Our government went to bed with corporate America during WW II and never left. Eisenhower's departure speech in '61 warned us of letting the M.I.C. take over. He was proven right. I have no idea how to get Congress's hands out of the corporate trough, and vice versa. I know that the Deplorables are being ignored, have been for decades. Our laws and founding documents have been been twisted, adjusted, denied, to the point where the FF would not recognize that which they created. Only Congress can declare war, yet the last time they did so, was Dec 8, 1941. Can someone please explain all the wars we have fought since, all over the globe, feeding our national war machine? Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Korea, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, Afghanistan, and too many African countries to name? None of these conflicts are legal, by our own Constitution, yet we fund them to the tune of billions and the blood of our sons and daughters, for decades. Money, and people, that could have been utilized to improve our Pursuit of Happiness, also in the Const., here at home. Instead, we raise money every few years for yet another monument to our Fallen, in Washington. Town squares nationwide are full of such memorials. Ridiculous and un-justified. Our national defense budget dwarfs every nation on earth, yet we send 40m of our own to bed hungry every night. Our national electrical grid dates to the 1930s, our national highway system to ther 1950s, our air traffic control system to the 1970s. Our passenger trains mostly stopped running in the 1960s. Amtrak is a East coast-focused bottomless pit into which taxpayers have zero choice but to pour in billions. They have yet to turn a profit since 1970. "Since its foundation in 1970, the company has never generated a profit. Government subsidies to the tune of $46 billion have kept the company afloat since 1970." What population allows such tax dollar waste? Well, we do. We used to have dozens of airline company choices, retail choices, medical choices. Today we are at the mercy of a tiny handful of each, who do and charge whatever they want, despite the supposed existence of some anti-trust laws. Helluva country to leave to our children and grandchildren. We don't care, either. How long has it been since 60-65% of us voted in a national election? Try 1960-1968. Nothing close, since. I'm not bitter so much as I am disappointed in how we have turned out as a nation. Our 1963 coup d'etat turned this country in an entirely different direction, one we don't seem able nor, more importantly, willing to change. But, this is just me after two cups of morning coffee.

From a national news story on-line this Nov 12, 2018, about the youngest Thousand Oaks shooting victim, age 18, come her devastated family's comments:

We believe that there is a message that's out there."

"What's the message?" Cowan asked.

"To us, it's to be kind to one another. It's to put down your technology, put down your phones and look at somebody and have a conversation. It's not about gun control; this message is about doing something bigger, to be with your community, to love one another."

"All things that you don't have to legislate?"

"Right. Exactly," said Arik.

Adam added, "To get to the point where we can have a conversation about anything political, it has to start here [points to heart]. It has to start with the soul, because we've lost that."

Arik said, "What if somebody walked up to the guy and just asked him how he was doing that day and said 'hello' to him or did something that may have just changed his mind, instead of ignoring, or whatever we're doing?"

Cowan said, "You know what people are going to say, though – skeptics are going to say it's too simple, that that sounds great about being decent and kind and reaching a hand out, but I think most people are going to say it's too complicated."

"But I think it starts there," said Tamera. "You start with imagining, 'Wait a minute, what if that was my child, or my niece, or my cousin?' It will get you in a place of just having some sort of human decency."

If there's any doubt there's a deficit of decency, look no further than the family's social media.

Adam said, "You should see some of the tweets we got after Alaina died. Oh, I got one, 'You deserve it. You worked at Fox News.' And it got liked by about 78 people."

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I think it's not about the weapon used. But we've made it too easy in America to use a gun for all the wrong purposes. Screening guidelines, rules, and regs. have proven worthless time and again. Known mentally un-balanced people still gain access to weapons one method, or another. We are, nationally, a gun culture, perhaps like no other country in the world. I am not interested in international comparative statistics today. Means nothing.

This family received hate e-mail with almost 80 people LIKING the hate messages. Think about that. Who does that?

When I was substituting in a Summerville SC high school classroom last Spring, I asked the students in each class that I had that day, to stand up and name all their classmates. This was March. No student in any class could do it. They meander the halls in a daze, on their phones, cap-wearing, pants-dragging, elbow and shoulder-bumping, not holding doors for each other, and they don't even know their classmates. I would venture a guess that this scenario could easily be repeated in schools and communities across our nation. Meanwhile, administrators focus on test results and graduation rates, as if that was all that mattered.

I sit in traffic at green lights, because the moron in front of me yapping on the phone hasn't noticed anything. I honked at a female motorist last month, twice, to keep moving at various stop points, and she flashed her middle finger at me, all the while not once putting down her phone to safely drive. She was old enough to have h.s. age children. It's where kids get their behaviors from.

There isn't an older teacher alive that won't tell you our family structure in America is seriously broken. The rudeness, the open defiance, the impulsive anger, the standard dis-respect to any authority figure, is standard. Now, how did THAT happen?

Mass shooters could have used any object to wreck havoc and death. But from a hotel room high up on a strip, it's awfully difficult to throw knives and swing axes, etc. Just spend a week bringing an arsenal of weapons up to your room, and have at it. The Newtown Sandy Hook slaughter anniversary is almost upon us, and this family above, is absolutely right. Nothing has changed. No movement from Congress or the NRA or their fans or opponents.

A massive social more change is necessary, I believe. This love affair with all things gun-related simply has to stop.

Additionally, we need to take violence out of our culture via the various media forums out there. Video games, tv programs, movies, music, it's disgusting what is available, and what sells.

Additionally, our returning soldiers need a mandatory decompression week, minimum. No work, just spend time with fellow soldiers, counselors, totally relax, and importantly, talk about their experiences with other veterans, before being released to their families and to pick up their lives.

More gun laws aren't the answer. It's not the weapon. It's all of us, locked into our technology and not simply acknowledging the presence of each other, talking to and with each other, greeting each other, knowing who our classmates are, etc.

An increasingly impersonal world, guarantees more slaughter.

Just felt like calmly ranting. Thanks.

We bought thoroughly into the concept that rich white males knew what was best for us, meanwhile sending us into endless conflicts without official declaration, killing millions, losing thousands of our own, so Fortune 500 companies could become even more powerful, along with banks. 

We bought that Columbus was a good guy, that eminent domain and manifest destiny was good. We sat back and watched our leaders take us into conflict after conflict that had absolutely nothing to do with keeping us safe and free. 

The result has been millions dead around the world, a nuclear shadow the likes of which we have no full understanding of, and a country history of genocide, invasion, disruption, discrimination, while totally straying away from the Pursuit of Happiness and other specific goals and general ideals found in our national documents.

Millions of American citizens knew the Vietnam War was wrong. We didn't listen to them, and we enlisted and we served and we died and we came home changed physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not all of us landed within Vietnam or actual combat, but we were all part of the effort.

Fast forward 50 years, and I can see clearly now. Much more clear, than ever. The national Pursuit of Happiness has been corrupted, hopefully not forever, by an increasingly and well-funded corporate world, and an allegedly defense-minded govt, that cannot rein itself in.

Congress last declared war on Dec 8, 1941. Since the end of that conflict, we have invaded/attacked Korea, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and have forces in over 70 countries. We define patriotism solely as serving one's country with military service. 

We set aside the genocidal conduct of America since at least 1900's attacks and slaughter of the Hawaiian and Philipino people, and the Native Americans the previous century. We downgrade and spin this in our nation's textbooks. We do not pause to think of the the millions of civilian casualties who have died in conflicts around the globe in actions instigated by our own govt in the names of freedom and democracy, but in truth, mostly for profit. 

Now, we have multiple calls for a Space Force, apparently to be funded from our empty treasury. We have forgotten about the plaque we put on the moon in 1969: "..we came in peace for all mankind."  Clearly that's out the window.

When we will truly become a peaceful, non-violent nation devoted to the general health and well-being of all of its residents and all of our worldy neighbors? When will we stop stirring up war around the globe? Imagine a different kind of patriotism. Imagine all living as one.

Imagine.  We live under a nuclear threat so great it's un-imaginable.

Let's try pursuing Happiness. And Peace. 

Food for thought:

Nuclear warheads out there:
Russia: 8500
USA: 7700
France: 300
China: 240
UK: 225
Pakistan: 120
India: 110
Israel: 80
N.Korea: 10 and probably less than that.

US. spends 35% of total global military spending of $1.6T: $590B in 2017; 639B this yr; $681B next year.

US: 11 aircraft carriers; 12th, named after Pres Ford, to cost over $13B. A slight cost over-run.

Hunger in America:
1 in 6 of us is hungry, or "food insecure." One. In. Six.

17.5m households, about 48.8m fellow Americans, are "food insecure" meaning they wonder where their next meal is coming from.

Over 13m children go to school hungry every day.

Some 2.5m US children, are homeless.

Our four electrical grids will cost us $5T to replace/upgrade. That's five trillions.

Now, think about our interstate roads, bridges, train tracks. Think about cleaning up our polluted waterways.

We are in our 17th year of war in Afghanistan, bodies still coming home, no end in sight. Our president wants to form a Space Army. Only wants about $20B to get started. Last time I checked our national debt was in the trillions.

Would one of you please explain all this?

Our Declaration of Independence set as a goal, for all of us, to be able to Pursue Happiness. Doesn't seem to me we are on the right track as a society, at all.

Eisenhower was right.

The last time Congress declared war was Dec 8, 1941. Look up the long list of nations we have invaded/fought against since. How I do not know. What in the hell, is going on?

Shame on all of us, for voting the way we have over these last 78 years, for not paying attention to our govt, our neighbors, our fellow citizens.

Our national system must change. All the major changes in our culture have come from the people, not the govt and its back-up, the military. Today, we have exactly the same problems we faced 50 years ago during the tumultuous 1960s: unpopular war, stagnant wages, racial divide, a populace divided, extensive poverty, poor education, lousy health care, an in-active Congress. Women got the vote in the 1920s by marching and protesting for it. Blacks got the right to be considered human beings, by marching and protesting and dying for it.

It makes no difference which political party sits on the throne. The system itself is corrupted, by the rich who have all the money, who buy off the politicians, who lobby Congress with dollars un-interrupted, who replace college professors whose courses and versions of fact they dis-agree with. The bankers and corporations who influence Congress and the courts to pass laws favorable to only them.(How many bankers went to jail in the housing crash?)

Folks can go on about either party in a never-ending debate. Until we change our govt. system, nothing will change, indeed, nothing has changed. We remain a war-based economy, feeding the arms dealers and stirring up problems around the world, still attempting to influence which people lead which countries, while ignoring those tyrants whose resources we need (the Arabs of Saudi Arabia, for one.)

We are bogged down in Afghanistan going on 17 years now with zero end in sight. The Russians were smart enough to pull out of there ages ago. We have soldiers in 70 countries around the world. Why? We have some 40m of our own living in poverty. Why? We have over 30m children on a federally assisted school lunch program. Why? Wages have stagnated for about 40 years. Why?

Our national "defense" budget is close to one trillion dollars, certainly headed that way. Who are we defending ourselves against? Every dime spent on "defense" is one not spent on our infrastructure, our health care, our electrical grid, our schools. We put a plaque on the Moon in 1969 claiming that "...we came in peace for all mankind." Now, we want billions to start up a Space Command to prepare for space war. From who? Martians?

Where's all the wealth? Why aren't American workers better off materially? Why are farmers losing their farms, the dairy industry chief among them? Someone has all the wealth. Why do basic pharmaceuticals cost so much, out of the reach of too many of us? Why do we have to choose between utility bills, and health-maintaining drugs? The gap between the haves and have-nots, which has existed since the Puritans landed at Roanoke and Jamestown, continues to widen and is un-sustainable. Our national debt is reported to be about $20 TRILLION. That's a number I cannot comprehend.

Stop fighting among ourselves, stop pointing fingers at each other, and let's figure a way out of this ourselves. Because our govt sure isn't going to help us.

Found this on Facebook this Sunday morning, Aug 19, 2018. Interesting points made. My reply is below.

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Written by Ted Nugent

Take a little trip to Valley Forge in January. Hold a musket ball in your Fingers and imagine it piercing your flesh and breaking a bone or two. There won't be a doctor or trainer to assist you until after the battle, so Just wait your turn. Take your cleats and socks off to get a real Experience.

Then, take a knee on the beach in Normandy where man after American man Stormed the beach, even as the one in front of him was shot to pieces, the Very sea stained with American blood. The only blockers most had were the
Dead bodies in front of them, riddled with bullets from enemy fire.

Take a knee in the sweat soaked jungles of Vietnam. From Khe Sanh to Saigon, anywhere will do. Americans died in all those jungles. There was no Playbook that told them what was next, but they knew what flag they Represented. When they came home, they were protested as well, and spit on For reasons only cowards know.

Take another knee in the blood drenched sands of Fallujah in 110 degree Heat. Wear your Kevlar helmet and battle dress. Your number won't be Printed on it unless your number is up! You'll need to stay hydrated but There won't be anyone to squirt Gatorade into your mouth. You're on your Own.

There are a lot of places to take a knee where Americans have given their Lives all over the world. When you use the banner under which they fought As a source for your displeasure, you dishonor the memories of those who
Bled for the very freedoms you have. That's what the red stripes mean. It Represents the blood of those who spilled a sea of it defending your Liberty.

While you're on your knee, pray for those that came before you, not on a Manicured lawn striped and printed with numbers to announce every inch of Ground taken, but on nameless hills and bloodied beaches and sweltering
Forests and bitter cold mountains, every inch marked by an American life Lost serving that flag you protest.

No cheerleaders, no announcers, no coaches, no fans, just American men and Women, delivering the real fight against those who chose to harm us, Blazing a path so you would have the right to "take a knee." You haven't Any inkling of what it took to get you where you are, but your "protest" is
Duly noted. Not only is it disgraceful to a nation of real heroes, it Serves the purpose of pointing to your ingratitude for those who chose to Defend you under that banner that will still wave long after your jersey is Retired.

If you really feel the need to take a knee, come with me to church on Sunday and we'll both kneel before Almighty God. We'll thank Him for Preserving this country for as long as He has. We'll beg forgiveness for our Ingratitude for all He has provided us. We'll appeal to Him for Understanding and wisdom. We'll pray for liberty and justice for all,
Because He is the one who provides those things. But there will be no Protest. There will only be gratitude for His provision and a plea for His Continued grace and mercy on the land of the free and the home of the Brave.
It goes like this, GOD BLESS AMERICA.

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Mr. Nugent makes some valid points. But, America is more than soldiers sent to die in foreign lands for corporate profits. Because that is what has been on-going since the end of WW. II.
Congress last declared war on Dec 8, 1941. Since then, we have invaded: Korea, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, not a single country of which ever did anything to us. We invaded some of those countries because their leaders no longer served our broad interests: think Noriega, Hussein, Bin Laden, and others. We currently have troops stationed on the six inhabitable continents. Why/ What African country ever has bothered us? Where's the threat? Better yet, where 's the media, besides being a complacent tool of power, afraid to speak out.
Our WH leader wants to militarize space, and he's not the first. We left a plaque in 1969 that says that we came in peace for all mankind. It would be nice if we lived up to that, remembered that, educated our students about that. I strongly believe that what mostly black NFL players and others are protesting, rightfully, is the treatment of Americans here at home. They are aware of the Tuskeegee (sp) Airman of WW II, of the valiant service of black soldiers and sailors during WW II, reduced to servant positions and segregated units. Their relatives returned to the country they defended only to be told to get off the sidewalk when a white person walked past, to never look a white person in the eye, to drink from segrgated fountains, to stay out of the city pool, to eat in the back of the restaurant by entering through a separate door, and to go home by sitting in the back of the bus. They protest over the failure of their govt, our govt, to protect their basic human rights during the Civil Rights protests of the 50s and 60s, when our govt sent no troops while blacks were beaten, hosed, dog-savaged, bombed, threatened, in direct violation of our 14th Amendment. 
They kneel and protest against the failure of half a dozen Congress-passed Civil Rights Bills since the 1870s, none of which were put into full effect. They kneel and raise fists in defiance of a system that to this day in 2018, keeps them from enjoying their pursuit of Happiness like the rest of us. They pay higher loan interest rates, get turned down for more mortgages, are told some areas of town aren't for them, have no nationally known banks and grocery stories and retail and industry that comes to their neighborhoods, get the tail end of city services, live on the last streets to be cleared after snow storms and Mother Nature's wrath.
They are tired of gentrification, of having interstate hwys built through their neighborhoods, being told over and over and over again, no, and, wait. Their schools are worst-funded, in worst shape, and no hope is in sight, since property-tax system remains in place, and how much tax can one raise from impoverished people and their property? Mr. Nugent is entitled to his white-bread opinion, but he left out the actual history of our country and our govt, always white-dominated, always corporate-driven. We have so much to change in America. We should start by stop re-electing the same people to office. America exists for all. Well, it's supposed to.

Manage

My reply to Mr George Will's Aug 12 column on Wanting Peace by Preparing for War:

Imagine, instead, if the Big Three had not made plans to rule the post-WW II world, but instead supported the concept of ALL European and Asian nations being part of such plans.

Imagine Eisenhower's administration NOT ignoring the post-Russia death of Stalin period, during which time Kruschev and company were not interested in a Cold War. The Cold War existed for the precise purpose of helping the military-industrial-political complex take power in America, Constitution be damned. And that is exactly what has happened.

There is a large alphabet of govt. agencies, some we know about, some we doubt, that exist to keep Americans in their place, and keep up the facade that the Pursuit of Happiness is alive and well, that individual freedoms for ALL people should exist. They in fact exist to insure govt and corporate control of all facets of our lives. Ever ask yourself why your life hasn't improved, while at the same time corporate CEOs rake in millions in salaries, stock, and golden parachutes, all the while fixing nothing, changing nothing, hiding their profits off-shore, refusing to invest in USA infrastructure, hiding behind armies of tax and other lawyers?

Mr. Will picked a certain point in his perception of history and pontificated from there. It didn't have to be this way, and it shouldn't be this way. Genocide, poverty, hungry children, racial strife, disasters, crumbling infrastructure, horrible economy, lack of hope, and that's just in what used to be America.

Only Congress can declare war. They last did so on Dec 8, 1941. Since then, we've invaded:
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Grenada, Panama, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan. We went after foreign leaders we didn't like in Latin America and Middle Europe, many of whom we removed from office after having funded them until they were no longer needed by us. Not so much as a peep out of Congress, who funded all of this anyway. We filled up our national and local cemeteries with our youth under mis-guided patriotism.

Mr. Will's commentary is one-sided and absent severe facts. But, this is what newspapers are supposed to do, help citizens think critically about those they put, and keep, in power.