Sometimes I feel I’m just going around in circles writing about essentially the same thing from a plethora of different angles.  The United States of America is under attack and it’s coming from within – that’s basically my premise.  And, the scariest part of all this to me is that almost everyone I know has no idea what’s going on.  The other day I heard Bernie Sanders – referred to on the program he was a guest on as “America’s Senator” – put it well when he said the “right” wing of America is playing a “shell game” to distract the attention of the American voters in a brazen (my description) attempt to undermine the electoral process in the next election.  I couldn’t agree more!

What’s a “shell game?” you might ask.  Well, it’s when someone uses trickery to get you to believe you’re seeing one thing when you’re really seeing something entirely different.  I’m sure most people who would happen onto this site have seen the person with the three half walnut shells with the “prize” in one of them moving them around to the point where you can only guess which one actually holds the prize.  Even though the “moving” was done right before your eyes, most of the time people guess the wrong shell.  And, that’s exactly what the “right” wing (republicans) are attempting to do in the next election.  They are trying (and, apparently quite successfully) to get the attention of the American public off of the failures of the Bush/Cheney administration – with the help of 6 years of a republican congress – and onto things like an Arab “Mosque” – which really isn’t a Mosque – being built right next to “ground zero” – which really isn’t next to ground zero.  They (the republicans) are making a “convincing” argument that our government deficit is way to high and the solution is to extend the tax cuts for millionaires (commonly referred to as the “Bush Tax Cuts” – curiously, the same argument which got us into this mess in the first place and evidently there are still people “buying” it).  At the same time, they are arguing that we can’t afford to extend unemployment benefits for those LAZY Americans who’ve been out of work since the beginning of the “Great Recession,” or another “stimulus” bill designed to create jobs because it would “balloon” that horrible deficit created by Barack Obama.  In fact, the republicans have even torpedoed a bill designed to open up credit for small business owners in America presumably because it’s not “paid for.”  All of these decisions come on the heels of the one vote where republicans chose the path of bipartisanship and that was for the continued funding (with TOTALLY borrowed funds) of the occupations in Iraq and Afganistan.  (They’d also have us believe that “gay marriage” is a bigger threat to our nation than these arrogant occupations of foreign lands)

This stuff is all, at least in my mind, so BRAZENLY absurd, that I find it hard to fathom MY country could have degenerated to the point where these republican positions could even gain any traction at all in the media.  But, that of course would presuppose that the media wasn’t “in bed” with them.  While you could say that claiming the media is in bed with the republicans is a stretch, I believe it’s safe to say that Fox “news” has WAY MORE influence than they should for some unexplainable reason and who they’re “in bed” with politically is a secret only to the really ignorant voters.  The fact that Fox is now OPENLY pouring MILLIONS into republican campaign coffers (I can’t remember a time in my lifetime when something such as this would have been at all acceptable) while receiving BILLIONS from the Saudi Prince who is the NUMBER TWO shareholder in “Newscorp” after Rupert Murdoch – the Aussie who owns the place doesn’t seem to be an issue with many.  (remember, the 9/11 attacks were instigated MAINLY by Saudi’s and funded by Saudi “charities” including from the “prince” – allegedly – who is the Saudi shareholder in Fox)  And, the FACT that Roger Ailes – a republican political hack – is the head of the “news” portion of Fox doesn’t seem to turn too many heads in America these days either is also QUITE curious.  To me, that all speaks for itself as far as the “attack” I referred to in the initial paragraph of this post.  How they’re pulling off this “shell game” – when it should be so obvious what is happening – ought to go down in history as legendary in the area of successful political PROPAGANDA.  (I AM hearing more and more comparisons with 1930’s Germany and these republican tactics all the time – just not in the so-called “mainstream” – where investigative reporting seems to be a “thing of the past”)  I honestly believe there is a huge portion of America’s voting public who have no conception regarding the importance of the media as the “fourth estate” based on the constitutional design of our founders.

One of the worst parts of all of this, in my view, is the long term “after effects” of this political ginning up of HATE to gain votes in the short term.  Take for example the issue of the “Mosque” a few blocks away from “Ground Zero.”  It’s actually a “community center” with a couple floors (I believe there are 11 floors total in the building) set aside for prayer.  The building is an old abandoned Burlington Coat Factory which has sat vacant since 9/11 or thereabouts.  The person who is putting this all together is a well respected member of the New York community and one of the purposes of the “community center” is to bring people together.  Additionally, if you took a cab from Ground Zero you would have to travel something like four block to get there.  In the process you would pass a couple strip clubs which apparently are more acceptable to the memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11 than a community center – to republicans, anyway.  I mean the whole thing is beyond absurd on its face. 

But, here’s the rub.  This “Mosque” fiasco is getting worldwide media attention.  We still have troops in Iraq and Afganistan – and, despite President Obama’s claims to the contrary – the only decipherable purpose of our mission in Afganistan is “nation building.”  Over and over, in both situations, we hear that our troops are trying to win the hearts and minds of Muslims.  Yet, here in America, the very people who put us in that situation – the republicans – are ginning up HATE against Muslims.  Today, in the New York Times there were a couple of Op Eds which put it much better than I ever could.  The first – and one of the best articles I’ve read in some time, was by Frank Rich – if you haven’t read this guy’s stuff, you should.  Click here to read his article – it clearly points out the hypocrisy of republicans like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and others seeking short term political gain at the expense of long term ill will toward America.  Nicholas Kristof has another interesting perspective on the topic which you can read by clicking here.  I’m pointing all of this out because there are compelling arguments that the postitions being put forward in public by the republican party are so detrimental to the best interests of this nation that you could call them unpatriotic.

Now, I realize that the Bush/Cheney administration was calling me “unpatriotic” as I campaigned against the occupations of Iraq and Afganistan for the past 7 or 8 years.  However, I believe these republicans are now doing what they actually – and absurdly – were accusing people like me of several years ago.  Yes, Osama bin Laden might have been opposed to what I was saying because one of his goals was to SUCK the United States into an endless war that would totally drain our economy – and, withdrawing the troops when I proposed doing so (actually, I opposed Iraq prior to any troops going in) would have TOTALLY foiled bin Laden’s plan.  The difference from people like me calling for the withdrawal of our troops and what the republicans of today are doing is that they are stereotyping Muslims in an attempt to spread HATE while I objected to an illegal war of choice – IN THE LONG RUN, based on this republican attack on the community center – we are going to have to answer for all the HATE mongering against Muslims – who are by a HUGE MAJORITY – a very honorable and peaceful people.  The American public needs to somehow be educated on why there are now so many young Muslims ready to commit suicide in order to attack the United States.  The republicans, from the day Bush/Cheney lied us into Iraq have been giving Muslims more and more reasons to HATE America, and now they’ve (republicans) actually increased the antagonism over this “community center!”  Let me put it another way, the republicans have been the best recruiting tool ever for bin Laden and Muslim terrorist orgnizations.  And, I haven’t even discussed what a terrible attack on our 1st amendment of the constitution this anti “Mosque” propaganda is, which seemingly is also going unnoticed in many “Fox” circles.

Here’s the reality of life in America right now – if you disband the shell game and focus on the “stuff” that really matters.  We are in the middle of the “Great Recession” which still could slide into the second ……… you know what (I don’t want to say it :o).  Our congress – both republican and democrat – should be instigating New Deal type job creation legislation to get the MILLIONS of Americans who want work to be going back to work – ASAP!  We have an energy crisis which was originally addressed by the president everyone seems to love to hate – Jimmy Carter – way back in the seventies.  He instigated CAFE standards which, if allowed to stand, would have gone a long way toward reducing our dependency on foreign (Saudi) oil by today.  He placed solar panels on the White House in an attempt to influence the country toward a “green” energy future – back in the SEVENTIES – and was ridiculed by Rongald Reagan who, soon after entering the White House, had the solar panels removed.  Instead of still listening to these obstructionist republicans, we should be focusing our national will on reducing our need for imported oil and creating a “green” energy policy which will lead to a rebirth of manufacturing jobs in America.

Reagan led the assault on our economy with his “Voodoo Economic” plan – which the republicans are still pushing to this day.  This “plan” jump started the HUGE deficits and set the stage for the “false economy” which we’ve been living on – bubble after bubble – in America since.  Reagan pioneered the era of union busting led by the republican party which has reduced the number of union jobs in America to less than 10% from something approaching 40% when he took office.  If you look at the “real wages” statistics since Reagan entered the White House, the blue collar, middle class workers in America have taken it on the “chin” for the past 30 years.  Republicans complain about democrats wanting to “redistribute” the wealth – but they’ve done exactly that over the 30 years since Reagan’s inauguration – only the money has “trickled” to the top one percent of the wage earners in this country instead of “down” as was promised.  CEO earnings have skyrocketed from 25 times that of their employees to something approaching 300 times that of their employees.  Everyone is aware of the OBSCENE bonuses Wall Street bankers earn by gambling money put in investment pools by everyday workers and showing not the slightest remorse when they’ve virtually ruined the retirment accouts of MILLIONS of hard working Americans – THEY STILL GIVE THEMSELVES THE BONUSES!  Instead of focusing on “Mosques” our national leadership – republicans and democrats – should be focusing on how to get more wealth into the hands of the hardworking middle class in this country – that is what will make this nation healthy again – at least economically.

Republicans are talking about Mosques or gay marriage while the two occupations they started continue to go on and on and on and …….. well, you get the point.  Let me be clear here.  First, despite President Obama’s pronouncements to the contrary, all of our “combat troops” are not home from Iraq.  Somehow, Obama and his advisors have found a way to describe the 50,000 troops still in Iraq as “non combat.” (Shame on them and shame on Randi Rhodes for buying into their propaganda – let’s call it republican-lite) What are they (the non-combat troops) doing there then?  Certainly, the Iraqi troops should be trained by now if they’re ever going to be trained – shouldn’t they?  This is what we – and our congress – should be talking about – and, that is getting ALL our troops HOME from these two failed fiascos!  Clearly, the “writing is on the wall” that Obama is trying to figure a way to keep our troops in Iraq while being able to say they’re not there.  Is anyone besides me seeing the “contractor” red flags going up BIG TIME?  And, I’m starting to think that maybe we’ll be out of Afganistan in my lifetime, if I live another 20 years!

America’s inner cities are falling apart at the seems.  The unemployment rate for Blacks in this country is depressing – something like 3 to 4 times worse than the national average of almost 10%.  Do we hear any kind of dialogue coming out of Washington DC over the plight of those in the Black community?  Hell no – we’re hearing a bunch of bunk over a COMMUNITY CENTER that should be totally non-controversial.  What is it going to take to get the attention of our president and the democratic congress on this one?  Are we going to wait for our inner cities to erupt again like in the 60’s and 70’s before we do something?  Why are the democrats allowing these republicans to control the debate?  When is someone going to stand tall and take these obstructionist republicans on straight up?  Unfortunately, I believe the person who has to do this is President Obama, and I’m not seeing any signs that he’s up to the task.

I just finished reading “Ghost Wars” by Steve Coll and I’ve started “Freefall” by Joseph Stiglitz and both books seem quite informative and neither book is an encouragement to me about the decisions of Barack Obama.  Yes, he’s a darned sight better than the present day republicans, but – in my mind – he’s also the reason we’re even having this debate.  I mean, how can it even be possible that the voting public would be considering putting the republicans who’ve been fleecing them for 30 years back into power?  Here’s how – as stated above, we’re (America) under attack from within – and, the attack is coming from the corporate elite which is represented by the republican party.  Unfortunately, “we the people” must rely on the democratic party to stem this “tide.”  And, I continue to wonder whether or not they even recognize the severity of the situation or are they in cahoots?  We know that the corporate money is going to BOTH parties – and the only conclusion I can come to at this point is that the democrats have taken too much of that corporate money to fight back – or, they just don’t have the guts for the battle.  John Dean nailed it when he called the republicans “conservatives without conscience!”  The democrats need to understand that when drawing the “battle lines” or the “war” is lost already!  (I’ve just started the Stiglitz book, but he agrees with me (indirectly) that President Obama’s refusal to investigate the Bush/Cheney administration was a BLUNDER of MAJOR magnitude – in my mind a “game changer.”)

One last thing – I never seem to include ideas about what can be done about all this if you agree with me.  Today, I’ve included links to a couple very good articles from the NY Times.  If you feel the urge, email the address to this page to others – the farther we can carry this discussion the better in my mind.  When I started this writing I never expected anyone to find the site.  That being said, it seems that there are a few hundred who have done just that.  If more people are speaking out and reaching more people – well, who knows what might happen?