The socialist Architect of Social Security Frances Perkins is an alumnus of Columbia University

Columbia University celebrates the terrible socialist alumnus Frances Perkins (1880-1965)! She was a proponent of Big Government and one size fits all solutions!!

FDR was a horrible US president!

"Perhaps no Columbian has affected daily American life more than Frances Perkins 1910GSAS. As secretary of labor from 1933 to 1945 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt ’08HON, Perkins — the first woman to hold a cabinet position — responded to the Great Depression by proposing far-reaching economic protections [???] for American workers and retirees. These radical plans included a minimum wage [???], a forty-hour workweek [???], universal health insurance [??], unemployment insurance [???], workers’ compensation [???], and social security [???]. ...

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory disaster claimed 146 lives and drew attention to dangerous and exploitative labor conditions. “The New Deal was born that day,” Perkins later said. ..."

The Architect of Social Security | Columbia Magazine "America’s most popular social program turns 90 this year. Thank Frances Perkins 1910GSAS."

How the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus is involved in instinctive fear responses and suppression

Good news!

From President FDR's inaugural address: "... So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. ..." (Source)

"... In a new study, researchers presented laboratory mice with an expanding overhead shadow—mimicking the approach of an aerial predator. Although the rodents initially fled in terror, they learned after repeated exposures to remain calm. By inserting probes into the animals’ brains, the scientists determined that a neural pathway connecting the visual cortex to an area of the brain called the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN) helps mice suppress their instinctive fear responses. While the visual areas are essential to the learning process, they were surprised to find that the vLGN is crucial for storing learning-induced memories.

“Our results challenge traditional views about learning and memory,” ... noting that the outer layer of the brain—as opposed to deeper structures like the vLGN—has typically been associated with learning, memory, and behavioral flexibility. Studying these same brain circuits in humans, ... could potentially lead to treatments for conditions such as phobias, anxiety, and PTSD."

"... The research team ... mapped out how the brain learns to suppress responses to perceived threats that prove harmless over time. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

It has been proposed that one of the many functions of the sensory cortex is to modify the vigor of instinctive responses by modulation of subcortical circuits. Mederos et al. uncovered a subcortical synaptic plasticity mechanism for learning to suppress instinctive defensive behavior. The critical pathway was the projection from higher-order visual areas posterolateral of the primary visual cortex (area V1) to the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN), which modulated instinctive fear responses based on experience. After learning, this pathway was no longer needed. This learning-induced plasticity involved endocannabinoid-mediated long-term suppression of inhibitory synapses onto vLGN neurons activated by posterolateral higher-order visual areas, which decreased presynaptic release probability. ...

Abstract

Fast instinctive responses to environmental stimuli can be crucial for survival but are not always optimal. Animals can adapt their behavior and suppress instinctive reactions, but the neural pathways mediating such ethologically relevant forms of learning remain unclear.

We found that posterolateral higher visual areas (plHVAs) are crucial for learning to suppress escapes from innate visual threats through a top-down pathway to the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN).

plHVAs are no longer necessary after learning; instead, the learned behavior relies on plasticity within vLGN populations that exert inhibitory control over escape responses.

vLGN neurons receiving input from plHVAs enhance their responses to visual threat stimuli during learning through endocannabinoid-mediated long-term suppression of their inhibitory inputs. We thus reveal the detailed circuit, cellular, and synaptic mechanisms underlying experience-dependent suppression of fear responses."

ScienceAdviser

Scientists discover brain mechanism that helps overcome fear (original news release) "The precise brain mechanisms that enable animals to overcome instinctive fears have been unveiled."

Overwriting an instinct: Visual cortex instructs learning to suppress fear responses (no public access)

Overwriting an instinct: visual cortex instructs learning to suppress fear responses (open access, preprint)

Amazon, SpaceX, Starbucks and other companies are arguing the National Labor Relations Board that has protected labor rights since 1935 is actually unconstitutional

Hopefully, the companies will prevail in court!

The NLRB is a product of the socialist and horrible New Deal! FDR was a lousy president! Germany had Hitler, Italy had Mussolini, Spain had Franco and the US had FDR! Those were the times!

"Amazon, SpaceX, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have all responded to allegations that they have violated labor laws with the same bold argument. The National Labor Relations Board, they assert in several ongoing legal proceedings, is unconstitutional.

SpaceX, for example, says that the NLRB is engaging in “an unlawful attempt … to subject Space X to an administrative proceeding whose structure violates Article II, the Fifth Amendment, and the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.” ..."

Amazon, SpaceX and other companies are arguing the government agency that has protected labor rights since 1935 is actually unconstitutional

What do President Franklin Roosevelt and the 46th President have in common?

Both have been members of the Dimocratic Party.

Both and their wives failed to acknowledge and take responsibility for their failing health when it was time!

Welcome to gerontocracy!

FDR’s Other ‘Day of Infamy’: When the US Government Seized All Citizens' Gold by Lawrence Reed

Recommendable! FDR was an awful president!

FDR’s Other ‘Day of Infamy’: When the US Government Seized All Citizens' Gold - Foundation for Economic Education Ninety years ago, Franklin Roosevelt told Americans they had less than a month to hand over their gold or face up to ten years in prison.

Prager University: Franklin Roosevelt: The Great Depression

Very recommendable! With Amity Shlaes. FDR was an awful president. He introduced socialism into the U.S. like no one before! He made the depression into a great one!

The Jesse Owens They Don't Teach You about in History Class by Lawrence Reed

Very recommendable! I thought, I was quite familiar with the Jesse Owens story until now. E.g. I was not aware (or I forgot) that he wrote an autobiography. This is mind boggling!

"... “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals,” he wrote in his 1970 book, Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man. “The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that’s where it’s at. Life is the real Olympics.” ...
You’ll discover that a snub more disgraceful than anything Hitler could have done was “progressive” Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to invite only the white American Olympians to the White House [Indeed, FDR was not such a great president for other reasons as well!] and keep Jesse out. ...
He resisted what he disparaged as “blackthink,” the idea that all blacks should think alike and spend their days in bitter resentment. He was a rugged individualist, not a collectivist fool. He loved America and never condemned the nation for the sins of a few. He never wallowed in victimology. He lived his life according to the Golden Rule. ...
His name is still widely recognized but mostly for what he did in 1936, and not much for what he ever said. That’s unfortunate because Jesse said and wrote many things that deserve attention today. ...
“I’m no scholar in history but I don’t think you have to be a PhD to see the striking, disgusting similarity between all forms of tyranny. Suppressing the personal identity of the individual into some group, the end justifying the means, force instead of freedom. These are what make every despot and potential despot tick, whether it be a Hitler, a George Lincoln Rockwell, a KKK’er, or a black militant…I’ve seen the despotism of the spirit drive out almost everything else good in a man, day after day, sometimes hour by hour, until he’s a fanatic wooden stereotype.” ...
""... But prejudice isn’t violence. I’m not saying bigotry isn’t rotten. But the line between the man who pulls a gun on me and the bigot who pulls a prejudice on me is a thick line. And if we handle them both the same way, we’re trading liberty for the jungle. The man who thinks Negroes are inferior and won’t have anything to do with them is stupid, maybe sick. But in the United States he has the right to be those things as long as he doesn’t back up his ideas as the KKK or the blackthinkers have—with fists and fires and ropes.” ..."

The Jesse Owens They Don't Teach You about in History Class - Foundation for Economic Education In his 1970 book, "Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man," Jesse Owens showed he was more than an Olympic champion. He was an individualist.

Thomas Sowell Destroys The New Deal

Recommendable!

How President FDR Worked To Keep His Health A Secret as The Wheelchair President

Very recommendable! FDR was probably the most socialist U.S. president! His treacherous alliance with Stalin is covered in this documentary.

Besides President Wilson, President FDR became the next irresponsible president to hide his dramatically failing health from the public.  The two term limit for U.S. presidents was adopted because of FDR. Unfortunately, it was not extended to members of the U.S. Congress! Otherwise, the U.S. Senator Biden from Delaware would have timed out several decades ago!

We are reminded that the current 46th President is attempting to do the same with his hard to conceal dementia and senility! We the people still have not seen a health checkup of this president!

President F. D. Roosevelt Kowtowed To Stalin

Posted: 6/21/2017

Anyone following my blog post quickly realizes that my opinion of President F. D. Roosevelt can be summarized as follows: He was a reckless, awful, and most socialist president of the United States.

Just watched this great YouTube video on the life of Churchill: CHURCHILL: 3 of 4 ~ The Beginning Of The End

Clearly, Churchill was aware of Stalin’s intentions to conquer and dominate eastern Europe.

At the infamous conference of Yalta, the reckless, irresponsible, and terminally ill President F. D. Roosevelt gave Poland to the USSR. He declared to Stalin that the U.S. would withdraw most U.S. troops immediately after the defeat of Hitler. What a fool!

U.S. President Obama Is Toxic To The Economy

Posted: 10/4/2015

How many times has the Obama administration attempted to tighten environmental regulations and enforcement?

Way too many times! And the President does not get tired of doing as if the definition of insanity applies.

Like the awful, most socialist president before Obama, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Obama is single-handedly most responsible for unnecessarily prolonging the Great Recession and weakening thereby the power of the U.S. to be a force for more freedom and self-determination in the world.

Jesse Owens Revisited

Posted: 4/26/2015

Trigger

Just watched for the 2nd time “AMERICAN EXPERIENCE/Jesse Owens”. Unfortunately, this great documentary about this son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave expires very soon (4/30/15) on the PBS website.

I found it quite condescending by American Experience to allude to Jesse Owens as if he was an Uncle Tom American.

There are a number of things many people probably do not remember or do not even know about this extraordinary athlete and the Olympic Games of 1936 in Hitler’s Germany. I bet, a lot of African-Americans would be surprised too.

Highlights

1. There were at least two black American male athletes at the time competing for the world track record in the 100 meter dash, Jesse Owens and Eulace Peacock. Peacock would have qualified for the Olympic Games of 1936 had he not been injured.
2. There were at least two white men who discovered and promoted Jesse Owens talents as an athlete very early on, i.e. Charles Riley and Larry Snyder (?). One of them encouraged or helped Owen to become even the first black man elected captain of an Ohio State varsity team.
3. There were at least two black athletes on the U.S. olympic track team, famous Jesse Owens and lesser known Ralph Metcalf. Both of them won multiple gold medals. The documentary did not mention, but Ralph Metcalf himself almost won the gold medal already at the Olympic Games of 1932 (his loss by not even one second was contested) and later became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (not mentioned in the PBS documentary).
4. I was not aware that Jesse Owens won a total of four gold medals at the Olympic Games of 1936
5. The documentary specifically points out that all the chosen U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games of 1936 were traveling together on the same luxury ocean liner (S. S. Manhattan) crossing the Atlantic ocean (about 359 athletes). Dozens or so pictures were shown of the social life of the white and black athletes together on the boat. It was described as a life far different from home for the black athletes. Unfortunately, the documentary does not mention how many black athletes were on the boat and whether or how any segregation etc. was maintained. There were apparently a lot more stories about this transatlantic trip (see e.g. the story of Eleanor Holm)
6. Although I grew up in Germany, I did not know that one of Hitler’s favorite Aryan athletes, a tall, blond man (Luz Long), who lost the long jump against Owens would walk around the stadium, arm in arm with Owens. What a scene to behold!
7. Avery Brundage, who later became a well known, because he served 20 years as the president of the International Olympic Committee, saw to it that Jesse Owens would lose his amateur status.
8. Obscurity, financial struggle, and unsuccessful career after the Olympic Games. According to the documentary, he was only discovered again decades later as if was a consequence of racial discrimination.
9. The Wikipedia article about Jesse Owens mentions that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt never invited him to the White House upon his return from the Olympic Games. The PBS documentary made no mention of this, was it because Owens joined the Republican Party? According to this entry in Wikipedia, FDR invited the white athletes to the White House. Owens is quoted in this entry as saying: "Hitler didn't snub me--it was [FDR] who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram." Unfortunately, these remarks by Owen are not well sourced it appears (here is a repeat of the above quote by History Channel)
10. In 1976, Jesse Owens was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award bestowed upon a civilian, by Gerald R. Ford. I am not sure whether the documentary showed that.
11. I believe, the PBS documentary did not mention that a number of black American athletes won medals at the Olympic Games of 1936:
    Archie Franklin Williams (followed by a remarkable career later), a black athlete, won the Gold medal in the 400 meters of the Olympic Games of 1936. The bronze medal went to James LuValle, another black athlete with a distinguished lifetime career.
    Then, there was John Woodruff, black athlete, who won the 800 meters.
    Fritz Pollard Jr. the son of Fritz Pollard (first black NFL head coach), who won bronze in the 110 meter hurdles.
    Jack Wilson won the silver medal in the bantamweight class
    Unfortunately, I do not have the time to do more research on this.
12. “Owens ran to gold in German-made track shoes handcrafted by the founder of [German] Adidas [Adolf “Adi” Dassler]” according to History Channel, providing him and other athletes with extra long spikes. The PBS documentary is mute on this peculiar fact.
13. “His mother performed makeshift surgery on him with a knife.
    Owens, the 10th and last child of a pair of poor sharecroppers, was a sickly child. The day after his 5th birthday, he developed a large fibrous bump on his chest that began to painfully press against his lungs. Unable to afford a doctor to remove it, his parents decided to perform the surgery on their own. As Owens bit down hard on a leather strap, his mother used a sterilized kitchen knife to carve into her son’s chest and remove a golf-ball sized growth. Owens suffered a great loss of blood but survived.” according to History Channel. This is very remarkable, but entirely missing from the PBS documentary.

Takeaway

PBS American Experience completely missed the opportunity to tell the astonishing story of how many black American athletes competed and won medals at the Olympic Games of 1936 in Hitler’s Germany. Was this simply an oversight or was it deliberately done?

Why are we not more people familiar with those athletes in our days? Is it perhaps it does not fit into the generally repeated, neat narrative that only after Jackie Robinson (1947) or Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) or after the civil rights struggle were black athletes given opportunities. I believe, the story of Jesse Owens and other black athletes significantly contradicts this dominating narrative.

I have written a number blog posts about race relations, American Civil War, Martin Luther King Jr. etc. here. I believe, the story of Jesse Owens and the other, above mentioned athletes supports my argument that the much celebrated Civil Rights Struggle was more like a second, unnecessary American Civil War (see e.g. here). I would further contend that thanks to these two unnecessary Civil Wars, race relations in the U.S. are still so contentious.

Notes On Marian Anderson

Posted: 7/21/2014; updated: 8/2/2014

For more information on this celebrated African-American opera singer please see Wikipedia article.

Some Notes

1. In April of 1939, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband helped that this singer was given an opportunity to sing in one of the earliest and then largest open air concerts in Washington, DC at the Lincoln Memorial. She was denied to sing at Constitution Hall.
2. In 1942, Ms. Anderson christened the Navy Liberty Ship Booker T. Washington (By the way this ship was commandeered by an African-American Captain and the crew was integrated. Not least it was named after this great African-American.)
3. She was the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York city in 1955
4. She apparently was several times invited to stay at Albert Einstein’s house in New Jersey (Source). Einstein considered racism America’s worst disease.

Thus, long before the civil rights struggle of the 1960s (I call it the II. American Civil War on southern states, see my blog post), things were dramatically improving for black Americans. I bet, there are lots more examples out there that are earlier or even better than hers.

Presidential Medals Of Freedom For U.S. Presidents?

President Clinton Receives Medal Of Freedom From President Obama

Was that not a photogenic picture gracing the news this week (11/20/2013)?

Medal of Freedom for Oprah Winfrey as well who just accused critics of President Obama of being racists without using the word racists of course? And she just had that racist moment on a visit to Switzerland.

A Bit Of History

Including the history of the predecessor Medal Of Freedom by President Truman created in 1946-1961 and was then replaced by today’s Presidential Medal Of Freedom since 1963.

The predecessor medal was apparently never awarded to former U.S. Presidents.

Since the successor medal was introduced in 1963, eight former U.S. Presidents received this medal (source).

Presidents J. F. Kennedy and L. B Johnson received them posthumously.

President Reagan (R) received it from President G. H. W. Bush (R)  in 1993. Why did Reagan not decline it?

President Ford (R) received it from President Clinton (D) in 1999. That is a surprise.

President Carter (D) received it from President Clinton (D) in 1999.

President G. H. W. Bush  received it from President Obama (D) in 2011. That is a surprise.

What Have U.S. Presidents Actually Done Lately To Promote Freedom?

At least since President Theodore Roosevelt almost all U.S. Presidents since him and including him have severely curtailed individual freedom since the beginning of the 20th century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is one of the worst offenders. More recently, we have to add the so eloquent and brilliant President Obama to this list.

Will former President Obama receive this award as well in the future? We hope not, it would be a travesty!

There Remains An Uneasy Feeling

Should U.S. Presidents decorate other U.S. Presidents with this medal? When will U.S. Presidents kindly decline such honors?

Proverbs Old As Bacon

Prologue

This is a blog post on the lighter side of life! :-)

A Paraphrase Of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Many people remember his famous expression “Nothing to fear but fear itself” from his first inaugural address in 1933.

Well, Francis Bacon said “Nothing is terrible except fear itself” in 1623. We tend to regurgitate and ruminate and most people will not notice because of our lousy public education.

Throw Enough False Accusations, Some Will Stick

A well liked and often applied technique by our fine politicians, who are then elected not by the silent majority. Few politicians are like Teflon, so their opponents keep hurling mud at them.

Well, Francis Bacon said “Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick” in 1623.

President Obama Is An Embarrassment

History Will Be The Judge

For me, he is already the worst President since FDR, who presumably surpassed President Wilson and President Teddy Roosevelt. He is the greatest flip-flopper known to this generation.

President Obama To Assad In 2011: Step Aside

In mid August 2011 President Obama declared in a statement (emphasis added):

“The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people, …We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. … For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside."

His then Secretary of State apparently echoed this as well.

Abyss Syria

The President of the USA, the leader of the free world, did not draw a red line or did he?

The President of the USA is unwilling or incapable of deciding by himself whether to use military force in response to the heinous crimes against humanity by a bloody dictator. Thanks to international conventions to which a majority of countries or significant of world powers agreed to following the horrible poisonous gas attacks during World War I, the use of chemical weapons was until recently very infrequent and its use has been widely condemned since WW I.

The President of the USA then seeks authorization from the U.S. Congress for the use of military force. This is an act of meekness or calculation with regard to the coming mid-term election.

Then, somebody proposes to disarm the Syrian dictator and murderer of his chemical weapons. How does the POTUS respond? He asks Congress to postpone the authorization to use force. Is this man nuts? I would have continued to seek the authorization nevertheless. To try to disarm a mass murderer of one of his weapons, who even denies he used this weapon, is pointless. This is a red herring or a delaying technique.

Highly unusual, the President of Russia responds with an op-ed in the New York Times. In Putin’s op-ed we read to our surprise that that Putin criticizes President Obama for his use of American exceptionalism in his recent address to the American nation. Putin, you are a little devil! J This is more than ironic! Did not President Obama make strenuously effort to deny any American exceptionalism?

Too Many Bad Deals For Americans Or Socialism Made In The US

The Past 113 Years

The more I study the history of the United States Of America, the more I realize how close the so called Country of the Free have come over the past 113 years to exceed the former Soviet Union in implementing a command and control economy and to reduce the liberties of its citizen not by violent revolution and dictatorship, but by sly gradual Socialism imposed by a strong central/federal government.

Best of all, both leading parties of the US are to blame for this development. The federal courts from bottom to top played along raising the question how independent is the judiciary from the rest of government or why did the constitutional checks and balances fail so miserably.

The Square Deal, The New Deal, The Fair Deal And More

Then there was the New Nationalism, New Freedom, Congressional Government, and later the Great Society. President Obama is the current torch bearer of this sad development.

Anyone who researches the above terms will come away that the so called Progressivism comes pretty close to Socialism and that it reigned for most part of the past 113 years of US history.

I am afraid, too many Americans live in ignorance of this because of public education.

Herbert Croly - An Influential Gradualist Socialist Of The USA

Some socialists in the USA were more influential than others. The bad influence of some of these socialists can still be felt today making a lasting mockery of the country of the free and brave. 

Mr. Croly (January 23, 1869 – May 17, 1930), of whom I have never heard before, supposedly influenced Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His name and influence was brought to my attention by this article.

“Croley was one of the founders of modern liberalism in the United States, especially through his books, essays, and highly influential magazine founded in 1914, The New Republic.”(Wikipedia).

I will leave this blog post here as a stub and a reminder to do more research.

La Guardia - A Republican New Dealer

A New Biography

Just read the review of “City of Ambition” by Mason B. Williams written by Fred Siegel in the Wall Street Journal dated 6/28/2013. The review is titled “The New Deal's Favorite Mayor/La Guardia and FDR shared a faith in redistributive taxation, heavy-handed regulation and public works on a grand scale.”

Mr. Fiorello La Guardia was smart, witty, anti-Nazi, folksy and he had a very impressive life, but his politics were largely statist and strongly pro big government. Probably, he was a great populist.

Not least his name is e.g. associated with the big government law “Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932” that prohibited yellow-dog contracts, barred the federal courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes, and created a positive right of noninterference by employers against workers joining trade unions.. “LaGuardia fought for progressive income taxes, greater government oversight of Wall Street, and national employment insurance for workers idled by the Great Depression.” (Wikipedia).

Soak The Rich

Excerpts from the review(Emphasis added plus comments):

1.       “… the Depression-era relationship between Franklin Roosevelt (first as New York governor, then as president) and Fiorello La Guardia (first as congressman, then as mayor) created what is still the political culture of New York City—a kind of civic religion that was once known as "Fiorellism." If there is a problem in Gotham, the enduring Fiorellist assumption is that there must be a government solution.”

2.       “It was an unlikely pairing. Roosevelt was a Protestant, Hudson Valley squire, a Democrat. La Guardia was a half-Italian, half-Jewish, progressive Republican who had lived in Arizona and Trieste before returning to the city of his birth. The two men came to know each other in the prosperous 1920s and became strong allies in the 1930s. (Roosevelt's presidency ran from 1933 to 1945; La Guardia's mayoralty from 1934 to 1945.) They shared a disdain for businessmen that manifested itself in a faith in government regulation and redistributive taxation—and in public-works projects on a grand scale.”
[Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini also liked public works projects on a grand scale.]

3.       "It would be almost but not quite fair," wrote New Dealer Rexford Tugwell [a close confidant of FDR], "to say that he was an instinctive dictator."

4.       “La Guardia's close alliance with FDR faded with the approaching war. The city, left to its own devices and burdened by La Guardia's hostility to business, began flirting with bankruptcy again during his third and final term. City workers, given a stake in their jobs by civil service, organized 15 years later into the public-sector unions that have come to dominate civic life and ensure that, for New York City, bankruptcy is never an altogether unlikely possibility.”
[Populism and fiscal irresponsibility often go hand in hand]

5.       “La Guardia loved to shout about how we should "soak the rich."”
[In this respect, he was a great fool like most populists.]

If Mitt Romney Wins The Election The US Economy Will Take Off

One can only hope the American people do the right thing on November 6^th, 2012 and send Business Enemy No. 1 President Obama packing. Then, the largely held back US economy most likely will finally see a recovery as is typical in the wake of such a deep recession.

Like President Franklin D. Roosevelt unnecessarily prolonged the Great Depression, President Obama has done the same for the Great Recession.

However this election outcome is not a sure thing, decades of government dependency by large segments of the US population have deeply undermined the American spirit and dream.