One of the things that have concerned me for a long time is the arms race. Another is all the lies we hear about how great free trade is. It has been said how you will not go to war with a country that is trading with you. We continue to see China increase its military might and we have to ask ourselves "Why are they doing that and who do they consider a threat". One of the things that are happening right now is that companies that buy goods from China are forcing China to keep its wages low. One in particular is Wal Mart. I will mention more about that later.

With the trade policies we have with China, I see a few things happening. One is that the more we continue to trade with them, the less our manufacturing base becomes. Another is that we become increasing more dependant upon China to manufacture our products. This would work out very good for China if we went to war with them.


During WW2, in Vancouver, Washington we made the Liberty Ships. At Delta Park, in Portland, Oregon was the housing for a lot of shipyard workers. It was called Vanport. Years ago it flooded and then years later, it was redeveloped as a shopping center that has GiJoes, Lowes, etc. Right now, we would be very hard pressed to make anymore ships in the Portland, Vancouver area.

Right now, China is able to blast satellites out of the sky. I do not think we have the capacity to make satellites in the US anymore. We are dependant upon other countries to provide the vital parts of satellites. It is like when we invaded Iraq, some of the European countries that make guidance parts for our missiles (the minute man missile, if my recollection is accurate) stop selling the parts to Boeing. Bush did some arm twisting to get them to continue to sell parts to Boeing. The specifications are so specific that only one company is able to produce them and that company is not in the US.

One other thing to think about is that during the space race of the 60's, our astronauts always landed in the ocean. The 800 pound gorilla sitting in the corner that was never talked about is that the cosmonauts always landed on land. They had the ability to land their space capsules on land and we didn't. The only way we were able to do that was when we developed the space shuttle. Russia still has the ability to fly a cargo plane over the Salisbury plane in England and drop a tank from it and the tank hit the ground running. That was one of the key factors in forming NATO.

Right now, the US is continuing to put itself in the place and reinvent itself as an undeveloped nation. A nation that doesn't have the capacity or the ability or the desire to manufacture anything. The US is becoming number one in the race to the bottom. The race to have the lowest wages in the world, as well as not having any middle class jobs that would raise people out of poverty. This, in the name of making a buck for corporations that don't want to be considered US corporations, but rather be considered international corporations. Corporations that have the sole intent of ruling all the nations of the world and using their clout to undo all the labor and environmental regulations that now exist. Corporations that will use their clout to keep wages low throughout the world.

We have already seen Wal Mart do this. They use their clout with Rubbermaid and tell them that unless they can lower the price of their products, they will buy them from another vendor. As a result of this arm twisting, a company relocates to China so it will be able to continue to sell it products to Wal Mart at the price that Wal Mart sets. It is not a concerned to Wal Mart that the people can't afford health care or are making slave wages. This keeps the wages of the people in China down. I am sure that there are those in the Chinese government that are not happy about this. Right now, the rules of business in the US promote this downward spiral.

How the corporations in the US rule right now is to give money to the politicians that will be their puppets while demonizing unions and the Pac funds they have that they use to give to politicians that put the interest of the US people ahead of corporations.

To paraphrase Karl Marx, he said that the greed of the American people will be their undoing. As we continue to watch other countries develop technology that we don't have and are increasingly complacent upon saying that the only thing that matters is that the corporations need to make money, I see a bad future for our country.

I would like to see our politicians be more concerned about our country then were they will get the next campaign contribution from. In Virginia and other places, they continue to blow mountains apart to get coal. It doesn't matter how much damage is done to the environment and the communities by job loss and other things. I wonder how many rivers and streams have been covered up by debris from the blasting. The only thing that seems to matter is that the politicians continue to get campaign money from the coal companies so that they will continue to get reelected.

Then when someone speaks out and sings a song about it, like John Denver did, they will be put on the FBI watch list. The song John Denver wrote "Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg country, down by the Green River were Paradise lay? I'm sorry my son, but your to late in asking. Mr. Peabody's coal train has took it away." The song is about the coal mind in Paradise, Kentucky.

It is sad that people, in our country, that speak out and speak the truth are put on a watch list and people that are great at lying and stopping democracy, via stopping the recount of elections, are handsomely rewarded by the "Commander Guy" of our country.

We need to go from this to a sustainable way of doing things. If we don't, we will have a very bleak future. We need to go to a place were truth is welcome and lying and greed is punish by law, instead of the other way around, like it is now.

Sometimes, in the back of my mind, I wonder what a "cold war" with China would be like.
Jeff