Rick Raw: Decline of American Optimism

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Today, the mood of the Zeitgeist is somber and defeatist. Of course, the general malaise caused by the aftermath of the economic apocalypse of 2008, which has dragged on into 2010, is justifiable. Consequently, American optimism has been dealt an almost fatal blow by the slow recovery and failure of the Obama administration to solve the post-economic disaster problems.

Granted, the Republican sabotage of Obama’s agenda is mostly to blame. The GOP’s unyielding determination not to compromise on important issues has led to an impasse on the Hill.

Nonetheless, the indomitable American spirit has been seriously wounded by a broken political system, corrupted by special interests and bipartisan war on the Hill. Political agendas are narrow and unyielding on both sides of the aisle.

More significantly, the complex 19,000 pages of the IRS tax code is inefficient and a burdan on the once thriving middle class. This tome is so complicated, only specially trained tax lawyers understand its totality. Loopholes that allow favors to special interests abound on every page.

In an essay in "Time," Freed Zakaria states. "The tax code represents the deep, institutionalized corruption at the heart of the American political process, in which it is now considered routine to buy a member of Congress’ support for a particular narrow provision that will be advantageous for your business."

The big American global conglomerates like Coke are thriving. However, these mega-corporations’ global success has come at the expense of the American middle class, which has taken a fatal hit after the economic collapse.

This brave new world economy has changed the dynamics of the American working class. Today, manufacturing is high-tech. Workers have to be retrained to operate the complex computer operated machines that make everything imaginable. There are competitive apprenticeship programs in which the applicants have to show a basic knowledge of computers, math, and design. Some of these programs require college graduates.

In contrast, the wages for American workers have steadily declined, even in unionized jobs. Unions have had to make compromises to prevent large scale layoffs by accepting reduced benefits and wages–a bitter pill to swallow. That’s because of globalization has established lower wages in foreign countries like India.

Today corporate executives echo the mantra, "do more with less,." which means fewer workers are working harder for less pay. Gone are the days when assembly line workers at Ford enjoyed a middle class life with a nice house and car. Those jobs have disappeared–taken over by robots.

Today, the world has gone through a technical revolution as robotics have advanced and manufacturing has been computerized. Workers who lost heir jobs during the economic collapse of 2008, will never get those same jobs back again. They will have to face reality, and retrain or start their own businesses.

Some companies have offered free retraining to get these workers back on their feet. But what do the bread winners live on in the meantime when they’ve run out of unemployment benefits and gone through their savings?

The economic collapse forced American workers into the vortex of vast a paradigm shift from middle class to a struggling lower class existence. For some of the older workers, adjusting to this drastic changing situation may be impossible. They won’t have the resources to retrain or move to where the new jobs are located.

Freed Zakaria says in his "Time" piece, "There are reasons for optimism. The U.S. faces huge challenges, but it also has enormous advantages, It is still the largest, richest market in the world."

Yes, I believe we’ll get through this dark time but people will have to lower their expectations about jobs and wages. It’s a time for people to get creative and think outside the box. Invent something or start your own business are optimistic priorities.

Rick Raw: IRS Parasite Crawled Up My Ass and Twisted My Mind

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

The dreaded IRS parasite has invaded my brain like a pork worm. The Evil Empire once again had to remind me that they have me locked in their chains to the tune of 10,000, dating back to 2004 through 2007.

Yes, the American Gestapo likes to do things in a grand way. So they sent me 8 letters to let me know that my debt is growing exponentially in interest and penalties. An individual letter was mailed to my wife and me–both duplicates of each year and each separate amount. Of course, the IRS shylocks know that this will royally piss me off.

Those Visigoth barbarians think nothing of wasting paper and printing charges by sending out reams of paper, when one sheet with the total amount would have sufficed. The bureaucratic nitwits love to waste paper.

The government printing operation has numerous buildings in Washington D.C., cranking out mountains of paper to document the Recovery Act, the Budget, The Tax Code, which is over 2,000 pages, and all other printed gibberish that rolls off their presses.. It’s the biggest printing operation in the country, costing millions of dollars.

We all watched the televised hearings in 1997 featuring a parade of citizens who had been the victims of IRS abuses. With great fanfare, legislation was introduced and passed "reforming" the agency.

The orchestrated media blitz painted the IRS as a kinder gentler fire breathing dragon. The spectacle came off like "Reefer Madness," the now famous low budget cult film showing the evils of pot, showcasing Grade B actors.

The whole IRS campaign to convince the public that the IRS was our friend was a smoke screen to draw attention away from the corporate-banking lobby being in cahoots with government conglomerates. It’s a system of slavery and oppression, as well as the fraudulent tax system that supports it.

After receiving the tsunami of paper from the IRS, I called them to find out my status. The lady said that my status was "uncollectible" because my income has gone down to almost zero. However, my interest and penalties still go up daily.

The Beast’s ace in the hole is: Last year a female IRS agent filed a lien on my property, even though I don’t own any property. That was a spear through my heart because the lien effectively ruined my credit and any chance of getting back on my feet financially. The lien is a ball and chain.

Every day I curse that shedevil, and pray that bedbugs crawl up her skirt and suck blood from her private parts. (The IRS offices were infested with bedbugs.)

The truth is: The now fractured middle class has always suffered the burden of paying the IRS quotas. Corporations hire teams of tax lawyers that find loopholes in the tax code. Consequently, most big fortune 500 companies pay no income tax.

Hidden in the 1997 reform bill were provisions giving the IRS more power to collect debts from the beleaguered middle class now crumbling under the massive foreclosures. Now, there are millions of people like me who are deemed "uncollectible" and tied up with the dreaded lien, while their IRS debt increases daily.

Thus, the IRS has me and millions of other former middle class folks locked in a debtor’s prison with no way to pay them back. We all loathe the bloated agency that hires female collectors who are officious and rude.

Many connected movers and shakers have tried to introduce a flat tax bill to Congress. It’s a simple and fair system that would take only a fraction of the present IRS’ personnel to run. But, the IRS has a powerful lobby on the hill and the flat tax idea dies in committee every time. The thousands of unnecessary IRS bitches would lose their jobs. Now we wouldn’t want that? Hell yes.

It’s time to dismantle Jabba the Hutt IRS worm. It’s archaic and overly complex. Meanwhile, the IRS Gestapo has us lined up against the wall ready to give the order to fire. Kill the Beast is my mantra.

Rick Raw: Homophobia 2010–Still Rampant

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Here we are in 2010, many years after gays living with society-wide oppression came out in the 1960s as fierce advocates for their own cause. Indeed, they have made much progress in acceptance by factions of the population.

But incredibly, in the mainstream population of the United States, there is still deeply ingrained homophobia, that has lately caused 4 suicides in 19 days of young gay boys, and a brutal gang rape and torture of 3 gay men by a gang of thugs in NYC. Justifiably, 8 men are charged with a litany of felonies and committing a hate crime, which makes the case Federal.

Ellen Degeneres was so upset by the latest gay bashing and bullying incidents she made a special PSA pleading with young gays to seek help and guidance from many organizations devoted to helping them. She said that these organizations will help them without telling their parents, if that is what they want.

She even invited them, if all else fails, to call her, and she will help each individual. Of course, Degeneres knows first hand how difficult it was growing up gay. It took her a long time to come out on her series "Ellen."

Jodie Foster led a secret life for many years until it was obvious to everyone that she was a lesbian. But she never came out willingly. She was outed when the tabloids were tipped off to her breakup with her long time significant other. It would have never mattered. Her monster talent supercedes her being gay by many times.

The school kids that committed suicide were taunted by classmates and their lives were a living hell. The schools involved did nothing to stop the bullying and harassment. Many of these kids were too afraid to tell their parents. They felt they had nowhere to turn to stop the emotional pain.

William Lucas, 15 was a freshman at Greensburgh High. He hanged himself in the Family’s barn. Someone commented on his Facebook page that "everyone at school made fun of him and he couldn’t’ take it anymore." Where was the help and support that he needed? No one came to his rescue.

Tyler Clementi, 18, was a freshman at Rutgers. His roommate suspected he was gay and started spying on him with a hidden video camera, eventually posting a video on the Internet of Tyler having sex with another man. Tyler couldn’t take the humiliation and jumped off a bridge. Another promising life gone because of homophobia.

Asher Brown was just 13 when he used his stepfather’s gun to shoot himself in the head. His parents said he had been relentlessly bullied by his schoolmates because they assumed he was gay because he was effeminate and his parents were poor and he couldn’t afford trendy clothes.

The case in NYC was one of the worst hate crimes against gays that the police had ever seen in the city. A loose-knit gang of thugs went berserk after learning that a 17-year old recruit was gay. The thugs stripped him, and beat him senseless, then sodomized him with a wooden plunger handle and a kid’s baseball bat. The torture went on for hours.

Then the gang members in a crazed frenzy of depravity grabbed a second gay teen and tortured him. The 3rd attack involved a 30-year old man who was lured to the apartment, sodomized and tortured.

Given that these thugs have less than 6th grade education and are as dumb as a box of rocks, the level of violence was shocking to the police and Mayor Bloomberg, who said, "I was sickened by the brutal nature of these crimes and saddened by the anti-gay bias that contributed to them. Hate crimes such as these strike fear into all of us."

The defeat of the appeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" by homophobic Republican lawmakers like John McCain, was a setback for gays in the military. It seems that when gays take 2 steps forward, bigoted factions of our society force them to take three steps back.

It’s 2010. By now our society should have come to terms with homosexuality as not being a lifestyle choice, but a genetic imperative. In other words, gays are attracted to members of the same sex just as strongly as heterosexual people are attracted to members of the opposite sex.

These latest incidents of gay bashing and bullying can not be tolerated in our country. It has to be stopped!

Rick Raw: Bob Woodward’s New Book, "Obama’s Wars" Uncovers Revelations

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcasdt.net

While Obama’s Surge of 30,000 troops were hitting the ground in Afghanistan, President Obama was worried about the political fallout of his actions. This is just one of the revelations uncovered by Bob Woodward’s new book, "Obama’s Wars."

Gen. David Petraeus had told Obama that without a surge of 40,000 to 60,000 troops the war would be lost to the Taliban. This was a quasi-mutiny that cut off other options. Gen. Petraeus decided to take a tough stand against the waffling president.

Furthermore, Gen. Petraeus insisted that without additional troops, the Obama administration would be waving the white flag of surrender. In other words, Petraeus was psychologically circumventing the chain of command in his declaration–holding Obama’s face to the fire–saying in his mind, "Do it bitch, or we’ll lose."

Obama’s agonizing five-month delaying tactic, claiming to be reviewing the war strategy, was highlighted by his lack of options. When he announced the surge, he proclaimed the end of the Afghanistan war to be in July, 2011, when the U.S. will start withdrawing troops.

Returning officers from the Afghanistan War are speaking out that the Taliban is gaining in numbers and recruiting many more young Jihadists who want their 72 virgins in paradise.

These veteran combat hardened troops are not optimistic that we will win anything. In fact, the returning troops are saying the Taliban are in it for the long term, unless we can kill enough of them to offset their recruitment drive. Presently, that doesn’t seem likely. There is an endless supply of new recruits to the holy war.

Yeah, we could drop a thermonuclear megaton bomb on the border region and kill everyone there, but that would only recruit more Jihadists, hell bent to seek revenge. These young Muslims are born into the cause and brainwashed to see Americans as the devil’s disciples.

During Obama’s trial by general, Petraeus won a psychological victory over Obama’s indecision on the matter. Woodward’s book claims that Petraeus blatantly leveraged his popularity to blackmail Obama into sending more troops to Afghanistan.

In contrast, our constitution authorizes the civilian authority to determine military and foreign policy. Petraeus’ role is to offer private and confidential military advice, then stand down and follow orders.

The whole affair made Obama look like a weak leader who lets his generals run all over him. To save face, Obama chose a number for the surge that would satisfy Gen Petraeus, but make himself look like he made the decision.

Woodward’s Book explodes that myth and substantiates the public perception that Obama never had a clear Afghanistan policy to begin with. What’s worse, Obama politicized the Afghanistan War.

Media mavens are calling Obama’s Wars half-baked and delusional thinking.

So has the surge been effective? Absolutely not. No matter how many Taliban the U.S. and NATO forces kill, we can’t prevent the Taliban from reclaiming large swaths of rural country. Out in the hinterlands, villagers are scared to vote lest the Taliban retaliate and burn down their homes and kill everyone in the village.

Returning veterans and savvy citizens know that when we pull out of Afghanistan, it will be another Vietnam scenario. When we’re gone, the Taliban will take over most of the rural countryside. The Afghan government is already negotiating with the Taliban over which territories they will occupy when we leave.

The sad truth is: The Afghanistan War was unwinnable the day the U.S. set foot on Afghan soil in late 2001 and 2002. The Jihadists will keep coming ad infinitum. We should concentrate on protecting our own country against their threats.