Help Limit The Power Of The Rich & Powerful-VOTE!

Those old enough should remember Ross Perot's remark about the trade legislation of the early and mid 1990s, that it would cause a "large sucking sound" of American jobs being sent elsewhere.* Actually the "sucking sound" has been around for decades now, but we just didn't realize what it was, or maybe we just didn't want to know what it was. It has been the sound of money and wealth being sucked out of the wallets, pocketbooks, bank accounts, and home values of just about everyone living on the under side of a million bucks, give or take a few hundred thousand. A TREMENDOUS transfer of wealth has been taking place. Don't look the other way anymore folks, because this is serious. Reality can be tough to face, but if you supported, or "turned a blind eye to" the policies of the past three plus decades, don't be ashamed to admit your mistake. It is NOT too late, but action must come soon.

We barely escaped a total worldwide economic meltdown comparable to the Great Depression, and probably worse, just a few years ago. Why? Many people worldwide took time to forget all of the scare tactics used "to keep them in line" for the conservative; that is, wealthy interests' cause. Money was pumped into the world economy to avert an even more serious downturn, and an even "Greater Depression" instead became the "Great Recession." We are NOT out of the woods! The world economy is still hanging by a thread, and the rightwing elitists around the world have counterattacked by declaring "austerity" is the only way out; of course, "austerity" means YOU have to give up money or wealth and tighten your belt, not the wealthiest among us. Quite the contrary, we are still being fed the nonsense that "we" need to give tax cuts to wealthy people, because they are "the job creators." With all of the tax cuts given the rich over the past thirty plus years, we should be advertising on Mars for "help wanted," as there should be a labor shortage here on Earth. Conservatives keep telling us we have to give tax cuts to rich folks, or we're going to go to hell in a hand basket. Not only that, but we should further remove regulations on the Interests so they'll give us jobs. It is time for us to take matters into OUR hands, not leave things in the hands of the greediest of the greedy. We DO have potential power, but we're not united in the cause to have some control over our own lives. Giving more money to the wealthy is not going to solve our problems. For a variety of reasons, including OUR own mistakes,** we have UNDER consumption, not OVER consumption of goods and services.*** If you own a small business, this should very much concern you. You need customers! There's a major limit to how many products and services the wealthy can buy from you. Remember folks, we're all in this together. I've been in business myself, so I'm NOT anti-business. Don't be fooled by this "If you don't support tax cuts for the rich, and the repeal of every regulation in sight, you're anti-business." That's absolute NONSENSE!

If you are not registered to vote, or if you are registered, but haven't updated your address or other information with your voter registration officials (usually done by counties), please do so NOW! DON'T WAIT! Also, find out IN DETAIL (and I'd suggest, IN WRITING) what you need to be able to vote when you go to the polls (photo ID or whatever), or to vote absentee (now often done by mail). Don't think because you did this or that in the last election that things are necessarily the same. Some states have changed their laws. Don't risk being turned away from the polls, or having your ballot being challenged, and perhaps not counted, by not complying with the existing laws. Not liking the law changes is not an excuse! Like it, not like it, Republicans have tried to restrict voting under the guise of trying to keep non citizens from voting. I don't want non citizens to vote either, but I don't want eligible voters to be deprived of their basic rights over technicalities. Also, DON'T BE DISCOURAGED by any registration or voting law changes in your state. That's what they're hoping for! They DON'T want YOU to vote! The fewer average and poor people who vote, the bigger the impact of those in the upper incomes and their misguided allies. Don't cede your voice to others by not voting!

* Ross Perot became a billionaire at a time of more overall regulation of the American economy and when income distribution was far less concentrated. Hm, wonder how he did it?

** Remember too, purist capitalists and free marketers have shunned any responsibility for the economic mess. They have chosen to rewrite the Old Testament as "In the beginning, January 20, 2009, God created the heavens and the Earth." Don't be like these money-grubbing, irresponsible superegos. We all have made mistakes, and we need to acknowledge that.

*** I am working on another related article that will deal with the question of whether purist capitalism can provide broad-based prosperity for a considerable length of time, without war(s). To be clear, communism failed! So what about its counterpart?

WORD HISTORY:
Rook-English has two basic words "rook." The first "seems" to go back to Indo European "krokh/krekh," which may have meant "crow, blackbird," although ancient Sanskrit, an early form of Indo European, had a word that meant "male bird, rooster." This gave Old Germanic "(k)hrokaz," which meant "crow." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hroc," with the same meaning. This later became "rok," before the modern spelling. The word is seldom used anymore, at least not in the U.S. or Canada. By the late 1500s, this gave English a verb form, meaning "to cheat," perhaps from the notion of the bird "stealing food from other birds." When I was a kid, it was common to hear "I got rooked," or "Don't rook me," but I don't often hear the word as much anymore. Forms of the word in the other Germanic languages have all either died out, or like their English relative, they are seldom used. Interestingly, German has the now little used noun "Ruch," which means "poorly thought of by others, bad reputation," but whether this is a relative of the English word, I'm not certain, although the idea of the English meaning "cheat" and the German meaning "bad reputation" are certainly similar.

The second, and more common modern word "rook," meaning "a playing piece for chess," has an unclear origin, although it seems to trace back to Hindi "rut," the name used for "a playing piece representing chariot mounted forces in the original game of chess," as chess originated in India at least 1500 years ago.^ The Persians borrowed the game and the word as "rukh." Later, when Persia was conquered by Muslims, Arabic borrowed the word as "rukhkh." The spread of Islam into southwestern Europe eventually spread the game and the word to give Old French "roc," and this was borrowed into English in the late 1200s or early 1300s.

^ The original game from India was based upon military forces; thus, "chariot mounted forces" (they also used pieces to represent cavalry, infantry and elephant mounted forces). The later change in the names of the game pieces in Europe (as in "Bishop" and "Knight") came as the Church and nobility were powerful forces in European society. Hindi is an Indo European language related to English further down the family tree, as is Persian.