One Man Can Make a Difference

Let's hope the lessons from Nelson Mandela's life and message of peaceful resistance and reconciliation gain new life with his death. Even more than that, it seems that we first need to understand and identify, as Mandela did, the very intentional war of poverty by the "haves" against the "have not's." We citizens have to take an active role in our future and not simply leave it up to the power mongering red tapers that are our elected officials.

Boycott Walmart

The assault on American family values and traditions is most recently evidenced by Walmart's decision to open at a time when most families are sitting down for turkey dinner together on Thanksgiving. Think about it. The richest corporation in the world stands only to rake in more billions if it can undermine United State's citizens best weapon against oppressive and manipulative Big Money -- the family.

The Conspiracy To Muddle JFK Theories

The fact that time has only served to further muddle the facts surrounding the murder of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago, only bolsters the case for a conspiracy and cover up. And the latest conspiracy is to mash all theories, credible and non, together into one undecipherable mess. Often, it works the other way around. Time has a way of clarifying the truth. When the movie JFK came out 20 years ago, commemorating the 30th year anniversary of the president's assassination, we seemed on the verge of piecing it together. Remarkably, during this 50th anniversary everyone seems more concerned with the burning question: "Where were you when the president was shot?" than "Who killed JFK?" Several keys Dallas figures, including the city's mayor, have dropped the ball and let the American people down. They've lumped all theories together as the rants of nut jobs. Perhaps, it's not surprising for these increasingly secretive times we live in, that the truth about JFK's murder still eludes us. But there should be absolutely no doubt in any rational thinking citizen's mind that Kennedy's killing wasn't the work of just one man, Lee Harvey Oswald -- a mediocre rifleman at best. The laundry list of murdered witnesses, the pile of destroyed and ignored evidence and the absurd official storylines -- such as the single bullet theory -- continue to cry out for attention. There's no question. The cover up of the conspiracy to kill the President is alive and well.

A $24 Billion Tea Party

So a bunch of self engroseed, politically opportuntistic alleged representatives of the people threw themselves a grand tea party with a $24 billion tab and they expect us to believe they were doing it all for us.

Zoe and Animal Farm

Guest Column ‘Animal Farm’ on Capitol Hill Wednesday, October 16, 2013 By KEVIN MCKINNEY Zoe is back at the bungalow. She’s at that cute age, nearly three, inquiring about anything and everything she comes across. I’m sort of her uncle; I look after her now and then when her mom Mary must go away. Just a little tyke with big brown eyes – and wavy black and white fur. Of course, she has that natural adventuresome energy and curiosity that most Jack Russell Terriers possess. “What’s out there Zoe?” I ask her the first fall night back at the bungalow in the boatyard, where an assortment of wild creatures – raccoons, possums, skunks and most plentiful of all, mice – have been known to roam. “Arrr, rrrr, rrr,” cries Zoe, as she nervously paces between the back screen door and the couch where I’m sitting. “Are there mice out there, Zoe?” “Hmmm, mmm, mmm,” whines Zoe, as if to say: “Yes, possibly, quite possibly!” “How about a raccoon, Zoe? Is there a raccoon out there?” “Ruff!” she barks with absolute certainty. Smart dog, I happen to know there’s a raccoon or two living in my neighbor’s chimney on the other side of my backyard fence. Now Zoe is nervously prancing about the bungalow. She takes turns ducking into the bedroom and then back to the back door, into the office and back to the door, then back to me to plead for mercy, “Let me out will ya? This is torture!” From the way Zoe is carrying on, I imagine all the creatures of the boatyard are out there tonight, preparing for the inevitable winter, gathering together in my garage workshop they have been known to frequent. It’s like a scene out of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” The raccoons, taking up the role of leaders which the pigs held in Farm, are sitting on their haunches atop my workbench, addressing the other creatures. A family of squirrels comes bounding in, bumping into each other, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. The possums and skunks, dull fearful critters that they are, sit obediently before the raccoons. A cluster of mice huddle together on the floor in the corner. The shifty tomcat, its tail slowly waving in the air and pacing back and forth, hasn’t made up its mind whether it will stay or not. The raccoons are the cleverest of the critters; their deceptively cute black masked faces belie something sinister though. (Sort of like a House Republican’s smile.) Of course, the raccoons agree among themselves that they should occupy the workshop loft this winter, where they can closely monitor the food supply, keep an eye on things and even nestle in the attic fiberglass insulation if it gets too cold. This is just good common business sense the raccoons assure the rest of the creatures. Ala Farm’s pigs, the raccoons will need plenty of food and rest so they can make smart decisions for all the animals; meantime, the rest of the animals will have to work harder for little reward. And I can’t help think of the House Tea Party Republicans. What Orwell warned us against in “Animal Farm,” his prophetic 1945 fable on the abuses of power, is unfolding right before our eyes. This government shutdown is just the latest, but most revealing, tell of where the Tea Party’s priorities lie. Like the pigs, the so called “patriots” may claim publicly “all animals are created equal,” but in reality they clearly are convinced that some are “more equal than others.” They’re so concerned about their political ideologies, their power and positioning for the next election, that they think nothing of risking another economic catastrophe. These guys’ toying with the country’s future is borne out of the same criminal recklessness that caused 2008’s Great Recession. They are willing to hurt millions of Americans in order to preserve the privileges of a powerful select few. In the same way Farm’s pigs convinced the rest of the animals that the prized milk and apples should be set aside for the pigs’ consumption alone, the Tea Partyers insist they need more riches, fewer financial industry regulations – essentially, the freedom to do whatever they please. So, while I can’t help think of these things, I’m glad Zoe is around. She helps take my mind off such fiendishness. And she reminds me, too, that I can do something about it. Zoe is more than ready to go out there into dark night. I’m game too. “Let’s go Zoe,” I say. Time to break up that meeting in the workshop. I pay rent. This is my home. The bloody raccoons – like the bloated pigs – have been calling the shots long enough. (Kevin McKinney is a freelance writer living in Cape May. He writes commentaries and features for a variety of publications. He can be reached at mckinneyfreelance@live.com) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kick The Can

So, we're playing kick the can, down the road. The budget fight will only get more intense as we near the next looming deadline a few months from now. But better a delay than a default. No question the Tea Party has done itself damage. The question remains: How much? These guys won't go away. They figure they have nothing to lose. With big money backers like the Koch Brothers behind them, they'll only throw more dollars at their cause, to twist, misinform and fight harder. Even if it means reinventing themselves under a new brand of tea with a new name. Right wing schemers in the tradition of Karl Rove are no doubt thinking of such things right now.

Less Than Two days to go ...

The House doesn't have a choice. It best act or suffer the consequences at the ballot box.

GOP Is Digging Its Own Grave

Ah justice. It's happening. The Republicans' approval rating is sinking to record lows. http://"Republican Party Favorability Sinks to Record Low," Gallup, October 9, 2013 http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=294257&id=76172-23855260-E0osd7x&t=2

Orwell's Tea Party Pigs

PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS
OPINION, OCTOBER 9, 2013

For House 'pigs,' all's well that ends Orwell 

 By KEVIN MCKINNEY

 THEY ARE the worst kind of bad guys. Worse than knife-wielding street thugs or gun-toting gangsters.

 They dress up in their dandy monkey suits and assume a self-aggrandizing arrogance, as if they were mythical heroes, fighting for justice.

 They make phony, empty speeches, posing for the public, pretending that they give a rat's tail about us, the people.

 But really, they are the pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm - standing upright on two legs, dressed like humans and sipping tea with the enemy.

 Whether or not they ever possessed a righteous bone in their body, the truth is plain: House tea party Republicans, consumed by fear and corrupted by power, answer only to an influential select few. That's why they so easily can shut down a government, leaving some 800,000 federal workers without pay, risk crippling our economy further and give America's faltering reputation as the world's leading democracy another black eye.

 If the unprecedentedly obstructionist and politically opportunistic tea partyers are so sure that ObamaCare is a disaster, why not sign off on it and virtually guarantee a grand tea party in the White House come 2016?

 Wouldn't a meltdown of the Affordable Care Act effectively trash Democrats' and the president's credibility, bolstering Republicans' chances in the next congressional and presidential elections?

 Sure, like Animal Farm's pigs, tea partyers like to proclaim that "all (Americans) are equal." But the House hogs, a la Farm's pigs, time and time again since 2010 have demonstrated their true sentiments: Some citizens are "more equal than others."

 Of course, that "equality" is gauged by the size of a person's bank account, on- or offshore.

 The disparity between this country's rich and poor has never been greater.

 An estimated 13 percent of our children are living in poverty today. Millions go to bed hungry each night. And what's Republicans' sole obsession?

To reel in the Wall Street recklessness or reinforce lax financial regulation - the key failures that led to the Great Recession of 2008?

 Nah. No, Republicans, tea partyers in particular, are chomping at the bit to cut $40 billion from the food-stamp program over the next decade.

 Do social-welfare assistance programs need belt-tightening to weed out abusers? Certainly.

 But maybe we should make it a priority to close the loopholes that directly caused the economic crisis five years ago before we risk literally stealing more food from the mouths of babes.

 This talk of ObamaCare as a job killer is nonsense. Small businesses are hiring steadily. Under the new health-care plan, only 3 percent of small businesses (with 50 employees or more) are mandated to insure their workers. And some 96 percent of those businesses already provide health care.

 The alarmist, Republican-propagated remarks about ObamaCare's impact on Medicare and Medicaid have been refuted by analysts. Those programs will only be improved and expanded under the act.

 Emboldened by the suspect redistricting in the South that nearly guarantees that numerous Republicans will get re-elected in 2014, the tea partyers on Capitol Hill open their mouths only to oppose, disparage and destroy.

 Where are the conservatives' fixes or alternatives to the much maligned ObamaCare? Actually, considering the landslide of lies that the tea party has propagated about ObamaCare, it's impressive that a polled citizenry still slightly favors the new health-care law.

 So, it only stands to reason that the tea-party-controlled House, in reality, is terrified that ObamaCare - which surely won't be without its share of red-tape glitches, initially - will actually end up as one of this country's greatest achievements for the people.

 The only card that the House has left to play is to block a budget debt-ceiling plan. Then amid any resulting chaos, they can childishly point a finger at the president and insist: "He did it!"

 And they are betting, just like the pigs in Orwell's Farm, that the masses will be effectively brainwashed by such garbage.

We should take a lesson from the old, hardworking cart horse named Boxer in Animal Farm. He wasn't easily swayed by the pigs' empty assurances and twisting of the animals' democratic commandments - to benefit the pigs only.

Boxer asked questions; he sought the truth. Orwell indeed was a prophet. But what good has it done us?

Now, amid this partial government shutdown, heading for worse times, will the people finally see the House tea partyers for the pigs that they truly are? _________________
 Kevin McKinney is a freelance writer living at the Jersey Shore.

 http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20131009_For_House__pigs___all_s_well_that_ends_Orwell.html#fdA1stGyDtT1I4f5.03>

Walmart Rolls Us Towards a "Rollerball" Future

Those great deals you find at Walmart ultimately are costing Americans way too much. With Walmart leading the way, we are fast approaching the futuristic scenario depicted in the movie "Rollerball," where corporations keep the people in their pocket; Big money, in the movie, runs the country and controls the people -- even to the point of instituting its own corporate anthem before each rollerball contest. I wonder what Walmart's anthem will sound like? No doubt some synthesized garbage cheaply produced like the cheap plastic junk they bribe the American people with in their "super" stores. Sure, Walmart recently stepped up with some concessions for their employees, but only after mounting public pressure -- and of course to ensure they have a ready and willing workforce this fast approaching holiday season. To be sure, Walmart's great deals that attract Americans like the religious masses to Mecca, ultimately have cost us dearly. The conglomerate has bought us out, paid us off with $4 prescription fills and wholesale prices on eggs and the like so that we keep our mouths shut. In the meantime, the chain store giant has short changed the American work force in hours, overtime pay, and benefits. They've monopolized and undermined our sense of community. It's powerful conglomerates like Walmart, that the House Tea Party is really fighting for by opposing ObamaCare. Not small businesses. Not the people. Anything to save the big boys a buck, while people struggle on.

This GOP Gamble Looks To Go Bust

In the same way the reckless Wall Streeters and banking industry profiteers rolled the dice with the livlihoods of multiple millions of Americans before the Great Recession, Republicans, complicit in that meltdown, are betting big again. House Republicans, led by the Tea Party, have rolled the dice again, allowing the government shutdown in hopes, of course, that the President and Democrats will get the blame. But this time,the stakes may be too high and the people are watching.

Tea Party is The Enemy

At least with your typical kidnapper or bank robber you know where you stand. These House Tea Party Republicans disguise themselves as the good guys. They pretend they give a dam about us. They claim they are acting on our behalf. But they are in essence, the Tea Party Pigs of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Shutdown

If the obstructionist, politically motivated House Republicans are so convinced that Obamacare is a disaster, why not sign off on it and virtually garauntee a 2016 presidency?

"Absolutely Not" should be the Syrian vote

”Absolutely not,” should be the resounding cry throughout the land from the people to their representatives in response to President Barack Obama’s quest for a military strike in Syria. Weariness over the costly and bloody Iraq and Afghanistan wars should be just one of many reasons for members of Congress not to authorize a strike on Syria. Of course, front and foremost is the diplomatic option, proposed by Russia, to have international monitors take control of Syria’s chemical weapons. So far, President Basher al-Assad has agreed to the plan. But even if that weren’t to materialize – hopefully it will – an air attack on Syria is the wrong move. Never mind the powder keg a Syrian strike could turn out to be – with Syria, Iran and Russia on one side and Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States on the other. What sense does it make to bomb Syria and risk killing or maiming more children and families? One of President Obama’s arguments for an attack on Syria cited a significant number of children killed in a chemical attack outside Damascus towards the end of August. Remember, the first 50 strikes against “high value targets” in the Iraq War all missed their intended targets, resulting in scores of civilian deaths and injuries, according to published reports. And how dependable is the intelligence? We know elements of Al Qeada are sometimes fighting alongside the Syrian opposition forces. And we know the CIA has been aiding rebel fighters there. But to what extent has the CIA become involved and to what extent would a military strike simply be serving the military industrial complex?

Tough Love?

How Free Are We?

Call Out The Cowards

No single recent cowardly act from our cephlapodic congressmen so glaringly demonstrates the corrupting influence of big money than the senate's failure this week to pass Universal Background checks for gun purchases.

According to polls, 92 percent of Americans were in favor of the no brainer background check bill that would have screened out bad guys, you know, murderers and rapists, from purchasing say five guns at a time at a gun show.

 Sounds like a pretty good idea, no? 

 But you'd never know there was such overwhelming citizen support for the measure by the senate's failure to garner the 60 votes to pass the bill. Does anyone actually still need proof of the National Rifle Association lobby's criminal reach in Washington?

 What these spineless, obstructionist "no" vote congressmen are in effect saying is that they aren't interested in making our streets safer. They are saying that gun sales take precedent over our children's lives. 

 And they are daring you to do something about it. Will you?   

Background Checks No Brainer

 It should be a no brainer. But, yeah, we're talking about Capital Hill here.

 We need to do everything in our power, within reason, to keep troubled individuals from getting guns. Period. That's what universal background checks for all gun purchases will do.

 No, the background checks won't stop the illegal street trade. And no, the checks can't guarantee an Uzi won't fall into the wrong hands. But if we can diminish the number of such instances, with required background checks at gun stores and gun shows, why wouldn't we?

 The "no guarantees" argument of course has been one of the more pathetic challenges from opponents to mandatory background checks. We should have been there and done that by now.

 Here we are four months after the Newton tragedy and the corrupt, greedy National Rifle Association lobby's influence still threatens to shoot down the background checks.

 The NRA's stubborn resistance to this most basic of gun violence control measures is arguably criminal, as it only helps fan the flames of paranoia in this country.

 To what extent has the NRA stonewalling -- hence, high profile media coverage -- contributed to the recent increase in gun violence reports since Newton?

 Let's do what we can. Even though the majority of Americans, some 92%, support the measure, the NRA gun lobby remains powerful and there's no telling what tricks it has concealed.

 The senate debates and votes on the Universal Background Checks bill in the next few days. Let's urge the Senate to pass Universal Background Checks for All Gun Purchases by signing the petition below.
 As the Iraq war veteran who started the petition points out, all U.S. armed service members are subject to background checks before being issued a gun. So why shouldn't the same be required of this country's civilians?

http://signon.org/sign/tell-the-senate-pass?source=s.em.cp&r_by=5564729

Pigs are in the House

It’s unprecedented dark muddled, stagnated trying times like these -- with the sequester cuts looming -- that George Orwell’s prophetic poetic genius shines through so brilliantly. And sadly so.

 Will we yet benefit from the simplistic, but revelatory warnings of Orwell’s Animal Farm?

 Orwell’s classic metaphorical cautionary tale on the abuses of power has remained timeless in its relevance since its 1945 release, which interestingly coincided with the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 But, perhaps now more than at any other time in United States’ history, Animal Farm (and his 1984) speak loud and clear.

 In a contemporary setting, Animal Farm’s ruling pigs of course are the House Republicans. Like the pigs, House Republicans are good at feigning concern for all Americans – proclaiming  “all (humans) are created equal.”

  Privately, the hoggish House Republicans believe that some are “more equal than others.” And they gauge that equality by the size of a citizens bank account – on or offshore. No matter.

 In the same way that Farm’s pigs gradually became corrupted by ideals of the enemy humans – to the point of standing on two legs and wearing clothes – elected House Republicans have snubbed their duty to the people – and instead pledged their unflinching allegiance to Big Money’s corrupt, powerful select few.

 It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The pigs, cows, goats, ducks, hens and horses were all in this thing together. They had successfully rebelled against the cruel oppressive Mr. Jones, who had worked them like slaves and stole their young. A set of promising of democratic commandments were even drawn up.

 But soon the pigs, which had assumed power, started to twist the truth and shape the rules to benefit them alone. To borrow from Bruce Springsteen’s timely Grammy-nominated tune, the pigs stubbornly insist: “We take care of our own.”

 Take the passage of Animal Farm, where Squealer – the reigning pigs’ apologist mouthpiece in the present day tradition of say, a Rush Limbaugh – is trying to convince the rest of the animals that the pigs solely deserved the farm’s coveted milk and apples to eat.

“Comrades!” he cried. “You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health.

 “Milk and apples (this has been proved by science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.”

 Rings a bell, no?

 In the same way the increasingly snobbish pigs desperately defended their milk and apples privilege, the House Republicans strived to persuade the masses that tax breaks for the rich were crucial for the welfare of the struggling middle class and poor.

 They pretend to give a dam about small businesses as long as it conveniently facilitates their scheme to avoid those tax hikes for themselves and their wealthy fat cat pals.

 Through the course of it all, like Animal Farm’s pigs, the only genuine effort the Conservative House leaders actually make is to obstruct any progress that might ease the burden on their underlings, the people, during these desperate times.

 In the meantime, the hardest workers, the same middle class and poor, will just have to work harder to merely survive. Just like the cart-horse Boxer in Orwell’s Farm. As was the case in Animal Farm, it's time for a rebellion. 

Gun Control Talk Missing The Truth

 It should be real simple.

 You'd think that the incomprehensible murder of 20 first graders in the Newton, Conn. shooting shortly before Christmas would do it.

 You'd figure that we adults -- gun lovers, gun haters and everyone in between -- would get serious about protecting the lives of our children.

 But, apparently the National Rifle Association loves its guns too much. Why the NRA, as a minimal first step, is opposed to President Barack Obama's no brainer background checks for all gun buyers is mystifying and troubling.

 It can only be explained by greed. It places gun sales ahead of child safety.
Of course, such cold indifference, such greed, is borne out of fear. Fear of not having enough. Fear of missing out.

 The Second Amendment argument, touting the "right to bear arms," amounts to a red herring on the background checks issue. We need to do all we can to keep guns out of the hands of murderers and terrorists. NRA members favor the checks; not the NRA itself though. Anything to make a buck.

 So greed and fear rule. The truth takes a backseat. And justice suffers. That's the name of the game anymore in Washington. A similiar thing was happening just over two years ago when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot.

  Angry fear-based vitriol was the rule of the day. Forget about civility and the truth. Here's something I wrote then. We still need to shut up -- and listen.
 http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/jan/23/cilivility-listen-rhetoric/

Oh, Target Pratice ... For What?

Gun lovers all answer the inevitable question the same way.

So, if they don't use their weapons for hunting, asks the interviewer, what do they use their semi-automatic assault rifles for anyway?

Target practice, they respond. Then the interviewer predictably responds: "Oh, okay," and obligingly moves on, refusing to pursue the matter any further -- as if doing so would risk making him or her the next target for practice.

But really, how is that answer supposed to appease the non-gun loving masses? Target practice? Target practice -- for what?

Apparently, a small percent of semi-automatic owners are using their weapons for hunting. But the "target practice" answer doesn't cut it. And no one seems to be pressing the issue.

 If it's just a matter of experiencing the thrill of hitting a target bullz-eye, why aren't they using BB guns or or darts, for that matter? Why the flesh ripping live ammunition?