May God Save America!

Only a week ago, in an article named Democrats lost—who cares? I had written:

“President Barack Obama’s shellacking is now complete with the 2014 mid-term election. His party is minority in both the House and the Senate, and he will have encouragement to carry on his disguised rightwing conservative agendas without any apology.”

When it became clear last week that because of the eleventh hour addition of the two riders, the budget bill could not pass without Democrat votes, President Obama sprang into action. The two riders were—one on campaign contribution limits, and the other on weakening of Dodd-Frank Act, to insure that derivative trading on Wall Street can flourish. Obama sent his Knights from his White House to threaten and cajole enough Democrats to rescue his arch enemy John Boehner from a stringing failure, over the vociferous opposition of House minority leader Nancy Pelosi.

Hail President Obama, the Protector of the Mighty and the Destroyer of the Meek!

Yet, there is no scarcity of Obama defenders among the liberals!

American politics is a total circus! People still dance to the tunes of Hillary Clinton, another Corporate Shill. And some have found a new savior in the name of Elizabeth Warren—a politician who cannot speak without a prepared speech, and runs away from all controversial issues, showing lack of conviction and moral compass.

People, consider this. In 2002, Georgia Democratic Senator Max Cleland, the disabled Vietnam veteran who lost one arm and both legs in a battle was running against Republican Saxby Chambliss with 22 points lead. The wily Chambliss ran television advertisements picturing people resembling Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and criticized Mr. Cleland as opposing homeland security. On the Election Day Chambliss won 53% – 46%. That day proved Democracy could not work in a large populace where truth could be distorted with money, and that was long before the Supreme Court verdict of Citizen United.

Democracy can only work where people know their candidates personally, such as in local elections, however, there is such a great apathy that even in those levels it has become anathema.

May God Save America!

Democrats Lost—Who Cares?

I admit. I no longer am an optimist that I have been life-long and have lost faith in this nation’s immediate future. Unless reform happens soon, our children will not have a better life than what we did, and the prosperous America of the fifties and the sixties is dead—long live America!

President Barack Obama’s shellacking is now complete with the 2014 mid-term election. His party is minority in both the House and the Senate, and he will have encouragement to carry on his disguised rightwing conservative agendas without any apology.

As a bleeding heart liberal I have no sadness that the Democrats lost, for it makes hardly any difference to the agenda of the Military Industrial Complex, of which a Republican President had warned us once. The Democrats—especially their power centers have abandoned the labor and the common people a long time ago. They too have become dependent on the largesse of Corporate America to fill their coffer. A lone Elizabeth Warren does not revolution bring. Today’s Democrats are deeply entrenched with the plutocrats, and they only do the bidding of their Masters; the difference is that they talk the talk, showing empathy for the poor, while the Republicans don’t even pretend.

If Reagan revolution began the wealth transfer from the middle class and the poor to the super riches, Bill Clinton strengthened that mechanism with creation of business treaties such as NAFTA, enactment of media consolidation with Telecommunication Act, and repeal of Glass-Steagall Act. Since Reagan, both the Democrats and the Republicans have served the same Master; their elaborate exhibition of intense rivalry is mere drama to hoodwink American people.

Elections are won with money and not merit. There are no substantial policy debates to differentiate a candidate, which is why we see so much negative personal attacks and unsubstantiated lies and counter lies during every election cycle. Over four billion dollars were spent in the last election. From the first day a candidate takes office s/he has to start thinking of how to raise money for the next election, and who has more to donate to election funds than the billionaires and the Wall Street crooks? But they donate millions only to steal back billions, influencing politicians to create tax loopholes and other preferential laws such as subsidy and license to pollute.

This president took away freedom of the people by suspending habeas corpus, the last vestige of an ordinary person’s right, and the liberals raised no voice as the president is supposedly one of them—what a shame! Ferguson lead to New York and the American justice system failed to deliver once again, and the incidents were swept away under the racial rug. The truth is, under the guise of ‘war against terror’ the ruling class has institutionalized police brutality to nip in the bud slightest show of rebellion to continue their financial exploits, shifting the tax burden from the rich to the poor, and dismantling all safety nets one after another. In the meanwhile people remains divided, fractionalized with petty issues.

Case in point of media deception: Before the midterm election CNN continued 24 hour Ebola coverage creating fear in people and shifting blame on the president for his inactivity, while in reality no action was needed. They promptly dropped the coverage after the election.

Fortunately, the majority of the ordinary Americans are not racial. Look at the protesters in Chicago, New York and Ferguson—great numbers of them are white Americans protesting black deaths. And don’t forget it was the white Americans who elected a black president.

This is the only bright spot among the overall gloom, the people and their resilience, and this keeps me believing in the spirit of this nation. This natural sense of justice of the American people tells me that this nation is not done with. If we don’t bring the reforms to make it a just society, our children will.

A Former VP Flips Burger

I talk to my acquaintances, friends, and colleagues at work places, mostly people with low six figure salaries, overwhelmingly Republican supporters, going in their everyday lives in a slapdash fashion, blaming welfare queens for all the ills that embrace this country while banksters and crooks of the Wall Street goes on nonchalantly scheming and defrauding ordinary taxpayers. I pray to God, “Have mercy on these ignorant people they know not what they are saying.”

Tom Palome’s story seems far-fetched and one of a kind, but it is going to be more common place in the future when the impending economic doom wipes out a large segment of American middle class. As a vice president of marketing for Oral-B, Tom Palome once earned in low six-figures and flew first class on business trips to Europe. Today, at 77 Tom shuffles two part-time jobs, one as a food demonstrator at Sam’s Club for $10-an-hour and the other flipping burgers at a golf club grill for a little more than the minimum wage.

Palome worked hard his entire career but saved little because he had to maintain his lifestyle competing with the Jones, on top his savings of $90,000 took a big hit in 2008 financial crisis, and now must work to survive. Gone are the days of pension, cities after cities are raiding pension funds giving dime to the dollars to the hapless retirees, while giving 50-60 cents to dollars to the powerful banks who caused this financial mess in the first place, often with outright criminal acts.

Tom, at 77 has to mop floors at the club grill before he goes home at 8 pm, yet he feels lucky that he’s able to work and live independently, and most importantly maintain his dignity, but many of the brain dead taxpayers who cheerlead today’s Demorepublicans and Republicrats will not have that luxury. Repentance will come but will be too late for these laziest taxpayers who patronize the current plutocracy in America.

A Former VP Flips Burger

I talk to my acquaintances, friends, and colleagues at work places, mostly people with low six figure salaries, overwhelmingly Republican supporters, going in their everyday lives in a slapdash fashion, blaming welfare queens for all the ills that embrace this country while banksters and crooks of the Wall Street goes on nonchalantly scheming and defrauding ordinary taxpayers. I pray to God, “Have mercy on these ignorant people they know not what they are saying.”

Tom Palome’s. story seems like far-fetched and one of a kind, but it is going to be more common place in the future when the impending economic doom wipes out a large segment of American middle class. As a vice president of marketing for Oral-B, Tom Palome once earned in low six-figures and flew first class on business trips to Europe. Today, at 77 Tom shuffles two part-time jobs, one as a food demonstrator at Sam’s Club for $10-an-hour and the other flipping burgers at a golf club grill for a little more than the minimum wage.

Palome worked hard his entire career but saved little because he had to maintain his lifestyle competing with the Jones, on top his savings of $90,000 took a big hit in 2008 financial crisis, and now must work to survive. Gone are the days of pension, cities after cities are raiding pension funds giving dime to the dollars to the hapless retirees, while giving 50-60 cents to dollars to the powerful banks who caused this financial mess in the first place, often with outright criminal acts.

Tom, at 77 has to mop floors at the club grill before he goes home at 8 pm, yet he feels lucky that he’s able to work and live independently, and most importantly maintain his dignity, but many of the brain dead taxpayers who cheerlead today’s Demorepublicans and Republicrats will not have that luxury. Repentance will come but will be too late for these laziest taxpayers who patronize the current plutocracy in America.

Obama Is Bush W II

When Barack Obama talks of income inequality I can’t decide if I should laugh or cry, for, not Reagan, nor Clinton, neither even Bush W, but it is Barack Obama himself who has presided over the greatest income inequality of our time. It is in his watch the greatest financial steal took place leading to the demise of Lehman Brothers, and not a single banker went to jail. It is in his watch that the crook of the century Jamie Dimon got accolade and a raise instead of jail term. There was at least a heated debate before JP Morgan's board voted to increase CEO Jamie Dimon's pay after embarrassing lawsuits that decimated the banks reputation (I mean whatever was left), but in Obama’s book he remains a hero.

Obama came in the name of change and freedom, yet he reverted to strengthening the hands of Wall Street crooks, and blessed suppression of habeas corpus. And if that is not all he is now crowning himself with the embarrassment of slavery by pushing corporatist idea –TPP, Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, which is “NAFTA on steroids.

Obama had promised in his 2008 campaign to support a minimum wage hike to $9.50 by 2011, but he did nothing at all to implement it and after half a decade of rule declares this is the “year of action” when he’ll use his executive power to get a $10.10 minimum. Thanks heaven that it took five years but he finally learned that he has access to something called executive power, nevertheless, even this promise of him is nothing but smoke and mirror. He declared that he would issue “an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally-funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour but hid the fact that only new hires – a tiny fraction, of the two million federal contract workers – will get the wage boost; a deliberate lie and deceit. The reality that the president didn’t even propose a gradual increase for the rest of the two million workers demonstrates that he has no intention of using his powers to redress the income ineqality.

Glen Ford wrote in his article, American State of the Union: A Festival of Lies “Obama offers nothing of substance, because he is not authorized by his corporate masters to do so. He takes his general orders from the same people as do the Republicans. That’s why Obama only speaks of minimum wage hikes while Republicans are in power, rather than when his own party controlled both houses of Congress. Grand Bargains are preferred, because they are the result of consensus between the two corporate parties. In effect, the Grand Bargain is the distilled political will of Wall Street, which feeds the donkey and the elephant. Wall Street – the 1 percent – believes the world is theirs for the taking, and they want all of it. Given this overarching truth, Obama has no choice but to stage a festival of lies.”

Is America Heading Towards A Violent Revolution?

The Hindi expression Der Hai Andher Nehi connotes, there may be delay but not darkness; this expression is usually linked with human observation on God’s judgment.

A few weeks back I raised the question why are Chris Christie’s poll numbers not tanking after the Bridgegate? A recent poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal reveals that Christie’s popularity has taken a major blow, now only 22 percent of Americans view the Republican New Jersey governor favorably, down from 33 percent in last October.

Contrary to the political pundits’ discourses that Christie would survive this crisis nearly unscathed his political future looks to be in serious danger as more and more Americans now believe that the embattled New Jersey governor is lying about the bridge closure scandal. Twenty-nine percent of the responders now view Christie unfavorably compared to 17 percent only a few months ago. Christie repeatedly denied knowing anything about the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge and the consequent unprecedented traffic jam causing at least one death and immense public suffering over four days. Forty-four percent now believe that Christie is lying in comparison to 42 percent who say he’s telling the truth.

On top of the bridge closure issue Christie has been slapped with another allegation that his administration threatened to hold up Hurricane Sandy relief aid to Hoboken unless the Democratic mayor of the city supported a private development project. Finally it is evident that Christie is a bully and thug, in the mold of third world politicians.

Christie’s rating has fallen across all population and not just with Democrats—35 points with Democrats, 20 points with independents, and seven points with Republicans and with every demographic group and in nearly every region polled. More importantly, a Jan 15 NBC/Marist poll found Christie losing ground to his possible Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 50 percent to 37 percent, a solid 10-point shift from a month earlier.

American media is totally controlled by a few giant corporations, thanks to Bill Clinton and his Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the propaganda machines spew untruth blanketing airwaves relentlessly. Truth has taken a backseat and relegated to only a few handfuls small progressive networks that together have merely 5 percent of the media through the internet (until it is taken away). People are stressed with high unemployment and wage reduction leaving them unsecured and afraid of showing any dissent. The oligarchy’s control is nearly airtight. But when all means of peaceful protest are eliminated the only inevitable alternative remains is violent revolution.

Science of Religion

Science of religion is the same as religion of science, both man made and evolve with time. Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? What happens when we die? Let's find out what the greatest minds have to say!

I was barked at by numerous dogs who are earning their food guarding ignorance and superstition for the benefit of those who profit from it. Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source. They are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against the traditional "opium of the people"—cannot bear the music of the spheres. The Wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human moral and human aims.

— Einstein to an unidentified adressee, Aug.7, 1941. Einstein Archive, reel 54-927, quoted in Jammer, p. 97

More Worms Crawl Out Of Chris Christie’s bag

If America were a democracy the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie would be history by now, but it is not, so who can affirm that his Bangladesh style politics would dent his career?

On the hill of Chris Christie's Bridgegate, in which his goons closed up to three access lanes of an onramp to the George Washington Bridge plaza in the town of Fort Lee, N.J., to punish the Democratic Mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing him for his re-election bid, comes the news of playing politics with hurricane relief money.

Dawn Zimmer, the mayor of Hoboken, NJ, told MSNBC on Saturday that the Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno had explicitly tied relief money from Hurricane Sandy to the real estate project at a meeting in May 2013. Of course, Guadagno denied, but what else shall we expect from the lieutenant governor?

Christie is a bully and a thug, yet voters like him—what does that tell about NJ voters?

Christies’ approval ratings are still about 55%, found by a poll by Quinnipiac University, and according to the Pew Research Center, only 18% of people nationally reported that they are paying attention to the bridge incident; and a solid 60% said that their opinions of the governor had not changed.

When will the American sheeple open their eyes?