Category Archives: Social/World Views

Captain America – What Happened!?

On Wednesday May 25, 2016, patriotic comic lovers the world over discovered that  their beloved American hero and patron saint, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, is a secret member of Hydra, the nefarious group who played a major role in WWII Axis forces.  According to Marvel “Hydra is a world-wide subversive organization dedicated to global domination. At its height, Hydra was the most extensive, powerful, and dangerous such organization in history”, basically, the bad guys.

“What”?

Many are highly offended, others heart broken.   It’s probably the same as telling a kid there is no Santa Clause for the first time; it probably hurts “Right There” provoking the “Say it ain’t so” cry.   Some prefer ignorance to enlightenment, living a “What I don’t know won’t hurt me” mentality.  People need their fairy tales, “please, don’t challenge the story.., even if it’s all a lie”.  This news must sting like a slap to the face; for some.

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Nevertheless, the world changes as time moves along; evolving alongside humanity, whether we like it or not.  I’m sure people who are 70 look at the world today and say, “That’s not how you wear a baseball cap! What is this?  This place sucks”.   It’s the natural passage of time that makes you feel your age; witnessing things changing at an uncomfortable rate.  The next generation will swear this is how it’s always been, slow conditioning to accept a new standard of what can be called the “new norm”.  Is change a bad thing?  Not all, but there will always be a transitional period where things are a bit uncomfortable; it’s to be expected.
 

I remember during my time at Marvel Comics back in 1991, things were so much more different than the Marvel everyone knows now.   Nick Fury was Caucasian, now, the majority of people will only know him as a black guy.  That bothered me for a while until I realized that comics are a business. They don’t want it be a niche hobby like the 80’s. They want the comics industry to be big screen, commercialized, and mainstream. That’s where the money is; getting a larger audience.  How do they do that? Simple, it’s what always made comics a bit edgy.  Comics have always been a great platform to mirror and parody real life. There was a gay hero when that became a hot societal topic, Black Panther when society was going through that phase, etc., etc. etc.

Captain America was created during another societal phase ie. times of war, a time period of fierce war propaganda.  The American public just wasn’t that “quick on the uptake” back then. They were easily fooled, easily frightened.  So, heroes were  created that were in-line with the propaganda of the time period.  Remember, back then, radio and TV were law, and could do no wrong; now, the world and it’s people are much more informed.   We’re a much smarter society than that of 1942, a time when people still gleaned most of their news from the  printed papers, and word of mouth.  People are beginning to  educate themselves and are discovering for themselves the dark side of the “American Idea”.
 

Many of us have grown up, we’re smart enough to use the internet to learn the truth about America’s dirty dealings, and it was only natural that comics follow suit to reflect this new age of information. I think this shocking revelation bothers people because, we just don’t want to believe that anything “America” is a lie, or at the very least a boat load of half-truths. America has haystacks full of ugly secrets; all you have to do is start researching.   Just do research on The Bush Family Nazi connection, to begin with.   America has been in bed with the enemy, or secretly was the enemy, on many occasions in our country’s history.  But, is anyone up in arms that this is a reflection of America’s true shadowy history?  Nope.   As long as we don’t challenge the comics.  People like to read for entertainment, but not to expand their mind.

Then, there is also the claim that these turn of events, are an insult to its Jewish creators even though most uniformed people are unaware that Prescott Bush (George W. Bushes Grandfather), a representative of the American government, helped finance Hitler’s campaign with the help of Jewish Bankers (Warburg).  This is history. And we’re angry about a comic?

In the end, it is evident that a spoiled and privileged country and its people simply don’t like truth and this is as real as it gets. It’s easier to fool someone then it is to convince them that they’ve been fooled.  The revelation hurts so much more when you discover it’s not just in a comic book; it’s a hint at truth unspoken.

Overall, I personally, applaud Marvel for understanding that the public is a lot smarter then yesterday and much more informed. Thank you for creating a story that reflects REAL LIFE.

~Jack~


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Author: Montemoiño Jack
GIGA-STaff-Thumbs-Jack

 Editor: Kate Kane

Dads Rock, nuff said.

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~Papi~
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What the Heck? About the National Debt

 

 

At this moment the US owes China about $1.28 trillion, that’s right, $1,280,000,000,000.  This, however, only represents about 8% of the national debt.  China is the biggest overseas creditor.

The total debt to other parts of the federal government is $4.76 trillion which is 28.4% of the total debt.

The biggest creditor of the US is Social Security.  The trust funds contain US Treasury securities totaling $2.76 trillion.  It might seem unusual that the government owes money to other arms of the federal government.  The scary part about this is if the government defaults on the debt, no one actually knows how Social Security and Medicare checks would be affected.

Secretary of Treasury, Jack Lew, has said, “If we have insufficient cash on hand, it would be impossible for the United States of America to meet all of its obligations — including Social Security and Medicare benefits.” So basically, we have a problem and with no solution and no idea what will happen if we don’t fix it.
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I don’t know how difficult it is to compromise and raise the debt limit, but no matter which party has the majority in any branch of government, the debt limit has been either raised or adjusted 78 times since 1960.

With everything going on and all the concerns, one thing is certain: Section 4 of the 14th Amendment forbids defaulting on the debt.  The text states: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”

The bottom line: if nothing changes, then the government can only spend what it makes, instead of spending more than it makes.  The budget and accounting books would HAVE to be balanced.  With an estimated $3 trillion in revenue coming into the government it will have to work with only that amount to pay for the interest on national debt ($240 billion), social security payments ($860 billion), Medicare and Medicaid ($860 billion), veteran benefits ($140 billion), and basic operating costs of government functions ($106 billion).  Leaving $800 billion to pay for transportation, education, retirement programs, defense spending, welfare spending, the affordable care act and much more.  The country will survive on a balanced budget, but there will be major spending cuts.

 

(Numbers for US spending and debt gathered from Forbes and AARP)

15 Things You Should Know About the Government Shutdown

 

 

  1. The government shut down was a result of Congress not passing the spending bills necessary to fund the government.  Some shut downs include Smithsonian museums, loan agencies, NIH clinical trials, and national security personal.  The military, Congress, and the President still get paid.
  2. I don’t know why but the government’s fiscal year is October 1st to September 30th so the funding stops in the middle of the year.
  3. The hold up involves House Republicans and Senate Democrats.  Republicans want provisions in the new spending bill to give less money to Obamacare, while the Democrats want just the opposite.
  4. Obamacare is indirectly related to the funding, but the Republicans are using it as leverage against the new spending bill.  The Republicans think that the health care law is detrimental enough that they are trying to disrupt government funding.
  5. Objections to Obamacare include hurting employers and increasing unemployment.
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  7. Democrats defend Obamacare by saying that the law will bring universal health care, decrease overall cost of coverage, and keep insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
  8. The spending bill was amended over the weekend with two items: the delay of Obamacare for one year and the repeal of the medical device tax
  9. On Monday the Senate rejected the amendments from the House.  Then the House approved another spending plan that removed the Obamacare individual mandate.  After the Senate rejected that proposal, shutdown was imminent.
  10. House members had reaffirmed the anti-Obamacare and requested a conference to work out the differences on Monday night.
  11. The last shutdown occured in 1995 and lasted 21 days.
  12. More than 800,000 government employees will be furloughed.
  13. The impact on the economy might not be severe in the short run, but over a three to four week shutdown it would cost the economy around $55 billion.
  14. This will affect our daily lives in different ways.  The military will continue to fight and social security checks will still be paid.  But if you want a federal loan, gun permit, or passport it ain’t going to happen anytime soon.
  15. There is also another pressing issue, the debt ceiling.  Imagine what happens when we max out our credit cards.  Right now we are on the verge of maxing out our debt ceiling of $16.699 trillion.  The president has to ask Congress to raise the credit limit, but this issue won’t arise until October 17.
  16. Congress doesn’t agree on much, but they did agree to keep on paying troops. Now all they need to do is  what we elect them to do, run our government.

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