Ten trillion and counting

Please see this PBS video:
Ten trillion and counting

This is very disturbing stuff, but we need to know it.

Let this presentation also remind us that there are really smart people who genuinely care about the world around us, and are capable of describing it. My hat is off, once again, to Public Broadcasting and Frontline.

If you watch this video, and others, very hopefully you will feel moved to do something about it. Even if it's only talking with your family and friends, it's better then doing nothing.

If you want a plan, here's one:

- put the people who duped America into the invasion of Iraq on trail for war crimes

- remove money from the election process (public funding + Internet = elections that will help us find and put the right people into public office)

- end the military invasion of the Middle East and it's mission to achieve military superiority in the region. It's a sinkhole that has accomplished nothing and continues to suck our blood, treasure and the very soul of this country.

- cease the "special relationship" with Israel. Denouce Zionism.

- seek balanced relationships with all countries

- support the United Nations and World Court

- assign responsibility for int'l terrorism to the UN. Assume there will be more terrorist acts here and abroad. Commit equally with all countries to support UN actions to deal with this problem.

- acknowledge that we cannot kill and destroy our way into people heart's, and that by trying we only create the terrorists we so fear. There are more people in the world that hate us today then ever before. In a world brimming with wmd's, it's only a matter of time before someone who hates us gets his hands on one of those terrible weapons. The best we can do to stop it is to show the world we mean business by putting the people responsible for the hatred of America in jail, where they belong.

- Universal health care is a basic human right, not a for-profit enterprise. For profits can leech all they want, but not for the basics. Use the military sick-bay concept as a minimal approach.

- negotiate with health care providers under threat of nationalizing the industry if a fair and equitable agreement cannot be reached between they and our representatives (who, due to reforms, actually represent us).

- bust up every company that is too big to fail. This was what anti-trust was supposed to be about. Put it back and make it work.

- use tariffs to bring jobs back to America. Achieving equilibrium and harmony with the world is vital, but it must happen at the right rate, not overnight as has happened. We need to back off and do it slowly.

- promote the Internet for "Made in America" products

- establish a world class legal reference and support library on the Internet. That is, get rid of most of the blood-sucking lawyers. If the gov't makes a law, the gov't must provide a sufficient explanation and whatever support is required to understand and work with - or challenge - that law. Forcing us pay lawyers to understand the law is unacceptable. Besides, all of this can be done right on the Internet, with existing technologies and for relatively small cost. Considering it's payback value to society, this is one of the best investments in history.

- Reduce military spending by 50%. Our greatest enemy is fear. Fear has driven the military budget to staggering, colossal heights. We cannot live in fear, and we cannot let fear do this to us. As we adjust from fear-based to "confidence based on doing the right thing", we will have fewer enemies to fear. And as we rid the world of terrible weapons, we'll have fewer people with fewer weapons.

- transform the military into rotations that provide our fair share of support to UN forces, otherwise training while performing public service and humanitarian missions.

- assist small businesses willing to provide training

- achieve 100% nuclear and wmd disarmament, worldwide

- achieve clean energy

- legalize and tax marijuana. Gov't never had the right to make it illegal in the first place. Re-educate the boozers, if you must, but if half the things on this list are done, there will be far fewer people turning to booze in the first place.


Bill






Bill