The Junior Branch of the Republican Party

It was a beautiful spring day. Along the river the crab apples were in full bloom, so I pulled my car to the curb, got out and walked down the Riverwalk.
After a few blocks I ran into Max Angst sitting on one of the park benches that are placed along the walk.
“How are you, Max?” I said as I came up to him.
“Enjoying the moment, Art, But overall I’m disgusted.”
“By what, Max?” I asked.
“The sell out in the Senate, the Democrats collusion in approving the appointment of Priscilla Owens to the Federal bench.”
“The Republicans had the votes. What could the Democrats do?” I asked.
“They could have told the world about Owen’s record while on the bench. In every case before her where an individual vied with a corporation, or a person of moderate means contended with someone wealthy, she found for the corporation or the wealthy person. Her record proves she is an enemy of the average person, but the Democrats never made this an issue. They pretend to be a party of the people, but the reality is that they’re simply a junior branch of the Republican Party, as controlled by the moneyed interests as are Frist, and Hastert.
“But, what good would it do to bring that issue up when they didn’t have the votes?”
If the Democrats were really on the side of the people, they would take every opportunity to point out to the people that the Republicans are acting against their interest and that they, the Democrats, are opposing this vehemently. This never happens, so we can see there is no two party system in this country. There is only one party, the Republicans, who are owned lock, stock and barrel by big money. The Democrats are a junior branch of the Republican party, equally as controlled by big money.

An Early Letter From Max

Max, Gliding Down the Tubes.

I have an engaging friend Max Angst. Max is always sending me his thoughts on the event of our time and his perspective is so interesting I thought I’d pass some of his views on to you. A while back he sent me the following comments; I found them while going through some e-folders and I thought you'd find it interesting

I’m seventy years old and falling apart: but I’m not in half as bad shape as the United States. Let me quote from a column by David Broder in the Washington Post on the shape of the Federa;l Budget:

The Committee for Economic Development, a group of business and education leaders; the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research and advocacy group; and the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan organization focused on sound fiscal policy, issued their first joint statement on fiscal policy. They called the current budgetary situation "the most fiscally irresponsible" in American history.

Now doesn’t that put a knot in your knickers. We get hype from Washington day in and day out telling us what a wonderful job they’re all doing, but the reality they’re screwing up the country’s economy big time. A few of us got suspicious when our jobs disappeared. ABC News Told us on July 29, 2004

Just as millions of American manufacturing jobs were lost in the 1980s and 1990s, today white-collar American jobs are disappearing. Foreign nationals on special work visas are filling some positions but most jobs are simply contracted out overseas. Almost 500,000 white-collar American jobs have already found their way offshore, to the Philippines, Malaysia and China. Russia and Eastern Europe are expected to be next. But no country has captured more American jobs than India
.

Hey baby that could be you. Tomorrow morning your boss could kiss you bye bye. How are you going to feed the hungry mouths then. But it gets worse:Jeremy Rifkin, an expert on the future of technology tells us;

From the beginning, civilization -- as well as people's daily lives -- has been structured in large part around the concept of work. But now, for the first time in history, human labor is being systematically eliminated from the economic process. In the coming century employment, as we have come to know it, is likely to be phased out in most of the industrialized nations of the world. A new generation of sophisticated information and communication technologies is being introduced into a wide variety of work situations. These machines, together with new forms of business reorganization and management, are forcing millions of blue- and white-collar workers into temporary jobs and unemployment lines -- or, worse, breadlines.

Now stop and think. If the bosses are shipping jobs overseas leaving American workers high and dry, won’t they do the same when they can replace humans with machines. Their bottom line is all that matters to them Yet, a greater horror threatens us. Martin Res, the Astronomer Royal of Britain in his book OUR FINAL HOUR tells us:

The twentieth century brought us the bomb and the nuclear threat will never leave us; the short term threat from terrorism is high on the public and political agenda; inequalities in wealth and welfare get ever wider. My primary aim is not to add to the burgeoning literature on these challenging themes. But to focus on twenty-first century hazards, currently less familiar, that could threaten humanity and the global environment still more.
Some of the new threats are already upon us; others are still conjectural. Populations could be wiped out by lethal “engineered” airborne viruses; Human character maybe changed by new techniques far more targeted and effective than the nostrums and drugs familiar today; we may even one day be threatened by rogue nanomachines that replicate catastrophically, or by superior intelligence computers.
.

Given all this what does Newsweek have on its cover this week: The Kobe Bryant You Don’t Know. What subject has filled the television news reports this week: Arnold Schwarzenneger coping cheap feels. What subject engrosses the most American today: Post Season Baseball Playoffs. You can fill a few hundred stadiums on any given Saturday in October with thousand and thousand of enthralled football fans but you cant get two hundred people working on the problems mentioned above. Hello! Is any body home?

The Comics in the White House

It was a beautiful spring day. Along the river the crab apples were in full bloom, so I pulled my car to the curb, got out and walked down the Riverwalk.
After a few blocks I ran into Max Angst sitting on one of the park benches along the walk.
“How are you, Max?” I said as I came up to him.
“Completely bemused and amused. We have a pair of stand up comedians in the White House.” He answered.
“I saw Mrs. Bush’s act at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on television. She was funny. But why do you say the President is a stand up comedian?” I asked.
“I listen to his speeches,” Max answered, laughing.
“Could you be more specific?”
“Okay! A few days ago he said if those working under his privatizing program for Social Security were worried about the safety of their investments they could invest in Federal Bonds. That’s hilarious,” Max responded.
“Why so?”
“ It may be the most cynical remark in US history, for one thing. The country is bankrupt. We’re borrowing two billion dollars a day just to continue functioning. He clearly is thinking of defaulting on one of the largest debts owed by the government, the Social Security Trust Fund. He regularly denies it exists. So now he wants young workers to invest in bonds he can’t afford to redeem. Is that not cynicism to the nth degree?”
“If you were in his place what would you do, Max?”
“Art, the United States spends four times as much on the military than any other country on this planet. We have bases all over the world and our fleets dominate the seven seas. I don’t remember Congress or the people of the United Sates authorizing the Administrative branch of our government to create a world wide empire. This empire reached an apex of opprobrium when it invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Wars the country could not afford at the same time it was handing out huge tax breaks to the wealthy.”
“Opprobrium, Max?”
“ Look it up; I had to.”
“Give me a break!”
“Oh! Okay. Opprobrium is behavior deserving of scorn But, the point is we should rein in this empire, cut our defense budget in half and tax our wealthy fairly. Then we could afford to redeem our bonds and keep the Social security System functioning.”