Universal Maximum Income & Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

In the article "UMI for the Wealthy" by tinorozzo August 26, 2017 he states "Without the estate tax, super-wealthy families would be able to hoard that wealth in perpetuity, becoming ever more powerful in the process." He has shown a basic reason we all need to explore a Universal Maximum Income, and why it should be considered a real and viable option.

People have become "...ever more powerful..." regardless of an estate tax. How much money was the estate tax supposed to prevent families from amassing? Exactly how much power was this tax intended to curtail? I know of a few families who have the wealth and power of a small nation. Because of those observations I would say that the estate tax is totally ineffective in its intended purpose. The Bill Gates: $75 billion, Amancio Ortega: $67 billion, Warren Buffett: $60.8 billion, Carlos Slim Helu: $50 billion, Jeff Bezos: $45.2 billion,
Mark Zuckerberg: $44.6 billion, Larry Ellison: $43.6 billion, Michael Bloomberg: $40 billion are all examples of people with the wealth of nations.

All of these people affect government policy in one way or the other, and in ways that are not available to people without such wealth. In effect that situation is a de facto overlordship by the wealthy over the poor. Indeed this control exerted over government policy by super wealthy persons has set up a system of "welfare for the rich" and "rugged individualism for the poor". The ever shrinking middle class gets stuck with paying for it all. Then by the time the middle class die they have nothing left to pass down because the cost of their final days eats up their wealth. All the money they saved for a lifetime gets soaked up by medical expenses and/or nursing home costs. What's more is that by the time the middle class person is put in the ground, their final expenses put them into so much debt that the debt collectors start putting liens on the family home and other assets. The middle class and poor don't get the luxury of passing down anything because the richest persons have figured out how to influence government to make policy that transfers the wealth from the poor to the wealthy.

I have thought about the concept of a basic minimum level of sustenance, or Universal Basic Income (UBI) for our people. I like the idea and think it would solve a lot of problems. One problem it don't solve is the massive power over everyone else the super rich maintain. It occurred to me about the idea of a Universal Maximum Income (UMI), but not until now did I ever see the mention of it anywhere else. I'm starting to like the idea of a UMI even more all the time. I think it is the implementation that is problematic.

For starters, there is the problem of lobbyists and influence peddling by the very people that a UMI would affect. They would not want their wealth or power limited in any way. They are going to fight any such UMI policy tooth and nail. They are going to use their wealth in an attempt to crush any such ideas. They would use force of arms, lies, murder, payola or any other means to maintain the status quo. Even if such a policy as UMI were implemented there would be a massive outflux of super wealthy persons to other countries which didn't have a UMI policy.

We already have a problem with people stashing their wealth in places like the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes. I doubt the same persons would be hesitant in pledging allegiance to some flag that catered to their wealth building desires. In order to prevent that option the implementation of a Universal Maximum Income would have to be global in scale. To get other nations to implement a UMI policy of their own severe economic sanctions would have to be levied against any country who didn't follow suite.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

How much is too much? How much is not enough? On the low economic end the basic should allow for proper shelter, water, food, healthcare, transport and clothing.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be useful in figuring this out. It is all about motivation. When people are having a hard time providing for basic needs, that is all they are going to think about. Their only motivation becomes fulfilling these basic needs. If they have these basic needs guaranteed, their motivation suddenly turns to fulfilling other needs higher up the hierarchy. They are going to see other people who have moved beyond the basic needs level, and are not going to be satisfied being left behind. Because their basic needs are taken care of, they are going to have the resources and time to better themselves. All their time and motivation moves away from scratching out bare sustenance.

On the upper end of the economic scale, what limit should be placed there? Our Constitution proclaims that we all should have "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". There is nothing there in the Constitution that also proclaims that each person is entitled to amass so much power and wealth that they can dictate policy in government. That particular power is reserved for all the citizens and is supposed to be without regard for wealth. Taking the hierarchy of needs into account again we see that self actualization is the goal of fulfilling these graduated needs. What is self actualization?

self-ac·tu·al·i·za·tion; noun

the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone.

Money is a poor replacement for, or measure of, the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities unless that fulfillment means amassing power only. A person "Amassing power for what?" then becomes a real concern for everyone else. So the Universal Maximum income would have to strike a balance between realizing one's talents and potentialities and doing so without harming the efforts of everyone else in their own efforts at self actualization. At what level should the amassed wealth be capped in order to allow for that?

I would think that level of maximum wealth/income should be something that would maintain a luxurious lifestyle. Not the lifestyle of royalty because we fled from monarchies and had a revolution in order to remove ourselves from such vices. The UMI would be something which is desirable enough to cause people to reach for that, but not so much as to cause a family to wield undue influence over our democratic system of government. When a person has a bank account they've managed to bring up to $10 billion dollars, what is the point of a goal to raise it to $20 billion? How is that a real measure of one's talents and potentialities? Even a criminal can do that. More often than not it is the honest person who doesn't care much for all that wealth and the criminal at heart that does.

A further question would be, what to do with the excess wealth produced by the people on the high end of the economy? What other ways can these super wealthy persons be motivated other than the amassing of unreasonable levels of wealth and power. If their focus can be moved away from one-ups-manship on numbers of dollars to philanthropy, or numbers of people lifted up, everyone can get lifted up on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Neck Cancer 4 Years later

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe I went down to 128 pounds when I was on cancer treatment. A few times I thought I wasn't going to make it, like when I ended up in the cardiac ward. I'm not going to preach to you about it. You know what it can do to your health.

That was 4 years ago and I am now up to 180 pounds. I was one of the lucky ones so far. A lot of people who had neck cancer don't make it this long after diagnosis. A lot of people don't make it without radical surgery that leaves them deformed for life. I was lucky alright. I was lucky the chemo and radiation only left me with severe neuropathy, a paralyzed bicep, and several numb spots here and there.

Lucky for me that the young me went and joined the Navy 42 years ago. Because of that one move I was covered with Veterans Health Benefits. Without that I might be dead now.

One has to learn something from that, or waste a perfectly good learning opportunity. I learned a couple things from my time fighting cancer. One thing is that no matter how much you like to smoke tobacco now, you might just end up hating yourself later for it. You may as well stop smoking right now. It makes you look like a dumbass.

The other thing I learned is, no matter how you served our nation, that being in the military or just working 40 hours a week as a civilian, no one deserves to be left out in the cold with no help when they are in trouble with some deadly disease. I don't care if you only have two nickels to rub together, we are one tribe and we must help each other.

Please give up tobacco. Then you may not have to go through the misery I went through. You got any kids? Don't make them suffer the other way cancer caused me to suffer. I had the undesirable task of caring for my mother when she was dying of stage 4 lung cancer. I listened to her last words as she struggled for air as I held her. "Let me breath!" she begged. My tearful reply, "I just don't know what to do." Let me tell you something! You don't want to go through that. You don't want to force your children to go through that. I say force because they love you. They don't want to see you die in their arms, but they love you so much, they will care for you until the very end. It would be much easier on them if you died a sudden death, like in a auto accident, then to watch you slowly and painfully die.

Take it from me, a cancer survivor, and a man who has lost a lot of relatives to the ravages of tobacco, stop any way you can and stop real soon. Don't allow your future self to suffer the agony of cancer. Imagine yourself way underwater trying to breath. Don't allow your children to suffer watching as they watch you die a slow agonizing death. It isn't fair to them one little bit. It's cruel.

Corrupt U.S. Political System Badly Broken, Needs Reform

Our entire political system is broken and is badly in need of major reforms.

REFORMS:

1. Overturn Citizens United.
2. All political donors identities must be publicly disclosed.
3. All states must use a federal system of uniform voting laws.
4. Grant the FEC the power to enforce a federal Uniform Voting System.
5. Form impartial committees to draw unbiased voter districts.
6. Elections must be federally funded.
7. All political debates must be hosted by C-Span, who will assign unbiased inquisitors.
8. All political commercials must be produced by C-Span.
9. Unlimited donations may be made to the Federal Campaign Finance System.
10. Donations to individual political campaigns shall not exceed an amount set by the FEC.
11. All political parties are dissolved.
12. Electoral College system abandoned in favor of popular vote.
13. Use paper ballots.

If a qualified candidate organization wanted to produce a political commercial they would have to apply with C-Span for resources like studio access and other necessities for production. The commercial produced would be made available to the various media outlets, who then could air them and make commentary.

As things stand now with political debate and commercials, there is too much of a profit motive there for the media outlets. Perfectly qualified candidates are priced out of the market for commercial airtime. The debates have become a commercial extravaganza, whose political motives are entirely secondary to the profit motive. I believe the C-Span hosted debates should be made available in real time to all media networks, and they must be aired without modification.

Political debates for the public's consumption, and political commercials should have their freedom of speech restricted. NO LYING TO THE PUBLIC!

False statements uttered to the public by political candidates in campaign commercials, political interviews and debates should not have 1st Amendment protections.

Any lie uttered to the public with the purpose of swaying the public's opinion must not be tolerated. The public deserves to have nothing but the most accurate information so that they may make a truly informed decision when voting. The public must have nothing but the truth.

When a political candidate purposefully lies to the public, or otherwise makes a false statement, they have betrayed the public trust and are not fit to serve.

Senator Durbin D-Il Responds Trump Russia

Senator Richard J. Durbin

August 28, 2017 Dear Mr. Parks:           Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about Trump Administration's relationship with Russia.  I appreciate hearing from you and share your concerns.           On October 7, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security released a joint statement saying the our U.S. intelligence community (IC) was confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromise of emails from Americans and U.S. institutions, including political organizations.  Then in January 2017, the IC released an assessment of Russia's cyberattack on the 2016 presidential election.  We learned that President Vladimir Putin personally ordered a campaign to sow mistrust in our democracy and influence the outcome of the election in President-elect Trump's favor.  Most troubling is that instead of criticizing President Putin after receiving the evidence that he interfered in our election, President Trump attacked the integrity of the men and women of our IC.           On February 13, 2017, General Michael Flynn resigned from the position of President Trump's national security advisor after misleading top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.  Since he resigned, we learned that General Flynn did not disclose his communications with Russia in the correct Department of Justice paperwork prior to assuming his White House role.  He worked as a foreign agent in 2016, representing the interests of the Turkish government as a lobbyist. He also was paid nearly $34,000 to speak at a 2015 gala in Moscow honoring the Russian state-run media outlet RT.           On May 9, 2017, President Trump fired James Comey from his position as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)–a surprise to many as he was only three years into his ten-year term.  At the time of his firing, Mr. Comey was leading an investigation into the possible communications between the Russian government and the Trump campaign prior to the 2016 Presidential election.  Mr. Comey has since indicated he was pressured by President Trump to back off of aspects of the FBI's Russia investigation.           On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the appointment of former FBI Director Bob Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian interference into the election and related matters.  Mr. Mueller has my full confidence and I look forward to his findings in this matter.            In June 2017, reports revealed that Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and White House advisor, attended a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., the President's son, and a Russian government attorney who promised sensitive information about Hillary Clinton. There are increasing calls for Mr. Kushner to step down from his role with the Trump Administration, who continues to face growing pressure after denying its officials had contacts with Russians.           In addition to the FBI, the Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence committees are investigating this matter.  Following a House Ethics Committee investigation into his possible unauthorized disclosure of classified information, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has recused himself from the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation.           I have called for a bipartisan, independent commission to look into this attack with the end-goal of preventing future attacks on our election and our democracy.  The American people deserve to know the extent of Russian influence into our election and if there was any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.  This is bigger than one election or one person.  This is about our national security and the integrity of our democracy.           The failure of President Trump and Congress to address the security threat of the hack on our election is a stunning abdication of responsibility to protect the United States and our democratic values.           In light of these pressing concerns, I cosponsored the Countering Russian Hostilities Act of 2017 (S. 94), which includes comprehensive sanctions on Russia for their cyber intrusions and destabilizing activities here and around the world.  I also am a cosponsor of S. 27, a bill to establish an independent commission to examine Russian attempts to interfere in our election.  Lastly, I am a cosponsor of the Russian Sanctions Review Act (S. 341), which would require congressional oversight of any decision to provide sanctions relief to the Russian Government.  Each of these bills was referred to the committee that has jurisdiction over the issues within them.           I will keep your thoughts in mind as these issues are considered in the Senate.           Thank you again for contacting me.  Please feel free to keep in touch.
	Sincerely,       Richard J. Durbin       United States Senator

Socialism Fully Realized

I am against some technology. Everything under the sun doesn't have to have an electric motor and microchips. That's what humans try to do though. From clothes dryers to toothbrushes humans have gone on some kind of mania gadgetizing. I think it is a faze humans are going through.

Humans are a child species. A dangerous one at that. All this technology is very new to the human condition. Human beings have only been around in their present form for around 200,000 years. Our species has had technology for 3 million years starting with sticks and stone tools. It took humans all the way to 3000 B.C. to figure out how to use metal. After that long slow 2.7 million years of stone tool use, technological progress flowered. In only 5000 years humans went from stones to PET scanners which utilize antimatter. From living in caves and stick huts to skyscrapers and space stations.

This Technological world Human Beings have invented is a very new thing for the human condition. Like giving a child the best toy they ever could have, humans are given technology through their cleverness and have become fascinated with their own inventions. Just like a child too, if they don't have it and another child does they will snatch it from the other child's hands. Humans, the dangerous child that they are, have no restraint. If they don't have what the other does, they are more than willing to kill to get it.

Perhaps one day the human fascination with gadgets will wear off. Humans need to be distracted with some other fascination. Humans need reason to not crave or covet gadgets. That reason might come from the ability to obtain any gadget at will. Because of human nature, abundance would then cause gadgets to become mundane. How does our species get to the point of super abundance?

The combination of total automation and unlimited supply of all resources is the key to super abundance of gadgets. Humans would be required to begin expanding into the cosmos in order to have access to unlimited supplies of raw materials. If humans were to access unlimited supplies through expanding into space, human technological progress would increase. Humans would further automate, which would displace human labor. Eventually automation would become complete. Machines would have the ability to design, manufacture and repair themselves. Machines would be able to construct any device from resources that the machines discovered, extracted and processed without the aid of humans.

When human development of instrumentality had reached such a state of total automation, human beings would then be able to enjoy total liberty, equality and fraternity. No one would have any reason to covet anything anyone else possessed. If any person desired or needed anything, the machines would provide it. All anyone need do is to utter a desire and the machines would instantly respond. If you wanted a cup of tea just say the word and machines would provide it from tea the machines grew and harvested. It doesn't stop there either. If you wanted to have the machines build a house on Mars and take you there, just say the word. No one would have to kill anyone to have stuff if everything was provided by machines. Why kill someone to get a bunch of diamonds and gold when machines would provide it for you. Money would become obsolete, so no need to kill each other over that either. That's where the distraction from fascination with gadgets happens.

The making of any device, gadget or thing freely available through unlimited supply and total automation would cause technology to become completely mundane. Then the childlike species called "human" would lose their fascination with gadgets. The human species would grow up a little. They would turn their attention and fascination towards something else. Perhaps that would be the arts or philosophy. Perhaps the totally free human would turn their attention to leisure activity or sports. The human might even turn their ever burning curiosity towards the stars. If so, the machines would be the enabler, the ally.

This is my Socialist dream. This is how I believe it can become a reality. It will take several human generations to fully realize.

A Crisis of No Leadership in the White House

Trump is a businessman, not a politician. That's one of his (our) biggest problems.

In business, if you're very rich, people kiss your ass trying to get a deal. When you have employees (they kiss your ass too), and you don't like one of them, you can fire them on a whim. Just make up some bogus excuse, or live in a "right to work" state. You have little to fear from a wrongful termination lawsuit. Most workers are ignorant of the law, and just move on. If you have a problem with them like say, they refuse to break the law for you, just fire them.

That is the environment in which Trump thrives. That is the environment in which Trump developed. A lot of people voted for him because "He's a good businessman." There are good businessmen and bad ones too! The people who voted for him for his business acumen were wrong. Trump is a bad businessman who always deals in bad faith with them he does business with. Just cast an unbiased eye on his record and this will bear out.

Where are the leadership skills we expect to be used by the president? I don't see them anywhere. Instead, I see firings, bullying, lying, threats and empty promises. We are not only having a crisis of morality in the White House, but also a crisis of leadership. Because of Trump's lack of leadership skills and his method of doing business or "deal" making, we have a lame duck president who is alienating the GOP and is eroding his base because of unfulfilled promises. Becoming a lame duck is usually reserved for the second term, not for a president who hasn't even completed his first year in office.

Examine Trump's record so far. He definitely is bothered by the fact that Republican Congresspersons are not lining up with puckered lips to plant one on his fat ass. He has fired or at least tried to fire, anyone who causes him a problem. Now because he had promised a wall to his base, and can't get the GOP to fall in line, he starts with the threats to shut down the government.

Where are the leadership skills we expect to be used by the president? I don't see them anywhere. Instead, I see firings, bullying, lying, threats and empty promises. We are not only having a crisis of morality in the White House, but also a crisis of leadership. Because of Trump's lack of leadership skills, and his method of doing business or "deal" making, we have a lame duck president who is alienating the GOP and is eroding his base because of unfulfilled promises. Becoming a lame duck is usually reserved for the second term, not for a president who hasn't even completed his first year in office.

I don't like Pence very much, but I would be happy to see him take Trump's place in the White House. Even though Pence has a lot of right wing ideas I don't approve of, I doubt he has criminal intent. I doubt he would cause our nation so much damage. I think Pence has the leadership skills Trump lacks.

A False National Identity Created Out of Cultural Genocide

The term "white nationalist" has helped me to perhaps understand where one of our national problems lay. Think about the word "nationalist". The Wikipedia says:

"Nationalism is a range of political, social, and economic systems characterised by promoting the interests of a particular nation, particularly with the aim of gaining and maintaining self-governance, or full sovereignty, over the group's homeland."

I would have to believe that an idea like that has existed as long as humans have been migrating. We have Italians promoting that which is best for Italians. We have Chinese promoting that which is best for them. There are many nations that are primarily composed of racial groups. For instance you have a racial group called Italian, and there is also a nation called Italy. Same with Chinese. We have Chinese persons living in a nation named China. These people can become nationalistic and have everything in common including race and origin.

In the United States of America, the only people who fit the bill are the native inhabitants, or what's left of them. Everyone else has roots in far away lands. Truly every racial group in the world is represented in America. You could take a random sampling of humans from all parts of America, give them all the same clothing, and unless they spoke it might be hard to guess their country. You might guess Chinese, but them be as American as apple pie!

Some of the present inhabitants of America have lost memory of their ancestors.They forget the stories of their ancestors, who were brought here as an indentured servant. They were the victims of cultural genocide. So because they really don't have an identity anymore they take one on. They take one on that makes them feel powerful. They haven't any real power. They feel like they have no real control over their lives. They feel like the system is letting them down. The "Leave it to Beaver" world they thought was going to always be there was only an illusion. So all these people who have no identity, are powerless, have no control over their lives, no steady jobs, lousy wages and no hope for a future, find comfort in "nationalism". That type of person gets sucked into hate groups because they fill up that empty space. "white nationalism", "black nationalism", "this nationalism", "that nationalism" how about Humanity Nationalism?

So it is harder to fully realize a national identity because of the differing racial cultures. Some people, in order to have an identity, have invented one. Some people who have nothing racially, culturally or in any other way except being human, have donned the identity of other people's culture. Like a person with Scot ancestry taking on the identity of the Nazi. Same goes for Irish people in the Americas. For them it didn't start out that way, but they have forgotten. They have forgotten how when their ancestors first came to these shores they were persecuted. In order to avoid persecution they adopted the all encompassing term "white person". Then they could point that wicked finger at another invention of human racism, the "black person".

Lumping an Irish person in with Germans then calling them "white people" is the same as lumping a Tutsi in with a Zulu and calling them "black person". Doing such a dastardly thing results in two horrible things. First it erases the cultural identity of each group, and at the same time divides. Then comes people like Trump, and others, who would use that false identity to whip up discontent, all in the name of their own self interest. In many ways power mongers are using technique passed down by the Roman invaders of Celtic and African lands to divide and enslave. In many ways these people who don false identities have become ignorant thralls of the modern power mongers. They all would do well to study history and learn of their true ancient cultural identities.

Thus we come to the modern era with Celtic Scots carrying Nazi and Confederate flags, with mistaken nationalistic identities and the false moniker of "white person". Thus we have a lone person of African descent sitting among Trump supporters in Arizona, cheering for the very people who would put him in chains.

We need a new identity that all Americans can be proud of, and that is all inclusive. We need something that sets us apart from all the rest, and binds us all together. My first thoughts turn to our past glories. There was a time when America was synonymous with high standards of living, high technology and human footprints on the moon. That's one big reason why I support a national priority project of space expansion. I think if we, as a nation, pulled together on something like the industrialization and colonization of our planetary neighborhood we all, no matter the ancestry, could create a new identity that said "American" and all of us could take ownership of.

White Supremacists are Being Duped Into Working for $2 per Hr

This is a public service message for people who are supporting the white supremacists movement. Warning! You are being fooled! Please listen.

We're going to talk about jobs. About $2 an hour jobs. First though we're going to have to visit the humanitarian aspect of it. Do you realize what you're defending? Do you have any idea what slavery was all about? I think you need to revisit the horrors of slavery. I wish the spirit of Christmas Past could come visit you and take you back a few hundred years. You could watch as a family slept peacefully. Then other people burst into their home and violently put hands upon them, and kidnapped them. Then after being shackled, were bound up and taken away across the ocean to work. To be sold off like cattle to the highest bidder that person had to endure. Then a miserable life as a slave. I wish you could be placed inside their body for a time so you could suffer their suffering. Then if you can still defend a system of government that condones slavery, then you can't be a very good of a person! The same goes with the horrors of the holocaust. Anyone who would promote that kind of thing must have a sickness of the heart.

A lot of people have things confused. This has little to do with the right to free speech. The pundits will tell you that it does, but that distracts from the basic beliefs of those systems. What the purveyors of hate won't admit is what it has really to do with. The important thing. It is the return of two systems of government, Confederates and Nazi, that promote the enslavement and/or mass murder of human beings. They use archaic notions of racial superiority to appeal to them with impoverished egos, or who are bullies. They have been trying to sanitize their systems for many decades. The monuments are a part of that sanitization. Our people fought the Civil War then WWII in order to rid ourselves of those barbaric systems of government. Many millions of people died, civilian and soldier, to stop their heinous crimes against humanity.

Everyone needs to have the images of their ancestors reviewed. Say everyone just gave up and allowed Confederates and Nazi ideas to flourish. The end result of it would be putting people into slavery, and rebuilt concentration camps with piles of burnt bodies. Good people do not want that to happen.

Also, a whole lot of the people acting out with a Nazi salute would be considered mongrels if they were placed in front a racial purity board in Nazi Germany. I seen that a lot of people acting out seem to have Scottish or Irish ancestry. They are people who have forgotten their identity. Cultural genocide was committed on their people successfully. They have forgotten that their ancestors were enslaved by the Romans. They can't remember how the British imposed their will upon them, and enslaved them, and raped their women. Listen up! You're on the wrong team.

Slavery should be an issue with a lot of you because of jobs. A lot of people who voted for Trump, voted for jobs. A lot of the people who are white supremacists support Trump. One of the reasons some people go the way of the supremacists is because they are not doing very well economically. The system doesn't seem to be working very well for them. They have bills to pay, but work isn't steady. They keep falling further and further behind, so they seek to find a system that might work better for them. They get scooped up by the white supremacists movement. So what if no one tells them the truth? Say that the Nazi and Confederate system flourished again. They grew in power and people. Then some people were put into slavery once again. Now you have free people competing with slaves for the available jobs. You know that is a wage depressor.

Now you're looking for a job so you can feed your kids and keep a roof over their heads. Someone would tell you they'll give you $2 dollars an hour to unload trucks everyday for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, take it or leave it. If you leave it, they go hire a slave from somebody who made a business out of renting out human beings. That was a big issue even in Thomas Jefferson's day. There were people then who didn't give a hoot about the person being a slave. What they cared about was competing with a slave for a job.

I think you supporters of the white supremacists, and all the others, need to reevaluate the situation. You're being duped. You should be angry about that being duped, instead of some monument to barbarism going down. In the end you'll be competing with some poor person forced into slavery for a job.

Freedom of Nazi Hate Speech is Not Absolute

When I see comments that try to excuse Nazi, Confederates and/or white supremacists using the 1st Amendment, I have to wonder if the writer has a grasp on the Constitution. I wonder if they remember history. One person who tried that in a comment I found lives in Romania.

Did you know that During WWII Romania joined the Axis, and that Romanian troops were responsible for the persecution and massacre of up to 260,000 Jews in Romanian-controlled territories? It is a repeat of that type of thing we wish to avoid.

Let us be clear about what is going on by shining the light of history and reason upon the situation. The Freedom of Speech enshrined in the 1st Amendment is not absolute. There are limits on free speech. One of those limits is that we can not use one of our "rights" to take away another "right". In the United States Declaration of Independence is a well-known phrase "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". It was not the intention of the Founders that the freedom to speak our minds should infringe on our right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

If you want to test the limits of free speech you should go to an airport, stand in the check in line, then yell "BOMB"! Maybe another test would be to stand in a public square and start telling passer byers that you want to kill the president. I doubt in either case you would have a convincing argument for your right to speak those things using the 1st Amendment. Another area covered would be the Inciting to riot! That is something deemed unlawful. In each of those three cases a person would be using their "speech", but the freedom of its use is proved to not be absolute. In each case the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" of others was infringed upon.

As far as addressing the problem goes, we did that twice, and at great cost. We addressed it in WWII and the Civil war. In both instances humanity put down systems that murdered and enslaved fellow humans as a matter of course. So we all should know where a renewed Nazi or Confederate state would lead our civilization. It would in the end lead to more murder and enslavement. Again the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is infringed upon.

History has proven that the Nazi and Confederate state condition is toxic to humanity. Their freedom to speak shall not infringe on anyone's right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". When a mob walks down the street with torches in hand it conjures up memories of the Jim Crow era south. People did the same thing down in Alabama and other places. They marched in hoods back then, and carried torches. They carried those torches into black neighbourhoods to use to burn down houses and churches. They carried rope with them too. Rope they used to hang innocent folk from the hangman's tree.

Unless you are a Holocaust Denier you are familiar with the atrocities carried out by the Nazi party and its Axis allies like Romania. I'll spare you the gruesome photos of the burned piles of bodies of men, women and children who were the victims of the Nazi state. I do provide a photo of one of our fellow human beings hanging from a rope. All of that is what the Confederacy, the Nazi and the white supremacy idealism will lead us if we allow speech to be absolutely free in all cases.

Man Hanged in Jim Crow South by White Supremacists

I urge everyone to take a hard look back at history. If these white supremacists are allowed to use speech and symbols (symbolism is speech) to spread hate and fear, we are heading back to a very dark place.

Confederate + Nazi a Natural Fit: Time to Outlaw All Hate Groups

I was in favor of the removal of the defunct foreign government monuments (confederate statues) before all this happened in Charlottesville,Va. Now that the supporters of keeping the monuments, who I have to surmise are loyal to that defunct foreign government, have shown their true colors I am even more in favor of their removal.

On April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. 

Confederate = Nazi = White Supremacists; We fought two wars against this mindset. Two times the deluded ones were defeated. Now that the Trump has gained the White House this primitive notion again raises its ugly head. We need to chop it off once and for all.

May 7, 1945, General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Reims, France, officially bringing an end to the European conflict in World War II.  

Outlaw the Confederate Flag and the Nazi Flag. Make it a crime to display in public those purveyors of hate. Destroy all Confederate monuments, including the biggest one of them all, the carvings on Stone Mountain in Georgia. The carving depicts three Confederate figures during the Civil War: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis.

Stone Mountain was once owned by the Venable Brothers and was the site of the founding of the second Ku Klux Klan in 1915. It was purchased by the State of Georgia in 1958.

"Jackson neither apologized for nor spoke in favor of the practice of slavery. He probably opposed the institution. Yet in his mind the Creator had sanctioned slavery, and man had no moral right to challenge its existence. The good Christian slaveholder was one who treated his servants fairly and humanely at all times." Robertson, p. 191.

"The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things."
— Robert E. Lee, to Mary Anna Lee, December 27, 1856

"Southerners wanted to increase territory held in Mexico as an area for the expansion of slavery. Regarding Cuba, Davis declared that it "must be ours" to "increase the number of slaveholding constituencies."" McPherson 1989, p. 104.

All three men depicted on Stone Mountain were traitors to the United States and supported a rogue government. A government that not only wanted to maintain slavery with all its horrors, but to also expand it.

Germany handled the end of the Nazi regime much better than we handled the end of the Confederacy. At the same time we offered reconciliation, carpetbaggers and other opportunist profiteers plied the South looking to rip people off. That should have been outlawed some way because it didn't help matters when it come to healing a wounded nation. Maybe the Germans learned from our history, thus outlawed all Nazi symbols and hate speech. We should learn from our own history and follow suite.

We should remove these offending monuments so that our wounds can heal. Remove them in the full light of day, not undercover of darkness to hide our shame. We have to own it, and then choose to do the right thing.

Removal of the Defeated Confederate States Monument