if you don't want a bummer, don't read this

[forrestb]

If you don’t want a bummer on this 4th of July, don’t read this.

I’m in my 70s and have grandchildren less than 10 years of age. Normally, on the 4th, I look forward to celebrating the founding moments of our country. But this year is different; my optimism has tanked.

Instead, I weep for the life that my grandchildren are likely to experience.

Through the folks that we have elected over the last many years we are now under such a crushing debt that they will either wind up paying off (you haven’t heard of austerity measures yet) or will live in a third world country in a depression brought about by de facto bankruptcy of the US: devaluation of the currency sufficient to pay off the debt by more massive printing of dollars.

We now have four legislative branches of government rather than the two specified in our Constitution: Senate, House of Representatives, President, and the Supreme Court. Why?

A. The President issues Executive Orders that either directly counter the law(s) passed by Congress [so-called signing directives saying ‘I will not enforce that law’] or issues Executive Orders that directly counter Congressionally denied action [e.g., the Dream Act].

B. The Supreme Court makes decisions of a political nature rather than interpretation of our Constitution. (1) 230-odd years of eminent domain being used for public-owned infrastructure additions thrown out to take private land and give it to private parties for the return of more tax money or a few more jobs. [Kelo didn’t work out either way since the taken land was never developed, but hey! it was a great idea]. (2) The Constitution use of the word “people” redefined to mean that corporations are also ‘people’ regarding political fundraising. To do so in an attempt to counter same by unions was political soul searching of the lowest kind. (3) And now ‘we the people’ may be penalized (excuse me: taxed) for NOT doing something mandated by Congress. Under this newly acquired power, my government may now tell me what to eat (or not), what to wear (or not), and with whom to affiliate (or not). Ridiculous? The point is that now the Congress (President too?) has that power never before granted.

C. Now our intelligence agencies have the power, and presumably the right, to monitor our phone calls, emails and Internet use. For now, we are assured that the contents of same are not looked at, only who is talking to whom for possible terrorists connections. And, given the huge volume, there are not enough folks to do that content search. But we know that software is used on emails to pinpoint the use of certain words. How long before computer speed and software sophistication advance to where all content is scanned. You may rest assured that someday, somebody will look.

And President Carter just thought that we were in a "malaise" in the 1970s.

[curiousgeorge]

I agree with you 100%, Forrest. Our country is in a sad state and will only get worse as long as we continue to have the leadership (?), or lack there of, we now have. I fear we are too far into "political correctness", liberalism and the welfare state for us to be able to be rescued. I morn for those that follow.

[terrydowning]

It's interesting to me that similar sentiments can be seen throughout our history as a nation.

Just do some research on Presidents Lincoln, Roosevelt (Both of them), Coolidge, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and GW Bush.

Fear not for the up and coming generation, they have been presented with the opportunity to become another "Greatest Generation". It is our responsibility now to start enabling them to take ownership of the country. Lord knows the baby boomers have driven it into the ditch.

I can not and will not blame just the president or the supreme court, that is way too easy. The entire congress is failing us wholesale. BTW "we the people" elected them! So who do I blame? I start with myself. Have I been doing my share to participate in the democratic process? Do I do enough to engage people in learning about the issues, (Not just the bullet points from the news) Unfortunately finding unbiased factual information regarding issues and candidates is getting increasingly difficult. Do I encourage enough people to vote at every election and not just the biggies every 4 years?

Next I blame my fellow Americans who are not participating in the democratic process. A republic is not about majority rule, it is about the loudest minority. Get loud, teach your children and grandchildren to get involved and start taking over.

Don't despair, start doing something about it.

and FYI, our "Intelligence Agencies" Especially the NSA have been reading our email since email was invented (Why do you think their are restrictions on exporting cryptography software? The NSA can break 128 bit encrypted messages in seconds.) They have also been tracking our phone calls since the the National Security Act of 1947. All throughout the cold war, because you just never knew who was a commie spy.

So this is nothing new at all. We're just hearing about it because the news cycle is a bit slow right now.