(6/28/2005) I have been a close observer of the American political scene since the Reagan administration, but my memories date back to the Nixon administration. Looking back I thought I had seen and heard just about everything, but today I heard something that caused my jaw to drop.

Today some of the Republicans in the House of Representatives proposed that the American taxpayers give millions of their tax dollars to a large corporation owned by the British government, Westinghouse, to build nuclear power plants in China.

Why would we want to subsidize a foreign company, that is owned by a foreign government, to build a high tech nuclear power plant in a communist country? A foreign country, Great Britain, that we defeated in the Revolutionary War, and a communist country, China, that refuses to reform its oppressive government or inequitable economic policies. Have the Republicans lost their minds?

Based on China's recent history they will take that nuclear technology, that American companies developed using our tax dollars, and copy it. Next thing you know companies like Westinghouse and General Electric will be out of business because companies in China will be dominating the power plant construction industry.

Few people are aware of this but in a couple of years there will be three Chinese car manufactures selling cars in the United States. I have seen these cars and they are great looking, high quality, and very low priced.

The Chinese government is also trying to buy Unocal, a large California based oil company. They are buying IBM's personal computer subsidiary. They are trying to buy Maytag, and several other U.S. based companies. And they are buying hundreds of billions of dollars of our treasury notes.

You can go into just about any store in America, like Target, Wal-Mart, Krogers, Tom Thumb, Wal-Greens, CVS, etc, and you will see that almost everything is made in either China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, or Mexico. It seems like the only things made in America are food products, paper products, and software, and even those companies are currently shifting their production overseas, and are being encouraged to do so by our government.

Thirty years ago the top employers in the U.S. were big manufacturing companies like General Motors, AT&T, United States Steel, Ford, and United Technologies. These companies paid high wages with good benefits. But today the top employers are companies like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, UPS, and Target. Companies that pay low wages, few benefits, have high turnover, and little upward mobility.

Something very ugly is happening to our economy and it is negatively affecting our society and the American people. These economic events are not just happening by themselves, or naturally, but they are being carried out deliberately, pre-meditatively, and ruthlessly. Our society is being transformed and in the process we are losing our opportunities, security, standard of living, and even our democracy.

Who is doing this? Why are they doing it? And how can we stop them? Or is it already too late?

The answer to the first question is easy, but let me spell it out for you. The Republican Party, Democratic Party, and the people who are financing these political parties are the people who are responsible. It's just like Ralph Nader says, "We have one big corporate party running our government.". However, based on fund raising, ideology, and legislation the Republican Party is clearly taking the lead in this backwards, non-democratic, anti-middle class, un-constitutional fascist sell-out.

The answer to the second questions is also easy. These people want more gold, more power, and more control. They are ruthless in their quest, and the more they get away with the greedier they become.

The answer to the third question is also easy to answer, but maybe impossible to make happen. Our country needs to restore our tax code and trade policies to pre-Reagan days. We need to change our regressive tax code back into a highly progressive tax code and we need to go back to protectionist trade policies.

President Clinton did move us slightly back to pre-Reagan days by making the tax code slightly more progressive. He did this by expanding the number of tax brackets and raising the top tax bracket. This action had a very positive effect on our economy by balancing the federal budget, decreasing unemployment, decreasing interest rates, and raising the standard of living. However, Clinton signed the Republicans pet project free-trade agreement, NAFTA, and every since then our trade deficit has been skyrocketing.

Think of the trade deficit like it is a hole in your car's gas tank. No matter how lean and efficient you make your engine run you will still get terrible gas mileage. And regardless of the amount of time you spend driving your car it will constantly be costing you money as your gas constantly drips out onto the ground.

Here is a more practical metaphor for understanding the effect of a trade deficit on America. Look at a map of the world and imagine stacks of gold bars in each country equal to the value of that country's currency. When a county like the U.S. is running a large trade deficit with a country like China gold bars are moving from the U.S. pile to the China pile. Thus, the U.S. is becoming worth less and China is becoming worth more. And although that wealth is not collectively shared by everyone, everyone's standard of living is indirectly effected.

When you combine this mercantilist economic trade drain with the regressive trickle down tax policies you end up with a few people in America with a lot and most people with nothing. That is a formula for plutocracy, not democracy.

American's wealth is becoming concentrated into the hands of a few people. These mega wealthy people are able to move their money around the globe in the blink of an eye. They will seek to make more money by moving their money to country's with rising currency values. Which in a free trade globalize economy will be the countries with the cheapest labor, most natural resources, fewest regulations, and most cooperative governments. Today that country is communist China.

This wealth concentration and lack of loyalty is putting the squeeze on America's middle class, which is about 98% of the American people. But the reason most of the American people don't feel the squeeze yet is because our economy is being keep afloat on a mountain of new debt, the spending of all the social security surpluses, and massive increases in government spending. The GOP is responsible for all these non-conservative economic policies that are designed to mask their sinister rip-off plan.

However, once the repeal of the estate tax is made permanent, CAFTA is passed, Social Security is privatized, and Medicare is bankrupt everything else will fall like dominos in a line and the squeeze will be felt. Raising deficits and rising interest rates along with a failing economy will force our government to sell off its assets (our assets) for pennies on the dollar to the highest bidder. Then a period of hyperinflation will make the dollar virtually worthless and force our economy into a deep depression.

This great depression will put over one hundred million Americans out of work. With this high level of unemployment, lack of affordable health care, bankrupt government, and no social safety nets the American society will become divided into a fortress society. The "haves", their servants, and security personnel on one side of the wall, and the "have-nots" on the other side of the wall. Eventually, the "have-nots" will die off and the "haves" will expand their domains beyond the walls.

Not a nice picture, but these are not nice people. They are mostly just a bunch of inheritance rich selfish paranoid spoiled brats, their money whoring shyster thieving lawyers, their corrupt politicians, and their oversized pea-brained security personnel.

They are all a bunch of arrogant right-wing con-artist who are playing the American people like we are all just a bunch of sheepish ignorant punk ass bitches. They use our religious beliefs to manipulate us. They use our televisions to distract us. They use our political leaders to mislead us. They supply us with cheap drugs and alcohol to confuse us. And they take advantage of our short-term memories and limited attention spans to con us.

We are their marks and our governments assets are the prize. We have been had! And the new paperless computerized voting computers have made us powerless and mute.

If we want to take back our country we need to do it Texas style, with old west style justice, and a punisher mentality.

Otherwise, prepare to embrace "the wall" because it is about to become your tear drenched tombstone that symbolizes your failure as self-governors.