And remember corporate greed from Wall Street that crashed the economy, fired employees by the hundreds of thousands each month during the Great Recession, CEOs that cried for bailouts and got them while still receiving their excessively high salaries and fat bonus checks, and banksters and quasi-governmental agencies not renegotiating home mortgages for millions of Americans who faced foreclosure in an underwater real estate market. They would lose their homes when their mortgages weren't modified, as promised by the government.
Wars have been promoted and launched with little focus except to spend money recklessly while enriching the military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about in 1961. Service jobs don't offer a living wage; workers are fired at will because unions have been crippled since President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 air-traffic controllers on August 5, 1981, thus breaking the PATCO union and setting a trend for union busting; and social programs offer barely more than crumbs, rather than a real social safety net.
Should we recall how our Congress barely functions, can't balance a budget or decrease over sixteen trillion dollars in national debt, and is in the hands of corporate influence peddlers who write legislation that favors the wealthy while screwing everyone else? Is there any doubt why the U.S. has lost prestige abroad among our enemies and has become ridiculed by our friends? Hyenas aren't the only ones laughing hysterically nowadays.
Was that sucking sound jobs going away because of NAFTA, or the money going up to the top one percent? Some people would pimp their own mother if they could make a nickel on her. It's all about ethics, or lack of them.
Unfortunately, a lot of corporate executives are so into their own head and formulating the next get-rich-quick scheme that they don't demonstrate ethical behavior in their policies and actions, have a sense of responsibility to treat their workers fairly, show compassion to the public, or are socially conscious world citizens. Money and the bottom line are the new God, global warming is a reality, and American imperialism trumps democratic principles and our own U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Face it, they're facts.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting up there in age and know the difference in our society over the last fifty years. I remember the Kennedy administration, happy people, and America's growing affluence and influence. It was nothing like today with ineffective government leaders, arrogance and ignorance of corporate CEOs, and a feeling of helplessness of the middle class and poor. We've become dumbed down, broken financially, and morally bereft.
Please, somebody bring back the good ol' days when a three-martini lunch was an extravagance that was tolerable and being a millionaire was a rarity. Now we have billionaires who have raped our nation and demoralized our citizens by impoverishing the middle class. Somebody, please have a light-bulb moment and actively fight this nonsense.
You must vote, write your Congressional and state representatives, and get engaged locally in politics and the educational system. And please support local efforts to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Now, what about gun control so that America doesn't become just another killing field? My stopwatch alarm rang back in the 1990s, but we're still lacking appropriate gun control legislation. Make your voice heard so positive change can occur, and we all benefit before it's too late.
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