Affiliate with No Party: A National Initiative

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… the core instincts of both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements are closer than each realizes

Our historically strong economy has masked a lot of national fault lines and we are seeing the consequences now of having been blinded by our once dominance in the World economy.  There is little doubt in my mind that we evolved into a “big is best” society and this unfortunate mis-step is haunting us now.

Big corporations, big banks, big-box stores, big insurance companies, big media, big government, big military, big cities, and so on.

Feeding the Lions, so to speak, society collectively and happily turned away from self-governance and allowed a “new royalty” to emerge.  We replaced Kings & Lords with greedy politicians and their equally greedy mega-corporate sponsors.  No, I’m not professing an anti-local business sentiment.  I’m begrudging an impossible to regulate mega-corporate, mega-financial sentiment.

As I’m reading a bit more history these days, I’m discovering many of the more astute founding fathers warned us about these dangers.

Grass-roots Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street members feel it, although they haven’t yet figured out that they’re in the same boat.  Mostly blind rage right now, I believe.  And, the Institutionalist’s have wasted no time taking advantage of this blind rage, they’re infiltrating these movements and blunting their real genius. 

The genius of both movements is that in their hearts they instinctively know the citizens need to create a new declaration of independence, not to create a new country, but to reassert the citizens’ direct control over their government.  Call it a Declaration of Self Governance!  For me the inspiration for this new declaration of independence comes interestingly enough from America’s original struggle to break free of the King of England.

Where we once were servants to a master-King, we now owe our very souls to big banks, big government, big insurance companies, etc. 

I’m convinced that both Democratic and Republican Party leadership are fronting organized efforts to distract us from our duty to self and duty to neighbor.  We simply must squash the big bugs and take our lives back.  To start this evolution to sane social policy we need to enforce an  Affiliated with No Party requirement.  In order to get our vote all political types must disavow Party.  I’m saying we need a Constitutional Amendment outlawing any such affiliation or organization of Congress and the Executive.

 

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Credits:   In the give and take of conversation with friends these thoughts found their way to the keyboard.  Thank you Lona Tucker, Tim Ingle, Lynn Smith Loy and Lisa Williams.  To date this is the most succinct and comfortable presentation I have scribbled.  I’m reposting it here with the hope a wider audience will help bring even more clarity; that is, a challenge to develop and refine these thoughts.  I can think of no other more important community-at-large project right now than to fix our governance so that we can then properly focus our efforts on the employment, housing, feeding, education and health care of each and every one of our fantastic neighbors.

 

#affiliate-with-no-party, #declaration-of-self-governance, #grass-roots-movement, #occupy-wall-street-movement, #tea-party-movement

Social Security is NOT an Annuity?

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… surprised?

Get ready to throw something and warn the kids they may want to leave the room while your reading this piece. This extract is from a 1960 finding made by the US Supreme Court. Just about the time you think you can trust government to do the right thing or believe the political rhetoric your favorite Party passes off as truth, someone discovers another reason to consider transparency in government a total myth. I’m betting you think Social Security is like a retirement annuity – haven’t you found yourself saying “I paid into it and it won’t be there when I retire” (or the alternate, “I expect it to be there when I retire”.) Guess again!

Read on: “The Court decided, in Flemming v. Nestor (1960), that “entitlement to Social Security benefits is not a contractual right”. A person covered by the Social Security Act has not such a right in old-age benefit payments as would make every defeasance of “accrued” interests violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 608–611. (a) The noncontractual interest of an employee covered by the Act cannot be soundly analogized to that of the holder of an annuity, whose right to benefits are based on his contractual premium payments. Pp. 608–610. (b) To engraft upon the Social Security System a concept of “accrued property rights” would deprive it of the flexibility and [363 U.S. 603, 604] boldness in adjustment to ever-changing conditions which it demands and which Congress probably had in mind when it expressly reserved the right to alter, amend or repeal any provision of the Act. Pp. 610–611. 3. Section 202 (n) of the Act cannot be condemned as so lacking in rational justification as to offend due process. Pp. 611–612. 4. Termination of appellee’s benefits under 202 (n) does not amount to punishing him without a trial, in violation of Art. III, 2, cl. 3, of the Constitution or the Sixth Amendment; nor is 202 (n) a bill of attainder or ex post facto law, since its purpose is not punitive. Pp. 612–621.[65]”

So when Great Grandpa Lee was pushed by his kids to apply for Social Security payments and he said, “I’m taking no welfare,” he had it right.  Face it folks, Social Security Insurance is a government welfare program whether you like it or not.  I sure wish my first paycheck and tax return came with this disclaimer. 

I’m beginning to think it doesn’t matter which scoundrel is managing this program, Congress, or as is being proposed, the Wall Street Banks.  Either way, we’re hardly protected.  I have an exciting proposal America.  Pass a constitutional amendment that makes the Social Security Program a true annuity, held in trust by the US Treasury, and backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.  Oh, did I mention that additional provisions would abolish all Federal government pension programs, including the Congressional “One-Term I’m Nuevo-Rich Program,” and places all current and previous participants in the same plan as the rest of us fools. Now that’s change I can believe in!

If you think your Congressional Representatives, Democrat or Republican, are saying anything other than “Let them eat cake”, you’re dreaming.  They’ll shake your hand, take your contributions and laugh behind your back all the while knowing their one-term in Congress buys them a lifetime of security while you can’t afford to buy peanut butter.

 

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PS – “In short, the Supreme Court has established that no one has any legal right to Social Security benefits. Add this little piece of good news to their accounting trickery of adopting a unified budget in the Johnson administration in 1968 (this resulted in a single measure of the fiscal status of the government, based on the sum of all government activity) and the surplus in Social Security trust funds offsets the total debt, making it appear much smaller than it otherwise would (sourced from Wikipedia).”

 

#declaration-of-self-governance, #let-them-eat-cake, #occupy-dc, #occupy-the-district-of-columbia, #social-security-insurance, #us-supreme-court