I keep thinking about The Bicycle Thief.

The Bicycle Thief is a classic Italian movie, set in post WWII Rome.

A poor man obtains a bicycle. Then he gets a good job hanging posters. His employers tell him, no bicycle, no job.

Someone steals the bicycle. The man and his son chase all over Rome, trying to find the bicycle.

Without the bicycle, the man and his family will starve.

Near the end of the movie, the man sees a fleet of bicycles. He sees plenty, and he has nothing. He only needs one bicycle, just enough to keep his family alive.

I feel like that man. I only want what is mine. I paid for it and earned it. I need it to stay alive.

Obama may not have stolen my bicycle, but he negotiated it away to thieves.

Doesn't he get caught? And doesn't his son sees his father disgraced?

Poignant story of father and son relationship...

He is caught, but the owner does not press charges.

The point is that the man's own bicycle was taken. His life, and the life of his family, will be devastated by the theft.

The same thing will happen to many seniors here, when Medicare and SS are gutted. And they will be.

It's a good metaphor that I have felt since Bush began dismembering America.

Not only did the original bike thief not get caught, but the man who eventually stole a bike in order to survive, did get caught.

But I believe it is the impending new America. One where without social safety nets many many more people will go. I was just listening to a show out of London doing an interview regarding bicycle safety on the roads. In passing they mentioned "knife crime". That is not a phrase one hears in America. But as I heard it, I thought to myself, we may begin to hear as our country devolves into the antisocial one the conservatives desire.

And the rest of us get chained.