Over the past month, North Korea has been having a “temper tantrum.” What a lot of “analysts” are playing down are pronouncements from North Korea. For example, North Korean news analyst’ (propagandist’) Minju Joson. Joson wrote:
“[The]… opportunity for peacefully settling the DPRK-U.S. relations is no longer available as the U.S. opted for staking its fate. Consequently, there remains only the settlement of accounts by a physical means.
“A battle to be fought by the DPRK against the U.S. will become a war for national liberation to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the country and, at the same time, a revolutionary war to defend the human cause of independence and the justice of the international community.” – North Korea puts rockets on standby as US official warns regime is no ‘paper tiger’, NBC News, March 29, 2013.
This is something new. Historically, North Korea’s public rants simply spouted venom at us. But this pronouncement appears to be targeted more for North Korea’s domestic consumption. So it appears that Kim Jong un is growing increasingly paranoid over a growing number of domestic fractures erupting in North Korea. So to address those domestic fractures, he’s using us to unite North Korea under him, and really is preparing the North Korean people for a “final showdown” with us to cement his rule.
My father was a member of the “silent generation,” the generation that came of age during the time that men were being drafted into the Army for service in the Korean War. My father’s draft number first came up immediately after he married my mom. And at that time, the United States was not drafting married men into the Army. Manpower shortages changed that rule, and his number came up again. But when it did, my sister had just been born. And the Army was not then drafting fathers. So he escaped the draft again.
The Korean War ended shortly thereafter. But one of the thoughts that I grew up with was: “how would my father have survived were he drafted into service in Korea, given his near-sightedness?” Thus, Korea has long been an event I have pondered. Because, chances are, had he gone to Korea, I never would have been born. And it is this ponderance that provided me with the insights to recognize this “change” in North Korea.
For this “change” in North Korea means that a final resolution to the problems on the Korean peninsula are within reach, and will not be nearly as costly. Moreover, China will support this final resolution as American military power can be used solely to disarm North Korea of their major weapons as South Koreans do “clean up,” sparing China of the indignities involved with a massive American occupation in Asia.
Today’s Republicans, however, are incapable of recognizing this game changer. Today’s Republicans are lost in their own little world of delusion, fictions, and disinformation. The only information today’s Republicans will hear is that which supports their own little, demented world. And because of their delusions, opportunities will be lost, and incessant damage will be done – damage that solely benefits the Republican Party’s “owners,” America’s economic elite.
Global Climate Change
Republicans today deny, most vociferously and vehemently, the existence of global climate change – even though our climate is currently undergoing a most radical change. Where I was born and raised along the upper-Texas’ Gulf Coast, we are no strangers to occasional hailstorms. We experience them in Spring, Autumn and Winter. However, the hailstones we witness range in size from peas- to marble-sized hail.
On April 2nd of this year, at 11:30 PM, local time, lower Galveston County got softball- to grapefruit-sized hail. This was absolutely unprecedented. This has never – ever – happened to lower Galveston County… and to the best of my knowledge, anywhere along the Gulf Coast. Researching this sized hail, there was a reference to Oklahoma. But, with the difference in the types of climates between the Midwest and Gulf Coast, this type of event simply does not happen to the upper-Texas’ Gulf Coast. After learning of this from my sister, I rushed down to help.
Softball- to grapefruit-sized hail produces truly massive amounts of damage. Houses designed to withstand the worst that up to a Category 4 hurricane can dish out became easy prey, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars of damage to each house. Softball- to grapefruit-sized hail easily punched holes through wood-frame shingle roofs, shattered windows and the slate on slate roofs, and splintered vinyl sidings.
Automobiles throughout the region were totaled as hail smashed windshields and windows, damaged lights, left two-inch deep depressions on automobile bodies, and allowed rainwater to damage the electronics and flood the vehicle’s interiors. All, but four, of one police department’s squad cars were put out of commission. And in one community of 10,000+ people, the entire police department’s squad cars were put out of commission.
On April 3rd, 2013, the two major newspapers in the area put out newspapers containing letters from non-existent “professors” from fictional universities denouncing fictional letters from “students” at the University of Texas (this region is strongly pro-Texas A&M University) to mis-inform subscribers to these newspapers about global climate change. Yes, in “red-state America,” many people do rely on newspapers for news… after Faux News on TV and country radio news.
Given how soon after Easter this happened, I suspect that, much like back in Moses’ time in Egypt, this hailstorm may be God’s way of telling the Texas’ legislature to ‘do something about the “pay-day” and “title loan” sharks in the state.‘ But will Texas’ legislature listen? Don’t be daft. Just like ancient Egypt’s Pharaoh Ramses II, Texas’ legislature won’t listen – even to God Almighty, Himself – until the plagues ancient Egypt suffered are multiplied seven-fold!
But should this prove to be the “new normal” – as opposed to a hellishly nightmarish freak of nature, then God help us all. Because the mainstay of residential properties for centuries, wood frame houses, will be entirely inadequate – every bit as much as a tent – to stand up to this “new normal.” For the “new normal” will require hardened bunkers – of the type that will withstand a military bombardment!
The damage caused by this hail storm has also brought every type of scammer and miscreant a’knock’in. People, having no morals, have been making their rounds promising repairs they have absolutely no intention of ever performing. Their only intention is to separate homeowners from their money.
As I took a tour of the neighborhood to observe the work being done to repair roofs, what did I see? Not a single, solitary roofer for any of these “legitimate contractors” was an American citizen… not a one! They were all Mexican and Central American nationals – the vast majority of which (if not all) would be making a run to escape were the U.S. CIS to make an appearance. And it’s not as if there are simply no Americans available – the unemployment rate remains in the double-digits in this county… and the overwhelming majority of the unemployed work in housing construction.
Turning Americans Into Worthless, Valueless “Tools”
Republicans argue “there is simply too much regulation.”
Subjecting Americans to Horrendous Pollutants
Perhaps the reddest of states, Texas, is also attempting to revoke the need for reporting benzene and hydrogen sulfide pollutants to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — just as benzene and hydrogen sulfide rich crude oil drawn from fracked shale is making its way to Texas’ refineries. Benzene causes a loss of bone marrow, anemia (decrease in red blood cells), excessive bleeding and can affect the immune system, increasing the chance for infection, just for starters (see CDC’s Facts About Benzene).
And hydrogen sulfide causes health problems for your respiratory tract and nervous system, spontaneous abortion, asthma, and significantly increases the risk of developing cancers of the trachea, bronchus, and lung (see CDC’s Background and Environmental Exposures to Hydrogen Sulfide in the United States (PDF)).
As the economic elite presses this agenda, the economic elite is also attempting to revoke Obamacare — leaving the “mere expendable tools” of the economic elite to fend for themselves when benzene and hydrogen sulfide causes the economic elite’s “mere expendable tools” to begin suffering from the effects of exposure to benzene and hydrogen sulfide. There already exists this precedence as BP argues that their 40-day pollution accident did not affect the residents of Texas City, Texas. Physicians argue otherwise based upon patients they treat with damaged lungs and severely restricted respiratory capacities. And this outcome can already be seen with the expendable and easily disposable “slightly less than legal” employees at companies like Halliburton…
Getting Out From Under Regulations
Halliburton will attest from their “slightly less than legal” employment of Mexican and Central American nationals at their customer’s Chocolate Bayou (Texas) facilities as those Mexicans and Central Americans toil — without protection from the toxins within the containment vessels they are tasked to clean, outside of the scarves they bring — and resulting in the deaths of roughly 21 per year according to those Mexicans and Central Americans (where I grew up, Spanish is not so foreign a language), this is simply how shareholders (and typically, just “preferred” shareholders) benefit in this new laissez faire (or “laisser-faire” — stringent opposition to governmental regulation or interference), faux capitalism.
The Cost of Getting Out From Under Regulations
At 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, 2013, an event occurred comparable to what we might hear out of China or the developing world. In the small town (approximately 3,000 citizens) of West, Texas, near Waco, the West Fertilizer Plant blew up, decimating a five- to-six block radius around the plant. At last count, roughly 15 people were killed, and 160 people were injured. This is still developing, so these are not totals.
50 to 75 houses, four blocks away, were heavily damaged (totaled), and nearby a 50-unit apartment complex lost its top floor, had its walls torn off and its roof peeled back. A middle school was wrecked. The ground shook like what was described as a magnitude-2.1 earthquake. The police cordoned off the plant in preparation with what they thought, initially, was going to be a “crime scene.”
Fertilizer plants are historically notorious for these types of events. These types of events are why this type of industry is so heavily regulated. But as dogmatic as Texas’ legislators are, it would not surprise me if West Fertilizer obtained “outs” from this type of regulation.
In Kansas, another flaming-red state, many meat-packing plants have replaced their American workforces with immigrants from south of the border. Those immigrants from south of the border typically come to America with, at most, a 4th-grade education. They don’t know about our laws or our regulations. They also place themselves at risk for deportation should they report these infractions. This is why these types of companies replace their American workforces with these immigrants. These types of companies replace their American workforces so these companies can escape from the mandates of these regulations.
OSHA, and every other federal regulatory agency, having a purview to protect workers, should investigate this calamity once this situation has stabilized. I will be shocked should I learn that West Fertilizer had American citizens working in production at this facility. I will be further shocked should I learn that West Fertilizer was in complete compliance with regulations.
This right-wing, anti-regulation dogmatism is why the West Fertilizer Plant was close enough to residential areas and a public school to inflict the amount of damage that it did. Zoning is frowned upon in Texas. Nonetheless, when it becomes time for West Fertilizer to pay up for the damage it inflicted upon West, Texas, watch for West Fertilizer to declare bankruptcy to avoid having to pay for repairs. After all, we now live in the age of “privatizing profits and socializing losses.”
That’s right, the sole purpose for allowing this to persist is to deprive the hardest working people to ever grace this planet of sufficient wages to afford even basic necessities — such as a roof over one’s head and food on the table. This is why the use of food stamps have shot up. This is why homelessness has multiplied. This is why basic civility, itself, is breaking down!
Due to this… and much, much more onerous acts by the economic elite… basic civility is crumbling. On Friday, April 5th, 2013, ABC’s 20/20 put on an episode on how American life is growing more and more uncivil. For example, to hear 20/20, road rage has always been with us. No it hasn’t been! Road rage arrived during the Reagan era. And “going postal” in a workplace was unheard of until August 20, 1986, when postman Patrick Sherrill walked into his workplace, shot and killed 14 co-workers and injured 6 more before shooting himself in the head. And this year’s Boston’s Marathon may be just another example.
Boston’s Marathon
I’m a resident of northern Massachusetts, just across the border from New Hampshire. On Patriots’ Day, I had already just from Galveston County. But as was my habit for the past 25 years (when not working on a project site), I took the day off and stayed at home. But I have many friends and associates who live in the Boston metro area — and my office is in Cambridge — just across the Charles River from Boston. So when the news reported the bombing, I paid attention — and hoped no one I knew was affected.
As I write this, I have yet to hear of a single foreign terrorist organization laying claim for this act. This dearth of any claims raises all kinds of “red flags.” And most of those point to Americans, having been disenfranchised by Republicans, in their incessantly insane quest to enable America’s economic elite to “legally plunder” our — now undeniably — “banana republic,” have now reached their “breaking point!”
Living and working where I do, there just isn’t much parking in Boston, so I commute by train. Approximately eight months ago, I encountered an Army veteran who served multiple tours in Afghanistan. I’m a “sociable” type and a veteran myself (Vietnam era). So we spoke. One of the comments he made that stuck with me was his treatment upon returning home — especially in trying to find replacement employment for the job he currently had that was in a very hostile work environment.
Having the name I do, I, too, have experienced what many African-Americans have in finding employment because employers will associate my name to African-Americans. For the record, my ancestry is that of a typical American mutt; Scottish, Welch, French, German and Croatian. But my experiences with these employers have made me quite sympathetic to the plights of African-Americans.
Over the years, one of my avocations was to work with veterans. I’m no psychologist, but I am a fellow veteran. I never served in a “recognized war zone,” but as a veteran, I have a friendly ear for my fellow veterans and want to help. There is a reason why we’ve come to be known as “brothers in arms;” because we only have ourselves to rely upon for “watching each others’ backs.”
Prior to Afghanistan and Iraq, it was unheard of to serve more than two tours in a war zone. It simply was not done. In most cases, one tour was more than enough. But with Afghanistan and Iraq, five, six and seven tours became the norm. The psychological toll that having the world turned upside down in a war zone takes is indescribable. And it affects different people differently.
Having to rely upon those serving with you in war zones makes the Republican argument of “self-reliance” void and meaningless… and moronically suicidal. You can’t… unless you simply want to die there! Therefore, we’ve learned to rely upon each other. But America is today being ”undone” by a strategy of ”divide and conquer” perpetrated by the Republican Party to solely benefit America’s economic elite. As the Republican Party presses this agenda, veterans are being thrown under a bus… much like the rest of America.
Even as veterans, we are first and foremost human. We absolutely deplore “collateral damage.” While the rest of America may not be our “brothers in arms,” you are, nonetheless, our brothers and sisters. And we view the harming of innocents to be inexcusable.
The problem is: as veterans are being thrown under a bus, the basic survival skills learned in combat kick in. When under attack, you return fire with overwhelming force. And having served in war zones, you learn that sometimes you, yourself, die returning that fire with overwhelming force. Therefore, it is best to destroy your enemy before your enemy can attack you.
I don’t think that Boston’s Patriot’s Day bombings were the act of veterans. There was simply too much planning and forethought for this to have resulted from basic survival skills kicking in.
And while “pressure cooker” bombs are a product of Afghani extremism, the planning and forethought that went into Boston’s Patriot’s Day bombings were more indicative of the frustrations, disenfranchisement, and disillusionment of parties having the resources to spend time on the Internet (to gain the information necessary to construct the bombs) and sufficient resources to obtain the parts and construct them, while lacking the foresight to imagine who might actually get hurt, or the empathy to recognize another’s humanity — meaning, perhaps, addicted gamers.
The Fruit of Republican Denial
How much harder of a “dope slap” do you need before you recognize that the United States of America is no longer a Constitutional Republic? We now live under a plutocracy. We are now a banana republic. And our days of being “a great nation” are over until we resolve this.
Thanks to the absolutely ludicrous collaboration, abetment and collusion by America’s economic elite on Bush #2’s, and earlier, policies on banking, in 2008, the floor dropped out from our banking system. Bush #2’s response to this was to dump the cost of fixing this on you and me — arguing against a true capitalist’ response (by allowing those banks to fail), in favor of bailing out those banks (and AIG) arguing “they’re simply too big to fail.”
The U.S. Anti-trust Act was created to prevent these types of crimes from happening — but it has been ignored for decades due to heavy lobbying from the economic elite. But since the “too big to fail” bailout, banks were simply allowed to grow bigger. In addition, the clock is ticking — and soon will expire — on holding any of the culprits accountable. Thus, “too big to fail” apparently also means “too big to arrest.”
However, one of the results of this new paradigm of “privatizing profits while socializing losses” is that the last moderating influence against the economic elite’s inevitable extremism has been removed. So thanks to this new paradigm, today’s Republican Party, through their continuing extremism, makes North Korea’s inglorious leader Kim Jong un appear like a level-headed moderate in comparison.
America is today becoming a nation completely bereft of any values, simply a nation of grifters… swindlers, chiselers, defrauders, scammers, gougers, and sharpies. But insofar as the types of people who made America great… scientists, engineers, educators, and simply hard-working people; America’s economic elite has so severely deprived and punished them economically as to send them the clear and concise message that everything you’ve ever been taught and learned is now absolutely worthless. To make a living in this new era, you have to become a successful thief and throw your fellow human beings to the wolves!
And that message is coming through loud and clear. Today, the inner city of Chicago is comparable to a Syrian war zone, suffering far too many fatalities because inner city youth lack any hope of a future — thanks mostly in part due to this incredibly insane greed by America’s economic elite. And just exactly this type of utter insanity will soon come to a city near YOU… if it hasn’t already!
But the combination of “there has never been a despot who did not thank god for his ignorant people” and the practice of “divide and conquer” brought about by this incessant grifting and the right-wing’s political games to hand over the people’s wealth to America’s economic elite, driving people into desperation, in an environment of increasing ignorance, misinformation and disinformation will result in turning America into a curse on mankind. For history has demonstrated, since time immemorial, that only, ONLY, ONLY a healthy middle class can insure a nation’s stability!!!
Nations lacking this stability have only historically resulted in developments like Nazi Germany, North Korea, Stalin’s USSR, and Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” in China — resulting in an estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation, and China’s Cultural Revolution.
Our nation’s current travails demonstrate that we are not that exceptional. Continuing down this unenlightened path may ultimately result in what Nazi Germany endured from the mid-1930’s to mid 1940’s. Only, we are a nuclear-armed nation.
So time has run out! Allow me to reiterate: TIME HAS RUN OUT!
Republicans, at the behest of their “owners,” America’s economic elite, are turning America into an unholy hell. After the progressive President Dwight David Eisenhower administration, much like the Richter scale is to geology, the Saffir-Simpson scale is to hurricanes, and the Fujita scale is to tornados; there has been a similar order of magnitude difference in extremism from the transformations the Republican Party has undergone during each window for which a Republican president replaced a Democratic president. Today, I truly fear, allow me to stress that: FEAR what the result might be should America ever put another Republican into the Oval office.
It is time to bring these criminals to account.
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