Agree it's just a catchy slogan - America has always been at war and will never be great - it's the single greatest threat to world peace while all the greenhouse gasses emitted by it's offense forces the single greatest threat to the environment.
Trump is just the symptom of a far larger problem - the real problem is corporate influence make that control over government if we can still call it that.
Here's your answer - what do we end up with when business and government have merged?
Yes, that is how I see it. When business and government merge we end up with a profit and power driven system devoid of ethics and integrity because the only thing which counts is making money and the more power you have the more money you make. We end up with an evil State, society and culture.
Around the same time Huey Long exposed the duopoly.
Not able to find a short video on that right now, it went along the lines that a Republican will skin you from the neck down while a Democrat will skin you from the ankle up.
Aspects of the first and second world wars and all that went before it during and after appears to have been very carefully designed so that other agenda's could be pursued.
Q - Is it also our collective failure for not holding politicians accountable for not looking after our interest? - How do we do that since the system appears designed so that it cannot be held accountable.
Eloquent and succinct. A major problem for the US is the corruption in politics from lobbying systems which would be illegal in other developed nations.
Having said that, vested power agendas have always lobbied, just not as obviously as they do in the US and had politicians in their pockets much of the time.
How do we hold politicians accountable when the system ensures that all candidates are in their pocket so even if one is voted out, the one voted in will still be their man or woman. Systems drive behaviour and all systems are flawed and that includes democracy.
I suppose we must first hold ourselves accountable and work on from there.
Great article. The outsourcing began sooner, though. I don’t know the details, but I remember growing up in the 50s and 60s it was a joke and a cliche that labels should be checked because everything cheap or of poor quality was “Made in Japan”, and many cheap canned foods were produced in Europe, where, we were told, health standards were lower. Both of those areas have gotten us back big time by producing finer products than the US does, and the cliche now is that everything cheap is made in China. There was a difference, though: back then, there was at least a consciousness that buying union-made goods or at least ones labeled “Made in USA” would boost the economy and US workers. Now, that awareness is discouraged; the Corporate Complex wants to kill unions, and keep the blame for lost jobs on immigrants instead of on the outsourcers.
Yes, we also had everything made in Japan as it now is in China. It was known as cheap and inferior. In fact in Australia people developed a saying if you needed to pee a lot, that you had a Japanese bladder.
The Chinese have also moved into high quality products as Japan did.
Ironic that Americans were told canned good from Europe were inferior when the American food industry is the most toxic on earth. The US still allows more than 20 toxic ingredients which are banned in all other developed nations.
Yes! The food industry kept developing and adding more chemicals at that time, convincing the public that they were improvements, preventing spoilage and preserving taste and color. That it was “scientific”. I think many of the food processors actually believed it, at least at first.
Yes, you are right. There was that time in the Forties when the propaganda campaign began that processing made food better, when it didn't. And I guess Americans were encouraged to believe that whatever they did or had was better than anyone else.
I have spent a lot of time in the US with family and friends there, over 40 years. I usually buy fresh and organic where available and I was struck by supermarkets in the US, which did have good fresh food, but even the packaged organic goods were so fiddled with. and added to, that I could not see how they were organic.
American supermarkets have gazillions of products but they are all heavily processed, including what is called organic.
Agree it's just a catchy slogan - America has always been at war and will never be great - it's the single greatest threat to world peace while all the greenhouse gasses emitted by it's offense forces the single greatest threat to the environment.
Trump is just the symptom of a far larger problem - the real problem is corporate influence make that control over government if we can still call it that.
Here's your answer - what do we end up with when business and government have merged?
Yes, that is how I see it. When business and government merge we end up with a profit and power driven system devoid of ethics and integrity because the only thing which counts is making money and the more power you have the more money you make. We end up with an evil State, society and culture.
Once a nation descents into evil it quite simply does not emerge.
There is always hope of transformation. That is how we and the world are hardwired.
It happened some time ago:
“…politics is the shadow cast on society by big business…”
- John Dewey, 1931
Around the same time Huey Long exposed the duopoly.
Not able to find a short video on that right now, it went along the lines that a Republican will skin you from the neck down while a Democrat will skin you from the ankle up.
Aspects of the first and second world wars and all that went before it during and after appears to have been very carefully designed so that other agenda's could be pursued.
Q - Is it also our collective failure for not holding politicians accountable for not looking after our interest? - How do we do that since the system appears designed so that it cannot be held accountable.
Eloquent and succinct. A major problem for the US is the corruption in politics from lobbying systems which would be illegal in other developed nations.
Having said that, vested power agendas have always lobbied, just not as obviously as they do in the US and had politicians in their pockets much of the time.
How do we hold politicians accountable when the system ensures that all candidates are in their pocket so even if one is voted out, the one voted in will still be their man or woman. Systems drive behaviour and all systems are flawed and that includes democracy.
I suppose we must first hold ourselves accountable and work on from there.
Corruption was legalized in the US - no more problem.
The root of all the evil can be traced back to the usury based economic system.
I think the problem is not so much usury, which covers a broad field, but unregulated capitalism/usury is the root of much evil.
Great article. The outsourcing began sooner, though. I don’t know the details, but I remember growing up in the 50s and 60s it was a joke and a cliche that labels should be checked because everything cheap or of poor quality was “Made in Japan”, and many cheap canned foods were produced in Europe, where, we were told, health standards were lower. Both of those areas have gotten us back big time by producing finer products than the US does, and the cliche now is that everything cheap is made in China. There was a difference, though: back then, there was at least a consciousness that buying union-made goods or at least ones labeled “Made in USA” would boost the economy and US workers. Now, that awareness is discouraged; the Corporate Complex wants to kill unions, and keep the blame for lost jobs on immigrants instead of on the outsourcers.
Yes, we also had everything made in Japan as it now is in China. It was known as cheap and inferior. In fact in Australia people developed a saying if you needed to pee a lot, that you had a Japanese bladder.
The Chinese have also moved into high quality products as Japan did.
Ironic that Americans were told canned good from Europe were inferior when the American food industry is the most toxic on earth. The US still allows more than 20 toxic ingredients which are banned in all other developed nations.
Yes! The food industry kept developing and adding more chemicals at that time, convincing the public that they were improvements, preventing spoilage and preserving taste and color. That it was “scientific”. I think many of the food processors actually believed it, at least at first.
Yes, you are right. There was that time in the Forties when the propaganda campaign began that processing made food better, when it didn't. And I guess Americans were encouraged to believe that whatever they did or had was better than anyone else.
I have spent a lot of time in the US with family and friends there, over 40 years. I usually buy fresh and organic where available and I was struck by supermarkets in the US, which did have good fresh food, but even the packaged organic goods were so fiddled with. and added to, that I could not see how they were organic.
American supermarkets have gazillions of products but they are all heavily processed, including what is called organic.
On top of that China makes high quality products.
Absolutely. As with Japan, the era of lots of cheap set them up.
America was never great, just lucky.
I agree. Certainly not great in the ways Americans imagined and believed. And not a great place to live for many Americans.
I just read your comment without my glasses and I thought it said “America was never great, just tacky”. Thanks! I needed that. 🙏
Laughing.
Lol
Make America Great Again Made in Hollywood!