on notice that maybe the United States just can't get it right. We have to remind ourselves that not since the end of World War II has the United States been victorious or totally successful when we have sent troops in harms way. The Korean war ended in appeasement where no clear victor stood over the vanquished foe. Vietnam was yet another futile attempt where thousands of American lives were lost. The first Gulf War was a exercise in global response to securing a region that had fallen into the hands of another tyrannical ruler, only to ignite the flames that exploded on 9/11. What has occurred since, we have become the gun slinger whose quick draw topples regimes. It is no wonder that so many countries perceive America as the fastest gun in the West. We have become what we thought we never be, the War Monger in the eyes of so many. And, the carnage only continues. When the Arab spring exploded on the world's stage just couple of years ago it actually was a prelude of things to come. The violent overthrow of government in Egypt and US backing overthrow in Libya coinciding with the continuing savagery in Syria has once again drawn ire and condemnation from
most of the rest of the world. And, yet we have only continued to put more Americans in harms way, wasted billions if not trillions of dollars in a quagmire that seems to never end and set the stage for more unrest in Europe with all the humanitarian needs from the mass influx of refugees. The year of the saber has already taken it's place. But, it is not only half a world away where the US continues to display an arrogance so typical of late. It is the main stream media and our tough touting politicians who are either too blind to see, to consumed with party loyalties, too interested in gaining more campaign cash, or just oblivious to the continued harsh realities millions of Americans face each and every day that continue to rave how good our economy is. When in reality it has been trade agreement after trade agreement form the past 30 years that made it more lucrative for companies to eliminate untold millions of middle class jobs. In doing so the US has secured the largest income disparity gap in history, put this nation deeper in debt and in essence gravely jeopardized our national security while destabilizing our national economy. When just recently Nabisco closed what was the largest bakery in the
ENIGMA
world in Chicago, laying off over 1400 workers just in time for the holiday season, and moving operations to Mexico. This is just one of thousands of outcomes of inept US policies that have been implemented that has made this year of the saber more devastating for Americans. For senior citizens in this the year of the saber are going to feel a most difficult financial pinch. When our dubious legislators passed legislation concerning Social Security where cost of living increases make it possible for seniors to stay in their homes, buy food, pay utilities, and keep paying those Medicare Part B premiums that have increased this year will get no cost of living adjustment. A cost of living adjustment that still won't keep pace with all the other rising costs of today just because gas prices per gallon we pay at the pump today are not as costly as they once were. It really is a perverted sense of equation when it comes to cost of living adjustments for our seniors. To add salt to the wound as they say over 600,000 seniors already are in reverse mortgage foreclosures. And, without a cost of living increase the prognosis is that thousands more
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will be faced with foreclosure. All those TV adds that we see more frequently today when either Fred Thompson or Henry Winkler push reverse mortgages as a useful financial tool are really beguiling the public into thinking that it is free money when in reality all reverse mortgages are nothing more than a home line of credit that has to be paid back with compounding interest. Leave it to Einstein who visualized compounding interest as the eighth wonder. With political rhetoric heating up many of today's Presidential contenders are not in tune with the realities of our times. A more brutal harsh world too many face is the reality now. As the harshness of winter fast approaches millions the world over still will be faced with the realities that their world has been turned upside down. For millions of refugees on unfamiliar ground too many dreams have already died. The squalor that many face even here as well as abroad is more apparent with each passing day. In putting the conflict especially in Syria in perspective we have to truly understand the history of Syria and what actually is the driving force behind one of the worlds