The greatest feats of humanity were all government projects.

In Marco Rubio's counterpoint
speech, spoken after the 2013
State of the Union address on
behalf of the Republican Party,
he asserted the post-Nixon-era
postulation that a national econ-
omy rooted in government will
inhibit technological progress;
and that government regulation
only suppresses creativity, while
stifling the economy.

The definitive response to his declarative statement is simple:

1} the Hoover Dam, 2} the Panama Canal, 3} NASA,  4} the Manhattan Project,
5} the Tennessee Valley Project, 6} the Great Wall of China,  7} the B-2 Bomber,
8} the Trans-Siberian Railway, 9} the English Channel Tunnel, 10} the Pan Amer-
ican Highway, 11} the Oresund Bridge that makes a dry road connection between
Denmark & Sweden,

12} the Erie Canal, 13} Christopher Columbus' rediscovery of America, funded
solely through the Spanish government, 14} Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery
Expedition, 15} the ARPANET which is now called the Internet, 16}  the micro-
chip, 17} Global Positioning System satellites, 18} the Apollo moon landings,
19} the Mars Exploration Rover, 20} vaccines,  21} Magellan's Pacific Passage
Voyage, 22} the discovery of the tectonic plates,  23} the discovery of RADAR,

24} the Human Genome Project which was a joint venture between two sovereign
nations, namely the U.S. & the U.K.,  26} the Lighthouse of Alexandria,  27} the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory,  28} the entire CERN operation (Conseil
Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) which happens to be a twelve nation pro-
ject,  28} the United States 6th Army,  29} the United States 7th Fleet,  29} the
United States 8th Air Force,  30} the United States 9th Marine Regiment, 31} the
Hubble Space Telescope,  32} the Voyager 1 Spacecraft which has reached inter-
stellar space, 33+} much more.

Add to this the Rickenbacker Causeway, the Melbourne Causeway, the Courtney
Campbell Causeway, the Sanibel Causeway, the historic Appian Way, the Cassian
Way, the Flaminian Way, and every inch of the 160,955 miles of U.S. highway that
neither the easily deceived Marco nor the pushy Sean Hannity nor Rush Oxycontin
Limbaugh would have at their trickle-down disposal, if it weren't for federal govern-
ment intervention.  Ironically, man landed on the moon under Republican Richard
Nixon.  Of course, today's Republican Party is no longer the party of Nixon, Ford,
Eisenhower, and Lincoln.  It's now the Dixiecrat Party;  the Southern Democrats in
another venue, being that they could not reconcile with the late 1960s' Democratic
advances in civil rights legislation.
__________________________________________________________________

Now, the one criteria absolutely essential for a great economy is flowing currency.
This refers to currency not being horded in overseas tax havens.  In as much, the
overseas tax haven system, coupled with foreign sweatshop labor profiteering, is
what causes a bleeding economy, as well as causing the Multiplier Effect to go in
reverse, thereby causing the money supply to constrict.  It's air being let out of a
tire.

All foreign trade needs to be a two-way street.  When one trading nation imposes
tariffs on the other trading nation, while the other trading nation allows low-waged
labor merchandise to flood its market places, the slave merchandise nation bleeds
money into the tariff-imposing nation.  Thus was the system that lead to the 2008
economic crisis.

Jump slightly back in time, to the 2013 State of the Union Address.  The president
made mention of manufactured economic crises.  Concerning the state of America
in recent years, Obama expressly stated, "... rebuilding from one crisis, to see elect-
ed officials cause another."  He acknowledged that certain players orchestrated the
economic crises that has defined the modern world.  After all, oil futures speculators
and Phil Gramm were the causes of the drastic and sudden rise in petroleum prices.
The Phil Gramms of  this world betrayed the rule of seeking the Common Good, in
preference to line the pockets of a select and corrupt few.

This brings us to the president's proposal on the minimum wage which Ronald Rea-
gan kept frozen throughout his presidency.  Barack proposed a $9 an hour minimum
wage.  His thesis statement behind his proposal was, "No one who works full time 
should  have to live in poverty."  Barack additionally stated that United States feder-
al law should "tie minimum wage to the cost of living, so that it finally becomes a 
wage you can live  on."

Raising the wages of workers will put dollars into the economy.  No one will lose if
the workers of the United States all get paid a livable wage.  It will result in  more of
of those wage dollars ending up in cash registers throughout America.  This money is
known as disposable income, and the increased circulating dollars is known as an in-
jection into the circular flow of currency.  The added wages will result in added tax
revenue and added FICA payments.  All in all, this increases the Multiplier Effect.

Thus, the Republican policy of NAFTA and Asian sweatshop labor exploitation is
the #1 factor that is continuing to destroy the American economy.  The Republicans
kept causing the multiplier effect to go in reverse.  Republicans are misers, constrict-
ing the money supply, and hording the money for themselves.  This is why, in the cir-
cular flow of history, there regularly occurs Nuremberg type trials.

Obama additionally pointed out that there will be far less need of government wel-
fare and food stamp programs if American workers make a livable wage.  This takes
the economic pressure off of all of America.  The One Percent have been causing this
pressure and grief all along.

Let us go to the Reaganomic thesis statement of "trickle down economics."  Recent
history proved it to be entirely erroneous.  As was explained previously at this site,
Reaganomics was a prediction of wealthy persons' behavior, based on the subjective
Laffer Curve.  Reagan claimed that, if you  make the rich richer, they would take the
extra wealth and invest it in businesses that would create many new American jobs.
This was referred to as the Trickle Down Effect.

As recent history has shown, the added wealth did NOT trickle down to the Ameri-
can people.  It trickled out, into overseas tax havens and those foreign nations that
allowed the exploitation of labor.   The American infrastructure suffered greatly
from all the tax loopholes that deprived the federal government of revenue.  None
the less, tax incentives which reward companies for creating livable waged Ameri-
can job are needed.  The return of some type of manufactury to America in signifi-
cant proportions is needed.  What was reported in Barack's 2013 State of the Union
Address was that a handful of American corporations were bringing back manufac-
turing operations to the United States.  This is essential for America in a larger scale.

NOW ... the important point to this article is that the trickling out of American cur-
rency is still in progress.  It's the previously mentioned musical chairs game where
chair after chair after chair after chair is pulled out from under worker after worker
after worker after worker.  The bath tub draining is still occurring.  That drain must
stop or else it will eventually get to a point where too many people are left out in the
cold.  Economics is not rocket science.  Beware of those who pretend it's based on
magicians' tricks.
____________________________________________________________________

Federal Tax Statistics of 280 Surveyed Corporations ... 20008 - 2010

The statistics of two-hundred and eighty profitable corporations, between 2008 and
 2010, were surveyed by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation  and 
Economic Policy.  It's a display of objective numerical facts:

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf

 1}  Corporate taxes paid for a quarter of the U.S. federal budget during the 1950's.
       They paid for 20% of the federal budget in the 1960s.  By the late 1990's, cor-
        porations were only paying for 11% of the federal budget.  Today, corporate
        taxes pay for a mere 6% of the federal government's expenses.  This includes
        the $729 billion DOD and Homeland Security tax bill, and this shows that the
        Republican Party repeatedly lied to the American public, in incessantly claim-
        ing that corporations are weighted-down with unbearable and disproportionate
        tax burdens.  Right wing radio talk show hosts would logically be included in
        this lie.

  2} The average 3-year pre-tax profit for the 280 corporations was $4.832 billion.
       The 280 corporations' average effective tax rate for the same period was 18.5%.
       For the Years 2009 and 2010, it was 17.3%.  These are much lower rates than
       the present statutory tax rate of 35%.  In as much, American corporations bene-
       fited from federal tax subsidies as a rule and not as an exception.  Some corpora-
       tions even received rebate checks.  Therefore, the Republican Party's incessant
       claim that corporations in America are being crushed under an oppressive federal
       tax burden is an unconscionable falsehood.

2b} The average effective tax rate of 30 surveyed corporations was MINUS 6.7%,
        meaning that 30 corporations made money, simply by filling out tax forms.
        The average effective tax rate of 67 other corporations was 0%.  In addition,
        111other corporations had an average tax rate of 4.6%.  That's 4 point 6.
        Meanwhile, 98 different corporations had an average rate of 24%, and an
        additional 71 corporations had an average tax rate of 32.3%.

  3} 78 of the corporations surveyed had at least one of the three years where they
        paid zero or less income tax.  25 of the corporation had multiple no-tax years.
        These 78 corporations had a total of 108 no-tax years, out of a potential 234. 
        The average 3-yr effective tax rate of the 78 corporations was MINUS 14%.

 3b} In the Year 2008, the 22 corporations who paid zero income tax received a
        collective total of $3.3 billion in tax rebates.  In 2009, the 49 corporations who
        paid zero income tax originally made a collective pre-tax profit of $78.6 billion
        and then received a collective $10.8 billion in tax rebates.  In the Year 2010,
        the 37 corporations who paid zero income tax ended up receiving $7.8 billion
        in tax rebates.

  4} Pepco Holdings, General Electric, PG&E Corp, Boeing, and El Paso each paid
       zero taxes for three consecutive years.

 4b} Pepco's pre-tax profit was $882 million and its after-tax profit was $508 million.
        This means that it's tax rate was MINUS 57%.  General Electric's pre-tax pro-
        fit, for the three-year period, was $10.46 billion.  It received $4.73 billion in re-
        bates, meaning that its tax rate was MINUS 45.2%.  PG&E Corp's pre-tax
        profit was $4.855 billion.  It then received $1.027 billion in tax rebates.  This
        translates into an effective federal tax rate of MINUS 21.2%.

 4c} Goldman Sachs' pre-tax profit was $4.909 billion.  It received $786 million in
        tax rebates.  Therefore, its three-year tax rate was MINUS 16%.  Dupont's
        pre-tax profit was $949 million and it received $109 million.  This constitutes
        an effective tax rate was MINUS 11.5%.  International Paper's pre-tax profit
        was $217 billion.  It then received $249 billion in tax rebates.  Its effective tax
        rate, therefore, was MINUS 114.7%.  Plus, there is Eli Lilly, whose pre-tax
        profit was $202 million.  It received a tax rebate of $208 million, thereby re-
        sulting in an effective tax rate was MINUS 102.9%.  In contrast, the effective
        tax rate of St. Jude Medical was 37.5%.  In fact, it was 46.2% in 2010.  As
        an added example of tax rate disparity, Coventry Health Care's effective tax
        rate was 40.8%.  Humana's was 39.1%.  However, Marathon Oil's tax rate
        was MINUS 40.6% and Exxon/Mobile's was MINUS 38.3%.

 4d} Marathon Oil's pre-tax profit was $571 million and it received $232 million in
         tax rebates.  Exxon Mobil's pre-tax profit was $2,490 billion for a three year
         period and it received $954 million in tax rebates.  In addition, Honeywell's
         pre-tax profit was $2.966 billion.  It received $510 million, meaning that its
         effective tax rate was MINUS 17.2%.  Yet, Best Buy's was +39.3%.

 4e} The truck manufacturer, Paccar, had an effective tax rate of MINUS 72.6%.
        State Street Corp's effective federal tax rate was MINUS 121.1%.  Com-
        puter Science's effective federal tax rate was MINUS 63.4%.  Omnicare's
        tax rate was MINUS 76.1%.

   5} Wells Fargo received $17.960 billion in total tax subsidies.  AT&T received a
        total of $14.491 billion.  Verizon Communications received $12.332 billion in
        tax breaks.  General Electric received $8.393 billion.  IBM received $8.265
        billion and Exxon/Mobil received $4.096 billion.  Walmart received $2.511
        billion in tax rebates, while Coca-Cola received $2.461 billion.

  6} The effective tax rate for the ten Top Defense Contractors in the Year 2010
        was 10.6%, an effective rate much lower than the statutory 35% corporate
        income tax rate.

 6b} The effective corporate tax rate for the Retail and Wholesale Industry, for the
        past three years, was 30%.  This means that a National Sales Tax would be
        detrimental to the United States.  Quite frankly, it would be disastrous.  This
        illustrates that Coca-Cola Cain doesn't know what he's talking about.  A per-
        son who does know what he's talking about uses formulas to convey his pro-
        posed policy. Such a formula will have at least one variable, signified as "x" or
        "n."  If the candidate uses the letter "n," it's a sign that his staff consists in those
        educated in statistics, able to perform functions known as geometric progres-
        ssions.  9-9-9 has ZERO basis in fact or academic conjecture.  It's an adver-
        tising jingle, as if it were an attempt to sale Cola and Pizza.

 6c} The average tax rate for the Healthcare Industry was 30.4%, for the past three
        years.  This is the industry which needs tax breaks which, in turn, need to trans-
        late into lower medical costs.

 6d} The effective tax rate for Information Technology Services was only 2.5% for
         the past three years, and the effective tax rate of the Telecommunications In-
         dustry was 8.2%.

   7} The Financial Industry received $37.4 billion in tax subsidies.  The Utilities,
        Gas & Electric Industry received $31.2 billion.  The Oil, Gas & Pipeline In-
        dustry received $24.1 billion.  Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Industry
        received $30 billion in tax subsidies.

   8} The Foreign Tax Rate of 134 of the surveyed corporations was actually 6.1%
        HIGHER than those same corporations' effective American tax rate.  In the
        case of 87 of the corporations, their effective American tax rates were 15.7%
        LOWER than their Foreign Tax Rates.   In as much, the statistical average
        proves that the Republican Party lied each time it claimed that corporations
        must operate outside of America, because the tax rate in America is too high.

 8b} Concerning a corporations' U.S. Tax Rate in relation to its Foreign Tax Rate,
        General Electric paid 68.2% LESS in American taxes than in foreign taxes.
        Goldman Sachs paid 23.7% LESS.  Mattel paid 42% LESS.  Chevron paid
        18.7% LESS.  Eli Lilly paid 30.6% LESS.  IBM paid 23.1% LESS.  Truck
        manufacturer, Paccar, had an American tax rate that was 55.3% LESS than
        its foreign tax rate.
          
   9} One reason for such low effective corporate tax rates is the rapid write off of
        capital investments.  This is known as accelerated depreciation and this shows
        that manufacturing can return to America in an amicable fashion.

 10} There is even unfair disparity among corporations in the same industry.  For
        example, FedEx paid 0.9% in tax over the past three years, while UPS paid
        24%.  This shows that the Republican Party once again lied in claiming that
        the American economy is based on "fair competition."

10b} Further examples of inter-industry disparity include the following statistics: 
         Hewlett-Packard paid 3.7% in taxes, while Texas Instruments paid 33.5%.
         Monsanto paid an average of 22% in income tax throughout the past three
         years, while its competitor, Dupont, had a tax rate of MINUS 3.4%.  Also
         in the computer and office equipment industry is the fact that Corning's tax
         rate was MINUS 0.2%, while Pintey Bowes' rate was 30.4%.  As an add-
         ed instance, Wells Fargo had an effective tax rate of MINUS 1.4%, while
         Charles Schwab had an effective tax rate of 30.2%.  Even corporations get
         cheated by corporate greed.

         The following is Must Reading for anyone dedicated to economic justice.

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf
=======================================================

Football Concussions: The point of impact from personal experience

       Now that the NFL & NCAA football seasons are well underway, let's talk concussions.

Yours truly, during his fourth football camp.  For the record, yours truly had four concussions, a broken foot, a separated shoulder, a sprained back and whatever else as a result of football.  In fact, he once started and ended a football game with a 102.4 degree temperature, and  even intercepted a pass at the end of that game.  So, you can play full speed in that condition and stay in rhythm.  We did push ourselves to the breaking point, between phases of dogging it and pacing ourselves.  In fact, some of us went past that point and cracked like glass in the end which usually happened during a special teams play.

The following article is a result of the press dedicating time and space to the topic of football head injuries.  The ultimate purpose of this article is to share with you the actual experience of incurring that type of injury.

The danger factor in football head injuries is that, at least half the time, they're extremely pernicious things.  One concussion might result in you seeing flashing lights, while being accompanied by zero pain and no impairment.  Another might involve pain, but is rapidly following by a feeling a instant recuperation.  Things look a little foggy, as if you are looking through a vignette filter.  Yet, you felt functional enough to go back out on the field.  The one exception for me was my first concussion.
It was followed by a chronic headache, day after day.  However, the splitting headaches might have been my sensitivity to the nearby pines.  The following year, our football camp was not held near the rows of pines, and I had no headaches.  Only two concussions that year.

When you get a back sprain, a torn ligament, or a broken arm, you feel it and you know that you won't be playing football the following day and even for the rest of the month.  You feel the pain
as you try to move the injured area.  With head injuries, most of the time you feel that you can go back out on the field at that very moment.    You're a little groggy, but you're not in pain.  So, you have to employ your own sense of rationale to know that you should give yourself a bit of recuperation time and cease full speed contact for at least a short while, lest you cause lingering damage to yourself.

Concussions were not uncommon occurrences

I wasn't the only one to go the concussion route during that time span.  In fact, one of the guys on the team had to be taken out via stretcher, with a neck brace firmly attached to him, during a special teams play.  He was the leading scorer in the entire county, returning a kick-off.  So, perhaps he had a bull's eye on him.  None the less, my worse concussion was during a special teams play.  This is probably because there is a lot more running room on a kick-off and punt play, allowing guys to reach higher speeds than during regular scrimmage line plays.

Another one of the teammates was carried to the sidelines via stretcher, the night when we beat the champs on a rain-soaked field.  He shortly came back to consciousness, leaped out of the stretcher, and went into a high-kick sprint down the sidelines, upon which everyone in the stands was cheering at him and not at the players on the field.  He ended up going to the Air Force Academy, to play football.

There was another player who went the route of multiple concussions.  He was one of the two starting half backs.  He was forbidden by doctor's orders to ever return to a football field, on account of his  concussions.  Ironically, after he left football, he returned as an adviser, took me to the side and showed me the trick in going full speed into any defensive player with an added punch.  From that point on, I never had a head injury again, except for that fateful punt play on the last game of the season.  All in all, when it came to football concussions, I wasn't alone. 

Football head injuries and the media exposure they have been getting

A number of journalists, writers, and web hosts have maturely reported, conjectured, and commented on the phenomenon of football head injuries.  After all, there is an instantaneous concern to it, as it applies to energetic youth who had the discipline to train well enough to be able to take all sort of hits, from all sorts of directions.  However, none of these reporters were able to tell you what it was like to get concussion after concusion after concussion.  All in all, no matter how disciplined and in shape you are, your head remains very vulnerable and you remain completely mortal.  The tragic endings of a few NFL football stars remind us of this.

The Immediately Needed Partial Remedy for the NFL

The NFL needs to bring back its 300 pound weight limit.  Some players today are entirely too big for safety purposes.  The NFL managers of decades prior realized that behemoth players were not conducive to the good of a league that provided role models to many an American youth. 

During those rare plays when my helmet would come off

I can only speak from my experience on the following matter:  On those plays when the hitting was such that my helmet would come off, I felt zero pain.  I didn't even feel my helmet come off.  I simply suddenly noticed that it was off.  Sometimes, I actually saw it rolling.  After the play, I would go and get my helmet, while thinking to myself, "How did that come off?"  That is to say, I never felt the exact hit which dislodged it.  And remember, when you're carrying the ball, you are getting hit by three to six guys in a single play.  Some of those guys are your own players crashing into you and getting pushed into you.  So, I never knew what hit dislodged my helmet from my head.

Also for the record, at no time during my four concussions did I ever see stars.  A concussion is a matter of lights out ... not stars out tonight.

Concussion #1:
When a coach allows a football drill to turn into assault and battery upon a Freshman

During summer camp of my freshman year, the head coach was present while the senior backs were taking turns, giving me violent shots, during a summer camp drill which went awry.  If that type of thing would happen today, it would be on YouTube and that coach's career would have been terminated.  He happened to have been the brother in law of Steeler quarterback, Terry Bradshaw.
The coach's form of football was basically blood thirsty animal thuggery.  Very little technique was taught by him.  Yet, he would obsessively have us redo a play or two during practice, to get it right.
Well, if he taught us more technique, he wouldn't needed to have us practice those plays over and over again.

Incidentally, for those unaware, such as my readers in Turkey, Western Europe, and the Ukraine, Terry Bradshaw possessed four Super Bowl rings.  He was the American football champ four times in his career.  None the less ...

During that summer camp drill, the seniors went out of their lines and proceeded to give me shot after shot after shot, in the same one drill, giving the phrase "football drill," new meaning.  They were absolutely drilling my head ... fracking me and practically fragging me ... and no other freshman had to go through this.

It was that I had a brother who graduated the year prior, and those seniors didn't like him at all.  My brother was the second string fullback the year prior.  This meant that the third string fullback was now the starter and he was ruthless to me.  My brother, incidentally, became a military officer, up to the rank of colonel.  Anway . . .

My course of action at the time was to literally do the Christian turn-the-other-cheek thing.  I conscientiously employed the turn-the-other-cheek policy, as a moral obligation.  So, why was I playing a sport as violent as American football?  Oh ... because there were cheerleaders on the sidelines and fans in the stands.  You would be surprised how many girls would magnetize to you, simply because you were a football player.  None the less, in my freshman year, the seniors took their hatred of my brother out on me.

During that one solitary drill, I would take a shot, and go down to the ground.  Yet the coach, Terry Bradshaw's brother-in-law, wouldn't blow the whistle.  So, I would get back up, only to take yet another hit when I wasn't even 3/4 of the way up.   In fact, I would keep getting up and have to fend off another series of hits.  Never was I given the opportunity to stand up and get set.  I was lunging forward and meeting the hits, because I would get hit immediately upon trying to stand up.  Bam! Over and over again did this happen.  Moreover, this was only the second or third day of camp.

The coach let it go on for an amount of time that was entirely too long.   I even remember seeing the sneering face of one of the seniors, as he made a perfectly aligned helmet-to-helmet hit on me, followed by others taking turns in hitting me at full speed, time after time.  A few days later, I was diagnosed with my first concussion.   Nice guy ... my head coach.   Just what I needed.

I was still playing full contact football during the time between the drill which went awry and the day before my diagnosis. That wasn't a smart thing to do.   I was playing full contact football with a concussion not being given the opportunity to heal.

Incidentally, I went to the doctor because of a chronic headache that wouldn't subside.  Needless to say, I missed the first scrimmage of the season.  But, during the second scrimmage, the following week, I wasn't gun-shy on the field, at all.  For some reason, I was revved-up.  I was so in-tune that I would place one hand on the front-center shoulder pads of the ball carrier, and the other hand on the back-center should pads and literally throw the guy down to the ground.  Something clicked, because of having of been so severely attacked and refusing to quit the team, despite the full-blown physical harassment of seniors.

None the less, during my freshman year, there would be times when, without warning or cause, a senior would hit me full force in the head, during scrimmages.  There was even a time during a scrimmage when the whistle had blown, and everyone stopped, except for the senior wingback, who clipped me at full speed rom behind, resulting in me getting a separated shoulder.  Ironically, the following year, I became the starting wingback  . . .  and right side cornerback.

As was previously mentioned, if those things happened today, I would have gotten a hefty settlement, the coach would have been fired, and the school would have been placed on some type of probation.I took a beating that year.  What made things even more difficult was that my mother was dying and she would be gone during the following calendar year.

Incidentally, whenever a player on the other team would get injured and be unable to take himself off the field, those same seniors would clap and cheer.  Today, that would have incurred a 15 yard penalty and disciplinary action.  That anti-sportsman mindset prevailed throughout that graduating class.  In the years to follow, however, the seniors would be much more civilized.  In fact, one of those abusive seniors (during my freshman year) was recently indicted for a major, high priced fraud. That was a vicious graduating class, to say the least.

Concussion #2:
This one was fascinating.

Concussion #2 happened in the same year, during a Freshman game.  It was played against the one school locally known for its gymnastic talent.  Anyway, I went to the sidelines, only to see in my peripheral vision, two flashing lights that looked like neon signs.  One of them almost looked exactly like an arrow sign that you see when passing a stretch of road under construction.  That is to say, the design of the flashing light was organized and continuous, not morphing into any other design.  None the less, there wasn't any hit that I remember which was hard enough to trigger the flashing lights.   In fact, I wasn't in pain.  I simply saw the flashing neon light phenomenon and knew that it was time to stay on the sidelines for a while.

Concussion #3:
The one which occurred when I was carrying the ball.

This occurred in the middle of my second year.  There was no pain attached to this one, either.  It occurred at practice.  It was a standard, off-tackle run.   The line of scrimmage was a traffic jam.
So, I put my head down and plowed through.  My problem was not using my forearm to absorb some of the contact.

If my memory is correct, I made it past a linebacker and a safety who were were playing the role of welcoming committee upon my person.  However, neither one could make a center-mass hit on me.  So, I went to then end zone.  Then suddenly, it felt as if I were waking up and suddenly materializing on the field.  I turned around a looked at the line of scrimmage which looked like a photo taken in a vignette filter.  It was one of those things when you find yourself thinking in total silence, "Oh no.  Not again.  Another concussion."

Concussion #4:
Walking unconscious

This was the last game of the second season.  It was during a punt play on a Saturday afternoon, when a defensive end collided into the side of my head, in an attempt to block the punt.  I went entirely unconscious, yet I was walking ... instinctively walking toward the sideline, with my right hand on the right side of my helmet.

While coming back into  full consciousness, I heard the sound of a buzzer that sounded like the type you hear in a game show when a contestant gets a question wrong.  In fact, when I came to consciousness, I thought that I was waking up, to go to the game.  Next, I faintly heard cheering.  Then, I loudly heard cheering.  Suddenly, I saw the punt returner headed directly toward me.  About four guys made the tackle fifteen yards away from me.

When I did come back into consciousness, I momentarily experienced the worst pain in my life ... even when compared to the day I was caught between two 2,430 lb steel beams at the heal ... even in comparison to a number of vicious asthma attacks, my separated shoulder, my broken foot, the -30 degree wind chills I endured, the 106 degree Oklahoma weather I once endured, etc.  The pain disappeared when the elongated buzzer sound vanished.  I would then attend two more football camps, in the years to follow ... free of any further concussion.

Now, as far as would go any lingering effect, I had none that affected any mental functionality.  But,  safety improvements are still needed in organized football,  to remedy an eminent danger in a sport that's violent in nature .. unless if the authorities decide to cancel the sport, altogether.  None the less, despite four concussions, I managed: 1} to get published at the age of twenty, along side a handful of laureates, 2} to later get published along side a multiplicity of laureates, 3} to play impressionist poly rhythms in studio piano class, 4} to score a 100% on a national standardized collegiate accounting exam issued by an Ivy League school, 5} to get inducted into what used to be called the National Languages Honors Society, 6} to make the dean's list more than once, 7} to get inducted into the International High IQ Society.

Keep in mind that I had all of my mental faculties almost immediately after incurring each head injury.  The fatal error in a head injury scenario is going back out on the field, instead of heading to the locker room ... or to the team doctor.  In the words of any successful poker player, you gotta know when to fold 'em.  I did, three out of four different concussions. 

The rare summer football camp death in the general area was a matter of course.

During every summer camp season, I expected, as matter of course, to hear news broadcasters report one or two local football-related deaths.  Usually, it was a blood clot in the brain which was the cause.  At least that's how it was registered in my memory.

When the news of the first death of the season would be reported, there would be an impromptu team meeting, headed by the team captains.  Coaches made sure that we wouldn't be deprived of water on the field.  So, we evaded the ultimate football tragedies.  None the less,  I would end up getting four concussions before I would sew my first football letter on to my school jacket. 

A quick note about the team photo above, being
that there was one historic element to our team.

Concerning the photo at the top of the page, the guy to my left was the fastest guy on the team and a bit track-and-field champ.  The gentleman to my right was the starting quarterback.  The taller team mate behind my left shoulder wasn't a lineman.  He was the second or third string quarterback and one of the most personable guys on the team.  The one ace up his sleeve was the distance he could throw a football.  He was also a golden gloves boxer.  But, he just didn't have the speed to be a starter.  The guy behind my left shoulder played defensive and offensive end.  Perhaps you know that phrase:  "A defensive end is someone who can tear a refrigerator apart, while an offensive lineman can tell you how to put it back together, piece-by-piece."  In fact, the worst beating I ever took in my life was at the hands of a defensive end, in a game we won 63-6.  He was revenging the lopsided score on my rib cage.  He beat me ruthlessly on that field.  The more we would score, the more violent he would get.

I already mentioned that our head coach was Terry Bradshaw's brother in law.  He's the one seen celebrating on the field with Terry, at Three Rivers Stadium, in the famous Immaculate Reception film clip that made Franco Harris an icon.  At last count, he was an assistant college coach, to former NY Jet head coach Joe Walton, on the college level.

Pittsburgh Football was, once upon a time, in the image and likeness of its steel mills

Keep in mind that I was raised in the Pittsburgh vicinity ... in the specific borough that once had the largest push button railroad in the world.  Pittsburgh was the King of Steel,  as was evidenced by a 21 mile stretch of the Ohio River whose east and west banks housed some of the steel mills that were arrayed throughout the general region.  In fact, the 21 mile steel line only ended at the property line of the largest push button railroad on Planet Earth (at the time.)  Pittsburgh, at present, is the king of bridges, even more than Venice.  The other thing about Pittsburgh is that it was known as one of the three quintessential football venues in America ... at the time, with Ohio and Texas football being as iconic.

The Pittsburgh vicinity was the home of Dallas star Mike Ditka, Heisman trophy winner Tony Dorsett, New York Jet Super Bowl quarterback Joe Namath, record-setting Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, Miami Dolphin star Mercury Morris, NFL Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin, all-pro Chicago Bear lineman Jimbo Covert, all-pro Buffalo Bill lineman Bill Fralic, Cotton Bowl quarterback Kevin Scanlon, Steeler head coach Bill Cowher, Washington Redskin Rich Milot, Notre Dame star Terry Hanratty, four-time Super Bowl quarterback Joe Montana, Oakland Raider legend George Blanda, and others.  In sports, you only become as good as your competition.  These stars had the competition to fine tune their skills and fortify their wills.  Even at that, it was my understanding that Ohio football was tougher, in the contact department. 

Pittsburgh football didn't make you arrogant.  It humbled you.

If you were a multiple letterman in Pittsburgh, as well as someone who played in the formal venues of summer league baseball, one thing was guaranteed.  You would have a number of team mates who would eventually make a national mark in football.  For example, my former team mates included an all-pro lineman who earned a Super Bowl ring, as well as someone who started as quarterback in a Cotton Bowl game, and someone else whose name I heard on ABC television, during an Orange Bowl game.  One team mate would go to such and such university to play football, while another one would go to another American university, to do the same.

Even an occasional guy you would compete-against in track would end up on this WFL team here, while one you faced in summer league baseball would end up on another football team there.  In as much, you would think that coming from an environment such as Pittsburgh would make you arrogant.  The truth is that it made you very humble.   Yet, it wasn't the hits which made you humble.  You could take the hits after your first year of apprenticeship.  The humility factor was in you not being as conditioned as the stars-to-be ... or not as fast ... or not as able to turn the corner without sliding down to the ground ... or not alert enough to avoid from running into your blockers, from time to time.  Do not be deceived.  I was built like an Adonis and was very acrobatic, even to the point of winning an organized summer league batting championship and base-stealing championship on a team of men who became champs of their football division.  Despite this, there were a number of guys against whom I competed who put me to shame.  Pittsburgh was that athletic of a place.  So, I learned a great deal about humility in a place once called the City of Champions.

It Wasn't Always Head Hunting, though

When a defensive back goes head hunting on you and he misses, you are on your way to the goal line.  So, during one particular game, in hometown of Mike Ditka, a linebacker wanted to do little more than make sure that I wasn't going anywhere after catching a short pass, not wanting his coach to lambast him for missing me in an attempted head-hunting play.  So, he would wrap his arms around me so tightly that breathing became a difficulty until the ref blew the whistle.

I spent the entire game as a wing back, going five yards and out, catching five to ten passes in the process.  The same linebacker tackled me every time.  He was a human vice grip as he wrestled me down.  He was just doing his job and played by the rules.  But, I dreaded his grip.  I would have preferred that he take full speed shots at my head, in the attempt to dislodge the ball from me.  But no.  He had to be the human vice grip.   So, he played prevent-defense throughout the entire game and it worked. 

Some opposing players do take revenge during a game.

We played a team in West Virginia during my freshman year and beat them 63-6.  I played right end for the entire second half.  The opposing defensive end beat me to near death.  He kept targeting my rib cage, and even when I cross body blocked him to the ground, his knees would drive into my ribs.  So, I spent an entire half holding my right arm to my right-side rib cage.  The lesson is, just because you win a game in a whitewash, it doesn't mean that it will be a painless experience.  I never took a beating on a football field that badly.

The Coach's On-Field Disciplinary Tactic

When you're a running back and the play doesn't involve you carrying the ball, you have a way of acting as if you're not in the play, meaning that you occasionally miss your blocking assignment.  Well, one day in practice, after having missed my blocking assignment, the coaches decided to do the Pittsburgh version of an intervention.  They called the exact same play, but I was going to be the ball carrier.  They then told the offensive players to not block for me.  They next told the defensive players what the play was and that the offense wasn't going to block for me.

For some reason, I thought to myself, "Oh well. Who cares?  Let's get this over and done with." 
The quarterback called the signals.  The ball was hiked.  It was handed-off to me, and the entire offense went on vacation for the play.  So, who made first contact on me?  A defensive end, of course; ... the one who later went to play for the Air Force Academy.  Next came a few others, and then came everyone else.  I went down facing the sky ... and it didn't hurt at all, because all the other defensive players were absorbing the impact, and because the first defensive end simply wrapped his arms around me and started pushing me backwards, upon which I eventually went down like George Washington's cherry tree.

Of course, I wasn't going to tell anybody that it didn't hurt, lest the coaches call the same play and send the offensive players on another hiatus, in order to "teach me."   This was during my freshman year. 

The injury process on the football field sometimes 
backfired on the player attempting to inflict pain on you

The injury process on a football field can work in reverse.  For example, during my Senior, while I was running an end-around play as a half back, yet another defensive end spiked me as hard as he could in the kidneys, while I was being stood-up by a few defensive players.  He was the one who had to go to the sidelines in pain.  I went back into the huddle, only to be informed by a guard what happened.  I didn't feel it, at all, even though he came at me full speed from behind.  After all, there was more than one guy hitting me, and when that happens, all of the different feelings of impact cancel out each other one.  None the less, in trying to drive me to the ground as hard as he could, the defensive end ended up hurting himself.

American Football was basically legalized venting, unless if you were a pass receiver in the path of a linebacker.  Well, it was venting for the linebacker.  When you went up for a pass, you were completely defenseless, as the hits made upon you were designed to dislodge the ball from your hands.  When you keep taking those kinds of hits repeatedly, something eventually gets dislodged.

       

Junior Year:  My first track meet as a hurdler.  Football players commonly
went out for track or played summer league baseball.  Hurdlers were
the coordinated guys who didn't have the flash speed of a sprinter, 
but who were faster than everyone else.

Demand & shoppers w/ disposable income create jobs; and not the tax-sheltered holders of wealth which was kept away from sweatshop slaves.

Christmas hiring increases only because shopper demand increases.
The rich don't create jobs.  Shoppers do.

Let us review review and review until the Reaganomics trance is broken:

Spending-money coming out of the pockets of citizens and businesses is the only thing
that creates jobs.  If there is no demand, there are no sales.  If there are no sales, there
are no jobs.  It's that simple.  In order to create jobs, more money must be in the hands
of CUSTOMERS, and not the rich who took tons of money and then put it into over-
seas tax havens and foreign sweatshop operations.

The ultimate example is Christmas time.  During Christmas, extra hiring occurs only
because there is a much higher demand for various products and services.   Thus, the
extra hiring that occurs during the Christmas Season is NOT due to the rich making
investments.  It's due to the customers making purchases.  If the money supply is tak-
en out of the hands of the consumers and then put into the hands of the rich, you end
up getting the Reagan 10.8% unemployment rate, as well as the Great Recession of
the Bush II administration.  It's that simple.  The rich have only been investing in
slave labor nations, all the while hiding personal money in overseas tax havens.

An example of how it is false to say that, "If you build it, they will come." 

There is only a limited need for funeral homes.  People are not going to start having
themselves killed and buried, just because the rich suddenly create a surplus of funer-
al homes.  Only so many people have cancer.  The cancer industry will not get more
clients, if the rich open more clinics.  Only so much of any type of product or service
can be consumed.  In as much, demand is the major determinant of added business
operations.  Should the demand be lacking, then new business will quickly go into
the history books and Voila.  No more new jobs. 

The rich have more than enough money for investment.  This is why they are called
rich.  These are the yuppies of the Reagan years.  They have already proven that they
don't care about you or the Chinese sweatshop workers who have threatened suicide
and even committed suicide.  The Reagan era yuppies are not your friend.  You are
their dupe, if you subscribe to the give-to-the-rich concept.  During Christmas, the
phrase used to be, "Give to the poor."  Not any more.

Money talks ... to politicians.   Witholding money also talks ... to big business.

Now, jobs are out there, in response to the demand that exists at this hour.  In fact,
the jobs are way out there ... in China's low-paying labor camps.  Being that foreign
sweatshop laborers make too little money, and being that there was typical protec-
tionism of the part of the Chinese Communist regime, there is the lack of demand
for American products from the Chinese workers who cannot afford them, in the
first place.

There aren't going to be any new businesses of appreciable numbers in America's
near future, if it keeps operating according to sweatshop economics, and if hiked-
up prices remain hiked, thereby draining the level of disposable income in America.
At this rate, the Republican Party will fulfill the Apocalyptic prophecy, "A Day's 
wages for a loaf of bread."  Republican economics is ushering-in Armageddon.

Disposable Income equals Potential Demand.  In as much, if you want positive
change, you have to establish the 21st Century version of Caesar Chavez's Grapes
& Lettuce Boycott.  It benefited the workers at the time.  It resulted in amended
ways of doing business.  It did not leave the workers out in the cold.

As a review, the sweatshop workers need disposable income in a two-way highway
trade system which will create the demand that will bring back the American jobs
that left for China and other sweatshop nations as far back as the mid 1990s.  Only
in two-way reciprocal trade is there free trade.  By now, you should realize that
NAFTA has nothing to do with freedom.  Only the opposite.

Putting added dollars in the hands of the rich isn't going to create demand, and there-
fore, it isn't going to create jobs that will last.  For example, the added dollars in the
hands of the rich won't increase the human body's capacity for food and drink.  So,
it won't create a greater demand for food and drink.  In as much, demand is the #1
determining factor for an economy's investment sector, in combination with the rate
of circulation of the money supply, in as far as concerns the Multiplier Effect.

It was recently proposed by a Reaganite that America is falling into the inflation trap.
In as much, take note:  As of October 2011, the U.S. dollar inflation rate was 3.53%.
At the beginning of the same year, it is 1.63%.  However, toward the end of the Bush
years the rate ranged from 5.6% to .09%, and this was in a six month period.  During
the Barack Obama years, the inflation rate has thus far been as low as MINUS 1.48%
(in Aug 2009).  In years past, the rate was an average of 13.58% in 1980, 11.03% in
1974, and even 14.65% in 1947.  In 1931, a Great Depression year, the inflation rate
was MINUS -10.3%.  Shortly after WWI, in 1919, it was 15.31%.  Plus, even though
1974 was a high inflation rate year, the United States was the second highest exporting
nation on Planet Earth in 1975.  Therefore, the present inflation rate is not alarming.

http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx

The middle class would be able to huddle together and start new businesses, if there
weren't a such a wide disparity in income between the top 10% and the bottom 90%.
Technically, it's the top 20% versus the bottom 80%, in term of stocks and securities.

As you can see, the Republicans disseminated yet another lie in claiming that you
absolutely must throw all the money in the world into the hands of rich, or else no
more jobs will be created.  The fact is that throwing more money into the hands of
the rich decreases demand by decreasing disposable income among potential con-
sumers.  The very thing that the Republicans claim to be the only cure to the econ-
omy has been the cause of its demise, all along.

Yesterday's Southern Democrat is Today's Conservative Republican

Even though the Clinton Crime Family and accomplishes brought lasting disgrace
to the abortion-obsessed Democratic Party, it does NOT exhonerate the Republican
Party.  In fact, Bill and Hillary Clinton proceeded in the Republican way during the
1990s.  Clinton policies, such as three-strikes-and-your-out, is the Republican Way.
The Republican Way of the 1990s was the Southern Democrat Way of the 1950s.

Whereas the Clintons were quintessential Reaganite Republicans in the 1990s, which
is synonymous with Southern Democrats of the early Twentieth Century, in the 21st
Century, Hillary became Anarchy Personification, as she used government as a way
to get wealthy, at the expense of everyone else.   That's known as graft and corruption,
not to mention bribe-taking.    Let us proceed::::

Bruce Bartlett was domestic policy advisor of Ronald Reagan, as well as a Treasury
Department official under George HW Bush (the first Bush.)  He is also regarded as
an expert of Supply Side Economics (a la Milton Friedman.)  So, one would expect
him to defend the TEA Party Republicans who have deified Ronald Reagan.  Well,
Mr Bartlett did the opposite.

On national TV, Bruce Bartlett referred to the TEA Party people as fringed fanatics
who have no idea of the economic repercussions that their acts will cause.  He also
said that yesterday's Southern Democrat is today's Republican.  However, I said it
first.  None the less, Mr. Bartlett went a step further in stating that the Southern
culture of old days took-over the Republican Party.  Incidentally, Dixiecrat is
synonymous with Southern Democrat.
___________________________________________________________________

There is no difference among them.  The difference is that the federal government
of the United States banned some of the evils closest to the Southern Heart.  But,
many of them perpetuate in altered forms, such as slavery.  Today, it's a matter of
slavery by proxy, where the sweatshop worker's of China, Indonesia, Bangladesh,
and similar nations replaced the African-American slave.

Here's a reality check for those still deceived into believing that the Republican Party
platform came down from Mt. Sinai with the late Jerry Falwell.   The truth is that the
Republican platform migrated from the Southern Democrats.  From the land of: 

  1} segregation, Jim Crow, and electoral gerrymandering,  2} poll taxes & grandfather
       clauses,  3} lynchings, 4} the murder of the Michigan Freedom Riders, 5} pellagra,
  6} anti-Catholicism, 7} congressional initiatives for obscenely high military spending,
  8} good ole boy networks,  8} very low wages,  9} anti-federal government diatribes,
10} anti-immigration sentiments, 11} antagonism toward civil rights, and 12} low SAT
       scores, as well as things that will not be stated here, out of a sense of politeness. 

As of October 2013, pursuant to the antics of Congressional members heavily from the
states of the former confederate South, you have witnessed the start on the path to the
second American civil war.

At this point, think:  They have been people advocating secession from the Union, ever
since the 2012 presidential election, even to the point of petitioning for it.  I personally
witnessed in the south that, amongst the good ole boy network of the holders of wealth,
there is no new South.  The federal government, as I have stated in other articles, is de-
spised by the rulers of the South, because it is perceived as the  watchdog who will
thwart their efforts to enrich themselves on injustice.  Thus, the federal government
must go.

The result was that they told the working class and poor that the federal government
is going to take away their guns, their jobs, their money, and liberty.  There was even
mention of marching on all federal buildings, and evicting all federal employees from
them.  Well, they did it, via the path of least resistance ... via government shutdown.

Concerning the recent shutdown and debt limit showdown, Dutch Ruppersberger of
Maryland's 2nd district said on October 1st, "It's bullying, not governing."

Similarities Between Southern Democrats of Old and Republicans of Now, 
and the 1964 ... as well as 1968 Civil Rights Acts were influential in their
egress from the Democratic Party.

Always keep in mind that former Goldwater Girl, Hillary Clinton, in all of her
speech-giving talentlessness, is a Southern Democrat, and therefore a Reaganite
Republican in sheep's clothing,  except for her stance of abortion-on-demand.
She is NOT the hip, cool, in-touch, progressive that she made herself out to be.

At best, Hillary Clinton is a complete chump and anarchist who did NOT
let a deposed head of state stand trial.  Instead, he had to die from a brutal
lynching, showing what a Southern Democrat at Heart Hillary is.
.
Such a thing is a war crime, incidentally.  Thus, Hillary did what she could
to dissolve rational civilization, time after time, between her taking-in large
sums of money and then cow-towing to those who handed over large sums
of money.  In as much, Donald Trump's voter base saved us from Hillary
Clinton and years of dictatorial travesty.  We should return the favor to
members of that voting block.  I've met them and conversed with them,
ironically enough, in Hillary Clinton's own State of Illinois, specifically
in Bloomington.  Let's continue:

The Southern Democrats were heavily into segregation.  Today's Republican
party was heavily committed to curtailing immigration.  This is an element of
segregation.  In fact, oppressive immigration law is a contradiction for Ameri-
ca, in light of the fact that everyone in the States is a migrant, including native
Americans  ... as in the Asian 9-repeat allele DNA coding on native American
DNA, reaching into southern Chile.

At the turn of the prior century, Ellis Island was an open door for immigrants.
Today however, achieving immigration status and eventual American citizen-
ship is much more difficult.  It used to be that a foreign national would auto-
matically become a citizen of the United States upon marriage.  No longer is
this so.

At the turn of the prior century, the doors of Ellis Island were open for the sake
of amassing a population of low-waged factory and mill workers.  Today, Amer-
ica uses the low-waged workers overseas, despite the fact that doing so caused
the massive and prolonged Trade Balance Deficit and loss of many American
jobs.  All in all, the slave-owning mindset of the South continues in the Con-
servative Republicans.  It consists in Slavery by Proxy, today.

The trade balance deficit incurred with China alone resulted in an estimated loss of
2.7 million American jobs, between 2001 and 2011.  This illustrates that southern
politicians are not the patriots that their propaganda machines make them out to be.
This applies to Hillary Clinton, the former first lady of the former confederate state
of Arkansas, being that she is a warmongering Reaganite Republican in sheep's
clothing.  She was the greatest advocate of NAFTA and such a thing became a
literally crime against humanity, pursuant to the SIXTH count of the Nuremberg
Trials.  That count was titled, Slave Labor, and that was the jest of NAFTA.

http://www.epi.org/publication/bp345-china-growing-trade-deficit-cost/ 

The shift of the U.S. political axis began in 1964, stopped, and resumed in 1980

In general and approximate terms, today's Republican states were often the Democrat-
ic ones of the 20s and 30s, at least when it applied to presidential elections.   In similar
fashion, a number of today's Democratic states were Republican ones.  This includes
New York.  So, there has already been a shift in America's political axis.

An example of the shift goes as follows:  In 1924, democratic presidential candidate
John William Davis won all of the former confederate states, along with the State of
Oklahoma which didn't enter the Union until 1912.  In the 1920 presidential election,
James Middleton Cox of Ohio, won all but one of the former confederate states, while
losing Ohio to his Republican opponent.  Then, in the 1928 presidential election, the
democratic candidate, Alfred Emmanuel Smith, won a geographic line that comprised
six of the former Confederate states.  In one of history's anomalies, Smith won Rhode
Island and Massachusetts in the same election.  None the less, the former confederate
South was once a member of the Democratic Party.  I now has a Republican identity,
for the most part.

As an added example of America's polar axis shift, in 1944, the Midwestern States of
Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota went to the Republican side and
stayed there, except for the 1964 election.  Of course, that line of states was Republi-
can in a consecutive series of prior elections, and it appeared that the citizens of those
States simply switched to the Democratic side, in order to support the New Deal and
FDR.  Yet, the same state were democrat one in an even more previous series of pres-
idential elections.  So, the middle of America shifted its political axes more than once.

None the less, it was also in 1964 when the former confederate south went Republican
for the first time.  Of course, this was the year when civil rights activism was ratcheting
itself upward, and southerners were vehemently opposed to civil rights.  This political
swing would be followed by the 1968 election, when segregationist George Wallace,
along former Strategic Air Commander Curtis Emerson LeMay, won 9.44 million of
the popular votes, 46 of the electoral votes, and five former Southern Democrat states.

After a disastrous 1972 election, the Democratic Party sponsored a southern presiden-
tial candidate in the wake of the Republican Party's Watergate scandal.  Yet, the south-
ern gentleman and former Navy officer would only win by 1.7 million popular votes
and 57 electoral votes, despite the fact that the nation lost its trust in the Nixon admin-
istration.  Gerald Ford was perceived as a Nixon man and his democratic opponent
should have won by a landslide.  However, the South carried an unfavorable reputa-
tion, and even though James Earl Carter won all of the former confederate states ex-
cept for Virgina, he lost the entire west, except for Texas.

Now, keep in mind that the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s guaranteed that the former
confederate south would eventually be leaving the Democratic Party.  The Civil Rights
and Equality platform of the Democratic Party was the tipping point.

Then came 1980, along with Jerry Falwell and the Paul Weyrich who had founded the
Heritage Foundation with donation money given by beer magnate Joseph Coors.  The
combination of Falwell and Weyrich gave rise to the Moral Majority movement which
would eventually be associated with a Ronald Reagan who signed a decisive abortion
bill into California law and who was divorced & remarried.  Reagan's inclusion made
the Moral Majority movement one attached to hypocrisy.  Well, southerners became
Republican during this time.  It was the result of the Democratic Party now being
associated with civil rights and federal watch dog agencies designed to ensure the
safety and protection of Americans everywhere.

Even during the presidential elections of southern natives Bill Clinton and Al Gore,
the eastern part of the former confederate south largely voted Republican.  Of course,
Gore was from the State of Tennessee and Clinton was from Arkansas.  This resulted
in a southern presidential package in 1992 and 1996, as well as a democratic package
that even included Louisiana in the democratic victory.  After that time span, however,
the deep south would remain Republican in its sentiments, with the mid-atlantic states
of North Carolina and Virginia giving their electoral votes to Obama.

Florida would go the Obama route, also.  None the less, the Southern Democrat mind-
set continued to have its grasp on the traditional south.  They simply call themselves
Republican.  But, the song remains the same.

The Republican Party Platform, under Nixon, was low military spending.  In fact,
Republican President Eisenhower warned of the loss to the America's economy &
culture that excessive military spending would cause.  Moreover, it was under four
democratic presidents that America entered WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the
Vietnam War.  Thus, the war economy was associated with the Democrats and not
the Republicans.  However, after the Southern Democrats entered the Republican
Party, the Republicans became the long-term advocates of McCarthy-style military
spending.  Thus, the Southern Democrats turned Republican basically rekindled
McCarthyism.

Do not be deceived.  U.S. military spending as a part of GDP was very high, in the
50s. However, America was a manufacturing nation, and its workers were well paid
taxpayers.  America was reducing its debt, despite the high price of Cold War expen-
ditures, in the Arm's Race against Russia.  Today, excessive military spending does
nothing but sabotage America, because the manufacturing base of the United States
was decimated by the Republicans and NAFTA-type policies.

Anti-federal sentiments were a mark of the Southern Democrat who equated the fed -
eral government with the North and their loss in the American Civil War.  Republican
politicians of today carry anti-federal-regulation sentiments.  Plus, there was and is the
obsession with gun ownership, as in "Git off my land, you revenuers!"  None the less,
the 2nd Amendment only applies to a Well Regulated Militia.  It's common law in the
Restatement of Torts, 2d, which asserts the right of personal self-defense and even the
defense of a third party. 

All in all, today's conservative Republicans are the actual RINOs (Republicans In
Name Only.)  Today's conservative Republicans are nothing more than the Southern
Democrats of old.
____________________________________________________________________

France had an empire and still exists. There is no more Confederacy.

                             In re:  The conservative right wing's hatred toward the French.

Gettysburg was the beginning of the South going down on its knees.

During the government shut down of 2013, a Republican politician, in the spirit that preceded the burning of Atlanta, spoke of his resolve in this way: "We're not French.  We don't surrender."  He surrendered.

Southerners surrendered during the first American Civil War, to the tune of 462,634 troops, twice the number as Union troops.  It's Southerners who are the cowards, hiding behind their guns.  

All in all,  Americans do NOT appreciate the aggressive operatives in our country trashing our European allies.  In as much, I would like to take the opportunity to apologize to the French, on behalf of Americans, for the insults hurled at you from those who live between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans also, but who have zero sense of civility.  I am so sorry that they repeatedly did that to you.  My dad had the kindest regards for you, and he was a decorated Air Force combat vet who witnessed fellow airmen literally go up in flames or hurl down toward the earth in a black trail of smoke..

The United States Needs France.

It Does NOT Need the Oppressive South.

For the record, I lived in the South for the vast majority of ten years, heading back to the North for a few Spring/Summer months.  I even then returned to the former Confederate South for a while, to the Shenandoah Valley.  Thus, I have experience with the Southern mindset, up close and personally.  Thank God for the North and West.

I can assure that we can do well without North and South Carolina.  But, we can't do will without France or England.  Add the Netherlands and Belgium, too.   In fact, I would love to see America substantiate an alliance with the Ukraine.  In as much, if you're an American vehemently against the idea of having foreign allies. then I can assure you that you're an inbreeder at heart.  

All in all, the South has always been detrimental to the United States.   The South has been a total pain.  If it  were to secede from the Union, it would be doing America a favor.  Northerners would be spared of a lot of tax dollars draining into the good ole boy South.

Let us begin:

In the proud, stubborn, and very short-lived Confederacy,  the national pastimes came to be:  1} primitive surgery,  2} surrendering,  3} watching its cities burn; literally.  NO joke.  No sarcastic statement.  The South was completely conquered and completely at the mercy of the North.  They still are.  The Northern states are the taxpayer states.  The Southern states are the tax-taker states.  The South has been leeching off of the North, and then the Sean Hannitys of this world get

the rural dwellers to believe the exact opposite of the statistical truth.

In contrast, the France whom the typical neo-confederate mocks, still had free forces throughout WWII, along with an effective underground network.  In fact, during the Battle of France, in 1940, the allies inflicted heavy casualties upon the Germans.  The Germans did NOT stroll into Paris.  

The historian tally for Nazi German casualties during the Battle of France (1940) was  27,074 KILLED and 111,037 wounded.  Thus, the French weren't the pansies that the White Trash and ornery right wingers of America made them out to be.  

During the Battle of France, the German Luftwaffe lost 1,129 aircraft in combat, according to the official stats.  So, it is a fatal error to think of the French as push-overs.  I would fight next to a Frenchman in a heartbeat.  I'm never willing to fight next to any Southerner who is not from Louisiana or Texas or the northern half of Mississippi.  Period.  As far as goes the eastern part of the American South, no dice.  

Spare me.

Even during the Battle for the Hague, in the Netherlands, the Germans lost half of its 8,000 paratroopers to death and prisoner-of-war status.  In their capturing of Holland, Belgium, and France, the Germans lost more troops and aircraft than assumed by those who never looked at a history report on the subject.

One more thing:  The French almost won the Battle of Waterloo.  The Prussians showed-up at 4 in the afternoon.  That was when the French split their forces into two parts and weakened.  The stereotypical American Southerner is simply jealous and tells lies.  There is nothing American about Southerners.  To be American is to give people the chance to talk things out and figure out what's going-on.

Unlike the sum total of Confederate forces, the French Free Forces NEVER surrendered.  If this were not true, then Charles de Gaulle would have never become a household name in the decades to follow.  In the darkest hours that France was enduring, De Gaulle remained poised at recapturing Paris.  Thus, the Southerners of today have the untold ... and bratty ... audacity to mock the French, after all of the surrendering the South did.  Proof that Southerners have a history of cowardice exists in the white hoods that cover their faces during cross burnings.

Incidentally, the Nazis broke international law, in order to takeover Paris.  They went  through Belgian territory, and the French didn't think that the Germans would do so.  In as much, the Germans had to CHEAT, in order to beat the French.

The French Underground who never surrendered to the Nazis inflicted strategic damage upon the Nazi infrastructure, while keeping the Jedburgh airbase (in Ain) perfectly in tact.  Simultaneously, the French underground delivered to the allied command a lot of needed information, thereby saving thousands of allied lives.  This included the details of the Atlantic Wall.

Plus, the French rescued a lot of downed U.S. airmen.  The French rescued these airmen at their own peril, and is this the thanks that the  France get from America?  Only the Southern trash we find throughout the congressional seats of government would be so ungrateful.  Without the French underground, there would have never been the concise information direly needed by the 8th Army Air Force who ended up destroying Nazi Germany's war-making capacity.

The Confederates had raiders during the American Civil War, but they never came close to the operational effectiveness of the French underground in Nazi territory.  Moreover, the French had their nation returned to them in complete victory.  The South suffered a 100% loss, including the loss of cities by means of fires started and finished by Northerners who became tired of the games Southerners were 

playing.

In Light of the Oppressiveness of the Southern Mindset

I can assure you that a Rand Paul presidency or a TEA Party congress will result in far worse upheaval than that which was witnessed in 1968/69.  Southerners are very oppressive.  That is their history.

By the way,  Texans will be scheming to get the price of gasoline to rise to previously crippling levels.  That is when the North will blow a gasket, because the South has been leeching off the North and its higher population, all along.

Let us review:  There is STILL a landmass called France.  There is NO landmass called the Confederacy in any form of power, at all.  There are just cross burners in the woods.  In the end, the French were victorious in WWII.  They won back their nation and prevented many 8th Army Air Force debacles.  This White Trash Talk of the South must end.  They have been doing this since the end of the Civil

War.

So, here is the situation:  The South suffered complete defeat, while hundreds of thousands of Southerners surrendered to Northerners.  Yet, the redneck congressmen had the audacity to mock the French who kept fighting at the Somme, the Marne, during the Siege of Parish, during the Norman conquest of the English, and at many other venues marked by French victories.  All in all, I would be willing to have American forces fight along side a Dutchman, a Frenchman, or an Italian before any unit of Southerners, being that the aforementioned Europeans would be much more adaptable on a battlefield, with a Plan B & Plan C ready to be employed.

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If the French are a nation of surrendering sissies, 

then how do you explain the following?

1} Napoleon's army.   2} the Parisians who defeated the Danish Vikings during the Siege of Paris.   3}  Charles Martel,  4} Charlemagne,  5} William the Conquerer's French army,  6} Simon of Montfort,  7} Simon V of Montfort,  8}  Joan of Arc's army,  9} Gilbert du Moitier (also known as the Marquis of La Fayette),  10} the General Rochambeau who rescued George Washington from his military incompetence, 11} the French Underground,  12}  those Frenchmen who fought in the Battle of the Somme, as well as 13} the Battle of the Marne,  14} the French marine units who went over the Iraqi fire trenches during the First Gulf War, 15} the French Revolution, 16} the vast French Empire.

A lot of pampered Americans spoke as if they could easily take-on and subdue the French with a bag of Doritos in their hands, while listening to the rotund chicken hawk, drug addict, and college fail-out, Rush "the Viagra Smuggler" Limbaugh ... and doing so without breaking stride.  Firstly, America is the second fattest nation on earth, and Limbaugh is one of the pioneers in American obesity.  Secondly, on a per capita basis, the French have been taking home more Olympic medals than the Americans.  This is also the case with Australia and Hungary, as it applies to the Summer Olympics only.

Furthermore, a Special Forces American told me in Florida that the French special forces troops are the ones who are the most knowledgeable in war technology, while on the field.  Now, he said that the Italian special forces personnel are the acrobats of the Western allies, but it's the French who can improvise on the battle field, as if to be college professors.

In conclusion, you can call the French rude, but you can't call them a bunch of sissies.  Of course, the French enigma came from France losing to Hitler.  Well, jn order for the Nazis to conquer France, it had to bypass the massive Maginot Line, and break international law by invading France through neutral Belgium.

During the battle for Paris, 15% of the French  army was out of the equation manning the Maginot Line that the Nazis avoided, because they knew they couldn't beat the French in any one on one match.  The Nazis KNEW that they were no match for the French, in a head-to-head conflagration.  The French would have mangled their armored units.

Southern man, according to his own history, only understands low wages, good ole boy cronyism, crying wolf, using religion to deceive the people, lying about other people, lying about other nations, gerrymandering, complaining about environmental law, cross burning, lynch mobbing, despising the UN, and cursing international law.  Such is the mindset of an isolationist inbreeder.  Southerners do NOT deserve to be called Americans.   They would dismantle the United 

States and reestablish the Confederacy instantly, if they had a chance to do so.

Do not be deceived by their obsessive flag waving.  They would replace the Stars and Stripes with the Johnny Reb flag in one mere heartbeat ... from my personal observations ... in my opinion.

France:  A Imperial Power ... Unlike the Confederate South

A nation of sissies doesn't amass an empire reaching from Southeast Asia to Northern Africa to Central Africa to North America and the northern tip of South America.  Yes, even from the Three Rivers region of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to as far South as New Orleans, was French imperial territory.

The British Empire which was at its height shortly after World War I lost much of its influence.  In a dominoes effect, long after having lost America, it lost its jewel.  Its jewel was India.  Then, the United Kingdom lost its Opium War prize, Hong Kong, along with Burma (aka Myanmar), Ceylon, most of Ireland, Ghana, the Gold Coast, Kenya, Zanzibar, rainless Botswana, Gambia, Lesotho, Bahrain, Qatar, Tonga, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Belize, and other nations which have a right to independence.  Simply because the United Kingdom downsized itself, it does not make the English sissies.  The same goes for the French Empire.  Southerners always have to belittle someone, in order to make themselves feel great.

So, why would Americans think that the American Empire is immortal, especially now that it has been sabotaged by Reaganomics and the ensuring of long-term Trade Balance Deficit, as well as Johnny Reb politicians who did shutdown the federal government, in the Spirit of attacking Fort Sumter?

Any new West Hemisphere empire ... any replacement American empire in the near future, will either be that of Brazil or a new political entity in the landmass now recognized as the United States ... but such a land will have to weed out the backward, neo-confederate, self-seeking, good ole boy operatives.  

It was the Johnny Reb and the Jerry Falwell Fundamentalist who shutdown our federal government.  They then blamed it on Obama, as if we in the north are so stupid as to believe them.  Well, they're the ones with the embarrassing low SAT scores and every other type of test score.  In fact, high tech companies refused to relocate to South Carolina, because, according to the assessments, the state which started the first civil war didn't have people in the 21st Century intelligent enough to perform the high tech work.

The Ted Cruz Irony

Ted Cruz was hailed as the great prophet of the TEAS, and therefore, the great prophet of the Southern mindset.  What is wrong with this picture?  ANS:  Cruz prided himself on graduating from an Ivy league school ... a Yankee school ... a northern school.  Well, if the South is so superior, then Cruz must be regarded persona non gratis, for his Yankee influence.

The other irony of the South is that former Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich was a native of Harrisburg Pennsylvania.  That's near the Gettysburg which was the beginning of the end for the Johnny Rebs.

Southern politicians need to quit insulting our intelligences up here ... up here in the land of MIT, the Ivy League, the Big Ten, Lehigh, Pitt, Notre Dame, Case Western Reserve, the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, Mt. Sinai Med Center, the Seven Sister Colleges, Chicago Univ, Carnegie-Mellon, Williams College, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, Middlebury, Colgate, Bowdoin, etc.  They also need to do something about the ridiculously high cost of a college education and end the college loan trap.