The haves want the have-nots to believe sharing wealth is not a zero-sum game.
The mantra: All boats rise in a rising tide.
But that’s not the way things are working out, eh? The wealthy get wealthier and the poor get poorer. Certainly on a planetary scale, with human population increasing globally at about 1.11% annually, there is a rapidly swelling underclass who have no concept, much less any chance of sharing in the vast quantities of goods, services, opportunities, and resources churned out by our great engines of economic and technological development.
The same is also becoming more and more true here in America, with wealth inequality increasing astronomically over the past several decades, vastly accelerating after the crash of 2008 crippled the middle class, further sunk the lower class, decimated savings and home equity, destroyed jobs and job security, and plunged already indebted average citizens into even greater debt. True, the rich did same somewhat of a hit as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, but predictably bounced back with a vengeance. 95% of the wealth generated in the slow but steady economic recovery over the past eight years went to the top 1%. In 2016 alone, the world’s rich elite increased their wealth by $237 billion.
In terms of our boat analogy . . .
I suggest we regular folks buy life jackets.
Because as the luxury liners supported by the subservient ship of state rise to even greater heights of opulence for the already wealthy and privileged, our fragile boats will be swamped in the wake of their showy extravagance and wasteful wanton affluence.
The rich and powerful have never made much of a secret of their disdain for regular folks. But as long as America citizens remain incurably detached from the reality of their lot, when the ravenous kleptocrats of the Trump administration rev up their feeding frenzy beyond anything ever before witnessed in the history of the world, everyday Americans probably won’t have to worry about being put in cages or internment camps — of course, the prisons will be kept bulging in our for-profit prison system but that’s business as usual. In their callous indifference and Machiavellian marginalization of the less fortunate, the wealthy if nothing else are coldly efficient. Extermination by war or disease or relentless grinding poverty are the time-honored and road-tested methods for effortlessly “draining the swamp” of unwanted creatures like you and I. The wealthy don’t need to ponder and won’t even flinch at the inevitable carnage. They won’t even notice. Their evening wear won’t even get soiled or their reputations sullied by the noxious clouds of incinerated souls and destroyed lives, families, communities, and even whole nations, as poverty, war, chaos and human neglect on every front stampedes the unprivileged — the slobbering masses — into the abyss of sociopathic excess.
There are no pangs of conscience for those who don’t have one.
Wealth is a zero-sum game. That’s true regardless of how much wealth exists in the world. If someone has something, then everyone else does not have it. We can make more of that something but capitalism — especially its grotesquely virulent current iteration, neoliberal capitalism — is built on want and shortage, thus quite by design there will never be enough of that something for everyone to benefit equitably. Recent history is all the evidence we need for this: while it’s true that since the dawn of the industrial revolution the engines of progress have mounted bigger piles of everything, it is also apparent that those piles have ended up in fewer hands.
In what may be the most astonishing, outrageous and incomprehensible economic statistic I’ve experienced in my lifetime, Oxfam just released a study of global wealth distribution which offered this gem: Eight individuals now own as much wealth as the bottom 3.7 billion people on the planet. Or presented another way: The top .000000107% of the world population have as much wealth as the bottom 50%.
Under these conditions, as the tide rises a handful of luxurious and unsinkable yachts inch closer to God and millions of sunken hulls rot at even greater depths in the dark void at the bottom.
Does any sane person really think it can continue to go on like this?
Are there enough sane people around to make a difference?
I really have to wonder where these people are coming from.
I’m not claiming any heroics here, certainly not comparing myself to those courageous individuals who spoke out against Nazism or the persecutions in the Soviet Union under Stalin, in Cuba under Batista, in Iran under the Shah, on and on — sadly too many to enumerate here.
But I am saying I share with them a duty, as we all do. I share with them as do all citizens of any country, to speak out against injustice, to criticize the country to which they belong. We must all speak out and geography is not pertinent. Whether one lives inside a country or has by circumstance or choice lives outside, oppression is still oppression. Tyranny is still tyranny. Villainy and genocide are still villainy and genocide.
Speaking out to praise or to criticize one’s own country is not just an option, it is a duty. And the volume of that voice is not to be arbitrarily turned down or turned off.
Each of us is identified with a nation. We both have the rights and privileges that are conferred by citizenship, and likewise have a stake in what that nation does in our name, hence a responsibility not just to be aware of those activities but to be discerning, and laudatory or critical when necessary.
So I won’t shut up.
On the other hand, there is a difference between caustic damnation and constructive criticism.
I see a lot of the former, little of the latter.
Frankly, it’s getting tedious.
There are a lot of people — apparently some 64% according to the polls — who object to Trump as president and what he represents.
This makes entire sense. He is objectionable at best, foul and pestilent at worst.
But we have to recognize, it’s not just the man we are at loggerheads with here. “What he represents” has been in the making for a long time. Over forty years at least, many would argue much longer. Maybe it was set in motion from the very beginning of our country, as America was founded by slave-holding elitists who were to one degree or another fearful of mob rule. ‘Mob rule’ is of course just an ugly euphemism for government by the people — all of the people.
A nation run by an elite few is not a democracy by any stretch. It is the exact opposite of a democracy. That those elite few then guilefully brainwash the “mob” into thinking they actually have some say in the decisions which determine the direction of the nation and the future is an insult — a vile and patronizing form of manipulation.
Trump and his crew will attempt to rule by fiat. As corporate businessmen this is all they know. They will play the “enlightened patriarch” card the whole way. Some will go along. Most — at least 64% — will not and have every right to raise hell.
Recognize that raising hell is but one approach.
How about this? What if we try raising heaven?
Ha ha ha! Funny play on words, eh?
Not really. Here’s what it boils down to . . .
2017 and 2018 will present historical opportunities. We will be presented dramatically and starkly contrasting visions for the future. People who have never been interested in “politics” will start seriously paying attention, because everything that America allegedly stands for, its most noble and worthy values and dreams for all its citizens, will be under assault.
And it will then come down to this . . .
Certainly we know WHAT WE’RE AGAINST as enlightened progressives.
But more crucially we have to know WHAT WE’RE FOR as enlightened progressives.
It’s time to be decisive, clear, engaging, positive, thorough, meticulous, captivating.
And truly visionary!
Because within the next two years, American citizens will be hungry as never before for a truly genuine, positive and sweeping renewal.
With no irony here’s my take: There is enormous opportunity which will spring out of the dark days ahead. I hope we’re ready. Alert, informed progressives know what’s going on. The vast majority of the American public does not. They are distracted and misinformed, numb and preoccupied with daily life. They are not to be vilified for this. They are victims of a highly organized, well-orchestrated assault on the public consciousness, maybe more accurately, an inducement of a hypnotic public unconsciousness. Trump is just the most effective recent embodiment of that assault.
Certainly there are some big bumps in the road coming soon. The crash of the economy is inevitable, accelerated by Trump’s extremely inept and uninformed administration. The neocons will get their war because some diseases are beyond any medical intervention.
When war and bankruptcy destroys any hope for improvement of living and working conditions under the orange autocrat, there will be at least 160 million new very angry Americans — many who voted for Trump — asking the questions we progressives have been asking ad nauseam for many years.
It will all come to a crescendo. Progressives MUST BE READY with an agenda presented in the language of everyday Americans — not politico-jargon-speak — but BIG, CLEAR messaging which presents a POSITIVE PROGRESSIVE VISION for America.
We can do it. But we have to start now!
When it all starts to crumble, it’ll be too late to be brainstorming and formulating plans.
As is now becoming a tradition, here is my holiday greeting card to all. It comes from my heart, prompted by hope that we can find harmony and peace in our troubled world.
“Happy New Year!”
It’s a very special time of year For family and friends holiday cheer For those no longer with us We shed a tear A time to share A time of feast A time to care And pray for peace A time to give to those Who have the least
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
This is the time to start anew Atheist Christian Muslim Jew To reach within And find the love inside of you Discard the old seek out the new Reject the false embrace the true To look ahead decide To bring out the best in you
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with us Happy New Year
(Chorus – Japanese) Akemashite Omedetoo Peace be with you Happy New Year
(Chorus) Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Peace be with you Happy New Year
May the new year finally bring peace to the world. May we discover and embrace the understanding needed to live together in genuine and lasting harmony.
But let me be blunt . . . it doesn’t quite cut it.
In fact, lacking just two letters it is entirely wrong!
A wealthy America doesn’t come from a strong dollar, skyrocketing stock market, or how many billionaires it has.
A strong America doesn’t come from how many nuclear-tipped missiles or military bases it has across the globe.
A great America doesn’t magically emerge by stomping from one continent to another as a belligerent bully making every other country cower and kowtow.
As appealing as this facile notion of “American greatness” is, how about some perspective?
Here’s the way I think the meme should go . . .
“Make Americans Great Again!”
Mind you, the idea that every American can be great doesn’t mean every person will be famous, a billionaire, or become president. It does mean that every individual is supported and encouraged to realize their individual greatness. You can be a great mother or father or sister or brother. You can be a great teacher or bank clerk or mail deliverer. You can be a great baseball coach or a great neighbor. You can be a great friend.
Let’s be honest. Maybe Americans were never really great. Certainly, it has had its share of oppressed citizens, victims of racism, exploited underclasses, even desperately poor. These folks never had a chance to be great on any terms. The persecuted, disadvantaged and marginalized are forever scrambling, living on the edge of desperation.
But at least at one time most of us shared a belief that there was a potential for greatness in each of us, and we not only promoted that ideal but often actively encouraged it in our places of worship, neighborhoods, communities, schools, and among family and friends.
Values have shifted. America is now perpetually at war and divided as never before by wealth inequality and class apartheid.
This is both sinister and entirely by design. Thus . . .
We must rise above the 24/7 deluge of propaganda and manipulative and destructive narratives . . . and reconnect with where our personal strength and power comes from.
This is something we can do individually and personally. This is how we free ourselves from the mind-numbing and dis-empowering nonsense, the resulting dysfunction and paralysis which has become the new normal.
When I say “mind-numbing and dis-empowering nonsense,” I am putting slogans like ‘Make America Great Again’ right at the top of the list.
Recognize . . .
It is faith in oneself and those significant others which we directly impact in our personal lives, not faith in the destructive power of America’s nuclear arsenal which is empowering.
It is confidence by each and every person in what they do — confidence in themselves — and that what they do will make a difference, that gives clarity and vigor to our individual and collective lives, not some misplaced confidence in leaders who clearly have their own agenda which rarely aligns with that of everyday citizens.
It is the belief held by each individual that he or she is significant and an indispensable member of our society — a belief in oneself — not a knee jerk belief that America is the indispensable nation just because it has declared itself so, which generates aspirations and the energy and courage to move forward.
National pride is not about flags and military parades. National pride grows out of the collective sense of self-worth of American citizens, each able to feel that their contribution to their families and communities embraces the personal ideals of a decent and moral life. Patriotism is the natural result of each and every citizen giving their all to each and every other citizen, starting with their family, friends, and community.
These are the true and enduring sources of American greatness.
America will become great again whenAmericansaregreatagain.
And crucially . . .
Americans will be great again when the impediments to individual potential are removed, when each person has the opportunity and resources available to them to participate and contribute as full and active citizens in an open, receptive, and appreciative society.
The impediments are certainly obvious: It’s class division, wealth inequality, racism, and political paralysis, fostered by the ruling elites to maintain their privilege and undermine independence and individual potential.
The mechanisms are also quite obvious: The ruling elite uses their pay-for-play puppets in high echelons of government to keep us begging. This is a proven, time-honored strategy that stretches back to the beginning of recorded history. And we are again falling for it.
Thus “making America great again” is doomed to failure at the outset. And any blather about making America great without making Americansgreat is just more hollow and manipulative sloganeering.
Have we had enough of the jingoism and self-congratulatory hype yet?
Isn’t it time to take our country back?
I think we owe it to ourselves and future generations.
There is no guess work here. You either have power or you take it.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand.” – Frederick Douglas
Let the difficult but infinitely rewarding work begin.
Make AMERICANS great again!
Make no mistake about it. We have an enormous struggle ahead of us. But every journey begins with a few single steps. Every action and all activism begins with ideas. Here are my ideas for how we begin.
Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve was published in September 2015 and also is available both in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe paperback . . .
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .
1775: Declare our independence from England? What? Are you crazy?
1861: Free the slaves? What? Are you crazy?
1919: Give women the right to vote? What? Are you crazy?
1933: Form strong labor unions, stand up for workers rights, and demand a livable minimum wage? What? Are you crazy?
1934: Create a national retirement system called Social Security so that every American citizen can retire in basic comfort? What? Are you crazy?
1943: Make the rich pay their fair share by raising the top income tax rate to 94%? What? Are you crazy?
1959: Elect a Catholic as President of the United States? What? Are you crazy?
1963: Outlaw discrimination, guarantee equal rights and protections under the law to African Americans? What? Are you crazy?
1968: Stand up to the government, refuse to fight, and shut down the war in Vietnam? What? Are you crazy?
2016: Require that our elected officials be completely accountable to voters by making them sign legally-binding contracts? What? Are you crazy?
2020: Demand the government refund trillions of dollars of taxpayer money squandered fighting unnecessary wars and buying useless military junk? What? Are you crazy?
“So we should sit back and continue to suffer abuse of power by the rich and powerful and their pay-for-play puppets in government? What? Are YOU crazy?”
Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve was published in September 2015 and also is available both in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe paperback . . .
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .
It’s exciting. Sometimes we even get to see heads busted!
Yep! Nothing like a whole bunch of people waving hand-drawn signs.
Except these days . . . no one notices.
It used to be the way the “voice” or the “concern” or even the “rage” of the masses could be heard. We could make those folks at the top of the power pyramid listen to us . . . or else! Rallies with hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of chanting, marching, yelling, fired up protestors appeared to portend big changes, or at least the potential for them. These public events — some massive like the Million Man March in Washington DC on October 16, 1995 — represented “people power” and grass-roots democracy in its rawest, perhaps most effective, form. Or so we believed at the time.
Modern mythology would have it that it was the campus protests of the late 60s and early 70s that stopped the Vietnam War. That feminists burning their bras ushered in the era of equal rights for women. That the Civil Rights marches beginning with Martin Luther King Jr. leading historic protest marches in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama created critical momentum for historic changes in civil rights laws and an end to persecution of African-Americans. Even going back to the 30s, we credit demonstrations coupled with various other forms of political and personal activism, with monumental breakthroughs in the improvement of wages, job security and working conditions.
How important these highly visible street demonstrations were to ultimately changing the landscape of America is debatable.
The durability of their effects is not. Everything went forward, then went in reverse.
Yes, things changed. There were positive developments which came out of street protests.
But look at the state of things now!
The labor union movement has been all but destroyed. Wages have been stagnant now for decades. Union membership is pathetically low. Worker benefits are being slashed. Job security is measured in weeks, not years.
Yes, we’re out of Vietnam but we’re currently engaged in six other wars, have spread our military footprint to 147 nations with over 900 bases, have specials operations and proxy fighters in Africa, Asia, South America — everywhere! — doing under the cloak of secrecy whatever these “invisible” fighters do on behalf of the empire builders, using incidentally your tax dollars to wreak havoc across the globe and increase the threat of terrorism.
The assault on women’s rights is a 360º affair, with the juggernaut against choice ramping up, the struggle for equal pay going down the same road as the struggle for livable wages, a President-elect who is more known for articulating the advantages of pussy-grabbing than anything resembling coherent policies, females more and more rendered as sex objects in every form of media and entertainment. Patriarchy is healthily ensconced in the agencies of government and the power centers of crony capitalism.
Set-backs in eliminating racism are prominent on many fronts these days. Muslims are openly vilified, blacks marginalized, refugees of all shades of brown bartered as political pawns. Racist slurs, vulgar stereotypes, xenophobic tirades, ultra-nationalistic and even White supremacist memes appear regularly with less salient blow back than we’ve seen in sixty years. With our first African-American president we witnessed the fortunes of the African-American community go backwards. Obama promised early in his presidency to have an adult conversation on race. He apparently forgot. Now we have an openly racist incoming administration, a frightening assembly of socially conservative autocrats, which promises to further divide and polarize a frustrated and angry citizenry.
All of these longstanding challenges and crises certainly were well-represented and each had in some forgotten past their 15 minutes of fame and expression in well-organized and highly visible street protests. Even more recently, we witnessed the promise of the same in the Ferguson and Black Lives Matter marches.
But let’s bravely confront some new realities and draw some honest conclusions.
Apparently, even the best attempts at facilitating reform by mass demonstrations might in the short run be effective, but whatever good comes of it will through steady attrition and relentless pressure by the rich and powerful eventually be undone, often leaving us worse off than when we started.
Look at our democracy. Well . . . you can’t look at our democracy. It doesn’t exist now. This is our reward for attempting election cycle after election cycle to make adjustments and incremental improvements in the mechanisms of our electoral process. We used the accepted, official, approved channels to try to make voter registration more efficient and accessible, make ballot counting more transparent and free of error, allegedly make real choice at the polls pervasive. What we have is a rigged system where literally millions of citizens are denied their constitutional right to vote, electronic voting machines can be programmed to switch votes and leave no paper trail, and the two major parties taking turns gerrymandering any representative verisimilitude out of our local districts. As a result, at least for now, our representative democracy is a representative sham.
What can we do? Protest? March on our state capitals and Washington DC?
The evidence is unambiguous. It has recently become obvious that street demonstrations are pretty much a non-starter. Any attempts at public assembly are so curtailed by police control, protestors are catalogued for future harassment, many are arrested and booked for no better reason than just being there, attempts to document police malfeasance and excessive brutality illegally but no less finally crushed.
Point in case: Once the “establishment” realized that Occupy Wall Street was gaining serious momentum, it was just a matter of a couple weeks before it was completely taken apart. The movement was infiltrated by the FBI and local undercover officers, all sorts of new health and safety regulations suddenly popped up, the protesters were intimidated, cleared out, and/or arrested. This was coordinated from the top and took place nationally in a remarkably well-organized, perfectly-orchestrated eradication of the movement.
The suppression of free speech — the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of expression and dissent — has been assured by corporate and state control of the media. “Perception management” is the new tool of choice — which is just a euphemism for creating official narratives which bear no relation to actual events but serve the purposes of the ruling class. The latest assault has taken the form of a neo-McCarthyism, the heavy-handed maligning of dissenting views as fake news and smearing non-establishment journalists and protestors as anti-American thugs, just tools and agents of foreign governments.
The predictable result is that when people get out in the streets to make their voices heard, either they get no media coverage, or they are vilified as anti-patriotic, stray members of a lunatic fringe, or threats to national security.
Even one of the self-identified founders of Occupy Wall Street, Micah White, in a recent interview characterized the use of mass demonstrations as now being largely ineffective.
So what can we do?
Let me propose something which on the surface sounds ludicrous but I believe holds the key to our success.
We need to hide in plain sight!
No, I’m not joking. In future articles, I’ll explain in detail exactly what I mean. For now, here’s a preview of what I’m suggesting . . .
The corporate state now keeps us in check by perpetuating two illusions: 1) We are free, even encouraged to offer input into the system through a number of established channels; and 2) we ultimately express our will and affect the direction of the country by voting.
Thus, we can organize petitions because the powers will just ignore them.
We can conduct opinion polls because they can just discredit and ignore them.
We can organize community groups because that will keep us busy and distracted.
We can vote because ultimately the elite intend to install their own puppets anyway.
Fine! If in order to prevent an insurrection and real revolution, the rich and powerful wish to continue promoting the myths that we are self-governing, that we have a voice, that our votes count, I say we calltheirbluff. They can’t complain if we’re just being good citizens. They can’t attack us if we appear to be following the rules.
We work within the official channels because . . .
I believe that all of these approved mechanisms can be used to organize the vast majority of Americans into an enormous voting bloc. We have much more uniting us than dividing us. But currently we do not control either the conversation, the narrative, or the agenda. I believe that if we take control of the conversation and narrative, then create — or ‘discover’ might be the operating term — an agenda which aligns with our priorities and needs, not that of the rich and powerful ruling elite, we can mount a soft revolution in this country.
We can do this in plain sight, apparently just being good, obedient citizens.
This will require some creative thinking, thorough planning, and rigorous discipline.
We will definitely need to think way outside the box. But trust me . . . it can be done!
What we’ve been doing thus far, street demonstrations being now high on the list, is not working. Time for fresh thinking, exciting new tactics, innovative new strategies.
For a preview of where I’m heading with this:
Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve was published in September 2015 and also is available both in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe paperback . . .
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .
The West, with of course America itself in the lead, loves color revolutions!
I say: Game on! Let’s go for it.
But instead of another color revolution posing as a victory for democracy but which in reality is more colonial subjugation by the Greater American Empire, let’s have a color revolution that will really make a difference. Let’s install democracy in a country now truly desperate for real citizen empowerment and the vast saving graces of representative government, transparency, freedom of the press, respect for human rights — you know the list, since its trumpeted 24/7 by our propaganda machinery, whether these inspiring and noble ideals have any basis in reality or not.
Yes, we’ll call this one: The Red White and Blue Color Revolution!
It will be regime change, of course, because that’s what color revolutions are all about.
But this one will take place in Washington DC, putative center of the Universe, the grand “decider” when it comes to all things global, the bright beacon of hope and freedom and enlightened leadership.
If it isn’t already obvious, U.S. citizens now live in a police state under the oppressive and ruthless rule of an authoritarian oligarchic elite. Everyday citizens have no voice in their government, their most vital constitutionally-guaranteed rights have been nullified, their tax dollars are being used in service to a kleptocratic cartel of corporate/banking/energy industry/Wall Street/military-industrial-government-complex insiders, they are under constant surveillance by a sprawling Stasi-like security state. Anything resembling basic social services are under siege and being slashed in the name of austerity, and promoting the general welfare as chartered by the Constitution is dismissed as socialist daydreaming. Our essential infrastructure is crumbling, the result of gross indifference and neglect. The quality of our air, drinking water, schools, communities, even our daily life, continue their steady decline. While the rich immerse themselves in greater opulence and grandeur at the banquet table, the rest of us dumpster dive for what scraps we can scavenge in the alley in back. They snidely reassure us: “Buy a lottery ticket! You might win.”
So what about our elections? How is hope and change holding up in the voting booth?
The simple truth is that the dismal array of prospects we are now forced to select from to “represent us” in their official capacities shows no prospect for any of this turning around. Choice at the polls is an illusion. It’s always between one corporate lapdog and another corporate lapdog, regardless of party affiliation.
This is intentional. The major party duopoly is configured to maintain the status quo.
Those in power intend to stay in power and use that power to enrich themselves and their wealthy benefactors who will use their wealth to keep their minions in positions of power. It’s an unforgiving closed-loop feedback system, the political engine of crony capitalism.
It keeps “them” in and “you and I” out.
There is only on solution . . .
Regime change in Washington DC.
Translation: Replacing every elected representative who does not guarantee absolute, non-negotiable, unambiguous loyalty and service to those who elect him or her to office.
The Red White and Blue Color Revolution!
I’m dead serious. Because America is in dead serious trouble.
We need a clean sweep. We’ll “drain the swamp” . . . for real this time!
Let’s not fool ourselves any longer. Anything less will doom America to further rapacious exploitation, and consign Americans to total enslavement under ruthless totalitarianism: One nation under God . . . by the rich and for the rich.
As revolutions go, they can be peaceful or violent, responsible or bloody.
That will not be our choice to make. It’ll be up to those in power.
Either they’ll go quietly, respectful of the democratic will of the people.
At least that seems to be the case with dying empires.
As the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post become more and more indistinguishable from puerile and poisonous publications like the National Inquirer, Daily News, Globe, and Weekly World News, we see the symptoms of a nation whose auto-immune system has stopped working, and no barriers any longer stand in the way of fantastic lies and the opportunistic diseases of exceptionalist self-absorption and kleptocratic abuse.
Much of what claims to be news puts spectacle and rumor ahead of fact and truth-telling.
Every day I scan the pages and websites of main stream media and nowhere can I find a discussion of truly critical issues, much less a serious attempt to address them with cogent, creative, promising solutions.
Yet, who am I to decide what is said and written. Am I to tell a dying man that I find his death rattle annoying and counter-productive?
Having accepted the irrelevancy of my own opinion of the national conversation, we are still looking at a total retreat from journalistic integrity, an abandonment of responsibility vital to our survival as a nation, in fact, a complete surrender and servility to self-serving, corrupt leadership which acknowledges no allegiance or debt to those who put them into office, and driven by panic and desperation can only make excuses and offer distractions for its failure to serve the real interests of the country.
There is no other verdict any sane, aware, concerned person can come to.
The rest of the world seems to have our number. The U.S. pretends to be in charge but more and more we see one nation after another turning away. And apparently citizens across our once-great country — regardless of whether they voted for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders or Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, or just stayed home out of disgust — will be the last to know that the U.S. is no longer a functioning democracy and has been completely taken over by fierce, ruthless, elitist, self-serving, corporate autocrats, and more fatefully we are being simultaneously prepared for major economic collapse and a global war which carries the ominous risk of extinction for the human race.
Moreover, the planet itself each day stands in silent but immutable judgment.
The Arctic is in crisis, evidence of catastrophic global heating. The oceans are on their way to becoming vast sea creature graveyards. Scientists have now concluded we are in the middle of another mass species extinction. The world we now inhabit will go away and eventually become uninhabitable, both for humans and much of the life on the planet which we now take for granted.
Pathological levels of hubris, demagoguery, and megalomania have the major nations on hair-trigger alert, with the nuclear destructive power to destroy the world 25 to 50 times over, just a launch button away. Most of this animosity stems from America’s inability to accept its place as one of a community of nations. We will run things our way or destroy the entire world in a colossal temper tantrum.
With existential crises of an unprecedented and truly apocalyptic scale . . . let’s talk about hacking by the Russians. Let’s talk about Trump’s potty mouth and dicey business deals. Let’s form two massive groups — die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters and President-elect Donald Trump supporters — face off and scream at one another. Let’s talk about Trump’s rumored man-love of Vladimir Putin and his pussy-grabbing — apparently he’s bisexual, since he can swing both ways. Let’s spread the word! After all . . .
Someone told someone else that when Putin and Trump aren’t butt-fucking, they’re scheming to take down the greatest country in the world. Just as bad, when Hillary isn’t spreading state secrets across the world wide web like viral mannequin challenges, she’s running a child sex slave ring out of a DC pizzeria, to try to make a buck, while of course supplying fresh nubile flesh for Bill’s pedophilia parties. We know this story is true, which is a big part of the reason many people didn’t vote for her, because someone mentioned it to Alex Jones and he subsequently devoted a lot of time to it on his show. I love Alex’s voice, don’t you?
Of course, our whole electoral system is in crisis. THANKS TO THE DAMN RUSSIANS! Seventeenintel agencies told someone anonymously — or maybe someone told us that 17 intel agencies told them — the idea of hacking our elections is consistent with recognized priorities of Russia. We don’t know which agencies suggested this. It’s hard to know because at my last count there were 1,271 government organizations responsible for national security. Out of these, 500 could easily be considered “intel agencies”. Hmm . . . 17 out of 500. That seems odd, eh? Whatever. Those Russians are always up to no good. Especially the Bolshoi Ballet and Tchaikovsky. And Tolstoy!
Then there’s the whole Electoral College mess. Hard to believe that we didn’t notice. But apparently the electoral college’s potential to not represent the express will of the voting public — sometimes referred to by the rich and powerful elite who occasionally take a break from plundering the Treasury and devising more effective means of maintaining full control over the machinery of government and even our pathetic personal lives to elbow each other in the ribs and snicker about the “slobbering masses” — has been secreted in Article II of our venerated Constitution now for over 227 years. Sure, they’ll claim it was there the whole time. But they put it in Article II, and let’s face it, most of us never got past reading the Preamble, much less Article I. Anyway, better late than never. Now we know that whether you love him or hate him, Trump was right! Yes, the system is rigged! Therefore it’s time for some real effective action. Let’s start a petition! No way can let that pussy-grabbing scumbag be president over some technicality in the Constitution probably put in there by the slimy Russians. We should have our first female president, who despite having ovaries and a pussy — which Trump probably tried to grab! — is tough as nails and will hit the ground running by starting World War III with either Iran, Russia, or China. Maybe all three! Talk about macho!
Granted, a lot of this seems to miss the big picture questions, which are . . .
Why did we have to choose only between Hillary and Donald?
Or . . .
Why is it no matter who we elect, everything just gets worse?
Or . . .
What’s the point of representative government if the people we elect don’t represent us?
Or . . .
How can it be called choice when both of the two major political parties just put people up for election who serve the interests of the wealthy, who promote war, who can’t find it in their hearts or in our national budget to provide the basic services and necessities which many other nations across the globe take for granted?
Then again . . .
Those kinds of questions are reallyreally difficult.
Solving those problems requires radical reform and profound systemic changes.
It would be very embarrassing to admit to the world that our democracy is in big trouble.
Addressing those challenges takes a lot of hard work and time which most of us don’t have.
Having a government which serves everyday citizens is sure to piss off the Koch brothers!
Isn’t it more convenient to ask questions which are more likely to get answered?
Like . . . is or was Dick Cheney ever a robot?
You know, folks, I suspected something like this all along. I even wrote a blog about it.
We can talk and talk, cite all sorts of statistics, construct marvelous narratives, collect anecdotes, offer incisive and powerful analysis. But sometimes a few charts says it far better than any amount of verbiage.
Look at these and you tell me how the War On Terror is going. See if you see the same obvious connection between America’s military intervention and geopolitical meddling and the growing threat of terrorism.
I remember a truly idiotic joke from my youth. Pathetically it seems relevant here.
“Why do you keep hitting yourself on the head with that hammer?”
“Because it feels so good when I stop!”
When are we going to stop, ladies and gentlemen?
When?
I’ve offered an extreme remedy to this madness.
It’s one that is so radical and completely outside-the-box, it actually makes sense.
With the nation so divided along the lines of both class and race, driven to the streets to protest the election to the presidency of a rancorous bigot and self-serving sociopath, it’s heartening to see any African-American rise up over the historically endemic racism which used to have him hanging at the end of a rope, and even now conspires to keep most of his brothers and sisters in both physical and psychological gulags.
The phrase ‘systemic racism’ was at least uttered once in passing — that I know of — by the white patriarchy’s candidate of choice, Hillary Clinton, during the presidential campaign. This was heralded as a real breakthrough in our national conversation about race. I guess that means that by today’s standards, Hillary Clinton now sits next to Rosa Parks in the tortured struggle for human rights.
Even with the bar set so low, we are prompted seek out sources of inspiration and hope. As luck would have it, we have one such success story right at our fingertips!
Just look at these photos of the opulent $5.3 million mansion President Obama will move his family into after Donald Trump takes the oath of office.
Granted, not every African-American was so favored during Obama’s presidency.
Some of those left out of this historic uptick in the fortunes of our very first black president included Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. They were among thousands of blacks — mostly males, often unarmed — gunned downed by police across America during Obama’s reign.
And the people over at Black Lives Matter still seem to be having some sort of hissy fit! You’d think they could just put aside whatever is bothering them and vicariously enjoy the new digs Barack, Michelle and the kids will be moving into in January. Not to mention the million-dollar book deals, the courtesy vacation junkets all over the globe, and of course, the $200,000 speaking fees that the ex-Prez can expect to pull in, to keep the family outfitted in Autographed Nike Air Jordans.
A lot of people want me to shut up.
All boats rise in a rising tide? Really?
The mantra: All boats rise in a rising tide.
But that’s not the way things are working out, eh? The wealthy get wealthier and the poor get poorer. Certainly on a planetary scale, with human population increasing globally at about 1.11% annually, there is a rapidly swelling underclass who have no concept, much less any chance of sharing in the vast quantities of goods, services, opportunities, and resources churned out by our great engines of economic and technological development.
The same is also becoming more and more true here in America, with wealth inequality increasing astronomically over the past several decades, vastly accelerating after the crash of 2008 crippled the middle class, further sunk the lower class, decimated savings and home equity, destroyed jobs and job security, and plunged already indebted average citizens into even greater debt. True, the rich did same somewhat of a hit as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, but predictably bounced back with a vengeance. 95% of the wealth generated in the slow but steady economic recovery over the past eight years went to the top 1%. In 2016 alone, the world’s rich elite increased their wealth by $237 billion.
In terms of our boat analogy . . .
I suggest we regular folks buy life jackets.
Because as the luxury liners supported by the subservient ship of state rise to even greater heights of opulence for the already wealthy and privileged, our fragile boats will be swamped in the wake of their showy extravagance and wasteful wanton affluence.
The rich and powerful have never made much of a secret of their disdain for regular folks. But as long as America citizens remain incurably detached from the reality of their lot, when the ravenous kleptocrats of the Trump administration rev up their feeding frenzy beyond anything ever before witnessed in the history of the world, everyday Americans probably won’t have to worry about being put in cages or internment camps — of course, the prisons will be kept bulging in our for-profit prison system but that’s business as usual. In their callous indifference and Machiavellian marginalization of the less fortunate, the wealthy if nothing else are coldly efficient. Extermination by war or disease or relentless grinding poverty are the time-honored and road-tested methods for effortlessly “draining the swamp” of unwanted creatures like you and I. The wealthy don’t need to ponder and won’t even flinch at the inevitable carnage. They won’t even notice. Their evening wear won’t even get soiled or their reputations sullied by the noxious clouds of incinerated souls and destroyed lives, families, communities, and even whole nations, as poverty, war, chaos and human neglect on every front stampedes the unprivileged — the slobbering masses — into the abyss of sociopathic excess.
There are no pangs of conscience for those who don’t have one.
Wealth is a zero-sum game. That’s true regardless of how much wealth exists in the world. If someone has something, then everyone else does not have it. We can make more of that something but capitalism — especially its grotesquely virulent current iteration, neoliberal capitalism — is built on want and shortage, thus quite by design there will never be enough of that something for everyone to benefit equitably. Recent history is all the evidence we need for this: while it’s true that since the dawn of the industrial revolution the engines of progress have mounted bigger piles of everything, it is also apparent that those piles have ended up in fewer hands.
In what may be the most astonishing, outrageous and incomprehensible economic statistic I’ve experienced in my lifetime, Oxfam just released a study of global wealth distribution which offered this gem: Eight individuals now own as much wealth as the bottom 3.7 billion people on the planet. Or presented another way: The top .000000107% of the world population have as much wealth as the bottom 50%.
Under these conditions, as the tide rises a handful of luxurious and unsinkable yachts inch closer to God and millions of sunken hulls rot at even greater depths in the dark void at the bottom.
Does any sane person really think it can continue to go on like this?
Are there enough sane people around to make a difference?