American Election Year

I strongly dislike election years in the USA. One thing all the political campaigning has shown me...there is almost no honest politician. Each campaigner runs his/her campaign by ripping apart all the other campaigners running for the same office.

Who to believe? Why believe them? If you believe they are all telling the truth, then none of them are fit for office. If you don't believe them, then they are all liars. Is there an honest man/woman among all of the liars? How do you know which one is honest. Almost all voters don't really know the people they vote for. All they know about them is what they want you to know or believe about them. They pay big money for that.

Personally for me, it all boils down to this: I don't like politicians at any level. I don't believe there is any difference between the Democrats and Republicans. I believe politicians are not "in it" to do good for the country but, rather, to satisfy their own personal goals and ambitions. I believe it makes no difference at all which party wins the election.

When I was a kid, national debt was measured in the millions of dollars. With the billions taken in by federal income tax, we should have been able to pay off that debt decades ago! Instead, at the end of each presidential and congressional term, we are ever more IN debt. It doesn't matter which party is in charge, the result is the same. Not only do they borrow trillions of dollars, they waste our tax money, they use our social security funds, and they never account for all the expenditures.

Why can't they pay off America's debt? Who (which countries/corporations) holds all these debts? Will they ever foreclose on the federal government? Who is REALLY in charge in America? Or should the question be: Who OWNS America?

Apparently, no one is in charge and no one has been for decades. The elected politicians all run their own agendas according to how much it will benefit them personally. Do any politicians really care about our country? Or do they believe our country's finances and problems can't be fixed and so leave the problem-solving to the "next guy in office"?

If American politicians are any good AT ALL, why can't they get their financial house in order on behalf of the American people? Do they give a damn?

The IRS comes down hard on everyday taxpayers who don't pay their taxes. They penalize them heavily. Who gets down on the federal government when they don't pay their bills? What are they doing with our tax money. They certainly aren't using our tax money to run the country. They continue to borrow money to run the country. What is our tax money to them--petty cash to improve the quality of their personal lives?

I further believe that one of the prerequisites for being a politician is Dishonesty. They need to be willing to lie to suit their image at any moment in time and they need to do it well. They seem to have mastered that skill.

I can't speak to politicians in other countries but my logic tells me that it isn't any different.

I've been told many times that people who don't vote should not complain. My belief is that the way things are, we don't need to vote. It doesn't seem to matter which party or who is in office, the debt gets bigger and the problems continue.

On another level, the States and their politicians are no better than the federal politicians. I believe politicians just use the state positions as training ground for obtaining a federal seat. It's where they hone their best lies and lying facades in preparation for a federal politician's position. A lot of states are bankrupt or near-bankrupt. They just follow Washington DC's lead in how to manipulate their voters and the general public into believing at least some of their lies.

I think that first and foremost, we should pass a law that states: If the national debt is not reduced by at least a nominal 10% at the end of each presidential term, no politicians who are in office at the time can ever again run for office at the federal, state, or even the county level. And, if the national debt by some miracle is lowered by 10%, each politician must prove with hard evidence that he/she had a direct hand in lowering the debt. If he/she cannot prove it, he/she forfeits his/her privilege of ever running for any other public office. This law should also be applied at the state and county levels as well.

AMERICA IS BROKE, PEOPLE! WAKE UP AND MAKE OUR LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS ACCOUNTABLE FOR PAYING OFF THE DEBT. America should begin Living Within Her Means. That should be the foremost goal of all politicians. No more excuses.

Unless the American voters wakeup and stop allowing themselves to be manipulated by demanding more responsible laws on who gets to run for office and how long they can serve and further demanding that at the end of every term, each politician provide a detailed report of everything they have accomplished...unless the American voters stand up and demand accountability from their politicians, we'll get deeper in debt faster and faster, there will be more scandals, and the problems will multiply.

So...WAKE UP, AMERICA.

Are We Alone?

I've been watching a lot of science shows discussing and debating this question.

I have only one question: Why don't they just look around our world--both near and far--and throughout our universe? Nature did not create just one of anything. Nature is extremely redundant. Just the fact that they can categorize everything they discover and learn of should convince them that each time they find something new, they find many others. Enough so that they can then create a category for that find.

Our astrophysicists, geophysicists, and biophysicists are focusing only on what they know of here on our very tiny world. They have nearly convinced themselves that our world is unique, that we are a "special" happenstance. REALLY?

Our scientists are only looking for life that could survive on Earth or in some way be just like us and our other earthly life forms. Have they not yet learned from all of the extremophiles they continue to find? Life forms that continue to thrive without water, light, oxygen, heat or cold, in chemicals and minerals they believed would be poisonous to life? Why do they insist on searching for life that mimics us and the average mammalian life on Earth?

To be considered "intelligent", must a life form think and communicate as we do? Are we not learning that many life forms on Earth do indeed communicate and think among their own species? Because their manner of communication differs from ours and because we do not understand them, does that mean they are not intelligent?

I say resoundingly: OF COURSE NOT! I say they are intelligent enough to survive successfully in their very dangerous environments...and they do it without destroying their environments. Unlike the human species. We may be "intelligent" enough to create things to increase our enjoyment and comfort but we have not yet learned to do it WITHOUT destroying the very things we need to continue to survive; specifically our food sources, our oxygen sources, our soil, our air.

So, who are the intelligent beings on planet Earth?