E PLURIBUS UNUM WHO BENEFITS IF WE AREN'T

I was kind of having fun with the comment threads in the HP story about this throw back the the preconstitution days. Guys, the Articles of Confederation didn't work in the first place.  Lord the TP’rs remind me of my nephew Brian when he’d throw a tantrum. Of course he was THREE at the time and usually calmed down after about five minutes in the bed room. Only instead of threatening the scream and/or hold their breath until they turn blue they threaten to shoot. Then, after I signed off and went back to Will Durant, more worrisome ideas started bubbling to the surface.


For starters there would be simultaneous earthquakes in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia as various Founding Fathers plus at least one offspring (John Quincy Adams) started copying whirling Dervishes and spinning right out of their graves. Do these TWITS have any idea how hard it was to get this country united in the first place?

And most important, who is bankrolling this guy? The government we have is little enough protection against the multinationals. Without that scant protection we'd be chum in the water.

Care to work for Chinese or Indian wages. At least Apple might bring it’s manufacturing back to the US. Care to let Monsanto and Dow turn what used to be the UNITED States of America into a chemical dump? Care to watch one state turn the spigot on the Colorado leaving downstream high and dry? Want to try getting North Dakota oil across a patchwork of competing states to get it to the refineries.

Look at the maps. Which parts of the country have the biggest ports? The west coast and New England. Which ports play host to all those container ships carrying goodies from the manufacturing compounds and sweat shops in Asia. The shortest shipping lines are still from Asia to the west coast. Hmm. California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho get together and slap nice fat tariffs on anything coming in or going out of what’s left of the rest of the country. Hey wheat states how much do you think New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Galveston are going to charge to let your wheat go to overseas shippers.

And while we’re at it, you think we have a problem with controlling the borders now just wait until each state has to go it alone. Can any state afford to set up its own border patrol and state versions of the INS?

Care to trust your rights of speech, assembly, petition and religion to the tender mercies of the neighbors who don't agree with you? And last but not least who gets custody of the nukes that are still in silos after the end of the cold war? What’s to keep the states hosting Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge from peddling nuclear technology on the international markets? Have to balance those budgets some how.

Hell, sell them to the highest bidder and wait for the orchestra to tune up and the dance to begin. It'll make the flagellant processions of the late 14th century look like Sunday afternoon tea at the vicars.