The $800,000 Question

National Priorities Project

Well we're droppin' our bombs
In the Southern Hemisphere
And people are starving
That live right here
--Love and Happiness,
John Cougar Mellencamp
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Some sundry figures: It costs $800,000 per year to house one prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, per Mother Jones (11/10/11); Eurasia Review cites a $1 million figure for each cleared Gitmo inmate. The inmates have no date of release.

Compare those figures with the $47,102 annual cost for incarcerating an inmate in a California state jail (lao.ca.gov). The sites says, "[o]ver two-thirds of these costs are for security and inmate health care" ($19,663 and $12,442, respectively.) Annual incarceration fee per prisoner at Supermax is estimated to be $76,000.

So here is the $800,000 question: Why does the U.S. still have prisoners at Gitmo and why are we, the U.S. taxpayers, paying this money to keep them there (especially since the closing of Gitmo was one of President Obama election promises . . . how soon the honeymoon promises are tossed aside)? What are we getting from this expenditure to house cleared prisoners? Why do the incarceration costs at Gitmo far exceed the rates at other state and federal facilities?

And what of the benefits from any of the human detritus we have swept up? We paid a cool $25 million for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (forgetting all of the incidental costs leading up to his capture.) The U.S. has spent at least $7 million to maintain him, and to what purpose and what gain? KSM has never stood before a federal judge, so what form, justice?

The Supercommittee could not arrive at a budget agreement, but we never put the wars or the panoply of related costs on the chopping block.

Consider the very small issue of the incarceration cost of one cleared Gitmo prisoner. Assuming the average citizen pays $5,000 is taxes annually, this means 160 individual annual taxes go to house one prisoner incarcerated in a phony war. Multiply that by the 170 prisoners currently in Gitmo and you see that 27,200 citizens pay their entire taxes to house Gitmo prisoners.

In Ranger's grid square of the Military-Industrial complex in impoverished Northwest Florida, the $800,000 it takes to house one prisoner could fund a full-time homeless shelter or several youth centers. It costs $2.50/visit to the local municipal swim complex. $5/wk for ftwo visits would be beyond the reach of an impoverished child or a citizen living on meager disability funds, and yet those citizens could most benefit from access. Why aren't our municipal facilities accessible by all citizens? And no, there are no provisions to allow reduced fee access for our neediest.

The local Big Bend Homeless Coalition disburses a federal grant for homeless people providing $550 in rent and $113.10 for utilities to cover about 120 apartments -- a supply far underserving the need. As the citizens gain income, they then pay a pro-rated amount. Our local Section 8 Housing Program is an absolute wash, with needy citizens routinely turned away and told to try back in a month, and then another month; a program representative said they are working on logs from three years ago.

Back to the prisoners: The Israelis recently released 1,000 truly dangerous fighters in exchange for one Israeli soldier, and they released them knowing they were still military assets that would take up the cause.

The British released IRA military personnel from prison when they signed their cease-fire. At some point, all of these dangerous men must be released. A liberal society cannot keep people interminably incarcerated sans fair trial. That is not the way we roll.

Gitmo is not Dachau.

You Play, You Pay

When you win a war
you preside over a funeral.
Pay your respects to the dead
--Tao Te Ching, Verse 31

The way you stole my heart,
you know you could have been a cool crook.
And, baby, you're so smart,
you know you could have been a schoolbook
--The Way You Do the Things You Do,
The Temptations
___________________

We always talk about THEM and how they run the government, but the question is: Why do we allow them to run the government the way they do?

For example: Most states have lotteries, which is a polite way of saying they have co-opted the functions of organized crime. Even in the God-fearin' Bible belt, they still like their gambling (often under the aegis of helping schoolchildren, you see.) God gave us free will, after all, and you're saved or not, so bring on the Lotto.

The Florida State lottery is gambling in its purest form -- state-sponsored racketeering sold as a positive, something that would benefit scholastic programs. Nobody seems to mind that the dumbest and poorest among us are the source of the increased revenue that benefited the smartest and best-educated. We pretend that bilking billions from Lotto players is different from taxation, but with the Lotto the players get zilch, whereas with increased taxation they might get something beneficial.

The lottery is a hidden tax levied upon the poorest and most desperate in our system. However, even that inequity is irrelevant as gambling was accepted as a legitimate state function for raising revenue and keeping taxes down. But the real rub of this supposedly painless generator of supplemental revenue for the general education of Floridians was seen after new Governor Rick Scott (aka Pink Slip Rick) blew into Tallahassee.

Now the funds for schools and scholarships have been cut, the monies diverted to more dire state needs (Students Rally Against Bright Futures Cuts). NO surprise as this Republican governor is opposed to all tax increases. Miraculously, Scott has actually cut corporate taxes concomitant with falling revenue at the Florida mafia (which we call the Lottery Commission.) And a mere 65 students turn out for the rally, on their own campus!

Absolutely predictable: Revenue falls across the board, the governor grabs Lotto cash for the state -- cutting earmarked education funding -- all the while denying the need for increased tax revenue. It doesn't take a genius to see we have been hornswaggled. The lottery exists on bipartisan support, so both parties bear responsibility for this con game preying upon our poorest souls.

This sure seems like a perfect example of President Reagan's Voodoo Economics.

Beelzebub's Trough

Now I bet you niggers do think y'all white.
College don't mean shit.
Y'all niggers, and you gonna be niggers forever
--School Daze (1988)

I'm a little bit country
And I'm a little bit rock 'n roll
I'm a little bit of Memphis and Nashville
With a Little bit of Motown in my soul
I don't know if it's good or bad
But I Know I Love It So
--A Little Bit Country, Marie Osmond

Academy: A modern school where football is taught
--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

A mind is a terrible thing to waste
--United Negro College Fund motto

A mind is a terrible thing
--Eddie Murphy, SNL
__________________

Let's talk about socialism in America today. We will begin with the public school system.

Aviator47 @ Milpub today posed the question:

"Why does public education exist? Does it exist to help/please/entertain the student or the parent, or to meet a societal need? I doubt that the way we implement it in the US is really about the needs of our society. If it were, then a diploma would be a clear credential of an identified level skills, knowledge ability in specific subjects."

The only thing most people agree on is, education is a mess. But why do we even have public schools? The question is anathema. Why don't we allow some students to follow a vocational or IT track (the equivalent of the old "secretarial")? Anathema, again. We hew to the fallacy that education is about leveling the playing field, making it so that you, too, might be president one day.

But that's folderal, for if you are to be president, you better be a good money-maker (if not born into it), a good entrepreneur, and have all the skills that accrue to that undertaking. We don't teach that in school -- that's privileged information, and those that have it are averse to its wide dissemination, or we would have a different sort of educational system.

And how is this socialist mosaic funded? Partially through Ranger's property taxes on an investment property in a county in which his children could not attend school anyway, even if he had them. His assessment (above) shows he pays three school-related taxes amounting to over $1,000, which gets funneling through the tax collector to be distributed by the school board.

Ranger pays taxes for somebody else's kid to have a seat in the classroom, and is this not a definition of socialism? The involuntary redistribution of Ranger's wealth, without his input. Is this just and equable to pay for goods and services that one does not use? Why not tax only families utilizing the school system? Why not a "special purposes" fee?

The U.S. has made a societal choice to socialize at the local level, while the conservatives continue to rail at this de facto situation. Socialism is the devil, so your kids are feeding at beelzebub's trough.

These education taxes are but one example of the contradictions and fictions that guide our clueless and hypocritical political and personal lives. Do you take a commuter train to work? You, too, are benefiting by socialism at work. Many of the loudest voices still understand the need for public transport, for how will their household help make it out to the suburbs to service their every need?

Schools are also funded through the Lotto -- gambling, an activity skewed to taking it out of the poor. Just like socialism, gambling is an evil to the likes of the conservative crowd, but they somehow turn their heads like Linda Blair in The Exorcist in order to allow its funds to trickle into the slumgullion that is socialized education in America. We can't be honest, but we have mastered averting our eyes.

Here is the humdinger: We will oppose socialism with all of our might -- with wars and violence -- all while meekly paying our taxes.

Can you say, "hypocrisy"?

--Jim and Lisa

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

You're above the System. Over it.
Beyond it. We're "them." We're "they."
We are the Men in Black
--Men in Black (1997)

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession.
I have come to realize
that it bears a very close resemblance to the first
--President Ronald Reagan

Well, we're off, we're off, we're off!
I'll tell you what it is! (what is it God dang is!?)
It's some kinda Texas psychobilly freakout, that's what it is!
--Psychobilly Freakout, Reverend Horton Heat
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America is a nation that bases its national policies and life upon denial of truth and the acceptance of lies. Our policy is to lie, and our lies are our policies.

Some of our guiding myths are:

• The government exists for the benefit of the people

• Deficit spending will solve all of our problems

• Taxation rates in our nation are lower than those in socialistic states like England, Sweden, Norway, etc.

• The government can spend us out of recession and depression

Let's discuss:

Government of, by and for the people does not exists anywhere except on paper. Elective government doesn't work because we elect people that are likable and who resemble us.

This means they can't even conceptualize what $787 Billion in a stimulus program means, or even what it looks like. Our legislators can't imagine what a trillion dollar war deficit actually means. Our lawmakers are just like us: They haven't got a clue, but unlike Ranger, they will not admit their ignorance.

Local officials are equally uninformed, and the city and county managers do some fancy footwork to keep things running, despite our politicians. Spending money that you do not have is not a policy that can be successful on any level.

In the past, the U.S. could squeak by with this fallacious thinking because we were an expanding and growing nation. No longer the case, we must now shift our thinking and jar our senses into pursuing realistic goals. Contraction rather than expansion is a necessary turn. The nature of our curent status requires it. This is not your dad's post-WWII America.

When one defies nature, famines result; to defy economic realities is to court national disaster. You cannot spend money you don't have and cannot pay back, and expect to prosper. We are a nation in production contraction, not expansion.

The fact is, the actual U.S. tax rate is higher than that of the socialist countries we denigrate. If we consider the costs of servicing our national debt, the monies that we spend are concealed from our oversight, but that does not mean they are not real. It still comes out of our pockets -- it is just deferred.

Let's get back to what Ranger knows best -- walking a trail and tactical movement. When in combat and moving to contact, it is a fact that the easiest trail is always the most dangerous. Our leaders always take us down the easiest trails because we want them to, but it always leads to disaster.

The U.S. would be better served if we raised taxes, while curbing government spending. The leaders of both parties are leading the American citizens down the aisle leading to the slaughterhouse. Judas goats are not leaders.

Don't smoke 'em if you don't got 'em.

Knife to the Throat

It's a lesson too late for the learnin'
Made of sand, made of sand
--The Last Thing on My Mind, Tom Paxton

Well poor boy spent all he had,
famine come in the land
--Prodigal Son, Rolling Stones

I hear the train a comin'
It's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't seen the sunshine,
Since, I don't know when
--Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash

breaking into Fort Knox,
stealing our intentions,
hangars sitting gripped in oil
Crying FREEDOM!
--B.Y.O.B, S.O.A.D.
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Ranger has been on the road for a month now, thinking, driving and avoiding getting lost. He has been a modern day Jimmy Appleseed, sowing his thoughts -- welcome or not -- throughout his travels.

Yesterday we toured Cleveland, Ranger's stomping grounds. Save for the gentrified downtown, the ubiquitous urban decay of Cleveland reflected that seen in Buffalo, Erie, Toledo, and every other city outside of the Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire leg of the tour.

Eastside Cleveland is a garbage dump, an absolute scab on the wound that that is the current U.S. of A. Everywhere, extreme wealth abutted by the more ubiquitous extreme poverty. Our loathing for the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) intensifies and solidifies. Let us rebuild our shit hole cities before we rebuild foreign shit hole cities. We do not have the money to do both.

Our corroded financial reality is now an open scab for all to see, even the ordinarily clueless George Bush. Though one hopes for decisive corrective action, overheard last night in an Ohio restaurant from a table of retirees was the following: "Things may be bad, but they'll be worse if Obama gets in and tries to nigger-rig things."

Happy for the moment they were in their presumed posture of smug superiority and willful blindness. They refused to recognize the people who actually have placed their retirements in jeopardy. These people are in the bag for McCain and Palin, who can can be dumb as logs as far as they are concerned. They will not vote for Obama. This indicts the foolishness of the Democratic voters as strongly as it does the pathetic bigotry of many citizens.

We met a 30-year firefighter earlier in the day and discussed the event of 9-11, with which he had some relationship. Ranger asked why he thought the people in the first plane didn't take action when the hijackers cut the stewardess's throat.

The answer is the U.S. public is lulled into a sense of security. Someone, somewhere, will know what is going down, and will talk the hijackers down to the tarmac, where most passengers will then be allowed to disembark. That is the way this scenario usually played out, but not this time. However, the learning curve was sharp and the third flight saw a passenger rebellion.

The people can yet summon outrage. But they must first acknowledge and assign responsibility. This economic "crisis" has been a long time in the coming; the train's lights have been bearing down the tunnel a long while. Hardly an unforeseen crisis. It now diverts attention from foreign policy, and it will earn BushCheney's minions a final Big Blowout before the elections. It does nothing for the solid, vanishing middle class citizen on whose backs this nation rides.

Both parties promise tax breaks (Obama caters to the middle class with an $85 billion a year plan; McCain pledges to continue Bush's ill-advised breaks, estimated at $1.5 trillion over 10 years.) The current $650 billion+ U.S. defense budget excludes secret funding and non-emergency bailouts, yet we are promised tax reductions?

Do the taxpaying American people (and that includes members of Congress) actually believe taxes can be cut while federal spending is increased? Did money start growing on the blighted birch trees of the Green Mountains?

Such magical thinking has gotten us into this mess. Both parties propose initiatives which cost money. The solution? Lower taxes. Yet everyone has eyes to see. Biden even mentioned the blight in his home area in tonight's debate.

The inner city blight across America is something that neither Obama nor McCain address, save in the vaguest terms. Last month Thomas Friedman wrote about the primacy of need in the U.S. state of Georgia, while the U.S. government pledged aid to the Caucasus Republic of Georgia, albeit a mere $1 billion (Georgia on My Mind.)

Friedman wrote, "Wow, I thought. That’s great: $1 billion to fix Georgia’s roads and schools. But as I read on, I quickly realized that I had the wrong Georgia."

This is where the outrage should lie.