Daily Street Sheet

Albert Einstein said “ Insanity is doing something over repeatedly and expecting different results. “ Tea Party insanity is running amok in Washington. Republicans realize they can't win fair elections anymore so they are trying to scrap the whole democratic process. However their temper tantrums are starting to spill over to the world economy and it’s time for the president to stop playing with these people and instill fear.   As someone that considers himself more conservative than liberal I encourage him to go rogue.  This is not the Republican Party of my childhood. As a resident in New Jersey, we had moderate Northeast Republicans like Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Keane. They believed in free markets but made an attempt to understand working people. They also had respect for the institution of government and those that disagreed with their point of view. My point of contention with the President is that a man concerned with his legacy hasn't learned ho...

During the Cold War many reformers and activists traveled to Russia to observe the Utopian society called “The Workers Paradise”. Officials of the Komitet Gosudarstvenno Bezopasnosti (KGB) would tour these crusaders through the Kremlin and show them Potemkin Villages; structures that mislead others into seeing a bright appearance instead of the realities that existed. One reality was starvation; brutality and massacres that were conducted daily on a grand scale. These optimistic idealists left Russia convinced that Marxism was a model vision for humanity. A world with no struggle nor class, wealth and property was abolished and everyone was equal.  Vladimir Lenin called these crusaders for causes they weren't fully aware of “useful idiots “. During The Great Depression the world was ripe for our most vulnerable to become “useful idiots” for populist and demagogues that eloquently preached of a better tomorrow. To many capitalism seemed heartless, barbaric and cruel. As m...

Time to get a new agenda by Jeffery McNeil After attending the commemoration of “The March On Washington ” and hearing the many speeches of progressives and civil rights activists.  I didn't feel the sense of history that many others felt, I left disillusioned and depressed for those who still adhere to the Civil Rights agenda of the sixties. I express gratitude for those who opened doors for me. I just believe seeing the black and white films of Selma and Birmingham are no longer inspirational, but depressing that many still rehash the same wounds from that period. The truth is that the civil rights agenda is outdated and the poor deserve much  better than those who claim to be their advocates. If the poor want to feel liberated they need to break away from these relics of the past. The protesters today remind me of football fans that reminisce about the 1959 Detroit Lions or 60 Philadelphia Eagles trying to relive their glory years as their current team suffer...

A Better Tomorrow: Revisiting Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet" | Indypendent Reader

Why Affirmative Action Should Be Upheld | Indypendent Reader

You got scammed By Jeffery McNeil I’m approaching middle age. Most of my relatives are senior citizens, ready for retirement. But a few bad decisions could ruin everything for them. Because of the age and deterioration of their mental and physical capacity due to age, seniors become prime targets for con artists. Many scams go under the radar and never get publicity, many go unreported due to embarrassment. According to the Investor Protection Trust ‘s Elder Investor Fraud Survey, one out of every five citizens over the age of 65 has been a victim of financial fraud. According to the Pew Research Center, seniors are better off than younger people. In 2009 the typical household headed by the older adult had $170,494 in net worth, compared with just $3,662 for the typical household headed by the younger adult. Folks usually accumulate wealth as they age, so it makes sense that there would be large gaps in wealth based on age. But this concentration of...

 The Unholy Alliance The saying goes, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” However, the Republican Party has tried for decades to fuse the two. This alliance of capitalists, neo-cons and Christian evangelicals make strange bedfellows, but they have common agendas: creating unregulated free markets, spreading democracy around the globe, limiting the role of government, and restoring Christianity. This years Republican primary is a case history of the struggle to hold these interests together. Ronald Reagan began this strategy by speaking about a “morning in America”, spinning stories about welfare queens in Cadillacs and mourning the breakdown of the family. This would change, he promised, if you gave up your union membership, went to church and turned to capitalism. Preaching this good news throughout the Deep South and the Rust Belt, with the aid of neo-cons and Wall Street, Reagan built a doctrine of Jesus and capitalism that manipulated evangelicals and white blue-collar...