161 results for author: Dave Svetlik

WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXVII: WAR, TAXES, BANKING AND THE LOOTING OF AMERICA

“Our roads and bridges are crumbling, our airports are out of date and the vast majority of our seaports are in danger of becoming obsolete. All the result of decades of neglect. None of this is really in dispute. Business leaders, labor unions, governors, mayors, congressmen and presidents have complained about a lack of funding for years, but aside from a onetime cash infusion from the stimulus program, nothing much has changed. There is still no consensus on how to solve the problem or where to get the massive amounts of money needed to fix it.” - - - CBS 60 Minutes Documentary One must note in the above quotation - - - America cannot repair ...

THE URGENT NEED FOR SKEPTICISM

1953: Few Americans remember the CIA orchestrated coup that overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran. Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh won the election in 1951 and began implementing reforms to benefit the citizens of Iran. With the full support of his people, Mosaddegh nationalized the Iranian oil industry which had been under British control since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP - British Petroleum). For 40 years the corporation had plundered the oil wealth of Iran, leaving her people with next to nothing. Naturally, U.S. based corporations saw Iran’s actions as a potentially contagious threat to their own ...

THE GREAT SPIRIT

“I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people or some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big, powerful America.” “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I ...

WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXVI: WHO IS BANKRUPTING AMERICA?

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said: “Because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.” But the Medicare trustees themselves, along with a host of experts, say the Affordable Care Act’s changes to Medicare – including holding the line on spending and raising taxes [a surtax on high income earners] – actually puts Medicare in better shape than before the law was adopted. That’s a long way from making Medicare go broke. We rate Ryan’s statement Pants on Fire. - - Tom Kertscher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Pants on Fire” has become standard operating procedure for all of the politicians like Ryan who are working for – or are a member ...

ENEMY OF THE ELDERLY (AND ALL OTHERS WHO PLAN ON AGING)

“The Center for Media and Democracy has learned that AARP has recently [2014] joined ALEC, and that it is a named sponsor of the ALEC annual meeting taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana from July 27-29, 2016.” - - The Center for Media and Democracy, July 28, 2016 “It was very recently revealed that AARP is a supporting member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers’ organization dedicated to, among many other things, destroying Social  Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.” - - Politicususa, August 5, 2016 “ALEC’s right-wing, corporate agenda is all about privatizing Social ...

WEALTH AND MONEY Part XXV: COMEDY WERE IT NOT TRAGEDY

“Paul Ryan was born into a well-to-do Janesville, Wisc. family, part of the so-called “Irish mafia” that’s run the city’s construction industry since the 19th century. When his lawyer father died young, sadly, the high-school aged Ryan received Social Security survivor benefits. But they didn’t go directly to supporting his family; by his own account, he banked them for college. He went to Miami University of Ohio, paying twice as much tuition as an Ohio resident would have. “After his government-subsidized out-of-state education, the pride of Janesville left college and went to work for government, where he’s spent his entire career, ...

THE COMMON FOE – THE COMMON ENDEAVOR

We are done being divided by the elites. We are done being distracted into hating one another. - - Nation of Change My family, my wife and I, our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren over the age of 18, essentially canceled one another’s presidential votes this past election. Some voted for Clinton, some for Trump, and at least one voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party. These are all intelligent people, they all have formal education beyond high school, and they all have the same concerns. They want a better life and a brighter future for themselves and their families. When Bernie Sanders - who to my knowledge most of my family suppor...

WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXIV: WEALTH AND ANTIWEALTH

“Humanity has the option to become successful on our planet if we reorient world production away from weaponry - - - - from killingry to livingry.”   - - Buckminster Fuller   Fuller used the terms “livingry” and “killingry” to describe alternate paths in utilizing Earth’s physical resources and human intellect. “Livingry” supported life and planetary health while “killingry” was harmful to both. In keeping with the concepts of this “Wealth and Money” series, the terms “livingry” and “killingry” could also be called “wealth” and “antiwealth.” Recalling previous articles in this series: Wealth is ...

THE RIFLE

By Dave Svetlik (reprinted from January 27, 2015 MW issue) Born in the late 40’s, I grew up in a family of hunters. Fair shots most of them, I remember standing next to my father when a spooked buck crossed our path at a dead run. Dad shot twice, hit twice, and the buck went down. It was near Hatfield, in central Wisconsin. Dad’s rifle was an old, iron sight, pump action, 30 Remington. It has killed (we kill deer – corn and oats are harvested) a few deer since my father died in ‘94. My sons have used the rifle. It was never a popular caliber and bullets are no longer manufactured for it. I have about 35 left – should last me until I ...

WEALTH AND MONEY PART XXIII: PIE IN THE SKY??

“Powerful enemies must be out-fought and out-produced. It is not enough to turn out just a few more planes, a few more tanks, a few more guns, a few more ships than can be turned out by our enemies. We must out-produce them overwhelmingly, so that there can be no question of our ability to provide a crushing superiority of equipment in any theatre of the world war.” - - President Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking to Congress and the nation after Pearl Harbor.   The United States Army ranked thirty-ninth in the world in 1939. It had a cavalry of fifty thousand and used horses to pull artillery. Ford Motor Company’s mile long Willow Run ...