Will America and Her Allies Endure such Historic and Monumental Failure?

I'm not going to attempt to rehash the actual chain of events relative to the massacre in Benghazi. My only comment on that subject is that it was a monumental failure of the Pentagon, the White House, and the assemblage of government and private sector agencies tasked with theater operational security and keeping the lives of our embassy support staff safe.

Now on to the situation at hand. Once upon a time there were 2 private organizations that for decades upon decades, have been mustering candidates (apparently from anywhere and everywhere) for which the people will vote for the president of the most powerful country in the world. Two organizations, that both failed miserably at actually vetting the candidates they put forward for suitability of office. Now comes the juicy part. Russia, (probably along with every other Tom, Dick, and Yuri) decides to engage in "Cyber warfare" to disrupt America's elections. How did they do it? There was only one way. Russia found the weakest links in our Democracy, our government, and our system of elections. Our political parties. Make no mistake. Russia didn't act alone. We helped. We left the gates wide open for them, and in some cases, we gave them the keys to the entire house.

FBI, and US Intelligence officials have publicly stated that after reviewing the evidence, both the RNC and DNC were hacked, and they were hacked by Russian State and possibly other operatives working simultaneously to overload our media and our national communications networks with misinformation, and documents retrieved surreptitiously and maliciously, by means of wire fraud (Cyber fraud) to influence US Elections.

Apparently now, the FBI and US Intelligence officials have proof that those we intended to elect, failed us before they've even been elected. This entire cyber warfare attack by Russia and other "cyber operatives" from around the world, the hacking of servers and emails, is all the direct result of complete Internet and data security ineptness of the political parties, and/or violations of classified information handling protocols by people "digitally" connected to those servers. Think about it just for a minute. It's not the rocket science they would have you believe. While you're at it, think about the damning information that was hacked and released for public consumption. The information contained in those hacks was in my opinion, far worse than for example, the Hillary Clinton "smoke and mirrors" story of naivety, cluelessness, and Internet ineptness, FBI Director Comey related in sworn testimony before Congress.

America is in chaos, run a muck with rumors of subversion, treason, and allegations of other wrong doing by both candidates and members of their team, and facts relative to the propriety of corporate collusion with foreign states and their operatives. The ruthlessness of both political parties, and the lows to which they will stoop to get their candidates elected is untenable. And now revealed for all America and the world to see, a damaged and corrupted political process, something that should be repugnant to every American. Ironic isn't it? That those in which we put so much faith in to know better....don't.

Humanity Demands the Pen Must Remain Mightier than the Sword

America, we were outraged when we heard ISIS was destroying antiquities of eons and historic relevance. Are we not outraged that the Trump administration has set into motion the dismantling and destruction of the public archiving of the arts and humanity of America, and the means by which we the people have public access to them. The viewer driven, non-commercial laden, public broadcast systems that dot the nation, keeping people up to date on America and the world.

What's next CSPAN? The Trump administration's cutting of the funding for the arts and humanities, and the most prolific means by which they are made public and accessible, is akin to going back into the pre-cold war historic darkness. How is this not the same as ISIS? How is this not the same as Nazi's burning books in the 1930's and 40's. No!...America is, and must be better than this! We must stand against the Trump administration's systematic eradication of access, and ultimately, the ability of the public to archive America's creativity and historic relevance. We must learn the lessons of history and stand strong in defiance of the iniquitous of eras past. Humanity demands it.

Block Granting Health Care to the States is an Abdication of Congress's Constitutional Responsibility to Promote the Welfare" of the People.

Republicans want to block grant their responsibility to the states to change health care in America. A VERY bad move. Let's for the sake of argument say there are 5 of the biggest for profit health insurance providers participating in this "block grant" health care system. There are 50 disparate states who must negotiate with 5 different for profit insurance companies. Business 101 says the more densely populated states will get better deals. That's how for profit health insurance policies are currently sold in America, and there's a bunch of restrictions to go along with them. The ACA mandated the insurance companies provide a minimum coverage to all Americans (their policy holders) as well as doing away with preexisting conditions.

What Republicans fail to grip is that there are economies of scale that will be lost once 50 disparate states are forced to fend for themselves against the crippling grip of the loosely regulated health insurance industry. A task most certain to fail, and the strangle hold on health care in America will remain. I ask you...Why would anyone think it was a good idea to negotiate insurance rates on a state's population when the entire US population will get a better deal?

The health insurance industry profited greatly from the ACA because it forced Americans to buy health insurance from them. Obama's ACA created a market for the insurance industry, and like most mega, for profit, corporate entities, what they're supposed to do comes in a far second,or third, to profits for their share holders. It was basically a gift that cemented the for profit insurance industry into America's health care system for decades to come.

This whole block grant thing is yet another example of how our federally elected officials abdicate their Constitutional responsibilities of promoting "the general welfare" of the people to someone other than the federal government. Their pockets are full from the insurance industry lobby money. It's appalling the lengths they will go to push off the hard things and get rich from it. Hell, they did the same thing in 1913 when they pushed their Constitutional responsibility for monetary control to a non governmental banking consortium known forever as the Federal Reserve.

This is what elected officials are supposed to do! We pay you to do your Constitutional duty. Your duty is to the people not the corporations that line your pockets. We will not just sit back and pay salaries and benefits of the elected while they shirk their responsibilities. The federal government must negotiate for every American's health care! The entire insured populous of America, in every state, the same rate. Either that, or scrap the whole idea of for profit insurance and go to Single Payer, Medicare for all.

The Republican plan for block granting health care simply won't work and will cost middle class tax payers much more, their quality of care will degrade, their stress will increase, and the rich will get their tax breaks. Republicans will throw the American people under the bus because that was their party's mantra for the past 8 years. REPEAL OBAMA CARE! They tried over 50 times to repeal the ACA with NO PLANS for replacing it with something at least as good or better. I'm telling you, these people are very lucky the American people have turned into sheep easily led to the slaughter. Otherwise, there'd be a bunch of tar and feathering going on...

An Open Letter to America from a Retired Engineer

I'm that guy. I'm the hypocrite. I worked for one of the top 3 American technology/IT integration companies in the world. Top 3 in the world! An American company! I was in the telecom business almost all of my adult life. I guess I should have realized something was up when the head honcho told the entire company "telecom is not now, nor will it ever be, a core competency". I hesitated, took a breath, and wondered what the hell I was doing there. Little did I realize their plan was to use my IT/telecom knowledge and experience to ship American jobs overseas in the name of profits. We hocked offshore body shops like nobody's business and did VERY well before the bubble started to burst in mid 2007. The crash came quick the next year. At the time, I was thinking about my wife, my son, my paycheck and not of the "consequences" of my employment. I've done a lot of bonehead things in my life...but I am truly sorry for being a part of offshoring American jobs...As I look back, I can't believe I was so stupid...and gullible.

Now, imagine 10 or 20 or 30 of those same types of companies "going after the business" of other corporations, to dismantle their workforce, doing the same thing for the past 25 years in the name of profits. That's how we got here. That's why American labor is in the shape it's in. Our government must understand as I didn't then, that we must protect American workers from corporate policies that by design, dismantle America's working class. It's one thing to automate, but it's completely different to replace an American job with an offshore job. That's how they do it. There are some things money and profits shouldn't buy. Again...I am sorry...and I'm working to prove that.