The Solution to the Shutdown Was There All Along. Trump and Congress Both Ignored It.

Our Civics Lesson for This Week, or, Why Adults

Having Temper Tantrums Should Check Themselves

by Minister Paul J. Bern

To view this on my website, click here :-)

The first thing I'd like to say this week is 'thank God the shut-down is over', or at least for the next three weeks. As I wrote a month ago, holding hostage the paychecks of some 1.2 million people is no way to run a country. Although I admire the way president Trump has refused to go along with the status quo inside the Beltway, especially his opposition to the Deep State, this time around Trump made a serious miscalculation by shutting down the government. Keeping it shut down for five weeks and traumatizing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and their families has compounded his miscalculation. Like the Rolling Stones used to sing, “You can't always get what you want”.

The Bible has some very relevant teachings regarding this very topic. For one thing, angry or selfish people are troublemakers by nature, as it is written: “Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.” (Proverbs 29: 11) As you can see from these words of King Solomon, people who get angry when they don't get what they want are unwise at best, and toxic people at worst. Hear that, all you politicians, especially those inside the Beltway? By pitching a fit, throwing a temper tantrum or collectively holding their breath until they die (Go ahead! Be my guest!), or at least for as long as they could, our nation's leaders have proven themselves unworthy of the offices to which they have been elected. With the 2020 elections looming, every one of them, from Donald Trump on down across both sides of the aisle, has just under a year to get their acts together and learn to work with each other. Otherwise the American electorate will not put up with it.

What else does the Bible have to say about people who let their anger get the best of them? “An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.” (Proverbs 29: 22) Have you ever noticed how uncompromising people operate? 'It's my way or the highway', they will quickly tell anyone within earshot. Have you also noticed they are the ones who seem to get the least done? They are so busy trying to coerce others into doing their bidding that they wind up spinning their own wheels. In the case of the US government shutdown, president Trump ended up spinning his wheels too. Had president Trump tried a more conciliatory approach to get his border wall, he could have achieved different results, as it is written: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15: 1) If Donald Trump had not taken his usual 'my way or the highway' approach, like he is evidently prone to do when running his real estate empire, the government shutdown may have not ever occurred.

There seems to be quite a bit of this sort of problem throughout America's government. I have observed too much tit-for-tat politics, too much infighting and squabbling, and a heck of a lot of lying, for me to take the federal government seriously anymore. It's also been my observation that an ever-increasing number of Americans feel the same way. What America, and particularly her lawmakers, need to do is call a cease fire long enough to read the following portion of 1^st Corinthians: “4) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5) It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6) Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7) It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1^st Cor. 13, verses 4-7)

Love, love in Washington? Yeah, because there's a complete absence of it as I write this. While the fight between all the 'my way or the highway' Democrats and Republicans raged on, 1.2 million federal workers came within days of eviction or the commencement of foreclosure proceedings. Seriously, all these people were on their way to being homeless, many with families to look after, and all the combined 462 members of Congress, together with the President, could do was invent more ways to disagree. Even now, the reopening lasts for only three weeks. These people had better get their acts together, or there will be pandemonium in the streets of America. But to get back to the above Scriptural quotation, Washington has far too little patience and far too little kindness, while having an excess of corruption, arrogance, boastfulness and pride.

Washington has dishonored those they are elected to serve with their childish behavior, unlike verse 5 above. Instead of looking out for the interests of the people, Washington is and has been self-seeking. Verse 5 also says that true Christian love should not be easily angered. Yet by shutting down part of the government so he could get his way, president Trump has violated this very Scriptural premise. “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” Hear that one, Congress? You people need to stop sparring with each other, grow up, and take care of America's business. Otherwise the whole country will wither away while our 'representatives' and the president are busy bickering like children. “Love....rejoices with the truth.”

You know, a heavy dose of some truth is what the American people would really like to hear right about now. We want to know the truth about the triple assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Rev. Dr. King, about the Gulf of Ton-kin incident, about 9/11, and about the start of the 2003 Gulf War. We want the truth about the true extent of the US military-industrial complex, about whether UFO's are actually a secret technology developed by the military or if they are truly alien, and about Antarctica. We want the truth about the currently-mandatory vaccines, the level of corruption in law enforcement and the courts, and the dangers of the pesticides that are being sprayed on all our crops. The American people are collectively so fed up with all the BS in Washington, and throughout the country including our most respected institutions, that there is open talk of civil war all over social media.

“Love always protects.” The whole country was left unprotected during the shutdown, so Trump and Co. missed the mark on that one. “Love always trusts”, yet Congress and the President mistrust each other to this day while the rest of the country goes to pot. “Love always hopes, always perseveres.” For about 35 days, up until this past Friday, there was a complete absence of both of these in Washington. Congress and the President are equally to blame for the shut-down as far as I'm concerned. Their combined lack of good character, patience, perseverance and even-temperament is the reason this shut-down occurred.

Congress and the President have been unkind, untruthful and arrogant, they have gone to great lengths to keep score against one another, and in so doing they have made themselves unworthy of their elected office. It's too early to tell whether this recently-ended shut-down will affect the 2020 elections. But if a second shut-down occurs 3 weeks from now, it could have repercussions that last well beyond 2020. In that event, the likelihood of a third-party candidate emerging to win the presidential election in November 2020 will increase by a factor of two or more. Stay tuned, people, this may get really interesting. Unless Trump furloughs the same 1.2 million people as before in 3 weeks time, and tries to compel a portion to return to their duties unpaid, in which case all hell could break loose.

President Trump, the Washington Shutdown, and the Bible

Unlike Trump and the Government,

the One True God Never Shuts Down

by Pastor Paul J. Bern

For a website view, click here :-)

It has happened again. Usually when the federal government shuts down, it's because Congress and the president can't pass a federal budget on time. This time around the shutdown is all about money all right, but never before has there been a shutdown inside the Beltway over a single item within the overall federal budget like there has been over president Trump's border wall. I have seen photos of the 4 “sample walls” president Trump has had constructed along side one another in the southern Arizona desert. You can't even see through them! Some drug cartel could be building a ramp or a ladder on the other side, and the Border Patrol wouldn't be able to see that until people were already coming over the top. This is idiotic!

OK, so let's all visualize this for a minute. Two Border Patrol agents of the USDHS hypothetically spot several men climbing over the top of president Trump's 'wall'. But when they apprehend them, 25 or 50 more come over the top right behind them. The only sure way to stop all those people at once would be to shoot to wound a few, in the hopes of causing the rest to stop where they are out of pure fear of being shot themselves. Unfortunately for the Border Patrol, not to mention any Christian worth his or her salt, they're not allowed to do that unless they are fired on first by one of the migrants. As you may know, that rarely if ever happens.

Moreover, if I were a Border Patrol agent, I wouldn't be able to hold on to that job for very long, because I simply refuse to shoot anyone who presents no danger to myself, nor to anyone else. And I sure as hell couldn't shoot at children, nor could I allow a single one to die while in my custody like ICE and the Border Patrol have. And yet this is exactly what our government is doing. They're murdering children, and this has either got to stop or the American people will be forced to rise up against their own government. In that event, anyone who refuses to rise up against such evil make themselves complicit in these crimes against humanity.

The other aspect to Trump's government shutdown has been the 800,000 US government employees who have been left without a paycheck. Worse yet, some of them are compelled by law to work without pay in such circumstances as this. Imagine what this means to these federal workers! Employees are required by law to work without pay during a government shutdown. That means they can be arrested for not showing up to work unexcused, and the same goes for even trying to quit. So, it is quite evident based on these rather ugly facts that the federal government is not a very nice employer at all. On further thought, it makes me wonder why anyone else would want to work there in the first place. For the “benefits”? I find no 'benefit' whatsoever in being potentially complicit in the slaughter of innocent children who pose no threat to me.

What this means from the employees' point of view is their own government – their employer – can't be trusted to pay them on time because Uncle Sam can't keep his house in order. And, it's all because the government (allegedly) doesn't have enough money to go around. Maybe if the Pentagon wasn't spending all those trillions of dollars in all those clandestine wars being fought overseas, there would be money for a border wall. And even then, we don't want a wall, all we really need is a tall fence. We need border security, granted, but a $5 billion solid concrete wall really is way over the top. A fence made of aluminum bars 16 to 20 feet tall with razor wire at the top could be built for a fraction of the $5 billion president Trump is currently demanding, and I'm sure Trump knows that. He's holding out to see how much he can squeeze out of Congress, but I doubt that the Lord approves of the way the president is going about it.

By laying off 800,000 people, while causing another 400,000 to work uncompensated, Trump has essentially taken the country's workers and management hostage in an effort to gain a political advantage. To sum this up, then, president Trump is being unfaithful to those the government employs, and by extension to the rest of America. The Bible has a lot to say about unfaithfulness. Faithfulness is considered to be a virtue, as the prophet and Psalmist David wrote in Psalms 117:2 – “For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” In comparison, president Trump's faithfulness to pay his workers on time is conditional to his political demands being met. Now that it's been established that Mexico isn't going to pay for the wall at America's southern border, Trump is trying to force his employees to cover the tab instead. This has got to be the ultimate in unfairness in the workplace. Don't get me wrong, president Trump, I admire and respect some of the things you've done or are doing, such as your recent decision to pull out of Syria. But engineering a mass layoff for political advantage really is way too much.

Contrast the government shutdown to what God has said through his prophet David regarding this matter: “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.” (Psalm 145:13) Unlike president Trump, who has to run again in 2020 if he wants 4 more years – and if he wins at the ballot box – God never has to run for reelection. He has ruled and reigned for all eternity, and always will. Only once did 1/3 of the angels challenge his authority, everyone knows what happened to them. Moreover, God remains faithful to each one of us on a personal basis, as the apostle Paul wrote, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinth. 10:13) The word 'you' in this context meant the entire church at Corinth, but it was also meant individually to each member as well.

Again it is written in 1^st Thessalonians 5:23-24, “23) May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24) The one who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” As of this writing, with the partial federal shutdown firmly in place, Donald Trump is the last man on the face of the earth who could be called blameless at this point. Not only is he being unfaithful to his employees first, and his constituency second, he has put the entirety of his trustworthiness as Chief Executive into question. What has the Bible said about this? The apostle Paul wrote, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” (1 Cor. 4:2) In its original context, the apostle Paul was writing about those in charge of churches being trustworthy people of good repute. These words were intended for what Paul called “bishops and overseers”. Interestingly enough, the titles 'pope', 'father' and 'pastor' aren't in the Bible anywhere, but that's another topic for another time.

Although I would be quick to agree that running a country's government is nothing at all like running a nonprofit, the person in charge of that charity – be it a church, a battered women's shelter, or whatever needs to be a faithful and trustworthy individual. This clearly extends to governments, which are supposed to be nonprofit entities but obviously are not (such as $21 trillion missing from the Pentagon, etc). One of the things that define faithfulness is those in charge being faithful to the positions they have been entrusted with by the electorate. This means, among other things, paying your employees on time. So this part of my weekly message is primarily directed at president Trump, but the shutdown in Washington is not all Trump's fault. The rest of the blame lands squarely in the laps of Congress, who have yet to show any willingness whatsoever to negotiate with president Trump in good faith. As of this writing, no such thing has happened, and the government will probably remain shuttered until after the first of the year. While resolve abounds in Washington DC, faithfulness is sorely lacking. Let everyone involved from the president on down get this country running again ASAP, and let's put an end to all this pointless posturing – on both sides!

Jesus, the Republican presidential debates, and progressive Christianity

Jesus Wasn't A Conservative, And God Isn't Republican

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

In light of this past week's Republican debate on TV, which I didn't bother to watch, I thought it would be timely to comment on the state of conservatism in our country today as it relates to social and economic injustice. I like to relax and unwind at the end of each workday by watching a couple of hours of Christian television in the evening, primarily on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network, channels vary so check your local listings) and You Tube. Most of the time the shows and the preaching are pretty good, although some programs are better than others. The best shows are the ones that go deepest into the Word as far as their interpretation of the Scriptures is concerned. The ones that aren't quite so good tend to get way, way out there as far as their teaching and preaching goes (such as the prosperity gospel and word of faith movements, among others), with the preachers espousing radically right-wing conservative interpretations of Scripture that are ill-informed at best, or bigoted, and even outright heresy at worst.

I have a pretty good idea as to why these right-wing neoconservative preachers and teachers have such an extremist view of the Bible. I think it's because their version of Scripture matches their arrogant beliefs, giving these types of people an egocentric viewpoint on their walk with Christ. Although these men and women TV ministers are certainly entitled to their own opinions, I strongly disagree as to their application of conservative ideology to the interpretation of the Scriptures. I have an even bigger problem with biblical quotations being used in such a way as to twist them around to fit a certain point of view or for financial gain (such as tithing according to Old Testament law instead of worshiping Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Law). Not all Christians are conservative right-wing extremists nor are we all evangelical Rush Limbaugh's. Many of us like myself are much more moderate for a couple of reasons. First, when we read the Bible, especially the four Gospels, we realize that Jesus was incredibly liberal by today's standards, and also far more peaceful then the current crop of presidential candidates who seem to be desperate to prove who among them is the most conservative. Twenty three years ago when I first gave my heart and soul to Christ, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me clearly, saying that if I wanted to worship the Prince of Peace then it is necessary for me to become a man of peace (which I was not back then). So I pass that on every chance I get, and it most applies to anyone who has anger issues or who holds grudges. It's time for all of us to get go of those things.

Second, it has been my observation that the most religious people in public office or running for an election are often the most argumentative and most prone to resorting to violence to solve problems. Those who become indignant at the mention of the word 'abortion', showing their outrage before the TV cameras at the taking of a single unborn life, have no problem sending their/your sons and daughters off to war, and cheering when a predator drone blows up another house full of unarmed Afghan, Iraqi or Syrian civilians. God must be shaking His head in disbelief right about now. We as a nation have gotten to a point in our history now where the military-industrial-incarceration complex that’s still clinging to its soon-to-be former power and refusing to move on, is appealing to one of military history’s most colossal mistakes, basking in the glory of the act, while forgetting the bitter irony of the event.

The Christian right, which is neither, wants glory. They want credit for being the heroes, for saving civilization, drawing on the outdated legacies of World War Two and the Cold War. The irony is their narrow-mindedness, their lack of perception, and their superficial perspective on world events due to their refusal to learn the lessons of history, dooms them to be a curse upon their land. Nothing is getting done, because of the Conservatives of this land. And what are conservatives fighting to defend? One of the worst situations this country has been in for a long time. Want reform of the financial markets? Screw you, we're filibustering. Want health care reform? Too friggin' bad, forty thousand people a year can die so the rest can be charged twice as much as the rest of the world for comparatively inferior care.

Of course, resisting this evil and predatory system is painted as resisting big government and the “evil tax-and-spend liberals”. Some even call the American people's resistance as insurrection or as politically subversive (such as the Occupy and 99% Movements, among others). Never mind that we now have Obama-care, which is not the most desirable national health care out there but it's better than being completely uninsured and going to an ER for medical needs. Never mind that the conservative right-wingers own conduct speaks poorly to their skills as fiscal guardians (such as invading Iraq in 2003, among others). The Republicans have always needed their dark enemies to highlight their glorious crusades. They did it in Vietnam, twice in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Clandestine wars are ongoing in Libya, Yemen and Syria. Everything was about defending what GW Bush and his Congress was doing at the time, everything was about justifying colossal mistakes. Whether turning a soldier's request for more armor into another chapter in the epic of the “evil liberal media”, or blaming hurricane Katrina's death toll and the subsequent humanitarian disaster on the victims themselves, or coming up with a million different justifications for outing former CIA operative Valerie Wilson, the Republicans devoted themselves to the task of rationalizing failure on a massive scale. The most recent effort has been the prosecution of private Bradley Manning (or Chelsea, take your pick) due to his/her alleged “complicity” in helping Wiki-leaks and its founder, Julian Assange, publish a treasure trove of supposedly secret messages that exposed the sheer folly of America's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lies about it disseminated among the American people by those in positions of public trust.

President Obama has the right idea regarding his public option, otherwise known as “Obama-care”, putting everyone on a national health care system of sorts, but I would be surprised if he will be able to make us all pay for it. Instead, health care is a basic human right that should be given away to the general public without cost. Instead, conservative right-wingers have made any form of universal health care coverage in the US to be this great evil, health care reform has to be government taking decisions from your doctors hands. Never mind the facts. In fact, forget about 'em. The Republicans want grandiose rhetoric and emotionally overwhelming appeals. Nobody wants to talk about the underlying issues, such as the fact that our for-profit health care system is broken, and greed is what broke it to the point that it will have to be replaced. I have outlined one good way to go about this in my first book, “The Middle and Working Class Manifesto”, but I will give you the condensed version in three sentences. First, combine Medicare, Medicaid, all US government health care plans and the VA hospital system into a single national health care system. Second, streamline the various inter-agency departments by eliminating all duplicate positions. Third, abolish Medicaid since it will no longer be needed and have Web-based Medicare replace it all. For additional details, you'll have to buy the book.

If I sound angry here, that is only to be expected. This is what I've fought for during the last several years after having to take early retirement for medical reasons. I have been through all this stuff myself, seeing the system from the patient's point of view. I don't want to live in a country where the government exists in an alternate universe, where the politicians are so oblivious to reality. I don't want to live in a country where the needs of the top 1% of US economic affluence are taken care of with five-star service while the remaining 99% huddle in emergency rooms waiting their turn to see a doctor for hours on end. Since I don't have plans to leave this country that I love, I have plans to be part of a movement of millions answering the call around my nation, to make a new government that runs this country as a part of the reality-based community. Rather than jump the gun and jump to conclusions as it suits some ideology, I'm in favor of a government that is constantly on the move, doing objective good for this country.

I'm in favor of the conservatives finally coming to grips with the fact that their policies haven't been working. They can remain conservatives, keep on favoring conservative ideas, but what gives them the right to let things go straight 'to hell in a hand basket' to prove ideological points? They are more out of the majority than they've been in years in no small part due to their failure to put politics aside and deal with an emergency with the fortunes of the nation, rather than the fortunes of their party first and foremost. Failure is not an option for me. A government that lets things fail to prove political points is not doing its job. A government that justifies failure by making political points, is not worthy of governing this country.

For the last two decades, America has been the victim of unwise policies, policies that presupposed a willingness for restraint from the financial sector, policies that presupposed that preservation of a military strategy and distraction from a critical theater of battle would somehow lead to success. These were people who looked at our economy in the summer of 2008 and said 'the fundamentals of the economy were sound', right up until the point where the crash of September 2008-2010 made the obvious truth unavoidable. I don't want more government by people who are simply persisting in their policies until events overtake them and make it impossible for them to maintain the status quo. I want people who are adapting to our problems in advance, and allowing the government that flexibility.

The last thing this country needs is another decade or decades worth of governance from an outmoded capitalist economic system that cannot tell the difference between a defeat and a victory and resists all efforts to bring its attentions to these problems. The Democrats aren't perfect, like Obama might say. There is at least a recognition among the rank and file that the current situation is not to be tolerated, or continued. The charge of the Conservative Light Brigade should end, and this country should be allowed to get back to deciding what the wise thing is, not what is politically convenient to an unwilling, undignified minority.

I don't tolerate legalized criminal behavior, and neither should you

How Much Longer Are We Going to Tolerate This?

By Rev. Paul J. Bern

I have always strongly believed that it's not possible to be an effective Christian without taking a stand against social and economic injustice, and against government corruption in all its forms (such as lobbyists at the federal and state levels, who give out bribe money like Halloween candy). In fact, I have been a proponent for radical change for a number of years now, and I have written and published 2 books on this very topic. Where shall I begin? In God-blessed America, the land of the free where everyone is an economic slave, our founding fathers' sacred idea of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" has become but a cruel joke. Former president George W. Bush has notoriously (for both Christian and secular people) called our Constitution – our supreme law of the land – "that (uses God's name in vain) piece of paper". The federal government is currently spending at least $60 billion per month on military excursions in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and northern and western Africa – including operating between 800 and 1,000 foreign military bases all over the world. Our country's over-used flying drone aircraft kills hundreds daily overseas, many of whom are only innocent bystanders.

Meanwhile here on the home front, our police officers have collectively decided to go on safari, and the big game they are hunting is unarmed black men, preferably those who have their backs turned. I don't blame anybody for fighting back or running away! If a cop shows up out of nowhere and draws his/her weapon on me, I might turn and run like crazy my own self! Moreover, one in seven American people are on food stamps, and at any given time one in four American children are going hungry today. Right now. Our country spends more money incarcerating people than it does on education. America spent between 300 and 400 million dollars prosecuting drug offenders last year, and only $3.7 million for treatment and rehab. What's up with all that? Our political and court systems are openly rigged against the best interests of the American people, particularly those of color. A massive market mechanism is securely entrenched in our political system where political influence is openly bought and sold. Tens of thousands of highly-paid middlemen called "lobbyists" facilitate the legal transfer of billions between moneyed special interests and our so-called "representatives" in Congress. This very lucrative business of buying and selling political influence has become the driving engine of our government. Our so-called "representatives" in Congress vie for millions in legalized bribes in return for delivering billions of our tax dollars to moneyed special interests. It's pure folly to think our current political system could possibly look out for the best interests of the American people.

Just ponder what our government has done, not for us but to us, in the last ten years alone. It's utterly mind boggling. The best interests of the American people have been sacrificed to moneyed special interests time and time again. The Wall Street bankers paid millions in bribes for a legal license to steal billions more from the American people. When greed got them in trouble, our so-called "representatives" gave them billions more of our money, American tax dollars. In the last ten years, our so-called "representatives" shared nearly a billion dollars in bribes from the "defense" industry alone. In return, they doubled our defense budget to $700 billion (equal to all other countries combined!) and lied us into unnecessary, endless, expanding wars that will ultimately cost us trillions. This is aside from the extreme human costs of war with multiple consecutive deployments. For example, 1 in 5 returning veterans from US occupations overseas have permanent psychiatric disabilities so severe that they will never work again. Speaking as a minister and lifelong peace activist, I find this to be utterly reprehensible on the part of the US military! Be all you can be? Yeah, right.

Our so-called "representatives" are slashing social spending (excluding Obamacare) for senior citizens and the poor just when far too many American people need it most. Yet they continue to spend hundreds of billions on weapons of mass destruction to "protect us" from our enemies. But most of our "enemies" are purposely created by our government's blatantly unjust foreign policies (that openly support oppressive military regimes) and by our violent military occupations of their homelands. Without a perpetual supply of "enemies", "defense" industry profits would plummet. If that weren't enough, our so-called "representatives" have worked hard to keep America the number one weapons merchant on earth. Our so-called "representatives" continue to support the sale of billions in weapons to oppressive dictatorships around the world, which creates still more "enemies", which creates more special interests profits, etc. So we can fight wars, but we can't have a robust space program? We can fight wars, but we can't update and upgrade America's dilapidated power grid? We can fight wars, but America can't replace its crumbling infrastructure? We can fight wars, but we can't afford to make public colleges and universities free? America can't forgive $1 trillion in student loan debt so those of the millennial generation can get on their feet and start families and buy cars and houses?

Our current political system guarantees our so-called "representatives" will continue to pass and sustain legislation that transfers billions of our hard-earned tax dollars to moneyed special interests. That's because members of Congress who oppose moneyed special interests are promptly punished, ostracized, or replaced (if their offense is great enough). President Kennedy paid the ultimate price for opposing the elitists. Moreover, our current political system guarantees moneyed special interests and our so-called "representatives" must participate in this influence-peddling scam against the American people, mainly because it's so lucrative they'd be stupid not to. Big corporations could be at a competitive disadvantage (and would likely resort to cheating their shareholders to replace lost profits) if they refused to buy political influence. Likewise, our so-called "representatives" would be at a competitive disadvantage getting elected or staying in office if they refused to sell political influence. Another “problem” as these elites as I see it is that, if corporate influence were to decline, it would open up windows of opportunity for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs, and there's no way Wall Street will tolerate that. Anything that puts money into the hands of ordinary folks – such as owning a business no matter how small – is seen as a potential threat and gets treated as such. Just ask any of the American merchants who lost their businesses because they couldn't compete with Wal-Mart.

The upcoming national elections in 2016 are merely melodrama for the masses. Our "choices" have all been pre-chosen for us by moneyed special interests pumping millions into the process. Besides, whoever wins will be forced to play by established political rules that guarantee moneyed special interests will always come ahead of the American people's best interests. For months before the elections, the lackey mainstream media, using colorful pundits who talk smart and know little, entertain us with political melodrama. They arouse us by pitting one segment of the American people against another. They make millions bombarding us with empty, emotional, 30-second TV ads that are little more than name-calling or patriotic platitudes. Congressional elections are sheep fighting among themselves for their favorite pre-chosen wolves. Congressional elections merely determine which segment of the America people gets screwed by which moneyed special interests group.

Trying to reform our current political system using that very same corrupt system is just an exercise in futility. It's like trying to fix your broken arms using your broken arms. It's like trying to start a car that is out of gas. Our current political system is designed to be reform proof. It has well-established mechanisms to protect and maintain the status quo. That's why "campaign finance reform" and all other such efforts to "reform" our current political system from within are doomed to either fail outright or be so watered-down as to be nearly useless. All these outrageous government actions are exactly what we should expect from a government openly for sale to the highest bidder. “We the people” are just government-controlled fodder for moneyed special interests. Moneyed special interests paid for these outrageous government actions, and they got what they paid for. How much longer are we going to tolerate this? We, the people, got screwed. I have the solution to this problem, and it can be found in any English dictionary.

rev-o-lu-tion (Dictionary.com) 1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

Our country's elections amount to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We can't vote our government back to us. It was deliberately taken away from us, so we will deliberately take it back. A peaceful, people's revolution is the preferable way we can take back our government. But, like the saying goes, “Use your first amendment rights and protest! If that doesn't work, use your second amendment rights and get a gun”. The multi-billion dollar business of buying and selling political influence (currently the driving engine of our government) must be overthrown, repudiated and thoroughly replaced if democracy is to survive in America. This massive influence-peddling scam must become our number one political issue because it underlies and thus greatly affects all other issues. If we don't get all the dirty money out of our politics, our democracy and our standard of living will continue to decline and surely we'll take the rest of the world down with us.

We can't afford to sit by like sheep meekly waiting for slaughter. The police are already shooting us like rabid animals! We must find ways to hinder and harass the corporate state at every turn, and to control the violent tendencies of the police who protect them. Nothing will change unless we, the people, begin to organize radical acts of civil disobedience to disrupt our current political system, upping the ante until this massive influence-peddling scam is thoroughly exposed and eliminated. For example, in Iceland in 2012 when the entire country went completely bust (you know, like the US is about to) the people had arrested and jailed over 100 bankers after throwing the old government out of office peacefully but effectively. The citizens stood in the streets and banged on pots and pans, and they didn't stop until they got what they wanted. Then they (the people, not the government!) wrote a new constitution and passed it into law. It's been reported all over the European press but largely censored here in the US. Is it any wonder? If there were enough people inspired by what happened in Iceland, it could happen here next. Well, what do the elite capitalists want? They can either allow what happened over there to happen here, or America will turn into another Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy or Portugal. Or maybe even another Egypt, Yemen or Syria. The only way to prevent this from occurring here is that “we the people” must take back our government by peaceful revolution because it will never be given back voluntarily. Remember what President John F. Kennedy said: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

What does the Bible have to say about illegal immigration?

The Progressive Christian Approach to Immigration Reform

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

My message for today revolves around what the media and our politicians are saying regarding the topic of immigration reform, as opposed to what the Bible says. We have all heard both sides of this issue from Republicans and Democrats, from conservative to progressive to liberal, as well as independent voters like myself. First let me say that I was formerly on the conservative side of this issue due to the fact that had once lost a good job in the computer/IT profession due to my being replaced by workers who had just arrived in America. So, I was understandably bitter because I had lost my job to a worker with a green card despite the fact that I was more qualified. Actually it wasn't just myself either. The company I was working for as an independent contractor had laid off everyone in the branch office where I worked and replaced us all with a batch of workers from the Philippines with green cards. At the time I felt like my career had been stolen right out from under me, and all attempts to replace this job of mine had yielded only temporary jobs that lasted from several months duration to as little as one day.

Then one day in the late spring of 2008, I took yet another temporary job out in west Texas, and so I put most of my things in storage with the intention of coming back to Atlanta where I live after my contract job expired. I had never been to Texas before, and I found a completely different culture than what I was accustomed to back east. There were three things I noticed immediately soon after my arrival. The first was the oppressive heat and humidity, the second was that people ate burritos in place of burgers, and the third was that approximately one third of the population was Hispanic (or Latino, take your pick). The first thing I remember thinking when I saw that one third of the population spoke only Spanish was that this must be ground zero for so-called illegal immigration, or so I thought at the time. But I spent four months out there in Texas, and as my days turned into weeks and then to months I began to notice little things that seemed insignificant in and of themselves. For example, I saw Latino men – and as few women as well – hanging around temp agencies, construction sites, and even at a U-haul truck rental company in the hopes of getting a job at least for that day. I remember being struck by the parallels between what those Latino folks were having to endure as they searched for work and a piece of the so-called American dream compared to my own job search experiences. Some of these workers lived at homeless shelters, others in campers or vans, and the more prosperous ones lived in rented mobile homes or apartments. I saw the same thing day after day, with hundreds of workers gathered around in groups of as few as eight or ten, and as many as several dozen folks. And so I found myself beginning to question my own intense dislike of these immigrant workers.

Before I go any further with this message, I think I should point out that my basis for resenting many of these immigrant workers was economic rather than racial, and more cultural than social. Nevertheless, my beliefs and opinions were heavily slanted towards an American rather than a world view, and so I found myself beginning to question my motives for feeling the way I did. So I did some research on-line and at the local library regarding this issue, and here is what I found out. The average worker in Mexico earns the equivalent of about $50.00 per month USD, and this is so because of reasons that I was previously only generally aware of – namely, the differences in currency valuation between the two countries, and the fact that Mexico is by and large a third world country that happens to border the United States. When these same workers come to the US they make minimum wage, more or less, which is currently still stuck at only $7.25 per hour. Since a sizable chunk of these workers make less than minimum wage while being paid in cash under the table, I'm going to use a rounded out number of $7.00 hourly. A 40-hour work week at seven dollars an hour yields gross pretax earnings of $280.00 per week before taxes and Social Security. But since many of these workers don't work full time their take home pay is even less. At any rate, this works out to gross earnings of $1,120.00 per month. If each worker pays a regular tax rate as we Americans do, and many don't because their employers are cheating the tax man by paying in cash, they wind up with an average net take-home pay of approximately $740.00 per month.

I challenge anybody out there to try and live even for only a month on substandard pay such as this! The bottom line is that this is impossible while still paying our bills on time. In order to better understand this, instead of Mexico and the US being the two countries involved, let's use the US and Canada instead. If any given American working professional were offered a job in Canada, what would that be in relation to the US and Mexico? For any Mexican/Latino who emigrates to America, the jump from fifty bucks a month to 740 dollars equals a pay increase that is 11.4 times the going rate in Mexico or, for that matter, any central American country. Now, let's contrast that to an American jumping ship and leaving the US to go and work and live in Canada. With an average net earnings of $35,000.00 annually (before taxes) for American workers, if any of us were to be offered a job in Canada – or for that matter any other developed or emerging country worldwide – at 11.4 times the going rate here in the US, that would amount to an increase in take-home pay to $399,000.00 annually before taxes. OK, so let's ask ourselves a simple question: Would you or I be interested in a pay increase of 11.4 times the amount we have been earning previously? The obvious answer is that of course we would. So, now you know why the Latino folks are migrating – legally or not – to the US in search of work. It's not because they are foreign invaders on an economic and social offensive to overrun America. It's because they are economic refugees from the third world who are searching for a better life for themselves and their families! So, instead of resenting or even hating this influx of foreign workers, the Christian thing to do would be to reach out to the Hispanic communities in all fifty states and minister to them. I don't mean giving them a handout, either. Like so many long-term unemployed here in America, they don't want a handout, they simply want to go to work. But I felt convicted in the Holy Spirit for harboring such negative and bitter thoughts at all.

Showing compassion to foreigners and strangers is central to biblical teaching and morality, and there are quite a few Christians who have started joining the fight to pass immigration reform, including myself. Congress needs to pass this into law because it is the morally right thing to do. Those whose position on reform is based on political fear, unacknowledged racial prejudice or worries about losing primaries to far-right ideologues are too often the same people who trumpet their religious convictions as guiding their decisions in public life in violation of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. Politicians who are professing Christians need to consider what their faith has to say about immigration. If they oppose reform and refuse to offer compassion to our immigrant brothers and sisters, they should justify their positions on moral grounds (if they can). We join with other faith communities in asking for a moral and religious conversation about immigration reform – not just a political one. God's passionate, abiding concern for immigrants and foreigners, strangers and travelers – and for our neighbors – is obvious to anyone reading through Scripture.

It is the biblical call to "welcome the stranger" and Jesus' concern for "the least of these" that inspires and motivates us. "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself … " (Leviticus 19:33-34). The biblical word "ger" for the foreigners in our midst occurs an astounding 92 times in the Hebrew scriptures, with the consistent instruction to protect them. In the New Testament, the stranger, and all who are vulnerable, are at the very heart of the Gospel (Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan is just one example of many). In the book of Matthew, Jesus offers a vision in which caring for them is the defining mark of God's kingdom: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me" (Matthew 25:35-36).

That evangelical as well as mainstream Christians would finally act to reform the immigration system should surprise no one who has a conscience, and not just for theological reasons. Undocumented immigrants have joined our congregations; we understand the problem firsthand. They are our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. And we know that by reforming our immigration laws, we can create a system that also reflects the best values of our nation and the highest ideals of our faith. We act because, as the book of James reminds us, "faith without works is dead."

For me, I think the biggest change hasn't been in the pulpit, it's been in the pews and out in the streets. It's one thing when 11 million people are a statistic. The other thing is when one of those 11 million is your friend, a human being who you now know as a father, as a husband, as a mother, as a worker, as a worshiper. Our faith has always been about compassion and it compels us to do something. If we take the principle of compassion out of the Bible, it wouldn't be the Bible any more. Compassion is indeed all over the Bible. I pray it will also be found in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It's time for Christians in Congress to stand up in support of immigration reform, or to explain why they won't — as Christians. If they follow their faith, we will see the miracle we need. And let's remember that there is no such thing as an illegal human being.

Shootings on a daily basis are not just random events

Furious America and the Reasons Why

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

(excerpt from chapter 6 of, "Occupying America: We Shall Overcome")

It seems like every time we turn around, somebody else snaps and goes off and shoots any number of people, many just before killing themselves. People are all up in arms everywhere, asking each other, “But why is this happening?” Is it any wonder that it seems like people are exploding in frustration all over the place? Since there are no doubt more than a few who are asking such things, maybe we should stop and explore a few basic facts. A record-high 85% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed, adding to negativity that has been building over the past 10 years. According to a Gallup's annual Governance survey from last year, record criticism of Congress, elected officials, government handling of domestic problems, the scope of government power, and government waste of tax dollars has been feeding back from working Americans in increasing volume. Here are a few examples:

[1] 85% of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.

[2] 69% say they have little or no confidence in the legislative branch of government, an all-time high and up from 63% in 2010.

[3] 57% have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding the previous high of 53% recorded in 2010 and well exceeding the 43% who have little or no confidence in the government to solve international problems.

[4] 53% have little or no confidence in the men and women who seek or hold elected office.

[5] Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.

[6] 49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.

[7] At 43%, fewer Americans today than at any time in the past four decades say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the federal government to handle domestic problems. That is significantly lower than the 58% average level of confidence Gallup has found on this since 1972, including a 77% reading shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Along with Americans' record-low confidence in the federal government on domestic policy, Gallup finds record skepticism about government waste. As previously reported, Americans, on average, think the federal government in Washington wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, the highest estimated proportion of waste Gallup has found on this measure in trends dating to 1979.

Americans' sense that the federal government poses an immediate threat to individuals' rights and freedoms is also at a new high, 49%, since Gallup began asking the question using this wording in 2003. This view is much more pronounced among Republicans (61%) and independents (57%) than among Democrats (28%). But there are more fundamental reasons – reasons that hit way too close to home – why many Americans today feel threatened by their government, by the possible loss of jobs or homes, and most of all they fear getting sick or injured, which for many people would mean personal bankruptcy. But the most visceral fear that people have in these very tough times is the loss of their ability to sustain themselves, and especially their kids. I have first-hand experience in this regard, as do millions of others.

Psychological oppression – manifested by widespread apathy and resignation in the face of major corporate and government attacks on working Americans – is at an all time high in the US. Historically, it's often a strong and sustained youth rebellion that enables a society to throw off severe psychological oppression. The following is a breakdown of the forces I see favoring and countering the formation of an uprising in the US that will be led by its youth:

[1] 35% of the US population is under 25.

[2] Total unemployment among age 16-25: 24-25%, with many facing permanent unemployment.

[3] Percent of non-white unemployed youth: 46%

[4] Unemployment among African Americans under 25: 40.7%

[5] Unemployment among Hispanic Americans under 25: 35%

[6] Highest rate of imprisonment (which disproportionately targets youth and minorities) in the industrialized world.

[7] Widespread availability of illicit drugs to dampen youth resentment and anger, especially in minority communities. Ever since the opium wars in China, addictive drugs have been a favorite weapon of the British and American elite to suppress resistance movements. The late Gary Webb and others who have studied CIA involvement in narcotics trafficking have documented disproportionate targeting of minority neighborhoods with both heroin and crack cocaine. This is no accident.

Clinical psychologist and social commentator Dr Bruce Levine recently published an article on the Web about American societal institutions that tend to crush young people's natural spirit of resistance. The institutions Levine highlights as inducing compliance, as opposed to rebellion, include student-loan debt, the uniquely American tendency to medicate non-compliant and rebellious children and teens, American schools that educate for compliance rather than democracy, normalization and fear of surveillance, the "three screens" (TV, computers and cellphones), and so-called "fundamentalist" consumerism (the completely ridiculous belief that all human needs can be met by buying something).

No one disputes that teen homelessness is both the strongest and most alarming symptom of the disintegration of US society. Homeless children and teenagers under 18 represent one-third of the US homeless population. 2.8 million American children have at least one episode of homelessness every year, while 1.35 million American children are permanently homeless. Approximately ten percent of homeless teens had access to state and city-run shelters prior to the 2008 economic collapse. However, owing to extreme state and city budgetary difficulties, most have been forced to close. In third world countries, homeless children are called "street kids." The US government prefers to call them "unaccompanied minors." Giving it a fancy name doesn't hide the fact that the rate of homeless American children per capita is worse than in some third world countries. Today's homeless kids will grow up to be America's infuriated adults. Infuriated adults invariably strike back at that which enrages them. It happens 200% of the time.

Among countries who keep a count of homeless children under 18, India has the highest rate of street children per capita, with 1 homeless child per 61 residents. Egypt is next with 1 per 110, then Pakistan (1 per 120), Kenya (1 per 133), Russia (1 per 141), and Congo (1 per 148). The per capita rate of child homelessness in the US is 1 per 245 residents. This is worse than the Philippines (1 per 360), Honduras (1 per 370), Jamaica (1 per 419), Uruguay (1 per 1,000), and Morocco (1 per 1066). Germany, in contrast, has 1 homeless child per 4,100 residents.

The understandable rage that many of these kids are harboring is exactly what happens when all hope of any economic opportunity is taken away from any nation's youth. This is precisely what happened in Britain in the summer of 2011. Speculations circle as to why the 2011 London riots became so big, but the answer was quite obvious as the disorder spread to Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Politicians and police officers who one day were making stony-faced statements about criminality are now simply begging the young people of Britain's inner cities to go home. The violence on the streets was being dismissed as "pure criminality", as the work of a "violent minority", as "opportunism". This is insanely insufficient. It is no way to talk about viral civil unrest that has been a long time coming. Angry young people with nothing to do and nothing to lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot be stopped, and they know it. It will happen in America next. It's already started with the mobilization of the Anonymous, Occupy and 99% Movements.

Violence is rarely mindless. The politics of a burning building, a smashed-in shop or a young man shot by police may be obscured even to those who lit the rags or fired the gun, but the politics are there. Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about US civil unrest have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school and work. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalized and harassed by the police, after years of not seeing any conceivable hope of a better future buried under a pile of student loan debt, they are finally on the news. In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything: "Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you”?

Riots are about power, and they are about catharsis. They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out. Structural inequalities are not solved by a few pool tables or basketball courts. People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realize that together they can do anything – literally, anything at all. People to whom respect has never been shown riot because they feel they have little reason to show respect themselves, and it spreads like wildfire after a lightning strike.

Here in the US, we have so far had the advent of the Occupy Wall St. and the “We Are The 99%” movements on the American political scene since the fall of 2011. The primary difference between the protest movement in the US and those overseas – such as North Africa, Syria, Yemen and Nigeria as of this writing – is that the American protests have all been peaceful and nonviolent. However, I have observed a growing groundswell and a developing cultural backlash here in America regarding the choices American voters will have in 2014 and particularly 2016. This could wind up being little more than having to pick the most necessary evil as opposed to nothing at all, and that could enrage the American people enough for an explosion of civil disobedience that could easily result in massive rioting. Either that, or a sudden surge in the price of fuel to, say, $5.00 - $7.00 per gallon for whatever reason, would likely turn the American people into a raging inferno that would burn the capitalist, profit-driven and intentionally rigged economic system to the ground.

Although up until now the American people have shown admirable restraint during these difficult times in which we live, this time the public anger will not be deflected. Confessions, not false, will be extracted from the guilty parties. Occupy Wall Street has set the snowball rolling. In so doing it has made America aware of a sinister, usurious process by which wealth has systematically been funneled into fewer and fewer hands, and it is a process in which Washington is playing a useful supporting role.

Over the next 2 years, I expect the “what” will give way to the “how” in the broad electorate’s comprehension of the financial situation. The 99 percent must learn to differentiate the bloodsuckers and rent-extractors from those in the 1 percent who make the world a better, more just place to live. Once people realize how Wall Street made its huge pile of cash, understand how financiers get rich, and what it is that they actually do, the time will become ripe for someone to gather the spreading ripples of anger and perplexity into a focused tsunami of retribution, and to make the Wall Street criminals pay, properly, for the grief and woe they have caused. The truth that is written throughout this book is a part of that same tsunami, focusing the rage and frustration of the US middle and working classes, and particularly that of the poor, into an expression of how we feel, what we need (not our wants, just mainly our needs), what our hopes and dreams are, and above all recognition of our value as dynamic and sovereign individuals, all of whom can contribute to the greater good, and to our belief in the sacredness of life.

If God can do all this for me, He can do it for you too

Reflections On Being Put Out to Pasture Way Before My Time

Having just finished moving into my new subsidized housing unit, followed by a badly-needed 2-week vacation while I nursed my injured back, I think this would be a good place to pause and reflect on the recent occurrences in my life and my ministry. (Actually, it's God's ministry and not mine. I am merely a conduit through which his Spirit power can and does flow.) Although I seldom talk about myself on this website, this occasion can be one exception because it is so very relevant to what God has done for me in my life. If God can do all he has done for me and through me, then He can surely do it for you too.

I became disabled back in 2008 due to a mixture of medical issues that cropped up at about the same time. After being picked up off a sidewalk by paramedics due to a medical emergency, I spent the next 5 months in 2 different hospitals while my doctors put me back together again. Basically, God put me in his shop for an overhaul, sort of like restoring a vintage car or truck that still has plenty of good miles left. Prior to that, I was an IT worker and former computer shop owner, plus an electronics technician before that, for nearly 23 years. But I fell on hard times starting in 2008 right before the financial crash of that September. By the time I felt well enough to reenter the job market in 2010, it was too late for me and a multitude of others as well. I am in my 50's and a seasoned veteran of the technology business. Meaning, the corporate world thinks I'm too old and expensive to keep around. Why allow me to remain when they can hire 20-somethings right out of college for less than $20,000.00 a year? I have five degrees, diplomas or professional certifications hanging on the wall above my workstation here at home. In the old days, they were a ticket to my next job. Most recently, however, they have become liabilities instead of assets, which is why I was told, “You're overqualified” for every single position I applied for. It's age discrimination, pure and simple, and our country's lawmakers and judicial branch know it. By not doing their jobs by failing to stop this discriminatory practice, they condone its existence.

There was another factor coming into play here, and that was my credit – or more accurately, the lack of it. I had incurred well over $300,000.00 in hospital bills that I couldn't pay because I had no health insurance for purely economic reasons. Naturally, this pretty much trashed my credit, and that in and of itself pretty much ended my job search right then and there. The brutal reality is that if one has bad credit, obtaining a job – nearly any job – is difficult at best, and a complete waste of time at its worst. And that is exactly what I ran into, until I was eventually forced to end my job search for good. I didn't do that for 2 more years, up until about the first year that I was finally, and mercifully, put on disability. But this is not the end of the story.

I felt well enough to return to work at that point, but I was unable to do so. There are millions of older American workers like myself who have experienced the premature end of their careers. We live in the age of the disposable human being, and all of us are living proof. Between so-called “right to work” states like Georgia where I live, the systematic attenuation of the power of organized labor, and the mass outsourcing of formerly American jobs overseas for pennies on the dollar, the American worker has been hammered by a hostile and brutally competitive work environment. Is it any wonder that the sole reason that one out of every three people go to their jobs is only because they have to? Or, here's another factoid for you. One out of every four US workers over age 50 who are long-term unemployed will never work again. That's one fourth of all our grandparents, aunts and uncles. It is blatant, in-your-face age discrimination, and it is being allowed to run rampant while government regulatory bodies who are charged with policing this very situation look the other way, or are asleep at the switch.

After some careful evaluation of my situation and the circumstances in which I found myself, I decided that what I needed to do was to go back to school. So I went out and I landed interviews with a well-known local university and with 2 for-profit trade schools. The university refused to give me credit for my 2-year degree, nor for any of my professional certifications. I couldn't believe it, I was absolutely floored. Then I talked to the 2 vocational colleges I mentioned. Unfortunately my credit score wasn't high enough for me to qualify for a student loan at both places. And so the die was cast. I tried to go back to work and back to school only to come up short on both counts. All I wanted to do was to better myself, to become something more than I was, but I had been denied the opportunity to do so. This got me to thinking about a statistic I had used in my 2011 book, “The Middle and Working Class Manifesto”, which I wrote while all this was going on.

Back in the mid-1940's, at the end of World War 2, America had hundreds of thousands of returning soldiers from the battlefields of the Pacific and of Europe and North Africa. Their only two jobs skills were marksmanship with their weapons and hiking through all kinds of terrain for very long distances. So Congress passed the G. I. Bill, one of the smartest things (for Washington) they have ever done. It gave every returning infantryman, artillery and tank operator, Navy, Marine and Air Force service member a fully funded 4-year degree as a way to start their careers, and that's exactly what it did, resulting in the greatest economic boom seen up until that time. Well, if they could do this back then, why can't they do it now? Why can't Congress, the US business community and the Department of Education make a joint effort and bring this to fruition? People need jobs, they need to have an income and be self-sustaining. If our old jobs are gone overseas, then fine, train us to perform new ones instead of simply throwing us away! Hey, Congress and Wall Street, we are living, breathing human beings. We are not like a tank of gas in your car or truck. You can't simply use us until we are all used up and then just go get more, you can't treat people like that and get away with it for very long. Sooner or later, our patience will have run out, corporate America and Congress and all the rest of you too. What will you do then? What will you do when huge mobs of hungry and enraged people who can't feed themselves, let alone their families, descend upon your gingerbread mansions that dot the landscape at that private golf course you belong to? What will you do when we storm your high-rise condos and your gated neighborhoods looking for food and anything else that's not bolted down? And what will you 1% 'ers become as a result? That's right. Dinner.

But we can't afford to do that, I can already hear the arch-conservatives inside the beltway saying. We have a $17 trillion dollar deficit to make up. It's a financial emergency! And besides, that's socialism. Well, if this is socialism then so was the G. I. Bill, so was Medicare and Social Security, and so was the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930's. And Franklin Roosevelt, our president at that time, was no socialist either. What he actually was closer to being is what we would call a Progressive president using today's political terminology, or a Populist from 100 years ago during Teddy Roosevelt's presidency. And that brings me to my point.

I wanted to return to work, and I still do. I most definitely do not want to retire in my fifties as I am currently. I even refer to myself as “involuntarily retired” sometimes when I blog or post as I am now doing. But instead I find myself forced out of the job market, possibly for good. Do you know what this tells me? It tells me that my government would rather have me scraping by on a $10,000.00 annual disability income because, to their warped way of thinking, it's cheaper than paying me a living wage. Keep me idle until I eventually atrophy away from a lack of work. We don't want you around, I am being told by the powers that be, because you cost too much and because you are getting to the age when you might actually need to use that insurance coverage you have been paying for all this time. We can't take a chance on that occurring because then we would be spending money on you instead of making money – big money – from your labor.

OK then, all you 1% 'ers, if you don't want to do that, if you won't let me work here, teach me some new skills so I can work somewhere else instead. It's time to speak truth to power, people! Is there anyone reading this who doubts the accuracy of what I am writing? Then I will give you an example taken from the same 2011 book I mentioned just above. If the US military took all the money currently being spent on the pointless and obscenely wasteful war and occupation in Afghanistan for just one day, and then put that single day's expenditure into an interest-bearing account of most any kind, there would be enough money there to send every schoolkid in America – from pre-K on up – through 4 years of college, fully funded, even including their internet access, laundry, food and transportation, plus a new portable computer for each student. That's right, my dear readers, we can do this with only one day's total of the money spent in Afghanistan. So the next time you hear someone or read something that says we can't afford to retrain US workers who are long-term unemployed, you know that either it's untrue or that individual is one of those people who can't stand to see anyone else get ahead except themselves. And they are out there, of that you can be sure.

And so the answer here is crystal-clear. Put Americans back to work. Remember that everybody, no matter who they are or where they are from, has the right to a livelihood and to a living wage, enough for the basic sustenance of at least 1-2 people. And the Bible also says, “The worker is worth his wages”, meaning all workers are worth a living wage, starting in America and spreading world wide from there on outward. If there are no jobs for them, then train them for new ones. The possibilities are endless, and a living wage is Scriptural.

But what do we have instead? A hopelessly rigged economic and political system where no one but the top 1% get ahead, and the rich are most certainly not shy about it. Even healthcare suffers from this malady, having experienced a little of this myself. I get my prescriptions and go to my doctor appointments at a steep discount due to my being disabled. If I went back to work now, I would have to take a huge pay cut. So massive, in fact, that I would no longer be able to pay for my prescriptions. The reason is that if I go back to work I would lose those very benefits that help me sustain myself. In that case I would be worse off than before when I wasn't working. Ironic, isn't it? My medical problems are fine as long as I remain as I am, but if I return to work full-time then I can't pay my doctors and my pharmacist. That's the way the cookie crumbles in this upside-down, bass-ackwards world that we are all stuck living in. But it doesn't have to be this way. Having some form of national health insurance (such as single-payer Medicare) would remove the tremendous burden of providing health insurance from the backs of businesses and governments, not to mention individuals. It would give all American taxpayers and US businesses a big boost that would make America's economy robust again. Besides, the USA is the last developed country in the world that does not have health insurance for its citizens. It's about time that this is brought to an end.