What Happened To The U.S. You And I Believed In?

Fiscal cliff, oh my god, the fiscal cliff, our world may end if the U.S. Congress and the President can't reach concurrence to avoid that fiscal cliff. In reality the fiscal cliff is nonsense, created to slash "entitlements," which are programs such as Social Security and Medicare that its participants have funded across their working careers, and other vital programs for the poor such as food stamps. For after all, what choice is there?

If the U.S. government was actually serious about slashing its staggering deficits, it would stop using the phrase "do it over 10 years" and slash the expenditures for weapons, wars and other military spending before slashing "entitlements" and make those cuts now. The government would also sharply raise taxes to pay for the Afghanistan War, and to pay for the Iraq War, the latter of which conservatively cost over a trillion dollars but was put entirely on the U.S. taxpayer credit card.

And both wars will cost the U.S. taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars more to replace all the military armament lost and to pay for medical and other care for its troops, more than 2 million of which have already served in those wars, some of them 4, 5, 6 and even 7 deployments!

Meanwhile, the U.S. for the first time in its history is now fighting perpetual wars in its "War on Terror" and its 41 year old "War on Drugs." And it is also employing many thousands of "contractors" in addition to all of its troops, something the U.S government and media is largely silent about.

The military industrial complex has never had it so good, flush with ever growing spending, protected by Congressmen of both parties who want jobs in their districts. But with even the slightest hint of military cuts, to avoid the fiscal cliff, Lockheed, Northrop, et al threaten to lay off some of their domestic work force, which scares the hell out of Congressmen,

This is today's U.S. A nation run by lobbyists on behalf of its corporate overseers, while creating the illusion among its populace (including you and me) that what they think matters. The irony is that what we think does matter, and if ever we get tired of wars, endless spending on weapons of mass destruction, corporate bailouts and giant corporations shifting jobs overseas and avoiding taxes, we can unite and do something about it.

But in the meantime, this is our corporate run U.S. bestowed upon us by the Citizens United 2010 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court and all of the secretive PACs and their lobbyists. It is disgusting and we as mankind were bestowed by our creator to be far better than this and it is up to us to take compassionate and insightful, meaningful action!

Dick