Sunday, February 22, 2009
Political Royalty
by
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I landed in the patio of a retiree who has a lush garden with many delicacies. There was a tablet of paper on a table and I read what she had written. I heard her on the telephone talking very passionately about politics and she said that she would like to write a column for a newspaper because she had never done it. So here is her column, a real American retiree from your educational system:
What we have here in the United States of America is our very own political royalty who ride in luxury limousines to luxury homes sometimes on government planes to luxury hotels at luxury resorts and back to the luxury limousines to one of their luxury homes where they feast on the finest organic free range meats, seafood, and the finest and freshest organic vegetables and beautiful fruits few of us citizens can afford.
As a taxpaying citizen standing in line for everything, standing in line at the airport, at the supermarket, at the DMV, waiting at the doctor's office, waiting and standing in line while the political royalty whose salaries we pay live another kind of luxury life. A life of privilege which I cannot afford. I only pay them so they can afford it without using their own money.
Meanwhile, for the actual job I pay them to do, which is to make laws to keep us free and safe seems to be lost somewhere. Let's see, roads, bridges, trains, unsafe lakes, rivers and drinking water polluted, cities crime ridden, industry jobs outsourced. Household products foreign made, a question about my credit card takes me to a foreign land. My groceries, fruits and vegetables are mostly imports. What- we can't grow our own grapes or broccoli anymore? We can't make a wrench, a wreath or a towel anymore.
Crimes in the public schools have increased when they should have decreased 20 years ago. The obscenities on TV and the movies have become commonplace and accepted. This is our America today.
The superstate that has been created in your country is for the benefit primarily of those in the national government, lobbyists and the industries the lobbyists represent, often to the detriment to the majority of the American people. A new slogan has emerged for the republic: A country for the few, by the few but of the many.
I came across a old newspaper article about your military building new bases and homes and recreational facilities including golf courses and pools in the Philippines costing a billion dollars when the dollar was worth double or more than it is today. Well, at that time the U.S. military just assumed the Philippine government would permit them to stay another 100 years. It did not happen and that billion dollars worth of construction was lost.
Now, that does not compare to the amount of money lost and stolen in Iraq which is now in the tens of billions of dollars. If we included the waste, fraud and abuse in domestic spending it is in the trillions of dollars. What lessons have been learned by the national government about spending the people's resources? That's something you've never seen discussed on the television networks.
It really is expensive maintaining an empire and the least of it has been in propping up dictators in the name of freedom around the world: Marcos in the Philippines, Shah in Iran and many more you can read about in the book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer.
The irony is that in the United States has one of the most expensive educational systems in the world, yet the majority of the American people are blissfully unaware of their country's own history-foreign or domestic.
Simon Bolivar said something that might have some applicability: It is a terrible truth that it costs more strength to maintain freedom than to endure the weight of tyranny.
I'll be flying off now. It's getting late.
by
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I landed in the patio of a retiree who has a lush garden with many delicacies. There was a tablet of paper on a table and I read what she had written. I heard her on the telephone talking very passionately about politics and she said that she would like to write a column for a newspaper because she had never done it. So here is her column, a real American retiree from your educational system:
What we have here in the United States of America is our very own political royalty who ride in luxury limousines to luxury homes sometimes on government planes to luxury hotels at luxury resorts and back to the luxury limousines to one of their luxury homes where they feast on the finest organic free range meats, seafood, and the finest and freshest organic vegetables and beautiful fruits few of us citizens can afford.
As a taxpaying citizen standing in line for everything, standing in line at the airport, at the supermarket, at the DMV, waiting at the doctor's office, waiting and standing in line while the political royalty whose salaries we pay live another kind of luxury life. A life of privilege which I cannot afford. I only pay them so they can afford it without using their own money.
Meanwhile, for the actual job I pay them to do, which is to make laws to keep us free and safe seems to be lost somewhere. Let's see, roads, bridges, trains, unsafe lakes, rivers and drinking water polluted, cities crime ridden, industry jobs outsourced. Household products foreign made, a question about my credit card takes me to a foreign land. My groceries, fruits and vegetables are mostly imports. What- we can't grow our own grapes or broccoli anymore? We can't make a wrench, a wreath or a towel anymore.
Crimes in the public schools have increased when they should have decreased 20 years ago. The obscenities on TV and the movies have become commonplace and accepted. This is our America today.
The superstate that has been created in your country is for the benefit primarily of those in the national government, lobbyists and the industries the lobbyists represent, often to the detriment to the majority of the American people. A new slogan has emerged for the republic: A country for the few, by the few but of the many.
I came across a old newspaper article about your military building new bases and homes and recreational facilities including golf courses and pools in the Philippines costing a billion dollars when the dollar was worth double or more than it is today. Well, at that time the U.S. military just assumed the Philippine government would permit them to stay another 100 years. It did not happen and that billion dollars worth of construction was lost.
Now, that does not compare to the amount of money lost and stolen in Iraq which is now in the tens of billions of dollars. If we included the waste, fraud and abuse in domestic spending it is in the trillions of dollars. What lessons have been learned by the national government about spending the people's resources? That's something you've never seen discussed on the television networks.
It really is expensive maintaining an empire and the least of it has been in propping up dictators in the name of freedom around the world: Marcos in the Philippines, Shah in Iran and many more you can read about in the book Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer.
The irony is that in the United States has one of the most expensive educational systems in the world, yet the majority of the American people are blissfully unaware of their country's own history-foreign or domestic.
Simon Bolivar said something that might have some applicability: It is a terrible truth that it costs more strength to maintain freedom than to endure the weight of tyranny.
I'll be flying off now. It's getting late.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Organized and Legalized Corruption
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I was up later than usual and watched a t.v. news show from a lilac bush located on the side of a four season porch with a bank of windows. It was after 9:00 p.m. way passed my sleeping time. I was just ready to fly to go to sleep when the guest of an MSNBC show Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security advisor in the Carter Administration said,
" We're close to being bankrupt. You know Washington and I know Washington. What we have in the city is well organized legalized corruption." He was talking about the Legislative and Executive Branches of government in Washington, D.C.
If the network had known he was going to say this it is unlikely he would have been on the show. It is interesting that the host of the show never pursued this monumental statement and never asked if he would return to the show to discuss it further and in more detail!
The idea that the government of the United States has developed into organized and legalized corruption and is not an important topic to be focused on in mainstream television news means the producers of news tacitly are working with the government. There is nothing like mutual interests and benefits of huge current and future profits of parties concerned to concentrate the mind. Democracy to be vibrant and strong confronts its weaknesses and shortcomings in order to progress. A weak democracy seldom confronts its defects, failings, inadequacies and flaws, for it revels in its power assigning ever more resources to government at the expense of the citizenry.
Now, it is unlikely that we will ever see a televised discussion on the topic of organized and legalized corruption in the government. Also it is unlikely that there will be a televised show on how to reverse this corrosive development.
Tonight I will sleep at my usual time in order to be more rested for my early morning flights.
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
I was up later than usual and watched a t.v. news show from a lilac bush located on the side of a four season porch with a bank of windows. It was after 9:00 p.m. way passed my sleeping time. I was just ready to fly to go to sleep when the guest of an MSNBC show Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security advisor in the Carter Administration said,
" We're close to being bankrupt. You know Washington and I know Washington. What we have in the city is well organized legalized corruption." He was talking about the Legislative and Executive Branches of government in Washington, D.C.
If the network had known he was going to say this it is unlikely he would have been on the show. It is interesting that the host of the show never pursued this monumental statement and never asked if he would return to the show to discuss it further and in more detail!
The idea that the government of the United States has developed into organized and legalized corruption and is not an important topic to be focused on in mainstream television news means the producers of news tacitly are working with the government. There is nothing like mutual interests and benefits of huge current and future profits of parties concerned to concentrate the mind. Democracy to be vibrant and strong confronts its weaknesses and shortcomings in order to progress. A weak democracy seldom confronts its defects, failings, inadequacies and flaws, for it revels in its power assigning ever more resources to government at the expense of the citizenry.
Now, it is unlikely that we will ever see a televised discussion on the topic of organized and legalized corruption in the government. Also it is unlikely that there will be a televised show on how to reverse this corrosive development.
Tonight I will sleep at my usual time in order to be more rested for my early morning flights.
Monday, February 16, 2009
It’s the Parties!
By
Molly the Robin
My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
Now I just watched on one of your soft and shallow information television news networks say that Senator Reid has introduced legislation providing for funding of a new high speed railway link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Your government never has compiled and completed a prioritized list of infrastructure projects. Instead your elected leaders reward their districts and you might think that all your country needs are subsidized trips to casinos. In the poorest countries lotteries and gambling are a major focus in the society. Your elected leaders appear to be planning the same fate for your country.
I have seen Amtrak from Buffalo to Albany to New York city and that line is old, slow and needs sprucing up to say the least. I have flown along aside this Amtrak train and it takes forever to get anywhere with so many stops. Going to Florida on Amtrak takes a long time as well as not being cost effective for many, if not most passengers. The cost is several times the cost of a roundtrip by air. Just try to cross the country by train. Maybe you’ll get to your destination in one or probably two weeks at a cost that you could fly several round trips between L.A. and N.Y. Is the Boston to Washington, D.C. train newer and faster than the Amtrak train from Buffalo to New York City because U.S. Senators use that line? Is the Amtrak line between New York City and points north and west old and dilapidated because the two most recent U.S. Senators never use that line themselves?
Most of the trains in your country are old and slow while trains in Europe and Japan are fast and efficient making your trains look out of date. Why is that? The politicians don’t seem to care and your citizenry are so enamored by the automobile that train service gets short shrift. Is it in your national interest to neglect modern rail service?
Your government subsidizes the air line industry and owns the substandard Amtrak line (when compared to those trains in Europe). Your government decided on its own to support and fund airlines over rail lines. Now that fuel is expensive that isn’t such a good idea. There apparently was no foresight in having a passenger rail line the country could really use to cross the country or even go to New York City from Buffalo in a few hours instead of traveling nearly a day. The politicians can say the people don’t care about fast rail service or they would know it.
Those politicians are really clever. They set up the Internal Revenue Service to catch citizens who mistakenly make a deduction of a couple thousand dollars and freeze their assets (the bank must comply or face criminal penalties). In this case it was a middle aged woman who calculated her income. The IRS first contact with her was freezing her assets. No inquiry and no discussion. I watched and listened on a lilac bush the woman tell her story to someone on the phone while she was on her deck. Did the IRS freeze the assets of new Secretary of the Treasury when he made a mistake regarding his taxes? Favoritism may well be the Achilles Heel in any society, for it breeds distrust. The trust quotient in your society is diminishing by the day and has been occurring for a long time.
When the national government “loses” billions, tens of billions and even trillions of dollars in spending in the United States and overseas there is often little accountability. One might even dare say that members of the government (elected and non-elected alike) engage in the most reckless financial manner with impunity and rarely is there a financial crime for anyone in government, despite the fact that tens of billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars are lost or stolen or never recovered. That is the manner that your government conducts business in war and peace, day in and day out. If it continues in this manner it is most likely to come crashing down, most devastatingly on the American people who were so polite and sheepish during the episode of wanton and reckless empire. It all starts with momentous legislation that members of Congress do not read. Their party leaders tell them what to vote on-something like the old Soviet Union where everyone here made fun of the strict party line they all followed. Luckily the library window was open upstairs and I flew right in while nobody was around and did a lot of reading on these matters.
It seems to me that the country is in a financial mess because the two political parties controlling the government caused it. Now the current dominate political party will spend more money trying to extricate the country from the financial meltdown both political parties caused through inattention, incompetence and mismanagement. It’s funny and strange beyond belief that the hundreds of billions given to banks, investment and insurance companies during the Bush bailout has done little for the national economy. How was that money spent? Why was it spent so quickly? I think it was done to protect the assets of those in power as well as those in the banking and investment industries. If they had been allowed to fail the country would know when, where and how to assist the economy if needed. Again, panic for the benefit of the few was the order of the day.
Government of the political parties, for the political parties and by the political parties seems to be the government you have today, something which the first and probably your greatest president, George Washington, warned against in his Farewell Address. I think you respect people and their wisdom by abiding by their words, not by discarding and violating their words. Something like abiding by the Constitution and showing respect by doing so. I’ll be flying off now.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
OVER STRETCHED, OVER EXTENDED, OVERBLOWN
By
Molly the Robin
I’m only a bird but it is as plain as the beak on my face that your national government is over stretched, over extended and overblown. My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
Parameters, limits and focus of your national government are lacking. By trying to rule the world, in a way, even a small way is not your mission. Your government’s role ought to be limited to creating an excellent judicial system including supervising the financial industry. The phrase “justice delayed is justice denied” ought never to be applicable. Providing effective national security, health care, infrastructure, safe and sanitary foods and social security ought also to be your main functions including an independent and neutral foreign policy. The cost of government ought always to be reasonable, not unreasonable. Unless there is a definition of what reasonable costs are in government prescribed in the Constitution the country will more likely lurch from economic crises caused by government.
Finally, protecting the earth itself ought to be your ultimate mission in all things you do. The earth is fast becoming a garbage dump of toxic stew. Unless you treat the earth with more respect and even reverence you will destroy everything. Today, you are failing in all these endeavors. Why? Because the mission of your government is everywhere instead of focused somewhere. Your country is not a leader, but solely a follower after wealth, power and influence. The American Indians said trod lightly on the earth, do not create ruts, vast filth and reckless killings.
It seems to me that your government’s actions during this financial meltdown, which is really a fiasco made by government through its inattention and lack of oversight, is in protecting itself instead of the American people. If the American people have less money, cutting back on their spending and reducing their lifestyle choices to some degree, why isn’t the government planning on downsizing substantially. The national debt and deficit are exploding, increasing to enormous, exorbitant, excessive and vast levels. The result is a weakening economy and dollar. The interest on the debt is never or rarely reported. Why? Is the annual interest payment on the national debt insignificant? Why is your national television media so reluctant to address the financial and fiscal matters of the country in detail? The answer is that television ratings do not justify exposing and revealing such a critical component of your government. So much for the value of your public air waves for illuminating the financial plight of your nation.
Solutions can only occur with a bedrock of honesty and commitment by your leaders or new leaders need to emerge. There is so much lying, mendacity and duplicity by humanity that you are making us all sick, including the earth. I read in a library recently that your kind even lies in casual conversations about little things as much as big things. In fact, most of you can’t even talk without lying. Now, how long will it take your lying to destroy everything including the earth?
If the elected members of government cannot provide effective oversight over government agencies and departments, the federal government is too big, too unweildy, too cumbersome and too ponderous. An expensive failure is often the fruit of government agencies and departments unless there is oversight by the people through their elected representatives.
Solutions in our bird world are often simple if leaders are truly committed to the flock.
By
Molly the Robin
I’m only a bird but it is as plain as the beak on my face that your national government is over stretched, over extended and overblown. My name is Molly and I am an American robin. I learned to think by seeing myself in car door mirrors. I am a mother who has had several broods of hatchlings. A fellow wrote about my story in Animal Park. He only got half the story right as most people do. I use public school libraries which are often closed. I usually find windows or openings into schools. I only have to perch on a tree or bush or deck to watch television news, which is hardly worth the trouble most of the time.
Parameters, limits and focus of your national government are lacking. By trying to rule the world, in a way, even a small way is not your mission. Your government’s role ought to be limited to creating an excellent judicial system including supervising the financial industry. The phrase “justice delayed is justice denied” ought never to be applicable. Providing effective national security, health care, infrastructure, safe and sanitary foods and social security ought also to be your main functions including an independent and neutral foreign policy. The cost of government ought always to be reasonable, not unreasonable. Unless there is a definition of what reasonable costs are in government prescribed in the Constitution the country will more likely lurch from economic crises caused by government.
Finally, protecting the earth itself ought to be your ultimate mission in all things you do. The earth is fast becoming a garbage dump of toxic stew. Unless you treat the earth with more respect and even reverence you will destroy everything. Today, you are failing in all these endeavors. Why? Because the mission of your government is everywhere instead of focused somewhere. Your country is not a leader, but solely a follower after wealth, power and influence. The American Indians said trod lightly on the earth, do not create ruts, vast filth and reckless killings.
It seems to me that your government’s actions during this financial meltdown, which is really a fiasco made by government through its inattention and lack of oversight, is in protecting itself instead of the American people. If the American people have less money, cutting back on their spending and reducing their lifestyle choices to some degree, why isn’t the government planning on downsizing substantially. The national debt and deficit are exploding, increasing to enormous, exorbitant, excessive and vast levels. The result is a weakening economy and dollar. The interest on the debt is never or rarely reported. Why? Is the annual interest payment on the national debt insignificant? Why is your national television media so reluctant to address the financial and fiscal matters of the country in detail? The answer is that television ratings do not justify exposing and revealing such a critical component of your government. So much for the value of your public air waves for illuminating the financial plight of your nation.
Solutions can only occur with a bedrock of honesty and commitment by your leaders or new leaders need to emerge. There is so much lying, mendacity and duplicity by humanity that you are making us all sick, including the earth. I read in a library recently that your kind even lies in casual conversations about little things as much as big things. In fact, most of you can’t even talk without lying. Now, how long will it take your lying to destroy everything including the earth?
If the elected members of government cannot provide effective oversight over government agencies and departments, the federal government is too big, too unweildy, too cumbersome and too ponderous. An expensive failure is often the fruit of government agencies and departments unless there is oversight by the people through their elected representatives.
Solutions in our bird world are often simple if leaders are truly committed to the flock.
