One "Christian Nation" Under God?

     

     I am always amazed by the fact that although we call ourselves “a Christian Nation” and we boast about the fact that we have more churches in the United States than any other country in the world, the teachings of God, the Father, and His Son, Christ Jesus, do not apparent play any role in our policy decisions. Our actions suggest that we do not ask ourselves questions like “What grade would Jesus, who knows what’s honestly in our hearts, give us for the policy decisions we’ve just made?” “Are my policy decisions in accordance with His teachings?” “Is my conduct in compliance with the example He modeled on Earth? And, am I writing and passing legislations that are in the true spirit of His principles (cited in His Bible), which we have incorporated into the two most important documents in our nation – The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States?”

     In fact it appears to be quite the opposite: Our decision-makings are so far afield of His teachings that they would probably put us in good standing with the other guy – Satin. Moreover, what I find to be even more amazing is the fact that organizations, like the Republican Party, which claim to be the beacons of Christian values and morality, are the worst offenders. Their anti-Christian policies, which are becoming more frequent, are increasingly producing more severe consequences: Reductions in real wages; reductions in the size of the middle class; increases in the number of people living below the poverty line; and deregulations of civil rights, workers’ rights, gender rights, and individual rights.

     Currently, it appears that the republicans are winning all the social and economic battles. They won the battle concerning “no new taxes.” They won the battle concerning the topics and the framing of the economic debates. And most significantly, they won the battle concerning spending cuts: they forced our country to make deep cuts to badly needed social and education programs, while refusing to make any cuts in defense spending, for weapon systems the Pentagon neither wanted or needed.

     On the surface it appears that the republicans won the economic debates because their economic ideologies were better and more effective than those of the democrats. I don’t believe this is true, but even if I did, there is one inescapable fact that all honest God-fearing Christians cannot overlook: Jesus would never cut entitlements, because He knows that cutting entitlements make the poor poorer. This means that death from poverty and other conditions in poverty-stricken neighborhoods increases. God knows that cutting entitlements is literally a death sentence for the poorest Americans. And the majority of poor Americans are children. God knows that the deeper the cuts, the more children you sentence to death.

     

     Cutting entitlements or social programs that help “Americans in need” might be a good strategy for minimizing the tax cuts for corporations and wealth Americans. It might appease the Republican-Tea Party, but let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind, agreeing to these actions makes you and I and every American conspirators in what has already become “the biggest mass genocide of Americans by Americans – And most of the victims are children!!!!!!

  God help us!!!         

by

James A. Porter

    

Thanksgiving

It’s “the day” of the year

when we compress

what should have been

our way of life, or

the manner in which

we treated family, friends – strangers,

on every day, before this

momentous day we call

Thanksgiving.  

It should be the day of the year

along with the day on which

our God was born 

that serves as the barometer

by which we should evaluate

our future lifetime perspectives

concerning family, friends, thankfulness,

and our actions in accordance with the teaching of our God!

There was a time when Americans actually

took time to gave thanks,

and took time to break bread,

and care for family, friends, neighbors – and strangers every day.

It felt like we were ascending

steadily climbing up on our way

to become “the shinning city on the hill.”

Beginning on this Thanksgiving,

I hope we make it our goal

to start ascending, once again,

to “the shinning city on the hill.”

by

James A. Porter

The Tax Cuts Hologram

    

      I am pretty certain that we’ve all heard the following: “Cutting taxes will create jobs.” Cutting taxes will save the future for our children.” ”Cutting taxes will help small businesses, which create most of the jobs in the United States, to grow and expand.” ”Raising taxes isn’t the answer, because the tax dollars the government will receive from raising taxes isn’t enough to offset government spending, which continues to increasingly spiral out of control.” Although there are other similar perspective, these are these are the main views we perceive when we observe this hologram from “the right.”

     Here are some other views that should be observed when you this hologram: 1. Twenty-six states in the United States have republican governors. Most of them – especially the ones that were elected in the 2010 mid-term election, (like Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin), cut corporate taxes; implemented lucrative corporate incentives to encourage businesses to move to their states; and deregulated environmental, social, and gender policies to promote small business expansion and empowerment. 2. Most of these republican governors cut entitlements, education, and public oversight (or the regulatory agencies charged with enforcing health, safety, and environmental standards.) 3. These republican governors weakened or decimated workers’ unions. Several successful made their states “right to work states,” which essentially means that workers are without the right to bargain for decent wages, appropriate pay raises, and adequate health and retirement benefits.

     It is interesting to note that the states in the United States with the biggest gap between rich Americans and poor Americans are these republican states. They are also the states with the largest numbers of Americans living below the poverty line and biggest numbers of middle class workers whose real wages have declined. In these states the middle classes are getting smaller, growing numbers of them – including those living in the suburbs – are collecting Food Stamps, and all indications are things are going to get worse, under the current republican state and national policy, which cut corporate taxes, cut wages, cut workers’ benefits, cut entitlements, and everything else that could help to raise the standard of living for all Americans – especially the middle class.

     During the presidential debates, Mitt Romney told us about the plight of the middle class I described in the previous paragraph. He failed, however, to mention that the problem is most prevalent in the states governed by republicans – the states that cut taxes and implemented the plan he proposed.

     I think that I have a better plan: Let’s make it our goal to ensure that 26 republican governors are fired from their jobs in 2014!!!

Apparently they do not understand that “greed” isn’t a sound economic policy!!!!

by

James A. Porter

Political Holograms

    

     The truth is a hologram: In order to see the complete picture, you must carefully observe it from the right, the left, the center, and several other perspectives. Viewing it from one angle deny you a complete understanding of the other elements that are only shown in the other perspectives. I thought about holograms and the importance of observing them from several angles during the presidential election. Tax cuts, spending cuts, cuts to entitlements, jobs, military spending, education, health care, insurance coverage, social security, and immigration are political holograms that were discussed in the years and months leading up to the November 6, 2012 election. None of these topics, however, received the thorough, deliberate, and careful viewing these important holograms deserve. Tax cuts, which has been the single most dominant economic topic since 1981,was totally ignored by the presidential candidates, the senatorial candidates, the media, and virtually everyone else running for office – except republicans in conservative districts and republicans in recently (and favorably) redrawn districts, which assured them seats in congress.

     My goal in the upcoming days is to write/share in this blog the observations I made as I carefully observed each hologram from several perspectives.

by

James A. Porter

P.S. President Obama won the presidential election, which clearly demonstrates – “The Lord works in mysterious ways!”

    

Romney’s Reaganism Part 3

     

     In 1980, President Reagan’s economic aim was to empower corporate America, for he believed that the central key to creating a vibrant economy was greater freedom for the businesses community. They needed, in his judgment, less government restrictions (or greater freedom) to act more confidently and more assertively in all areas of business. Reagan believed he could create this level of empowerment for the business community by reducing the amount of government regulations, reducing the number of workers’ unions, eliminating equal opportunity and civil legal actions, and reducing corporate taxes. He believed these steps would allow corporations to grow, take additional risks, and ultimately investing in the American economy by hiring new American workers. However, Reagan’s belief, in my judgment, had one huge flaw:  President Reagan truly believed that the leaders of American corporations shared his deep love and 100 percent, patriotic, commitment to the United States of America. He assumed that the red, white, and blue streams of patriotism, which ran through every fiber of his body, also ran through the veins of American corporate leaders. He was wrong! His world of loyalty to America and fellow Americans, where the big guys looked out for the small guys and corporate leaders ensured that workers enjoyed the rewards of their labor, was rapidly becoming extinct. Instead, a new corporate mindset was emerging – especially in the days following the downfall of the Soviet Union: Corporate America, which became keenly aware that military actions by the Soviet Union would no longer pose substantial threats to American interests abroad, felt greater freedom to invest in less expensive, less regulated, and cheap-labor global markets. But Reagan seemed to be unaware of it, so he started Reaganism.

     He cut and cut corporate taxes, and taxes on capital gains. He appointed a conservative Supreme Court, including Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice Rehnquist, which proceeded to roll back all the civil rights and equal opportunity gains of the 60’s and all the environmental laws of the 60’s and 70’s, for minorities and women. Additionally, Regan made massive cuts in entitlement spending, while at the same time drastically increasing the size of the military budget. Consequently, as a direct result of these policy actions by Reagan four major trends in American economy started: 1. The richest Americans and corporate America began to make an enormous amount of money. 2. Although employment increased, the real wages of American workers decreased. 3. The number of Americans living in poverty increased, including many with jobs whose wages were too low to allow them to maintain a minimum standard of living. And 4. Our nation debt drastically increased, and run-away deficit spending started in America.

     These four trends continued under the Bush tax cuts, gained a four-year extension under the Obama and Democratic submission to the Republican-Tea Party blackmail and coercion tactics, and will become the end of the American free market economy under Mitt Romney.

     God help us!

by

James A. Porter