Ruminations

History repeats itself, with a variation.

This time the danger is not from the outside; it’s from the inside.  We will see if our checks & balances,  our system of government, can withstand the onslaught.

“Make America Great Again” touted by a presidential candidate, would tend to make you think they were running for the office, to govern the country.

He promises, through his leadership, to basically turn back the clock. To return to the 99%, everything that was.

Think again: In the guise of leadership we have a business man who sees the opportunity to make a buck…  a lot of bucks. NOT interested at all in governing for the benefit of the 99%.

We will see if our system of governance, of three branches, of checks & balances will stand the test.

It snuck in the door under the guise of seeking to provide a breath of fresh air to a corporate supported political structure. A political structure that seemed to only respond to mega-interests, instead of the common man, the 99%.

Not realizing that we had the ultimate con man asking to be placed at the helm, to right ship, he steps up to the plate.  He promises to return all to the way it was.  The token words, promise everything, but there is no substance. 

If you want to steal from a bank, the best way is to own the bank.  If you want to steal from a country, the best way is to “own” the country.  Install your cohorts and divide it up among yourselves. The technical term is an oligarchy.

Replace the rules & regulations that put constraints on your actions, so they allow you to take advantage, to the determent of the man on the street, the environment, the world as a whole.

Tell the coal miners they will get their jobs back, all the while knowing that automation will eliminate those potential jobs, and while the environment is increasingly damaged, the corporate owners will take home huge profits.  

He’ll tell people what they want to hear, that will reverse their desperate situations, even if it makes no sense.  He will scapegoat the “others” to protect us from them.  He will alter the facts to fit his world view. 

Something Better….really?

We gave the new guy on the block a chance to back up his words with substance.  Repeal & Replace with something better, cheaper, more coverage, for more people! The mantra was shouted at rally after rally. 

Well, that was short-lived and quite an eye-opener.  Absolutely no idea on what to do.  More expense, less coverage, and 24 million more, with no healthcare coverage.

Reality sucks, because reality doesn’t care about word games.  It’s dollars in and dollars out.  Saying something over & over, louder & louder won’t change anything. Certainly not in 17 days. “I didn’t realize it would be so hard to do!” is no excuse. Like duh!

The most promising outcome of installing a con-man into the “highest office” of the land, is that his own cons will trip him up. It’s certainly entertaining… a poorly written script that would be sent back to be written into something more believable.

The country as a whole, the sleeping giant, is waking up to the reality of a group installed in leadership positions who’s only goals appear to be to dismantle every protection, for the benefit of the 1%.

The investigative journalists certainly have something to put their teeth into!

The New Game in Town

Realistically the choice was pretty bad from most people’s perspective. The political insider or the business outsider. He at the very least, voiced the correct mantra’s that appealed to us all.  Business as usual in the political world, or someone from the outside.  The only real third choice, that rose from a grass-roots movement, was disemboweled by his own party, to protect the “elites” choice.

Well, the country told the “elites” what they thought of that.  They would at least take a chance on something outside business as usual. Let’s hope they heard the message; you can only push people so far before they start to push back. 

If you want the game to continue, you need to share… and you need to pay attention to the damage that is being caused, else you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, you haul home.

Daily, unbelievable changes. Never mind science, Climate change… no such thing. Eviscerate the EPA. Who cares about melting oceans. Drill baby, drill.

It takes 3 barrels of energy to only get 2 barrels of energy out of the tar sands; never mind, I can make a quick buck before it all catches up! Who cares about all the water ruined in the process… who needs it.

The Real World…yes, really

Pulled from our daily business of working, raising families, enjoying the benefits of computers, movies, sports, etc. we can no longer play a passive role while going about our everyday lives. In WWII the country pulled together almost overnight once confronted with the danger.

We are again called to address major issues that endanger the long-term quality of our lives and the world we live in. Our forefathers gave their lives to build our country.  Hokey as it may sound today, those were hard fought days, they endured to protect future generations.

Amid all the other significant concerns, what rises to the fore at this point in time is the need to prevent one small group of men who want to replace our government with an oligarchy; to tear apart the country for their own financial benefit. (Putin as a mentor, perhaps, if one needs an example.)

By definition, an Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. Aristotle pioneered the term as a synonym for rule by the rich.

They make the rules.

In Greek history, after the restoration of democracy from oligarchical coups, the Athenians devised a method for selecting government officers in order to counteract what they saw as a tendency to oligarchy, if a professional governing class were allowed to use their work for their own benefits.

Currently, we have a blatant oligarchy being installed; before we had a somewhat subtly hidden oligarchy which was also working to “change the rules of the game” for their benefit.

The prior oligarchy was just a bigger group – corporations and they went through the motions of playing by the rules.

We sent a loud message of rejection with Trump’s election but we may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. That’s OK. Getting burned definitely gets your attention and motivates you.

If nothing else, the stakes have been raised so high, that if we don’t pay attention and begin to institute some changes, we will indeed deserve what we get. Incredibly though, change IS occurring.  People are actively talking about political issues, who have never been engaged before. I see it everywhere, which gives me hope.

Freedom is not Free, it must be guarded and maintained. It takes a population that is involved.

It’s time to put childish things away

It’s wonderful to not worry and let other’s deal with the details, while we get on with the business of living our life.  But not being involved has its price and it can be a pretty nasty one.

No easy solutions but ignoring the situation is not an answer.  It is required of each us to take an active role in building a consensus of basic quality government for the benefit of the whole country. Not for “special interests”, not for the financial benefits of corporations, or for the 1%.

Start on the local level: your community groups, your city council, your county officials.  Change comes from the bottom up.

The sleeping giant has been awakened and it is US; it’s time for us to make a difference.