It never ceases to amaze me how Americans can be fixated on the dangers of socialism, a movement that never made a serious in-road in the U.S., and overlook the growing danger of right-wing extremism, which has had a steady growth since Ronald Reagan.  This growing menace is not being characterized here as some sort of silly little argument from a liberal.  Call me what you will, but I am not a member of any movement of the left or the right.  But creeping fascism, which is what extreme right-wing movements are, has made tremendous strides in the U.S.   Few Americans know how many strides.

Secretly, clandestinely, insidiously, there is a real attempt in the United States to establish a fascist or fascist-like state.  That is not just a word that I offer as an argument, I'm refering to real fascism.  Developments in the U.S. over the last several decades have been very similar historically to what evolved in Germany and Italy just before Hitler and Mussolini came to power.  And in both instances the primary moving force behind it all was corporate greed for money and power.  Hitler used the term National Socialism [Nazi] to hide the anti-socialism of his benefactors and followers.  Hitler also used the scare of international communism, the power of the Jews in Europe, and other motivating lies.

Naomi Wolf even outlined how fascism was moving forward with success in America.  Her book THE END OF AMERICA: A LETTER OF WARNING TO A YOUNG PATRIOT was very clear in pointing this out.  In that book and in a Guardian article in April, 2007 she listed ten steps that "can be witnessed in the transition of any democratic state to one of fascist rule."  She saw in 2007 some clear evidence of what was happening along these ten steps in the Bush years.  Here are the ten steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.  [Islam is the current favorite among the right-wing]

2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.  [Bush had several besides Gitmo worldwide].

3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens. [Tea party groups, etc.].

4. Set up an internal surveillance system.  [a personal favorite of Dick Cheney]        

5. Harass citizens' groups.  [ACORN, Democracy Now, etc. have been harrassed]

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.  [A fav of the Bush guys]

7. Target key individuals.  

8. Control the press.  [every news outlet that does not support corporate greed is called unpatriotic]

9. Treat all political dissents to be traitors.  [You were labeled either a patriot or a traitor]

10. Suspend the rule of law.  [court cases are now pending and more to be revealed]

Do you see any pattern that developed in the past 30 years that fits that list?  If not, you simply are not paying attention or will blindly goose-step to anything that comes from the right-wing.

Now comes a book that comes from an author who got inside the clandestine group of power elites called "The Family."  Jeff Sharlet has written a recent book carrying that name.  It shows how the right -wing has joined the religious fundamentalists to carry out a war to take over the U.S. and the world.  I know, that seems preposterous exaggeration.  Read the book.  It will scare the daylights out of you with inside facts.  Here is how the book is described in Wikipedia and elsewhere...

"The Fellowship [The Family] is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe.  Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations, and non-U.S. leaders and ambassadors.  It has been described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most, or the most politically well-connected fundamentalist organization in the U.S."

"In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of 'biblical capitalism,' military might, and American empire.  Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, 'We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

"In 2009, the Family received a spate of media attention when three prominent Republicans associated with the Fellowship were reported to have engaged in extra-marital affairs.  Two of them, Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, were considering running for President in 2012 and their affairs were known to the Family several months before becoming public.  The affairs of Ensign and then-Congressman Chip Pickering, R-Miss., took place while they were living at the C Street Center.  All three voted to impeach Bill Clinton; Ensign and Sanford had called for Clinton to resign over his affair with Monica Lewinsky."

There are mostly Republicans involved in this dangerous cabal, but there are enough Democrats to satisfy even the most skeptical political apologists.  Combining right-wing politics, fundamentalist religion, and corporate greed has made for a stew that is poisoning America.  If you think I am politically prejudicial on these subjects, read "The Family" by Jeff Sharlet.  He names names, give specifics, and offers first-hand and inside information about how close this is becoming to reality in the U.S.  Read!

It is with dismay that I have been the cause and site of some very vitriolic and prejudicial comments by people who apparently misread what I write here.  Both from the left and right, liberal and conservative, the misreading of my blog posts is alarming.  While I welcome your right to express your opinion [AS IT RELATES TO THIS BLOG], I sincerely wish the hate words and misrepresentations would stop.  Showing friends and people who know me well the comments here brings them to smile and then wonder where all the wrong assumptions come from and are stated so shamefully.  In an effort to remind readers here that there is a more civilized manner to civilized speech and expression, I am posting some quotes.  I hope both left-wingers and right-wingers read and process them.

"Most ignorance is vincible ignorance: we don't know because we don't want to know." -Aldous Huxley

"Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance." -Robert Quillen

"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument." -William G. McAdoo

"Given a thimbleful of facts we rush to make generalizations as large as a tub." -Gordon W. Allmport

"Well-adjusted people may get caught up in the tangle of social forces that makes them goose-step their way toward such abominations as the calculated execution of six million Jews ... It may be comforting to believe that the horrors of World War II were the work of a dozen or so insane men, but it is a dangerous belief, one that may give us a false sense of security." -Molly Harrower

"I am convinced that when the intellectual history of our times comes to be written, the idea of race, both the popular and the taxonomic, will be viewed for what it is: a confused and dangerous idea which happened to fit the social requirements of a thoroughly exploitive period in the development of Western man." -Ashley Montagu

"The purest races now in existence are the Pygmies, the Hottentots, and the Australian aborigines ... The ancient Greeks ... who were the most civilized, were also the most mixed." -Bertrand Russell

"Who would be cleared by their [un-American] Committees?  Not Washington, who was a rebel.  Not Jefferson, who wrote that all men are created equal and whose motto was 'rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God' ... Not Lincoln, who admonished us to have malice toward none, charity for all; or Wilson, who warned that our flag was 'a flag of liberty of opinion as well as of political liberty'; or Justice Holmes, who said that our Constitution is an experiment [and] that 'we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death.' " -Henry Steele Commager

"Though I believe in liberalism, I find it difficult to believe in liberals." -G. K. Chesterton  [Amen!]

"A conservative is like a player trying to steal second base while keeping his foot on first." -Laurence J. Peter

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." -William James

Now each of you will claim that I show from these quotes my political philosophy.  Of course all sides believe they see certain critters under every rock.  So be it.  I cannot convince people who refuse to open their minds.  But I gave it a shot.  Now please take this and try to be more tolerant in your comments.  It would be appreciated.  I am not the horrible tyrant nor the great seer; I am just a guy who honestly wants the world to be a better place for his grandchildren and all of humankind.

"I am a man; nothing human is alien to me." -Terence

We Americans are very good at lying to ourselves, being in denial, and assuming the entire world wants what we have.  In our dreamland world we never see ourselves as brutes or bulls-in-a-china-shop.  Here are some of the things we lie to ourselves about or are in denial about...

In Copenhagen there are lots of nice sounding words about global warming and what we are going to do about it.  There are raised hopes for the new Obama administration to do more to help in this regard than the Bush administration did or didn't do.  But nobody followed the guidelines of the Kyoto agreement when worldwide nations [except the U.S.] signed onto do something to combat global warming.  Things only got worse.  Empty words.  What will happen at the current Copenhagen conference will be lots of show but nothing real.  Western nations will be allowed to buy their way out of any serious changes, and some small amount of hush money will be offered developing nations.

As I have said from the beginning, the invasion of Iraq was a mistake.  We like to kid ourselves into thinking that we have made things better in Iraq.  We have not.  And a growing number of Iraqis hate the USA.  No clean water or electricity for huge segments of the population.  Extremely corrupt government that is supported by the USA.  Continued breakdowns in the democratic process.  Iraq never was a united nation, and it is still splintered and will be for the future.  At least three factions [Shiia, Sunni, and Kurds] will most certainly fight a civil war and there will be outbreaks of war into the foreseeable future.  And all the American lives lost there, and all the money expended will be for naught.  Very sad.

The war in Afghanistan was horribly handled from the beginning.  It was easy for a mechanized military to roll into that backward nation.  But we cannot occupy it.  Billions and billions of dollars have been corruptly taken by the Taliban.  Bush committed us to spend $800 million a year to try and irradicate the poppies used in the world's largest heroin production.  It has gone for naught.  It has been called one of the largest boondoggles ever; probably surpassed only by what Halliburton stole.  Obama was left with this horrid mess, and there is little we can do to overcome the mistakes of the Bush years.  You cannot close the barndoor after the animals are out; it doesn't work.  We will use governmental public relations to try and paint over the pig, but it will still be a pig.  It could have been so much different if it had been handled intelligently in the beginning.  Much loss of life and many billions of dollars.  Very sad.

Health care reform is dead on arrival.  It is now so muddled, so compromised, so inadequate, so much was done by the right from the beginning to make Obama look bad, and by the left because of petty in-fighting.   What could have been a simple solution [e.g. national health insurance as has been successfully done in Germany] is now a jumble of this and that without addressing the real needs of real people.  There is enough blame to go around here.  What a mess!

We have to get over our thinking that there are simple military solutions to all problems.   Afghanistan is a prime example of what CANNOT be done militarily.  What is needed is some alternative program to offer opium poppy farmers a chance to make a living in other agricultural ways, and to stop  creating the enormous amount of money from heroin that is being used to fund the Taliban and other terrorist organizations.  We need to build schools and other facilities, and then see that they are protected by Afghan groups that we train.  We have to communicate with the Afghan people instead of shooting our way to making a statement.  We are setting another horrible example by our focus on the military solution.  Anyone who has studied and KNOWS the culture of the Middle East could have told the U.S. government long before decisions were made to invade and use our fire power that this was a mistake.

We have all kinds of "hero" posers who like to flash guns and try to convince people that might makes right.  These are people who do not have the experience nor the intelligence to approach complex problems with insight, knowledge, and wisdom.  The Marshall Plan won more friends for the U.S. than all our military might.  Be strong, yes.  Be stupid, no.  How about some advice from two men who did have experience  and know what it means to be a hero.  And besides valor in the military, these two men served as President of the United States and understood the complexities of foreign matters... 

"In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.  The potential for the disasterous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."  -General/President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution."  -John F. Kennedy

It is difficult to admit that the U.S. is a nation in which prejudice and bigotry hold sway far too often.  It is even more difficult to admit to ourselves how much prejudice we each harbor.  It is easy to pass off some overgeneralization about a group of people that we have, and feel secure in having ample reason to hold onto that belief.  Some bigotry is obvious, some is not.  It is the latter that is more dangerous to our democratic society.  But both kinds parade themselves far too often.

"In Rhodesia a white truck driver passed a group of idle natives and muttered, 'They're lazy brutes!'  A few hours later he saw natives heaving two-hundred pound sacks of grain onto a truck, singing in rhythm to the work.  'Savages!' he grumbled.  'What do you expect?"  -Gordon W. Allport

"A prejudiced person will almost certainly claim that he has sufficient warrant for his views." -G. Allport

"Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence." -Francis Jeffrey

"There are few liberals ... who have not a well-furnished compartment of race prejudices, even if it is usually suppressed." -Gunnar Myrdal

"...another Negro hung naked from a tree.  In the background a Klansman held aloft a large American flag."  -Jacob Javits

"I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility." -John Wayne

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." -Abraham Lincoln  [look what the man who shot and killed Lincoln had to say...]

"This country was formed for the white, not for the black man.  And looking upon African slavery from the same viewpoint held by the noble framers of our Constitution, I for one have ever considered it one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us) that God ever has bestowed upon a favored nation." -John Wilkes Booth

"Law, in a democracy, means the protection of the rights and liberties of the minority." -Alfred E. Smith

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment." -Albert Einstein

"We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood.  To hate a man because he was born in another country, because he speaks a different language, or because he takes a different view of this subject or that, is a great folly.  Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human ... Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity."  -John Comenius

"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone." -Jesus of Nazareth

With the election of the first black President of the United States, we are at an important crossroads.  We have an opportunity to use that historical breakthrough to elevate us as a people, or we can focus on what we see as mistakes and fail to realize our potential as a nation, a nation of example for the world.  Barack Obama is not an oversimplification of this or that, he is a man with whom I often disagree but a man who shows this nation great potential.  His speech on race was a historical and intellectual milestone.  His speech at West Point was wonderful.  His speech at the Nobel Peace Prize event was humble and expressed opinions of the United States that pleased more conservatives than liberals.  Compared to the Democrats and Republicans who occupied the White House before him, he stands tall with integrity and aptitude.  Bigotry and prejudice have been shameful in saying they hoped he failed even before he was sworn into office, questioned his birth in Hawaii, called him a socialist, labeled him a Moslem, placed him in an international cabal to overthrow America, etc.  Of course those are ridiculous statements, but the hope among the bigots is that if they throw enough mud at the wall, some will stick.  Shame on them.  Shame on us for coddling them.   Shame on us for giving any quarter to bigotry. 

President Barack Obama called Reinhold Niebuhr his "favorite philosopher" and "favorite theologian."  Obama's  Nobel speech in Oslo was full of Niebuhr's perspective.  Most of us know of the influences of people like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi on Obama, but Niebuhr's impact on the President's thought process is more profound.  Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator John McCain in his book "Hard Call," celebrated Niebuhr as a paragon of clarity about the costs of a good war. 

I was introduced to Reinhold Niebuhr in undergraduate college by a professor who had been a student and later a scholar of Niebuhr.  Since that time I have watched as Niebuhr's influence grew, waned, and has evolved again as an intellectual and moral influence on presidential candidates and others.

Reinhold Niebuhr was born in 1892 in Wright City, Missouri, the son of a German Evangelical pastor, Gustav, and his wife Lydia.  Educated at Elmhurst College, Eden Theological Seminary, and Yale Divinity School, he served as pastor of a Detroit church and then took a position as professor at Union Theological Seminary (1930-1960).  As with many open and objective thinkers, Niebuhr edited and altered his thinking as he became more and more experienced and reflective.  Early on he was a pacifist, but later he evolved as leader of a movement called Christian Realism.  He supported U.S. actions in World War II, and supported anti-communism movements.  He understood and supported the development of nuclear weapons, but opposed the Vietnam War.  One cannot pigeon-hole Niebuhr as one cannot do that with Barack Obama.  Their intellect and insight defy oversimplifications.

Neibuhr was an early critic of the Nazi treatment of the Jews in the 1930s and warned about Hitler's intentions in this regard.  One of his students, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, became a German pastor and is famous for his outspoken criticism of Hitler and the Nazis, and was executed by them.  Niebuhr's impact on students worldwide, and upon leaders worldwide, is immense.  Obama's speeches indicate how deeply Niebuhr has influenced him.  His Oslo speech  was classic Niebuhr.      

  Quotes from Niebuhr:

"Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace."                                          

"Democracy is finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems."                                                                      

"Forgiveness is the final form of love."  

"Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed."           

"Our age knows nothing but reaction, and leaps from one extreme to another."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

What sells in the world's most capitalistic nation, the USA, are health care, pharmaceuticals, and whatever can be bought in Washington D.C. and state capitols.  But here is what REALLY sells: violence.  This is where the real money to buy politicians and propagandize voters comes from.  This is where we have been sold the idea that manhood and toughness derive from bullying our way to being successful in the world.  America sells violence, and spending on the military-industrial corporations and prisons are the real mother lode.  This is where most of your tax money goes, and everything else gets immediate criticism when tax money is involved.  We are happy campers to spend it on weaponry, military personnel, and locking people up for as long as possible.

Having served on prison-related boards of directors in Washington and Wisconsin, and as president of them as well, I can tell you clearly that the prison system in America is a dismal failure.  And it is bankrupting our state and federal governments.  But it is what people want: lock 'em up and throw away the key.  Similarly, no matter that General-President Eisenhower, perhaps the most experienced man in the area of actual warfare, warned us about the military-industrial complex, we still fall in line when the behemoths of industry control us into believing that the more weapons we have, the safer we are.  Both the lock 'em up and the military build-up philosophies are what is destroying us as a nation.

I realize that every tough-guy-from-a-distance, every wimp under the guise of toughness will parade criticisms here.  Every person, especially men, who want to act as though they are tough but have little or no real knowledge and experience in these matters will put on their hero suits and lambast me.   Please do not try to identify me as surrendering to violence or toughness, I was raised on it in my childhood in the streets, shining shoes in taverns, singing for coins in some dangerous places from 8 years old.  Nevertheless here are some quotes that deal directly with these issues.  Contemplate what is said in these quotes.    And then look around to see what our military trillions, and the trillions spent on prisons have brought us.  This is "progress"?...

"The tendency to identify manhood with a capacity for physical violence has a long history in America." -Marshall Fishwick

"There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as 'moral indignation' which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of 'virtue.' "  -Erich Fromm

"Prisons turn amateur criminals into professional criminals." -Lester Schultz

"One year I heard a man point out that in states where guns were carried by citizens and that capital punishment was inforced had a lower crime rate over the past five years.  What he failed to point out was that states with strictest gun laws and no capital punishment had a greater decline in crime."  -me

"You do not destroy an idea by killing people; you replace it with a better one." -Edward Keating

"War hath no fury like a non-combatant." -C.E. Montague

"War would end if the dead could return." -Stanley Baldwin

"War, like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few ... The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit." -General Smedley Butler [twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and wrote a book called "War Is A Racket."]

"In time of war the first casualty is truth." -Boake Carter

"Penology...has become torture and foolishness, a waste of money and a cause of crime...a blotting out of sight and heightening of social anxiety." -Paul Goodman

"Only the man who has enough good in him to feel the justice of the penalty can be punished; the others can only be hurt." -William Ernest Hocking

The vilest deed like prison weeds/Bloom well in prison-air./It is only what is good in Man/That wastes and withers there.  -Oscar Wilde

"Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it.  It is the same old story." -Lincoln Steffans   [Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose]

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." -Jonathan Swift

"The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly, I think, because it [punishment] is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses." -Bertrand Russell

"The reason crime doesn't pay is that when it does it is called by a more respectable name." -Laurence J. Peter

Presenting oneself as a Christian at this time of the year or any other, is easy.  Following the words of Jesus of Nazareth can be quite another thing.  Mistakenly, many Americans like to think of the U.S. as being a Christian nation.  That does not reconcile with the words of Jesus.  Read what Jesus is quoted as saying in the Bible, in this imporant sermon.  Does it reconcile with the capitalistic, militaristic United States of America?  Be honest.  If you are a Christian and read what is below, you know we can do much, much better.   [the very words of Jesus as quoted in..."The New Testament in Modern English" translated by Bible scholar J.B. Phillips, LUKE, chapter 6, beginning with verse 20]:

Then Jesus looked steadily at his disciples and said, "How happy are you who own nothing, for the kingdom of God is yours!

"How happy are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied!

"How happy are you who weep now, for you are going to laugh!

"How happy you are when men hate you and turn you out of their company; when they slander you and detest all that you stand for because you are loyal to the Son of Man.  Be glad when that happens and jump for joy -- your reward in Heaven is magnificent.  For that is exactly how their fathers treated the prophets.

"But how miserable for you who are rich, for you have had all your comforts!

"How miserable for you who have all you want, for you are going to be hungry!

"How miserable for you who are laughing now, for you will know sorrow and tears!

"How miserable for you when everybody says nice things about you, for that is exactly how their fathers treated the false prophets..

"But I say to all of you who will listen to me: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who treat you badly.

"As for the man who hits you on one cheek, offer him the other one as well!  And if a man is taking away your coat, do not stop him from taking your shirt as well.  Give to everyone who asks you, and when a man has taken what belongs to you, don't demand it back.

"Treat men exactly as you would like them to treat you.  If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners love those who love them!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners do that.  And if you lend only to those from whom you hope to get your money back, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners and expect to get their money back.  No, you are to love your enemies and do good and lend without hope of return.  Your reward will be wonderful and you will be sons of the most high.  For he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked!

"You must be merciful, as your Father in Heaven is merciful.  Don't judge other people and you will not be judged yourselves.  Don't condemn and you will not be condemned.  Make allowances for others and  and people will make allowances for you.  Give and men will give to you -- yes, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will they pour into your lap.  For whatever measure you use with other people, they will use in their dealings with you."

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"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves." -Eric Hoffer

"Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it." -George Berhard Shaw

"The world is equally shocked at hearing Christianity criticized and seeing it practiced." -D. Elton Trueblood

"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion." -John Adams (1735-1826)

"I am a man; nothing human is alien to me." -Terence

Far too many Americans think they have a corner on what is moral.  We twist morality to fit our own prejudices, shallow thinking, judgmentalism, etc.

Religious people seem to be especially judgmental of homosexuals.  Though disproven by all medical and psychological data, too many of us still think that homosexuality is a choice.  However it is inherent, we are born with those traits/preferences.  We used to think, not too many years ago, that left-handed children had to be made to write right-handedly because that was "normal."  It is amazing that there are still large segments of our society who judge homosexuals as having made a choice to be gay.

We currently love to generalize about Moslems and demonize them.  However most people killed by Moslems are fellow Moslems.  Most Christian killing is against Christians, and in Moslem and Christian history, it has always been so.  Further, we forget the slaughters of Moslems that have taken place through the years by Christians.  We also forget how Western Christian nations and peoples raped the natural resources of Moslem nations, used their land as their own, bought politicians or set up their own Christian idea of who should rule a Moslem nation.  We stole their land.  From the Crusades forward, Christians have treated Moslems horrendously.  And most Moslems are NOT terrorists.  We don't label all Christians as terrorists, though Christianity has a sordid history in the way it has terrorized people.

Judgmental people are very selective against whom they use moral criticism.  Bill Clinton is a favorite to judge because of his Monica Lewinsky trysts.  But Ronald Reagan was quite the ladies man when he was married to his first wife.  Not only was he an adulterer, he had a reputation that he cherished for all the women he bedded.  He was also once a labor unior leader, a Democrat, and fought against big business in the movie industry.  My, how we forget that he used Christian and Republican expediency to foster his political career.  And we are justifiably angry with John Edwards for cheating on his wife, who had breast cancer.  But we forget that Newt Gingrich told his wife he was leaving her while she was in a hospital bed being treated for cancer.  Newt, the supreme critic of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, was himself fooling around with young Washington staffers.  This list is too long to do justice in this space.

Oh, how we pound our Christian chests in criticizing drug sellers and users.  But we forget that the tobacco industry lied to Congress about the dangers of smoking.  AND the tobacco industry fought hard to label marijuana dangerous and wanted it to be declared illegal, even for medical purposes.   And the tobacco industry targeted children as a major market to addict..  The tobacco industry also handed out free cigarettes to World War II soldiers to get them hooked on nicotine.   Western nations thought nothing of making profits off of opium as they got tens of millions of Chinese hooked on their big-profit opiates.  We thought the opium trade was good in Afghanistan when the Afghanis were fighting the Soviet occupiers, but now have changed our mind as we are there in force.  

Two of the most ardent militarists in the White House, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush never saw battle.  Bush, in fact, used his father's political clout to stay out of Vietnam.  These two presidents did everything in their power to get profits for the military-industrial empire in the U.S.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, on the other hand, a man who truly knew war, warned against the military-industrial profiteers.  And General Smedley Butler, twice awarded the highest award, the Medal of Honor, spoke out strongly against our warlike nation and wrote a book, "War Is A Racket."   Further, two true heroic figures who sought the White House, John McCain and John Kerry, never made it.  Interestingly, both men were thwarted by George W. Bush via lies: McCain in the South Carolina primary, and Kerry by the awfully contrived Vietnam Boat people.  What a twisted morality we weave in America.

A history of the United States of America is a history of morality twisted and bent to serve immoral purposes.  The only way we will ever put an end to this kind of hoax is to call it what it is, and to bring it out into  the open.  We certainly like to strut our stuff when we talk about our nation, but we cheat ourselves when we whitewash over the immorality that drips from our nation's leaders.

It ain't so easy, is it Mr. President?  You made it all seem so easy to do during the election campaign.  Like your predecessors, you had pat solutions to complex problems.  Now, faced with the reality of the office and the world, suddenly it becomes far more difficult.                                                                                            You criticized President Bush during the campaign [but surprisingly timidly], and you were immediately labeled this or that by people prone to prejudice and bigotry [not only the racial kind].   Naivete is par for the course when running for president.  You cannot know everything, and many things you are not permitted to know or are shielded from knowing.  So, making the wrong predictions and promises is par for the course.  Those are "givens."

What is most alarming to me about you,  President Obama, are the judgments you have made AFTER you have been in office for awhile.  Frankly, I thought you would be more proactive in fighting for a single-payer health care system.  It does not take a person to the far left to conclude that health care is a rite, and that all people should have equal and fair access to the best health care.  Mr. President, you gave in by not taking the leadership role immediately, and became yourself a pawn of the big pharmaceutical and insurance companies who bought off both Republicans and Democrats.  You had a ruddlerless ship of state on too many issues, with health care being a big one.

On Gitmo, you seemed to have the correct perspective about closing that embarrassing and horribly undemocratic place where torture and no legal basics were in place.  But again you failed.  You came into office with an idea, but no plan.  Since your election there has been no significant overall direction on what to do with the illegal prison at Guantanamo.  Swift action, with a well-thought-out plan would now have that hole closed.  Instead, you are being Mickey Moused by people from the left and the right.

I realize that you faced a necessary distraction in Iraq to a war and a place that was left a terrible mess by your predecessor.  It will not stand as a democratic nation, and civil war between at least three factions is inevitable.  The American invasion of that sovereign nation was disgraceful and could not be sustained.  However you ignored Afghanistan for almost a year while you tried to neatly bundle the move to close America's misbegotten presence in Iraq.  The Taliban have resurfaced as a strong force in Afghanistan.  You bear part of the responsibility.  It is not enough to state that Bush horribly mismanaged both Iraq and Afghanistan (which he did), and that he let bin Laden get away at Torah Borah (which he did), but it has been "show time" in Kabul and the rest of the country for months and months.

There is much, much more to take you to task for, Mr. President,  but suffice to say you have lacked the proactive leadership that you displayed in the campaign to get elected.  You have now painted yourself in a corner, which is exactly what the profiteers of war and health care wanted.  Perhaps it is time for you to take the bull by the horns, begin to act on the principles that got you elected, and not fall prey to timidity so that you MIGHT increase your chances to be re-elected.  You are going in the wrong direction, whether it be on principles and morality, or on chances for re-election.  You were elected as a progressive.  Act like one.  And do it with proactive determination.  You have forgotten who elected you and you joined the timid people in the House and Senate who are nothing more than pawns of big business and the military-industrial complex.  Get on with what needs to be done, and do it as a progressive!  Your critics will always be there no matter what you do.