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Showing posts from June, 2017

Legislative Tyranny- Putting Process Over People

We’ve heard it many times, that we all have the same right to vote and that all votes count the same, right?    Wrong. Unfortunately, friends, any impression that your vote counts the same as anyone else is the result of an orchestrated illusion. My purpose here is to take you backstage and show you how they perform the trick.   Let me begin asking you this question: Does the vote you cast for representation in the US Congress count the same as, say, the votes cast by the people of the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin? You say yes? Well I say no. That is because House Speaker Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin’s 1st District. That means that the individual representing the people of Wisconsin’s 1st District holds virtual veto power over any legislation your representative may propose. That means the votes by people of Wisconsin’s 1st District wield more power than the votes by people of your district. Furthermore, the individual who represents the people of Wisconsin’s 1st D

Forsyth County Drug Court-A Life Saving Program

I admit it, I grew up pretty sheltered. Sure, I got into a little trouble as a kid, but nothing major. Once in grammar school, while fulfilling my responsibilities as bathroom monitor, I remember the principle catching me swinging like a monkey on the commode stall door frame. I had to stay after school for that one. But to my credit, all you had to do was tell me once, and I’d fall in line. I was no rebel. My sister, older by three years, was the one always getting in the real trouble. Whatever she did to get herself in a bind, I wanted no part of.   And so except for a few scrapes along the way, I’ve kept my plate pretty clean, staying out of trouble. I always had a safe home and food on the table.   But a lot of kids don’t grow up in a safe home and with the sheltered opportunities I had. Of course, others grow up with every possible advantage, given breaks I would never imagine. But there is one great equalizer, short of death of course, which is my subject today.   

Georgia to Select the Next Bride of Frankenstein?

Friends, when is the last time you recall the passage of significant legislation accruing real benefit for the people? Thinking…thinking…What, the Reagan tax cuts? Yes, that was pretty good; but that happened over 30 years ago. And legislators always seem to have an excuse ready don’t they. “It wasn’t the right time,” or, “We don’t have a majority in both houses,” or, “They can’t get 60 votes in the senate,” or, “We did our job but the governor wouldn’t sign it.” But while most legislative records are sparsely populated with wins for the people, those same legislators rarely have problems passing new spy legislation, tax increases, or crony-capitalist welfare bills, do they. Why is that?   You know the answer already. Legislative bodies have long resisted representing the interests of those who elect them, opting instead to secretly represent the special interests who pay for their election campaigns. Those are corporations along with various other entities granted legal status un

Trump Goes after the Fed-Attacks Trade Deficit

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Recently an acquaintance let me know that he would not take Trump seriously until our president goes after the Federal Reserve and the too-big-to-fail banks. My answer was simple, “Okay, it’s time for you to take Trump seriously.” I said that because when our president shuts down TPP, renegotiates NAFTA, brings manufacturing industries back home, shuts down the Paris climate accord, reopens the coal mines, kick-starts the Keystone Pipeline, shakes down NATO and the Middle-Eastern countries to pay their own defense, gains agreement from the Saudis to invest in American infrastructure, repeals Dodd-Frank regulations impeding operation of our community banks, and lowers corporate and personal tax rates, Trump is going after the Federal Reserve Banks, with reckless abandon. That is because, in instituting these policies, Trump furthers a goal he has expressed many times, to lower the trade deficit. I’ll explain. When Americans purchase imported goods, dollars leave our shores for fore

Flipping the Switch on the Biggest Scam in the History of Mankind…

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 …And which the American people continue to fall for. Friends, have you ever stopped to consider why the US Government, the most powerful government on earth, regarded the world’s only superpower, seemingly cannot pay its bills without borrowing money? Isn’t there something fundamentally incongruous about a “most powerful government on earth” that has no wherewithal to pay its own way?  And consider this, that the next 200 largest and most powerful national governments, operating under similar systems, are also in debt up to their eyeballs.  We are talking, trillions and trillions of dollars here.  We are talking debt that can never be paid back-ever, ever, ever.  Would a lender, truly at-risk, really consider making those kinds of loans? Now with all that money owed by practically every national government around the world, wouldn’t an inquisitive mind wonder who the final lender behind all those loans might be?  I mean, who is so well-healed as to possess the capacity to loan o