In my years of elected office in Annapolis and Washington, I’ve never seen such reckless and irresponsible behavior.” Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland
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Tag Archives: America
U.S. Government Shutdown Might Continue Indefinitely
Both sides now have reason to dig in and refuse to budge. Both sides think they’re on the verge of achieving a cherished goal, if only they hang tough.
For President Obama, the Affordable Care Act is taking effect even as we speak, despite the so-called “partial” government shutdown. Health care for all has been a Democratic goal for 60 years or more. Obama has a passed bill, a signed law with his name on it. The president and Democrats believe that once Obamacare is implemented, people will decide they love it — just like Social Security and Medicare — and will refuse to give it up.
The Republicans are dead set against Obamacare, just as they were against Social Security and Medicare. Continue reading
Shutdown Foreshadows Political Collapse In America
“Boston Tea Party.” Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My working title for this post was “Non-Shooting Civil War In America.” I thought that might be over the top, if only by a little.
I don’t see immediate danger of violent civil war in America, but I think today’s U.S. government shutdown is collapse by premeditated sabotage by political failure. In other words, our regular political process for resolving differences has failed. Moreover, the failure is not accidental; it’s intentional. Congress, especially, has failed big time.
America and Maryland Coming Apart At The Seams
Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool during the 1963 March on Washington. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In a few short weeks, we’ve had the following:
A joyful national coming together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream“ speech.
The warm, fuzzy feeling of a unifying “American Dream” was quickly replaced by spinning centrifugal forces.
We went to the brink of war, and back, in Syria.
Oh, never mind, forget war. Back to our regularly scheduled program: “Defund Obamacare.” Or else.
Wait! Wait! A mass shooting inside America’s oldest military installation, the Navy Yard, in the heart of the nation’s capital, a mile from the Capitol building . . . But mass shootings and gun control debates hold our attention for shorter time spans with each round of crazy violence.
Back, quickly now, to defunding Obamacare. (Obamacare is a serious but somewhat flawed effort to provide access to health care for all Americans. Therefore, it must be EVIL, right? Let me know if you can figure it out. I can’t.)
The alternative to defunding Obamacare, far as the crazies on the right are concerned, is shutting down the federal government! And defaulting on the national debt; to be followed by worldwide economic chaos.
Loud and fevered — and apparently serious — conspiracy to bring down the federal government of the USA has previously been known as Treason. What should we call it today? Political and cultural insanity?
And now. to add a touch of humor, or not, the counties of Western Maryland (depending on how you define Western Maryland) are talking about seceding from Maryland to form a new state, complete with two U.S. senators! (Just what we need, two more additions to the world’s most dysfunctional deliberative body.)
Into the midst of the debate about secession comes a guest host on a Baltimore radio show, who displays amazing ignorance of Maryland geography and politics. She blindly relocated a state senator from District 37 on the Eastern Shore, placing him not only in the wrong county, but in a whole other region of the state, Southern Maryland, which is on the whole other side of the Chesapeake Bay. Hey, it’s only mainstream media. Actual facts are peripheral.
Not surprising that voters are fed up with the way things are going. Can the center hold? It’s looking more and more unlikely.
Fragmentation is the preferred intoxication of the day. Ah, the sweet wine of liberty! “Don’t tread on me,” reads the label. Savor the fruity overtones of anarchy, and the subtle hint of chaos.
— John Hayden
Related articles
- Right-leaning Western Marylanders move to secede from state (washingtontimes.com)
- Plan Afoot for Western Maryland Secession (drudge.com)
POTUS Is Not The World’s Police Chief
On Friday, President Obama said the U.S. may sometimes have to police the world. Mr. President, I respectfully beg to differ.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Where did this notion come from, that the USA, being the last superpower standing, should be the police force of the world? That we should zoom from continent to continent, fighting crime and bringing bad guys to justice? By what authority?
Peace Now
Today would be a good day for the president and the people of America to make a decision for peace.
Use of chemical weapons in Syria was evil and inhumane. Use of chemical weapons resulted in human death and suffering.
To respond by missile attacks against Syria would result in more human death and suffering. Where is the logic?
President Barack Obama will be pilloried if he chooses peace and not war. But good leaders must make the right decision without regard for the political consequences.
— post originally published 8-31-2013
A Brief History of the Boomer Generation
(Note: This essay was written in 2009 as a WordPress “page.” It’s become buried and hard to find, so I thought it time to republish it properly as a “post,” complete with categories and tags.)
MY PARENTS were born in 1920, which seems now to be in a different historical era. They were children in the Roaring ’20s, teenagers through the Great Depression, young adults at the beginning of World War II.
They are the Greatest Generation. They put off everything to fight the war. Then the boys came home — the ones who survived — and started making up for lost time. They attended college in greater numbers than ever before, under the GI Bill, married and bought brand new ticky-tacky houses with VA loans. And they had children. Did they ever.
The Greatest Generation shared hardship, service, accomplishment, victory. Then they settled down and didn’t look back much. As they had devoted themselves to country in the 1940s, they devoted themselves to work and family in the 1950s and 1960s. They created my generation.
We’re the Baby Boomer generation. We are NOT the greatest, not even close, as Garrison Keeler wryly observed.
THINGS LOST– AMERICA WENT FROM FAMILY DINNER TO FAST FOOD IN ONE GENERATION. –John Hayden photo
We have shared history from the 1950s — polio shots and “duck and cover.” The children of the 50s and 60s grew up in the shadow of the Cold War, with an awareness of unseen nuclear danger in the world, as well as a gradual awakening to inequality in America.
Though others see us as a monolithic cohort, the Boomer generation was divided in the 1960s and early 1970s by different, even opposite experiences. Many of us went to college, and many did not. We went to Vietnam, or we opposed the war (some did both).
The country cracked apart, during the 1960s, along social and economic lines. First the Civil Rights Movement, then the Vietnam War and the Peace Movement. The divide deepened and hardened in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Make love not war. Don’t trust anyone over 30. Continue reading
Detroit Bankruptcy, Now We Wait
Largest Bankruptcies (Photo credit: Adam Crowe)
Long-term viability of Social Security has been a subject of concern for years. Now, the Detroit bankruptcy filing turns the spotlight on municipal and state pensions.
I personally believe Social Security is in better financial shape than most people think. Social Security can easily survive into the 22nd century and beyond, if only we have the will.
Detroit skyline (Photo credit: Bernt Rostad)
But retirees, and anyone who expects to retire in the future, ought to be nervous about the shock waves from the Detroit bankruptcy. How many other cities, big and small, will have their credit ratings reduced? How many more will follow Detroit into bankruptcy? Not many, we may hope.
“Across the nation . . .”
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“Across the nation, the most affluent Americans have been seceding from the rest of the nation into their own separate geographical communities with tax bases (or fees) that can underwrite much higher levels of services . . . Being rich now means having enough money that you don’t have to encounter anyone who isn’t.”
— Robert Reich in “AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy & America’s Future.”
Question: What should we call these people who secede from America? Are they patriots? — John Hayden
Related articles
- Robert Reich: Why Republicans Want to Tax Students and Not Polluters (huffingtonpost.com)
- Robert Reich: An Impertinent Question (huffingtonpost.com)
- Detroit, and the Bankruptcy of America’s Social Contract (readersupportednews.org)
Summer Of Discontent And Division
SOMETIMES WE’RE PADDLING HARD, IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. — John Hayden photo
This is the summer of discontent and division in America. We’re fractured by class, race, gender, age, and politics.
Yes, I’ve written about divisions before, at least once or twice. Consider this a seasonal update.
As U.S. stock markets set new records, people who don’t own stocks are being squeezed and crushed. Recession may be over, technically, but only now are Americans feeling the wrenching pain from the economic dislocation of the past decade.
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 