Our country is having great difficulties on so many level and on so many fronts that it is problematic to focus on solutions. There is no 'one' type of solution that will do the job, solutions are necessary of several different kinds. New leadership, for example, is one of the solutions needed more than any other kind of improvement.
Politicians are more interested in their pursuit of power and in building their personal fortunes than in solving our country’s problems. The news is filled with violence ignited by both 'law enforcement' and criminals. The nation’s infrastructure is deteriorating in an incredible manner... becoming 3rd world in many ways... everything is just crumbling and falling apart.
More and more we can't drink the water or breathe the air because of our policies of poisoning our life-giving necessities as the corporations seek more and more profit. There are limits. There are limits to potential profits and there are limits to the air and water damage that can be tolerated.
The tax system, which should keep us functioning in a modern fashion is being destroyed in favor of gifts to the fabulously rich. The poor cannot afford to support our needs, especially when the military is the priority.
Current leadership of many government agencies is actively working to defeat the purpose of the agency they lead. It seems hard to believe, and that is why we are so desperate for some help of some kind.
Politicians are more interested in their pursuit of power and in building their personal fortunes than in solving our country’s problems. The news is filled with violence ignited by both 'law enforcement' and criminals. The nation’s infrastructure is deteriorating in an incredible manner... becoming 3rd world in many ways... everything is just crumbling and falling apart.
More and more we can't drink the water or breathe the air because of our policies of poisoning our life-giving necessities as the corporations seek more and more profit. There are limits. There are limits to potential profits and there are limits to the air and water damage that can be tolerated.
The tax system, which should keep us functioning in a modern fashion is being destroyed in favor of gifts to the fabulously rich. The poor cannot afford to support our needs, especially when the military is the priority.
Current leadership of many government agencies is actively working to defeat the purpose of the agency they lead. It seems hard to believe, and that is why we are so desperate for some help of some kind.
Our political system, while faking democracy, is completely controlled by the 'oligarchy' who operate behind a front of Republicans and/or Democrats to keep order while 'misappropriating' the nation's wealth to 'their own accounts'. 'They' run a successful public relations campaign that fools most of the population into believing that the people have some sort of choice... part of the 'keeping order'.
Looking around us in this country shows the criminals in charge in every sphere. The financial institutions have been labeled as 'too big to fail' which only means that the crooks stealing from those institutions are 'too wealthy and powerful to jail'.
We have the largest military in the world. We are constantly at war in virtually every area of the world. And with all of the equipment and all of the practice, we can't seem to win any wars. But, we can't quit fighting these wars because our entire economy is dependent on warfare. We are destined to lose in the war arena - either economically or militarily or both, and we are setting ourselves up for failure in each area.
We aren't paying enough attention to global warming and climate change. Flooding coastal areas and wildfires in the west are changing the status of our nation in problematic ways and we are denying the very facts that threaten to destroy us.
The middle class has already died and we are just waiting for the body to fall over. Stagnant wage growth has doomed the middle class. The cost of education medical care, for example, is far ahead of wage growth. Attempting to keep up causes the middle class to copy the federal government in terms of borrowing. It can't work at either level.
The middle class is turning more and more to part-time and temporary jobs to try to fill the gaps. More than one job is becoming necessary. All of this together is not solving the financial problems of the middle class. Inequality is growing faster than any other part of the financial system and is eliminating the middle class. The ultimate result will be, as is seen in other societies, the very wealthy and the very poor with not much in between.
We know that the 'systems' will not save us or our country. The people could make enough changes as individuals to make some sort of difference. As the people learn to change there is the possibility that improvements can be made. Massive change on the part of masses of people could overwhelm the systems that hold us captive in our 'place'. It must come from the people or it will continue to decline. We can't afford much more on the downhill side because we have already slid so low. We have to 'turn the corner' soon or it will be too late, and that's the truth !!!
The Calculated Destruction of America’s Government
from Counter Punch by MEL GURTOV
It is truly extraordinary: the still-new Trump administration keeps appointing people whose common priority is the destruction of the agency they head. Their mission is therefore the opposite of their agency’s: priority to management over responsibility, product over people, and private interests over public service. In essence, Trump is presiding over a government that rejects governing and seems intent on creating a state within a state.
The examples are well known. Consumer protection is now in the hands of an anti-consumer, pro-business guy, someone who once called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “a sad, sick joke.”
The Environmental Protection Agency is under an oil and gas industry proponent who despises
environmentalists and denies human agency in climate change. He is removing environmental reporting from the EPA website and preventing government scientists from speaking to the public.
Housing is under a well-known surgeon and political airhead who hasn’t the slightest idea about his department’s purposes.
A millionaire who leads the department of education has no experience in public education and is busily trying to privatize it.
Trump’s pick for health and human services is a drug company executive who had a hand in raising drug prices.
And then there’s the justice department, run by a racist who is determined to keep non-whites out of the country, limit enforcement of civil rights laws, and disenfranchise minorities.
Other government agencies, such as defense, homeland security, and immigration and customs (ICE) follow the same pattern of politically skewed missions that undermine our most cherished values, not to mention common sense.
But the best example is the state department under Rex Tillerson. He announced his purpose as being to reorganize the department and save money, not promote diplomacy or refine America’s interests abroad. Tillerson’s notion of good management has resulted in a gutting of the department and loss of considerable expertise in precisely those regional specialties—East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—that demand constant attention. Following the lead of the president and his inner circle of inexperienced know-nothings who spout a white nationalist agenda, Tillerson is showing career staff the door in disdain for “bureaucrats.” Even when he makes a feeble mention of peacemaking, as with North Korea, Iran, and Israel-Palestine, Trump immediately pulls the rug out from under him—as he just did with recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The state of State is disheartening, to say the least, and the rumored removal of Tillerson in favor of CIA director Mike Pompeo will not make the slightest difference. Career diplomats are leaving in droves, the budget is being cut by nearly one third, and the number of new applications for the foreign service is down by one half. The new guy in charge of personnel, who would normally be a senior diplomat, has only eight years of experience. (But then, who needs an experienced personnel manager when so few people are left to manage?) Another Tillerson appointee who was supposed to manage the downsizing has resigned after only several weeks at the job.
What we are witnessing is the destruction of the government we pay for and to which we are asked to pledge allegiance. Every week some government service we took for granted is weakened or eliminated by official fiat. By my count, Trump has now severely criticized or attacked outright seven American institutions: the media and various courts; the departments of Justice and State; the FBI; and both political parties. No public official who defies presidential preference is immune from Trump’s wrath. He has played with the idea of establishing a private spy network to get around the CIA—an idea being peddled by none other than Erik Prince (of Blackwater fame) and Oliver North (cf. Iran-Contra). This president is totally committed to sustaining an oligarchy in the image of Vladimir Putin.
Those critics who point to the Trump administration’s failure to pass any legislation as evidence of the strength of the resistance are only partly right. When you put together all the Obama-era administrative regulations that have been rescinded and the legal cases in defense of the public interest abandoned, and add to that the reactionary actions of right-wing dominated state legislatures and the Supreme Court majority, you have quite a record of intentional destructiveness as prescribed by Steve Bannon.
There is no law that says weakening the federal government’s role is a crime. But deliberately subverting the US government is reason enough to seek Trump’s impeachment. He is doing to America what no foreign adversary could do. Some might call it treason.
MEL GURTOV is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, an international affairs quarterly and blogs at In the Human Interest.
It is truly extraordinary: the still-new Trump administration keeps appointing people whose common priority is the destruction of the agency they head. Their mission is therefore the opposite of their agency’s: priority to management over responsibility, product over people, and private interests over public service. In essence, Trump is presiding over a government that rejects governing and seems intent on creating a state within a state.
The examples are well known. Consumer protection is now in the hands of an anti-consumer, pro-business guy, someone who once called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “a sad, sick joke.”
The Environmental Protection Agency is under an oil and gas industry proponent who despises
environmentalists and denies human agency in climate change. He is removing environmental reporting from the EPA website and preventing government scientists from speaking to the public.
Housing is under a well-known surgeon and political airhead who hasn’t the slightest idea about his department’s purposes.
A millionaire who leads the department of education has no experience in public education and is busily trying to privatize it.
Trump’s pick for health and human services is a drug company executive who had a hand in raising drug prices.
And then there’s the justice department, run by a racist who is determined to keep non-whites out of the country, limit enforcement of civil rights laws, and disenfranchise minorities.
Other government agencies, such as defense, homeland security, and immigration and customs (ICE) follow the same pattern of politically skewed missions that undermine our most cherished values, not to mention common sense.
But the best example is the state department under Rex Tillerson. He announced his purpose as being to reorganize the department and save money, not promote diplomacy or refine America’s interests abroad. Tillerson’s notion of good management has resulted in a gutting of the department and loss of considerable expertise in precisely those regional specialties—East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa—that demand constant attention. Following the lead of the president and his inner circle of inexperienced know-nothings who spout a white nationalist agenda, Tillerson is showing career staff the door in disdain for “bureaucrats.” Even when he makes a feeble mention of peacemaking, as with North Korea, Iran, and Israel-Palestine, Trump immediately pulls the rug out from under him—as he just did with recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The state of State is disheartening, to say the least, and the rumored removal of Tillerson in favor of CIA director Mike Pompeo will not make the slightest difference. Career diplomats are leaving in droves, the budget is being cut by nearly one third, and the number of new applications for the foreign service is down by one half. The new guy in charge of personnel, who would normally be a senior diplomat, has only eight years of experience. (But then, who needs an experienced personnel manager when so few people are left to manage?) Another Tillerson appointee who was supposed to manage the downsizing has resigned after only several weeks at the job.
What we are witnessing is the destruction of the government we pay for and to which we are asked to pledge allegiance. Every week some government service we took for granted is weakened or eliminated by official fiat. By my count, Trump has now severely criticized or attacked outright seven American institutions: the media and various courts; the departments of Justice and State; the FBI; and both political parties. No public official who defies presidential preference is immune from Trump’s wrath. He has played with the idea of establishing a private spy network to get around the CIA—an idea being peddled by none other than Erik Prince (of Blackwater fame) and Oliver North (cf. Iran-Contra). This president is totally committed to sustaining an oligarchy in the image of Vladimir Putin.
Those critics who point to the Trump administration’s failure to pass any legislation as evidence of the strength of the resistance are only partly right. When you put together all the Obama-era administrative regulations that have been rescinded and the legal cases in defense of the public interest abandoned, and add to that the reactionary actions of right-wing dominated state legislatures and the Supreme Court majority, you have quite a record of intentional destructiveness as prescribed by Steve Bannon.
There is no law that says weakening the federal government’s role is a crime. But deliberately subverting the US government is reason enough to seek Trump’s impeachment. He is doing to America what no foreign adversary could do. Some might call it treason.
MEL GURTOV is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective, an international affairs quarterly and blogs at In the Human Interest.
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