Clarence Thomas' approval by the Senate was a Cassandra moment in the U.S.

Clarence Thomas was approved for a seat on the Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48. Eleven, yes 11, Democrats voted yea. By the time of his hearings the Republican push for a radically conservative Court was clear. There can be no doubt that Clarence Thomas was meant to be a vote in the pocket of the most dangerously conservative people in United States government. And yet, Democrats could not summon the political nerve or savvy to unite against an obviously flawed candidate. As ever, they "went along to get along."
The Supreme Court majorities that elected George W. Bush, the attempt to cement lax gun laws as the "will" of our founding fathers, the opening of corporate money to buy our democracy, the opening up of voter intimidation - all these things and many more are the result of a failure for only three, 3, of those Democrats to foresee the future! However, if those men were true to the liberal nature of the American people, the vote would have been 59-41 against Mr. Thomas. Of course, most other Supreme Court justices have voted with Thomas on key issues.
The American electorate, I think, believed the election and reelection of President Obama was going to ensure a liberal America and their disappointment is focused wrongly on the President. That's a big part of what's wrong with America.
Remember Nixon's Southern Strategy and his "Hard Hat" politics? The rise of the religious right? That is what ensured a radically conservative politics that shows every sign of sweeping back into control of both houses of Congress in the next election. The United States is a liberal nation with a dysfunctional ability to ascend to power.
Who should bear the blame? Republicans? Hell no, they just do what they do. It's the other party, who, despite the illusion of opposing the radical conservatives, mostly capitulate at key moments. That's why we don't have a reasonable regulation of the "militia" - gun laws, I mean. That's why we don't have Medicare-for-all. That's why we spend far too much on a military whose missions do not enhance our security, but merely enrich the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex.
And that is why I think that even the seeming victory for Gay Rights in the defeat of Arizona's bill to allow religious views to justify discrimination could end up backfiring.
Do you think that Democrats could have acted in inspiring ways to prevent the Nixon/Reagan agenda from taking over most of the states? I do. Lyndon Johnson knew when he signed the Voting Rights Act that he was handing over the South to Republicans, but why did we lose most of the rest of our liberal nation to the new "Red" menace? (Red States = Republican victories)
And why does it seem that we are going to hand over a Republican Congress to Hillary Clinton?

PS.
Who runs the U.S. - and has no need for subtlety - no fear of backlash?! Wall Street warns Reublicans
Thanks, Supremes, for Citizens United.

you should put a bandaid over your computer's camera...Big Brother is watching

Well, this Guardian story has put me off of most Yahoo use of any kind.  Why assume, however, that's it just Yahoo? And why assume that only the USA and GB would do this? And why assume they don't take pictures of you all the time, or capture your image and your screen?
Do I have an ultimate solution? No. Do you?

it's telling who is opposed to that Arizona Law - SB 1062

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/sb-1062-mccain-flake_n_4854707.
htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/sb-1062-mccain-flake_n_4854707.html

There's a link to a report on Arizona's latest controversy. I am a contrarian; I see the other side quite often. It's one thing to have a law forbidding discrimination in public spaces and by corporations who, after all, are on the public dole through the discrimination of the tax codes. It's quite another thing, as I see it to regulate small-level free enterprises. "No shirt, no shoes, no service." "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone." These two phrases I've memorized because I have seen them all my life.
A sign that used to hang on the wall of Stubb's Bar-B-Q in Lubbock, Texas read, "There will be no bad talk or loud talk in this place."Who got to decide what was bad talk? Why Stubb did!
Now, I am thinking about small enterprises. There are precious few businesses I can think of that can remain immune to corporate take-overs. The Mom and Pop clothing stores? Gone. An independent grocery store? Not many. But restaurants? Oh, yeah, there will always be a place for creative folks in that realm.
Now, John McCain and especially, Jeff Flake are flat-out radical Republicans and Republicans have a knack at finding niches to shove their fascist ideas through.
Long story short?  I predict that small restaurants and other businesses - even if their owners are left-wing gay pacifists - will be forced to serve open-carried gun-toting yahoos based upon blanket anti-discrimination laws. Gays and lesbians have a history of hanging out in places where they felt welcome and their enemies rarely wanted to intrude, but the gun-nut lobby is in-your-face.
There is a sad history of Democrats not seeing the light, for instance on the long path that ended with the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling. Now when they frantically ask for my money, I think, 'you'll never raise enough private money to outspend the fascists.' The time to act is before these disasters happen. Republicans are proactive and Democrats are reactive.
Republicans are well on the way to passing laws that will allow motorized vehicles in wilderness areas. The wedge? Handicapped access. It's time for leaders to see ahead and outguess the Republicans. Democrats, as the other right-wing party, won't even be able to keep all the gay and lesbian voters. 

Texas Democrats' response to Wendy Davis' legal carry gun stance is somewhat heartening

I'll give you two links here to reports and predictions on Wendy Davis and her chances to win Democratic support for her bid to be governor of Texas.
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/06/davis-takes-friendly-fire-gun-issue/
http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/02/06/5547865/davis-support-of-open-carry-divides.html

It seems the hapless candidate went with a gut-move without consulting her peers. Tough titty for the kitty, I say.

no rich white person who shoots a minority person will go to prison in the gun-loving states.

I don't know the details of the Walmart shooting in Arizona yet, but it leads me on in my obsession about open carry laws. The video currently tied to the story on Huffington Post says the police are trying to figure out what led to the shooting. At least there will be video, one would suspect, from Walmart security cameras. What if there is no clear evidence that the victim in any way could have physically threatened the perpetrator? What if the perpetrator only says, "I thought s/he had a gun so I used mine." Will this stand up in an Arizona court as similar shootings have stood up in Florida?
And in Wendy Davis' dream of open carry in Texas, what could go wrong? One thing I'd predict is that there will be instances of unarmed people standing up to people who are armed. I mean expressing a political or religious point of view that offends a gun-toter. Gun-toter says something along the lines of 'take it back.' Unarmed says 'hell no, it's my right.' Blam.
If the perpetrator is white, especially if they're rich and the victim is Hispanic or black, especially if they are poor - well who the hell is going to jail? The police might not be able to "figure it out." The prosecutor, not able to interview the dead victim, says 'it's too cloudy - no charges.' Is this the world a Democrat will bring to Texas? Is this the world that Republicans will be emboldened to bring, especially now that a Democrat raises the issue? Wendy Davis is a nightmare. I'm sorry she won the spotlight.

I just emailed Lloyd Doggett, a progressive Democrat running for U.S. Congress:

I was saddened to go to your website and not see a stand against open carry laws as Wendy Davis supports. I think it is a tragedy waiting to happen and an issue that most Democrats do not want. You can ignore my disgust since I am not currently a Texas resident, but I think all support of expanding gun rights will hurt the party in the long run and a Davis governorship will inspire other Democrats in other states to use this wedge issue. In my lifetime, at least before the 1980s, I associated Democrats with large, overarching, brave stances on social issues. For Democrats to support the NRA mentality is a tragedy.

Michael Dunn joins George Zimmerman as harbingers of Wendy Davis' gun-toting America.

So Michael Dunn is not guilty of first degree murder? Now we add listening to loud music to walking at night as potential invitations to getting killed, not ignoring the two young men's main crime - being black.
What cause do you most accept that Democrats as a party do not embrace - the environment, economic justice, free elections, gun control? It makes no difference, Democrats as a party are not there for you. There is some wiggle room, I suppose for both the jurors in the trials I refer to and the Democratic Party. Jurors are charged to apply laws as they exist at this time. They may not have approved of Michael Dunn's actions, but they might have felt he acted in some sense within a law of which they disapprove. Democrats may, in their hearts, want gun control, living wages, etc., but, I suspect, they believe that their own personal re-election is the most immediate issue, so that they can eventually support what their hearts say is right. It is this belief we must prove wrong.
The descent of this nation from Jimmy Carter's presidency to today is all the proof we need that the Democratic Party is as much the enemy of progress as the Republicans are the engine of destruction. Democrats actively worked for the defeat of Carter and thus, they worked for Reagan. Democrats were not blind-sided by Supreme Court decisions that are geared to make it ever more difficult for democracy to come to the USA. Republican think tanks signal their long-term goals. There are no surprises. Democrats were as timid as the American People were bold in 2008 and 2012. Obama's election was a watershed moment of Populist potential and Democrats let it go down the drain.
To hell with them. I feel strongly that only in the election of a President should we vote for a Democrat. In ALL other races I feel we must send a strong message - vote third party until Democrats wake up! It is for this reason I accept the seemingly inevitability of Hillary and for this reason I hope to God the Democrats of Texas reject Wendy Davis. No Democrat should cross the line. Gun rights cannot be expanded in the United States and Democrats simply cannot be given a successful candidate on that issue as a role model. Please, Texans, chastise Wendy Davis!

Robert Reich is a national treasure.

Here is a link to robertreich.org
a link that will open in a new page.
Right now at the top of this page is his historically correct and common sense essay "Why The Three Biggest Economic Lessons Were Forgotten." I first read it on Salon.

Update on 2/15/'14
I am thinking how strange it is that I call Robert Reich a national treasure for writing and saying the things that once were accepted truth or, at least, accepted realities - the idea of paying for war with taxes, the idea that the super-rich must pay more in taxes, the concept of a living wage so high that only one parent need work outside the home ...
Perhaps this is one thing that speaks to how far the US has fallen - common sense is so rare that it has become a national treasure!

The Beating Heart of Texas, part three

Present Day, Austin, Texas

“Dad? Yes, Sissy.”

“This is Emily, the friend I told you about.”

“Oh, yes. Emily, are you enjoying UT? Political Science major, right?”

“Yes Sir. I like UT a lot. It’s such a welcoming place. There’s so much more diversity than I expected to find down here.”

“Yes, you’re a Yankee from Hudson River country, I hear.”

“Yes Sir. From Beacon, New York.”

“Pete Seeger country.”

“Oh yes, he was my neighbor. You know about Pete then?”

“He’s no less than my number one American hero. He stood up to the most insidious threat our nation has faced – the McCarthy-era House Un-American Activities. Committee.”

“Have you read what he said to them? I read the transcript again for a paper.”

“Oh yeah. I remember he told them that to ask him about his politics or his religion was wrong. He wouldn’t tell them who was present when he gave concerts, and he refused to verify that he may have sung at Communist Party meetings. Instead he offered to sing the same songs then and there.”

“That’s sure the gist of it.”

“I grew up listening to my Dad sing union songs.”

“She sure did. Sissy could sing along with “Hold the Fort” and “We Shall Not Be Moved” while she was still in kindergarten.”

“I got in trouble in Junior High singing class for telling the teacher about Woody Guthrie after we sang “This Land Is Your Land.”

“Ha. She sure did. Her mom and I faced down our own little Un-American Activities Committee on Parent-Teacher Conference Night.”

“I didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance for two years in Junior High.”

“Really?”

“Oh she sure didn’t. Another conference. I pointed out that she had always said it before her teacher questioned her family’s patriotism. And, I informed them that I wouldn’t stand for anyone forcing her to say it either. Her teacher’s ignorance temporarily robbed her of the feeling she used to get from saying the pledge. If a Junior High can’t teach reasons why a girl should love her country and instead try to bully her into saying it, they can go to hell.”

“Dad.”

“Well.”

“Ha Ha. You guys are sure not what I think of as Texans.”

“Well, there are more free-thinkers in Texas than you’d think. I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church, First Baptist in Amarillo, and our preacher Winfred Moore stood up to the Southern Baptist Convention when they started to change the free- thinking Baptist style to the dictatorship they are today.”

“Sissy said you’re still a Baptist.”

“Yes, I am. We are affiliated with a group that still believes in Baptist tradition. We have an unfortunate name, Texas Baptists Committed.”

“That’s funny.”

“I’m afraid so, but the beliefs are right-on. And here we are in conservative Texas standing up to the big corporate style of the Southern Baptist Convention Baptist fascists. We intend to “surround hate” and force “it to surrender,” just like Pete Seeger’s banjo.”

The Beating Heart of Texas, a short story, parts one and two

Lampasas County, Texas, 1875

“Where are you goin’ Daddy?”

“I’m goin’ to a meeting, Sissy.”

“That meeting like the one you go to late at night?”

“How you know about that, girl?”

“Oh, Daddy, I lay in bed awake when the dogs carry on, and I hear you leavin’.”

“How you know it’s me then?”

“Oh, Daddy you think Mama’s goin’ sneakin’ out? Or Bubba and “Charley? You sayin’ that?”

“No, honey they wouldn’t sneak out. Your Mama’s too good a woman and your brothers know I’d tan their hides and hang ‘em in the smokehouse with the other hams.”

“Oh, Daddy, go on.”

“I’m goin’. And honey, I won’t be goin’ to those late meetings any more. They got too silly for me. Anyway, this meeting’s way more important. We farmers are going to ban together into one great Union.”

“But we’re Rebels, Daddy.”

“ ‘Course we are. No, all us white farmers are goin’ to fight the big boys who don’t work, but sit around all day thinkin’ a ways to steal our money.”

“You mean the banks, Daddy?”

“That’s good Sissy. Yes, banks, railroads, combinations, and those ranchers with their gun-totin’ killers they pretend are cowboys.”

“I know, Daddy. I’m more scared a them than I am your n…ers.”

“Sissy, I’ve done changed my mind about them boys and I’m through usin’ that word and you are too.”

“Why, Daddy?”

“There’s no use in stirrin’ up the hornet’s nest, Sissy. We lost the damn war. Old Sam Houston warned us and we didn’t listen. Now the Republicans and their government paid boot-lickers are the enemy.”

“I heard you say the other night you’d vote for a yaller dog before you’d vote for a Republican.”

“That’s right, honey. They don’t work. They just use our taxes to pay for the army and railroads and banks. They let the ranchers use thousands of acres of land that ain’t theirs. And the damn ranchers own the water. Water put on this earth by God Himself! And they think they can own in and kill us for bein’ thirsty. I’d like to take their big war hero General Grant and stick him down here in Texas on a dry land farm.”

“He’d try to grow tobacco for his cigars. Cigars make people sick.”

“I hope they make him sick, Sissy. I surely do.”

And Daddy went out into the clean air of Texas, the beating heart of Texas where people work for their money and stand by their beliefs. And, by God, did not their beliefs make eternal sense? That night he and his neighbors formed the Texas Alliance, the first of the Southern Alliances, the precursors of the National Farmers’ and Laborers’ Union of America. In 1889 a convention in St. Louis formed that one great Union which, in turn, evolved into the Populist Party.

                                                     ...

The present day, Austin, Texas

“What are you readin’, Daddy?”

“Why, Sissy, I’m reading the Cross of Gold Speech.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a famous speech in American history, Sissy. We studied it in high school back in my day, but it’s probably illegal to teach it now in Texas.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Only a little. You don’t know it, probably, but Texas has outlawed a lot of history. At least the teaching of that history. It’s like they passed laws against ideas the damn Republicans don’t believe in. It’s not just like that; that’s exactly what they did. They passed laws against the teaching of the truth!”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. The truth. Just like in China or the old Soviet Union or Cambodia. Texas is not the same place I grew up in. It’s not a free country anymore.”

“My teacher says Texas should be a country again. Could we drop out of the United States?”

“It feels like we already have. But, seriously, no Texas would be crazy to try it. This country fought a Civil War the last time. And Texas lost that war just like Sam Houston warned we would.”

Sam Houston was against the Civil War?”

“Oh yeah. Your granddaddy taught me that.”

“The one who named his daughter Sissy?”

“Yep, you know. That’s why we call you Sissy.”

“You loved your granddaddy.”

“You better believe it. Why I grew up thinking all old Texans were like him. There’s so many things he believed in that have changed since George W. was governor. The old Texas died is what it feels like. You know, Granddaddy was against carrying guns around. He didn’t like gun racks in pickups and he’d never believe that a Democrat, a woman, a mother, no less wants to bring back the Wild West days and let people walk around with guns.”

“You mean Wendy Davis?”

“Yep. She is for something that your granddaddy once bragged was a sign of Texas’ growin’ up – that a man could walk anywhere in the state without facing down some gun-toting thug.”

“But I thought she was the great hope of Democrats winning back the state.”

“Honey, if that’s what Democrats want to do, I’m through voting for Democrats.”

“Who would you vote for?”

“Hell, I guess I’ll have to write in names, probably Jim Hightower.”

He’s funny.”

“Yeah, and he’s right on, too. No, it’s another thing your granddaddy wouldn’t believe. That I could not bring myself to vote for a Democrat. He was a yellow-dog Democrat.”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who would vote for a yellow dog before even thinking about voting for a damn Republican.”

“That’s pretty funny.”

“Thing of the past. There ain’t a dimes bit of difference between a damn Republican and a Democrat like Wendy Davis. Sure she’ll get votes from some folks because of some things she says she's for, but she’ll sell us all down the river just to win an election.” 

it's time for a new short story - the birth of the Texas Alliance for power to the people. Part One.

Lampasas County, Texas, 1875

“Where are you goin’ Daddy?”

“I’m goin’ to a meeting, Sissy.”

“That meeting like the one you go to late at night?”

“How you know about that, girl?”

“Oh, Daddy, I lay in bed awake when the dogs carry on, and I hear you leavin’.”

“How you know it’s me then?”

“Oh, Daddy you think Mama’s goin’ sneakin’ out? Or Bubba and “Charley? You sayin’ that?”

“No, honey they wouldn’t sneak out. Your Mama’s too good a woman and your brothers know I’d tan their hides and hang ‘em in the smokehouse with the other hams.”

“Oh, Daddy, go on.”

“I’m goin’. And honey, I won’t be goin’ to those late meetings any more. They got too silly for me. Anyway, this meeting’s way more important. We farmers are going to ban together into one great Union.”

“But we’re Rebels, Daddy.”

“ ‘Course we are. No, all us white farmers are goin’ to fight the big boys who don’t work, but sit around all day thinkin’ a ways to steal our money.”

“You mean the banks, Daddy?”

“That’s good Sissy. Yes, banks, railroads, combinations, and those ranchers with their gun-totin’ killers they pretend are cowboys.”

“I know, Daddy. I’m more scared a them than I am your n…ers.”

“Sissy, I’ve done changed my mind about them boys and I’m through usin’ that word and you are too.”

“Why, Daddy?”

“There’s no use in stirrin’ up the hornet’s nest, Sissy. We lost the damn war. Old Sam Houston warned us and we didn’t listen. Now the Republicans and their government paid boot-lickers are the enemy.”

“I heard you say the other night you’d vote for a yaller dog before you’d vote for a Republican.”

“That’s right, honey. They don’t work. They just use our taxes to pay for the army and railroads and banks. They let the ranchers use thousands of acres of land that ain’t theirs. And the damn ranchers own the water. Water put on this earth by God Himself! And they think they can own in and kill us for bein’ thirsty. I’d like to take their big war hero General Grant and stick him down here in Texas on a dry land farm.”

“He’d try to grow tobacco for his cigars. Cigars make people sick.”

“I hope they make him sick, Sissy. I surely do.”

And Daddy went out into the clean air of Texas, the real Texas where people work for their money and stand by their beliefs. And, by God, did not their beliefs make eternal sense? That night he and his neighbors formed the Texas Alliance, the first of the Southern Alliances, the precursors of the National Farmers’ and Laborers’ Union of America. In 1889 a convention in St. Louis formed that one great Union which, in turn, evolved into the Populist Party.

this article from the "Guardian" tells the Wendy Davis tale well

Here is a link to the Guardian story. Yes, the story set me off to write the blog immediately below this. I clouded how I might actually feel about abortion as a women's health care right. Abortions, if pursued from the point of view of a health issue could be rare and safe if they were legal and incorporated into hospitals and not these stand-alone clinics which are the targets of phony "Christians."

Wendy Davis' stance on gun control murders morality and common sense!

My God, that one-time, now has-been Texas politician Wendy Davis supports the open carry of guns as well as other expansions of "gun rights" in Texas (link)! Karl Rove was right, she's the "wrong gal" to run for governor of Texas, but for different reasons. Let me be one of the first to rain on her parade by saying things that do not reflect all my political/moral beliefs, but are solely aimed to wreck her her misbegotten campaign.
So, Wendy Davis supports abortion rights. She's okay with murdering babies. It's obvious. The ones that get born despite her clearly murderous intentions are now at increased risk of death by gun than if they had been born into a civilized country like Australia. If Wendy Davis truly believes in gun rights she won't back down when organizations (like maybe Move On?) lobby her to change her stance. If she is a political hack and changes this "gun rights" stuff she is the classic "ditzy blonde." Either way I hope she lands on the trash heap of Texas history. I hope she can't get elected dogcatcher.
Texas and the United States deserve wisdom enacted in a Constitutional manner, not just another idiot governor.
My parents (of the generation that fought WWII) and my grandparents would not support Texans walking around with guns. They lived hard lives and wanted a bit of gentility. This Wendy-wonder is not a true Texan. My parents and grandparents were.

it's called "jury duty", yes and it's also our right

This link to a piece by Natasha Lennard in Salon made me do a double take. My first reaction was sympathy with the concept of non-cooperation with a grand jury investigation, but as I read on common sense overwhelmed my knee-jerk reaction. The story deals with people who refuse to cooperate with any grand jury because of anarchist principles. My synapses took me to two memories related to a time I was called for regular jury duty. I listened to a man pleading with a court officer for release from duty because he feared retaliation from the family of the accused. Furthermore, he made the case that all people of his race should be excused from juries in trials of fellow Navajos. (I name the race because it seems to leave it out would result in an assumption of the incorrect race.) One could easily make the argument that no group of people should try to be left out of trials involving one's peer group! Only those who do not understand the nature of criminal justice in America's reservation borderlands could think that all trials involving Native Americans should be handled by native laws, people, and traditions.
I told the arguments of this man to a coworker who is also a Native American. She agreed with him, but specifically stated a fear that all reasonable people should have of retaliation and, furthermore, she stated an implicit trust in law enforcement. "If they are brought before a grand jury, they must have done something"
I see this woman's argument as the polar opposite of anarchy - fascism. Both are dangerous to our freedoms. Both are stupid.
Jury duty is both a duty and a right in our democratic system. When any juror feels pressured to change his/her mind and s/he relents, that person is a moral coward. Whereas in many places in many times, freedoms have been brutally seized from the people, it is a sickening fact that Americans willingly give up our freedoms at the least hint of trouble.
The exact case that the hero of Lennard's blog refused to cooperate in was a "small, victimless explosion of an incendiary device at a Times Square army recruitment center in 2008." Oh, well, let us praise the anarchists who apply the concept of "nobody talks, everybody walks" to the terrorist threat, Natasha. In fact, the entire concept is so stupid that it reminds me of the perversions of protest that grew out of the activist '60s, the Weathermen for instance. These anarchic perversions of what is right and just do great harm to the cause of justice and freedom. They twist the simple-minded into lumping anarchists with socialists, non-violent demonstrators with molotov cocktail - throwing revolutionaries.
Ms. Lennard, are you a revolutionary or are you a CIA/FBI plant? Is Salon practicing journalism or pandering to the ignorant masses? Are we as a people still capable of analytical thought or are we programed? 

the inner fear Americans have of each other is palpable - and related to gun violence

I won't go into personal details that may come across as paranoid; my thesis either resonates with you or it doesn't. I feel that a perfect storm of irrational fear exists in the United States that is directly related to our inability to stand up to the gun lobby and its childish interpretation of our Constitution. People who state that we should simply ban all guns are equally guilty. There is no "well regulated militia" here; there is a sick love of simplistic jingoism that puts everyone at risk. The United States also has this history of rooting out "Un-American" behaviors (see my Pete Seeger link to his testimony before the infamous House committee). Toss in 9/11 and government spying and you have a perfect salad of indigestible poisons. We are told to watch out for dangerous behaviors. That's our Homeland security! Americans give up all rights in our Bill of Rights without any orange-revolution style protests, but we stand by the gun lobby even as it perverts our daily lives and brings us closer and closer to a Soviet-style torture and gulag state. So you think it won't impact you? It already has. You think we need a leader to guide us out of this mess? S/he would be assassinated. We must all be the leaders.

Pete Seeger was an American patriot.

I have been thinking of googling for the transcript of Pete Seeger's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Found it here.
If American troops are fighting for American values are they not fighting for freedom of speech? Pete Seeger, veteran, was an upright yankee man with balls as big as the world!

Democrats are going to sell us out; they are not the answer to the Republican schemes

The Keystone Pipeline decision is not only an environmental issue. It will speak to the very nature of what America is, what we have become. The Guardian has this article on it.

The Keystone Pipeline depends upon the immoral perversion of the use of "imminent domain" as expanded by the Supreme Court decision in "Kelo v. City of New London." This decision opened the door to private property theft by government to benefit corporations - fascism. The Keystone Pipeline will be the wedge, a new Mason Dixon Line, that will lead to the fulfillment of Texas Governor Rick Perry's dream of a "mile-wide" zone of pipelines, power lines, highways, railways, etc. It will lead to a highly militarized zone between the east and west. And, Canada, it will be an ideal route for a northern invasion of your country. Why are you capitulating to the worst of U.S. style capitalism? Don't you want refining and shipping jobs?

You can read Salon's article on the United States Post Office here.

It is so pathetic. The arc of "privatization" (=taxation without representation) has been clear at least since the 1980s. Democrats have always been part of the problem; either they refuse to see what is before their eyes or they participate in the Republicans ongoing success story - tearing down our country and giving away what our tax dollars have bought. The postal union and others wait until the final crisis before making noise - a futile cry, a whimper. 

Democrats killed the Jimmy Carter presidency. Democrats failed to see that the election of Obama was a populist moment. And Democrats will fail us again and again. Republicans, at least, are easy to read. They are an open book. The Democratic Party and the people who depend upon them to "save us" wait until the situation is hopeless. At least my UPS drivers are consistently more polite than my local post office workers. Goodbye post office. Now watch as the buildings we the people paid for are sold for peanuts.