The Economic Cliff: Is it Truth or Dare?

We are being told that come January, the US will either fall off of, or jump over an  imaginary economic cliff. We are being told that the difference between falling off the cliff to our economic peril and jumping over the cliff to our economic success,  is the difference between total capitulation  to the international banking cabal, and  our ability to craft an independent economic policy, not dictated by the Federal Reserve.and its henchmen the IMF, World Bank and the rating agencies such as Moody and Standard and Poor.. In other words, if we play by the old rules, we are promised a temporary end to our economic crisis, which is a safe landing. We are warned, that if we take the path of economic sovereignty and independence, we will be punished with economic collapse. This makes it more important than ever for us to decide if what we are actually faced with is really an economic cliff, or a high stakes game of economic truth, or dare.

If we believe it is really an economic cliff, then as part of our problem solving we need to figure out where this cliff came from. Such an inquiry will lead us to the truth that the cliff is man made and was created by politicians who need a cliff  (danger) and a sense of urgency, in fact near public panic, to get what they want done without too many questions or much effort.  This should cause us to remember that every economic crisis  we have faced since  the end of the Bush administration has been met with talk of economic collapse (danger) that caused a sense of public panic, that resulted in absolute capitulation to the  banking cabal. What they want is money, austerity measures and an increase in the US debt ceiling, so we can borrow more money and increase our debt, just as we are putting the squeeze on the poor and middle class to come up with the trillions needed to pay down the debt, knowing that  it is a debt that cannot ever be paid off because of the amount of the compounding interest that is being added daily..This is the truth.

Now here is the dare. Will the United States have the courage that Europe did not have? Will we have the courage to tell our debtors that we are not willing to follow their prescription for economic deconstruction and that the United States will not be owned Will the US Department of the Treasury put together an economic policy that includes restructuring and renegotiating the US debt? Are we willing to freeze the debt ceiling and refuse to allow Congress to raise the debt ceiling again until more than half of the debt has been paid off? Will the US Congress have the courage to either federalize or get rid of the Federal Reserve, take back US monetary policy along with control of the US currency?. Will we take the immediate steps necessary  to strengthen the dollar so we are not attempting to pay off a mounting debt with dollars that are being devalued almost daily?  Raising taxes on the rich and making budget cuts are almost meaningless when we consider that the value of the dollar is falling, and hyper inflation is stalking us. The American worker has been out of work for so long that many have sold off their wealth, lost the equity in their homes and are living day to day without any savings. Do we have the courage to claim economic sovereignty and independence and  .to create a new economy from these ashes in spite of all the attempts by Wall Street, the Bankers and the rating agencies to scare us into debt slavery? Will the president have the courage to stop the wars that are the cause for most of this debt?  

If there is an economic cliff waiting to appear in January, why should we wait until January or even December to start working to meet this challenge. There is a major decision waiting ti be made. Will we live by the  economic truths that were created for us along with its prescription for economic deconstruction. If we do, we will  fall incrementally into debt slavery that will lead to the deconstruction of our country. Or, will we dare to take our country's future back, to be free and to meet our challenges with courage, charting our own course to a prosperous economic future? The people, not the politicians should decide.    

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The Obama Mandate

The current discussion about the Obama mandate is proof that even though we are a United States, we are different in our outlooks on our country's future. That doesn't make us enemies. . It means that we have not yet had the real debates and discussions that need to happen before we reach consensus and our legislature and policy makers decide they know what's best. for everyone.

We need the interest groups to team up with the politicians and activists on the local level and to have more town hall meetings where people can ask real questions and get real answers. We need the Congress to focus again on their constituents and not expect to be educated by lobbyists. We need to get the people involved in governing again. . The way to have a real representative government is to understand the people who are to be represented and to know what they want. People can't have an informed opinion if their Congresspeople and the activists are not educating them. In my opinion, we need to get back to the communities and neighborhoods and get the people energized, educated and actually governing.

It will be a mistake at this stage in the game for either party to assume that they have been given a blank check to do whatever they want to do in respect to the important issues we face. In respect to tax reform, I see no indication that the people of the United States have said we want across the board tax hikes. It is more likely that the people want to see the rich paying their fair share of the tax responsibility. As for the corporations who are posting record profits and still not paying very much in taxes, we want to see them more directly involved in community and neighborhood development. 

I think the Democratic pundits are missing the big picture in respect to the president's mandate. I think if you ask most people, they will say they have lost confidence in both political parties and what they want is for the government to find new ways to accomplish things, ways that are not so polarizing and that we can compromise upon without feeling that we had to abandon everything that we believe. I also think that one of the biggest changes people want, is for the people's interests to finally take priority over the interests of the political parties.  In other words, I think the president won a mandate, not the Democratic Party.  President Obama is the President of the United States of America, not only the Democratic party.

 Republicans are not absolutely wrong when they say we need to be careful not to make the US an  environment that is hostile to business, and the Democrats are not absolutely wrong when they say its not fair for the CEOs to be making millions of dollars in salaries that are not being fairly taxed and complaining that the tax code is hostile to business or that they will be prevented from making any profit.if they are asked to pay more taxes. We need new solutions, not old ideas forced down the public's throat with claims of mandate. We need new BIG ideas about how to move this country forward and we need a president of all the people, to show us how to get there and to lead us there. In other words, we need to start by listening to one another without judgement and hostility. 

A leader with a mandate doesn't have to listen to anyone, he has to listen to everyone because a large majority of people have said to him, lead us out of this mess! They voted to say guide us, not go back to old ideas and start stuffing it down everyone's throat while screaming "mandate." Obama is a man of intellect and ideas. He understands what we need in this country, he just needed the people to give him the real power to get it done. To do this, we must stop calling for compromise before we start calling for new ideas upon which we can all compromise and feel good about what we have done..

The positive power of this approach is proven by the fact that more states are accepting the idea of same sex marriage, and more are willing to accept that marijuana should be legalized.  What changed? The approach taken by the activists and politicians who presented these ideas. They changed the way we see the problems, which allows us to change our response to the issues without feeling that we were coerced by anyone or anything except our own good sense.  .It was a Republican, not a Democrat that pushed marijuana legalization into the mainstream political discourse. It was two straight Republican legal experts and attorneys who taught the LGBT community how to argue their case without ignoring the sensitivities of people who live by Holy scriptures that condemn sodomy. We know that we, as a people are not as polarized as the political parties are and that is why we must take politics back from the parties and return our  government to the people if we hope to get anything done.

President Barack Obama  has a mandate to lead this country into the 21st century, and to open the doors to big and new ideas, to remove the fear that permeated our political discourse and replace that fear with a spirit of confidence that says we can do this, and more. We need to hear new voices, see new faces, and become acquainted with new groups of people and learn their interests too. The diversity of the US society demands this.

 More than a mandate, the president, in my opinion, has been given a huge vote of confidence and a challenge. Take this great experiment and move it into the 21st century using the model of governance prescribed by its founders. He mist forget executive power and use executive influence, and the other powers of intellect, heart, trust and all of the virtues the people see in him. Those are the president's  greatest powers. He must stop ignoring the US Constitution. It is our friend in this run for the future.

Of course the President has a vision of his own and he presented some of that vision during his campaign. Yet, since so much of substance was ignored so that the candidates could focus our attention on the economy, we never got to hear much of it. Now is the time for him to share it, but only perhaps after listening to some of the new discussions. After listening ro more Americans, he might even want to change his own outlook. Who knows? And that is the beauty of it all. We don't  start a transformation with already knowing. We begin with listening and learning.  If the president uses his mandate in the right way, it will unify us and what we need now, more than anything else, is to learn to work together..   . 

America begins again: Reflections on the morning after

Following every presidential election in the US, we the people awaken the next day wondering  what really happened. We listen to the pundits as they spin the days news and comment on what they think happened in respect to our country as a result of the election. No matter what they say, our guts get no real satisfaction and our intellects are left wanting because they tend to look at everything from the political party perspective. Few ever speak from the perspective of the citizen, who by the way, is also the voter. The voter is the one who caused the result and in some way, we are really the only ones who can say what we did, why we did it and what we hope for. That would of course be different for every voter, still I think we can see some commonly shared objectives and idealism in the outcome if we look hard enough.  

Today's blog is my bid to encourage every American to spend some part of the day today, asking ourselves what we hoped for when we cast our vote yesterday.  More importantly, I think we need to ask, "what will I do to make that hope a reality. " I'll start. 

When I went to the polls yesterday I wasn't very enthusiastic about either of the candidates. I was disappointed that the campaign had seemed corporate controlled from the beginning and it never got any better in my opinion. There was never a point in the campaign season that I felt either candidate really cared much about the issues that most Americans care about and I often felt that they were just going through the motions. Nowhere did that seem more obvious than during the staged debates. Most of the time I turned off the TV after the first few minutes or so of the canned questions and the shallow robotic answers.

What changed and why did I vote? I realized that I had to vote. I realized that I could not stay home and do nothing. I thought about the women's suffrage movement and the civil rights movement and it came to me that I was no better than the candidates who I felt had no real civic impulse and who were merely vying for power, should I not vote. I thought that  should I decide to stay home and not vote, that in some way I would have surrendered to the corporate and Zionist control of America, convinced that I no longer mattered and that "we" the people are no longer relevant to our country's future and so are powerless.  I decided to vote and to pick a winner, and I did. he is a winner because I'm sure many Americans who may have also felt like I did, that we no longer matter, changed their minds like I did and decided that we can make a difference and that we must try. 

I pray that Barack Obama will realize that he wasn't re-elected because of his charisma or because of his wife's charisma, nor due to his commitment to the middle class. I voted for Barack Obama because he can do what needs to be done to bring the United States into the 21 st century as a modern country with big ideas that include peace, and I think many other Americans voted for him for this same reason. We want an end to wars. . I voted for Barack Obama because I believe he gets it. He understands that the world has changed and that the US will be left behind if we can't set ourselves free from our past of classim and racism and religious tolerance, violence and war.mongering. Most of all, I voted for Obama because I realize that no politician can do these things alone. I didn't see Mitt Romney as capable of leading the majority of Americans who are not rich white men and Zionist Jews beyond our country's troubled past and to a new future. It will take a Barack Obama to unite this country and to lead us forward. 

Without doubt there are sore losers and spoilers out there who will be busy as before, working to hold our country back, to further divide us and to pit us one against the other and to make us even more marginalized and isolated in the world.  Just like they failed to win last night through a Romney victory, they will continue to lose until they realize that the United States has moved on spiritually and we have rejected hate and intolerance, punishing and humiliating the poor, bullying poor countries and stealing their resources , intimidation warmongering and greed. We don't want to be the world's most feared and hated country and we don't want to fear and hate one another.  We want peace, prosperity and  a revised American dream. A dream that we can all attain without  selling our souls in the bargain.

I was very disappointed that Obama did not once mention the US Constitution in his victory speech, nor the rule of law.  That means that it is up to us to keep our constitution relevant and to hold our government to the social contract of balanced power between the government and the people, self governance through a representative government and liberty as in inalienable rights.  We must continue the struggle to reverse the losses in civil liberties suffered after 9/11 by repealing the controversial laws that resulted in those losses.

Congratulations and good luck Mr. President We the people voted for you, and we are with you, hell or high water, and convinced that both will come our way!  ( double fist pump, hell yeah and two thumbs up!) . 

NAMAW calls on voters to cast a conscientious vote.

November 5, 2012

The National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW) calls upon all people of good conscience in the US to vote their conscience and to pray that God will find our country worthy of good and true leadership.

In respect to the issues that matter most to us, we found no significant differences between the establishment candidates. We cannot call for people to vote for a third party candidate because we cannot see how any of them could actually win. Of course should a person’s conscience guide them to vote third party, they have no reason to do otherwise, in our opinion.

Whereas the economy is very important, we don’t feel that the economy is the only important issue facing our country at this time.  So we ask that when making your decision that you consider these other important things also:

1). Neither candidate was willing to say that they would work to repeal the controversial aspects of the NDAA.  So no matter who is elected we can expect that the threat of arbitrary and indefinite detainment and detention of US citizens based upon even constitutionally protected dissenting political speech and association will remain a threat to US citizens and our Constitution.    Obama said that he would never use this power against a US citizen; Romney said he supports the NDAA and made no exception in respect to the controversial aspects of the bill.

2). Neither candidate ever addressed the secret memo written by an Obama administration attorney that sought to legalize the targeted assassination of US citizens by special teams of military personnel based upon secret evidence and allegations of aiding and comforting an enemy.   In spite of the fact that the US presently has laws on the book that make treason, which is defined as aiding and comforting the enemy in times of war, a criminal offense punishable by death. This secret memo removed the right of the US citizen to a trial, to face his or her accuser, and even denies a citizen the constitutional  right to legal defense against the charge. This causes us to assume that the motive behind the memo was not to discourage or to deter treason, but rather to make it possible for the government to chill dissent with the fear of targeted political assassination.  Obama ordered or allowed the assassination of two American citizens under cover of this controversial memo. Romney did not attack the memo, or the assassinations, which causes us to believe that both candidates feel that the US Constitution is less important than the desire to have the power to arbitrarily assassinate US citizens, and to silence dissent in the US with the threat of government sponsored political assassination of US dissidents.  

3). Neither candidate explained to us how they would address the huge debt that we owe as a result of a record breaking 12 tears of war.  No pledges to freeze the debt ceiling, no pledges to attempt to restructure or renegotiate the debt, no pledges to end the wars and no pledges to take back US monetary policy or to end Federal Reserve control of US currency and monetary policies. Even the most severe austerity measures will not solve our country’s economic problems if we don’t end the wars, stop raising the debt ceiling and stop over printing money. 

4). Neither candidate made mention of much needed changes in US foreign policy. No mention was made of ending the preemptive strike policy, or the war on terrorism which is a perpetual war matrix.   No mention was made of reassessing our rendition program, the drone program, our unconditional support of Israel, or our biased policies in the Muslim world.  No one mentioned the immeasurable loss of US credibility, prestige and popularity that is casing the US to be increasingly marginalized and isolated, nor did either candidate have a single recommendation as to how to reverse this negative trend.   

5). As for domestic policy, no solutions were proposed to address the problem of student debt, the noncompetitive education our children receive in out universities and colleges. No mention of the more than 20 million Americans left uninsured even under the Obama Healthcare reform.  No solutions were offered to address the growing problems of poverty and hunger and homelessness in the US and neither did either of the candidates address the low testing scores that have placed US students at 25^th in the world in their understanding of math and science.

We ask that as you consider these points, you keep in mind that whoever we vote for tomorrow, after the elections, there is lots of work to be done.  It will take the power and commitment of “We”, the people, and not only the government, to make the US the more perfect union that we all dream of. 

May God bless the people of conscience in the US and may He guide and protect.