The Dismal State Of Our Union.

Upon listening to the last day of Neal Conan’s Talk of the Nation on NPR, I was surprised by Ted Koppel’s response when asked about the future. Turns out, Koppel shares many of the same concerns as I do. For what it’s worth, here is a compilation of my own views of the current state of our union and its future.

Civil Rights – How depressing that people are still struggling for civil rights nearly 150 years after the end of slavery! The Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act was a huge setback, unleashing red states to suppress minority votes.

Abortion – Although abortion was made legal in 1973, women are still fighting to wrest control of their own bodies from the old men who control our political system. Amazingly, women are now forced to fight for access to contraception!

Environment – Most Americans say they’re concerned about our environment. They just don’t act like it. Most refuse to sacrifice anything on behalf of our planet’s future.

Hunger – In the richest nation on Earth, 50 million people are unsure of where they’ll get their next meal. That includes 17 million American children!

Energy – Nearly 40 years after President Carter had solar panels installed on the White House, we’re still addicted to fossil fuels. We spill more oil than most other countries use.

Healthcare  – The dirty secret is that we have no healthcare system. We spend more than twice as much as other advanced nations, yet achieve worse outcomes. And we spend more on pharmaceuticals than the rest of the world combined.

Wall Street – Greed has turned large banks into high stakes casinos. Their gambling habit not only cost individuals and pension plans trillions…many families lost their homes. Yet any attempt to regulate these banks has been undermined by millions in lobbying efforts.

Income Disparity – The US ranks among the world’s worst nations for income inequality. 400 Americans control more wealth than half of our population, and the gap is growing. Yet Republicans believe that 47 percent are sponging off the rest!

Jobs – Simply put, we don’t have enough of them. And far too few of them pay enough to support a family. Corporate leaders and politicians, on the other hand, each make enough to support dozens of families.

Privatization – We’ve privatized prisons, prison healthcare, schools, our military, even our intelligence efforts. Although all of these efforts have proven to cost more than publicly run institutions, Republicans are pushing for even more privatization.

Pensions – We lost tens of thousands of employee pensions over the past 40 years, replaced by IRAs and 401Ks which were originally intended to supplement defined benefit pension plans. The money once used for employee benefits now lines the pockets of CEOs, executives and investors.

Politics – Our politics have continued to move to the right, even though our population hasn’t. When Republicans are in control, they unabashedly cram through partisan legislation. When Democrats are in control, they tentatively nibble around the margins instead of doing what they were elected to do. Both parties rely on large corporations to finance their political campaigns.

Tea Party – This is a relatively small group that has had a large impact. Based on lies and meanness, it seems its goal is to take us back to the 16th Century.

Surveillance – Following 9/11, we traded privacy for increased security. The NSA tracks records of our phone calls, search engine terms and emails. Banks and credit card companies track our purchases. And surveillance cameras are everywhere.

Guns – While the NRA works to increase the availability of guns, even for criminals and the mentally ill, manufacturers make guns ever more lethal.

Education – Thanks to conservatives, public education is underfunded and teachers are woefully underpaid. Enough said.

Science – Many now claim that evolution is merely a theory. But so is gravity! Of course, these people also deny man’s affect on climate change. (See education.)

Religious Intolerance – Islam is not the only religion with extremists. The intolerance of all religions seems to be growing.

Anger and Pettiness – Within 20 years of the end of the Fairness Doctrine, 91 percent of talk radio was conservative…mean, angry, venomous Rush Limbaugh-style conservative… and it’s getting worse. (See Tea Party)

War – There’s no denying it. The US absolutely LOVES war. We glorify soldiers and their war machines with military-style ceremonies and flyovers at nearly every large event. And we spend hundreds of billions on “defense” to build bigger, badder war toys.

Iraq – Iraq cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. The result of our sacrifices is that we have turned Iraq into a vassal state of radical Iran.

Afghanistan – Despite setting a deadline for withdrawal, there is no clear outcome for this war. We may leave the country no better off than it was when we arrived.

Syria – Yet another opportunity to dive into a war with no real reason or plan. But it is a war and some of our politicians don’t want to be left out.

War on Drugs – This “war” may have ruined more lives than the drugs themselves. It disproportionately affects minorities, filling our prisons to overflowing. Indeed, we have a larger prison population than any other nation.

Militarization of Police – As our soldiers return from war, they’re increasingly hired by police departments. As a result, police become ever more militarized…with assault weapons and assault vehicles…and further removed from ordinary citizens.

Journalism – In the 1980’s, TV networks began measuring the success of their news organizations by ratings which instantly sensationalized the news and created the “sound bite.”  Worse, most news groups have lost their independence as they were gobbled up by conglomerates.

With all this, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the future, but the pendulum may soon swing the other way. I hope so.

Marketing Guns To Kids.

For many years, I’ve used mock guns to teach disarms to martial arts students. Some time ago, government agencies banned the sale of such items if they too closely resembled a real gun. They dictated that they be colored red, orange or yellow, and that they not include any detail so that no reasonable person would mistake them for a gun.That meant that they pretty much resembled a colored block of rubber or wood with a handle. The fear was that, if they were too realistic, criminals might use one of these training aids to hold up a convenience store.

Yes, I know, it never made much sense to me, either.

Now gun manufacturers have made such restrictions pointless. It seems that bluing, silver and black are not exciting enough to attract women and kids to the shooting “sports.” So, the murder-for-sale industry is now marketing guns in a variety of colors. This trend began when they began offering pink guns to women, presumably so that attackers wouldn’t know whether to back off in fear or simply curl up in laughter.

Not satisfied to stop there, the gun industry decided to offer guns in a full range of candy-like colors, such as red, blue, green and yellow. Of course, the new colors made them much more attractive to young children. And since they look like toys, when a young child discovers a colored gun in mommy’s or daddy’s nightstand, the child is almost certain to play with it.

What did the gun industry do when it was made aware of the potential danger of these guns? Did they immediately stop marketing them? Did they recall the lethal “toys” already on the market?

Of course not.

These upstanding Second Amendment absolutists simply encouraged parents to give guns to kids so they could start shooting them at targets (and each other) at ages as young as 5! Thanks to the NRA and their Teapublican supporters, there is virtually nothing that can be done to stop them.

On the other hand, it’s still illegal to sell or own a rubber or wooden “gun” that appears too realistic.

Getting Re-Elected Versus Doing The Right Thing.

You would think those two things would not be mutually exclusive. However, in today’s style of politics, our elected representatives seem to be more focused on the next election than on the problems in front of them.

Moderate Republicans (remember them?) are fearful of seeming to cooperate with the president and the opposition lest they be challenged by Tea Party candidates in their next primary. Moderate Democrats who represent conservative districts are fearful of seeming too liberal.

In these days of on-line petitions, no tax pledges, PACs, Super-PACs and year ’round fundraising, no legislative or congressional district is safe. One controversial vote can end a political career. Therein lies the problem.

Politics was never intended to be a career. It was intended to be public service!

If politicians weren’t thinking of making politics a career, they’d be more likely to vote their conscience. They would be less likely to pander to the wealthy and the powerful. They would be more concerned with their constituents’ interests than the interests of the oil lobby, the defense lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the insurance lobby, the medical lobby, etc.

They might even ignore the gun lobby in order to protect defenseless six-year-olds from madmen armed with the weapons of war.

It’s time to take the money out of politics. It’s time for public financing of elections. It’s time to place real limits on campaign contributions. It’s time to limit lobbyists. It’s time to eliminate Washington’s revolving door from government to lobbying and back. It’s time to recognize that, while corporations are owned by people, they most definitely are not people. It’s time for real ethics reform.

It’s time to end the endless campaigns.

Suddenly, Budweiser Tastes A Lot Better!

I’m not a big beer drinker. But I’ll treat myself to a cold one a little more often now…and it will definitely be an Anheuser-Busch product. That’s because Adolphus Busch IV just resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association.

It seems Busch was upset over the NRA’s refusal to listen to its members who support universal background checks. In his resignation letter, he wrote, “The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established. Your current strategic focus clearly places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members.”

I don’t know if Busch has been a large donor to the NRA, but his resignation has made news and is an obvious embarrassment to an organization that fraudulently purports to represent hunters and sport shooters. Instead, it has ignored the wishes of its membership in order to kowtow to the greedy and murderous wishes of our nation’s gun manufacturers.

So thank you, Mr. Busch. This Bud’s for you!

Government Of The Gun, By The Gun And For The Gun.

You probably thought our government was “of the people.” Not anymore. The NRA, the Republican Party and the Tea Party Parrots have changed that. When gun-lovin’ senators decided to filibuster a bill that would expand background checks on gun sales, they went against the will of 90 percent of the people.

It’s now abundantly clear who these politicians represent, and it’s certainly not us. They have chosen to represent the minority over the majority. They have chosen gun manufacturers over citizens. They have chosen campaign donations over lives.

To show exactly how far this nonsense has gone, in Arizona, the Teapublican-controlled legislature recently passed a bill making it illegal for cities to destroy guns collected as part of gun buy-back efforts, guns seized in crime investigations, even guns used in murders.

No gun shall meet its end before its time!

People, on the other hand, are treated much differently. These same Teapublican legislators have literally voted to withhold Medicaid from the poor that would have saved lives. As a result of the legislators’ decision, a number of people were allowed to die prematurely…people who could have been saved by a simple operation.

Of course, Arizona legislators have also refused to reconsider the death penalty, even in the case of the severely retarded, even when there are serious questions of guilt.

But, in Arizona, all guns will live to shoot another day; maybe even another innocent person; maybe you!

We Pledge Allegiance To The Gun Manufacturers Of America.

Today, the gun lobby-owned Teapublicans in the US Senate filibustered a bill calling for expanded background checks. As a result, the bill failed on a vote of 54-46. It needed 60 votes to break the filibuster of rootin’, tootin’, shootin’ Teapublicans.

So the Teapublican senators would rather allow criminals and the mentally ill easy access to guns than risk angering the NRA and gun manufacturers!

These are the very same senators who were outraged (outraged, I say!) that the ATFE allowed a few guns to slip across the border in an attempt to get at the leaders of Mexican drug cartels who were using Arizona’s lax gun laws to purchase them through straw buyers. They were outraged by that, yet they’re seemingly unconcerned that thousands of felons and criminally insane will be allowed to continue to purchase military-style guns and ammunition through gun shows, the Internet and person-to-person sales without so much as a background check!

How many more mass murders will it take for our nation to take gun safety seriously? How many more drive-by shootings? How many more innocent children and young adults will have to die?

Nearly 90 percent of Americans are in favor of expanded background checks, including a majority of NRA members. It would seem that the only Americans against such sensible measures are criminals, NRA leaders, gun manufacturers and Teapublican politicians. (And it’s increasingly difficult to tell these groups apart!)

Everyday Terrorism In The US.

To take nothing away from the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, our nation faces a far more deadly form of terrorism every single day.

At latest count, the Boston bombs cost 3 lives and 180 wounded. That’s a horrendous toll and I cry for the victims and their families. But gun violence claims 32 lives every single day! Yet there are no news specials on those victims. No 24-hour news reports. No press conferences. No grilling of terrorism experts. Most of those deaths are treated as little more than a statistic.

Since the murders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, there have been nearly 2,500 gun deaths! But there has been little effort to stop them. Indeed, the NRA and many politicians are arguing for business as usual. No bans on certain types of weapons. No bans on large capacity magazines. No expanded background checks.

The nearly 2,500 gun deaths have been overshadowed by the Boston tragedy, pushing the debate over gun safety to the back burner.

The one bill that may actually reach the floor of the US Senate for a vote is likely to be filibustered by Teapublicans despite support from nearly 90 percent of Americans. Even if it does pass, it is already so watered down as to be of little help. It would expand background checks to most gun shows, but leave a loophole so large you could drive a semi-truck full of assault weapons through it. That’s because the bill, as it currently stands, would exempt gun sales between friends and family members from background checks. And it would exempt sales at rural gun shows if there is no licensed gun dealer nearby.

So if I’m a criminal looking for a gun, I could still buy one from a “friend” on most any street corner in America. Yeah, that’ll work.

Does Wayne LaPierre’s Advice Also Apply To Bombs?

Following the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, NRA Exec. VP, Wayne LaPierre said, “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

So after the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, will Mr. LaPierre make a similar statement about bombs? Of course not! Even someone as crass and callous as LaPierre would recognize the absurdity of such a claim.

Why the difference?

The answer, of course, is money. LaPierre and his very lethal lobbying group do not represent bomb manufacturers, so there’s no profit motive. Neither do LaPierre and the NRA represent cutlery manufacturers, so you didn’t hear them call for arming everyone with knives after the recent stabbings in Texas.

Therefore, it’s fair to ask, “Since LaPierre’s gun strategy doesn’t apply to all violent attacks, why should we listen to him at all?”

At War With Ourselves.

Not to diminish the loss and sacrifice of those fighting in Afghanistan, but America’s most lethal war is internal.

All of our wars since 1776 (and there have been far too many of them) have resulted in the deaths of 1,171,177 soldiers. But since 1968, 1,384,171 civilians have lost their lives to gun violence in America! Of course, that number is growing every day. For what purpose? So some wannabe “freedom fighters” can own a lethal collection of weaponry intended for military use?

If you’re one of the paranoid, anti-social nitwits who see tyranny around every corner, I have some news for you. The government isn’t coming to take your revolver, shotgun and hunting rifle. The black-shirted UN troops aren’t coming, either. And your neighbors aren’t coming for your stash of food, guns and gold.

Only a very small percentage of Americans are murderers, muggers, robbers and thieves. And the only reason they have guns is because you and the NRA are too damn paranoid to allow the government to institute sensible gun safety rules.

Because you feel it’s your constitutional right to arm yourself to the teeth, straw buyers are able to walk into any of the nation’s more than 58,000 gun stores and buy assault rifles for drug cartels. Because of your paranoia, gangstas are able to buy an array of semi-automatics from gun shows without even passing a background check. Because you want to think of yourself as a real-life Rambo, felons and children are able to buy guns on street corners throughout America so they can shoot innocents and each other.

Truth is, If you’re so paranoid that you fear universal background checks and restrictions on some types of weaponry, you are as responsible for gun deaths in America as those who actually pull the triggers.

That must make you feel very proud.

Filibuster For Murder.

Monday, Sen. Mitch McConnell announced that he will join 14 other Teapublican senators to filibuster the gun safety bill. He apparently timed his announcement to coincide with President Obama’s Newtown speech calling for gun control.

Nothing could better demonstrate the minority leader’s disdain for the president, Democrats and the majority of Americans.

Depending on which poll you choose to believe, 73% – 90% of Americans are in favor of universal background checks. Could the will of the people be any more clear? The majority of Americans do not want to see another Newtown; another Aurora; another Tucson; another Virginia Tech; another Columbine.

But those tragedies are of no real concern to Mitch and his Teapublican followers. Apparently, the only thing that matters to them is their ideology. So they must continue to stand in the way of common sense and progress.

Not even the murders of six-year-old children and the future of public safety can change that.