World Domination

The Genghis Khan tried but failed. So did Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent, Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler and Stalin. World domination is a pipe dream with a strong lure. The need for power becomes a deadly trap for the narrow minded self-centered nationalistic ignorant militant pseudo leaders who eventually become tyrants. They act in the best interest of the nations they lead while leaving behind a trail of destruction, desperation and misery. World domination is a poor substitute for global peace and co-operation.

The single most important question facing us

The single most important question facing us tonight is: Do we reduce deficits and interest rates by raising revenue from those who are not now paying their fair share—or do we accept bigger budget deficits, higher interest rates and higher unemployment…  We’re within sight of a safe port of economic recovery. Do we make port or go aground on the shoals of selfishness, partisanship and just plain bullheadedness? Ronald Reagan, Televised speech, August 16, 1982.

The New America

Imagine for a moment an America entirely different from the one you have known so far. An America, for instance, with no public schools. Instead your kid goes to a charter or private school you pay for and that includes kindergarten, elementary, secondary and high schools. Theory of evolution will not be taught, instead your kids will be proficient in the theory of creation. There will be no school bus paid by the school district. You pay for a bus owned by a privately held company to take your kid to school. School lunch will be served by, you guessed, another company at a reasonable cost. You got caught driving under the influence. You go to a jail owned and operated by a private company. There will be no unemployment insurance. If you get laid off, your family and friends will have to support you. Public universities and colleges will be a thing of history. You go to a private one if you can afford it. You don't get any college education or degree if you don't have the money to pay for it. There will be no US postal service. There will be no EPA, no FCC, no FDA, no etc. etc... If you have no health insurance, you are on your own. You are unfairly fired from your job? There will be no laws to protect you. Top 1% will pay no tax but those living under poverty and the working Americans will have to pay the highest tax rate. There will be no Food Stamps. As Michele Bachmann once said "You don't work, you don't eat". But, as a mother, you can always shot your kids first and then commit suicide. That will be OK in the new America. The new America will destroy all other countries with different cultures and religions, especially those who would disagree with our policies. We will be fighting wars all over the world. The separation of church and state will be gone. You will have to pledge allegiance to the state religion. Articles of the Constitution that do not support new America will be thrown away. Rich will have the absolute power and you, the citizen, will have nothing. Now, is this the America you want to live in? So, next time you go to a polling place to cast your vote, ask yourself "Which America I would like to live in?" You have the power to shape our destiny.

Social Security

Currently, income above $106,800 is not subject to Social Security tax. Remove that cap to allow millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share and Social Security will be solvent forever. This is another GOP secret plan to push Social Security into bankruptcy so they can get rid of it forever. It is part of their smaller government vision for America. Only way to stop their actions is to send home from the Congress in 2012 those who favor Republican policies targeting our social safety nets.

Republican Plan

Republican - Tea Party plan for corporate takeover of America and dismantling Federal Government is in full swing. Next step? Destroy U.S. Postal Service so private companies can charge over $10 for a first class mail that costs only 42 cents to mail now and lay off 100,000 plus postal employees to further weaken negotiating power of the labor. Their objective is to get rid of all regulations so we can have more arsenic in our drinking water, more growth hormones in our meat supply, more pesticides in our fruits and vegetables, more pollutants in the air we breathe and more carcinogens in our groceries. Dismantle Social Security so private companies get their hands on the only money left in the Government so they can privatize it in order to feed the money to Wall Street greed. Make education available only to the children of rich. Stop teaching positive sciences and limit learning to Sunday schools.  Restrict voting to white folks and regular church goers.  Ban all collective bargaining rights to enslave workers.  And for the national defense, plan is to dismantle our military so private companies like Black Water can provide national security and shoot anyone at will under the disguise of self-defense.  Let them handle our nuclear arsenal and military hardware. Republicans and Tea Baggers have only one goal. They want to create a slave nation in which there will be no liberty or opposition, governed by the Corporations, Billionaires and Hedge Fund Managers with the help of corrupt politicians and Wall Street Bankers. 

OIL

Year was 1983, oil was about $40/barrel and economy was stagnant. Ronald Reagan was the President and he was soliciting suggestions from the business community to revitalize the economy in order to insure his re-election. Business leaders he had talked to at the time suggested him to lower the oil prices to help the economy. Against that background, Reagan asked his then VP George Bush Sr. to work out a deal with Saudis to lower the oil prices during one of their weekly lunches. After that conversation, George Bush Sr. made 4 trips to Riyadh in the following 12 months to work out a gentlemen’s agreement with the Saudis. In exchange for national security guarantees from US, Saudis pumped up the production to flood the markets with oil. Oil prices tumbled to $10/barrel just before election and Reagan got re-elected. Unfortunately, at $10/barrel, oil exploration came to a screeching halt in the US. Rig count fell from 1350 to 300 in only a few weeks. Thousands of independent oil companies in US closed doors. Nearly half a million oil field professionals and workers lost their jobs. That event is known today as the great "Oil Bust" in the oil belt states. For the next 20 years, there will be no oil exploration in the US. Oil imports will increase over time from just 26% in the 80s to today's 60%. How those events of the 80s relate to our economy today? First of all, this is the behind-the-scenes story of how oil prices are hovering around $100/barrel nowadays affecting your personal well-being and your money as well as how we have became so dependent on foreign oil. But it also explains some of those untold reasons behind the first Gulf War and why we should pay attention to what is happening in Libya.

Mr. President,

Mr. President,

If you sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 , as a nation, we will be no different than the former Soviet Union whose secret police KGB used to knock on doors at midnight during the cold war to haul away people, most of which have never been seen again. As defined by Ronald Reagan's words, we will become the new "Evil Empire" under your leadership. In the eyes of the history, you will forever own the distinction of being the President who has betrayed our fundamental values and freedoms as defined in our Constitution which you have been sworn in to protect. As if your failure to distinguish the ill-defined nature of war on terror isn't bad enough, your signature of approval for this legislation will insure your place in our history which will be lower than that of George W. Bush, currently the worst President of the United States. Despite your monumental failures as President, here is a chance for you to redeem yourself in the eyes of the history. I hope you will not shy away like you did when you failed to invoke the 14th amendment.

North Korea

I believe North Korea to Chinese is what Israel is to us... There can be very little pressure on the North Korea without risking a deterioration of relations with the mainland Chinese. I believe that Chinese top brass is extremely concerned with our troop presence in South Korea and would see a military conflict between North and South as the only option available to eliminate US presence in their back yard. This is why a war between North and South will be more compelling to North Korea and Chinese than the South Korea and the USA. Proof is sinking of South Korean war ship by North Koreans and the bombing of a South Korean island as a provocation. With our relations with Russia is at a turning point over missile defense system and our cooperation with Pakistan at its lowest level coupled with worsening relations with Iran over their nuclear program, the odds are Chinese will be more defiant on the subjects of North Korea and Taiwan. Our policy towards to North Korea should be directed towards unification of North and South. After all, a divided Korea is a remnant of the cold war. East and West Germany got unified. Why not South and North Korea?

HERE ARE....

Here are some documented facts; the share of total income going to the richest 1% of Americans in 1928 was over 23%.  Similarly the share of total income going to the richest 1% of Americans in 2007 was also (SURPRIZE) over 23% according to Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, authors of “The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective”. After 1928, the ratio declined steadily. Between 1953 and 1983, the ratio was around 10%. In 1987, second term of Ronald Reagan, the ratio jumped to almost 16%. The same ratio also jumped from  17% in 2002 to 23% in 2007 under George W. Bush. Of course, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Great Depression was precipitated by the 23% ratio of 1928. Similarly, the Great Recession of 2008 was precipitated by the 23% ratio of 2007, which brings me to the great GOP fallacy that giving more to rich creates jobs. If we want to get out of this economic mess, we must reduce this ratio down to 10% by taxing rich and passing the saving to consuming segment of the economy. Cutting spending while keeping tax breaks to the super rich will have a devastating effect on the economy, possibly leading to food riots and social unrest. Although debt issue is a critical one, it should be addressed after economy sufficiently recovers from its current slump.  I sincerely hope that we will wake up in time to save our economy and our way of life. To find out more about this subject, I suggest you read Robert Reich’s book “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future”.  

HEIR APPARENT

Lately, radio talk show hosts, political pundits and TV commentators are all talking about how Republicans are so unhappy with the current crop of Presidential candidates. So, why isn’t there a candidate every Republican can happily support to be the next President of the United States? The answer is George W. Bush… No, I am not talking about two wars, trillions in borrowed money, big tax cuts to super rich, budget deficits, etc. etc.. . There is something else…

When George Bush accepted the nomination of GOP in 2000, he chose Dick Cheney as his running mate. Born on January 30, 1941, Cheney was almost 60 years old when he was sworn in as the V.P. in 2001. When 8 years of Bush Administration ended in 2009, Cheney was about to celebrate his 69^th birthday, too old to run for President. As a result, he couldn’t be the heir apparent to the GOP dynasty. Should Bush has opted for a younger V.P in 2000, not only GOP would have had a better change at keeping the White House against Obama in 2008, but would have established a protocol of succession in Presidency.

Fast forward to 2008. Obama chooses Joe Biden as his running mate to be the next V.P. of the United States. Biden who was born on November 20, 1942 will be 72 years old this November. If Obama gets re-elected and stays in the office till 2016, Biden will be 76 years old by the time the elections of 2016 are held.  This also means, there will be no heir apparent for the Democrats in a stunning similarity with GOP.

Enter Hillary Clinton, former First Lady of the United States. Born on October 26, 1947, current Secretary of State is going to be 65 years old this year. If she replaces Biden and becomes a V.P. for Obama, she will be the heir apparent for the Democratic ticket in 2016 at the ripe age of 69. Add 8 years, she will be 77 years old by the end of her second term if she holds the office for two terms. Can she wake up to answer the phone at the White House at 3 o’clock in the morning towards the end of her second term?

There are however exceptions… John Kerry selected John Edwards in 2004, 10 years of his junior, as his running mate. Born on June 10, 1953 Edwards was only 51 years old in 2004 and would have been 59 after 8 years of Kerry Presidency. By the end of his second term, Edwards would have been 77 years old, just one year younger than Ronald Reagan at the end of his second term.

So, who should Obama elect as his running mate in 2012 to insure an heir apparent for Democrats in 2016? The answer is someone who would be in his 50s in 2016, someone, for example, who was born on March 26, 1960. That hypothetical person will be 56 years old in 2016, perfect age to lead the nation with already  4 years of experience in the White House as an apprentice under Obama.

Enter Jon Huntsman, born on March 26, 1960. He clearly has strong support among Independents, something Obama desperately needs but doesn’t have after 4 years of his monumental Presidential miscalculations. On the other hand, Huntsman has already dropped out of the Presidential race. Nevertheless, he has in depth understanding of China, our mightiest current competitor and a major challenge to our economic wellbeing and geopolitical future.  He has leadership qualities since he served as the Governor of Utah. He is no Wall Street shark like Romney. He understands global economics. So, can he be snatched off from GOP to create a national ticket for 2012? Obama/Huntsman for 2012? This might be a good time to think outside the box…

A Closet Republican...

I sincerely believe Obama is a closet Republican controlled by extreme right wingers to destroy progressive movement from within. His role model is Ronald Reagan. He said that many times. He quotes from Reagan. He is surrounded by Wall Street bankers. He advances Republican agenda. He has kept all Bush policies in place since his election. At a time we can't pay our teachers, policemen and fire fighters, he opted to waste a billion dollars a day in Afghanistan to support a corrupt government. He offered cuts in entitlements without anybody asking for it. He extended Bush tax cuts despite his campaign pledge. His first term actually can be called the third term of Bush. He needs to go back to Chicago where he can resume his job as a community organizer.

Bush Legacy...

Bush legacy; 2 senseless wars, 6 trillion in additional deficit, 8 million lost jobs, stock market crush of September 29, 2008 and an economy on the brink of total collapse, trillions of tax cuts to his rich buddies with borrowed money, squandering 280 billion dollars of budget surplus to 1 trillion in annual deficit, Patriot Act, breaking International Laws on torture, lying to Congress and American people on Weapons of Mass Destruction, 5,000 military deaths, 50,000 wounded servicemen and women, 600,000 civilian deaths including women and children, 6 million dislocated civilians, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo to name a few. He is the worst of the worst, not only as a President, but as an American as well.

Attila the Hun...

Attila the Hun tried but failed, so did Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Hitler among many others. World hegemony is a pipe dream that has led to the self-destruction of many great nations including Romans. Are we, as a nation, going to be the latest victim of this pipe dream? We are as good as bankrupt and yet we keep on spending 2 billion of borrowed money every week in Afghanistan. Thousands are in revolt filling streets for fairness and yet our incompetent leadership has locked horns. Is this a good time to wake up or is it already too late?