WHO WOULD DESTROY US FROM WITHIN!

One final suggestion:  in your communities, FOX News affiliates must renew their applications for licensing every year.  The FCC must approve that license, and if there are significant numbers of complaints against a station as violating the public trust and good (inciting to riot or civil war, encouragement of killing doctors or politicians, using hate speech to incite others to action), then community members can have their license yank in that community.  Start a petition/write-in complaint campaign, and shut down your local FOX affiliate.  The airwaves are a public resource, and as such, they are still controllable by the people.  Push, and push hard, to free this nation for this kind of propagandizing and hate speech. (As I understand it they did it in Great Britain when Murdoch tried this type of thing there a few years back.)  Once shed of their affiliates, FOX is more vulnerable to legal action against those like Glenn Beck and his Tea Party affiliations, Bill O’Reilly and his anti-abortion incitements, and Sean Hannity and his surveys about revolution vs. civil war.  Color of Change showed how it can affect a bottom line when companies start pulling out of sponsorship, try losing a few local affiliates and watch what the corporate advertisers do!

In others words, take action against violence and those who use their words to incite it in your communities.  Come together and show our collective strength.  The people of Germany failed to do this when they had the time to do so, and paid dearly for not standing up to these thugs and bullies.  We must not make the same mistake 80 years later.  We have too many other things that as a nation and as communities that we need to address for the public good, and we cannot let hate and bigotry and political opportunists stop us from moving forward as only a democracy can do – as a united people standing up for what is right.  It is what drove us in 1776 and 1863, 1917 and 1941, through the civil rights movement and women’s rights movement.  It must now drive us through a New Freedom Movement where we “promote the Common Welfare” through free speech, education, and with honor and dignity, and do not falter as we move against those who would take away our rights and our freedoms with hate, violence, and intimidation.  We must prevail – it is the only thing we can do!

I am angry this morning.  I am angry at Blue Dog Democrats who abandoned party platform to shaft women to win absolution from the Catholic Church which in their Christian piety held the poor of DC hostage, and to pander to corporations, not labor.  I am angry at Republicans who gutted real reform and then voted against everything that they forced on us anyway. I would quite joyfully watch Pelosi and Reid go down in flames over this corporate gift they so effectively compiled in direct opposition to the Obama campaign promises, which they NEVER supported.  I am furious at Rahm Emanuel for his backdoor deals with the corporate power elite of the insurance and health providers and pharmaceutical industries in direct opposition to the stated Presidential policy of openness in this process.  I am beyond furious with every member of Congress who voted for this garbage and screwed over every person who is disabled or elderly to pay for it.  And do not even get me started on the President’s claims that this change – it is Hillary Clinton’s onerous health care reform warmed over and made even worse by punitive taxes on American citizens least able afford insurance to begin with!

While many of the more onerous aspects of this bill will not take effect for a few years, what the insurance industry will do until then is beyond imagining and if the idiots in Congress and the White House think that this is not going to happen, I have a bridge I would like to sell them.  In the economic argument of the Tragedy of the Commons, it is argued that vested self-interest and profits will lead to greater and greater overuse of resources until nothing is left.  We are the resources, folks, and the insurance companies are going to overuse us until we die!  If you do not believe this, just watch the feeding frenzy that is about to start in the health insurance industry.  You will be able to see it happen as the average American’s income continues to sink under the weight of expensive policies and untenable requirements.  If this Congress and President think this bill will make things better, they are the biggest suckers in America and they have just been scammed by the health industry and its insurers.

Now the GOP is threatening to repeal it if the get control of Congress.  Of course, since this bill benefits their contributors, the chances of that happening are slim and none – and anyone who believes differently has not been paying attention.  This bill is exactly what the insurance industry wanted and they paid big bucks to get it, so the GOP is not going to bite the hands that feed it.  They had political cover to vote against it because of the Tea Party crowd, but it was the insurance industry that they were supporting and they know that they can now claim innocence when they campaign.  It was the perfect political tactic – and it worked because of the ignorance of a small group of citizens making a horrible, hateful noise.

So, congratulations, Mr. President, Congress, you got what you wanted.  For the rest of America, my sympathies and hopes that Rep. Grayson can find enough Democrats with backbones and courage and faith in Americans to get passage of his Medicare Buy-In for All bill, or else we have just been told to go die by our government’s new health care reform for insurers and pharmaceutical and health care corporations.

Rahm Emanuel, the leading corporatist salesman of the Obama White House, told Democratic leaders in Congress not to worry about the Progressive’s demands on health care reform, that they would fall in line when the bill came to a vote.  He was right, of course, not because the Progressive’s demands for real reform were wrong, but because he controls the purse strings.  Mr. Emanuel, this is wrong – America is not for sale to the highest bidder, despite the beliefs of you and Mr. DeLay.

Progressives, they are going to target any progressive candidate running in November, especially those who voted against health care reform on principle or those who voted for it as a compromise, first step.  Either way, the DNC and the GOP will do all they can to stop the Progressive candidates from winning.  WE MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!

Currently in the Senate is a bill introduced by McCain and Lieberman that would violate our rights under the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.  This stands in contrast to the bills in the House introduced by Rep. Grayson for a Medicare buy-in program and a Constitutional Amendment stripping corporations of their personhood and rights to spend freely in an election to influence the outcome.  If things continue as they have been going, the McCain-Lieberman bill will pass, but the Grayson, progressive bills will never even see a vote.  This is wrong and a dangerous path for our Congress to be walking.  It is time to show the pundits and Rahm Emanuel and the corporatists that the American people and their government are not for sale.  It is time for us to work for progressive challengers in all districts with Blue Dogs, GOP, or corporate Democrats.  It is time for us to give the progressives the balance of power in our Congress, and to hold our President accountable.

Progressives and Independents elected Obama in 2008.  We can create change in DC only when we change Congress, because it is in Congress that the real power exists.  It is Congress that actually legislates, not the President, and it is Congress that sold out America by refusing to embrace the President’s campaign agenda.  It is time to change Congress!  Progressives and Independents are the most courted political block in our country.

Real Progressives embrace educational reform so that it teaches our children to think critically and creatively, not memorize to a test; embrace fiscal responsibility while understanding that in depressive times like these, the only spender to create jobs will be the government and that the deficit will only be reduced when people get back to work and not before; embrace social programs that rebuild communities, help the elderly and disabled and the young, improve the environment, and create energy independence as an integral part of addressing climate change.

They are not going to be fascists or communists or socialists.  They are, and will always be, Americans who love democracy and freedom, but who realize that private corporations do not embrace anything but profits at the expense of the common good.  They do not embrace war, and would follow the example of Reagan in ending the Cold War by reaching out to our enemies through diplomacy to end violence and threats of war.  Just like Obama is doing with the Muslim world, or trying to do if he would stop listening to pundits, Clintons, and GOP generals.  This is who real progressives are, not the faux Democratic Progressives like Pelosi, Reid, Boxer, and the rest of the so-called Progressive Caucus, with a few exceptions like Kucinich and Grayson.

It is time for us, as progressives and independents, to step up and to put up and support candidates who will act in the best interests of this nation and her people.   We must not let labels like “elitist” stop us, because it is a lie and we must address is as such.  We talk to people fact-to-face and let them know that we are just like them, and we share their concerns.  We must let them know that our campaign funds come from real people not corporations, and that when we talk about health care policy or educational reform or ending the wars, we mean it and that we will not cave to pressure because it is expedient.  We understand that compromise is part of doing business in Congress, but that should not mean abandoning our principles, our nation’s needs, or our liberties in search of safety.  They must be shown to understand what de Tocqueville meant when he noted that without liberty, there can be no equality, and without equality there can be no equity for the citizens of any nation.  We must not sacrifice liberty for safety because when we do that we also must sacrifice equality and equity in this nation, and that should be unacceptable to any true freedom loving American.

Progressives, it is time to act.  It is time to campaign and to run for office, and to bring the American people with you.  It is time to show that when we vote, we expect to be heard in DC – not pushed aside by the likes of Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, or Harry Reid.  It is time to show the Liz and Dick Cheneys, John Boehners, and Mitch McConnells, the Bart Stupaks and the Max Baucus and Micelle Bachmann’s that Progressives are what make up America, not neo-con corporate hacks who see only dollar signs or absolution from the Pope as their guiding lights.  This country was founded and fought for by progressives of a different generation.  It was re-united by progressives of successive generations.  It must not be allowed to fail because progressives of this generation did not act to protect Her from their greatest enemy – corporate controlled politicians and policy makers.

Progressives, it is time to act.  Because if we do not act now, we lose our country forever to corporate control and war.  It is up to us to fight this battle against ignorance, fear, and intimidation with reason, education, and persistence against a bigger enemy.  It is time for David to slay Goliath in this nation, and as Progressives, we can do this.  We did it in 2008, and we can do it again in 2010 and 2012.  We can create change, but it starts with us at the local and state levels – getting control of Congress by meeting and talking to our neighbors, our fellow citizens, and by taking the time to listen to them without being intimidated by fear-mongers, hecklers, or corporate thugs.  It is time to stop pandering to Democratic Party leadership, and make our way on our own – just as a child finally grows up and leaves home, so Progressives must leave the DNC and go their own ways as Independents or as a new party.  WE MUST ACT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

In order to control Congress, we need to take every Senate seat that is up for election, and about 150 seats in the House, assuming that current Progressives retain their seats, or that number goes up to 220.  This is a tall order this late in the game, but we are over 50 million strong in this nation, according to Dr. Paul Hay(the sociologist who first defined the phrase Progressive in politics) in 2002, so we should be able to do this.  Progressives, it is time to stand up, wipe off the bus tire marks, and get out there, angry and determined to win again, and take back Congress from those who are owned by corporations.  Use the corporate donor lists against you opponents; use their pro-corporate voting records (including the health care reform gift to insurance companies); use their anti-woman stand or their anti-labor stand or their anti-education stand against them.  Argue for policies that help put people back to work, and explain how this will reduce the deficit.  But do it face-to-face with people – not on TV or over the radio or on the Internet (although for collecting contributions this will be useful).  Don’t just talk at people, talk to them and listen to them and their concerns.  It is hard work but Americans are not afraid of hard work.  Put together a staff of people you know from when you worked on Obama’s primary, grassroots campaign or from local environmental or other progressive organizations to help you.  YOU CAN CREATE A NEW GOVERNMENT – A PEOPLE’S GOVERNMENT ONCE AGAIN!

It is time to act, Progressives, and unless we do, we all lose.

In 2008, Mr. President, the American independents and progressives donated $5, $10, as much as they could afford to get you the money necessary to run in the primaries. They worked hard getting the vote out for you and making phone calls and mailing mailers and knocking on doors for you.  They did it for the promise you gave of hope – young and old, male and female, black, white and Hispanic.   They voted for you in the primaries and in the general election.  They supported you when the Pelosis, Reids, Hoyers, Emanuels, and the Democratic National Committee were supporting the likes of Clinton and her husband.  Harry Reid claims he encouraged you to run, and maybe he did so that you would lose and show that a black man could not be elected in the US, but a woman could – that is why he and Pelosi did not endorse you, they expected, yes, even wanted, you to lose.  The American people who voted for you did so because they trusted you, sir, and at one time, you trusted them as well.  Apparently not anymore.

Ever since you allowed the Clintons and the DNC to staff your White House and Cabinet; since you allowed Pelosi and Reid to stand on the lawn of the White House and declare that they would not be dictated to by this White House;  since you allowed your generals to challenge your commands in the press; and since you allowed lobbyists to come in the back door while you said they were not welcome at the front door, you have abandoned the American people.

And now, your health care bill is the same one that Hillary Clinton and her corporate allies in your administration and Congress could not push through in 1994, and it is just as onerous and hateful to the American people and as big a gift to the insurance industry as hers was.  And it was negotiated the same way – behind closed doors with corporate lobbyists and Rahm Emanuel calling the shots. Your mother would be turning in her grave, because you are not only rubber-stamping what was done to her, you are forcing millions upon millions of Americans to face the same thing.  This is a bill that should be vetoed and you should name names as to why – start with your Chief of Staff as you show him the door for his backroom negotiating tactics with health care and pharma lobbyists; Bart Stupak with his anti-woman agenda and Catholic Church policy making; Harry Reid for allowing Baucus and Grassley to trash the health care bill; the Democrats for inserting the fine for not having insurance; the Republicans for gutting the public option, supported  by the Blue Dogs; and yourself for failing to keep to the agenda you promised when all those Americans who needed real, people-friendly health care reform were supporting your campaign with their money and their time.

Now you want to move on to jobs creation, education reform, and financial reform.  But the sad truth is that as long as you allow the DNC to control the agenda in Congress and in your White House, and the Clinton faction to control the DNC, you will get nothing of what you promised Americans, and Congress will let you take the fall.  You have failed to introduce any bill for education reform that is going to actually help the majority of our children – only a rehash of charter schools and No Child Left Behind which left just about every child in America behind.  You have allowed Dodd to craft a financial reform bill that is nothing but Swiss Cheese there are so many loopholes for the financial industry to slither through, and yet you follow the advice of the two men who could have, had they done their jobs properly, have averted the current economic disaster in which most Americans live today, and in which you once lived yourself.  The Reid Jobs Bill and the House bill are jokes, especially the $1000 tax credit and tax holiday.  Are you so ignorant of tax law that you do not understand that the 6.2% not paid by the businesses will be paid on April 15th by the taxpayer who must make up the difference under Social Security laws for any shortfalls, just as though they were self-employed?  And what small business person considers $1000 tax credits as offsets for the salary and now mandatory benefits that they must pay for each new employee, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars?  This bill is a joke and a slap in the face to every worker and small business person in America.

Mr. President, the independent and progressive Americans who voted you into office were the same ones that got you the nomination in the first place.   They are the ones whose money made up more than half of what you raised to become President.  They trusted you, and you allowed the people to be betrayed by those who now advise you.  This is not transformational leadership, it is pandering to corruption at its worst, or just plain stupidity on your part.

But, there is a way to change your fortunes, and for you to regain the trust of the American people, and it starts now.  Sir, you must address the American people, accept the blame for following bad advice and counsel, and start cleaning house.  Get rid of Rahm Emanuel and his corps of lobbyists immediately.

Put in people who can advise you on economics that can actually save this nation and re-establish strong local businesses with sound economic policies to support them – start with Elinor Ostrom and her people.  And you get rid of the notion that a government should be run like a business – it is not a business, it is not meant to make a profit, and it is meant to serve the public good, and the public good, only!  Principles that work in business do not work in government, and it is what has led to an overbloated governmental structure in this nation with more money going to bureaucracy than to the people, just a more money goes to stockholders than goes to workers in a business.  In government, this is wrong, and anyone who understands this knows that corporate control of our government will not help the people, only harm them.

Get rid of war generals and find generals who can actually find ways to get our people home while allowing NGOs and NPOs to come into Iraq and Afghanistan to rebuild – not the Xe or KBR groups – but people who understand the culture and the way it actually works for the people.

You tell the Democrats in Congress that unless they back any bill you send that will actually help the American people, that you will personally campaign for any progressive challenger for their seats, and you will send out your original grassroots organizing staff to set up the progressive, independent’s campaign to bury them.  Stop DNC funding to Blue Dogs and tell Pelosi and Reid that if they continue to capitulate to the Republicans, they will need to find new employment come next January.  Take control of the party you are the titular head of now, Sir, instead of letting them dictate to you, that is what Clinton did and what you should have done as soon as you had the nomination.

You want to reform health care – veto this bill, and fire Sebelius at HHS.  Draft a new bill with removal of tax-exempt status for insurance companies; regulate their rates and their policies; give people a Medicare buy-in option; and tell the pharmaceutical and health care industry that the government will negotiate lower prices for anyone it deems necessary.

You want educational reform – get rid of Duncan and bring in Kozol or Hooks or one of the other experts on community-based, freedom based education.  You build a strong nation by building strong communities, and until you embrace that fact, you will still see 70% dropout rates, poor teaching, bankrupted teachers, and crumbling schools.  Charter schools are not the answer – rebuilding good free public education is what this nation needs, with strong emphasis not just on math and science, but on history, government, English, the arts, physical education, and community service.  Thomas Jefferson knew this, that is why Texas is moving to remove him from textbooks as too radical – the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights is too radical for our children to know about?  This is not reform, this is revisionist, and only real educational reform can change this.

You want financial reform – re-enact Glass-Steagall; nationalize the too-big-to-fail banks and break them up, giving stockholders 1:1 stock trades for the smaller banks; put strong restrictions on investor banks and break them out from commercial banks, once again depriving them of FDIC protection (investors are warned of risks, savers are not).  You also need to sue and/or criminally prosecute those executives who knowingly pursued and still pursue the transactions that led to the collapse in 2008.  And you need to fire Bernanke and Geithner NOW!

You need to push through a Constitutional Amendment stripping corporations of personhood and prohibiting them from being active in any political forum, either directly, through PACs, or through lobbying.  Members of corporations should be prohibited from holding government positions for up to 5 years after they leave the corporation, including appointees, staff, and members of Congress.  IN other words, get corporations out of our government structure.

And, finally, Sir, you need to realize that you are not going to be able to go forward in a free society until the truth of the last 8 years under Bush and Cheney is fully disclosed and they and their cohorts are held accountable in a court of law.  America has an open wound, and it is called fear.  It is fed daily by FOX News and the GOP standard bearers like Liz Cheney, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and the GOP fearmongers in Congress like Bachmann, McCain, Lieberman, Boehner, Cantor, and the rest of them.  Until America knows the full truth of how the previous administration stripped away their rights and their lives, there will be no peace in this nation, and groups like the Tea Partiers and the conspiracy theorists will thrive spreading hate and violence.  You have no choice – you must prosecute, no matter where the chips may fall (Clinton, Pelosi, Reid?).

You start with a mea culpa, Sir, and ask Americans to allow you to regain their trust, then you ask Americans to once again step up and support local independents, progressive Democrats or just progressive candidates of any party, and you campaign to win back America, this time honestly and without DNC guidance.  You are the President of the United States, and if you truly want to lead this nation forward, you must change now and stop pandering to the DNC and the corporations that back it.

Remember, Mr. President, you dance with the one that brought you to the dance, and in this case, that is the American People, not the corporations or the DNC.

As the President introduces yet another bill that will be gutted by the GOP and sold out by the Democrats to create reform in education, we will hear a great deal about a ballooning deficit, just as we have with health care and the stimulus bills.  The sad fact is that it will once again create a large bill to be footed by the American People, and it may not even solve the problem of our degrading educational process in this country.

Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, which did NOT improve our schools, but in fact led to a horrific slide in the quality of our educational system, we have abandoned our hopes of educating our children.  When the state budgets began to garner more and more red ink, the first thing that was cut was education – a decision that further created a failed generation of ill-informed, poorly educated citizens which weakens our democracy.  Now President Obama wants to overhaul this program by making for tougher tests, holding teachers accountable for their performance, and telling school districts to shutdown schools that do not meet proficiency levels if they want federal assistance.  The bill should be called EVERY CHILD WHO ISN’T WEALTHY LEFT BEHIND!  Teachers should not be the scapegoats and when 70% of freshman do not graduate in this nation, you have to know something is wrong.  So where do you start to change your priorities?  You start with the way you discuss the economics of a nation.

I read an interview with Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, this morning.  I have studied, albeit only generally both traditional and ecological economics, and I found her work and discussion to be what this nation needs at this time.  She understands that when communities work together to create economic decisions that benefit communities as a whole, not individuals or business interests, the members of the community all have a stake in how resources are used.  In traditional economics there is a theory called the Tragedy of the Commons, wherein the example of a common pasture is used.  This pasture is available to everyone in a community and it is suppose to be used equally.  However, in a competitive society, part of the community breaks the rules and starts to use more than their share, eventually leading to others doing the same until the common pasture is overgrazed and everyone loses.  This is what is happening today in our society.

Dr. Ostrom argued that there was a fallacy in the Tragedy of the Commons that did not account for the fact that since everyone in the community knew that this would happen, that they work collectively to prevent it from happening, using shame and honor to create peer pressure to insure that economics of the common remain in balance.  She contends that in order to create a sustainable economic structure we must move from competitive economic thought to collective, ecologically based economics to insure that the resources remain available to everyone.

We have for decades now had the economists telling us that we need to be competitive, that as long as our economic models create not equilibrium but supply driven demand based on access to credit, we could support our role in a global economic community.  It has been the driving economic thought of the GOP for over 30 years with their embracing the philosophy of Milton Friedman.  Now it would seem that the advisers to President Obama seem to be following this same failed course.  Why?  Because it insures that they keep their millions and the rest of Americans get left behind.  As long as people do not understand economics, especially the Tragedy of the Commons, they will not understand that the land is being destroyed, their way of life stripped from them until it is too late.

We cannot continue this way.  We are not only not healthy because of poor food quality, our nation is at the mercy of every foreign power which provides us with energy, food, goods, services, and raw materials for what little manufacturing we have left.  Our federal government is unwilling to look at anything that would rock the competitive marketplace which is slowly closing the US out because of its economic instability.  We are shutting ourselves out by creating a generation that have neither the ability nor the willingness to be educated and innovative.

Service economies can only exist in balance to goods producing economies, they cannot exist alone.  Without a resurgence of ecologically based production, this country will deplete it natural resources and once again continue to be dependent on other nations for support.  We have decimated our agricultural base to satisfy agribusiness and real estate developers, and we have sent our manufacturing overseas costing Americans jobs and homes.  We have allowed banks to create financial instruments that create paper money for the wealthy, but real poverty for the middle class and poor.  It is time to rethink how we approach our economic decisions.

In ecological economics, the impact of not only the human factor but also the depleting raw materials are included in any discussion of resources.  However, the economic model goes one step further and looks at the long-term affect of all economic factors on the planet as a whole.  It considers such questions as whether it will harm the planet to waste 10 gals of water to produce only one gallon of ethanol.  It often decides that there are other alternatives, including not pursuing the project, as viable and better solutions.  It’s objective is not to stop production or innovation, but rather to drive it and make it better so that the quality of life for everyone is more fully realized.  This is the basic idea behind transition initiative communities – create a better future through working together at the local level to create better choices economically for the community in the context of peak oil and climate change.

Dr. Ostrom took the idea of the Tragedy of the Commons and stepped backward from it to create a different model that allowed for cooperation among the actors and working towards a collective public good.  It is what works best and it is what we abandoned in favor of being better than others and having more than our neighbors.  When we did that, we showed the world that we were neither better nor wiser, and if you have any doubts, look at what we did to economies like Iceland and Greece, to world stability, the worldwide hatred engendered by our national arrogance, and to those in our society who have no voice.  We lost ourselves and our national conscience when Ronald Reagan and the GOP decided to follow Milton Friedman over a financial cliff.

It is time for us to consider our own financial salvation.  We do it with a better educational system for a start, not the one currently being pursued.  We start by telling the President and Congress and our Governors that a free public education, not a charter school or a teach-to-the-test education, but a real education must be our top priority if we are to put people back to work in the fields that insure our national security and our economic survival, not global dominance.  Put our money in funding our schools so they can purchase supplies so teachers don’t have to use their own money to do so and so they can rebuild their infrastructure, pay decent salaries to get the best teachers available, encourage community involvement by our students and reward them for excellence.  We need to challenge our students to be better students so that they will be better athletes, scientists, musicians, writers, politicians, farmers, doctors, and teachers.  We need parents to step up and pay for bond issues to support our schools and we need to start teaching a different form of economics to everyone so that we get past this idea of competitive Tragedy of the Commons and find Common Ground that benefits everyone.  Education is the key to creating change, but not the kind of education that penalizes students, families, teachers, and communities.  This is the flaw in our President’s plan and only when he changes how his administration addresses economics will he be able to create a better educational model.

Mr. President, go talk with Dr. Ostrom and listen, really listen, to what she has to say.  Then go back to DC and fire your economic advisers, your Treasury Secretary, Ben Bernanke, and hire this woman and/or her colleagues to actually fix this economy and put it on the right track.  And to the Governors of every state, hire this woman as a consultant and follow her advice, then stop cutting educational spending, increase it, tell the feds to keep their money, and start educating your citizens.  If the government would do all that, radical as it may seem, then maybe our deficit would begin to reduce, our national debt (especially to Social Security) could be repaid, we could put tax-paying individuals back to work to do this, and we would once again be the best nation in the world for education and innovation.  It is time for change, real change, and it must start with how we address our economic decision making.

This week on Alternet we had a chance to read articles about Prayer Warriors, the Oathkeepers, and a variety of politicians who seem to be driven by a pure hatred of the average American citizen who is being harmed by this economy.  We have gotten to read the vitriol of “trolls” in the comments against these articles and those who write in support of various others or the authors’ points of view.  We have seen the faith of many called myth and fantasy, or the preachings of Satan.  What we have read on both sides seems to be permeated with hate and intolerance, fed by false prophets of religion and patriotism.

I was born the year Eisenhower was elected president.  I was a small child when McCarthy was leading his hate filled witch hunts. I was a teenager during Vietnam and a senior in high school at the time of Kent State.  I have seen a President assassinated and his brother and a civil rights leader murdered as well.  I have seen dirty politics and political terrorism at work throughout the 70s as a young adult and mother.  I watched as Reagan changed America, and then I saw the rise of the Bush-Clinton dynasties based on corporate greed and hate for the People and their Rights that led inevitably to the rise of what we see today:  hate, intolerance, borderline theocracy, and corporate control of our government.  I have also studied history and public policy as a matter of interest for nearly 40 years, going from being the conservative daughter of a conservative family to a liberal, uninvolved adult to now in my late 50s a budding activist for progressive, anti-federalist, populist causes.  I have evolved while many of my peers and their children have changed into something I had never thought I would see in this nation of free people:  hate-filled, intolerant, spoiled brats who cling to religious fanaticism and neo-con greed and politics that threaten the very fabric of this nation.

Yes, I am talking about baby boomers and their children.  The ones who believe that corporations will save America, all the while complaining that the government is bailing out those very same corporations because they are failing.  These very same people who complain about paying taxes to the government to bail out the corporations in which they have invested their life savings.  These very same people who work 80 hours a week, have poor health, and see their money’s value shrinking while they pay for the privilege of working with their taxes so their employers do not go belly up because they receive bailouts with that tax money.

The complete stupidity of these very people who were the last ones to benefit from decent public education, while their children and grandchildren receive what is at best one of the worst educations in the world.  They apparently skipped the classes on American History, Economics, and Government when they were in school, because they seem to have a complete lack of understanding of these topics as they spew their hatred of government on TV, Radio, and at Tea Party conventions.  They seem to have no understanding of our Constitution when they march against our government and claim to be retaking it in the name of Patriotism and the Constitution when in fact they are rebelling against it because of racial hatred or just plain ignorance of the fact that this is a duly elected government (unlike the Bush/Cheney one) under that very Constitution and its rules.

We have been led down a garden path of hate, intolerance, and violence by false prophets.  People like John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Rick Warren, and Tony Perkins.  People like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann.  People like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones, and Bill O’Reilly.  People like John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Bart Stupak, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, Max Baucus, Mitch McConnell, and Jim Bunning.  These people have all lied to Americans, pandered to special interests, spewed hate, sedition, and treason, put power before people, and claimed that they were acting on conscience or the Bible or religious conviction. And they all hide behind the First Amendment or their constitutents as they do this.   They have all acted against the interests of the American People, our Constitution, and our democracy.  These are not members of hate groups like the KKK or the Nazi party or the Oathkeepers.  These are prominent people who have achieved political, media, or religious power and are actively using their stature in those arenas to spread false prophecies and hate.

And, because of their prominence, American citizens have come to support them and their false ideals.  Just 10 years ago, no one would have taken the likes of Bachmann or Palin seriously with their witch hunts or religious/political blatherings.  The media would have ignored them completely and left no room for doubt that they were crazy.  Now they are media darlings.  Politicians like Stupak and Baucus, religious and corporate hacks, would never have made it very far in the power structures, or been given credence on something like health care.  And, hate groups like the Nazis or the movements of the Oathkeepers and the Religious Right would have faded into the background again, instead of being Internet and media topics.

The media would have not made FOX News and its propaganda part of every news cycle, rather than reporting facts and investigating these very people as a threat.  The media would have remained objective, rather than letting the politicians brand them as too liberal and therefore forcing them to the extreme right in order to supposedly appear objective.  Now the MSM are a joke when it comes to getting truth and facts, and organizations that do nothing but check their facts are commonplace.

America is losing it values and its ability to see danger at home because we have been re-focused by the GOP led Bush/Cheney reactionaries to see only danger from without, not danger from within.  The fact that the Obama Administration continues this shell game is frustrating and disgusting.  The fact that the rise of groups like Xe or their contracting to provide not only security overseas, but police tactical training against Americans at home is terrifying to anyone who understands its implications, whether under Bush/Cheney or the corporately controlled Obama Administration.

America, your greatest threats come from within and as long as we allow the divisive actions of such things as diversity and ignorance to separate us, we are lost.  Ii is time, in fact it way past time, to stop identifying ourselves by our race, religion, or ethnic background first and our status as Americans second.  WE ARE AMERICANS!  WE HAVE A CONSTITUTION THAT IN ITS PRE-AMBLE STATES THAT WE ARE TRYING TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION.  Not that we are trying to form more perfect diversity, but union for a better nation, for the United States.

Union starts with community.  It starts with putting aside our various religions and prejudices, and recognizing that we are all Americans, first, last, always.  It starts with finding commonality in our faith – love, tolerance,  compassion, peace are all taught by every religion in the world, and then moving beyond that to form communities that once again help each other in times of trouble, not depend on the federal government to help them.  We are like the passengers on the ships in WALL-E, we depend on the system so completely that we have become overweight, lazy, and not even connected enough to our neighbors or our environment to realize that they are next to us or surrounding us.  It is time we landed on the real world again, stopped depending on a corrupted, broken system, and started to rebuild this nation from the ground up without the politics of hate, intolerance and false prophets.  When we start doing that, things like the deficit and the national debt can be addressed; people can have jobs and homes; we can end wars and start reconstruction; and we can create a better, more sustainable future because we have our priorities straight again-people, planet, and then profits.

Return to your churches, but demand that ministers, rabbis, imams, priests stop preaching hatred and vengeance and start preaching about the reasons we should work together to create a better life here on Earth through our practice of true faith.  Return to your schools and demand that they teach our children to think and to be good citizens, not robots who can take tests but not think.  Return to your communities and make them strong against those who would preach hate and intolerance by getting to know your neighbors, learn about them and share about yourself, make them your friends, find things that you can all do together to make your community strong – small businesses, community rebuilding projects, community gardens, community activities to bring people together to share traditions from their families.  You can do all of this and you can do it without the federal government and without the hate, intolerance and false prophets.

YOU CAN DO THIS!   WE ARE AMERICANS!

You can read more about the threat of false prophets and others at http://www.letfreedomring.community.officelive.com, under “An Old Soldier” – The Threat to America.

We are a nation that is rapidly ( and by that I mean within months) approaching a crossroads.  We have the options of voting in Progressive Democrats, conservative Democrats (ie Blue Dogs), moderate Republicans, or obstructionist Republicans, as well as a small assortment of Independents from other parties.  We can choose from these as we watch TV and read Internet news; as we listen to the likes of Maddow, Olbermann, Limbaugh and Glenn Beck; as we are bombarded by political promises, ads from corporate interests pushing their agenda for specific politicians; and we can threaten not to vote for corrupt politicians only to find that they all are someone’s payroll along the way so we have no real choices.  It is essentially what we have been doing for decades now, and it is not working.

Starting in 2007, President Obama started campaigning on the idea of hope and change.  Sixty-six million plus voters believed in that and recognized that America needed a change after the horrors of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.   The problem was that the Democrats who ran on the same ticket did not see it that way, and neither did the power behind the DNC and the Clinton machine.  Dr. Howard Dean understood that if you win the trust of America and trust in Americans, that you can win in politics in this country.  That was part of the idea behind his $5 campaign for fund raising.  Obama’s people initially understood it, and if he had followed his initial approach, he probably would have been elected as a People’s President, and not been beholden to the corporate and Clinton crowd that now permeates his Administration.  So our President, elected for change, has failed, and will probably only serve one term unless something drastic changes.

So now, we have a dilemma.  How do we change our nation and how it is governed, especially given the current state of affairs and the Supreme Court ruling in January in Citizens United?  We are faced with a couple of issues that must first be addressed.

First, our government is NOT a business.  It is a non-profit venture that is meant to serve the public good.  In his textbook on microeconomics, Ben S. Bernanke states that in a free market/free trade arrangement, the winners have an obligation to subsidize the losers in the marketplace.  This is the philosophy that led to the banks being to big to fail and our other disastrous bailout and tax cuts for the rich plans. This approach does not work in business, and it most emphatically does not work in government.  So stop acting like you are buying a business and start considering how you want your government being run to benefit you, not big business, which is government’s true function.

Second, our nation is designed such that the greatest changes occur at the local levels.  It was designed that way by the our Founding Fathers when they added the Bill of Rights and the 1oth Amendment insuring states rights.  If you are concerned about how the Federal government is affecting your state or city, become active in local politics.  Work to educate people in your community about issues that are going to affect them now and in the future.  Make them look at the future and the kind of future they want when they are discussing politics.  Education is the first step to public discourse, and it is where the fear of change must be addressed.

Third, we all want things to change because except for a minority of the privileged, most of us are hurting now.  With job losses, home losses, hunger, and continuing policies that favor banks, corporations, and the wealthy, most of us are facing very dim futures for our families and our communities.  However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and contrary to that idiot Glenn Beck, it exists in our own backyards – it is our neighbors and our communities themselves.  But this requires that we change how we think about ourselves and our ability to create change outside of government.  Our governmental structures are interconnected now, but they weren’t always.  Many of the things that the Federal government now legislates are the result of abdication by many states in the belief that the Federal government can do it better.  Obviously, that is no longer the case.  So we need to change the discussion.  We need to move the discussion and the decisions to the local level for all future needs.  In other words, go around the Federal government.

These three things all require us to change: change how we think about government; change how we think about our communities; and change how we think about the future.  It is apparent that those in DC from the President on down the line do not care about how we think (much to our detriment and their disgrace), so we must make the necessary changes without them in the consideration.  Yes, we can send different people to Congress, throwing out the old guard DNC and GOP, and putting in people who will really care about the needs of American citizens – not corporate entities masquerading as citizens.  But, the change we are seeking is one that is more fundamental – it is a change within ourselves that makes us willing to take charge of how our communities work, how we work within those communities, and how to create communities that can stay strong and work together to find solutions to economic problems, social problems, environmental problems, energy problems, and still be able to integrate with those communities which have not made such decisions.  This is our real dilemma of change.

It is not about November’s election as much as it is about ourselves and our communities.  America’s strength has always been within her people without regard to race, religion, ethnic background, or any other divider.  We found strength in unity, not diversity.  We were all Americans – not White Americans or Asian Americans or African-Americans or Muslim Americans or Christian Americans or Gay Americans.  We were just Americans, and within that came our sense of community.  For example, in NYC, everyone had their neighborhoods – Chinatown, Little Italy, Harlem – yet each and every person who lives in NYC considers themselves first, last, and always New Yorkers, just plain New Yorkers.

As a nation we used to be like that, but not anymore, and it has made us weaker.  This is why Glenn Beck says that community is a danger to America – he knows that if we ever get back to being united communities, then we can stand against people like him and his backers.  Communities have the strength to stand up to the Wal-Marts, the BofAs, the Goldman Sachs, the auto makers, the steel companies, the oil companies, the FOX News crowd, and to corrupt politicians and their paymasters in whatever industry you can name.  Communities work together to solve problems, and they have done so successfully for centuries.  They are the strength of any nation, not just the US, and in our desire for political correctness, we have abandoned that ideal.

So here is America’s dilemma of change:  continue to listen to the pundits and the politicians who promise change, but will not deliver; go with politicians who might or might not be able to create change by being beholden only to the citizens; or do you start to work towards creating strong, localized communities that can create change locally to force change at the state level and forget the Federal level and their promises?  It first requires changing how we think about ourselves, our communities, and our nation.  If we can do that, then maybe, just maybe, we will be able to find a solution for our dilemma before November that will affect how this election and the one in 2012 turn out.  Because after 2012, whatever we allow to happen will be irreversible because we will have run out of time to fix what truly is ailing this nation – our own failure to create communities where change and progress to a brighter future can occur.

Once again the Democrats in Congress, led by those two political animals Pelosi and Reid, seem to be determined to undermine the needs of the people and the agenda of the President.

Let’s look first at Pelosi.  She is justifiably angry at the Senate for scuttling health care and now the jobs bill.  The efforts of her followers in the House passed these two bills, despite the special interest inserts in health care that attack a woman’s right to choose and the pandering to Republicans and the insurance industry compromises crafted by her former flunky Rahm Emanuel, and the price tag on the jobs bill.  Now the Senate, with assistance from the WH, crafted a different bill and rejected the House jobs bill.  She should be mad, but she is also a politician first and foremost who stated that she would not be dictated to by this WH.  Her big mouth has gotten her in big trouble, and her lack of addressing the demands of the American public under the Bush Administration has shown that she is really only interested in corporate money and donations from her wine swilling friends in SF and DC.  Now the Senate is not being led well, and she is mad.  Which leads us to Harry Reid…

Harry is without a doubt one of the worst Senate majority leaders in recent history, and that is saying something.  He followed Pelosi’s lead on the impeachment question because he knew he could not get the votes necessary to impeach, but from there on, he has failed to use the power of the majority (not supermajority which is a political and media myth) to pass any meaningful reform.  He has failed to make it clear to certain members of his party (ie Blue Dogs) that they need Democratic money to keep their seats, and if they do not toe the party line, they are on their own and will have to face party supported opposition in their primaries.  You would be amazed at how quickly politicians jump on board when that is threatened.  And if this president has not been so convinced that bipartisanship was necessary, he could have wielded this club as well by threatening to actively campaign against them.   Harry should have also stripped Lieberman of his chairmanship and relegated him to the back bench.  Unfortunately for Harry, this president is being badly advised by his staff of corporate hacks and DNC leaders who are in awe of Lieberman and the corporate money of the Blue Dogs they helped elect.

Now we come to the jobs bill – Nancy is upset because the Senate has rejected the House bill completely, the WH and the Baucus/Grassley crowd are upset because Harry has rejected their bill, and the rest are upset because the Reid bill does not extend something – be it unemployment benefits, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, or their earmark projects.  It is no wonder the American people are disgusted with the lot of them.  As I noted on Politico today, Reid has done something both admirable and despicable all at the same time, and that is quite a feat for Harry.

The jobs bill is suppose to create jobs, not new opportunities for pork or to gouge Americans.  So the bill needs to do three things:  protect people until they return to work and retrain them if necessary to get them employed; it needs to rebuild or expand small businesses that create the majority of jobs in America; and it needs to create jobs at the governmental level, both federal and state, to give people jobs until the private sector decides to do so.

None of these bills currently do much of that significantly.  This first, and notice I said first, jobs bill should only include three things and anything else is pork:

1.  A jobs training program for those who have been unemployed for over 3 months, tied into an apprenticeship program working with  localize small businesses and family agriculture preferably.

2. Extension of unemployment benefits and COBRA assistance for up to 2 years, and expansion of the SBA loan and grants programs administered directly by the SBA again, not microlenders or political groups, to encourage start-ups and expansions of small localized businesses to keep money flowing in communities and encouraging the hiring of people locally.  This is what creates new jobs best, and keeps money flowing in communities to help them rebuild.  It could also expand rural development money from the USDA, with the limitation that it be used only for small family farms, localized agricultural projects, or small rural business development, not for agribusiness expansion or the use of mega-corporations.

3.  Creation of a government jobs programs along the lines of TVA and CCC to create workforce opportunities immediately to address the expansion of rail across this nation; rebuild, refurbish, or build new public buildings like schools, government offices, or other facilities across the country; agricultural programs that replant forests, clean waterways, rebuild canals and deltas, and other environmentally necessary programs; fix the power grid for 21st century needs, as well as building localized mini-grids to carry part of the burden; and finally, use these programs as OJT programs to tie in with the programs in part 1.  These programs will create work across statelines and help out states in rebuilding their economies as well.

This is a simple, easy way to approach this question.  It is common sense, and it will cost money. A bill encompassing these three things, and only these three things, should be passed cleanly and immediately to stop this recovery without jobs, and make it one that has jobs as an integral part of it.   Because the fact is that until we get over 6 million people back to work, we are going to have to have the government spend the money.  Once these people are back to work, they can pay taxes and that, along with fair trade policies that include tariffs, is the only way to get our deficit down and our country growing again.  It is the same as it was in the 1930s when such programs worked well, and as long as the people in DC fail to understand this, there will be no jobs bill, no health care bill, no environmental bill, no nothing.  It is truly an Oh, My! moment for us.