The Great Theft

 A  L  O  H  A !

 “Well, Doctor, what have we got—

a Republic or a Monarchy?”

  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

 Benjamin Franklin

 (1706–90)

 " Give us this day,

our daily noodles. "

" In America

 there is not one single

 element of civilization 

that is not made to depend, 

in the end,

 upon public opinion. "

HENRY WARD BEECHER

 " - these days young Americans

 are considerably less likely

 than young people

 in many other countries

 to graduate from college.

 In fact, we have a 

college graduation rate 

that’s slightly below

 the average across

 all 

advanced economies."

 

PAUL KRUGMAN,

My grandparents came to America from Europe

 as young children.  I have no pictures,

but in my mind's eye, I see them hand in hand

 with their parents who I never met.

They left behind homelands

 (Rumania, Kiev, Vienna)where your father's class

determined one's own. 

They came to a Dream, a Promise:

"I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door."

It was a dynamic, early 20th Century America

 of great wealth,

and also

teeming poverty in great slums;  

BUT a ladder too existed-

difficult, challenging,

 requiring hard work,

 and no little luck-

and this ladder could

 provide a worker with a 

decent home,

a community,

in which to raise a family.  

That great 20th Century invention: 

the Middle Class,

grew, and raised all boats 

with it's swell.  

 It was a land where 

if you are white: alright!

If you are brown: stick around.  

If you are black: get back!

We have come a long way 

since those times, 

and that progress was made

by growing the pie, 

expanding our "Us" 

and including all of us, 

all of our children,

in the Dream.

Now, the Dream seems far away 

to many Americans.

We are in a time of huge changes

 that I call the Great Theft.

The broad and fluid Middle Class 

that won WWII, and built

unprecedented shared prosperity, 

all while becoming increasingly inclusive,

was based on shared values 

like a level playing field, basic fairness,

transparent rules of the road.  

We were told that Capitalism

was better than Communism

 because average people

had decent lives under Capitalism.

 

But with the end of global Communism, 

pronounced forces in America 

turned their eyes 

to new forms of business;

business that created nothing,

 added no real value, 

that decreased our tax base, 

and abandoned 

whole regions of American workers.

Instead of making things

that our huge domestic market,

and vast potential foreign ones

 wanted,

 we turned to the making of

deals.

All of the painstakingly created 

prosperity of the 20th Century

was chiseled off

 of this still-great nation 

and pawned to the highest bidder.

One of my least favorite political commentators,

 Patrick Buchanan,

recently explained the details

 very concisely: 

"For decades America has been de-industrializing,

 with manufacturing shrinking

 as a share of Domestic product

 to 11% from over 30% in 1950.

Not since before the Civil War 

have we been so dependent

 on foreign goods-"

     " When the history of American decline

 is written, the historians will zero in on

a choice the nation made 

when the interests of Middle America collided

 with those of Corporate America.

     "Decades ago, America's great companies,

 having saturated the American market,

wanted to go out and capture 

the world's markets.  

Free to move production out

of the U.S.A., 

they wanted to bring their products

 back to the United States,

duty free. 

 Make them there; sell them here.  

And if the US companies were to be

allowed to produce and to sell

 in foreign countries, 

those countries wanted the right

to dump their goods in the U.S.A. "

      "And here is where

 the national interest 

and the interests of Corporate America

diverged. . . 

where what was good for 

the boardroom elite 

collided with what was

best for Middle America. . . .

North American Free Trade Agreement. . . 

GATT, the

WTO - what they all produced

 is a Magna Carta of the transnational corporation,

( I would say "Transnational Class" - Cloudia )

which looks longingly

 to the end of nation-states,

 and the arrival of 

world government."

The Government

 is supposed to be

 "By, for, and of the People" 

as Abraham Lincoln said.

By subverting, 

then destroying our government, 

the broad swath of us

is made defenseless

 in a time of global changes

 that are rocking our families.   

Right now, a

masterful job of misdirection

 is causing us to squabble

 with one another over

inconsequential issues.

In 2008, 

a vanishingly small group

 of people basically

 STOLE 40% 

of the average

American family's "wealth". 

"Too Big to Fail"

 is another word for

 EXTORTION.

And the game rolls on.

We bailed them out.

Now we learn

 that private hands

 hold untaxed wealth 

in the TRILLIONS (32)

of US dollars

in hidden off-shore accounts.  

[ Study  LINK ]

Seems the "job creators" 

are REALLY hoarding

what USED TO BE

 shared prosperity! 

This untaxed hoard

 is estimated 

equivalent to the 

economies of Japan

 and the USA!  

And yet 

we are firing police 

and teachers.

A few years ago,

 a respected Navajo wise man 

came to Oahu.

  I was lucky

to hear him speak to a small group.

  He told us of unprecedented changes in

our life times.  

World Changes.  

He advised us not to hoard,

 but to use, enjoy,

 and share 

what we have accumulated

 before the changes, 

which he felt were

quite near.  

He did advise us

 to hoard one thing:  

Food.

     Many feel that 2012

 is the year for pivotal change.

But it can be a 

transformation

 of how we live together

 on this globe,

 for good,

 or for struggle.

     The peaceful, wise, 

ancient Navajo 

said one thing that I remember specifically;

 In his words:

" We will hunt the rich down 

in the streets like dogs."

     A small group of people,

 with no loyalty to nation,

 or any community,

 beyond their elite bubble, 

hold the power to indeed 

create jobs. 

Ask Mitt Romney about that. 

 Will they?

     We changed our laws

 so that drug dealers

 lose their assets even before

 they are convicted of any crime!

     We are the police, the army, 

Interpol. 

 How bad will we let things get

 for average people, 

before we depose the Corporate-ocacy?

     They bought legislation 

and made laws

 that allowed all this

 to happen. 

We can change the laws

 and change things back.

     What human family

 needs TRILLIONS, 

or Billions in the bank?

     OUR larger human family does. 

We are all stake-holders

in the human experiment!

     Fear not.

  Tomorrow, I shall go back 

to posting personal,

 and positive vibrations

 to share with you.  

But this had to be said.

We now return you

to the joy

in THIS MOMENT,

already in progress. . . 

Thank YOU, dear friend, 

for your valuable time.

YOUr visit

 adds much to my day!

Do YOU have a comment to add?

 PLEASE DO!

     Most Sincerely & Fondly, cloudia